#*internal screaming in fear*

[gatoiberico]

parfait pals

[the-crooked-library]

On Horror, Queerness, Mirrors, and Dracula

Your wish is my command (you may or may not regret this). 

Here’s the thing - I love horror, and I love patterns, and I think the best horror is always in some sense symmetrical.  It might not be obvious, but what’s the point of staring into an abyss if you can’t see your own face reflected back?  The symmetry itself comes in any number of different twists, whether it is familial, communal, erotic, or individual, and most of these apply to Bram Stoker’s Dracula. 

The centre of our novel rests on the Harkers.  So, starting with Jonathan - his experience in Transylvania is a twisted version of his life back home.  Dracula is reserved but eloquent, seemingly caring and occasionally affectionate, he reads train schedules and they spend hours upon hours in conversation; which is a dark mirror to Jonathan’s train schedule-loving, passionate but serious Mina.  It may even be said that the Count is re-enacting a caricature of traditional heteronormative domesticity - he maintains the household, waits on his guest himself, and blows him kisses from the stairs.  His possessiveness of Jonathan is the only way a vampire like Dracula is capable of understanding the bond Jonathan shares with Mina.  The Count states that he, too, feels love; but he is written by a closeted gay man in the late 19th century, so his imitation of married life is both a lie and a tragedy.  He is a shorthand for forbidden, wrong, and corrupting desires. 

At the same time, Mina herself also has a same-sex connection in the beginning of the story, and her relationship with Lucy mirrors the relationship between Jonathan and Dracula.  They cling to each other, in a sense; despite being excited about the prospect of their impending marriages, there is some trepidation associated with this new stage in life.  A common part of a dowry used to be a shroud, simply due to the frequency at which Victorian wives died in childbirth soon after the wedding; and even provided a survival, the transition to married life was still a loss of innocence.  As such, Lucy’s affection for Mina is the last expression of her girlhood, and she herself is the personification of Mina’s.  Lucy is, therefore, the direct antithesis of the Count; her death and subsequent rising change Mina the same way that Dracula does Jonathan, establishing a firm duality between the Harkers and their respective vampires. 

The other characters are reflections of each other, as well; the suitors defend while the brides terrify, Van Helsing wants to preserve life while Renfield wishes to consume it - and even further, the old Hungarian lady cares enough about  a stranger to give Jonathan a cross for protection, while Lucy’s own mother lets Dracula into the house herself, selfishly ignorant of her daughter’s needs and the doctor’s orders.  Another parallel is drawn again between Jonathan and Renfield, who represents directly what he could have been, had he not escaped from Dracula’s grasp; which makes Renfield’s vehement, last-ditch attempt to protect Mina perhaps all the more poignant.  In him, she sees the resilience of Jonathan’s humanity; while he gets to see exactly what she could become after her turning  - in Dracula himself.  These dualities are integral to the story’s thematic structure, and therefore inextricable from each character’s development. 

There is really too much to say about each individual dynamic to fit into one rant, but for the current purposes, I can forgo the details.  They all converge as it is on Jonathan and Mina, and thus, the central theme of this story is devotion.  If Jonathan had truly broken, like Renfield, Mina would have stayed by his side; and if she had fully turned, like Dracula, he would have adored whatever shred of her still remained.  In madness and in death, in happiness and sorrow, in sickness and in health - until the echoes start to sound like wedding vows. 

@stripedshirtgay​

@bluberimufim​

[idk-bruh-20]

Irondad fic ideas #156

Peter is unnaturally good at catching flies. However, once he's caught them he can never make himself kill them. He usually just let's them go outside.

His friends and family find this hilarious. His literal "spider" reflexes + his Peter gentleness.

Bonus

One day, as a prank, he pretends to get a weird look on his face after catching a fly, then slowly starts to lift his hand to his mouth. The panicked shrieking of those around him (who think his spider instincts are about to make him eat the fly) can be heard several floors away

[hanakihan]

okay listen listen listen

Salieri himself doesn’t really know what exactly are his minions and how they came to be but he kinda rolls with it because they get job done

Then the more he summons them or spends time with them said minions start to show more personality and begin to change because Salieri does supply them with his mana too in passive way.

One day he ends up with a bunch of chaotic curious children who he needs to keep in check because they just run around and distract other servants by their chirps and noises. Salieri is high key on verge of tears because he had zero idea what to do with them or how to even try to handle them, but then his parenting/tutor skills kick in and situation becomes better.

Downside is that now he’s stuck with a flock of chirping children who are too excited and curious and either cling to him with iron grip or run off on their own so Salieri needs to run around Chaldea and catch them one by one

[newtness532]

that woman is so bad for my anxiety

[etruatcaelum]

[ @flightofaqrow // for oz ]

They really do not like being fifteen. How it makes everything seem larger-than-life, a simple conversation as cauterizing as the fires of war; Ozma clasps Oscar’s hands behind his back to stifle their clawing need to fidget, and coughs quietly from the doorway. It feels too invasive, too presumptive to step further into the room without invitation.

“I… ah.”

Perhaps this is the wrong time. It’s only been a few hours since Qrow and the others arrived in Vacuo, aching and weary yet driven by desperate optimism that the evacuation had gone according to plan, radio silence from the rearguard or no; only a few hours since whatever small spark of hope Qrow had kept burning was smothered by the truth that his nieces had fallen in battle.

There’s not even anything left to bury.

Ozma has delivered news of this kind and mouthed the same inadequate sentiments of sympathy time and time again, has felt the fangs of grief envenoming their own heart across a thousand lifetimes; and while it is never easy, it has never felt so thorny as this. The last time they spoke—

Meeting you was the worst luck of my life.

None could argue otherwise. Ruining lives is, after all, just what Ozma does.

“Qrow,” they manage at last. “I… know I’m probably the last person you wish to hear from now; and I won’t… stay for—but I do want to express how sorry I am, for your loss.” Some might see in the old cynic’s laxity with the children a lack of care, but after so many years of watching Qrow seal himself away like a monster in a labyrinth, Ozma can think of nothing but how fiercely he must have loved those girls, to dare be near them at all. “I’m sorry. They—will never be forgotten.”

Bitter comfort though that is.

[moafleco]

i hate that duality that your mind can be your safe heaven that helps you get through some difficult things, keeps you going and brings you happiness at the worst of times. and at the very same time it could be your worst tormentor that won't let you rest and won't let you breathe, literally for no particular reason at all. and you can't leave or silence it. can't get it to stop when it gets dark in there. can't get the light in when you desperately need to feel a respite instead of suffocation.

[deer-with-a-stick]

Nilah League of Legends is who every Fiendlock wishes they could be change my mind. She's just going tra-la-la-la with one of the Ten Kings sitting at her hip and sure she might have had her entire personality erased but she's gotten to beat the shit out of Volibear and maybe Mordekaiser because heehoo water demon whip go whee. If Fiddlesticks ever met her it'd just sigh because tf are you supposed to do against a lady who has your sibling as a whip and doesn't feel fear like dude

[nicepersondisorder]

shaking crying on my knees, the sky open and the rain falls, i sob out "i need to communicate, communication is important"

[libraryleopard]

i don't think love lies bleeding as a whole will be my favorite film of 2024 but the bit with the cat and the couch and the corpse (iykyk) may be my single favorite moment of a film from 2024

[sir-walton-goggins]

IM GOING INSANE!!! the singer of sh3 will sing the theme song for the clock tower remaster!!! WHY IS NO ONE TALKING ABOUT THIS

[dutybcrne]

Kaeya is rather touch averse, cringing away from casual contact people give him under the guise of being distracted or idle movement. He's used to it, the Ragnvindrs and Adenlinde got him used to frequent affectionate physical contact, but it can still be entirely Uncomfortable if he's touched by someone outside those he is close to or someone he's otherwise Allowed to touch him.

[emily-mooon]

OH FUCK IM GOING DOWN A LOOP HOLE BUT I AM REMINDED OF THE FACT THAT SOME OF JONATHAN’S S4 FITS LOOK SIMILAR TO THE FIRST OUTFIT WE SEE LONNIE IN IN S1.

[nururu]

hey btw it's cool of y'all to be like "different things to say when things go wrong instead of " I'm gonna kill myself"" and everything but stfu bc im still gonna say it and i KNOW gen z idiots hate when I do it bc they look at me like they're just DYING to teach me about self deprication and how it effects your mental health and I just want y'all to know that i don't care. and as someone who's worked very hard to find self love, I don't want people who have no confidence in themselves and actually hate themselves to be telling me how to have good mental health practices. absolutely bonkers.

[vulturevanity]

I have reason to believe that fear of harmless bugs is a social construct

[prncssguya]

amnesia plots have always got on my nerves. the angst is nice for like two episodes but after that i need the plot to move forward. i just want jang uk to recognize naksu and her to remember who she really is sooner rather than later. ukyeong need time to process everything they’ve been through and take down jin mu (and maybe the queen?) together