#Vampire!Lucy

[vickyvicarious]

putting my reactions under a cut 'cause it's long today

honestly surprised van Helsing was able to restrain himself from a joke about the "grave duty" to be done at Lucy's tomb

Jack sounds so offended by van Helsing correctly figuring out that he is back to being skeptical. It's subtle but feels quite petulant.

"He held out a hand, which Quincey took." ~handshakes of friendship~

"I don't quite like to 'buy a pig in a poke,' as they say in Scotland," ~Art's slang~

oh god the way Art says "monstrous joke" the poor man

he is just jumping up and down. god AND THE WAY HE CHOKES UP ON GRAVE DESECRATION

"But this night our feet must tread in thorny paths; or later, and for ever, the feet you love must walk in paths of flame!" from Art's perspective van Helsing just said 'we have to break in to your fiance's grave or she's going to hell' for no reason, no wonder he warns him

WHEN HE THINKS SHE WAS BURIED ALIVE. Arrrrrrrrttttt

"May I cut off the head of dead Miss Lucy?" VAN HELSING PLEASE

"I shall not give my consent to anything you do! I have a duty to do in protecting her grave from outrage; and, by God, I shall do it!"" auugh I love Arthur shouting at van Helsing so much. He is so protective and he loves her so much and, I dunno, it's good to hear him not holding himself back for a moment

poor van Helsing listening to this though. Definitely feels like another moment when he feels especially paternal to Arthur, and being shouted at like this when he's trying so hard hurts him. I love his delivery and how sad and determined he is

he DID give so much to Lucy. he did all he could and he is still doing all he can for her

the way Jack's voice goes quiet when he is describing Arthur in the tomb. also Art's moment of fury when he sees the already-damaged lead coffin, but he sets it aside because he believes they care deeply and mean no harm

Quincey always asking the real questions.

Jack's hoarse voice when he says "Yes" to Lucy being in the grave before

The palpable, almost physical "Ohh but it was seemed fresh and pure" when they step outside

Jack: Arthur was thinking it over. I was tempted to believe. Quincey was so brave and manly with his tobacco and his phlegmatic disposition.

the mental image of all the suitors just standing there tilting their heads confusedly as van Helsing sticks his Host playdoh into the doorframe, working his way around. I imagine it took a few minutes. no mention of them helping.

faraway howling of dogs! Lucy is moving out there somewhere... also I love the sound of them

the way Jack says "a big, aching void" is sooo good. a small moment but so evocative

oh god the kid's whimpers make it so much worse

the way he repeats "Lucy Westenra"...

Art nearly collapsing at the sight of her bloody mouth. THE POOR MAN

oh the disgust when Jack says "the thing that was before us", as well as his voice shaking on "unclean" and when he gets to "hate and loathing" he is so utterly disgusted by her

I love her hissed breath

"There was a cold-bloodedness in the act which wrung a groan from Arthur; when she advanced to him with outstretched arms and a wanton smile he fell back and hid his face in his hands." POOR ART

oh damn, she sounds so sweet and gentle and deeply dangerous when she talks to Arthur. I absolutely love that delivery, you can hear echoes of the way Lucy spoke but it's not the same

god poor art. this is horrible horrible horrible

"We all looked on in horrified amazement as we saw, when he stood back, the woman, with a corporeal body as real at that moment as our own, pass in through the interstice where scarce a knife-blade could have gone." yet again wishing for a good animated adaptation of Dracula. It would just look silly in live action but you could do some really cool perspective/animation of this

the little shake on "we tried to cheer each other on the way" :( :( :(

"Arthur trembling like an aspen" once again I love how expressive he is physically. he feels emotions strongly and he shows them!

BRACING myself for the soundscaping of the staking, by the way

so much disgust whenever Jack describes her

the rustling/clinking/etc of van Helsing's vampire killing kit is so good. I also totally get why Art and Quincey feel distressed watching him pull this all out.

I love that he calls it "the curse of immortality"

"We all looked at Arthur." OOOF.

the music here is excellent

aghhh her faint screams. the music building. Jack's voice getting louder and fiercer, it's so intense

oh I wish there was a hammer falling sound

oh Art.... :(

the soft, soft way Jack describes her this time

Art you do not need to be forgiven.

"He put his hands on the Professor's shoulder, and laying his head on his breast, cried for a while silently, whilst we stood unmoving." WHY IS NO ONE HUGGING HIM (but yes art. cry all you need.)

why do art's sad smooch noises get to me every timmmmmme

the birds and music and Jack's voice on "the air was sweet" SO good and evocative and again you could do so much with the color palette of this vs the tomb/night in an animated version. film too but even more animation

~handshakes of vampire-hunting friendship~

"what is to do and to dread" the use of alliteration is so good in this line. especially with van Helsing's accent, it sounds so good

"The Professor was delighted." The Mina Effect strikes again

the importance of the documents!!

ohh the smile in his voice when he greets Mina.

"her luggage, which included a typewriter" the slight incredulity is lovely. hehehehehe

"She does not know how precious time is, or what a task we have in hand. I must be careful not to frighten her." buddy YOU are the one who doesn't know. well, okay, you know some of it but she definitely knows the rest

Mina immediately nerding out over the phonograph <3

It's nice to hear slightly awkward but fond Jack voice again. He's so charmed by her immediately. And so stumbling/awkward, and his voice is so much brighter than it has been

"But do you know that, although I have kept the diary for months past, it never once struck me how I was going to find any particular part of it in case I wanted to look it up?" JACK. Why are you only just realizing this???? Have you never once tried to review any of the case notes you've been recording in here? I can get not listening to the Lucy diaries, but...

I feel like there might be something to be said about Mina repeatedly emphasizing that these men do not know her, until she gives them the diaries to read. Especially going hand in hand with "I love you therefore he loves you" and Jack's response to Mina that he knows her now/should know her from Lucy

Ohh, the way he gets jealous of Mina's crying and letting her emotions out. Definitely feels like this is tied up in his ideas of gender but I wish he would allow himself to cry properly. Learn from Art. Heck, cry with Art.

Mina's little sniffles are so good. And her immediate protectiveness of Jack is SO sweet. Even as she makes him face that they must share his thoughts she will keep his voice hidden.

Mina was crying like that just from listening until 7 September (the first transfusion). Poor dear, she's still in for a terrible ride.

The two of them sitting back to back learning of one another's pain...

I love his little gasped "good lord!" as he gets her brandy

And then she dives STRAIGHT IN to writing it all out. God, Mina's so brave and goes straight to work every time. And makes important connections immediately, like now with the papers!

Jonathan ON the boxes! He is also making important connections and diving right in to work.

"Everything had been carefully thought out, and done systematically and with precision. He seemed to have been prepared for every obstacle which might be placed by accident in the way of his intentions being carried out." The little shiver to his voice.... gahhh

But Dracula's precision means that if you know what he is doing then at least you can predict where he will be/what he's up to. So there's at least a bit of an upside.

~*~BRIBERY~*~ and also such poor thirsty men again. hehehehe I love Jonathan's jokes about it

[arbitrarity]

I'm intrigued by so many people interpreting that Lucy being bitten & dying while sleepwalking/in a trance is the reason she is biting kids and if she'd died as herself she would be a sweetheart as a vampire.

I interpret it as the exact opposite! the only reason she's not full-on evil, is still sort of in a trance while undead, looks soft and sweet in her coffin is because of the trance state - while if she had died while awake, she would have died completely and be full vampire, evil-faced and >:€ in her coffin like Drac was. Van Helsing hoped for her to die asleep and is attributing her lack of evil to that

[5-turtleducks-in-a-trenchcoat]

Happy Halloween! 

I finally drew some Dracula fanart in honour of today.                                          It’s weird to think that the entire thing with Vampire!Lucy happened only about a month ago. For some reason it feels much longer to me.

[luciferpanini]

i call this the sex miku polycule.

[robdogdraws]

she's mocking you 🧛‍♀️

[venusbyline]

i can fix them (but i kinda prefer them crazy lool)

[mustlovesteve]

I loved the first commission so much, I couldn't resist ordering another one as a parallel of sorts! This lovely drawing is by @toktopus-art. It's based on a scene from Chapter 26 of my vamp!Eddie/Steve-gets-Vecna'd fic, laughing at the broken glass.

Scene excerpt is below, and the AO3 link to the fic is on my pinned post.

Steve wished they could just stay like this, but there were only two more songs left on this A-side. “Hey, can I see your bracelet?” Eddie asked. If not for his all-too-casual tone, Steve wouldn’t have suspected anything. “Pulling out all the stops, huh?” Steve asked wryly. Eddie flashed a shameless grin at him. Chuckling, Steve tugged his sleeve down before lifting up his wrist. To his pleasant surprise, the glow-in-the-dark effect was actually noticeable. Eddie took a moment to share in the admiration of the bracelet before grabbing Steve’s hand and tugging it down. “This is better, yeah?” Eddie asked. “Huh?” Steve turned to look at him again, but Eddie was staring straight up at the sky. “Than just sitting in your car in the freezing cold by yourself, I mean.” “I had Freddie Mercury with me.” “I’m serious.” Eddie finally turned his head to face Steve again. His expression certainly matched his words. Steve couldn’t help but tense up at the shift in tone, though he was swiftly eased by the way Eddie’s thumb brushed across his knuckles. “I...hate that you even have to ask.” Steve managed to smile, even though Eddie frowned at that. “Yeah, this is better.” One song left. It wasn’t fair.

[daemonologist]

reading Dracula has permanently altered my brain. i can never see count dracula as a generic character anymore. he isn't an ooky spooky horror monster he's the old bitch that imprisoned my boy johnny in his shitass castle and killed my beloved lucy and quincey. abraham van helsing isn't synonymous with badass monster hunters he's a 50-year-old dutch doctor who talks funny. i see things and think oh wow this is just like my favorite characters from my book that was written 126 years ago.

[hypnoticvamp]

Lucy Westenra (Sadie Frost) and Mina Murray (Winona Ryder)

Bram Stoker’s Dracula (1992)

[vickyvicarious]

It looks to me like Jack began feeling distanced from Lucy even before he looked at her tomb to find her (unbeknownst to him) as a vampire. His descriptions of her were kinda getting cold and clinical while she was dying and becoming halfway through vampiric...

Yes, I agre there's a bit of a pattern there! I actually collected a bunch of moments of it happening earlier, but they're together with a very spoilery post. Here, I'll copy/paste the Lucy ones below for people who don't want the spoilers.

There on the bed, seemingly in a swoon, lay poor Lucy, more horribly white and wan-looking than ever. Even the lips were white, and the gums seemed to have shrunken back from the teeth, as we sometimes see in a corpse after a prolonged illness. Van Helsing raised his foot to stamp in anger, but the instinct of his life and all the long years of habit stood to him, and he put it down again softly. “Quick!” he said. “Bring the brandy.” I flew to the dining-room, and returned with the decanter. He wetted the poor white lips with it, and together we rubbed palm and wrist and heart. He felt her heart, and after a few moments of agonising suspense said:— “It is not too late.”

I find Jack’s sudden detachment in this scene so interesting. I think he might have done this before to an extent, describing physical symptoms almost as a separate phenomenon rather than a part of the person. He certainly spoke of Lucy rather formally in some medical contexts (“Patient improved” etc.). But it’s especially striking here how quickly he goes from humanizing language to speaking about her almost as an object. It happens right when he describes her lips and teeth - which holds a lot of significance vampirically.

Jack obviously isn’t looking at Lucy thinking she’s a vampire. But he outright says that the look of her teeth/gums reminds him of a corpse. She looks dead. And seeing that, he describes her more clinically, seeking to distance himself emotionally from the sight. He can’t completely do it (that’s how we get “the poor white lips”, still sympathetic) but it’s not until he gets to Lucy’s heart - and how it is still beating - that he returns to saying “her”.

I found several more instances of this happening with Lucy as well, including what seems like a trend almost of Jack starting to key in to her more vampiric moments over time.

On 18 September, only briefly:

Whilst asleep she looked stronger, although more haggard, and her breathing was softer; her open mouth showed the pale gums drawn back from the teeth, which thus looked positively longer and sharper than usual; when she woke the softness of her eyes evidently changed the expression, for she looked her own self, although a dying one.

Then as she is dying on the 20th it happens more, and specifically in multiple instances when she was more vampiric:

Lucy was breathing somewhat stertorously, and her face was at its worst, for the open mouth showed the pale gums. Her teeth, in the dim, uncertain light, seemed longer and sharper than they had been in the morning. In particular, by some trick of the light, the canine teeth looked longer and sharper than the rest. I sat down by her, and presently she moved uneasily. […] And then insensibly there came the strange change which I had noticed in the night. Her breathing grew stertorous, the mouth opened, and the pale gums, drawn back, made the teeth look longer and sharper than ever. […] I kept my eyes fixed on Lucy, as did Van Helsing, and we saw a spasm as of rage flit like a shadow over her face; the sharp teeth champed together. Then her eyes closed, and she breathed heavily.

When he visits her grave with van Helsing on the 27th he starts by talking about her emotionally then cutting off when he gets to her lips, and after that point doesn’t describe her corpse with humanizing language at all for the rest of that entry:

She was, if possible, more radiantly beautiful than ever; and I could not believe that she was dead. The lips were red, nay redder than before; and on the cheeks was a delicate bloom. […] “Are you convinced now?” said the Professor in response, and as he spoke he put over his hand, and in a way that made me shudder, pulled back the dead lips and showed the white teeth. “See,” he went on, “see, they are even sharper than before. With this and this"—and he touched one of the canine teeth and that below it—” […] He was looking intently at the face of the dead woman, raising the eyelids and looking at the eyes, and once more opening the lips and examining the teeth.

And by 29 September, after seeing her in action he speaks of her pretty firmly as a thing, at least until Arthur has finished staking her:

Then she turned, and her face was shown in the clear burst of moonlight and by the lamp, which had now no quiver from Van Helsing’s iron nerves. Never did I see such baffled malice on a face; and never, I trust, shall such ever be seen again by mortal eyes. The beautiful colour became livid, the eyes seemed to throw out sparks of hell-fire, the brows were wrinkled as though the folds of the flesh were the coils of Medusa’s snakes, and the lovely, blood-stained mouth grew to an open square, as in the passion masks of the Greeks and Japanese. If ever a face meant death—if looks could kill—we saw it at that moment. […] She seemed like a nightmare of Lucy as she lay there; the pointed teeth, the bloodstained, voluptuous mouth—which it made one shudder to see—the whole carnal and unspiritual appearance, seeming like a devilish mockery of Lucy’s sweet purity. […] The Thing in the coffin writhed; and a hideous, blood-curdling screech came from the opened red lips. The body shook and quivered and twisted in wild contortions; the sharp white teeth champed together till the lips were cut, and the mouth was smeared with a crimson foam. […] And then the writhing and quivering of the body became less, and the teeth seemed to champ, and the face to quiver. Finally it lay still. […] There, in the coffin lay no longer the foul Thing that we had so dreaded and grown to hate that the work of her destruction was yielded as a privilege to the one best entitled to it, but Lucy as we had seen her in her life, with her face of unequalled sweetness and purity.

Even if he doesn't realize what he's doing, it feels like it happens enough to say there's something there. Him sensing the change and not liking it, without realizing at first why.

[lelif]

faithful and virtuous night, louise glück// ?//-// vampire empire, big thief// night shift, lucy dacus// me & my dog, boygenius// ?// ?

[arbitrarity]

so we get out first glimpse into the fact that being turned changes who you are

In a sort of sleep-waking, vague, unconscious way she opened her eyes, which were now dull and hard at once, and said in a soft, voluptuous voice, such as I had never heard from her lips:—

"Arthur! Oh, my love, I am so glad you have come! Kiss me!" 

Lucy speaks in a different voice that what she usually sounds like, and uses that classic coquettish vampire voice to try to snag a slurp of Arthur, twisting the same words she just spoke lovingly into a horrific trap

and we saw a spasm as of rage flit like a shadow over her face; the sharp teeth champed together

it feel extremely unlike Lucy to rage out when she doesn't get her way. and we can see that even between moments, Lucy is aware that this new behaviour is NOT what she herself wants

she opened her eyes in all their softness, and putting out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown one; drawing it to her, she kissed it. "My true friend," she said, in a faint voice, but with untellable pathos, "My true friend, and his! Oh, guard him, and give me peace!"

she thanks Van Helsing for preventing Arthur from getting hurt by her, making it clear that the soft soul in her is still fighting the vampire part. it seems that the vamp she becomes is unlikely to be the real her

and I'm not even going to comment on that last line there.........

[zephyrchama]

Vampire MC part I - with Lucifer heads up - this is pretty suggestive

(intro can be found here)

"How long did you intend to keep me waiting?"

Though the lights were off and the room was dark, you could clearly see Lucifer sitting up in bed. His deep voice was deeper than usual, tinged with grogginess. You wavered by the doorway, unsure if you were still invited in. He sighed and leaned his head back against the headboard.

"I told you hours ago to come to me if you had any problems. Don't be so distant and get over here."

It lifted your spirits to slide under the blankets next to Lucifer. Already, you felt a little more normal. Everything was tinged with the scent of his usual cologne. His bed had so much space and you were content with just being in the same room, no longer alone, but the sleepy demon soon tugged you into his embrace. He sighed contentedly into your hair, settling his head into the pillows with an arm around you.

With his chest in front of your nose, his scent flooded your mind. Under the cologne there was a muskier, heartier smell that made your mouth go dry. Your breathing slowed, not out of exhaustion but hunger, and with each new breath it got harder and harder to fall asleep.

"Lucifer, are you awake?" you whispered.

"Mm." He emitted a barely audible low rumble but didn't actually seem awake. He never mentioned that sleep evaded him for the entire month you were away. You wondered if you could wait until morning.

Was that wooshing noise the sound of your own blood, or Lucifer's? All of these new senses were so foreign. You lifted your chin to graze your lips under his collarbone. The contact made your fangs ache. He felt warm. If you dragged your teeth over his soft skin, lightly nipping at the surface, could you continue to hold back?

The more you allowed yourself to do, the more you started slipping, lightly tracing your teeth over where you felt a vein could be and pressing the edges of your fangs into him. You wanted more. With a light moan, a grip on your hair began to tighten. Lucifer guided your head properly to his neck and murmured, "quit being a tease."

Starving, you lurched forward and gasped and properly sunk your teeth into the offered skin. Lucifer groaned quietly as you melted into his embrace. The closer you pressed against him, the easier it got to access your snack. He dug the tips of his nails into your scalp. The fresh, warm taste of Lucifer's blood trickling down your throat was more satisfying than any late night treat.

The two of you stayed like that. With a fully content stomach, your eyes grew heavy and you dozed off into your first comfortable sleep since the transformation.

Lucifer would make sure you didn't oversleep. He always emphasized that timing was important. He'd be sure to rouse you in the early hours of the morning, before anyone else was awake. He loomed over your resting form in the dark on his hands and knees, ready to take his compensation.

[wanna-b-poet31]

I think it’s fascinating that the original horror of dracula is kinda lost on us because our cultural well has been poisoned. I don’t know any 6-year olds who can’t tell you vampires are EVIL or are unfamiliar with the name dracula.  Reading the first chapter and seeing Johnathan, our beloved, think about asking his new friend COUNT DRACULA for help is comedic! Of course he’s walking into danger. We’re genre aware. 

However, also while doing dracula daily, there’s a new kind of horror. Both the prolonged no knowing when the next entry will drop but the sadness and horror of having to sit with the characters and wanting so desperately to give our heroes a metaphorical rosaries to protect them. We know this is a sinking ship full of vampires, we know how dangerous the situation is, how woefully unprepared everyone else is.

Which brings me back to how the dynamic has shifted, and I think unexpectedly so. Originally, dracula’s horror comes from the audience being basically London. He is scary because it’s unnerving to discover what new and terrible calamity is coming. What new powers and murderous feeding will come next? Who exactly are we locked in this room with? Will we make it out alive? But now, the horror stems from the audience being the Transylvanians, desperately longing to catch Jonathan before he gets to the carriage, begging him to turn back now. We are condemned to watch the ship as everyone gets picked off one by one. It’s a different but equally visceral kind of horrorshow. 

[weemssgf]

[thediablerist]

https://pin.it/3PZTuRUV9.