#dracula is Spirit obviously

[a-gaime]

More mh soul eater stuff

Catty is Blair and Victor Frankenstein is um Dr Stein!!! Shocking ik

Draculaura: wait... Frankie Stein... Dr Frankenstein

Draculaura: are you two?

Victor: NO RELATION! also I'm not a doctor

Draculaura: WHAT

Victor: how single is your dad?

Draculaura: WHAT

[see-arcane]

One last thing I’ve been poking at today regarding the issue of the letters. A small glimmer of something other than miserable to take away. 

It’s not a whole silver lining. A copper one at best, and barely there. But the fact of Jonathan’s cleverness with this attempt at sending out a message and the shorthand itself was a small victory.

The big spotlight is on all the defeats in this entry. The foiled attempt at sending private messages. The ruined hope that Jonathan can rely on his fellow human beings for help. The mockery and crushing of spirit in the burned letter to Mina along with being forced to reseal Hawkins’ now-pointless note and being locked in the room for misbehaving. It’s nothing but endless salt in too many wounds. Jonathan is in no state to harvest anything but despondency from the night’s display.

But.

There is something here that is worth noting. And that’s Dracula’s reaction to that shorthand note itself. What are the exact words? The exact actions?

“--one is from you, and to my friend Peter Hawkins; the other"—here he caught sight of the strange symbols as he opened the envelope, and the dark look came into his face, and his eyes blazed wickedly—"the other is a vile thing, an outrage upon friendship and hospitality! It is not signed. Well! so it cannot matter to us." And he calmly held letter and envelope in the flame of the lamp till they were consumed.

Now obviously, the whole show of waving the letters in Jonathan’s face was a sadistic power play. Just proof positive of his influence and Jonathan’s uninterrupted helplessness, plus an extra dash of renewed hopelessness. All good fun. Right up until he opens the shorthand letter and sees those strange symbols. He doesn’t laugh. Doesn’t feign being puzzled by a stranger’s letter--so it must be!--getting in with Jonathan’s letter to Hawkins.

Just like the moment with the mirror and the bloody cut, just like the surprise of the ladies moving in on Jonathan without permission, Dracula is confronted by something that makes a big ugly crack in the careful masquerade he’s been enjoying so far. He likes this game. He likes being literal king of the castle and playing the host and pulling Jonathan’s spirit apart like so many loose unhappy threads. Most importantly, he likes being the one holding all the cards. All the information. We’ll see later in the book just how well others’ ignorance is used as a cudgel to beat any of his would-be obstacles into paste.

But now, here’s the shorthand. A thing Jonathan knows and he does not.

And Dracula is trapped by the performance. The letter’s already assigned as a prop, a stranger’s note, it cannot matter to them, Jonathan’s letters are sacred to him, blah blah. But if the shorthand is a stranger’s, he can’t even wheedle Jonathan to divulge it for him. So it’s stuck as a surprise mystery. Small as it is, ultimately futile as it is, it’s still A Thing Dracula Did Not Plan. A Thing Dracula Does Not Know. A Card Dracula Does Not Hold.

And Count Dracula, as will be revealed, is many things in addition to being a monster: including an utter control freak. Classic gothic edition mastermind. Every t crossed, every i dotted, every detail and solicitor in their proper place. Now here’s his pet-guest-prisoner not only doing a no-no by trying to reach out to others behind his back, but flaunting some 19th century secret cipher right under his nose! The nerve! Granted, he did tear open the letter to snoop on it, but such trifles don’t matter here. 

What matters is Dracula’s reaction being one that briefly breaks through the guise of the game. A genuine sour note that nettles him into burning the letter outright with a sneer and then, happily, steering immediately back on track with Hawkins’ letter and Jonathan’s timeout. Again, it’s a small thing. A mere mote.

But I’d bet money that part of Dracula’s ‘many labors’ ahead of him now include an almost petulant scrounging through his books for any mention of those odd symbols so he can snap it up too. Research he must do alone, at a loss, because Jonathan unwittingly arranged his writing in such a way that it endangers the Count’s game if the latter has to admit the writing was Jonathan’s after all. So he’s left to huff and puff over it in private. Because all the information under this roof is supposed to be his, damn it. 

And Jonathan, trapped and cornered and bereft prisoner that he is, proved that it isn’t.

[ibrithir-was-here]

What were interactions between toddler and/or kid Quincey and his Father like? i imagine the Count spent at least some one-on-one time with his little diavol

Oooh he was all about this unholy child-thing,born with fangs, hungring for blood from birth. The child can grow and learn and walk the day without loosing strength, this is the most interesting thing that’s happened to him in ages! And the chance for moulding this new kind of creature from birth in his image almost makes up for all the inconvenience he’s had to suffer since his aborted move to England. It’s certainly a delightfully entertaining new way to keep his two new acquisitions in line.

He’d never had an heir, one doesn’t need children to carry on a legacy when one plans to live forever. But it’s been so long since any of his possessions really interested him to this degree, and he finds he’s rather thrilled to take on the title of ‘Father’.

He’s more than happy to let Jonathan and Mina deal with all the actual parenting parts though,. Childcare is for women and vassals, babies are loud and messy and he has far more important things to do, like standing menacingly on a turret plotting future conquests and remembering the glory days.

But he always makes time to take the child under his wing and teach him his Lessons. Like the glorious history of his house, the proper way to introduce one’s self in company to put them at ease so as to better needle out their weaknesses, the best way to break an enemy’s spirit. True the boy seems to have a soft heart now, no doubt due to his Papa’s meddlesome influence, but Dracula knew from the first time the days old infant bite at him, searching for blood, that he’d found a whole new means of immortality

Also Doodling/writing all this reminded me of a certain conversation over on Discord about Dracula wanting to preen just a little too much one night…

(Obviously Jonno does survive but this incident is yet another reason that Quincey getting careless when those teenage growth spurts hit really freaks Mina out)

Also if you want some really great Dracula interactions with young Quincey in the Blood of my Blood AU please go read @pinkninjapj ‘s excellent fics

"Lessons"

"Love is Loyalty"

Honestly go read all their stuff it’s sooo goood and delightfully creepy, they were very influential in creating the dynamic between Quincey and the Count in this

Edit: Been pointed out that I should make clear that Quincey here is still only Jonathan and Mina's son. He's only a vampire because Mina got bit while carrying him. Dracula is in no way his bio dad--he's just the guy who decided to try and steal the title :p

[vickyvicarious]

Van Helsing: "To begin, have you ever study the philosophy of crime? 'Yes' and 'No.' You, John, yes; for it is a study of insanity. You, no, Madam Mina; for crime touch you not—not but once."

Two minutes later, Mina: "The Count is a criminal and of criminal type. Nordau and Lombroso would so classify him, and quâ criminal he is of imperfectly formed mind..."

I know Van Helsing was deliberately trying to get Mina involved here (and take advantage of her excitement to check her pulse etc.) but it's kind of funny how she almost immediately proves her own understanding of the current criminal philosophy, namedropping specific people and everything. She's obviously been studying it before for her own interests; meanwhile Jack just listens in silence and contributes nothing, probably because this is not something he has studied much himself. Van Helsing's question was clearly something he answered himself without giving them much chance to respond, or they would have been the opposite.

It's similar as well to this scene from the same entry:

Van Helsing, talking to Jack: "In the trance of three days ago the Count sent her his spirit to read her mind; or more like he took her to see him in his earth-box in the ship with water rushing, just as it go free at rise and set of sun. He learn then that we are here; for she have more to tell in her open life with eyes to see and ears to hear than he, shut, as he is, in his coffin-box. Now he make his most effort to escape us. At present he want her not. [...] Here comes Madam Mina; not a word to her of her trance! She know it not; and it would overwhelm her and make despair just when we want all her hope, all her courage..."

Five minutes later, Mina: "So his own selfishness frees my soul somewhat from the terrible power which he acquired over me on that dreadful night. I felt it! Oh, I felt it! Thank God, for His great mercy! My soul is freer than it has been since that awful hour; and all that haunts me is a fear lest in some trance or dream he may have used my knowledge for his ends."

Once again, his assessment of Mina is off in a pretty dramatic way. She already realizes that Dracula may have used her knowledge against the group, and isn't as unawares as he expects. She's also not beaten down into despair by the idea. Sure, he speaks up right away to reassure her that all hope isn't lost because of this, but even before that Mina wasn't despairing. She worried of course but was excited to be free again and to be able to offer her help now - and is already doing so in tangible and important ways with the train schedule knowledge.

[chemicallywrit]

Audio Drama Sunday!!!

Again this is far from comprehensive because I am a feral podcast monster, but here’s what stuck out to me this week! Mostly spoiler-free, unless you count vibes as spoilers!

🗡️ Cry Havoc! Ask Questions Later managed to have a happy? Ending? Honestly the way it managed to be a hilarious historical sitcom with an ending that chilling was MASTERFUL. Great job writers, y’all are fantastic. It is obviously not absolutely true to what we know about Roman history, but it is true to the spirit of it in a way that’s really satisfying for me personally.

🦀 @thesiltverses oh MAN. The way this story says again and again that you cannot earn your way out of being trampled by a system that doesn’t care about you hits every. Single. Time. And what are you going to do, try to remake that system? There are always going to be people who can’t handle that and fight against you, to their own detriment. This story is fantastical and exaggerated, but it’s always so real at the same time.

👁️ @hellofromthehallowoods is trying to kill me, straight up. I have no idea what Halloween will bring for this show and i’m dying. It’s very difficult to predict storylines on Hallowoods and that’s something I love about it. Will this pair break up? Will this pair die for their cause? Will this pair find each other again, even through death? Shoutout to the great guests this episode, I always enjoy seeing who Mx Wellman invites into the world.

🔎 @knovesstorytelling okay look, y’all, I have never read Northanger Abbey, so I don’t know why Kit’s being told to pack her bags and get out, and I am so UPSET. What’s going on????

📉 Within the Wires is back!! And my WORD, the juxtaposition of this season being motivational tapes while listening to the current season of The Dream about life coaches?? I am transfixed and horrified, let’s GO.

🎟️ @longcatmedia Mockery Manor. I love these clowns so much. I love that Bette is really smart and really dumb at the same time. Everyone’s acting is top notch, but I’m especially a fan of Karim Kronfli in this show. Everyone knows he’s got the range, but it’s so fun listening to him be this fussy little guy.

👻 One of the shows I’ve been catching up on is Ghosts in the Burbs, a deceptively spooky and delightfully witty single-narrator ghost show. I’m listening through the Lilith arc and….woof. WOOF. I know how it ends and it’s still terrifying.

🩸 IT’S HEMOPHOBIA DAY, omg, everyone please check out Hemophobia, I am so excited for Hemophobia. It’s sitting in my queue staring at me with that creepy-ass logo art. I’ve talked with CSW about this show and heard the trailer—religious trauma horror with amazing sound design and an amazing cast??? You kidding???? I am drooling over here. Join me, won’t you?

🧟‍♀️ This week is also the premier of The Dead! As soon as that feed appears I’ll be putting it everywhere, and I’m so excited to show everyone the first series. You’ve heard of snakes on a plane….

💐 On my end, as Re: Dracula continues its march to the finale, this week I find myself recording Inn Between and The Dead. I am still trying to make rent ahead of my new job’s first paycheck, so if you liked this post or the other things I do, would you consider sending me a ko-fi?

Now if you’ll excuse me, I will be listening to Hemophobia very quietly and very scared by myself in the dark. Until next week!

[atundratoadstool]

Very important question, my friend visited Hungary and brought me some paprika (both sweet and hot). Obviously now I have to make the paprika chicken, but what would be the recipe closest to the one Stoker describes?

This has been sitting around in my inbox forever, and I hope you've managed to find a recipe to your liking in the meantime--particularly as my advice on the topic probably isn't all that stellar.

Stoker's knowledge of paprika chicken came from his sources on the topic (all of which should be noted tend to be inaccurate and condescending as regards the regions they describe), and we can get a rough idea of what he was envisioning pretty readily. Of the sources he listed that mention the dish, he took his notes for the novel from Andrew Crosse's Round About the Carpathians (cw: slur on linked page), but Crosse doesn't give us much more information than "chicken with red pepper." Nina Mazuchelli's Maygarland elaborates a little more by telling us how "a fowl that, in blissful unconsciousness of the immediate future, has been picking up the crumbs that fell from the traveller's table as he partook his first course, may, at his last, appear in the form of a hasty stew, thickened with red pepper." E. C. Johnson's On the Track of the Crescent probably gives us the most description of any of the books we know Stoker accessed, stating that paprikas csirke "is prepared by giving some ancient chanticleer the 'happy despatch,' cutting his remains to small pieces, and putting them into water, in company with flour, cream, butter, and a great deal of paprika or red pepper." Consistently, we can see that writers with whom Stoker was familiar are describing a chicken dish featuring some manner of thick paprika-based sauce, which is in keeping with most paprikash recipes I've encountered.

I, however, have always used variants on Leonard Wolf's recipe, which he included amidst his various other incredibly zany footnotes in the 1975 Essential Dracula (I tend to omit the tomato and add a touch more sour cream though).

PAPRIKA CHICKEN (Paprika Hendl) 1 young fowl (about 4 pounds); 2 tablespoons fat; 2 large onions, chopped; 2 tablespoons Hungarian sweet paprika; 1/2 cup tomato juice; 2 tablespoons flour; 1/2 cup sour cream. Cut chicken into service pieces, and salt. Lightly brown onions in fat. Blend in half the paprika. Add tomato juice and chicken. Simmer, covered, 1 hour or until tender. Remove chicken. Add remaining paprika to sauce, then add the flour beaten into sour cream. Simmer, stirring, 5 minutes or until well blended. Put sauce through sieve, food mill, or blender. Heat chicken and pureed sauce together over a low flame. Arrange chicken on warm platter. Pour half the sauce over; pass the rest separately in a sauceboat.

I will in no way vouch for its authenticity, but I feel that even were it not terribly Stoker-accurate it meshes pretty well with Dracula fandom in spirit, having been connected to the novel by the annotator who also tried to recreate the vampiresses blood sucking noises with his own mouth and had an undergraduate student pretend to be Seward and demo cutting through an iron bar with a medical saw.

[ashes-in-a-jar]

In my head, you’re a Magnus Archives blog. I mean, I know you obviously listen to other things, but In my mind it’s things like Welcome to Nightvale, Malevolent, Hello from the Hallowoods, The Sheridan Tapes, things like that, horror and supernatural.

So I had to do a double-take when I saw a Dungeons and Daddies post from you, I really didn’t know you listened to it. Then I see you reblog a Fawx and Stallion post, and now I’m just wondering how many podcasts you’ve listened to that I’ve also listened to.

Hahaha yes this blog has been mainly for tma stuff for years now, I still feel like I'm new to the fandom but honestly I've been here through a lot of it since the beginning of season 5

Buuuuut in the past few months I've stopped going into the tma tag regularly and been feeling a little detached from it, at least as opposed to before. My listen to tmagp has been way less interactive and I hardly reblog content anymore (which is something I like doing but because of various bad experiences on the internet recently I have yet to recover from I feel safer posting my own original posts rather than reblogging)

And that freed up a space in my mind to realize I've actually been listening to a lot of podcasts besides tma and it's honestly a shame not to talk about them more with others

I do listen to a lot of horror fantasy supernatural and science fiction podcasts! I also love a lot of dnd and ttrpg podcasts, I also love everything dropout and wish I could get into critical role but it's so big I don't think I'll manage it

I put under the cut a (quite long) list of the podcasts I have listened to and/or have notifications turned on

Anyone following me, you're welcome to send me an ask about one of them if you like them as well or want to hear about them!

I also put a list of podcasts on my to listen to list. Feel free to drop a recommendation for which them to listen to first!

-------------

Podcasts I'm caught up on (the lists are long so it's alphabetical without "the")

Ongoing podcasts

The Amelia project

Ask your father

A voice from darkness

Black box

Brimstone valley mall

Camlann

The cellar letters

Death by dying

Derelict

Eeler's choice

Ethics town

Fawx and stallion

Hello from the Hallowoods

The hundred handed

Levian

Lost terminal

The Magnus protocol

Malevolent

Midnight burger

The mistholme museum of mystery morbidity and mortality

Neon inkwell

New years day

Not quite dead

Old gods of Appalachia

The penumbra podcast

The program

Red valley

The Sheridan Tapes

The silt verses

The sound museum

Super suits

Tell no tales

Tiny terrors

Traveling light

Unseen

The vesta clinic

Victoriocity

The white vault

Completed podcasts

Absolutely no adventures

Archive 81

Borrasca

The bright sessions

Camp here and there

Descendants

Give me away

I am in eskew

Monstrous agonies

Parkdale haunt

The Magnus archives

Re: dracula

The secret of st kilda

Spirit box radio

Steal the stars

Time:bombs

We know none

Wolf 359

Wooden overcoats

Ttrpgs

The adventure zone

Campaign skyjacks

Chapter and multiverse

Dark dice

Dice shame

Dimension 20 (not a podcast but I listen to it like one)

Dungeons and daddies

Not another d&d podcast

Rusty Quill gaming

Worlds beyond number

Podcast on my listen next list:

The Alexandria archives

Alice isn't dead

Ars paradoxica

Believer

The Black tapes

Blackwood

The box

The bridge

Carrier

Counterbalance

The cryptid keeper

Darkest night

The darkroom

The dark tome

The deca tapes

The deep vault

Dreamboy (this one is nsfw so it makes me nervous lol)

Duggan Hill

The earth collective

Either

The far meridian

The fountain road files

The glass canon

Jar of rebuke

Kings fall am (I started but heard not great things about it)

Knifepoint horror

Kollok 1991

Less is morgue

The leviathan chronicles

Liberty

Limetown

The lost cat

Mabel

Maeltopia

Marscorp

Mirrors

Mockery manor

Next stop

The no sleep podcast

The orphans

The Orpheus protocol

Out of place

Paired

Palimpsest

The phone booth

Point mystic

Pseudopod

Rabbits

The right left game

Shadows at the door

Spines

Stellar firma

The storage papers

Stories from among the stars

Super ordinary

Superstition

Tanis

Tides

Unwell

Vast horizon

Victoria's lift

Video palace

Welcome to night Vale (I listen to this one very sporadically lol)

We're alive

Within the wires

Woe begone (I started but got stuck on episode 20ish but want to continue)

Wrong station

Ttrpgs

BomBARDded

Critical role (it's sooo long tho)

Dames and dragons

Dragon friends

Join the party

The lucky die

Queens of adventure

Realms of pearl and glory

Rude tales of magic

Skyjacks courier call

Three black halflings

[livefromcastledracula]

Odd thought, but what's your personal take on the vampiric weakness towards religious objects and places? Now obviously the myths, legends and folklore where our modern concept of a "vampire" originated, as well as the literary works that would popularize them in pop culture originated in deeply Christian Europe.

However distancing a bit from that context, I kinda like the idea that vampires as a rule are repelled by ANY religious object and place of worship backed with legitimate faith and belief. Could probably lead to a quite comedic scene where a Theistic Satanist of all things manages to have a better time warding off a vampire than a con man televangelist who doesn't actually believe a word he's saying.

There's a fair bit of debate about the cross thing, and I think it's important to separate the crucifix/cross repelling vampires in mythology and folklore from the depiction in pop culture.

Because pop culture vampires and folkloric vampires are quite different beasts, most of the time, and the underlying intent is different. And yes, pop culture does often query the "is it the power of the symbol or the power of the faith" and come up with different answers - the Netflix Dracula series as an example makes a big plot point out of this.

For Stoker, I think, his vampires are specifically demonic. They are not so much just the person they were in life but with fangs and blood hunger, they are a ravenous unclean spirit posessing the person's corpse - this is why Vampire Lucy is such a 180 from the sweetheart we knew her as - so the repulsion of the crucifix comes from that good vs evil thing.

And it's worth noting that whilst Jonathan is a Christian, he's Church of England and 'regards such things (as carrying crucifixes and rosaries) as in some measure idolatrous'. But the symbol still works for him, so it's possible that either his baseline Christianity still empowered it, Stoker (a Catholic definitely not a Catholic, my bad, but that makes this more interesting to me) was implying that Jonathan was wrong and the symbol DOES have power, or...the repulsion wasn't about the symbol or the wielder, but was on Dracula's end. Because there's also the argument that perhaps the vampires repelled by religious imagery, many of them (like Carmilla and Dracula) being themselves from that Christian old world in life, are repelled by the holy symbols because the symbol reminds either the demonic spirit or the shreds of the person that was of all the faith they once had that is now lost, of their severing from God, of their eternal, damned fate, like Mephistopheles in Faust mourning being cut off from the light of heaven, it's too overwhelming for them to bear. It's also plausible, of course, that both Carmilla and Dracula were not actually Christian in life, with Dracula having studied black magic at the Scholomance and Carmilla being born to the notoriously wicked and decadent Karnsteins, so then the implication would be that they were in life witches, devil worshipers, or dabblers in sorcery, and therefore find the whole Christian faith and all of its signifiers repulsive and hateful because of their own opposed faith (and may be afraid of the Christian God's power and judgment, in the context the authors are writing them in) In that case, a vampire from a non-Western culture, or a vaguely analogous creature like say a jiangshi or a manananggal, would arguably only respond to superstitious or religious repellants related to its part of the world and specific to its folklore, and not be repelled by a symbol that meant nothing to that creature, regardless of the faith of the wielder. On the 'mythology' end the cross, like the garlic and the wolfbane and the wild rose and mountain ash and all of the original folkloric vampire countermeasures are part of a much broader aspect of folkloric creatures being repulsed or warded off by specific symbols, rituals, superstitions or cultural practices. Some of these have connections to the religion of the culture they're from and some come more from local and community tradition. This is a very broad and complex topic, and it's hardly restrained to vampires - revenants, fairies, ogres, demons, witches, and evil spirits of all sorts have their specific wards and charms. As always with myth and folklore, it's not about what is 'true' or 'canon', because such things get very, very blurry with oral traditions that are centuries or millennia old, it's about the people telling the story - the people the story belongs to.

Anyway, the question you're really asking is - is the vampire repelled by the holy symbol because of: A) A spiritual power inherent in the symbol itself. B) The wielder's faith and belief in what the symbol represents. C) The vampire's belief in or fear of the power of the symbol or what it represents. D) Something else.

I think there's validity in each answer and a lot of fun to be had exploring them in fiction.

[thethirdromana]

Favourite less known Dracula scene?

I don't know if there are any less known Dracula scenes at this stage, given we've analysed the whole book over a matter of months. But if it counts as less known, then this is my pick:

We had a lovely walk. Lucy, after a while, was in gay spirits, owing, I think, to some dear cows who came nosing towards us in a field close to the lighthouse, and frightened the wits out of us. I believe we forgot everything except, of course, personal fear, and it seemed to wipe the slate clean and give us a fresh start. We had a capital “severe tea” at Robin Hood’s Bay in a sweet little old-fashioned inn, with a bow-window right over the seaweed-covered rocks of the strand. I believe we should have shocked the “New Woman” with our appetites. Men are more tolerant, bless them! Then we walked home with some, or rather many, stoppages to rest, and with our hearts full of a constant dread of wild bulls. Lucy was really tired, and we intended to creep off to bed as soon as we could. The young curate came in, however, and Mrs. Westenra asked him to stay for supper.

Obviously we talked about the "New Woman" bit at length. But I really like this as a scene of Lucy and Mina's ordinary life on holiday. They go for a lovely walk, they get scared by some cows, they have a nice tea, and they get home worn out (having walked about 14 miles) only to be bored to tears by a curate who doesn't get the hint to leave.

So much of what we see of their friendship overshadowed by fear and illness. But in this brief moment, they're on a sunny coastal walk in August, and the only thing to be afraid of is the cows.

[esta-elavaris]

I won't list all of my stuff here - just the things that I think are worth shouting about. Organising it all via fandom, with some little sub-categories within those because some of them *cough*James/Theodora*cough* have decided to become ungovernable.

Where to find me: AO3 -- IG -- Goodreads

Catch the Wind-verse:

Catch the Wind - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: Complete. [400k+ words] AO3 The behemoth that started the absolute sickness in me, and probably where you should start if you want any of the rest of my Norrington stuff to make total sense to you.

When it was completed, I also did a read-through on here talking about some behind-the-scenes type stuff. The tag is here, but it's obviously reverse-chronological order so spoilers abound! I plan on doing this for other fics when they're complete!

Sainted by the Storm - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress, updated sporadically. AO3 The home for any random snippets of this pairing that I write - there are a few AU chapters here and there, mostly it's flufftober fills, or pieces not long enough to warrant their own story. Wicked Game - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress. AO3 Semi-sequel to CTW, just a very small smutty series set after the events of the main story. Red Thread of Fate - Theodore Groves/Pirate!OC Status: In progress. AO3 Vague companion piece to CTW, taking place in the background of that story, and then branching into the timespan that follows it - with appearances made by Norrington and the OC I write for him.

Catch the Wind AUs

Fallen Through Time - James Norrington/Modern!OC Status: In progress, on a break. AO3 -- Tumblr An AU of Catch the Wind, exploring what might've happened had Elizabeth Swann been the one to find Theodora when she fell into the world of POTC.

As It Was - Modern!James Norrington/Historical!OC Status: Planning - a teaser can be found on tumblr for now. Teaser Another AU of Catch the Wind, where James Norrington is the modern character, and Theodora Byrne is the "canon" character from POTC who is fated to die.

Here, Where Fire Grows - Boromir/Modern!Amnesiac!OC Status: In progress AO3 Writing Catch the Wind didn't get the "modern girl falls for fictional dead man" trope out of my brain, so I had to inflict another on Boromir - but this time with an amnesiac twist, just for some added fun. Other mini-stories for these two written during flufftober can be found here.

Flufftober '23 The non-Theorrington flufftober fills can be found in this series on AO3, but all of the fills also be found on Tumblr where they have pretty banners to go along with the chapters.

Absolution Dracula [Van Helsing 2004]/OC AO3 Set in the modern day, lots of cliché favourites with (hopefully) some added twists to spice things up a bit! Free - Cullen Rutherford/F!Inquisitor Status: Updated sporadically. AO3 Modern!Royalty!AU which will eventually follow the events of the game.

20th Century Boy - Eddie Munson/OC Status: Debating on whether to continue it. AO3 A struggling artist moves to Hawkins for a year of studying abroad, and finds a kindred spirit in Eddie Munson. Will eventually follow the events of S4.

Obscure, Plain, and Little - Aemond Targaryen/OC Prologue A Jane Eyre-inspired fic -- probably won't follow the events of the show/book.

List of ideas for tentative future pairings and fandoms I want to go into can be found here. I'm also always open to suggestions, so don't feel too shy if you want to send me an ask or a message 💜

[vileborne]

I’m not a very good at lore/theories, but today I was reading a book about the history of the inspiration for vampires in fiction and read a little about Vlad The Impaler. Obviously Messmer is inspired by him in name, but the book said that his father was called Dracul and he got the nickname Dracula by association. The book said Dracul means devil or dragon and Dracula means son of devil or dragon. His father took his name from the Order of the Dragon. His father also wore dragon imagery because of his association with the order.

Messmer in the trailer is wearing armor that is similar to that of a drake knight and appears to have a dragon like eye. Again, not great at developing theories, and this could all just be because he is inspired by Vlad the Impaler! I was wondering though if it was a clue to his parentage. Especially if he is the “unwanted child” of Marika that a spirit in the game mentions. Maybe he is the son of a “devil / dragon” like Vlad. Which could mean… a lot of things? His dad might be a real piece of work is what I’m getting at.

Feel free to fact check any of this in case the book i’m reading is historically inaccurate. Also feel free to add on in any way because I don’t know what any of this means/ if it means anything.

Edit: I am aware Vlad the Impaler is not a vampire. Did not realize that needed to be said.

[see-arcane]

Oof, but I am two ways about Van Helsing in today’s entry. 

And I like it not. And I am afraid, afraid, afraid!—I am afraid of all things—even to think but I must go on my way. 

I’ve always read this section as a combination of the natural fear one would have in the guy’s situation and something unnatural. Going straight into vampire territory with your companion possibly about to become a vampire at any second. It makes sense to be nervous. But at the same time, with Van Helsing being Van Helsing, the sudden leap in anxiety seems out of place on the same guy who was actively mobilizing the youths into a vampire hunting gang.

And I think that’s on purpose. I think it’s tied into the fact that Dracula wants to retreat to his castle and the surrounding land. Yes, it’s described as the seat of his power, both as a boyar and, it’s hinted in one of the Professor’s earlier monologues, a spot potent with ancient supernatural vibes. It’s Dracula’s territory in more ways than one, but possibly even in a way Van Helsing didn’t catch on to. Because for as scared as he is riding into it, as much as any sane person would want to run, guess what?

Transylvania--including the danger zone nearest to the Count--obviously has people. Not a ton, of course. The Count probably started making his travel plans to avoid picking all the human livestock clean. But those locals are still there. Still terrified, but there. Paralyzed as if by some mass basilisk gaze. And I believe that’s the literal will of the land. Dracula’s will. 

Ala a malevolent case of a genius loci, the spirit of a land.

It’s what makes the castle and the land seem almost sentient in its ability to instill automatic dread, to make people quail and fear Dracula and the Brides unless pushed to the absolute brink like that poor mother torn up by the wolves or wall-crawling, shovel-wielding Jonathan balanced on the edge between life and undeath imprisoned in the castle. This place is imbued with intrinsic fear to hamper the prey that live upon it and Van Helsing is getting a full gut punch of that unfamiliar sensation as he heads in.

I do not envy him that. But at the same time...

The stake we play for is life and death, or more than these, and we must not flinch.

I am not digging how clearly his murder pact oath to Mina is apparently hanging at the front of his thoughts. Also, ‘The stake we play for?’ Really, Abe? King Laugh couldn’t pick a better time to drop a stake pun?

[sepublic]

            Finally watched The Last Voyage of the Demeter, and I gotta say this one is a keeper for those who want a story true to the spirit of the original novel! I’ll mention spoilers both for the film and the novel Dracula, so for Dracula Daily readers who are having their first go this year, beware!

         When I saw the previews and trailers for the film, I wondered about some of the additions to the cast the film made; A doctor and a stowaway, as well as a child and his dog. Granted, it’s an adaptation of a relatively brief part of the film, so expanding on the cast feels natural… But seeing everything in the actual context of the film itself, you really begin to appreciate these additions!

         What I’m saying is, it feels as if the makers behind this movie wanted to do a full adaptation of Dracula, but they couldn’t; So they instead focused on one part they really liked, and then pulled elements and themes from the rest of the book and put it there. A sort of sampler of Dracula, to satisfy both themselves and the audience, especially if we don’t get a sequel chronicling Clemens’ journey.

         Clemens is obviously a Seward archetype; He’s a doctor, he represents rationale and reason, science and modernity. There’s a brief allusion to steamships, and Clemens acknowledges that they’re a result of progress; All of these capture the themes of the novel, and the mention of steamships feels like a reference to the one Arthur buys to chase Dracula at the end of the book.

         Of course, the steamship breaks down and fails during the pursuit, as part of the recurring theme of modernity failing against the ancient forces of the supernatural, myths and legend, etc. Superstition is returning to power after being forgotten, and we see that tension thankfully emphasized in this movie. While Clemens initially works with the rationale of a rabies infection, he eventually has to work with what he sees in front of him and says so, just as in the novel.

         The blood transfusions are also a nice callback to the book, particularly the ones given to Lucy, which Seward and Van Helsing pull off. Anna is a fusion of Lucy and Mina; A woman victimized by Dracula, but like in the actual book, this is not romanticized whatsoever, nor does the movie insinuate in any way that she could’ve brought this on herself by being ‘promiscuous’ or whatever.

         Anna is a victim, essentially Dracula’s rations for the trip. As mentioned, the blood transfusions are meant to keep her alive, but it’s revealed that it’s merely delaying the inevitable, just as they did for Lucy in the book. Like in the book, Dracula and his vampirism is conflated with infection, with disease, though it’s one so potent even the rats are driven off by it. Anna’s weak breathing reminds me of Lucy’s, as do her dreams of helplessness. Anna is also a bit of Jonathan as well, as his first victim prior to the ship back in Romania, who manages to wound him back in vengeance and provides information from her experience.

         The film carries the connection between Anna and Dracula due to the feeding, just as it occurred between Mina and Dracula; And like Mina, we have the sentiment of dying as a human, despite the initial protests of the victim’s friends. For Mina and Anna, this is a moment of reclaiming agency against Dracula’s corruption, and even though Mina doesn’t have to carry this sacrifice through, I found it to be a nice tribute to that decision of hers.

         Similarly, Anna brings up the idea of respecting Toby’s wishes to Elliot, who considers bargaining with Dracula in the hopes of getting his grandson back. This reminded me a lot of how Seward and the other suitors hesitate to kill Lucy in her grave, until Van Helsing explains to them how death as a human is more true to their beloved than ‘life’ as a vampire. It’s what Lucy would want, and so they go through with the staking.

         Toby being infected and killed also reminds me of Dracula’s implied plan in the novel; To infect the children of England through someone else he corrupted. Olgaren tries to do this, but it’s up to Dracula to step in himself. I must say, I appreciate the film being bold enough to kill off the child… And not just kill him, either! They rub salt in the wound by having him come back to life as a vampire, only to burn to death as he grabs onto his wailing grandfather; YIKES.

         This also reminds me of his dog Huckleberry, obviously a reference to canines victimized by Dracula throughout the film; Not just the one he kills at Whitby, or the one he scares at the abbey. But there’s also the wolf Berserker that Dracula controls, and really the wolves in general back at his home. Alas, the movie did not go through with my speculation that it’d play with the audiences’ knowledge by having Dracula exit the Demeter in the shape of a black dog, mimicking Huckleberry. I think that would’ve been really neat; Not just as a nod to the same detail in the novel, but a sort of twisted disguise, pretending to be a slain victim to earn trust and sympathy.

         If there is a disappointment I had, it’s that the First Mate’s story in the novel is compelling because it’s implied he knows who Dracula is, and keeps quiet for fear it’ll minimize the damage if they don’t resist. Here, Wojchek is totally unaware. It’s a shame, but with the film being compelling enough as it is, especially as an adaptation of Dracula, it’s a change I’m willing to accept.

         I like how the movie emphasizes that the people who deliver the boxes to the Demeter aren’t villains; They’re victims just as terrified, the same townsfolk that had to bargain with Dracula to live. They hope for the survival of the Demeter’s crew, unlikely as it is. And this brings me to another point; The goodness of humanity.

         Many Dracula adaptations have been criticized for their nature as adaptations for portraying humanity as essentially the real monsters, Dracula as the misunderstood beast, etc. But this is not how it goes in the novel, which emphasizes plenty the kindness of humans coming together to finally triumph against this demonic evil. The film understands this, with sole survivor Clemens’ monologue at the end bringing this up; Yes, he has come across some of the worst evil the world has to offer, but he was reminded of its good as well, and that gives him greater incentive to keep living and fighting.

         I loved Clemens’ rant at the end, where he deconstructs Dracula and lays him bare; He’s a coward, only slightly less mortal than humans. The weaknesses of blood and sleep are laid out by Clemens, as he exposes Dracula to be just a scared human deep down, too. Again, another moment of good triumphing and fighting back against evil, and one of my favorites because it recognizes the character of Dracula at its core, better than some adaptations which bastardize Bram Stoker’s name as a posthumous seal of approval.

         The portrayal of Dracula is lovely; I can’t help but think that THIS is what Jonathan Harker had to deal with, not long before! This is a monster who feeds, but is also very intelligent. He’s animalistic onscreen, just as Vampires ultimately are in the book, but Anna does reassert that Dracula is a thinking creature. He clearly strategizes and plans, and takes sadistic glee off of tormenting his victims and being in control; All true to the novel. He is a beast disguised as human, and seeing Dracula actually blend in as an aristocrat at the end was a treat.

         When I heard the tapping in that tavern, I hoped it was from the wolf cane we saw earlier, and I was delighted it was! Similarly, Dracula’s box is a special one, with unique locking mechanisms and a dragon aesthetic –alluding to the etymology of his name, “Son of the Dragon”- that really sells it as his coffin. It’s no doubt THE sole surviving box of dirt that Dracula escapes back to Transylvania in, at the end of the novel (and I love Clemens’ jab at Dracula’s dirt-sleeping habit; Carrying the association of Vampires with uncleanliness from the book).

         The film plays itself straight, it gives us the boxes of dirt and their importance as Dracula’s way to sleep; Because again, he’s mortal. He still needs rest, he still needs a wink. This means one weakness is emphasized, sunlight; Though the novel portrays sunlight as merely robbing Dracula of his supernatural powers, here it’s shown like other adaptations and assumptions, burning Vampires on contact. But like with the First Mate, it’s a change I accept because of how artistically it’s done, with Olgaren’s death reminding me of immolation, of witches being burned at the stake, etc.

         However, Dracula’s aversion to crosses and running water seems absent, which did bother me a little; A cross is what protects Jonathan, and later crosses are used plenty by the protagonists to good effect. And the running water was a nice bit of real life Vampire lore, which seemed to suggest Dracula was also trapped on the Demeter too; However, this is not the case as Joseph’s death illustrates.

         I like how the film gave more rationale to the protagonists; They don’t wait until the very end to check the boxes of dirt, and to be fair, this is because they actually know they’re dealing with Dracula, thanks to Anna. They actually attempt to sink the ship to take Dracula down, and I liked the reference to the Captain’s death from the novel. It’s a shame we didn’t see an entire crowd at Whitby react to it, but the mocking way Dracula strings him up like Christ is impressive, as is his sole devotion to his duty. Likewise, Wojchek’s initial preservation of the ship being motivated by the legacy he feels responsible for was nice.

         There’s a lot of little details I like here or there; There’s a crewman more eager to volunteer for the Demeter than anyone else, undeterred by his own age… But as soon as he recognizes Dracula’s symbol, THAT’s when he caves, further selling just how much of a deterrent Dracula is to even the brave and determined. I appreciate the cane being fashioned after a wolf, since Dracula is also associated with them, as well as Elliot trying to make Toby feel like he’s doing something right after failing to protect Huckleberry, via the inconsequential task of looking after the telescope. The grief over a failed promise in Huckleberry’s death reminds me of the grief of the suitors in doing all they can to save Lucy, yet failing anyway.

         I honestly have hopes that this film’s success may prompt other films set in the same universe, telling the rest of the story we missed out; Castle Dracula, Lucy and Mina, Renfield and Seward, etc. We can see how Dracula operates as a speaking aristocrat to Jonathan, as well as Lucy struggling against vampirism. This of course makes me wonder about the role of Clemens…

         Will he take the role of Van Helsing? As a doctor who knows of Dracula? He mentioned going to Cambridge; I don’t recall if this was Seward’s college, but it could set up Clemens to be an old colleague of his. Or maybe they’ll just insert Clemens into the cast alongside Van Helsing, maybe reveal he was the classmate of Seward’s briefly alluded to. THAT would be poetic as a coincidence, just as Dracula going after the loved ones of Jonathan was; He messes with Clemens and soon crosses paths with Clemens’ old classmate and professor from Cambridge!

         The nature of prequels to stories where good triumphs against evil always gets me melancholy… We know the heroes of THIS story can’t win, not yet, because future ones need to. But seeing them retain the spirit, the drive, that their more famous and successful protagonists do, it threads a kinship they aren’t aware of, but one the audience can’t appreciate. Maybe the crew of the Demeter couldn’t succeed, but they can rest knowing that eventually, someone out there will, and will ensure their sacrifice does not go to waste. The viewers at least know these wonderful souls will be avenged. Maybe in another life, they could meet…

         …For real though. I was lowkey hoping for a Lucy and Mina cameo; Seeing Whitby’s coastline and knowing these two, as well as Mrs. Westenra and Mr. Swales, are watching, really gets to me. A prequel and sequel with the book protagonists, when?

         All in all, a good film! I dug the vibes and cinematography. I like the allusion to Theseus’ ship when Clemens explains how the Demeter can still live on; The spirit is still there even if the matter is different, and I can safely say this film carries the spirit, even if it may seem less of an adaptation, and more of a glimpse, compared to other Dracula films.

[porcelain-animatronic]

Just saw the debut of a new Dracula ballet and it was absolutely gorgeous. Obviously it was not letter accurate to the book (it’s ballet) but the spirit was there and I enjoyed every second of it. The dancing and costuming were top notch. I hope it gets picked up for a more extended run in the future. In my option, it deserves it.

[spider-xan]

Honestly, I feel like there would be a lot less frustration with the Coppola film if it was completely irredeemable trash with zero good things going for it bc then we could just write it off as an awful film and laugh at it for what it is - but the fact that there are SO MANY great things about it that are worthy of praise, and we know Coppola generally isn't a bad filmmaker, is what makes it so frustrating, precisely it could have been an amazing high-budget film adaptation that was accurate to the novel and the indisputable definitive version, and then it swerved and made the framing and other choices that it did, with its specific vision superseding the actual text; and ofc there's the title issue of including Bram Stoker's name and implying a faithful adaptation, though I think Coppola tends to do that with straight book adaptations to credit the author, like how The Godfather's full title is actually Mario Puzo's The Godfather.

Like, the casting is amazing! Winona Ryder is perfect as Mina! Anthony Hopkins is inspired casting for Van Helsing! Even Keanu Reeves, with his questionable acting and accent, is at least cute as Jonathan, and his star power at the time makes sense for why he played the role. The costumes designed by Eiko Ishioka are honestly among the greatest film costumes ever, and she rightfully won the Best Costume Design Oscar that year! Love the liminal creepiness of Dracula's castle and how his shadow has a life of its own! Everything about the way the scene of Lucy entering her tomb as a vampire is filmed is sublime - the lighting, the cinematography, the camera angles, the eerily chilling on a visceral level music and sound design, the make up and costume, the way the candles supernaturally light themselves, etc. Quincey is actually included for once! Even some of the epistolary format is retained, with things like the log of the Demeter narrated over scenes on the ship, Mina typing on her typewriter, Jack recording on a phonograph, etc. There are honestly a lot of positive things that can be said about the film, and Coppola does know what he's doing on a technical level, along with the talented cast and crew.

And obviously, no adaptation is going to just copy the text exactly for various reasons, like film being an audio-visual medium with a shorter length than a novel, adaptations being filtered through the lens of their creators and reflective of the social milieu they are being created in, commercial box office considerations bc capitalism, etc., and I think being faithful to the spirit of the source material is more important than textual purity, and a lot of this is going to be subjective on the part of viewers as well. But yeah, it's like, personal preferences aside, the Coppola film just came SO CLOSE to being a film adaptation that's both accurate to the novel and incredible cinema at the same time, but then it made directing and screenwriting choices like Mina just being Dracula's love interest and having none of her heroic moments (all removed or given to the men), everyone being a total asshole, Dracula going back and forth in characterization bc the film can't decide if he's a sympathetic romantic hero who just wants true love or a scary monster villain who wants to take over England and eat people, and you kind of need the latter to drive the plot outside of the romance, etc.

We could have had it all, and that's what is so frustrating to me, along with how the film is so definitive that it gets projected back onto the original novel and just about anything Dracula.

[dryad-druid]

The day the sonic prime trailer came out it took all of us sonic fans by surprise, I mean, Rouge is part of the main team now, if they don't take the opportunity to have her interacting with knukcles I think all the shippers are going to be angry, me included. Still, taking advantage of the fact that the series is about sonic traveling to different universes this gave me the idea of an AU with knouge in it, and here it is.

It's kind of a castlevania/resident evil village combination where Rouge is some kind of ancient dracula/dimitrescu type entity who likes to collect mystical jewels and lives in a castle full of them; and Knukcles was part of a clan that guarded one of the most powerful gems in the world: the mother emerald, but the ambition of their clan was stronger than them, and despite the warnings of knukcles' mother: Tikal, their clan was destroyed leaving knukcles as the last living member. Rouge hears about the emerald and obviously goes after it, she and Knuckles fight but Knuckles is no match for an entity like rouge, so as a last resort the echidna swears him servitude in exchange for being able to guard the emerald, which has the spirit of his mother inside, Rouge accepts because.she.thinks Knukcles is sexy and so from that point on both the emerald and knukcles reside in rouge's castle.

as for the other characters, i don't know? what ideas do you have? if you want to make a fanfic based on this idea please notify me, i'd love to read it. chao~