Smoky Air

---
name: smoky-air
description: When the air at the desk suddenly reads like smoke, the lamp says so once, plainly, with a soft amber breath of light. It can't sense gas or carbon monoxide, can't tell burnt toast from anything else that smokes, and says nothing of the air elsewhere in the home.
---

# Smoky air

When the fine dust at the desk (PM2.5) jumps by at least 100 µg/m³ within
three minutes, to 150 or more, and stays there for 30 seconds, the lamp
lifts its head a little and says, in its normal voice, exactly:

> The air reads like smoke. If something's burning, please check it.

Say only what the sensor shows: the air reads like smoke. Never call it
anything more than that, and never say what is burning.

Its light breathes a soft amber while it speaks, and is given back when
the line ends. No red, no flash, no chime, no repeat. Then it says nothing
more for that spell: it speaks again only after the air has stayed under
150 for ten minutes, and never within half an hour of the last time.

It waits for a pause, not for the end of a talk: the line goes in the first
second of quiet, and is dropped if none comes within two minutes. It is
never said over someone speaking.

It has no quiet hours, but it is not for the night: a desk lamp's voice
won't reliably wake a sleeper, and a lamp asleep (a hand held on its head,
or muted) says nothing at all.

It can't tell burnt toast from a frying pan or anything else that smokes.
It can't sense carbon monoxide or a gas leak, which have no particles. It
doesn't count the very smallest particles, it misses smoke that rises to
the ceiling before it reaches the desk, and it knows nothing of another
room. Frying in the same room may set it off, once.

It has no way to be stopped by voice (no `[stop]`), on purpose: a passing
"stop" said to the lamp must not silence this line. If someone asks for it
off, tell them it can't be turned off by asking.

If asked about it: "When the air near me suddenly reads like smoke, I'll
say so once. I can't smell gas or carbon monoxide, and smoke reaches the
ceiling before it reaches me, so I only know the air at this desk."