#the world of dracula

[argyleheir]

My whole household has taken turns being sick this break, effectively squashing any writing plans I had. But! That doesn’t mean I can’t still get Dracula and Johnny together… in puzzle form 🖤

[prettyboysdontlookatexplosions]

crazy to think that bram stoker, of all people, could envision a jonathan harker who is both a tragic gothic heroine pining in distress in dracula's castle and having panic attacks in the street after he leaves the hospital he thinks he was in for a nervous breakdown and a badass action hero with a big honking knife whose wife thinks he's super hot, but 125 years later modern society like, cannot get on his level.

[spacehippieface]

Boomers: Grumble grumble, young people don't read the classics, they're always on the tiktaks and their goddamn phones, mutter grumble bah.

A bunch of dorks on tumblr: Where is my good friend Jonathan? We haven't heard from him in a while. Victor, you are a bad parent! Take responsibility for your giant corpse baby! Man, I love Dickens' descriptions. Alas, poor Ogilvy. A trip to Jurassic Park? Sure!

[re-dracula]

The Dracula Daily Experience, now with extra voice acting.

[nausikaaa]

i really wish i had the motivation to write rn, because i have an idea for a post-canon Dracula fic where the characters have to deal with world war one. like, how do you even cope with thinking you saved all those lives, only for the entire western world to go to absolute shit just 20-ish years later? if only Bram Stoker had known what was coming.

anyway, i find it so interesting to consider what certain characters would do in that situation.

depending on when he was born, Quincey Jr could be just old enough to enlist or get drafted. or honestly, he might just want to be a hero like his parents, and lie about his age. and let's be real, that boy has some latent vampire powers that would give him an edge.

Jonathan has good survival instincts, an ear for languages, and the ability and willingness to scale sheer walls with a knife between his teeth if necessary. Mina has a really impressive memory for conversations and schedules, a love of technology, experience resisting what is essentially supernatural interrogation, and probably some vampire side effects of her own. both of them know shorthand and have plenty of experience with life or death situations. they would kick ass as spies and wireless operators.

Jack and Van Helsing would have to cease the medical malpractice to be actual army doctors. maybe learn about shell shock and call up Jonathan about that old "brain fever" diagnosis of his.

and what would Arthur even do? what did lords do during WW1? try to keep his friends out of harm's way? use his seat in government to try and end the war? grapple with the fact that lordships are falling out of favour and the world is moving on into a modern era without him?

i just find it fun to ponder.

[flyingpurplepeopleeater42]

yes sometimes you do have to pull a person you trust into an empty room, close the door, have a little cry, scream about the futility of your efforts, curse the higher powers that are responsible for your suffering, then get it together and go back to work. van helsing was so real for this.

[kaiserin-erzsebet]

As someone who has spent my life in academia, I can tell you that there is a point where having a lot of degrees starts to indicate that there's something wrong with you.

Van Helsing has galloped right past that point.

[per1w1nkl3]

reading carmilla is an experience because you'll read the most beautiful declaration of love you've ever encountered but then you remember this is a cautionary tale about the dangers of sexual perversions

[gracelesstars]

"Back when you first came into my life, I recalled a place that I knew as a child A special place One that I held close to my heart Won’t you lead me in a dance down this winding road where light and shadow entwine to take hold of the thoughts of the one left far behind? Know that, sometimes, I want to turn around and see the things that I’ve passed on the journey, but know with love on my side, with courage and pride, I’ll fight I will carry on"

R.I.P. Akira Toriyama

[cascadiums]

A recap of powers Stoker's vampires have shown so far:

Undying

Getting younger as they feed

Invisibility

Wall-climbing

Turning into mist, dust motes on a moonbeam, a wolf, a large bat, and a bird

Knives go straight through them like cutting air

Glowing red eyes

Summoning fog and storms

Disguising themselves as their own staff

A recap of powers the humans in Dracula have shown so far:

Knowledge of property conveyancing law (also wall-climbing)

Shorthand and typing

Ethically dubious mental healthcare

Eating spiders

Incomprehensible accents

Journalism (and sprinting)

Making shoes out of mud

Dracula is the story of an overpowered evil coming up against the weirdest bunch of bastards you've ever met and I'm obsessed

[immediatebreakfast]

Sorry to the person who sent me the ask about the use of those specific adjectives by Mr. Hawkins in his recomendation letter, and how that relates to the newfound abuse that Dracula is starting to subject onto Jonathan. I was writing the response, and tumblr ate the ask when I tried to save it ;-;

But I still want to talk about it :)

It has been said a lot of times, but the adjectives that Mr. Hawkins chose, and used in the letter to describe why Jonathan was the perfect lawyer for Dracula's properties were very... Subjective.

All of those adjectives can be read as compliments since they paint Jonathan as a first time worker who may be new to solicitor stuff in practice, but he will do a very good job thanks to these qualities. However, for someone like Dracula, for someone who has malicious intent in mind. Adjectives like discreet, and silent, along with "shall take your instructions in all matters" paint a different picture of Jonathan.

That letter, at the eyes of Dracula, paints Jonathan as the perfect victim who will not scream, complain, nor try to defy him if he tries to do something to him.

And, that is what exactly Dracula does in the course of three days, three horrible days.

The Count manipulates, and abuses Jonathan in the most realistic manner that one can put on paper. There is no magic, no supernatural powers, nor vampirical events in these three days, just Dracula slowlyyyy tearing apart Jonathan's mind by playing a horrible game of take, and give.

Dracula gives Jonathan amazing food, cultural knowledge, amazing attitude, a smooth legal process regarding the properties, interesting conversations... basic companionship in an isolated castle with no other human around. The perfect host that maybe is a little too familiar with touch.

And in return, what Dracula takes from Jonathan? His boundaries, his sleep schedule, his privacy, his safety, small stuff like the mirror that gives him a sense of routine. Everything that could give Jonathan a sense of relief, anything that could make him stop being on edge since he got in the castle

YET STILL, if you notice, STILL, the narrative itself doesn't infer that Jonathan is lesser, or in the wrong for not fighting back in a traditional masculine way. Neither on the text, nor the subtext. Hell, Jonathan can even compare his situation to the heroine Scheherezade, and it weights in the narrative because it's an actual theme of his character!

[twilight-zoned-out]

"Seven years ago we all went through the flames; and the happiness of some of us since then is, we think, well worth the pain we endured."

Although Dracula was published in 1897, some think that it takes place in 1893 because of the way the days and dates used line up. If that's the case, Jonathan Harker's epilogue, seven years later, would have been added around 1900. A new era bubbling with new change and new conventions. The story ends with Jonathan looking ahead to a new century filled with the unknown and being able to look on the past, despite its darkness, "without despair."

[another-chaotic-bisexual-vampire]

[re-dracula]

[dathen]

Absolutely delighted that EVERYONE in the TAZ vs Dracula world is like “ugh the Invisible Man is such an asshole.” Even Dracula is like “he has no internal logic he just wants to kick ass!!” Perfect in-character representation 10/10 no notes

[wheresjonno]

It's Wednesday my dudes! It's also been 10 days since we last heard from our Good Friend Jonathan Harker! Do we trust him to have stayed put that long? Did someone leave a window open? Will he have tragically died just before being reunited with his True Love? Do we expect a little thing like that to stop him? Is Hungarian Nun the new (old?) Nigerian Prince? Are the Girls throwing him a Batchelor Party? Can the Rule Against Perpetuities protect Mina from the consequences of possibly tesseracting her way across the continent in her ardor? Is Stoker likely to tell us?

For that matter... where's Mina???