#apparently some people with anosmia really love spicy foods while others will eat a pepper and feel their mouth burning for DAYS

[oleasters]

Oleana has late-onset anosmia (no sense of smell). she will not give a detailed reasoning for it if pressed for one (not that the subject often comes up), but will admit that it is the result of a head injury she sustained late in her youth

while she has no sense of smell, she does experience phantom smells on occasion. most common among them is the scent of cigarette smoke

immediately following the incident, her appetite decreased significantly and she started eating less (dangerous, seeing as she wasn’t eating much to begin with). while her current living conditions are much more stable and comfortable, she still eats more for necessity than for pleasure. she’s been living with her anosmia long enough now that she’s generally good at keeping a balanced diet, but may need to be reminded on occasion to have a biscuit or something during work so that her blood sugar doesn’t completely plummet and wipe her out

when she does eat for pleasure, she likes things to be really sweet or really sour. catch her downing Pixie Stix like shots at the club

on the other hand, she is oversensitive to spicy foods; some can actually be physically painful for her to eat. one time early in her career as Rose’s secretary she attended a fancy dinner with him and some diplomats or whatever and unwittingly ate something that was notably spicy…spent the entire night subtly trembling in agony. Rose honestly thought she was doing to die. whenever they eat together now, he tries to taste-test things for her and tell her which things are safe. it’s embarrassing, but she secretly really appreciates it

on a related note, she sometimes asks Rose to smell things for her…unfortunately for him, it’s usually her Garbodor straight after being fed some new kind of garbage ( “Well? What does she smell like now?�� “… W-well, erm, a bit like a… rotten durian…?” “Really? Hm. Interesting.”)