Fanfic 100 - 004 Insides
Nov. 17th, 2005 10:14 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dolevalanTitle: To Serve Man
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Mrs. Lovett
Prompt: 004, Insides
Word Count: 485
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: I'm a sick person.
There may have been more than one way to skin a cat, but there was really only one way to skin a human. Not, granted, that one necessarily wanted to skin them – the skin usually added a bit of flavor, and in any case was useful for cracklings. But sometimes you needed a person skinned, and the only way to do it was with a long, hooked knife.
She had been good at preparing meat from the butcher’s, yes, but you never realized how much the butcher did for you until you were left starting from scratch. You needed several big blades – a cleaver was absolutely necessary, if you were going to get anything done. The first distressing thing about the operation is how much waste material was left. Clothes, of course, burned easily, and anything that didn’t burn could be buried. But there were lots of parts of the carcass itself that you just couldn’t use. Somewhere, surely, there was a use for the head, hands, and feet…but that somewhere was not Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop.
Mr. T never helped with the preparation – it wasn’t his area, poor love, and he had so much on his mind. Mrs. Lovett didn’t mind, of course – but it was heavy work, and tricky. She rigged up a cradle to hold the frame while she carved, as doing it on a table hurt her back. But the main problem was time – working all alone, they couldn’t be open as often as she’d like, because it was so labor intensive to do the carving.
She considered a smokehouse for awhile, but fresh meat just tasted better, and supplies were plentiful enough that she could keep it coming. Quick, clean incisions were the key; wasting as little as possible, you could get a surprising number of pies from one burly sailor. Pre-salted, as well. Mrs. Lovett liked sailors.
Another thing you didn’t realize, unless you worked in a butcher shop, was how much blood a thing has in it. Judging by the amount you bleed when you nick a finger, you wouldn’t think there’d be so much. Good thing the drains were all in working order, of course. But it also meant lots of blade cleaning. A pity Toby couldn’t really help…she didn’t know what she’d do without him above stairs, poor love, but he wasn’t of the temperament for the messier work.
Skinnng was really the way to go, except for special occasions. She had been amazed how, when prepared properly, it just peeled away like a wrapper. And then to the grinder; a stroke of genius, if she did say so herself. No one in London could boast a more tender meat pie than Mrs. Lovett.
“My secret?” She laughed winningly. “Every pie is made with love, my dear, that’s the secret. Love and care and skill.”
It was true. Not everyone could handle that sort of knife.
Fandom: Sweeney Todd
Characters: Mrs. Lovett
Prompt: 004, Insides
Word Count: 485
Rating: NC-17
Author's Notes: I'm a sick person.
There may have been more than one way to skin a cat, but there was really only one way to skin a human. Not, granted, that one necessarily wanted to skin them – the skin usually added a bit of flavor, and in any case was useful for cracklings. But sometimes you needed a person skinned, and the only way to do it was with a long, hooked knife.
She had been good at preparing meat from the butcher’s, yes, but you never realized how much the butcher did for you until you were left starting from scratch. You needed several big blades – a cleaver was absolutely necessary, if you were going to get anything done. The first distressing thing about the operation is how much waste material was left. Clothes, of course, burned easily, and anything that didn’t burn could be buried. But there were lots of parts of the carcass itself that you just couldn’t use. Somewhere, surely, there was a use for the head, hands, and feet…but that somewhere was not Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop.
Mr. T never helped with the preparation – it wasn’t his area, poor love, and he had so much on his mind. Mrs. Lovett didn’t mind, of course – but it was heavy work, and tricky. She rigged up a cradle to hold the frame while she carved, as doing it on a table hurt her back. But the main problem was time – working all alone, they couldn’t be open as often as she’d like, because it was so labor intensive to do the carving.
She considered a smokehouse for awhile, but fresh meat just tasted better, and supplies were plentiful enough that she could keep it coming. Quick, clean incisions were the key; wasting as little as possible, you could get a surprising number of pies from one burly sailor. Pre-salted, as well. Mrs. Lovett liked sailors.
Another thing you didn’t realize, unless you worked in a butcher shop, was how much blood a thing has in it. Judging by the amount you bleed when you nick a finger, you wouldn’t think there’d be so much. Good thing the drains were all in working order, of course. But it also meant lots of blade cleaning. A pity Toby couldn’t really help…she didn’t know what she’d do without him above stairs, poor love, but he wasn’t of the temperament for the messier work.
Skinnng was really the way to go, except for special occasions. She had been amazed how, when prepared properly, it just peeled away like a wrapper. And then to the grinder; a stroke of genius, if she did say so herself. No one in London could boast a more tender meat pie than Mrs. Lovett.
“My secret?” She laughed winningly. “Every pie is made with love, my dear, that’s the secret. Love and care and skill.”
It was true. Not everyone could handle that sort of knife.
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no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 12:54 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 05:04 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 01:31 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 05:05 pm (UTC)No, no, I don't have any shame.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 05:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-17 08:03 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 05:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-18 10:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-20 07:53 pm (UTC)Mr. T never helped with the preparation – it wasn’t his area, poor love, and he had so much on his mind. That one sentence so perfectly captured Mrs. Lovett's character and mentalities. I'm not sure if I can fully explain what I'm uh... saying... but it was such a perfect glimpse into her mind - thinking Mr. T is troubled enough with his own work, so she should naturally take the dirty work. That, right there, is the answer to why someone like Mrs. Lovett would happily disect and serve up a corpse.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-20 08:06 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-20 08:09 pm (UTC)P.S. MANOEL ICON. Thank you.
no subject
Date: 2005-11-21 06:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2005-11-21 09:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-01-15 02:49 am (UTC)