10.18.25: Tiny Dystopia: The Smell Police

Cities outlaw bad smells. Not litter, not pollution, just odors deemed “offensive.” Officers roam the streets with handheld sniffers, issuing fines for garlic breath or sweaty armpits. At first, it sounds funny, like a prank regulation. But then perfume corporations lobby for exemptions, selling “compliant scents” at absurd prices. The poor walk in fear, scrubbing themselves raw, while the wealthy carry immunity cards scented like roses. Smell becomes status. The irony is sharp. In trying to erase discomfort, society erases humanity itself. The world ends up sterile, sanitized, and suffocating in its obsession with how things should smell.