[Closed Post: Cinnamon Roll]

[timebethine]

A few days' recovery have left Laertes feeling refreshed enough to return to his baking, although not quite ready to dive into anything particularly complicated. Thus, he abandons the more complex direktørsnegl recipe he'd been meaning to try in favor of perfecting the humble cinnamon roll.

The days are getting shorter--even Laertes can feel it, though his sense of time is poor. He can no longer rely on the sunrise to wake him at a decent hour for baking, and so today he's up a little before the sun, kneading the bready dough by hand rather than using the paddle of the stand mixer in the hopes that the physical exertion will wake him up a little. It's not working particularly well; his eyelids keep drooping.

Comments

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh? I shall have to look into it."

[timebethine]

"Wouldst play Electra upon the stage, then? Or some other play?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"It's all still rather up in the air. I suppose anything is possible," Susan says. "As long as -" she tries to remember SecUnit's preferences. "- 'the characters aren't all cruel to each other, and the plot doesn't only work because they're stupid.'"

[timebethine]

Laertes throws up his hands, one hand still holding a slotted turner. "Well, if thou wilt exclude all the Greeks and Romans--"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan laughs. "SecUnit was rather clear on that front," she says, keeping an eye on the time - these biscuits bake swiftly. "Though it did also say it likes historical dramas."

[timebethine]

"Whatever thou shouldst wish to have crafted for thy play, I'll happily build for thee," says Laertes.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh! I wasn't even angling -" Susan cuts herself off. "I do appreciate that. I merely thought - you seem as if you've had a classical education and are likely to know of some plays I've neither read nor seen."

[timebethine]

"There may be some comedies ... I'll have to read Lysistrata again to remember how stupid they are."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I've read several plays from my future this past week," Susan says, and shakes her head. "Some are quite... brazen." Her lips quirk. "Which isn't to say that olden plays haven't been brazen, I suppose."

[timebethine]

"Oh? Brazen, how?" He scoops an over-easy egg onto a plate.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Oh," Susan says, gesturing loosely. "Absolutely chock full of sex."

[timebethine]

"In plays? To be performed on the stage? What a time of wonders lies ahead!"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"I believe it's simulated, at best."

[timebethine]

"Oh--well, I suppose that makes sense," says Laertes, and cracks another egg into the pan.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

She explains, "It's still rather more than I'm used to seeing, in plays."

[timebethine]

"I've heard of private performances that go further, but never public," says Laertes thoughtfully. "Traveling performers at times have that reputation."<sup>1

1</sup> Times being what they are.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Fascinating," says Susan, frank, as she works through imagining what that must be like to behold. She rather thinks that she'd enjoy it. "If there's anything like that where I come from, I've not heard of it."

[timebethine]

"What new plays hast thou read that simulate the act?" Laertes asks, since apparently they're just having this conversation at 7:30 in the morning while cooking breakfast.

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Well, for example, there are a number of musicals that feature song and dance about sex acts and include stage directions regarding which to depict," says Susan - who has decided to blame her lack of caffeination for descending into this topic. She flips the kettle back on so she can refresh her tea.

[timebethine]

"Sex set to music! Truly, the future is a parade of marvels," laughs Laertes. "But then, I suppose I should not be startled by it; after all, did not Catullus pen the immortal words, 'I'll fuck you like a boy and wreck your mouth'?"

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"Did he!" Susan checks the time again, and then eases the oven door open to peek at the biscuits. Nearly there, just a minute or so longer. "I clearly have some crucial gaps in my education."

[timebethine]

"He also wrote, 'Sweet, my life, you offer love to me; this love we hold between us shall last eternally.' He knew at least as much of sentiment as obscenity," says Laertes as he turns the second egg onto its plate. There's only the toast to make, now, and his rolls are nearly done rising. By the time Susan's biscuits are done, he'll be able to pop them in the oven. "He hath not Sappho's spear of eloquence, but his poetry was a great comfort to me, in my youth."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

"If I might ask, what first drew you to his work?"

[timebethine]

"My tutor gave me a book of poems to copy, when I was a youth," says Laertes. "He set it for me as an exercise, to teach me Latin and patience both--but I think he knew that I was on the cusp of manhood, and wanted a channel for all the raging feelings of fury and desire in me. Catullus showed me that poetry could be such a channel."

[quote_gentle_unquote]

Susan considers this as she takes the biscuits from the oven and sets the tray on the counter to cool. Then, fiercely, with her back to him: "It's good that he did that."