#What to do if You Have to Deliver a Letter to a Dracula | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

yallemagne · 11 months

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Note that Dracula does not actively retaliate against Jonathan. He retaliates against the letter, for sure, but he does not punish Jonathan exactly as one would expect. He keeps the act up. Which is possibly an even worse punishment.

Jonathan already knows about the Romani, which is interesting. Of course, functionally, Bram is giving us world-building and using Jonathan as a vehicle for that, but the description of the Romani is not one that would lend to too much confidence that they would help Jonathan, as they are clearly aligned, however knowingly, with the Count.

Who must have told Jonathan about them? Possibly one of his previous hosts, but I opt to say it was the Count.

Imagine that: Jonathan inquires about the only staff he has seen so far in Dracula's lands, and Dracula's answer is to squash Jonathan's hope by saying those "lawless" men answer only to himself. However, Jonathan still tries, he can't let himself give into his despair and give up without trying such an obvious means of escape. He knows that, in all likelihood, Dracula could be lying when he says these people are unlike the locals that helped Jonathan in the past. Though, Jonathan still takes precautions to make sure the full extent of what he knows isn't revealed if this is a dead end.

Unfortunately, the Romani are aligned against Jonathan, but possibly not with ill intentions. In all likelihood, they don't know Dracula's nature, or, if they do, they have to ignore it out of desperation, because no one else would ever employ them. It is serve Dracula or starve. They parallel Jonathan, in a way. They see a frantic man trying to appeal to them in a foreign language, and all they can do is accept what they believe he might be saying and continue on with their work.

There's also the possibility that it is more of Dracula's duplicity. Who is to say the man that took Jonathan's letters and payment did not parse Jonathan's meaning? Perhaps he did but was killed on his way to deliver them to a post office. And Dracula reframes it as the men being completely loyal to him. The belief, then, is not that sending more shorthand letters through them is dangerous because the Count will intercept them himself, but that the Romani will deliver them to the Count whether out of ignorance or malice. The latter is quite hopeless. It means that Jonathan cannot get by on the grace of others-- that the only humans he has seen in so long are either unknowing or uncaring of the danger he is in.

Dracula burns the letter but allows the inconspicuous one to be sent. He's mocking Jonathan for his attempt, letting his message be sent but not the one that matters.

"The letter to Hawkins—that I shall, of course, send on, since it is yours. Your letters are sacred to me. Your pardon, my friend, that unknowingly I did break the seal. Will you not cover it again?" He held out the letter to me, and with a courteous bow handed me a clean envelope. I could only redirect it and hand it to him in silence.

He, once again, reframes the situation. Oh, if Jonathan had simply written all he wanted to say clearly in that letter to Mina, there would have been no issue with it, since Jonathan's letters are sacred. Never mind the desecration of Dracula opening the letter to Hawkins. He then forces Jonathan to participate in the mockery by having him reseal the envelope.

When he went out of the room I could hear the key turn softly. A minute later I went over and tried it, and the door was locked.

Remember Dracula's warning from before?

"Be warned! Should sleep now or ever overcome you, or be like to do, then haste to your own chamber or to these rooms, for your rest will then be safe. But if you be not careful in this respect, then"—He finished his speech in a gruesome way, for he motioned with his hands as if he were washing them. [May 12]

Locking Jonathan in the study now is a passive threat that, if Jonathan does not stay in line, Dracula will relinquish his protection over him. Though the study is presumably one of the safe rooms, there is only guaranteed safety if Dracula provides it.

When, an hour or two after, the Count came quietly into the room, his coming awakened me, for I had gone to sleep on the sofa. He was very courteous and very cheery in his manner, and seeing that I had been sleeping, he said:— "So, my friend, you are tired? Get to bed. There is the surest rest. I may not have the pleasure to talk to-night, since there are many labours to me; but you will sleep, I pray."

Dracula locks Jonathan in the study so he has no choice but to fall asleep there and not in his room. Jonathan is only able to go back to his room once Dracula comes in to retrieve him. Before, Dracula placed the guarantee of Jonathan's safety in his own hands. "If you do this, if you don't do this..." But now he's taking it back. "If I decide you must die sooner than promised, you shall."

I passed to my room and went to bed, and, strange to say, slept without dreaming. Despair has its own calms.

Sleep is only a short reprieve from Jonathan's waking nightmare. He can't rely on the help of his fellow humans, Dracula can and will take back his hospitality on a whim-- Jonathan has nothing to hope for except a night of dreamless sleep.

... I reframe the latter half of May 28 in my fic Orice-- *gets shot*

#dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula #jonathan harker #count dracula #may 28

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vickyvicarious · 10 months

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Then I ran to the window and cried to them. They looked up at me stupidly and pointed, but just then the "hetman" of the Szgany came out, and seeing them pointing to my window, said something, at which they laughed. Henceforth no effort of mine, no piteous cry or agonised entreaty, would make them even look at me. They resolutely turned away.

Looking at this through a lens of "hey maybe they aren't all racist stereotypes and actually would like to help". Admittedly the laughter and deliberate ignoring makes it harder this time around to interpret their reactions as anything but mocking. But it's that last line which I find most compelling. Resolutely. It can imply a sort of effort being put into turning away, that it might be very difficult to do. Like they find it genuinely painful to have to ignore someone screaming and begging for help. But they know they do have to.

Who knows what the hetman said. The laughter makes it seem like a joke, though a mean-spirited one. But maybe this is more of that black humor the coach driver showed on May 5 when he made jokes about Jonathan likely meeting many fierce dogs before he sleeps. He "looked round to catch the approving smile of the rest" with this line, and I think that making macabre jokes is a very human reaction to being force to deal with/live under the rule of Dracula. To a certain extent, what else can you even do but try to laugh about it? So perhaps the hetman says something along the lines of, "The Count's beloved guest is not so excited to continue his stay," and everyone laughs because yeah, you can say that again. But they all stop looking at him right away, because he is the Count's beloved guest and they know what that means. If Dracula wants to keep him then trying to help in any way would only bring danger down on their own heads. Also, by trying to ignore him, they're trying not to acknowledge that they are leaving someone in this situation.

If we go with the "the guy last time genuinely tried to deliver Jonathan's letter but Dracula took it from him by force" interpretation then perhaps one person has already been harmed or even killed for trying to aid this 'guest'. Maybe they've been warned about him prior to their arrival, even, told specifically not to acknowledge him. Who knows. Meanwhile, from Jonathan's POV, of course their laughter feels mocking, of course their avoidance is painful - not only because another shot at hope is slipping away but because they seem to be playing right into the view of them which Dracula himself worked to predispose Jonathan towards: loyal to Dracula and not caring about his plight.

But I personally like this interpretation much better. Not only is it less of a caricature, but it reinforces the trend of people/side characters for the most part being basically good and wanting to either help or just do their jobs, but getting used by/unable to stand up to Dracula along the way. Also, the disconnect between them feeling deeply uncomfortable and cracking jokes/avoiding looking at Jonathan to try and deal with that - but as a result of these actions being read by him as showing evidence of genuine amusement/lack of care - is honestly really good tragic horror to me.

Especially when it comes after this line: "With joy I hurried to the window..." I'm pretty sure that's the only time Jonathan has used the word 'joy'. Even despite his failure last time (and despite using some racist/insulting descriptions of them), he was initially delighted to hear and see other people. And then it all came crashing down, once again. The impact hits even harder if you choose to believe they didn't want this either, I think.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #dracula locals #i KNOW this is not the authorial intent but *shrugs* too bad

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slashingdisneypasta · 2 months

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I've been in a musical mood since I moved into my apartment (Seriously, there's something very satisfying about playing these Broadway songs out loud in your own living room (when my roommate left of course)), and seeing your dark Musical AU Post made me think of musical AU's for my... Oof countless ships 😅 of course you don't have to worry about answering ^^

Smarty-Pop • Phantom of the Opera AU

I have not known peace ever since you briefly mentioned their Erik/Christine dynamic in my sad Smarty-Pop ending drabble, and i mean that in a positive way XD and this gave me the perfect opportunity to explore an actual AU.

I'm thinking maybe Poppy can play a little bit of Madam Giry's role too, being the only one who knows the Phantom's secrets, the only calm one when the Phantom of the Opera strikes and possibly even delivering messages to the opera managers for Smartass. And unlike with the OG story, I like to imagine them in an already established relationship here- just, you know, a little secretive since it's the phantom we're talking about.

It's not uncommon for Poppy to go disappear down in the depths of the Opera House, whether it be through her mirror or one of the trap doors. And if one were to look through her dressing room, you could find many pink roses in various stages of wilt, and letters personally addressed to her written in the same colored ink. She claims she doesn't know who sends her them, but her dreamy smile shows more than just flattery. She leaves her own notes for Smartass as well, leaving them in loge #5 just before a show begins. Just sweet love letters only for his eyes.

No, they don't always agree. Poppy has lost track of how many times she's stormed down to Smartass' domain after something he most certainly did, and all the attention and admirers she had been gaining as her stardom rose have been dangerously grating Smartass' nerves. But at the end of each night, she is his, and he is hers. As it should be.

(Yeah this is partially me venting how i think a Christine x Phantom relationship would have turned out if it was the canon ending XD Also I'd like to point out that you said yandere Snartass might make his S/O marry him, which also correlates with the phantom trying to force Christine's hand. That is totally not going to become part of the Smarty-pop AU) thought XD

Greasypop • Dracula AU

I did struggle with Greasypop admittedly, but then I heard the song Please don't Make Me Love You from the soundtrack and I could not get this dynamic for this ship out of my head. Besides, it gives me an excuse to use the Vampire or the Monster AU XD No matter how you slice it, Dracula is pretty manipulative when you think about it. Especially with how he convinces Mina that Lucy's death was not his doing, which does fit Greasy's more manipulative nature... Not to mention that it'd be his fantasy to have as many hotties as Dracula did 😅

I'm just imagining vampire/incubus Greasy shows up into town, looking to plant his roots here for a while, and Poppy is one of his targets. Poppy can tell that something isn't quite right with him, even when he offers her comfort after she reads about yet another attack in the night. There's just something not right with Greasy.

But even so, she's having a hard time denying what he does to her. Just like how theres something about him that isn't quite right, there's something about him that makes her head feel dizzy. Something that let's his touch linger on her shoulder or arm before she snaps back to her senses. Something that makes her wish those evenings when he shows up unannounced and they wind up sharing a meal together don't end. It's like her heart is trying to give itself to Greasy, and her mind is trying to keep her grounded in reality.

It's not long before she breaks down, feeling like she's being driven mad, and just asks her friend- if he can even be called that- what he wants. She knows Greasy is not who he says he is, and she knows there has to be a reason he keeps coming back to her even though she's made it clear she doesn't want a man right now. Something tells her she doesn't want to know the truth, and yet another something tells her she wouldn't care.

But either way, no matter what, Poppy knows one thing for certain. Her heart can't take much more of this. And she didn't want it to. She doesn't want someone to come around and ruin this tranquility she's built for herself just for his own fun. So she asks, practically begs him, to just don't make her fall in love with him. Don't make her chase after him if he had no intentions of keeping her. Her instincts tell her that this is a terrible idea, that she should have slammed the door on the Spaniard long ago as she locked eyes with him.

But there was just something about him that made her love him.

(Not exactly the Dracula route I meant, I'm still working on it, but I hope it's still fun to read XD)

Peezy • Little Shop of Horrors AU

Ok ok I know this may not sound right but hear me out- Poppy x Wheezy are the most wholesome of the ships, kind of like how Audrey and Symore are wholesome. And also share the fact that Poppy/Audrey still see Wheezy/Seymore as such a good person deep down despite knowing or finding out the things they've done. Not to mention that Wheezy would treat Poppy right just like how Seymore would for Audrey.

Poppy and Wheezy work together in the same flower shop, and they both would agree that they are the high lights of each others work day. It's not exactly hidden that the two have feelings for each other- as their boss blatantly told Wheezy that he knew he thought things about the sweet girl. Though for many reasons, one of which is Poppy's horrid boyfriend Ben, they aren't together.

It was always heart-wrenching and rage inducing whenever Poppy would come in with fresh tears in her eyes, or when she would brush it off as just 'typical relationship struggles'. Wheezy has tried to just keep it to himself, and offer Poppy any comfort she needs. Though the night he got to actually see how that bastard treated her, he decided enough was enough. That bloodthirsty plant was the one who suggested it, but it's not like this wasn't a long time coming anyway.

The next morning, when Poppy is crying out of guilt rather than heartbreak, Wheezy keeps a cool head as he wraps an ashy arm around her and assures her that she shouldn't waste another second on that boy. He was never worth it, not if he couldn't appreciate what he had. Everything is alright now...

(... This was meant to be more fluffy, as fluffy as the original was, but it turned out a bit more manipulative than I intended at the end? I think? 😅 but hey, no one's gonna miss Ben either way-)

Pocho • Sweeny Todd AU

This one is special because here, Poppy is playing the role of Anthony, and Psycho Johanna. Specifically, I'm imagining the part of the play where Johanna is stuck in the asylum and Anthony is trying to break her free. Poppy in the Tiny-Tots AU is trying to set her friend and love free the second she finds out about him being locked away. Even if she has to employ the help of criminals to get him out.

Or, if we want more horror, Psycho is Sweeny, and Poppy is Lucy. Falsely accused of crimes he didn't commit just so the accuser could take his wife. Despite the fight he put up, Psycho and Poppy were separated, and she... Got hurt badly. And Psycho only finds out later when he comes back, now driven over the edge of sanity after all these years. And now, it's time for revenge.

Popshine • The Count of Monte Cristo AU

Another odd choice, I know. I almost gave this AU to Peezy in fact, but... Honestly I don't have too good of an excuse, I just want Shiny to sing Hell to Your Doorstep.

Also, just- can you imagine these girls using threads from their clothes in placement of engagement rings?? Shiny coming back years later, a shell of her former self but still being in love with Poppy despite how angry she is?? Poppy recognizing her immediately despite all that's happened and does her best to convince Shiny she still loves her???? My heart-

(Also I have a strong lesbian need to imagine Shiny in count clothes-)

Griny • Bonnie and Clyde AU

C'mon, how was this not going to be them?? Now granted, the only song I know from that musical is Buck you're going Back to Jail, but I do know the story of Bonnie and Clyde.

Shiny and Greasy would absolutely be criminal lovers on the run if it was just them. They would be such an infamous duo on the road, as they both can get mean when they need to.

(I would add more details to this, but I've been working on this ask for literal hours and I can't just save it as a draft so I'm trying to finish this 😅)

Bonus! Kingston X Poppy • Heathers AU

Ok ok ok I'm not sure if this musical would fit them honestly. Mainly because Kingston is your OC and you have broader musical knowledge than I do, so you know what would fit Kingston best. I just like the idea of Kingston singing I was Meant to Be Yours while Poppy is panicking in a closet.

What Musical would you say fits these two best, if you want to add onto this?

This is a very long ask, I apologize 😅 but I hope it's fun to read! ^^

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH OKAY

Smarty Pop Phantom of the Opera AU: I love how you set this up!! Pink roses at different stages of wilt? Poppy reading 'secret admirer' letters with a dreamy smile?? Ahhhhhhhhh

Greasy Pop Dracula AU: Ooooooh i love this.

please just dont make me fall in love with you, poppy breathes, heavy eyelids tired with life hanging heavy over her pretty eyes. Greasy's in her bedroom (vaguely she notices that he looks caught, for a moment. Eyes a smidge rounder and stock-still). She was sleeping until she had a bad feeling and woke- and saw him there. She should be terrified, she should try to run. She knows this. And yet she feels overwhelmingly calm, even with his wolf-like smile on her in the enclosed space; sleepiness from just a moment ago acting like a sedative. That, and that thing about Greasy that... always just makes everything go s l o w, around her.

(her will, her instincts to get away, her common sense, her movements... )

his smirk in the dark is definitely a warning as he straightens up, the sharp glint of his teeth making her feel a primal discomfort- almost fear.

i make no promises, hermosa. go back to sleep now. and in the morning try to resist; id like to see you try~

goodnight.

poppy watches the nightmare disappear swiftly, inhumanly gracefully, out her open window and only once he's gone- does she start to feel scared.

Peezy Little Shop of Horrors AU: I LOVE THE IDEA OF WHEEZY AND AUDREY II INTERACTING XDD I JUST KNOW IT WOULD BE GREAT XDD Also also-- Wheezy calling Ben 'boy'??? Sarah do you want me dead????? XD

Pocho Sweeney Todd AU: Ahhh, I love how you twisted this one around!! And the second one- woah XD Psycho is, of course, a great Sweeney. Plus they have kids so that works out, too (Imagine Turpin in this sent Percy away to boarding school or something, but kept Penny) I have to admit though that when I first saw the title here I thought Poppy was gonna be Joanna and Psycho was gonna be Anthony- and I thought, Rena would make a g r e a t Judge Turpin 😏 (i'm sorry, i'm thinking about rena in the turpin costume now XD the tight pants?? whoops- )

Griny Bonnie & Clyde AU: I LOVE BONNE & CLYDE I'M LISTENING TO IT RIGHT NOW. And- obviously- yes, this is absolutely perfect XD

Popshine Count of Monte Cristo AU: 🥺💕🥺💕🥺💕

(Also I'm very happy we both have the urge to put our mean bisexual oc's in periodwear XXD )

*just after they conspired to break greays outta jail*:

Seeing you mention You're Going Back To Jail though made me think XDD- who would Buck and Blanche? XDD Buck, Clydes brother who also broke outta prison and Blance, Buck's hardass wife who 's snide towards Clyde and Bonnie and sends her husband back to jail so they can one day be happy? XD My vote is for Jane Doe and Wheezy XD Can you imagine Wheezy gettin' told by his girl to turn his ass back the hell in??? 'what the hell are you talkin' about!??' *audible panic in his tone*

Bye, baby~

See you soon, sugar~

Kingston and Poppy Heathers AU: Oooooh, I could totally see this in the Highschool AU! XD

Hmmmmm, which musical AU should I go dor with King and Poppy... I donno, but I'm thinkin a Beetlejuice AU for Poppy and Rena XD Poppy is Adam (Or Lydia more like. But like grown adult Lydia who gets just as uncomfy as Adam does.), of course, and Rena is BJ XDDD Rena is such a gross femme fatale XD

I think we're a perfect fit, lets make out a bit-

Bigger, further, harder-

C'mon, drop your panties, I'm trynna fill you with wisdom and skill and the instinct to kill-

Gotta haunt til it hurts through the night~

etc

#i have never actually listened to dracula or count of monte cristo #maybe i have to now XD #this was s o fun to read. Thank you for sending it in!! XD

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the-malfunctioning-somnambulist · 2 years

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As much as I agree with jokes and genuine analysis about Irwing being the inspiration for Dracula, what I've been thinking about since starting 'Leaves of Grass' and since reading Bram Stoker's letter to Walt Whitman in full, is another possible parallel: between Stoker's relationship with Whitman and Seward's relationship with Van Helsing.

Van Helsing is a foreigner, like Whitman was to Stoker, but to Seward he too embodies universal human ideals - "an absolutely open mind", "indomitable resolution", "the kindliest and truest heart that beats" etc. As for his funky speech, well, there's that part of the letter...

"More than a year after I heard two men in College talking of you. One of them had your book (Rossetti’s edition) and was reading aloud some passages at which both laughed. They chose only those passages which are most foreign to British ears and made fun of them. Something struck me that I had judged you hastily. I took home the volume and read far into the night."

Also Stoker writes to Whitman:

"I have not addressed you in any form as I hear that you dislike to a certain degree the conventional forms in letters."

Compare it to the way Renfield first addresses Van Helsing while asking to be let out:

"What shall any man say of his pleasure at meeting Van Helsing? Sir, I make no apology for dropping all forms of conventional prefix. When an individual has revolutionised therapeutics by his discovery of the continuous evolution of brain-matter, conventional forms are unfitting, since they would seem to limit him to one of a class. "

There is no objection from Van Helsing at that - everyone in the group is indicated to be impressed by the whole speech, which means Van Helsing, like Whitman, does not mind this disregard for titles.

Did someone say big blue eyes? As well as bushy eyebrows and a broad fine forehead with hair fallling naturally back and to the sides? If you look up a couple photos of Whitman, they do deliver. Between him and Irwing, is it me or did Stoker have a thing for eyebrows?

And well, throughout the book, Van Helsing is described by Seward as a great teacher - and as very much a man. (Drinking game for each time Seward uses the epithet "iron" for his jaw or for other aspects of him, seriously). Again, let me quote from the letter:

"You are a true man, and I would like to be one myself, and so I would be towards you as a brother and as a pupil to his master."

And:

"How sweet a thing it is for a strong healthy man with a woman’s eye and a child’s wishes to feel that he can speak to a man who can be if he wishes father, and brother and wife to his soul."

Seward as a character is someone who has a bunch of icky urges (ahem, experimenting on your inmates, ahem, getting jealous that your crush took less blood from you than from her actual husband, AHEM), but at the same time Seward wouldn't risk losing his social position and perceived moral purity to fully give in to those urges. Stoker displays the same kind of caution in his first message to Whitman:

"If you are going to read this letter any further I should tell you that I am not prepared to “give up all else” so far as words go. The only thing I am prepared to give up is prejudice..."

And there's this, fandom bullshit aside, truly heartbreaking sentence in the letter:

"But be assured of this Walt Whitman — that a man of less than half your own age, reared a conservative in a conservative country, and who has always heard your name cried down by the great mass of people who mention it, here felt his heart leap towards you across the Atlantic and his soul swelling at the words or rather the thoughts."

Stoker's first letter is very naive in how it calls to Whitman and challenges him for even a moment of attention. It's a heartwrenching mess of defensive anxiety and hopeless honesty. It very much sounds like the voice of someone who never left the closet, before or after thirty.

(Marrying in his thirtieth year means he was an old bachelor by the era's standard. Seward is twenty-nine when he proposes to Lucy.)

And then Whitman responded to all that, and the tone of the letter feels largely friendzone-y. "My dear young man", flattered and honored but in a more impersonal way, please don't idealize my image because by now I'm just an old man living in the woods and suffering after paralysis. Something lukewarm.

Is it then really such a stretch to suggest that Jonathan and Dracula's isn't the only relationship Stoker, perhaps inadvertently, channeled something more personal into? A fantasy where your idol and mentor comes all the way from another country just because you asked him to, shares his toil with you and trusts you with his innermost thoughts while still avoiding complete and definitive interpretation because he is no common man?

I do think the two Johns parallel each other a bit as focal characters who often center their narratives on striking older guys showing them affection in weird but not fully unwelcome ways.

... anyway, this is why I headcanon Seward as the same kind of watchful dark-eyed thing that Stoker was in photographs

#dracula #dracula daily spoilers #john seward #abraham van helsing #john seward x abramam van helsing #dracula daily #also in his poems whitman praises positivism and is gay and goes skinny dipping a lot #i wonder how much the last two would be true for vh #helward

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ourgoodfriendjonathan · 2 years

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I don't even know what to post about today. I'm just going to process my thoughts and feelings here

The head of a giant wolf burst through Lucy's bedroom window

It killed her mother. She made a gurgling sound and took Lucy's garlic flowers, her only protection (!), as a last power move to doom her daughter

Jack was attacked with a knife

All the dogs in the whole neighborhood were howling

What was that ringing bell?

The maids were all asleep because somebody spiked the wine with laudanum? Why??

They screamed as they flocked out of the room and mere minutes (seconds?) later, they were knocked out. I picture them on the floor and comically sprawled out over the chairs and the table. I wonder if lucy heard flops and booms of them toppling over.

Renfield was licking up the blood

Jack was still weakened from the blood transfusion, and now even more. The poor lad can't catch a break

Oh god how will he react to Lucy's memorandum 😳

“I did wish that Dr. Seward was in the next room— as Dr. Van Helsing said he would be — so that I might have called him.” 😭 i wish that too lucy, and jack too

The telegram arrived too late whyyyy that is so

That is so

The vibe change omygod, to mina. I sooo wanted to hear from mina but not like this!! I wanted to be happy about her and now i almost feel resentful that she didn't "run op to town" even though she's completely innocent here.

Mina asking Lucy what she'll wear on the wedding 😭 Lucy hasn't spared a thought on the wedding in weeks, mina, and neither have we

Jfc the way lucy described the past days/weeks, it sounds so bloody terrifying. "Darkness in which there was not even the pain of hope to make present distress more poignant."

She was alone in a house full of sleeping maids, with her dead mother in her bed, with a broken window where a giant wolf just jumped through. That is... That is...

Severely traumatising.

I fear for Jack. How can he be attacked like that in his own office? They need better security

Jonathan "sometimes starts out of his sleep in a sudden way and awakes all trembling" 😭 i feel so bad for him

I really fear the doctors will be too late this time. Lucy never opened Mina's letter

She never read Mina's letter

It felt like Dracula was everywhere. He was the bat, the wolf, the howling dogs, he was in the very air

Mina's letter (unopened by lucy) 😭 why didn't you open it lucy

Lucy wake uuup, i don't like thiiis

Jack punched renfield!! Sprawling him on the floor! Get him boii!!

"Happily Van Helsing has not summoned me" :) – Telegram Van Helsing: "do not fail to be there" omg, the immediate juxtaposition

Mina's letter was such

It was such

We wanted that letter so badly

But not like this

"I am getting so strong again that I hardly know myself. It is as if I had passed through some long nightmare, and had just awakened to see the beautiful sunshine and feel the fresh air of the morning around me." <- such a mood. I felt like that after going home from the hospital once, all fixed up after months of sickness. One of the weirdest feelings ever

Aby baby, why, why didn't you put the county on the telegram? British mail why didn't you deliver it anyway? :(

Why couldn't Dracula pick another victim?? Someone with a death wish or something. Why can't he just stop eating all together, he won't die anyway will he.

Fuck Dracula, for real!! he has lost all of his charm to me!! So what that he cooks and cleans and likes trains and is so polite when he welcomes you in, i do not like him anymore, he's pathetic! Intrusive and pushy and insatiable. Napping angrily and flapping against poor dear Lucy's window like that. Fuck off

The fact that Lucy's mother was instantly scared of the flapping. Lucy suffered weeks of that fright.

Lucy knew. She been known. Something in her knew the flapping was related to her condition. I think that's very interesting. How does her mind work?

Van Helsing is going to come back to this

Jack will be devestated

Arthur

Arthur :(

#dracula daily #September 17 #long post #didn't know if i had to use a read more

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antimony-medusa · 1 year

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Medusa, you keep talking about Yuletide— what is that, and you do you say it like it’s written in a special font?

Well. I’m glad you asked.

Yuletide is a massive multi-fandom fic exchange that’s been running since 2003. The very first time it had three hundred participants, and it hasn’t fallen below that since. Normally between nine hundred and eleven hundred people participate in the exchange. The minimum word count is 1000 words, and works are revealed on Christmas Day.

It is the flagship exchange for Ao3, and Ao3′s exchange matching algorithm was specifically written to allow it to be run, cause nowhere else on the internet could support an exchange of this size and complexity.

Anyone can submit a fandom for the exchange, but the one criteria is that it has to be a “small” fandom, which is defined by having less than a thousand works on the Archive. Because Yuletide is specifically for small fandoms, what this means in practice is that people save up all their most obscure fandoms and wishes and requests, and then they make them into a careful letter at the end of October, and then matching goes out and all these tiny fandoms which never get fics written for them get one or two fics. There are requests for fic of commercials, rpf for historical figures, fics for art pieces, anthropomorphic fic of items and ideas, tons of book fandoms, and more. I signed up this year because SMPEarth got nominated (less than 200 fics), but I also offered Anthropomorphic Fast Food Restaurants (less than 5 fics), Books of the Raksura (150 fics) and Humans Are Space Orcs tumblr post (in the form nominated, no fics on the archive) which yes, someone requested fics in all of those categories. (I’m not telling you what I wrote though.) I’m mentioning this now because the collection just went live (it’s anon for a week), and it’s fully worth poking through and seeing all the things people request and deliver. Some highlights I saw already when I was perusing include:

Ancient Egyptian RPF (1 work)

Bionicle - All Media Types (1 works)

Dracula - Bram Stoker (Novel 1897) (8 works)

The Epic of Gilgamesh (1 work)

The Garden of Earthly Delights - Hieronymus Bosch (1 work)

Head and Shoulders "Hates Your Dandruff Loves Your Hair" Commercial (1 work)

Knitting (Anthropomorphic) (1 work)

"Mysterious fog nothing to worry about" says weatherman who died 20 years ago - Mary Gillis (3 works)

Polar Explorer RPF (7 works)

Tarot (Divination Cards) (2 works)

Untitled Goose Game (Video Game) (4 works)

Go forth and have fun!

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cyclesprefectpress · 2 years

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[image description: 3 photos of a small broadside of an excerpt from Dracula, letterpress printed from handset type, set in Garamond. full text under cut. Text in black, with a floral decoration on one side in pale green. The third photo is of the forme of lead type used to print the text, each letter and space an individual piece arranged by hand. end description.]

wip

I have not read Dracula before and you know what. Adaptations have all lied to me, making Harker such a tasteless saltine cracker of a guy. He’s got some uuuh weird opinions of course but the text, and the way it’s being delivered in bits as letters to ME, and the big book club party happening here on the hellsite—it really brings me a whole lot of sympathy for him. This castle business has been wild but buddy, I get it, I too find great relief in the spaces worn down and the tasks done & re-done by the people before us. Reading this old book together with our contemporaries & otherwise.

also it’s been way too long since I got to set a little bit of TYPE-type, I missed it :) wanted to do a quick thing to shake some words out of my fingers.

“This was evidently the portion of the castle occupied by the ladies in bygone days, for the furniture had more air of comfort than any I had seen. The windows were curtainless, and the yellow moonlight, flooding in through the diamond panes, enabled one to see even colours, whilst it softened the wealth of dust which lay over all and disguised in some measure the ravages of time and the moth. … I found a soft quietude come over me. Here I am, sitting at a little oak table where in old times possibly some fair lady sat to pen, with much thought and many blushes, her ill-spelt love-letter, and writing in my diary in shorthand all that has happened since I closed it last.”

#letterpress #letterpress printing #handset type #lead type #printmaking #Dracula daily #finished works #probably will do more of these. mood & time etc. probably more of them will be stupid jokes instead aksjsh #I nearly set ‘his lizard fashion’ in the most dramatic black letter I have.#it’s. SO funny.#but i really did want to set a real handful of type this time.

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maaruin · 2 years

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Dracula Daily broke the daily format today with the comments in brackets.

(Sent to Carfax, Sussex, as no county given; delivered late by twenty-two hours.)

(Unopened by her.)

Describe events on the 18th of September, not the 17th, and were (in-universe) presumably added by the person who compiled them.

But I mean, where else would you put them, so I don’t fault Dracula Daily for this.

Edit: I just realized that this has happened before. The Note from the Editor on the 18th of July said about the Log of the Demeter:

In Stoker's original text, this passage comes on August 8 - and is included in a newspaper article that Mina will paste into her journal.

So we already learned that the log will survive and that Mina will read it, even though that hadn’t happened yet. (Of course the Note from the Editor is by the creator of Dracula Daily, while “delivered late by twenty-two hours” and “unopened by her” are in the original novel. Still, another person doing the Dracula Daily thing might have decided to cut these notes on the entries out because they are not part of the letter/telegram at the moment it was sent and contain information about what happens to them on the 18th.)

#dracula daily #dracula spoilers #(not really but better tag)

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victorianpining · 2 years

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Hi Rebekah! I really enjoyed getting to watch your retrospective, and I'm happy you found a way to enjoy the game again. I wanted to reach out to you because I loved seeing how you moved on, and I thought it might be helpful to share my different experience of moving on, not so much for you (you seem to have found what works for you- which is great!) but for anyone who follows you who might have more of my temperament. I'm sorry for the long ask you don't have to publish it or engage with it if you don't have the time!!

If BBC Dracula was the game changer for you, watching Granada Holmes (1984-1994) was the thing that changed how I saw Johnlock and how I could engage with the text. After hearing lots of good things... how Watson never marries Mary Morstan... how Jeremy Brett (Sherlock Holmes was a queer man... Jeremy Brett saying "if it cheers the gays up I'm thrilled" in regards to the question if Sherlock and John were a couple... I decided to give it a watch. Honestly after a few episodes it quickly became my favorite Sherlock Holmes adaptation, and Jeremy Brett and David Burke have become my favorite Holmes and Watson actors (which was a bittersweet realization honestly, I couldn't imagine telling my 15 year old self that Benedict and Martin would not longer be my favorite).

What I found in the stories was a Sherlock and John who were happy with one another. Two men who shared their lives quite overtly. I won't go into all the details but while they may have been keeping secrets from the audience, I never got the impression they were hiding things from eachother. It's easy to read into it that they know they're both in love with eachother. The conflict of the show is in the mysteries, not their unspoken feelings

Sherlock and John and their electric, immediate connection was what attracted me to BBC Sherlock, but then that love brings both of them a lot of unresolved suffering. Furthermore, almost all of the Holmes stories where some element of homoerotic subtext is present (Private Life, Mr. Holmes, the RDJ movies, even the canon) pairs it with unresolved suffering between Sherlock and John. The relationship got me hooked, but then never delivered. It's stressful to me, and there's no payoff.

To put it dramatically, Granada Holmes made me realize I didn't have to live like this. Not to enjoy the Johnlock dynamic. I didn't realize there was so much air to breathe. It made me realize that I didn't actually want to play an elaborate game with Steven and Mark, I just wanted to enjoy a love story about two men who Understand eachother and were happy together despite being in a repressive era. While I still enjoy the first 10 episodes of BBC Sherlock, Granada Holmes has given me more of what I actually wanted out of the stories than BBC Sherlock ever did. I won't be entirely content until I get a canon queer Holmes adaption... but until then I'm as happy with Johnlock as I can be, because I figured out what I actually wanted from the story and how to find it.

TL;DR

If people miss the romance of BBC Sherlock through a Johnlock lens and just don't want to get back into the game, I can't recommend looking around at other Sherlock adaptations enough, particularly Granada Holmes. You might find what you need elsewhere.

Post script to my too long ask: for good canon ACD Johnlock I cannot recommend Katie Forsythe's entire fanfiction canon enough.

For closure I especially would recommend the two-parter Sign of Change and Cauldron: A Love Letter. This story does what no other Holmes adaptation has ever managed to do. It brings up the two canon events that (if they actually happened) must have wrecked the John and Sherlock relationship the most: John's marriage and Sherlock's fall. It ties them together, breaks your heart completely, and then *this is key* ultimately has John and Sherlock walk the difficult path to reconciliation and happiness again. I don't think a good Series Five of BBC Sherlock could fix me as much as these two fics have honestly.

Once again. Thank you. TJLC Explained was good times, and honestly if I had the chance to tell myself pre-2017 that I was getting my hopes up for nothing and BBC Sherlock would one day not even be my favorite Holmes adaptation anymore I wouldn't. The journey and excitement though misplaced was just so special and fun I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I hope I'll be seeing more projects of yours, Sherlock based or not!

Passing along the message 💛

#and thank you!#asks

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vickyvicarious · 10 months

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Today's entry is so much about trust and connection. The complete erosion of it, that is. It starts right away, with Jonathan's seeming certainty that there are workmen in the castle but for the first time no effort given to even trying to communicate with them or seek any kind of assistance or opportunity for escape with their presence. Instead, they are fully aligned with Dracula's plans:

The Szgany are quartered somewhere in the castle and are doing work of some kind. I know it, for now and then I hear a far-away muffled sound as of mattock and spade, and, whatever it is, it must be the end of some ruthless villainy.

This is of course the result of Dracula's efforts to sow distrust by clearly telling Jonathan one of them returned his letter to the Count, and reinforced by their laughter in the last entry. Jonathan no longer trusts the other people around him, not after being burned twice. At least not enough that he is pinning any kind of hope to it. Sure, he didn't get a chance, but in an earlier entry you can bet he would have said something about watching for one to speak to these workers he hears far off in the castle, or to check for an open door nearby them, etc. None of that is on the table anymore.

Moving on, a new scheme.

This, then, is his new scheme of evil: that he will allow others to see me, as they think, so that he may both leave evidence that I have been seen in the towns or villages posting my own letters, and that any wickedness which he may do shall by the local people be attributed to me.

Side note — here's another example of Jonathan being very clever and immediately connecting dots. He realizes instantly just what dual purpose Dracula stealing his identity serves. I mean, of course he must have been thinking very hard on why the Count took his belongings, if there was any extra purpose outside the obvious, but even so he is very quick to pick up on both the significance of the bag being carried (visible) and the implied purpose of delivering letters (invisible) as well as how both those will reflect on him.

Back to the point about trust though, this dual purpose is designed to make Jonathan seem more and less reliable at once. It's a backup to ensure his letters, if questioned, stand up to scrutiny. His written word can be trusted, it was definitely him who sent those letters! Of course this is predicated on a lie from the start since those letters were dictated, but now there is witness testimony to back up the paper trail, so to speak. (Yeah, I recognize the irony of Dracula prepping like this in the same entry that Jonathan laments his lack of access to legal rights that even criminals have. He doesn't have them but even if he did Dracula is basically framing him to get him 'convicted' regardless.) And then dressing up as Jonathan to abduct another child is the way to fully discredit him. Dracula made sure he was seen as Jonathan doing this - I think it's not just that the mother was uniquely determined to get her child back, but Dracula let her (and maybe others) see him-as-Jonathan taking the child away. He ensured the locals' belief that Jonathan is a lost cause, that he too has become a monster. If someone ever questioned them further about him they wouldn't want to help them find him. Not for any kind of rescue, anyway. More to the point though - if Jonathan tries to escape, they won't help him. Not anymore

It is a mirror to Jonathan's own opinion of the other people working in the castle. Just as he, due to Dracula's manipulations, sees their actions in the worst light - just as he aligns them fully with the Count's evil plans... so too will the locals do the same for Jonathan now. This is proven by the mother's response to the sight of him:

When she saw my face at the window she threw herself forward, and shouted in a voice laden with menace:—

"Monster, give me my child!"

On top of just being incredibly cruel to everyone involved - Jonathan being blamed like this just after hearing her child die, her seemingly coming face-face with the monster who stole her baby and yet unable to reach him at all, and of course the kind of casual cruelty inherent in Dracula not even bothering to kill her himself but just sending his wolves after her - on top of all that, this moment serves a distinct purpose. It ensures Jonathan has no one to rely on but Dracula, no one at all.

...and yet, that's proven to be not entirely true in this same entry. Or is it? There's some interesting nuance here with the vampire ladies' second attack:

Something made me start up, a low, piteous howling of dogs somewhere far below in the valley, which was hidden from my sight. Louder it seemed to ring in my ears, and the floating motes of dust to take new shapes to the sound as they danced in the moonlight.

Jonathan is shocked out of his trance by the sound of dogs howling. Only partially, sure, but it awakens him enough to fight back to full awareness and then flee the scene. The fact that he says it is distant dogs howling is such a kick in the gut. Because he encounters wolves again later this same entry and mentions them howling there. So he isn't just mistaking wolf howls for dog howls, he is noting two distinctly different sounds.

Dogs are not wolves. They aren't the wild beasts that prey upon people, the children of the night, the monsters in the dark - no, they are loyal and domesticated. They represent people, civilization. They are diametrically opposed to wolves and thus to vampires, and are shown to be instinctively opposed to Dracula.

So this means that Jonathan is symbolically saved by sounds of humanity. And yet there's a disconcerting element which undermines this brief bit of security. Because what makes the dogs howl? Dracula. Dracula kidnapping a child, in Jonathan's guise at that. And so the moment that rescues Jonathan from the vampire women once again... is once again linked to Dracula, once again substitutes another victim in Jonathan's place. This ambivalence is summed up in the final line of this section:

I fled, and felt somewhat safer in my own room, where there was no moonlight and where the lamp was burning brightly.

Jonathan feels safer in his room, where he is protected from the wild monstrous moonlight by the reassuring light burning brightly, a sign of civilization and humanity. And yet the reason his room is safe comes down in the end to, not the light, but Dracula designating it as a 'safe space'. As if to drive the point home even more, not two lines later Jonathan finds that his sanctuary has once again become a prison: he's locked inside and cannot leave to try and save the child he can hear being killed nearby.

Because he is surrounded by Dracula's influence, because he is fully under Dracula's power, any link to humanity is inevitably tainted. Jonathan cannot maintain any connection to civilization or trust in any people. His best chance is a vain feeling of false security. (Excluding his journal, of course - the diary is unknown by Dracula, and thus outside his influence. And Jonathan so clearly relies heavily upon it to keep up his hope, his sanity, his resistance.) At least, not while he is in the castle, the seat of Dracula's power. And unfortunately, there seems to be no way out.

#dracula daily #jonathan harker #count dracula #dracula meta #my meta

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minimalnerdist · 2 years

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Dracula Daily : May 28

Mild warning for spoilers, mostly talking about Jonathan trying to send letters.

Oh, sweet, panicked Jonathan. I read your note today and I am shaking my head. It is only natural that the Romani would remain loyal to Dracula, and intercept your attempts at delivering letters without the Count's knowledge! You yourself had just clarified that they align themselves with a particular noble and even take on his name! They are, at least in this moment, staying on his land and consider themselves allied to Dracula in their way.

If I had wanted to attempt that, I would have at least sent a dummy letter of no consequence, to see if they betrayed me. If no word had come from Dracula, I would then CONSIDER attempting a real letter. And when sending any real message I would have kept it all in shorthand.

It was suggested here, I believe, that the Count does NOT understand shorthand? I have been wondering this since the beginning of the story. Lol I wouldn't say it's confirmed, bc Dracula has a funny way of trying (often very badly) to deceive or mislead, but I would say it's quite probable he doesn't understand it.

I also find it VERY amusing that the Count came in, said he didn't know where the letters came from (PFFT) then later said, "Well, you'll forgive me for ACCIDENTALLY breaking the seal on this letter, but here's a fresh envelope to reseal it in."

Like, bruh. Obviously you opened it to read it...

Then, in Count Dracula's token conspicuous way, he locks Jonathan into the room.

Meanwhile, in this whole situation, I noticed the Count perpetually calls Jonathan "my friend." I don't know if Jonathan leaves this out of his account, but... He doesn't even call Jonathan by name? He's just "my friend" or just "you"? Again, this might just be the way Jonathan is transcribing the dialogue, but I find it odd. It's like Dracula is simultaneously trying to distance himself a bit from Jonathan as a person, and also trying to convince Jonathan by use of repetition that Dracula is a kind, goodly friend of his. 🙄

Additionally of note, Dracula does take a moment to show BOTH correspondences to Jonathan. And while he says "ye I didn't mean to open the letter, my bad, let's resend it together," with the postcard to Mina in shorthand, he seems disgusted by it.

(I theorize, based on past details, that the Count really hates not knowing everything. Call it a side effect of longevity of life or something like life, but I think he hates not being super knowledgeable. The man reads books on train times. Will he use the train? That is undetermined. But by God, he will KNOW all the train times. Lol So coming up against shorthand, which may not be something he's had in his library or heard, he is disgusted.)

In response to being disgusted by information he can't understand, he makes a point to call it an attack against FRIENDSHIP, and HOSPITALITY, which he believes he has given to Jonathan in full, and which Jonathan should be grateful/respectful for. Interesting. But then he BURNS it in front of him, as a demonstration of, "if you try to send anything else like this, I'll do the same thing, so don't even bother."

IF, contrary to what is suggested, Dracula DOES understand shorthand, then him calling the postcard an attack on friendship and hospitality would be referring directly to what Jonathan was trying to tell Mina. Which I would assume is along the lines of "I'm being held captive here, Mina, send help plz."

One reason I think he MIGHT be able to read shorthand is bc he said, "It is unsigned." This suggests he may be able to differentiate what the lettering means and is using a silly small reason that the letter cannot be sent.

Honestly, I think the postcard IS signed, bc Jonathan is a good boy, so even if it would be painfully obvious who it was from if Mina got a postcard in shorthand, he would likely still sign it. So personally, I'm betting the Count doesn't understand it, and is saying "there's no REAL signature on it, it's just a bunch of weird shit I don't know how to read, so fuck that, I'm burning it."

Lastly, I think there's a 50/50 chance the Count is actually sending ANY of these letters, he could just be faking it to keep Jonathan quiet. Or he might actually be sending them to prove to other people that Jonathan is still alive and well. Which be IS alive, but idk about saying he is well at this point.

Lots of fascinating developments, and I'm curious for when the next correspondence comes in!

#draculadaily #daily dracula

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