#'you have to be fed the vampire's blood' - Mina)

[marypsue]

You know, for years I've been thinking "the whole half-vampire situation and 'kill the head vampire and free any half-vampires' thing in The Lost Boys is so unique, I've never seen that particular approach to vampire turning in any other vampire story, and it really fits the story well, I wonder how they came up with it" and.

It's Dracula. It's literally just what happens in Dracula. Michael Emerson and Mina Harker 'having to kill the master vampire whose blood (which you ingested) is slowly turning you into a creature of the night in order to become human again' handshake meme.

[mayhemchicken-varneyposting]

Regarding your tags on the relationships post about if you want to talk crossovers too, how do you see Varney with the Harkers too in your scenario? given among other things their feelings towards vampires and vampire-hunting humans respectively? Mina is a strange case of someone who has been one foot on both worlds, who lost someone to a vampire, but she also knows his despair and spiraling well. Jonathan has been both vampire victim and vampire killer, but only met ones he ended up hating (sans his wife). An interesting mix!

The inbox is treating me so well lately.

Varney and the Harkers is a fun dynamic because the Harkers have never before met a vampire who is just an absolute clown at vampiring. Their initial intense suspicions of him cool rapidly when he panics at Jonathan's giant knife, tries to jump out the window and fails, then nearly passes out from hunger. Once they've sat down to talk to him a bit I think they'd be sympathetic; his situation would feel like a window into what nearly happened to Mina. Far from Dracula's enthusiastic sorcery and bloodthirst, Varney is just saddled with vampirism and has to deal with it. Mina "mercy kill me if I turn" Harker would relate to how he feels.

The poor dear. He doesn't like to shed blood, he's constantly being pursued by mobs and/or dying various horrible/embarrassing deaths, he struggles to keep himself fed...being a new vampire must be so rough. Wait, what do you mean he's 500 years old.

(The Harkers, nerds that they are, would be very interested in all the stories he has to tell. Although no one is more interested in the stories than baby Quincey, who has decided the funny long man is his new favorite babysitter.)

Meanwhile Varney, who is still lowkey scared of Jonathan due to a) him clocking Varney as a vampire on sight and b) the giant knife, doesn't want to impose on this set of young parents, no really you do NOT have to offer me blood I'll be fine I can stand [nearly falls over again]

...too late, pal, you've activated the Harker pack bonding instincts. They WILL offer you their guest room after a brief misunderstanding where they debate for 5 minutes about how to obtain proper grave soil while you attempt to explain that you would rather sleep in a bed. And then the next thing you know you're friends with all their friends and you babysit their child twice a week and they're inviting you over for Christmas dinner.

Varney can try to run away from his fate but the next angry mob will coincidentally wash him up on their doorstep again, and the final straw will be learning how much Quincey missed him while he was gone.

(He's conflicted. He remembers killing his own son, or he thinks he does. How can he be trusted around this boy? ...How can he bear to disappoint him?)

And that's how Varney becomes an uncle!

[ghosts-to-reid]

Neo Gothic: The Bibliography

These are meanings/refernces made in Neo Gothic, for those who may not have delved into the genre asmuch as they'd like...

This post is in reference to my series 'Neo Gothic' and as such some definitions are written towards to context of the story, this isn't a fool proof guide to the gothic, only a guide for my readers.

Part 1 / Part 2 / Part 3 / Part 4 / Part 5

References are in order of their mention, starting with part 1. Some are my definitions, other are from the internet.

The Gothic: A literary genre that combines Romance and Horror, Characterized by horror, Mystery, and gloom. Solidified as a genre by Horace Walpole, author of The Castle of Otranto.

Dracula: 1897 Cult Gothic Novel about vampire Dracula, who haunts a group from London, trying to turn or kill them.

Lucy Westenra: Mina Harker's best friend in Dracula, She is fed on, then turned, and eventually killed by the group. She was considered promiscuous due to her many suitors. She is given blood transfusions, however we now know the science behind these transfusions are outdated. She is finally killed in her vampiric form by beheading and a stake through the heart.

Carmilla: 1872 Predesscor of Dracula, it follows an isolated young woman who befriends a woman who turns out to be the vampire who has been drinking from her breast for years...

Carmilla (Character): An ancient vampire, often interpretated as a lesbian. In the novel, her death is achived by finding her resting place (her tomb), beheading her, and driving a stake through her heart.

Ann Radcliffe: Gothic author, known as 'The Enchantress', she published many acclaimed gothic novels in her time, including The Mysteries of Udolpho, she also wrote many essays that were published after her dath that have become acclaimed for their insight.

Rosemary's Baby: 1968 horror film directed by Roman Polanski, following a woman who is being victimised by a satanic cult.

The Exorcist: 1973 film directed by William Friedkin, following a girl who is possesed by an ancient demon.

Creed (Barbra): Professor of Cinema Studies, wrote collection of essays named "Monsterous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanlysis"

Abjection: subjective horror, or someone's reaction to physically or emotionally disturbing subject matter

The Yellow Wallpaper: 1892 Novella by Charlotte Perkins Gillman, follows the descent into maddness of a victorian woman perscribed a "rest cure"

Dracula (character death): He is beheaded and stabbed through the heart, afterwards turning to dust.

The Castle of Otranto: 1764 novella by Horace Walpole, tricks reader into beleiving it is a true story of an ancient catholic family in italy, who are victim to spiritual haunting due to their transgressions.

Castle of Otranto Death: At the start of the novel, Manfred's (The villian) son is about to marry the virtuous Isabella, however in a tragic turn of events, he is crushed to death by a giant suit of armour, the helmet becoming stuck.

Frankenstein: 1818 Novella by Mary Shelley, follows Victor Frankenstein in his abjection after playing god, and bringing life to mixture of corpses.

Annabelle Lee (poem): explores the theme of the death of a beautiful woman. The narrator, who fell in love with Annabel Lee when they were young, has a love for her so strong that even angels are envious

Raven: Inspired by the poem, 'The Raven' by Edgar Allen Poe

Terror: Psychological fear, feeling like you're being watched/Thinking you heard noise.

Horror: The physcial reaction to fear, a scream, the unsettling shake when you're scared.

Sanguinary/Sanguination: involving or causing much bloodshed.

Sanguinary Rosebud: Reference to Angela Carter's short story "Lady in The House of Love"

Sublime: The state of all striking awe of the natural world.

Gothic Heroine: The gothic heroine is often characterised by her lack of agency or control in her situation. Often in a vulnerable position, she is often targeted by the immoral.

Naturalist: naturalism, in literature and the visual arts, late 19th- and early 20th-century movement that was inspired by adaptation of the principles and methods of natural science, especially the Darwinian view of nature, to literature and art.

Byron: Lord Byron was a romantic poet in the 19th century, well known for his sexual escapades.

Dr Bell: Bell was the last name used in the Pseudonmys that that Bronte sisters shared when publishing.

Dr. Purcell: one of sheridan Le Fanu's pseudonmys

Quarles: One of Edgar Allen Poe's pseudonmys

[butchyeons]

give and take

jeongmi but make mina a vampire. they have a deal where when mina needs blood, jeongyeon gets to smash. also they love each other but it’ll never get to really happen bc yknow… mina’s dead or whatever. i <3 subby vampires and i esp <3 subby vampire mina! hope y’all enjoy :3

read on ao3

warnings/tags: vampires, vampire sex, light bdsm (i think), handcuffs, strap-ons, blood, blood drinking, light angst

minors dni

———

Mina was dying.

At least, she certainly felt like she was. As much as an undead person possibly could, anyways.

She almost couldn’t remember the last meal she had. Her head pounded, her body was half limp. She locked herself in her dorm, holing herself up to prevent herself from jumping on the next person she saw. Her fangs angrily protruded from her gums as she laid in her bed, tossing and turning, trying to fight off the voice of her vampiric side screaming at her to feed.

She doesn’t often let this happen- but she’s been busy. It’s the end of the year, and her classes were piling up. She hadn’t had time to go hunting, instead being forced to finish her homework and study for her finals. And right now she was too scared to ask anyone for help- she messed up with Sana, and even though Sana assured her it was fine, she didn’t trust herself to reach out to the others.

But she really couldn’t ignore it any longer. She only had one option.

Hesitantly, she pulled her phone out. She opened her messages and scrolled down until she found the exact name she was looking for.

MN 🐧

Hey, are you at your apartment? It’s an emergency.

Almost immediately she received a reply.

JY 🐶

yeah. you ok?

MN 🐧

Hungry. Please, I need your help.

A moment passed before Jeongyeon replied again.

JY 🐶

alright, come over whenever you’re ready.

An hour passed and Mina found herself nearly banging on the door to Jeongyeon’s apartment. After a minute, Jeongyeon answered the door, wordlessly inviting the anxious girl inside. Mina pushed past Jeongyeon, quickly taking her shoes off, before heading directly to Jeongyeon’s bedroom. Jeongyeon couldn’t help but roll her eyes, following behind her. Mina was standing at the end of the bed, her fists balled at her sides, biting her lip between her front teeth. Her fangs were still protracted- a clear sign that the poor girl was hungry, desperate.

Jeongyeon leaned against her doorframe, looking at the vampire with pity.

“A hello would’ve been nice.”

Mina looked up, a sullen expression.

“Hi.”

Jeongyeon finally moved into the room, walking over to Mina and cupping her cheek. Mina gulped, almost wanting to shy away from Jeongyeon’s touch. She could practically hear the blood running through the veins in older girl’s arm, could already even smell it.

“You know how this goes, Minari.” Jeongyeon said, her voice low.

“J-Just this once, Jeong… Make it easy, please.” Mina whispered, locking eyes with her friend.

Jeongyeon just tutted, slightly annoyed, running her thumb back and forth against Mina’s cold cheek.

“When’s the last time you fed?” She asked, ignoring Mina’s plea.

“Three days ago.” Mina answered.

Jeongyeon raised her eyebrows. It wasn’t like Mina to go that long without at least a snack- she often frequented the woods on the outskirts of their college, preying on any small animals she could find before she could get a real fix.

“Did something happen?” Jeongyeon asked, genuinely concerned.

Mina mashed her lips together.

“Haven’t had time. But… I fed off of Sana last week and… It got pretty messy.” She answered, looking down at the ground.

Ah. She had scared herself.

“She’s fine.” Mina quickly reassured. “Just… Needs more time to rest.”

It wasn’t the first time Mina had messed up during a feeding. The other girls tried to be gracious and understanding with her, always helped when they could. When she first got turned, they all often volunteered to feed her- until she got too excited and nearly killed Dahyun. None of them really spoke about it, but some of the others became a lot more distant. Dahyun was hardly ever around, and Tzuyu and Chaeyoung started to avoid her like the plague. It caused a rift, and it ruined Mina for months.

Jeongyeon knew how badly it ate at her friend. Mina was sweet, caring, and shy. She took things a lot harder than the others. It was unfortunate that out of everyone in their friend group, she ended up being the one to get turned.

However, Jeongyeon used the opportunity to set up a deal with her. Mina would feed, so long as Jeongyeon could have her way with her. There was a boundary set that made sure Jeongyeon was always safe. And really, she always had a soft spot for Mina- feelings that were much deeper than just platonic. Their deal was unfortunately the only way Jeongyeon could ever be with Mina like that now that she was a vampire. Jeongyeon loved her dearly, always had, but the two of them could never really be together now.

But, despite Mina feeling the same way, she only typically resorted to Jeongyeon if all else had failed because she knew the older girl was not letting her get her way so easily.

“Did you ask the others?” Jeongyeon asked as she stepped away, moving to her closet and squatting down to search for something.

Mina hummed.

“No. I… I don’t know if I can trust myself with them right now.” She replied.

Jeongyeon looked back over her shoulder as she rifled through some of the boxes on the floor, her expression curious.

“And what makes me any different?” She asked, finally grabbing the box she was looking for.

Mina stepped over towards her. She opened her mouth and closed it a few times, her fangs glistening in the light. She took a deep breath before answering.

“Because you’re the one in control.”

Jeongyeon smirked as she stood back up, holding the box in her hands. She moved back over to the bed, setting it down and taking the lid off. Inside was her collection of toys- several dildos of all different shapes and sizes, a few vibrators, a blindfold, handcuffs, and most importantly, her harness.

“Pick the one you want, and I’ll give you a taste.” Jeongyeon said bluntly.

Mina nodded reluctantly. She knew this was inevitable. Where everyone else let her freely feed, sometimes a bit too freely, Jeongyeon was different. She had to be the one in charge, the one who took and gave. Secretly, Mina loved it- Jeongyeon’s blood was to die for, sweet but not overwhelming. And Jeongyeon was… well, an amazing lover, to say the least.

But right now, at that moment, Mina was desperate- she was starving.

And still Jeongyeon seemingly couldn’t care less. If Mina took from her, she would take something right back- that’s how it always went. It kept Mina in check, prevented her from going too far. It was good, Mina told herself, to have someone else in control for once. It helped her not think so much about everything. Sure, she needed to feed- and soon. But… she really needed to be brainless and broken more than anything else. It was good to have someone take care of her for a bit, to use her.

Mina walked over to the bed, looking down at her options. She eyed the different toys before settling on one of the… tamer ones, a smaller purple dildo- around 6 inches- that only slightly curved up towards the end. Jeongyeon chuckled.

“You sure you don’t want your favorite?” She teased, eyeing the one Mina normally asked for- the thick, 8 inch realistic one that matched Jeongyeon’s skin tone a bit too perfectly.

Mina pursed her lips the best she could, her fangs digging in slightly. She shook her head.

“Not tonight…”

Jeongyeon hummed and nodded. She grabbed the toy, her harness, and, much to Mina’s dismay, the handcuffs. Mina pouted.

“Really?” She asked.

Jeongyeon smirked.

“I can’t remember the last time you’ve been this desperate, Minari.” She replied, moving to return the box to its proper home in the closet. “At least let me have some fun.”

Mina rolled her eyes as Jeongyeon walked back, trying to ignore how her body was practically screaming at her with hunger. It was taking everything in her to not jump on the older girl, to sink her fangs directly into Jeongyeon’s neck and just take it-

Jeongyeon held up her wrist to Mina.

“Go on, baby. I promised you a taste.”

Mina moves slightly closer, shakily taking Jeongyeon’s forearm in her hands. She looks up at the other girl, her expression asking if it was okay. Jeongyeon just nods, moving her wrist slightly closer to Mina’s face. Mina practically salivates as she stares at the most prominent vein on Jeongyeon’s wrist. She needed this so badly, her head nearly spun.

She kept her eyes locked on Jeongyeon’s as she pulled her wrist towards her mouth. Gently, she pressed her fangs against Jeongyeon’s skin, still hesitant. Jeongyeon only looked back and nodded, smiling softly.

“I trust you, Minari.”

No matter how rough Jeongyeon was going to be with her after this, and as much as she wanted to show she didn’t care, she was still Mina’s big softie.

Gently, Mina sunk her fangs down, breaking the skin of Jeongyeon’s wrist. Jeongyeon’s breath hitched, her eyes fluttering closed. Mina began to feed, still doing her absolute best to contain herself, as she drank Jeongyeon’s sweet blood directly from the source. Mina couldn’t help the groan that escaped her throat, her hunger finally somewhat satiated. Jeongyeon hummed, her eyes still closed.

“Do I taste good?” She asked, a smirk on her lips.

Mina rolled her eyes- of course Jeongyeon was using the opportunity to stroke her ego- but did her best to nod, not wanting to jostle her fangs too much and cause Jeongyeon any serious pain. She felt like she was in heaven, her eyes finally closing as she sucked away. Her body relaxed, and her mind started to get foggy- almost as if she was drunk on Jeongyeon’s blood.

But right as she was just starting to feel better, Jeongyeon pulled her wrist away. Mina’s eyes flew open, and she let out a whine. Quickly, Jeongyeon’s other hand met her throat, squeezing tight enough to cut off her air.

“You’ve had more than enough, Minari. It’s time for you to hold up your end of the deal.”

Mina whimpered, her head fuzzy from the lack of oxygen mixed with the euphoria of getting to feed. Jeongyeon loosened her grip, and Mina gasped for air. Jeongyeon moved her hand away, cupping her cheek. Her thumb swiped across Mina’s now blood-stained lips before dipping inside. Mina eagerly sucked, running her tongue across the tip of it. Jeongyeon huffed, amused.

“So desperate, baby. You’re so easy to work up.”

Mina just nodded weakly. Her legs felt wobbly, and her head was nearly spinning. She was still hungry, especially now that she could smell the blood that was dripping from Jeongyeon’s wrist. But a part of her dripped too- she could feel the arousal that pooled at her core, the wetness even more apparent when she shifted her weight onto her other leg. She let out a small whine, finally releasing Jeongyeon’s thumb.

“P-Please, Jeongyeon. Need you. Need all of you.” She whimpered out.

Jeongyeon smirked.

“Get on the bed.”

Quickly Mina complied. Both of them undressed, Mina haphazardly tossing her clothes to the side as she crawled onto the bed. She sat and watched as Jeongyeon took her time, deliberately prolonging Mina’s wait. Mina fidgeted as she watched Jeongyeon’s little show- her mind completely enthralled by it all. After what felt like an eternity, Jeongyeon finally pulled her shirt and sports bra over her head, leaving herself in just her underwear. But those, too, were removed as she stepped into her harness and pulled it up. She walked over to the bed and grabbed the handcuffs first. Mina whined as Jeongyeon moved to stand beside her.

“Do we really have to do this?” She asked, her voice meek.

Jeongyeon reached her hand out for Mina’s wrist. Mina complied, pouting as Jeongyeon attached one of the cuffs to her hand and the other to one of the metal poles of the headboard. Jeongyeon leaned down, her mouth close to Mina’s ear.

“I can tell that the moment I let my guard down, you’d devour me.” She whispered, her voice low. “I know that once we get started, you’ll get more frenzied. And although I trust you, it’s just a precaution.”

Jeongyeon grinned.

“Plus you look hot like this.”

Mina blushed and pouted, feeling a little embarrassed as she looked down.

“Fine…”

Jeongyeon leaned in and pressed a kiss to the side of Mina’s head.

“You can have as much as you need once I finish, I promise.” She whispered.

Mina nodded, smiling weakly.

“Usually I’m too tired after you’re done with me, anyways…”

Jeongyeon chuckled.

“That’s kinda the whole point, Minari.”

Jeongyeon gave Mina another kiss before she leaned back up. She gave her wrist to Mina again, letting the vampire have a last few licks- Jeongyeon was mean but not mean enough to make Mina pass out from hunger- before she moved to settle between Mina’s legs. Mina parted them immediately, a blush creeping up on her pale cheeks as Jeongyeon examined her. The human propped herself up on one arm, using her other hand to gently run her fingers through Mina’s slick folds. The vampire couldn’t help but let out a whimper as she felt Jeongyeon’s index finger circling her clit.

“So wet for me already.” Jeongyeon cooed. She moved to lay down, her face hovering right above Mina’s core. “I need a taste.”

Mina whimpered but nodded eagerly, her eyes squeezed shut. Jeongyeon pressed a kiss to her mound before moving down, licking a broad stripe before sucking Mina’s clit into her mouth. The vampire moaned, her head rolling onto her shoulder. She nearly bit at her own skin, unable to hold back the sounds she made as Jeongyeon worked at her.

If Mina’s head wasn’t swimming before, it certainly was now. Between the sensation of Jeongyeon between her legs, her hunger, and the smell of Jeongyeon’s blood, she felt absolutely ravenous. It was torture in the best way possible.

“Jeongyeonie…” Mina groaned out. “Need you… Please…”

Jeongyeon looked up, her lips still attached to Mina’s clit. She pulled away for a moment, replacing her lips with a finger, lightly rubbing over the bundle of nerves- the pressure was too light for Mina to get off, but enough to tease her. Mina hissed, which made Jeongyeon chuckle.

“Need me to do what?” She asked coyly. “Use your words, baby.”

Mina whimpered, baring her fangs.

“Need to drink…”

Jeongyeon hummed, taking her fingers away. Mina let out a whine, but Jeongyeon shifted up onto her knees. Mina looked at her frustratedly, but something darker flashed across Jeongyeon’s face. Without a word, she held up the wrist that Mina had bitten, right in front of Mina’s face but just out of reach.

Mina’s breath hitched. She began to salivate instinctively, her pupils blown wide. She pulled at her restraint- her body was too weak to break free, and Jeongyeon knew that. Jeongyeon was toying with her.

“Need this?” Jeongyeon asked, smirking.

Mina hissed, unable to reply as her instincts fully took over. Jeongyeon leaned back, taking her arm away. Mina grunted.

“J-Jeongyeon…”

The older girl clicked her tongue, moving away. She got up and grabbed the dildo that Mina had picked out earlier and fastened it to her harness, giving it a few pumps to make sure it would stay. She crawled back onto the bed, pushing Mina’s legs apart with a smirk.

“You can have all of that and more once I’m finished playing with you.”

Mina gritted her teeth and nodded. She knew this was coming, but it didn’t make it any easier. But now on top of being hungry, she was turned on- painfully so. Jeongyeon gently adjusted Mina onto her back, her arm still being held to the headboard by the cuff.

“Is that okay? It doesn’t hurt much, does it?” She asked from above Mina, a worried expression.

Mina rolled her eyes and smiled. Jeongyeon really couldn’t keep up the tough act for very long.

“It’s fine, Jeong. Just fuck me so I can eat already.”

Jeongyeon nodded, moving to position herself between Mina’s legs. She rubbed the tip of her strap through Mina’s soaked core, earning a moan from the vampire. After teasing her a bit more, Jeongyeon gave in, finally sliding into Mina’s dripping hole. Mina let out a breathy moan, her jaw hanging slack. Jeongyeon plants her hands on either side of Mina’s shoulders before she bucks her hips, earning another moan.

“So fucking tight, Minari.” Jeongyeon whispers from above her. “Such a good girl for me.”

Mina bites her lip hard enough for her fangs to nearly break the skin. Her eyes have squeezed shut, her body trembling. She nods eagerly.

“J-Just for you, only you, Jeongyeon.”

The older girl lets out an amused huff, smiling down at the vampire.

“And so easy to break.”

She finally begins to thrust, moving at a pace she knows is agonizing for Mina- it’s pleasurable but it’s just not enough, and Mina needs more. She bends down and takes one of Mina’s nipples into her mouth, swirling her tongue around before biting gently.

Mina is truly beside herself at this point, all sense of shame out the window. She writhed around, the pleasure too much but not enough at the same time. Her hunger was insatiable- she could still smell Jeongyeon’s blood. Her fingers dug into the bedsheets as Jeongyeon switches to her other breast, repeating her actions, causing a hiss to rip itself from Mina’s throat. Her mind is practically gone, her vampiric instincts fighting to take over, screaming at her to just take it- to absolutely ravage Jeongyeon. She pulls against her handcuff again, but it’s useless- she’s trapped.

She’s brought back down to earth at a particularly rough thrust. Jeongyeon had propped herself back up on her hands, giving herself a better angle to work with. She rolled her hips roughly, causing Mina to moan out. She could feel Jeongyeon everywhere- her strap pressing directly against her most sensitive spot over and over. She gripped at the handcuff around her wrist, a tight coil in her stomach.

“Jeongyeon… I’m gonna-“

She couldn’t even finish her sentence before one last thrust directly against her g-spot sent her over the edge. But even though Mina wasn’t finished, Jeongyeon didn’t slow down.

“W-Wait-“ Mina tried to warn, her body trembling from overstimulation.

Jeongyeon clicked her tongue.

“I want two more.”

Mina whimpered, her body going limp as Jeongyeon continued to fuck her- to use her. Mina really couldn’t complain- after all, she wanted it just as bad as she wanted Jeongyeon’s blood. The system worked for a reason.

Jeongyeon repositioned herself so that Mina’s legs were over her shoulders, letting her thrusts get even harder, reaching impossibly deeper. Mina let herself go completely limp, the pleasure of it all overshadowing everything else.

Mina loved their deal. That’s the only thought she had in her now brainless mind.

“Come on baby, I know you can give me another.” Jeongyeon teased as she moved her hand down to rub at Mina’s clit.

Mina whimpered out, her hole clenching tightly around Jeongyeon’s strap. Her instincts kicked back in for a moment, and she tugged harshly at the handcuffs, hissing and baring her fangs. She was just so desperate- to finish and to feed. Jeongyeon didn’t care, continuing to pound into her at an animalistic pace, nearly pinching Mina’s clit between her knuckles. The vampire’s eyes screwed shut, and she moaned brokenly.

After a bit more, Mina’s second orgasm hit, and she writhed under Jeongyeon. Jeongyeon finally let her have a break, slowing down to a halt, her strap still buried deep inside the vampire. Jeongyeon adjusted Mina again, letting Mina’s legs fall back down and wrap around her waist, before leaning down so her face was above Mina’s.

“You look so pretty when you’re all fucked out, Minari.”

Mina finally opened her eyes, looking up at the smiling girl above her. Although Jeongyeon was sadistic, to say the least, she was still so… Jeongyeon. She was still so sweet despite what she wanted everyone else to think. Mina weakly reached her hand up to cup Jeongyeon’s cheek.

“Only for you.” She whispered. “No one else gets to do this to me. Just you, Jeongyeonie.”

This was the only real way the two of them could ever be together. They both knew it, accepted it a long time ago. But even in the middle of their roughest scenes, both of them couldn’t help but indulge in some of the softer things they both craved.

Jeongyeon leaned down and gently pressed her lips against Mina’s. Mina did her best to kiss back with her fangs getting in the way, but the kiss was soft, gentle. Both of them were savoring it. After a bit longer, Jeongyeon pulled away, breathless. Her cheeks were bright red, and Mina giggled softly at the sight.

“So cute.” She teased.

“Stop it…” Jeongyeon said, looking away with a pout.

“Can’t help it.” Mina took Jeongyeon’s chin in her hand and pulled her back to make eye contact. “The cutest girl I’ve never seen.”

Jeongyeon’s pout melted.

“I love you, Mina.” She whispered.

Mina smiled.

“I love you too, Jeongyeonie.”

Jeongyeon moved back down for another brief kiss. She shifted herself back up, pressing her hips firmly against Mina, reminding the vampire of the strap that was still nestled so deeply inside her. Mina let out a breathless whimper.

“One more.” Jeongyeon reminded. “For me, baby.”

Mina nodded eagerly. Jeongyeon took off again, fucking her deeply. Mina couldn’t help but bring her hand to the back of Jeongyeon’s neck, pulling the older girl in for a kiss. It was rough, and sloppy, Mina’s fangs nearly ripping Jeongyeon’s lips open- but it was perfect.

Shortly afterwards, Mina came one final time with Jeongyeon gently fucking her through it. After she relaxed, Jeongyeon pulled out, ridding herself of her harness before finally taking the handcuffs off Mina. Jeongyeon adjusted both of them so that Mina laid on her chest. They laid there together for a bit, just enjoying the moment with each other.

Mina was satiated by then. Her frenzy had gone away, but she still needed something. Her body was weak, but not in a good way. She slowly rose to look up at Jeongyeon.

“Jeong… Please…” She whimpered.

Jeongyeon reached up to swipe her thumb across Mina’s bottom lip.

“I know. Let me help.”

The two of them shifted around so that Mina was lying against the headboard among the pillows. She pulled Jeongyeon’s back against her front, wrapping her arms around the older girl’s waist. She pressed her nose into Jeongyeon’s neck, inhaling deeply- Jeongyeon’s blood smelled just as good as it tasted. She ran her tongue along the skin, causing Jeongyeon to shudder.

“Mina...” Jeongyeon whimpered.

Mina only nuzzled into Jeongyeon’s neck further.

“Shhh… Let me have this.” Mina spoke softly. “I never get to be with you like this anymore…”

Jeongyeon moved her head to the side, baring her neck to Mina. She closed her eyes and frowned, although Mina couldn’t see, her brows furrowed.

“I’m sorry, Mina. I wish things were different.”

Mina frowned too. She accepted a long time ago that her and Jeongyeon just weren’t meant to be.

“It’s okay. I’m happy I still get to have you sometimes, even if it’s just… Temporary.”

She grazed her fangs against Jeongyeon’s neck, earning another shudder. She paused, ready to sink them in, and looked up. Jeongyeon’s eyes were closed, but she nodded, giving Mina permission. At that, Mina sunk her fangs in, breaking the skin.

Jeongyeon nearly moaned, biting her bottom lip to hold the sound in. She could feel her body heating up at the sensation of Mina feeding from her- the feeling of the vampire’s lips and tongue on her sending a wave of pleasure straight to her core. Jeongyeon grabbed at the sheets, trying to ground herself, but it was no use. It felt so good when Mina drank from her. She couldn’t focus on anything other than the need between her thighs, how she was practically dripping onto the sheets.

Jeongyeon pressed her thighs together, letting out a tiny sound as her head got fuzzy- both from the blood loss and from just how turned on she was. The feeling, she guessed, was like being high. She almost never wanted it to end.

Mina continued to drink blissfully- her body had already long calmed down, and at this point she was just hungry. Jeongyeon’s blood was so delicious to her, and she nearly got lost in the moment when she registered a whimper from the older girl. Mina looked up, noticing the way Jeongyeon bit her lower lip. She could feel Jeongyeon’s body tensing, and her eyes trailed downwards- Jeongyeon was touching herself.

Mina couldn’t help but smirk. She moved one of her hands down from Jeongyeon’s waist, swatting away the other girl’s hand and replacing it with her own. Jeongyeon groaned, her head rolling back as Mina began to rub tight circles into her clit.

“Mina…” Jeongyeon groaned out, her voice deep.

Mina couldn’t really reply with her fangs still in Jeongyeon’s neck. She just hummed, applying more pressure to her movements as she drank. She knew Jeongyeon was already close based on how her body twitched, how warm she had gotten. Her jaw was locked tightly, her teeth gritted together as she made tiny noises of pleasure.

Mina loved it- she loved being able to have Jeongyeon just as needy as she was earlier. As much as Jeongyeon got to take from her, she could take right back. She knew she was the only one who got to do this to her- no one else got to see Jeongyeon a whimpering, needy mess but her. A major perk of their system, indeed.

After a bit longer, Mina finally finished and pulled off, feeling significantly better. She laved her tongue over the wounds on Jeongyeon’s neck, sealing them up. Jeongyeon whimpered brokenly beside her.

“Mina- Please… Harder…”

Mina wordlessly obliged, adding more pressure against Jeongyeon’s clit. And with a few more passes of her fingers across it, Jeongyeon came undone, whimpering as her orgasm washed through her. Mina pressed a few kisses to Jeongyeon’s jaw as she helped her through it, gently rubbing until Jeongyeon pushed her hand away. Mina helped Jeongyeon lay down on her back, the older girl nearly panting.

“Do you feel okay? Did I take too much?” Mina asked, worried.

Jeongyeon’s eyes were closed, her face scrunched up.

“Jus’ dizzy…” She replied. “Feels good, though…”

Mina leaned down to kiss her cheek, forgetting that her mouth was covered in blood. She accidentally smeared some on Jeongyeon’s cheek, and moved to rub it off with her finger. Jeongyeon whined.

“Did it get on me?”

“Yeah, I’m sorry.”

“It’s okay…”

Jeongyeon was half asleep at this point. Mina took that as her queue to leave. She gently got up from the bed and went to gather her clothes.

“What are you doing?” Jeongyeon asked.

Mina turned to look over at Jeongyeon, who was now propped up on one arm, a frown on her face.

“I…” Mina answered, her voice trailing off. “I’ll be going.”

Jeongyeon’s frown deepened.

“Stay…” She pleaded. “Please.”

Mina smiled softly. She just couldn’t resist her Jeongyeonie. She dropped her clothes and crawled into the bed with Jeongyeon, pulling the other girl on top of her. Jeongyeon latched onto her side, throwing her arm and leg across Mina, pinning the vampire down. Mina couldn’t help but laugh.

“Somebody’s needy…”

Jeongyeon whined.

“I missed you.”

Mina pressed a kiss to the top of Jeongyeon’s head.

“I missed you too. I think I always do.”

Both of them laid in silence. After a bit, Jeongyeon drifted off. Mina didn’t need to sleep anymore, so she stared at the ceiling, letting her mind wander. She can’t help but wonder what her and Jeongyeon could have been if she wasn’t turned. Even though they weren’t as close anymore, she still had so much love for her. Jeongyeon was always the sweetest to her, always took care of her. They could go for weeks without speaking but go back like nothing happened. She couldn’t remember the last time they got to see each other before then, but here they were, cuddled close as if they really were partners.

Deep down, a greedy part of her wanted to turn Jeongyeon. To have Jeongyeon to herself completely. But she really wouldn’t wish this on her worst enemy- she could never do that to Jeongyeon.

For now, she decides, this is enough. Their system is enough. Jeongyeon clinging to her for dear life while she sleeps after they both ruined each other is enough. Getting to hold her and taste her every once in a while is enough.

She wonders if Jeongyeon felt the same.

Her thoughts were interrupted by Jeongyeon shifting slightly. Mina could get a clear view of the sleeping girl’s face, all relaxed. She couldn’t help but smile.

“I love you, Jeongyeonie.” She whispered.

There was a moment of silence. Mina closed her eyes.

“Love you too, Minari.” Jeongyeon answered.

That would always be enough.

[see-arcane]

Oooh Hellsing and Jonathan Harker! That's fun. Kinda curious - what do you feel Jonathan would think/feel about Alucard being connected to Hellsing line through blood? The implications of the whole "sure you're holding a leash but you're also bound to it just as much as vampire on the other end" and of current Hellsing head having to have children whether they want or not make me wonder. (Was thinking about Integra deciding family line ends on her lately and saw the latest ask about where Jonathan would sleep and, ah.)

Also what does he think of original professor Van Helsing? Especially because of all *gestures* that.

Sorry if you already got asked something similar, have a nice day!

I think Jonathan would be Not Keen about the ‘you need to pop out a kid to keep the Dracula on a leash’ clause. Really, he’s very much Not Keen on almost anything that seems to be the norm in the Hellsing ‘verse. He’d understand 100% if Integra opted to end it with her; the flash forward shows she at least avoided the would-be husband and child into old age. Possibly still virgin too, per that universe’s vampire rules, implying she might accept Alucard turning her in the end.

Which Jonathan is also not keen on, at least in terms of taste. The bar for romantic standards in this universe is so low it’s melting in the Earth’s core.

“Says Mr. Holiest Love. What were you planning to do if you hadn’t saved the day in your world and slain me in my box? Whose heads would have to roll in mine and Mina’s place?”

“…It did not come to that. It doesn’t matter.”

“Oh, but it does! I ask because in this universe…well, I’m sure it wouldn’t interest you. Such a little detail, a minor edit in the grand narrative.” Jonathan doesn’t bite. But he does wait. So: “Van Hellsing only let you and his sycophants do half the job. My heart was staked; I was a proper bouquet of wooden spears. But once that erased sweet Mina’s Wafer burn and halted the vampiric change, he stopped you—pardon, my Harker—from collecting my head and finishing me off. He said it was necessary for the greater good. That he had made preparations to put me away and put me to use.

“At the expense of Mina Harker being frozen in perpetual half-life. And, dutiful martyr that she was, the girl allowed it. Begged her Jonathan to stay his blade. God’s will be done and all that. I passed out during the argument. Never did see them in person again. But I could still see through her senses. I tasted it when her Jonathan fed her from his own arteries. It went on for years. When he was pale and dying at age 25, she tried to turn him. No luck. Only a full vampire can turn a victim and she was incomplete. I felt her pierce her own heart. Jonathan fell on his knife.

“And all the while Hellsing and his budding lineage were hard at work with me in my cell. The right pet can take you far in the world, it seems. Straight up the government and military ladders. All for a good cause. I think he and the Irishman attended the Harkers’ funeral, but I can’t recall.”

More silence from Jonathan.

“Would you like to see their graves? I like to visit them every St. George’s Eve to catch up. We can bring garlic blossoms if you like.”

Jonathan doesn’t give him the satisfaction of slamming the door. He goes to bed. Despair has its own calms no matter where or when he is.

Still, he dreams of this world’s faceless Harkers at that Transylvanian sunset. Of their Van Hellsing giving orders disguised as entreaties, already planning out a legacy. Of shooting past them all like a bullet and pouncing on the speared Count with kukri in hand. Of severing the ancient head from its shoulders.

Down below, also dreaming, Alucard smiles and stretches in his coffin. His severed head grins and thanks the killing figure above him as Hellsing’s fuming voice fades like the drone of a gnat.

[serial-serializednovelreader]

What's the first thing comes to mind when you think about them? -Jonathan Harker

Favorite canon thing about this character? -Van Helsing

Deepest darkest secret they won’t even admit to themselves -Jonathan Harker

More asks yay!!!! I am going to get into some implied spoilers in this one; since you’re asking about Van Helsing, it sounds like you’ve read the book before! I’ll try to keep the spoilers implied, but I also have a spoiler-free ask here, if you haven’t read Dracula already!

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think of them?

Jonathan Harker — bravery, love, and lizard fashion (yes I know, hear me out).

For bravery, I think of him trying to save a child, hitting Dracula with a shovel, and silently sharpening his knife.

For love, I think of “(Mem. get recipe for Mina)”, holding Mina closer when she cries and calls herself unclean, and his hair turning white.

For lizard fashion, I think of him looking down to prevent surprise/fear of the height later, straining to climb just a *little* more while gritting his teeth, and risking his life in hopes he could escape by imitating the monster who’s kept him prisoner.

Favorite canon thing about this character?

There are many things I love about Van Helsing, so I’ll give two: a serious and a funny thing.

Serious: That he’s not afraid to break down and be emotional, especially in front of other men. Most mentor characters, even in today’s age, are expected to be infallible and stoic. When things go wrong, they are impassive and continue on as if everything is normal. It’s refreshing to see him not be stoic when something terrible happens and instead cry it out — especially considering the conventions for men at the time. I know you didn’t ask this question, but this is also the scene that really made me love him!

Funny: Pulling Jack Seward’s ear “playfully” and making metaphors about corn is just a regular thing he does. IIRC, that’s like…the first in-person scene we get with Van Helsing (by which I mean he’s in-person with Jack and not writing a telegram/letter to him — I know everything in this book is a collection of letters/diary entries)? And he immediately owns the scene by calling Arthur “good corn” and then pulling on Jack’s ear when he doesn’t get the metaphor. It’s glorious, I love it!

Deepest darkest secret they won’t admit even to themselves?

I think, for a while, Jonathan is unable to admit to himself he was fed on by Dracula the night of June 29th. The evidence is all right there for him to see the next day when he sees Dracula bloated and blood coming out of his mouth, but…he doesn’t seem to register it. He doesn’t say anything of it, except he’s (understandably) disgusted, but also notes he doesn’t want “his own body” to be a “banquet” for the three vampire sisters — as if he wasn’t already one last night.

I think it’s understandable he doesn’t write it down. We know Jonathan doesn’t like to write about events he has no concrete evidence for and — well, he’d remember being fed on by a vampire, right? He remembered when the sisters were going to do it last time. But this is different. I believe the Count kept Jonathan asleep for the feeding (or wiped his memory of it) because he knows Jonathan has been acting “rebellious” lately and didn’t want him to rebel further, though it would’ve been difficult for him to with Dracula’s mind control on him. Perhaps Dracula just didn’t want to take any chances.

So if Jonathan can’t remember the event, he isn’t going to write it down. Plus, emotionally, it may be too overwhelming for him to write about in the moment. After all, he’s just tried to escape the castle several times before he wrote it and he’s about to try another escape attempt right after he finishes the entry, which may result in his death. In other words, his emotions are all over the place. We’ve always commended Jonathan on writing the hard truth — even when it’s difficult — but in this case, I think it’s a lot like Seward writing about Renfield, where he’s not even fully thinking of the idea to make it conscious. At this point, it’s more of a horrifying possibility he’s content to leave as an unconscious idea for the time being. Later, when Jonathan has processed this trauma, he’s able to understand he was fed on and can use that knowledge to his advantage! For now, he can’t admit this, even to himself. :(

Ask game here

[chimaerakirin]

To Ashes And Blood

Stereotypes often come from facts. It's a fact that vampires own nightclubs. It's also a fact that the Fae like to dance. So really, Shigaraki Tomura, Heir to the Prince of Kanto, should have expected to get at least a few patrons who happen to be allergic to iron at some point, and maybe Ikeda Yayoi should have expected to find the owner of her new favorite dance floor to have fangs and a liquid diet. Then again, both are Western monsters living in the homeland of the Yokai, so their surprise might be forgivable. Either way, things are going to change around here, and maybe not just for their personal day to day lives.

Supernatural AU, no Quirks, Heroes, or Villains. Faerie lore heavily inspired by the October Daye series by Seanan McGuire. MDNI.

CW: Smut! Use of local aphrodisiac, acting out fantasies, and anal fingering.

<- Ch1 - Ch8 - CH9 - Ch10 ->

Interlude

They don't go past a simple feeding and fingering before bed. It's late, and she's tired. But the next night, he gets up just a little early and after calling Nee-san to bring him a bag, digs some of those pancakes out of the freezer, silently following Mina's instructions on how to reheat them and how to cook the sausages he finds in the fridge. Then he brings them back to her room with a tall glass of orange juice, the only thing he's seen her drink at home.

"Annwyl?" she murmurs sleepily.

"Breakfast for you." He sits down in the computer chair to watch her eat. "What does that mean? What you keep calling me."

"Mm… 'S Welsh. Means 'darling.'"

He likes that. He likes Nee-san showing up before Yayoi can finish eating a bit less, but Mina answers the door and chats with her until the plate is clean, then he sends his freshly fed girlfriend to the shower with a kiss and goes to collect the delivery.

"—n't worry, he's making himself useful so far," Mina is saying.

He can hear Nee-san's raised eyebrow. "The boss? Useful? Now that I have to hear."

"Wouldn't have expected him to know his way around a kitchen, is all I'll say. But if he keeps being so sweet to her, I might have to try to steal him."

"Don't waste your time," he says flatly. "I'm not interested in anyone but her."

Mina sticks out her tongue. "Well hopefully. I don't want you anyway, but I have to make sure you're staying good enough for her. It's not a one-and-done award, there's a standard to keep up."

"You get it, girl. I'll help you keep him on his toes." Nee-san picks up the duffle bag at her feet and holds it out to him. "Hey, sugar. This'll keep you till Monday night, and Spinner packed your chargers and laptop. Have fun."

He takes it with a nod. "Thanks. Go take the night off, Jin can cover for you." He starts to retreat back into the apartment, then pauses. "Wait. Is Dabi still being his usual charming self?"

"You know it, sugar."

He turns to Mina. "Have you got a spare thing of body glitter?"

Mina gives him a look. "Yayoi may like your club the best, but I spend more time at Refract. I can get you your own weight in glitter if you want. What do you need it for though?"

"She told me it's the appropriate way to explain to a vampire why he shouldn't call a changeling Tinkerbell. His new nickname is Edward, he either hasn't gotten the hint or he's a masochist."

Mina's eye gleam, and he sees the Fae predator in her for a second. She whips up a finger. "Wait right there." She disappears into the back of the apartment and comes back a minute later with a small aerosol can of spray-on glitter, a big cheap Christmas bow with an addressee tag labeled To: Edward already slapped onto it. She drops it into Nee-san's waiting hand. "There. This one oughta do the trick without bombing your whole place. Just don't hit him in the open eyes, and you can get any smears up with alcohol wipes and sellotape."

Tomura starts laughing. Nee-san grins like she's already got fangs. "You'll get pictures, hon, I promise. Toga will get him good."

With a laugh and a wave, Nee-san leaves, and he takes his bag insides, Mina shutting the door behind him. "Staying the weekend, huh?" she asks.

"I was invited."

"You wouldn't be here if you weren't." She shrugs. "Could be worse. You won't empty the fridge or leave the toilet seat up at least. Just don't get the toothbrushes mixed up."

He rolls his eyes. "What a vote of confidence. Can I get the wifi password?"

"Demaglio. Something to do with League of Legends so I shouldn't have to spell it for you." She points to the router, which has a Gnar keychain hanging from it.

He snorts. Yeah that fits. "Capitals?"

"Just the first one."

"Right." He heads for Yayoi's room. "Are you gonna be here all night?"

"Nah, I'm going to Refract with my photographer buddy, you've got the run of the place for at least a few hours assuming I don't just go back to her place. Tomorrow's more up in the air."

"Good to know." He takes a seat on the empty spot on the floor in Yayoi's room, then digs his laptop out of the bag and finds a spare wall socket to plug it into while it starts up. He goes through a few things for the club while he waits for her to get out of the shower, and is signing off on the renewal of Nee-san's healthcare coverage when she steps in still wrapped in a towel. "Welcome back."

"The food was good. Did Nee-san come around?"

"Yeah. I've been ordered not to use Mina's toothbrush by accident." He digs into a side-pocket of the bag and holds up his own. It's black with sky-blue grippy bits.

She laughs. "That'll be hard, hers is a clear sparkly pink. Mine is green with orange bristles."

He glances back down at the laptop screen, then at her. "Hey, what you mentioned last night about Spell 63…"

"I don't know how to cast it yet, if that's what you're about to ask."

"No, not that. Just… you said it's a full transformation, right?"

"Complete to the point of enabling reproduction, yes. Incredibly useful for titled purebloods who marry queer. Being a Faerie Bride isn't cheating, but fucking another Fae is, and nobles need heirs."

"Do you think it would work for Nee-san?"

She winces. "Yes and no."

"Why the no?"

"Water magic is deeper than flower magic, but it's still a Faerie enchantment. Remember what I told you about sunrise?" She pulls a tank top and a pair of shorts out of her dresser and pulls them on, then sits on the bed. "The sun doesn't care about walls and ceilings. When it comes up, it chews on any magic that isn't hidden away underhill. Flower magic is thin as a rose petal, it just vanishes. Water magic can be as small as a dew drop or deep as a lake, but even the lake will eventually evaporate if it never rains. If she's a vampire it would last longer, because direct exposure always makes the sun damage more severe, but give it some time, a couple of decades maybe, and it would come undone. She'd wake up wrong and need to find someone to weave the transformation again."

"So she'd still be better of transitioning the human way."

Yayoi nods apologetically. "Yeah. She could still benefit from it afterwards, there's only so much a human surgeon can do with bone structure, but that's more a really heavy duty makeup job than a solution for the dysphoria."

"Huh. I'll keep that in mind. Get her a present in a couple of years…" He finishes the paperwork, then closes the laptop lid and sets it aside. "Still, kinda weird. You'd think immortals would have come up with a permanent solution."

"Oh there probably is at least one of those out there," she admits. "But I'm not a specialist. You'd have to look it up."

"I could do that at your job, right?"

"Yeah. Technically Grim runs a library. He's just an info broker by virtue of buying and selling lesser known current events. You'd have to apply for a library card though. You'd never get past the front room without it. Bower rules."

He blinks. "Bower rules?"

"Yeah, it's an underhill thing. You ever hear of the Fisher King? The king is the land? Fae domains shape themselves to their masters' needs, even to the point of subverting physics. The Library is the Grimalkin's domain, and he says no one gets into the stacks without his approval."

"How do I apply for a card?"

"You need a reference from someone who already has one. I don't, technically. Just an employment contract. That gives me more access, I can bring any books I want home for example, but that only lasts as long as I work there."

"Huh." He fishes out his phone and sends off a text to Atsuhiro. "What are the terms of a card?"

"You can read anything that isn't restricted and check out anything that isn't reference. You lose the second privilege if you damage anything, and lose the card if you steal. You can get in on someone else's card, but you can't check anything out, and if you damage anything in the building you get booted and the person who let you in takes a hit," she explains. "It's also neutral territory. Cat does not give a fuck about the grudges of mice, take it outside. Fighting in the library will result in an instakick."

His phone beeps with an answer. "Atsuhiro has a card."

"He'll have to physically come with you to the building to make the intro. Also, he has to be in good standing. No kicked guests or lost privileges on his record." She pats the bed next to her. "Now, I think you said you had ideas…"

"I do." He levers himself off the floor and moves to sit next to her. "Got a new trick I wanna try."

"Yeah? How's it work?"

He picks her up and sets her on his lap so that he can kiss her.

-TA&B-

Yayoi is curious, but she's not going to complain. Not when he's so good at kissing and seems to genuinely enjoy it for its own sake, as opposed to using it exclusively as a lead-in to getting into her pants. Not that she's under the impression he isn't going to get there from here, but he's taking his time. She loses track of time while he teases her mouth but eventually she hears the sound of boots in the genkan and keys in the lock, then the front door opening and shutting and he pulls away a few centimeters.

"Mina's gone?" he asks.

"Mina's gone," she confirms.

"Good." He starts working her shirt off. "Then I can get started."

She braces her hands on his shoulders for balance as he puts his hands on her breasts and starts kneading gently. It takes him a full minute to work up to giving her nipples more attention than just an incidental brush, and another two minutes of petting before he finally lowers his head to taste one.

"Mm… You're taking your time…"

"Too slow for you?" He flicks out with his tongue.

"Not yet…"

"Good. I love your tits, you know." He licks again, then moves his head to the side and licks the other, then rubs both with his thumbs. "They're perfect. They're just the right size, they're a beautiful perky shape, they squeeze just right… Your nipples are so pretty, too. I love the way they poke at me when you're excited. The way they give under my teeth…"

He latches onto one suddenly, and she feels the faintest prick of pain, followed by the swirl of his tongue a second later. Then he does the same on the other side. Heat spreads wildly through her chest, and she gasps. "Tomura?"

He glances up at her, eyes blazing. "Do you feel it?"

"I—" He tweaks one of her nipples between his thumb and forefinger gently and she moans. "What did you do?"

"The same thing I always do when I bite you, baby girl." He tweaks her again, then does the other side. "I made it feel good for you. Technically, I'm venomous, but it doesn't work the same way for everyone. You're special. I just injected an aphrodisiac directly into your tits."

She stares at him, wide-eyed, lungs heaving. "What?"

"Nothing fancy. Shouldn't make you any hornier than you already were." Another tweak, a slight pinch, and she whimpers. "But you should be a lot more sensitive now, if I did it right. Did I?"

She feels the touch of his lips and moans again, loudly.

"Sounds like a yes. So here are the rules. You don't try to touch yourself. You don't try to grind on me, or any other cute little trick to get yourself off. And I won't touch you below the waist. Instead, I'm going to keep my hands and mouth right here, and I'm gonna try to make you cum just from having your tits played with. Got it?"

She can feel his breath on her skin, solid as the brush of a feather. She nods jerkily.

"Good girl," he croons. "Now, be sure to tell me what you need as I go. It's a new trick for me, I need your help figuring out how to do it just right."

With that, he goes to town. It's hard to speak, hard to breathe even, pleasure burning like fire in her lungs with every puff of his breath, twitch of his fingers, lap of his tongue. He's treating her nipples like her clit and it's working. Iron damn it, it's working. She can feel her pussy clenching on nothing, wetness seeping out across her thighs.

It's not enough though.

"Annwyl. Annwyl, p-please…" She tugs on his hair.

"Please what, Yayoi?"

"Su… Suck on them…"

So he does. In seconds, she cries out, legs clenching around his lap and spine bowing, and he wraps his arms around her back to hold her up when she threatens to collapse. He doesn't stop either, only slowing down to a gentle tug while she fights to catch her breath.

Finally he raises his head to press a kiss to her lips, stroking her hair back from her face. "How was that, baby girl?"

"I think you're gonna need to wash those jeans," she mumbles. "Feel like a fucking virgin…"

He brushes a thumb over one nipple. It's red, stiff, just a little swollen, and still wildly oversensitive. "Yeah? Tell me what it was like."

"Felt like you were playing with my clit… But in two different places at once, and it was all new." She shivers at another touch. "Like I was a stupid inexperienced teenager again. Like I'd fiddled around some but never figured out how to take it all the way, so I was getting off for the first time."

He lets out a soft groan. "Fuck… Now I'm picturing you as a virgin."

"Do you wish I was?" she asks idly, spinning some of his hair around her finger.

He shakes his head. "Nah… I like your experience. Still a nice mental image though."

"What am I like in this mental image?"

"Mmf… Still like you. Eager. Shy though. Curious. Willing to learn."

She unzips his pants and works them down, standing up for a second so he can lift off the bed and get them all the way off along with his boxers, then she shucks off her own shorts and sits back down on his lap. He's got a whole fantasy going on, and she's willing to turn it into roleplay. "Uh-huh, keep going."

He shuts his eyes. "You ask me to teach you. I ask if you wanna learn to feel good or to make me feel good. You say both."

"I would definitely say both," she agrees.

"I tell you to strip down, and you do. You're so nervous, I can tell you wanna cover back up, but you're brave. You stand there and let me look at you, and when I tell you how pretty you are you get bolder. You walk right up to me and pull my tie loose. Then you start undoing the buttons on my shirt."

"You're wearing a button-up with a tie?"

"Mhm. The whole suit. I don't like it much, but I gotta dress for business sometimes…"

"Sounds sexy. I'd like to see you in one sometime. What happens next?"

"I let you undress me down to my underwear. You get nervous again and stop there. I'm already hard. I ask you what's wrong and you say you've never touched one before, never seen one in person. You're intimidated."

"Completely reasonable. You're pretty generously built."

He shivers and buries his forehead against her neck. "I tell you you'll have to get over that if you wanna learn, and you finish undressing me. You're such a good girl… You ask if I'm normal, because the pictures you've seen didn't look that big. I tell you other dicks don't matter, you're learning from me so you only need to think about mine."

"Getting territorial already?"

"I'm still a vampire and you're still my match," he reminds her. "You ask me to show you how to touch me."

"Show me," she whispers, slipping her fingers into his.

"So we sit down like we are right now. I take your hand and I put it on my dick like this." He wraps her fingers around his cock, positioning her carefully so that she can stroke his length with her palm and fingers while brushing her thumb over his tip. Then he nudges her into moving, taking her other hand after a few passes and wrapping it around him closer to his base. "Ah… and you say…"

"You're so thick, Tomura," she murmurs. "I can barely wrap my fingers all the way around."

"Y-yeah, just like that. And you figure out how to do it just right real quick. Just like… Ahnn, exactly like that." He takes his hands off of hers and braces them on her shoulders. "Fuck, you're so good at this, baby girl."

"You're a good teacher," she replies, adding a touch of modesty to her tone to feed his fantasy. "What next?"

"Y-you… ah, fuck! You keep going un, until I come." He lets out a quiet moan as she picks up the pace, increasing the pressure of her palms and pressing the sensitive spot just under his tip. "Won't, won't take long, I'm, I'm gonna— AH!"

Every muscle goes taut as his cock spurts all over her hands and his stomach, and he slumps against her, panting. "Good girl, so good for me, so good…"

"I like being good for you," she whispers, keeping her hands wrapped around his cock. He's deflating in her grasp, but only a little. "Then what happens?"

"Mmmf… You're staring at the mess. I ask if you wanna taste it. You say yes, so I…" He wipes some of it off his skin with his fingers and brings it up to her lips. "I feed you."

She sucks his hand clean obediently, whining happily at both the flavor and his keeping of their deal. "It tastes so good," she says.

"Then clean up the rest, baby girl."

She does, sliding off his lap and licking his abs until she can't find any more, then her hands, then his cock. It hardens right back up again under her attention. "Do you always have this much stamina?" she asks curiously, climbing back up to sit sideways on his leg.

"Yeah, you ask me that… It's sort of new. You're special like that." He kisses her forehead, then her lips, dipping his tongue into her mouth without a care for the traces of cum still lingering.

"It doesn't end there then, does it?"

"Nuh-uh. I ask you how you feel. You say you're really turned on, way more than usual…"

"I really am." This fantasy thing is hot as hell.

"I ask you to let me check, and you do." He reaches between her legs when she obediently spreads them and probes her folds with his fingers. "Fuck, you're so wet… I can get a finger in no problem. I can even get two in, and move them around…"

He does exactly that, stroking inside her with two crooked fingers while teasing her clit with his thumb. After a minute, he starts scissoring her open wider, until he can fit a third finger in and bury all three to the knuckles. She shudders at the stretch and clings. "Tomuraaa… Feels so good…"

"Good girl," he whispers, wrapping his free arm around her back to support her. He can just barely reach that hand around to cup her breast, and he strokes it gently as his other fingers keep pumping in and out of her. He doesn't stop until she comes, then he raises his slick-soaked hand to his mouth to clean it. "You're so wet for me, baby, look at this mess."

"Mm… Is there more?"

"Yeah. There's one more thing, and I just made absolutely sure you're good and ready for it. The final part of your lesson is how to take my dick. You still look a little nervous, but mostly you're excited. Determined. I ask if you'd rather lay on your back and let me do the hard work, or if you'd rather ride me and be in control of how much you take. You tell me you wanna be in control, but you want me to help you."

"Show me how."

He takes her by the waist and turns her to straddle him, scooting back on the bed so she's got somewhere to rest her shins. Then he holds her poised above him with one hand on her hip and the other on his dick, moving the tip back and forth between her folds a few times before lining up with her entrance. "You ready, baby girl?"

She nods, biting her lip. Salt and iron, she can already feel the size of him.

"Nice and slow then." He presses down on her hip.

She doesn't take it slow. On top, she's in control, and outside the fantasy, he promised her hard and fast last time then didn't give it to her. So she slams down all the way to the hilt, and promptly wheezes. He's big, not ridiculously oversized but still a gracious plenty, and lined up at this angle he feels like more than she remembers from last weekend. She's stretched to the point of burning, but it feels fantastic, and she moans at the mingled pleasure and pain.

"Slow, I said!" He grips her hips with both hands, searching her face with concern. "Are you okay?"

She nods tightly. "Guh… Give me a minute…" She sits still for a few moments, until the burn fades and is replaced with more pleasure. "All right…"

"Goof. Why'd you do that?"

"Hm… Virgin mistake?" she offers.

"You're a very brave virgin, taking my great big dick all at once," he agrees. "Now you start riding."

She does, lifting herself almost completely off his cock, then sliding back down slowly. "Mnn, feels so hollow when you're not in me," she mumbles against his chest.

"Then I'll have to spend more time inside you. Maybe use you as a cockwarmer, huh?"

"'M not used to being all stuffed like that if I'm a virgin. How'd I react?"

She grinds on the next stroke and he moans. "Fuck… You ask… Where I'm gonna cum. 'Cuz… I have to cum before I need a cockwarmer, right? 'N I say, I think the best place… The best place is inside you…"

"Why's that?" She leans forward and licks lightly at his pulse.

"Ah shit! It's, uh… Because you need to learn, ah, what it feels like to have mm, your pretty little cunt full of my load and—" He moans again, loudly, then grabs her hips and takes over, lifting her off and pulling her back down, his hips bucking up to meet her, his thumb stretched out to play with her clit.

His loss of control and the double stimulation drives her over the edge, and she clenches around him with a wild cry. He doesn't stop pounding into her, all ability to speak on hold until she feels the hot gush of cum being released inside her. "…And?" she prompts dazedly.

He takes a second to catch his breath. "And to feel it dripping out of you. Fuck, that feels good…"

"What feels good?"

"I love getting to come inside you. Love seeing you leak afterward… Then I get to choose how to make sure it's not wasted. Do I catch it and feed it to you, or do I push it back inside?" He hugs her against his chest, stroking her spine. "And you still feel fucking perfect on my dick. Love having you sit on it. I think right now though, the thing that feels the best is how you just picked that whole idea up and ran with it. Just, turned a basic mental image into a whole-ass fantasy and played it out with me on the spot. Did you enjoy it?"

"Mhm. 'S fucking hot. You wanna do another one, you let me know." She nibbles on his collarbone. "You're a good teacher too."

"You think so?"

"Yeah. Love to have you teach me something for real."

"What do you think I could teach you?"

"Hm… Bit down the road, but we agreed we're gonna do a full Rule 63 sooner or later. Teach me how to use a cock?"

"I can try, but I feel like you'll be a natural at that." His hand slips further down her spine. He pets the curve of her ass, then she feels his fingertip brush lightly over the tight hole. "We talked about trying this too, though. I could teach you that."

"Didn't sound like you've ever done it before…" He presses a little more firmly and she shivers.

"Haven't. Not a literal professional at research either, but I know how to study." He trails his finger in a circle, then sweeps it back and forth over the puckered skin, layered with slowly-drying slick. He taps again, then dips into her cunt with a lewd squelch. "And I know the basics. Lots of lube, and start small."

"How small?" She clenches around his fingers and grinds a little.

"Like say… One finger. Just to the joint." He pulls his fingers back out of her pussy and slides them further back, smearing across her flesh, then covers her hole with one finger. "Should I try now?"

"Um… Don't know the spell yet. The cleaning one. You want a condom?" She does have some in a drawer somewhere.

"Do I need one?"

"I don't need to go, if that's what you mean…"

"Then I'll pass." He kisses her temple. "Just this once, we'll do it dirty."

"Do it then."

"All right. Relax for me." He scoops a little more cream out of her pussy, sticky and thick where it's mixed with his cum, and adds it to the mess around her other hole. She takes a deep breath at the increasing pressure, then bites her lip as she feels him push into the tight ring of muscle. He pauses. "Hey, you good? Need me to stop?"

She shakes her head. "New. Strange. Not bad."

He takes his hand away anyway, and spits on his little finger. He really is starting small. Then he puts the wet digit back against her asshole and starts working it back in. It's awkward, feeling a new kind of intrusion, a little uncomfortable, but he goes slowly, lets her adjust, until she really does relax, and after a minute he stops. "Okay, that's the whole end joint. How's it feel?"

"Weird. Stretched a little."

"Did you use that deepthroating spell?"

"Nuh-uh." He twitches his finger ever so slightly and she hisses. "Hey… Try fingering me with your other hand at the same time. Wanna see if it feels different."

He nods and starts brushing back and forth across her clit. She shudders, then moans as he slides two fingers into her pussy and thrusts with them, keeping the little finger of his other hand shallowly but firmly in her ass. "You're clenching on me. How does it feel now?"

"Li… Like… Ah!" She comes all over his hands. She can feel his finger slip deeper for a split second under her constricting muscles before he pulls it back out. "I wanna try more."

He grips her hips with both hands, keeping his used little finger off her skin. "Then we will. But not right now. I have research to do and supplies to pick up, I've got to shove all this lost cum back into you one way or another, then we need to wash up. You wanna play League after that?"

"Mm… Okay."

[wiliecoyotegenius]

Dracula says to the men "the girls that you love" will feed on them. He has no idea that Lucy is no longer a vampire.

That tells me that he only has fed MINA with his blood.

If Lucy was fed Dracula's blood they'd have a link like he and Mina do. And he'd know that she's no longer connected to him.

Dracula wants Mina to be his first in command, against her will.

[dross-the-fish]

Could we get a drabble of Larry convincing Quincy he's a werewolf?

sure. It's not a long scene and Quincey is pretty easy to convince because he's already aware of supernatural creatures since his parents are Johnathan and Mina. I've decided they would be open about their history with Dracula with him.

...

By the time Quincey Harker arrived at Talbot Manor the police were wrapping up their investigation, the last of the blood was being cleaned out and the dismembered bodies of Mr. and Mrs. Talbot were being taken from the scene. Amidst the chaos and noise Larry sat, head in hands on a chair. Quincey noticed his shirt was soaked with blood.

“Larry, what happened?” Quincey rushed to his side and put a hand on Larry’s shoulder.

The look on Larry’s face brook Quincey’s heart. He’d never seen his friend look so lost and frightened, “The wolf…i-it was the wolf,” he choked.

“The one that bit you? It followed you home?” Quincey asked.

“That looks to be what happened,” interjected a police officer who was standing nearby, “There’s been a series of attacks and word of wolves roaming around London. We don’t know how they’re getting inside houses but we just came from a woman’s house, her husband and children were torn apart, paw prints everywhere. Just like here. No human could do this, I reckon young Mr. Lawrence survived because he was locked in his room,” he gave Larry a pitying look as the boy burst into sobs, “We’ll mount a search for the thing tonight and kill it.”

Quincey felt Larry stiffen at the words “kill it” and he wrapped his arm tighter around his friend’s shoulders. Once the police were gone Larry collapsed against Quincey and began to sob, “It was me! I’m the wolf!” he cried.

“What are you talking about?” Quincey took Larry’s face in his hands and pulled him back so he could look at him properly, “What do you mean you’re the wolf?”

“I turned into a wolf last night. My fever broke and…I-I don’t know, I remember my body changing and this horrible urge to hunt. When I came back to myself I was covered in blood and mum and dad were-were…” he couldn’t finish. He quaked from head to foot and wrapped his arms tightly around himself before a terrible cry burst from him, “I killed them, Quinn! I killed mum and dad! How could I do that?!”

Quincey patted him gently, “Larry it couldn’t have been you! People don’t just turn into wolves-“ he stopped, remembering suddenly something his father had told him, “-but vampires can. What if that wolf that attacked you was a vampire?!” he checked Larry’s neck for puncture wounds, “You haven’t been fed off of, we should take you to my parents, they might know more about what’s going on!”

Larry shook his head vehemently and tore the bandages from his arm, “Look, Quin, that bite that I got from the wolf in the park, it’s completely healed! Yesterday it was infected and I was convulsing from the worst fever I’ve ever had. Today I’m the picture of health! I tell you I changed into a wolf last night.”

Quincey knew that his friend was not prone to flights of fancy or delusions and as he examined Larry’s arm, where nothing but a faint scar remained, he realized his friend had to be telling him the truth. Given that Larry being a vampire was not likely Quincey wracked his brain for other supernatural creatures that might fit the scenario and it only took him a moment to reach the answer.

“Larry…I think we need to see my parents as soon as possible. I think you were bitten by a werewolf and we need to do something before you turn again.”

[indecisivepsyche]

The Last Voyage of the Demeter as an Adaptation

Okay, a few days later, but I'm still bursting with thoughts about The Last Voyage of the Demeter. Let's go! I'll go ahead and say that this is going to contain spoilers for Dracula up to October 4th, so don't read this if this is your first go around with Dracula Daily.

This is going to be a bit long, but if you don't have much time and are curious about my major two bones to pick with the film, just skip to the bottom. I'll put a heading. I'm also putting this under a read more due to the number of thoughts I have.

One thing before that: I'd be curious to see how many words from the Captain's Log were taken verbatim from the book. Some of the sentences certainly seemed familiar, but there were also clear differences.

I don't need to address the addition of Clemens, Toby, and Anna, do I? The movie used Clemens and Anna to offer different perspectives and convey information the normal crew members wouldn't know. Toby helped ramp up emotional investment and fear. I guess you could suggest that the voyage would have played out almost as it did in the books if these characters weren't present. Eh, kind of, since they changed how vampires work.

Let me start by discussing Dracula himself. I knew going in that this movie was going to position him more as an aggressive movie monster than a stealthy, steady deliverer of dread. He certainly acted that way with his brutal attacks and monstrous form, but there is something about his portrayal that I appreciated. He had moments where it was clear that he had 'human' intelligence (God I wish I understood those first words he uttered to that poor guy on the rigging). As an extension, it seems to be a very valid interpretation that he was straight-up fucking with the crew, playing with his food. No need for the pleasantries he must've exchanged with Jonathan, no need for negotiations like with the villagers/Romani. Time to play with his food! Him using the knocking to frighten and attract the crewman one night was particularly effective.

I actually do question if he was acting with that first attack with him crawling out from under the stairs. Was the movie implying that this Dracula is greatly weakened by just a short time without blood? He was quite quick and powerful when he finally struck, though, so it might have been him seeing what kind of reaction he could get.

Can't say too much about his design since I'm not well versed on horror monsters, but I thought it was effective. Reminded me of The Descent. One thing I liked about his form is that his eyes did seem to be informed by the description of them burning.

A minor gripe I have about Dracula is that they didn't quite play around with his powers as much as they could have. It seemed to me that when the dog saw his shadow that it was taking on the shape of a wolf, but that could have been me deluding myself. I do really wish that they had taken at least one opportunity to show him either turning into or forming out of mist.

Why didn't they have someone stab him only to be met by air like what happened to the First Mate in the book? The reason is probably budget, but it would have helped explain how he got into the cabin with Toby when the hole in the door wasn't large enough for him to fit through. That was an effectively suspenseful and horrific scene, but I imagine it left the layperson with questions.

Let me take this opportunity to pivot to the thralls/fledgling vampires. They were interesting! A bit like the Bloofer Lady but a lot more mindless. They provided the writer with opportunities to pull from later in the book. I liked the use of blood transfusions, the concept that in addition to keeping the recipient alive, it was also helping to water down a sort of vampirism infection.

It also played with the connection Mina formed with Dracula after he fed on her! Anna started talking about what she was experiencing through Dracula and I almost thought some of her descriptions were word-for-word Mina's account of Drac's boat trip.

This brings me to the thralls/vampires being set on fire by the sun. I honestly just decided to shrug and accept this. That's a fatal weakness prominent in pop culture and tied to Dracula since Nosferatu. It's easier to wrap your head around than him just being weakened by it. They also used it to great effect with two horrifying scenes (poor Captain) and one emotional one at the end. It's fine.

You know what's not fine?

The Bones I Have to Pick

Hey. Hey movie team. Look at this passage from Dracula:

"The man was simply fastened by his hands, tied one over the other, to a spoke of the wheel. Between the inner hand and the wood was a crucifix, the set of beads on which it was fastened being around both wrists and wheel, and all kept fast by the binding cords. The poor fellow may have been seated at one time, but the flapping and buffeting of the sails had worked through the rudder of the wheel and dragged him to and fro, so that the cords with which he was tied had cut the flesh to the bone."

You're telling me that you have an R-rated film and you're not going to take the opportunity to portray the fate of the Captain in all its gristly detail??? The Captain was one voyage from retirement, the audience knew he was going to die. You could have opened the film by showing us that one shocked coastguard seeing him! Or saving that visual for the end of the log's events and instead showing his form in shadow swinging "horribly to and fro" at the wheel!

It's not just the loss of the horrific imagery that I'm unhappy about. It's also the fact that they removed one of Dracula's weaknesses and robbed the Captain of his desperate, tragic victory against Dracula in one fell swoop. So what's up with the crucifix having no effect? It really seemed like they were building up to it having a role, like Dracula halting his attack on Toby shortly after we see the crucifix dangling close to his leg and the weight given to Anna giving that crucifix to the Captain.

They gave a form of triumph instead to Clemens in his survival and Anna in her decision to die (instead of being controlled by Dracula? I forgot the fine details of their final conversation, sorry). However, I really don't think the small triumphs needed to be mutually exclusive. Have the Captain lash himself to the wheel, Dracula be unable to attack him, the others not be able to take advantage of this because they don't have their own symbols of faith on hand, the Captain repeat his resolution that he must not leave his ship, and include dialogue from the coastguard about the wild behavior of the ship before it crashed. Even with the plot element of trying to sink the ship, I don't think they needed to do the Captain dirty like they did.

My other major bone to pick with the film is its final scene. I got so excited at the slow set-up with the anticipated appearance of the cane, the return of the taunting knocking, the fact that Dracula was faced away and slowly turning to face Clemens... And then I was absolutely disappointed when I saw the same monstrous face I had become used to over the course of the movie.

Show me Javier Botet with long black hair and a mustache, looking human but still piercing you with burning eyes! We recognize the cane! Anna had the line about Dracula being able to appear human! We know it's him from the distinctive knocking and the reaction of Clemens! But no, maybe they think we wouldn't be able to figure it out and now we're left with major questions about how Dracula was able to exist in the pub looking like that.

One minor nitpick to wrap things up: Dracula never made use of that small bridge in the hold, did he? All those lingering shots in the hold made me expect someone would be up there eventually.

If you read all my thoughts, I appreciate you! I'd also be happy to listen to your own opinions about the film, so feel free to share them in a reblog. If you read this without having seen the movie, I would actually recommend it! It's fun! Makes me want to start working my way through Dracula adaptations again.

[morfanerina]

Watched the Last Voyage of the Demeter, slept on it and I'm still severely disappointed by it, both as a horror and as an adaptation.

Actually especially disappointed as an adaptation, they had what? 6 paragraphs to follow and all the freedom in the world and managed to screw what little constraints they had?

Rant with Spoilers below:

So, I don't have anything to say about the beginning. Wonderful views, everyone was appropriately spooked by the symbol, we have a child on board and the first mate was finding new crew members. Three of them, on of which ends up being our POV character.

Cool so far though isn't that ship far too big for a crew of only 10 (including the captain)? It's faithfull but, ya know.

And then we get Anna. Now Anna was in one of the boxes of dirt to be fed on by Dracula as a snack until the boat reached high water wherein Dracula would feed on the crew. That didn't work because that box opened up and the crew discovered Anna was on board, sick. To save her our heroic doctor does some blood transfusions. With his own blood. Daily (?). Pretty sure he would get woozy but Sure why Not.

This brings conflict with the crew since many of them are supersticious or just feel she is too much of a stoaway. It doesn't matter as her function in story is:

A: conflict bringer

B: exposition about the monster

C: i think we are supposed to assume the doctor and her have romantic feelings for each other at the end?

Also she has badass scenes and brings heart as a victim and willingly sacrifices herself by burning at the sunlight #girlboss

Oh yeah. Them burning in sunlight is bitten and turning into a mindless slave. If you haven't read Dracula, this will be: yeah makes sense. If you have, I hope you are pissed off by this change. And also by the change that religious symbols such as crosses do not affect Dracula.

I guess that's why Anna says that somehow Dracula has no one to feed from in her country. He must have eaten them all (directly contradicted by the fact she is a literal sacrifice to him) because it certainly weren't the crosses and so on to defend themselves that did it.

With this let's go to what this change actually implies in story. See, the characters actually eventually disciver where Dracula sleeps, the specific box even (it was literally the more embellished box.

Yeah.). And they know he only attacks at night and have literally seen on of their crew dying in flames implying Dracula would stay during the day in the box.

So they plan to ambush him at night and not use the knowledge of that box ever. Even Jonathan in the book whacked the vampire in the face while he was sleeping.

I will cut the ranting a bit to now talk about the end.

First: the doctor survives. This is stupid especially as the last scene is he looking super cool while promising himself he would end the blight of Dracula, hunting and finishing him himself.... which won't happen as we literally have how the story goes and he is not at all involved.

Second: master of disguise Dracula doesn't have a human face. Yeah, I was expecting to see his human face but no, it's just the design they created with fancy clothes. Are you joking.

Speaking of jokes Olgaren got possessed and I literally turned to my friend who has read Dracula and said: Mina Harker would never. And it's true, biting doesn't mean turning into vampire unless that person dies and... something. Dying is an important step however.

I'll finish by talking on how disappointing the horror aspect was. There was no actual psychological horror, Dracula played with the religious crewmember sailing away once and the rest he was a beast. It was basically jump scares and gore.

All in all: you could have done so many things, so much freedom and you did this? Truly disappointed.

[thealwaysanxiouswitch]

Memories, Part I.

“Her first memory was of blood. Cedric’s blood. Dark red against the whiteness of milk. It was the sweetness of the smell that she remembered the most. He used to feed her a bottle of milk mixed with his own blood when she was an infant, to quench her thirst and keep her from seeking more from the humans that lived at the manor. Mina never knew if he did that for the safety of the servants, or for hers. Cedric was always very secretive about her deathless nature. She knew she wasn’t human, but she wasn’t quite as undead as he was. Her heart still beat, though she didn’t need to draw breath. Sunlight did not hurt her as it hurt him, but the brightness felt uncomfortable against her golden eyes. She did not need to be invited inside in order to enter a house, but she felt uneasy everytime she crossed a threshold, like she never truly belonged anywhere. And, at last, there was the matter of her appetite.

Blood was not the only thing that could nourish her body. She could eat human food — Mrs. Beaumont, the cook, even taught her how to bake. But she did not enjoy it as much as she did the rich taste of the blood that Cedric fed her at night. He only ever fed her his own. — “I do not wish you to acquire a taste for human blood” — He had warned her, with no further explanations. When Mina was old enough, he began teaching her how to feed without piercing skin. How to draw strength from the essence of living creatures, like he did. 

He had not fed on blood for centuries, for all she knew. He’d learn an alternative, long ago. Instead, he fed on emotions and energy, raw life source. Mostly of animals, but sometimes, of humans too. Always with consent and moderation, of course. When he taught her his technique, he took her to the woods near the manor. They went on horseback, with hunting gear, so that the local’s from the nearby village would not find it strange. They tracked a family of deer by scent, Cedric took down the mother, and told her to do the same to the small fawn left behind. She focused her mind towards the creature, her hunger made her throat ache. She could hear the animal’s heart beating fast and feel his despair as whatever force that animated his body flowed through the air towards hers, lending her its strength. 

— Well done, you learn fast. — He praised her, when the job was done. — It is quick and cleaner this way. — Said Cedric, but she remembered the animal’s anguish when she drained it of its life, and she did not think it was very clean at all. Seeing the torment on her small features, the vampire placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. — It is not gentle, what we are. — He said. — But our choices do matter, and this violence is better than the alternative. 

His words were comforting, the touch on her shoulder an uncommon display of affection. Cedric usually kept to himself. He was very formal and soft spoken, but he was kind, and he was the closest thing she would ever have to a family. He found her as a babe and raised her under his protection. Without him, she would have grown into a monster. Whatever she was, she was grateful to him for making her into something gentler. “

— In honor of our Curse of Strahd table getting back together this weekend, here’s a little snippet of my bard’s backstory. (I might write some more later, if the muses allow)

[theemeraldtide]

Jay and Jin pulled on Jae's body in hopes that he would be able to pry the young vampire off her but even their combined strength wasn't enough to get him to release his grip. Jae fed from her neck greedily and showed no signs of stopping or slowing down until he heard her quiet plea for him to stop, that was enough to pull him out of his trance and he allowed himself to be pulled away, his eyes wide as he stared at her, tears threatening to flow. "I'm so sorry. I didn't mean too-" He started and before anyone could say anything, he vanished out the door.

Jin let out a loud sigh and followed behind Jae, trying to talk to him but the younger wasn't hearing him. Back in the room, Jay looked at mina and Hwan before pulling up a chair to sit down. "Well that was eventful. I was looking forward to having a good meal." he said with a playful laugh and pulls out a juice box and a small bag of snacks, tossing them at her. "You should eat. It'll help you regain some strength. Jae drank a lot." he tells her as he puts his feet up on the bed and pulled out a blood bag from his coat.

underestimating his hunger, mina was taken back by how hard jae had attached his fangs into her skin. it was a different bite than what hwan had given her -- no longer feeling as intimate as it had with the older vampire. a whimper escaped her lips as she felt just how fast he was draining her. "jae." she grunted, it almost sounded too weak. it was an attempted to ground the youngest vampire as the others tried to pull him away.

surprisingly enough just a minute of him drinking from her made her body go limp -- eyes turning glassy from just how exhausted it made her feel. her hand fell from it's grasp with jae's. "please, enough." she begged, no anger or malice in her words. just soft words trying to pull him from his blood trance. of course hwan was right, she tempted him too much and now the other two wouldn't be able to drink from her or mark her. it made her feel guilty.

[vickyvicarious]

Now that Dracula Daily is over, I decided to go through my copy of the novel (Norton critical edition) to look for interesting footnotes and read the various essays/etc. at the back.

Here's some of my favorite footnotes:

An enlarged thyroid gland resulting in a swollen neck; one symptom of iodine deficiency; particularly common in some mountainous regions; may cause brain damage.

—Page 15/May 5, after Jonathan mentions seeing a lot of people with 'goitre' as he is driven out of town and up towards Castle Dracula. Didn't notice this detail at all, but it plays around with possible signs of being fed upon, mundane medical causes, and also maybe an association with madness and superstition. A neat touch.

The word strange in late Victorian England was often suffused with homoerotic undercurrents.

—Page 30/May 7, after Jonathan says "It may be that this strange night-existance is telling on me". Did not know that 'strange' was apparently a gay word in a way 'queer' (or even 'gay') was not at the time. Gives that line a kind of different possible reading... and now I kind of want to search up where else in the text that word is used.

A port city in Yorkshire, on the North Sea coast of England; in the 1890s, a vacation resort where Bram Stoker spent many summers. Whitby's eerie charm is a good setting for the ensuing action. It shares the harsh beauty of nearby Bronte country; moreover, in Victorian England its best-known product was the black stone worn as part of the mourning costume - mourning stone, or jet - a local industry now displaced by Dracula tours.

—Page 63/July 24, after the location is mentioned. Love the detail about the mourning stones.

"Not only Mr. Swales' preoccupations, but even his name, associate him with living death. The English Dialect Dictionary (1898) provides a revealing North Yorkshire definition of the verb "swale": "to consume or waste away; to melt or gutter as a candle in a draught."

—Page 66/July 24, after Mr. Swales' big speech on death. I can't believe he was actually named "Mr. Is-Dying".

Seward distributes his medical reports profigately.

—Page 105/September 2, in response to the line: "I reminded her that a doctor's confidence was sacred;" - I'm just laughing at the snarky footnote here.

This is the first and last we hear of Van Helsing's third career (he is also a physician and a professor). Characteristically, he uses his legal expertise to circumvent the law.

—Page 148/September 20, after VH says he is a lawyer. Characteristically indeed, ahaha.

Various late Victorian tonics used the advertising slogan "The Blood is the Life." Renfield might be referring to Hughe's Blood Pills or Clarke's World-Famed Blood Mixture. Both claimed to vitalize the body by purifying the blood.

—Page 207/September 30, after Renfield tells Mina that he tried to kill Seward while inspired by the Biblical phrase 'the blood is the life': "'Though, indeed, the vendor of a certain nostrum has vulgarized the truism to the very point of contempt.'" I just never really put together that this quote had been used as an advertising slogan and it's making me crack up. Imagine your mental patient attacking you and slurping your blood off the floor, then shouting "Ba-da-da-da, I'm loving it!" while being dragged away. (I know that's not the most direct comparison but it's the one that popped into my head and it's very funny.)

Again, the British characters have more difficulty communicating with each other than with the Romanian vampire.

—Page 231/October 1, after Jonathan is misled by phonetic/dialectic spelling. Even the footnotes are getting fed up with this dialect nonsense, Bram.

[rallamajoop]

Hi! I was reading up your meta and I saw you mention you'll talk about "did Dracula feed on Jonathan?" but I can't find it! Has it been posted? Thank you!

Ah, yeah ‒ I did promise that back in my How Gay was Bram Stoker? post, but you can file that one under the general category of "stuff I totally meant to write, but then never got around to." But what the hell: let's do this!

Ahem.

Did Dracula ever feed on Jonathan?

The short answer, based on what Jonathan overhears Dracula saying to his wives in a short passage everyone following Dracula Daily would have read on June 29, is: yes, and perhaps even, well, obviously?

"Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have patience! To-night is mine. To-morrow night is yours!" There was a low, sweet ripple of laughter, and in a rage I threw open the door, and saw without the three terrible women licking their lips. As I appeared they all joined in a horrible laugh, and ran away. [emphasis mine]

In other words: the brides get to feed on Jonathan tomorrow. It’s Dracula’s turn tonight. If the dialogue doesn’t make this clear enough, the ‘three terrible women licking their lips’ is pretty unambiguous. And we know Dracula did feed that night, because the morning after, Jonathan finds him asleep in his coffin, looking suddenly much younger, with blood dripping from the corners of his mouth. Jonathan never puts together that it was himself Dracula fed on (or at least never mentions it in his diary) – but then, Lucy and Mina never had any idea they’d been fed on either. So the implications remain technically subtext, but there for anyone paying attention.

Except there’s another version of that paragraph quoted above. The Dracula Daily text is evidently drawing from the American version of Dracula, published in 1899 (and pictured above). The original UK publication came out two years previously, and there, Dracula’s speech is oh-so-significantly different.  

"Back, back, to your own place! Your time is not yet come. Wait! Have patience! To-morrow night, to-morrow night is yours!" [emphasis again mine]

‘To-night is mine!’ never appeared in Dracula’s original publication, and any subtext that Dracula may have fed on Jonathan is that much subtler without it. Stranger still, this seems to be the only notable difference between the two versions of Dracula: Stoker certainly hasn’t made significant rewrites, nor is there any other evidence some US editor had it sloppily transcribed. So was this change Stoker’s? Was it a deliberate change at all, or just an accident of editing?

Now, I want ‘To-night is mine!’ to be the definitive version – not just because I’m always here for slashy vampire shenanigans, but because it makes so much more sense. Why force the brides to wait for tomorrow, if not so Dracula could have first dibs? For which matter, why keep Jonathan alive and (physically) unharmed in the castle for so long at all, if not as Dracula’s convenient, pre-journey snack? It even ties right back to Jonathan’s first encounter with the brides, and Dracula’s iconic line, This man belongs to me!

It’s admittedly a little questionable that Jonathan himself never acknowledges such definitive evidence Dracula has fed on him (in either version) – but then, panic and denial can do a number on the faculties of a man far faster on the uptake than our dear Jonathan. ‘Tonight is mine, tomorrow is yours!’ doesn’t just read better, it all adds up.

Before I get too bogged down in conspiracy-theories though, I’d like to share one suspiciously similar bit of trivia from the first (authorised) Dracula film adaptation, the Universal picture from 1932. Here, it’s nominally Renfield rather than Jonathan who goes to the castle, and the ‘brides’ have only two scenes and no dialogue, but the climax of the castle section still plays some familiar notes. Drugged at dinner, our Jonathan/Renfield amalgam collapses, and we watch the brides advance on him with clear intent – only for Dracula to sweep in, turn them aside, and lean down over our hapless hero himself.

But this wasn’t supposed to be the version that made it to screen. Supposedly, studio execs had insisted that it would be the women who fall upon their victim, not Dracula himself – and that’s what was in the shooting script. In fact, you can see this version shot as intended in the Spanish-language version of the film (shot at night with a whole second cast and crew, using the same sets and script). But the director for the English-version, Tod Browning, had the sense to ignore the official mandate and let the film's titular villain be the one to bite Renfield. He’s the real threat – he’s the one who Renfield will spend the rest of the film obsessed with. Why undercut that in your very first act?

The answer, of course, is the dreaded h-word: homoeroticism. A vampire bite is far too sexy to be allowed to happen between two men. The boundaries on that one fascinate me a little: neither the novel nor any film adaptation has ever balked at vampire!Lucy preying on children or the brides eating a literal baby because they’re seeing paedophilic overtones all of a sudden. These are horrifying acts, certainly, but here we take them at face value.

By and large though, Dracula is not the text you want to come at with the ‘rational’ notion that there’s nothing inherently sexy about a vampire bite: this is a book where even mundane, life-preserving blood-transfusions have become a very significant metaphor by the time of Lucy’s death. And who goes to a Dracula movie wanting to see Dracula biting men? (Yes, yes, I know. Please form an orderly queue to the left.)

My point in all this is that it’s not like we don’t know that nervous producers are perfectly willing to cut some corners off the integrity of their own product for fear of getting The Gay in their good, wholesome, gothic vampire film. And if producers from the 1930’s could do it… why not publishers from the 1890’s?

This is why it’s so hard not to find layers of meaning in that critical little addition of To-night is mine! Was there some earlier draft of Stoker’s manuscript (much like whichever theoretical earlier draft of the screenplay those execs had objected to) which contained that line? Was it Stoker himself who got nervous, and cut it from the British manuscript before publication? Keep in mind, this was only a couple of years after the Oscar Wilde trial, an incident which brought homosexuality under more scrutiny than it had suffered in an age. Stoker was already a known Wilde-associate, who’d take chances in that environment?

Or was it his publishers who made the change? Anything's possible. Either way, how the ‘original’ version found its way back into the US version is still in question: maybe Stoker found his nerve again, or maybe he just accidentally included a page from the wrong draft ‒ but it's easy to miss these things when the result is an ocean away. Don’t tell me it doesn't sound plausible!

Alas, I am guilty of building this one up mostly just to knock it down again: what little real evidence we have all points the other way. When Stoker re-edited a (slightly) abridged version of Dracula in 1901 (two years after the American one), the original ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow!’ line is dutifully reproduced. When he threw together a stage version (very rough, and which would be “performed” exactly once for copyright reasons alone), there was no ‘To-night is mine!’ in that one either. And the single, surviving full-but-unfinished draft of Dracula that anyone has ever found contained the 'To-morrow' version too. There are some fascinating differences between that one draft and either published version and I could talk about it all day – but if Very Rough Draft Outlines of Dracula is to be believed, then ‘Tomorrow, tomorrow’ was part of the novel long before it reached publication. There’s nothing about this scene in any of Stoker’s earlier very-rough-draft-outlines for Dracula either.

All that said, I still want ‘To-night is mine!’ to have been Stoker’s original plan for that scene. It just works so much better on so many levels!

It also adds rather fascinating little wrinkle to another favourite Dracula-debate topic of mine: does anyone bitten by a vampire become one, or do you have to drink that vampire’s blood in turn?

In these modern, rational times (filled with tales of complex, even sympathetic vampires), we’re much more comfortable with the vampire's-blood version. It just doesn’t track that everyone bitten by a vampire becomes one ‒ not without one vampire turning into a major zombie outbreak within a matter of weeks. And it's so widespread now that few realise the idea didn’t even exist before Dracula. Traditional vampire folklore has a thousand variations and as many different ways someone can join the undead (including being bitten by one), but drinking vampire blood is one I have never found a remotely credible source for. If anything, drinking a vampire’s blood often works to protect you from that vampire (smearing it on your body or eating some of the grave soil may also do the trick).

And even in Dracula, debate remains as to why Dracula forces Mina to drink his blood. Many assert that the true point is to create the psychic connection he uses to spy on her friends later (and his own dialogue in that scene could certainly be taken that way). Meanwhile, Van Helsing does say that anyone bitten can become a vampire. He doesn’t seem at all concerned this will happen to the children Lucy has fed on, but then, destroying the parent vampire before the potential vampires have turned is exactly how Mina is saved too. Whether or not you buy it, it still holds together.

The one-bite version is an interpretation you can still see in lots of post-Dracula media too. Hammer’s Dracula films of the 50s-70s, for example, certainly seem to think that being bitten is plenty (how long the transformation takes post-bite is… less consistent). Not until after Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire comes out in the 1970’s does the idea that you need to drink the vampire’s blood in turn really seem to start taking hold.

But it’s not as though no-one reading Stoker’s novel ever came away with the idea that he'd added a new element to the process of becoming a vampire. Universal’s 1931 film doesn’t even show the iconic blood-drinking scene, leaving Mina simply to recount those events in dialogue after the fact – but Dracula spells out his own purpose to Van Helsing very clearly: "You are too late. My blood now flows through her veins. She will live through the centuries to come...as I have lived."

In fact, there’s an even earlier script from 1927, from a failed attempt to create a new stage version commissioned by Stoker’s own widow, that takes the same angle: “Come, drink of my blood, that you may become even as I.” (Thank you to Skal's Hollywood Gothic for that interesting tidbit!) It’s unlikely that honouring her late-husband’s artistic intent was foremost in Widow Florence's concerns (far more about securing a higher cut of the profits than she was getting from the existing stage versions), but the fact Mrs. Stoker herself was down with that interpretation isn’t nothing.

Looping all the way back to the original point, though, if Jonathan really was supposed to have been bitten by Dracula way back in the early chapters of the novel, then we can pretty much throw the one-bite theory out the window. It doesn’t neaten everything up: we’ve still got the weird implication that Lucy could have been saved by enough blood-transfusions, whereas Mina slowly deteriorates over the journey back to the castle and only Dracula’s death will save her, and so on – because as much as I love this novel, Stoker’s vampire mythology is an inconsistent mess with more holes in it than a parade of slowly-turning vampire victims (and it really is such a tribute to the overall atmosphere that it still draws you in, and can even keep you from noticing the inconsistencies). But damn, could one little bite-mark on Jonathan’s neck recontextualise so much of the rest of the story.

Tl;dr: I will never know for sure whether Stoker’s original plans for Dracula involved Jonathan being bitten by the titular vampire himself, or how that one line came to differ between the UK and US publications. But I really want the US version to be the ‘true’ one. And maybe now you do too.

(Photos of Dracula & Jonathan come from Michael Pink's ballet adaptation of Dracula ‒ the slashiest ballet version I've seen and my second-favourite overall, because I am entirely the kind of Dracula-nerd with a second-favourite ballet version, what can I tell you.)

[berriesandjunnie]

❝ me and my husband ❞

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° synopsis even after marriage, your husband has peculiar habits that catch you off guard. ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° genre & tags fluff / vampire!seungcheol / human!reader / established relationship / just some funny soft vampire x human / short fluff!! / some blood mentions ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° pairing seungcheol x afab!reader ┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° w.c 1.2k words

┆ ° ♡ • ➵ ✩ ◛ ° author’s note releasing this three hours after i said it would be released, yeehaw

˚ ༘♡ ·˚꒰ now loading… enjoy! ꒱ ₊˚ˑ༄  

“Cheol?” you called out over the rustle of plastic grocery bags that were certainly too flimsy, pursing your lips when you didn’t get a response, “Cheollie?”

You hadn’t a clue where your husband was, you’d left him at home gaming on his playstation in the living room - you assumed that’s where he still was, unable to hear your calls for him because of his headset. Sighing, you shut the front door behind you with your foot, shimmying to the kitchen with the bags of shopping in your hands. You glimpsed into the living room as you passed, catching sight of your husband and letting out a soft sigh of relief.  

Thanks to his incredibly light steps, you never noticed your husband of seven years creeping up behind you as you put the shopping away. Turning on your heel, you were suddenly face to face with the male, causing you to jolt as you were startled by his presence. He simply chuckled, taking the items from your hands and putting them away for you. 

“See anybody you know?” Seungcheol hummed, quickly browsing in the fridge after he placed a carton of milk in there. You rose a brow, since he wasn’t usually interested in human delicacies. 

“Just Mina,” you yawned, stretching your arms and shoulders with the excruciating pain carrying the groceries had given you, “she asked how you were.”

“Not thriving,” your husband pouted, finally turning back to you as he wrapped himself around you like a koala, “this sun is so hot and for what? I’m supposed to be safe from it in here and yet I’m melting!”

You laughed, giving into Seungcheol’s hug even if you were borderline melting thanks to the summer heat too. You’d never pass up an opportunity to receive some affection from your husband - not to say that he didn’t give you enough but during this heat neither of you wanted to even touch each other. Seungcheol’s fingers twitched against your lower back and in response you quirked a brow as you pulled back from your husband.

“Cheol have you fed today?” You mumbled and Seungcheol weakly shook his head, eliciting a sigh from you as you grabbed his hand and lead him back towards the kitchen fridge. He groaned, almost attempting to retaliate to you, his wife.

“I was going to feed earlier when you were showering,” he huffed like a child, watching closely as you opened the fridge door, browsing it as he had done earlier, “I know you’re still not used to it.”

“I’ve been married to you for seven years, Cheol,” you taunted, passing him a bottle filled with blood, “I dated you for five years before that - that’s twelve years with a vampire. I’m used to it.”

Defeated, Seungcheol took the bottle from you and returned to the living room as you left to shower.

-

Seungcheol definitely wasn’t in the living room when you emerged from the bathroom and once more you were left confused with what the hell your husband could be up to this time. It was turning late into the evening, the sun fading in rosy hues of pinks and purples as it dipped behind the South Korean skyline. You admired it from the apartment’s balcony - albeit small but you could still step onto it. Exhaling a stressed breath, you were glad that the heat was dying into a cool temperature that didn’t make you feel faint and definitely didn’t make you feel sweaty. That was sort of the last thing you wanted after a shower.

It was nice to witness the sunset as the curtains were usually all closed in your apartment at this time until the sun had set, only then would Seungcheol open the curtains and admire the stars. Every set of curtains in your apartment were blackout curtains, drowning any sort of light that attempted to enter the rooms. You knew it was for your husband’s welfare and safety but sometimes you just missed moments like this. 

The sound of feet shuffling across vinyl flooring began to resonate through the apartment’s hallways and you quickly dived back into the apartment, locking the balcony door and drawing the curtain shut as Seungcheol rounded the corner, wrapped tightly in your comfort blanket like a hermit. One hand was clutching the blanket around his body and the other hand was holding the blood filled bottle you’d passed him earlier, now empty. He smiled when his eyes landed on you.

“Was the sunset pretty?” He hummed, continuing to shuffle towards the kitchen. Naturally, you followed him, finding it amusing how he had appeared out of the blue wrapped in your blanket.

“Mhm,” you nodded, leaning against the counter as Seungcheol rinsed the bottle with water to stop remaining blood from oxidising - he’d get Jeonghan to refill it when he stopped over later that night, “have you been napping all afternoon?”

You gestured to how he’d swaddled himself in your blanket, his hair wry and slight bags under his eyes. He smiled innocently, placing the bottle down on the drying rack as he waddled to you, opening his arms up and consuming you in the blanket too as his arms curled around you. You laughed into his chest, wrapping your arms around his torso. 

“Maybe,” Seungcheol huffed, letting out a small yawn to prove your point, “it sucked having it without you.”

“You sound like a child.” You mused, lifting your head to look up at your vampiric boyfriend in the warm lights of the kitchen. His eyes fell to you and your eyes fell to his lips that were faintly tinted red from the blood he’d been drinking - some poor human’s blood. You shook your head mentally, refusing to think about it before you caught the way fresh blood had kept itself in the corner of his mouth.

With your finger, you tapped the corner of your mouth to mirror and Seungcheol tensed, raising one of his hands to wipe the blood but he only managed to smear it across his pale cheek and you froze, staring at the blood as Seungcheol stared at you. 

“What?” He whispered, a little concerned by your response to what he thought was just him cleaning blood from his lips - usually you would be more iffy if he left it. You swallowed the lump in your throat, taking your eyes away from the sight as you looked around the kitchen to distract yourself.

“Blood,” you mumbled, trying to ignore the fact you could still very much see it out of the corner of your eyes, “you smeared it.”

Seungcheol chuckled, unwrapping you from the blanket as he headed back to the sink, running his hand under the water before he wiped his skin once more, washing the red liquid down the drain before he turned back to where you were staring at him in more of a relaxed form.

“Definitely not used to it,” he teased, causing you to scoff and fold your arms across your chest, “that’s okay, baby - I thank you for trying all these years.”

He cupped your cheek, brushing his thumb along your skin as he gave you a reassuring smile. Meekly, you cracked a smile back and nodded.

“Maybe one day.”