me_irl

A big part of it is clothing being reworn again and again without proper washing. I used to be a fat slob myself, completely with a room full of dirty dishes and everything. Armpits and ass are only half the problem. I'd say perhaps only 1/3 of it. The big one for my past self (and for similar creatures who cross my path in the modern day) is old, musty clothing. Like jeans that have been put on so many times they they now smell a little damp and slightly mushroom-like. Shirts that have spent time wadded up in the corner of the bedroom, absorbing the smell of sweat and piss, only to be put on again when the dweller could find nothing cleaner to wear. They spend all their time in that space, immune to the smell around them, and can no longer detect the odors on their own. So they bring it with them everywhere they, to polluting cleaner, fresher spaces with their miasma.

I can usually guess (with accuracy) approximately how many cats a dweller has in their household (always far, far too many) just by smelling them as they walk by. These smells often clue you into what forms of memes and social media they consume as well -- usually Pepe, Wojack and 4chan -- but not always with similar accuracy. There are outliers, like my past self, 20 years now gone.. Weird, dank, smelly leftists, with kind hearts and good intentions, but smelling oh so very fucking terrible, and always oh so fucking lonely.

It usually takes a good partner to help clean up that mess. A motivator. But a dweller who dwells that deep will find great difficulty finding one, for such partners do not dwell where the dweller does.