"You shouldn't touch those ones, baby,"
"It's called Foxglove. It's poisonous."
As the three of them crowd together for the photos, George smells faint honey, reminiscent of the foxglove flowers.
Everything about Max's scent tells George that taking his hand away is the last thing Max wants.
Poisonous plants have always interested George.
If Max has any of these warnings, they don't register to George's brain.
George/Max; Explicit; 16.6k words. Written for @f1-omegaverse-fest
This was something that developed throughout the writing process. I had the initial idea of Max's heat being discovered on the podium and a messy sort of obsessive biting between him and George. I've discussed once how I decided on foxglove as Max's scent so I won't get into that in this post. In this post, I want to talk about George's own perceptions around poisonous scents.
First off, poisonous scents are not actually poisonous like their source. This is pretty important to everything else going on. Of course, some people react poorly to different smells (shoutout to fellow migraine/chronic headache-havers) and that is completely reasonable. I like to play into the idea of compatibility being connected on some level to how pleasing someone's scent is to you (and lean into it entirely with how betas being marked functions in my OV worldbuilding!) so if someone's scent triggers headaches/migraines/other unwanted symptoms, then you may not be compatible as mates.
I think the first snippet that has George thinking about the dichotomy of Max's scent is given light via this paragraph...
Everything about Max's scent tells George that taking his hand away is the last thing Max wants. It sings to him, his proximity. The sudden surge in the active strength of it lures George closer before he stops, biting his tongue. He's never been one to fall into his instincts before. George's not alpha, hasn't got a knot, nor is he an omega. Max's body doesn't seem to care about that, though, communicating promises of warmth and pleasure that feel like a prelude. Like how foxglove is a poisonous plant. It's still faint, so it's likely that George is the only one who's noticed, for now.
There's this idea here that Max's scent is leading George into something he can't stop, which, well, isn't not accurate, is it? George knows that Max's scent isn't actively harmful, and yet he cannot stop drawing comparisons! He likens the fact that Max's body is responding positively to being a "prelude" to, what he feels, whether correct or not, a "poisonous" situation, you could say. This sort of reflects on his views of mating cycles as well, if you want to really dig into it (which, is another post entirely, honestly. one i am interested in writing at some point...). I'd also like to point out that, unless he had spent time around Max's scent previously, he has no way to know what Max's scent is actually communicating to him. He is, quite frankly, applying meaning to something he has no place putting meaning onto! Guilty! But, this is something everyone does, unconsciously pr consciously. I think it takes a large amount of self control to not assign meaning to other people, so I cannot fault George for doing that...
"Do you have anyone to help you with this? You're not alone are you? Is there any emergency heat suppressants you can take? Do you need me to get you any? I can right now—"
... ...
"No partner, no suppressants, don't bother."
... ...
There's a bitter undertone to Max's scent now. It prickles at the back of George's throat.
Slightly truncated exert here. This is one of the first times George is able to probably assign an emotion to a certain note in Max's scent.
Let's move into George's self-admitted interest in poisonous plants and how it threads through how he acts throughout Aposematism.
Poisonous plants have always interested George. It's murky, how they end up that way. Most theories suggest that it happened through what could be savagely referred to as survival of the fittest. Predators learned to avoid the plants that caused illness or death. Those plants survived and passed on the traits that allowed them to inch onward. Those theories suggest it wasn't something that happened actively. A passive mutation spread through attrition. Many foods are enjoyed because of the defensive mechanisms they developed, regardless of the intent behind the evolution, because they aren't poisonous to people.
This paragraph, is, for the most part, accurate. It's based in somewhat solid science. Evolution is a messy thing that is never straight forward and doesn't even take the "best" path often times. Ultimately, the answer to "do plants purposefully become poisonous?" will never be universally correct. Especially depending how you want to evaluate what it means to be poisonous to an entity. Human beings do enjoy many foods that are deadly to other animals. Is that because grapes and chocolate evolved with the specific goal of being deadly to a dog or because of some other, amalgamous reason?
Despite this, in the very next short paragraph, George suggests that Foxglove is poisonous on purpose, in an odd sort of way.
But not foxglove. No, foxglove was poison, simple as.
Which, okay George. Sure. Why is Foxglove not a part of the rest of your thoughts on poisonous stuff?
And then George drops us into the prevailing theories of people developing poisonous scents.
There are also theories on why people sometimes develop scents of toxic elements or flora. All of them seem to miss the person element of such phenomenon.
What does he mean by that second sentence, one may ask? Well, he's suggesting that the theories don't really care about the people they are theorizing about. Honestly, I think this is a super common phenomenon in science. Yes, science is supposed to be... without biases and rooted in prove-able facts. Unfortunately, it hasn't always been this way, and so often facts that are not correct are placed upon a pedestal regardless. George is saying that he thinks the studied regarding why someone develops the scent they do is something you cannot place into simple categories or boxes! But...
George's mind can't help but connect Max's poisonous scent to the one time he caught a sniff of Lewis once. Bitter, bitter almonds, enough that George had to stamp out a physical reaction to it. Apparently that's what cyanide smells like. There's no scientific backing to it but maybe scents can develop in reaction to outside influences.
In the very next paragraph he is making an assumption that he admits the very last paragraph is likely not true!
Some scientists theorize that much like the plants, it happens as a defense mechanism. They have little to no proof to back it up. It's not really proper to put children through horrible experiences for the purposes of a mostly pointless study to see if they'd develop scents associated with poisonous things.
It's contradictory and that's why I love it. So often, people 'know' a fact and then move on to have contradicting emotions regardless of what they know as fact. So, when George says "maybe scents can develop in reaction to outside influences" he should know that it's not true, and yet he is saying it anyway... how problematic... [sarcasm] Thankfully he is a fictional character so there is no reason to cancel him (😂).
We're not done here yet!
Poisonous things are said to come with warnings, like signs. Aposematism: a colorful dart frog giving a warning of toxic glands, a skunk warding off predators with a pervasively foul scent and bright markings, a sign warning of nuclear pollution in as many languages as it hopes will survive whatever inevitable apocalypse.
Ahhh our namesake!!! I had a lot of fun naming this work, honestly. I was really struggling to come up with one but I was reading through it again and like, a lightning zap moment, Aposematism hit me as I re-read this part! It's a really interesting thing to me, "aposematism" is. When I was writing this, it was in the secondary draft phase, and after writing about the different animals, the nuclear warning signs came to me as well, because, like, it is also another form of "aposematism" right? Very fun line, one of my favorites. I hoped it would be a sort of a, "woah!" moment for readers (though no one has pointed it out yet in the comments) when it showed up in the text. So, what is George thinking about here? Well, obviously he is still running his mind over Max's scent and the fact that the core component of Max's scent is foxglove. He's considering if the scent itself is a warning to him. And is it? Well.
If Max has any of these warnings, they don't register to George's brain. A scent associated with something terrible doesn't have to serve a warning, right?
He ends up deciding that, no. It doesn't. Even if... Max doesn't feel the same way. That's pretty important to how George goes about treating Max throughout the rest of the work. To him, the scent is not a problem, even when it turns towards its less pleasant versions (moldy bee pollen. Bee pollen smells really good!! Moldy bee pollen less so).
"Why the documentary?" one may ask? Well, if you're asking that, it will be another (farrr shorter) post. I'd love to yap about that too if there is interest... 🤭 I just love to yap.
"What? I'm not going to name every past partner for you—"
"Drivers," Max clarifies. George is quiet. The juvenile shark is closing in on a stingray, there's a sense of urgency in the narrator's voice now.
"None."
Max's scent blooms before he can stop it, it's thick, cloying, he could choke on it. George doesn't react to it.
"Why are you here? You should've left once I got into my room."
"Did you want me to leave?"
The answer is heavy, spills over Max's tongue like syrup, overly sweet and overwhelming with nothing beneath it. "No."
Max is, quite obviously, extremely uncomfortable with his own scent throughout this part of the text. He describes it in extremely negative terms and even says you could choke on it. I imagine it like trying to drink honey, at least in his own mind. Honestly, my favorite line(s) is the last paragraph here. Spills over his tongue like syrup, which is a call back to the honey. Overly sweet suggests that he feels that it is too much, like a spoonful of syrup or honey would be. These things are generally paired with other, less sweet items to make them good so Max, thereby, sees it all as too much. His scent is too much, him deciding he doesn't want George to leave is too much. He thinks George should be seeing those warning signs, the big bright yellow nuclear warning, the skunk stripes and scent...
But now, it's akin to running through a field of flowers, knocking pollen everywhere, it's like swallowing mouthfuls of honey, it's too much. George doesn't seem to think so, his nose flares and he seems to stop himself from drinking Max's scent in. Tasting it.
Nope. George has already decided the warnings aren't there, they don't exist. He just wants more of Max 🤭
His scent gives away the souring of his stomach. It's not something Max is used to, since his passive and active scent outside of his cycles is so faint. Mold sinking its claws into pollen, infecting everything with rot. If not anything prior, surely this will scare him off—that'd almost be a relief. Max's nose wrinkles with disgust as he turns away from the food, away from George. Unfortunately that does little to muffle his own pheromones. He is, after all, the source. Tossing the remaining food away, he starts to stand, running his mind over where he might've left any scent blockers. Someone—Gemma must've handed him a bottle over the weekend, maybe Max kept it?
ahhh, Max, Max, Max... He so clearly associates every part of his scent with something negative to him. He never considers that his scent could be enjoyed by anyone 🥺 because of the aforementioned stigmas behind having bad scents. (And the whole, "causation->correlation" deal that isn't true but is still widely accepted as true. Think of it like which came first, the chicken or the egg?)
"Max." George's hand is grasping his shoulder, heat sinking into the shirt even as he tries to shake it off. "It's okay."
"No, it stinks," he spits, refusing to look at him. Rotting pollen only brings back a voice thundering in his ears, telling him to suck it up and keep moving. Remove it, cleanse himself. He doesn't glare at George, which should count as a feat. Write it down alongside all of Max's other glorious achievements and records. Didn't glare at George when he was being too nice. "I'll fix it." He always does.
Max.... im sobbbing he makes me upset. George's attempts to comfort him are quickly pushed aside, he doesn't need comfort he just needs to fix it, get rid of his scent, stop making other people aware of his emotions. I don't like to overtly call back to... poor childhood experiences. As a guy with my own poor childhood experiences, I don't want to do that. But to not acknowledge how these things have influenced you as you've grown up in the world, well, that is almost worst in a way. I think sometimes the quietest parts can speak the loudest. I sometimes wonder how this part came across to readers, but I suppose I may never know. 🤭 Almost more fun that way.
The pseudo-heat. 👀 Another post for that one...
"Now let me sleep." The words are sharp, but George revels in the wildflower scent that blends into the usual foxglove. Max's moods were becoming easier to read, with the extra information from his scent.
Aweee well isn't that sweet. George is learning how to read Max's moods now that he can learn his scent. 🥺
"You can't have wanted that," Max growls, his active scent is tipping into that moldy scent. The room is still coated in Max's honey and wildflowers, though that too will be gone before the end of the day, when Max checks out of the room later.
George has to hold back a physical reaction to the mold scent, which is notable when compared to the "passive" emotionless component of foxglove. Because foxglove is poisonous, in theory, it should be the one forcing a reaction out of George. Instead, it is the moldy pollen doing so.
Max's hotel bed feels uncomfortable, he can't sleep. The room is suffocating after being at home for a week. It smells too empty. He can't even fix that part, because Max's scent glands have lost the heat scent.
New hotel, new smell. Anyone else struggle with this part insanely hard? 🥹 He can't even fix it... This is sort of, Max, like, coming around to the idea of his own scent being perhaps, something different from "absolutely negative" without George's immediate presence.
Hmm, with that in mind, I think if you want to see the conclusion of the scent-based insecurity, you can read the work and see for yourself, because you'll find that everything on this end slots in quite nicely... 🫡💙💙💙
if you're reading this, thank you! I hope it was insightful/fun/interesting. It's my first time trying out a "director's cut" type deal but I had fun writing it regardless of any reception it may receive hehe. I'm more then happy to answer any additional questions on this post, the work itself, or in my inbox. Have a nice day/night~! 👻
i might do a huge write-up on a lot of neat smaller details inside of Aposematism because there are so many smaller things i really like in it, and also neither of our narrators are entirely truthful about everything in that story... 😉
i def want to hear about your writing process!! why did you choose foxglove as max’s scent?
Oooo, so, this was a sort of a multi-leveled thing happening. Before I had started writing the fic, I hadn't committed yet to the idea of writing something for the event i wrote it for, and a friend was writing for the event also (though unfortunately they did not end up posting)(the idea for lewis having the cyanide scent did come from them, though!), and we sort of tossed around the idea of scents originating from poisonous/toxic things and just what it could mean, which i find extremely fascinating as a concept within a world based massively on scent!
Then, when I decided i was gonna write for the prompt because i had an idea to run with (gax canadian gp podium+the prompt) i settled on omega max, and wasnt really sure what i wanted his scent to be. i started out looking at native plants in the netherlands as a starting point, and foxglove... stuck out to me for a few reasons. i had to find out what foxglove smelled like first, and i learned that its a really faint scent, hard to catch. and that really stuck out to me alongside the fact that its poisonous. so, this gave me the running ground for several ideas, like max's passive scent being undetectable outside of his cycles, the idea of what it MEANS to have a poisonous scent (is it correlation=causation or not?) and how that may effect what others see about you. because his scent is so faint outside of his cycles, he is able to hide the fact that it is poisonous (though not literally). it was a bonus that foxglove's notes being honey-like is so easy to find things that relate to it (actual honey, wildflowers, pollen) to further adapt his moods, though of that came naturally during the writing process! :3 oh, also, foxglove is very common through a lot of europe so thats why i could place it so easily into george's memory also 😎 very smooth of me
Once, when George was young, before he'd really gotten started on karting, he wandered a little bit far from home. Somehow ended up in a lesser populated area, looking at all the plants and flowers he didn't usually see. There were some that caught his eye more than others; in particular these purple flowers, shaped a little bit like a bell if it was too long and had too-open of a bottom. There were lots of these bell-like flowers hanging off of the few stems, collecting together, like it was waiting for something. Well, that day, that something had been George, leaning in with his too-keen nose to sniff, just a little.
It was nice, like soft honey, but not without a little bit of a bite behind it. He was curious, wanted to ask his mum about it. She found him, though, and snapped out sharp words faster than he could grab.
"Don't touch that, baby," she said, taking his hand and leading him out of the greenery.
"Why?"
"That's called Foxglove. It's poisonous."
And he hadn't asked again.
a wip of a prompt for the f1 omegaverse fest ... really looking forward to getting to post this...
