#I just love Dracula ok??

[booigi-boi]

Before Halloween ends, Shipwrecked's Dracula where Lauren is Quincey Morris

No real reason... 🦇

[ibrithir-was-here]

Certain comments on the previous self indulgent Harkers 2.0 x Castlevania AU picture inspired this contuation.

Lu's incarceration in Castle Dracula just went from bad to worst as she realizes just what kind of Dracula Adaption she's in and she wants absolutely none of it

(Cuz, unfortunately, yeah, I think Castlevania Dracula would definitely succumb to the Reincarnated Wife Virus. This particular unfortunate Harker heroine, however, is happily married and 100% trying to lizard style her way out of the castle. If only it would stop freaking teleporting...)

[jrueships]

Paul George on Stephen A. Smith’s Kawhi Leonard jab: “I didn’t like that moment… Kawhi wants to play… We exhausted a lot out of Kawhi this season. So at some point your body breaks you down… I didn’t appreciate that moment. I know I laughed because the situation was lighthearted, but deep down it was like you gotta let that go, Stephen A.”

Paul George, knight in shining armor

[immediatebreakfast]

The tension building at Whitby now that the Demeter is near the shore is very delicate, it's the tracks of a train going at a very high speed towards a wall. It's inevitable, and it will have consequences that will impact the narrative. No matter what we want to do, the only thing left is watch.

So Mina, in her controlled melancholy over both Lucy and Jonathan, writes in her journal to document along with process all of her feelings towards all of the events that are happening. However, Mina's stress has been turning up so much that it affects her writing when she is not documenting stuff like the weather, or Mr. Swales' monologues.

We get one single line referring to Lucy:

"Lucy is more excitable than ever, but is otherwise well."

It feels like an assurance to herself rather than a simple mention. Instead of telling, or describing Lucy in a more lovely detail, Mina just tells that she is a little bit more anxious, but well you know? Lucy is well... There is no mention of Lucy's sleepwalking progress, nor if there are any meaningful changes so far. Which, if I can say, for Mina is enough for now.

Mina's dread also has invaded more her worries over Jonathan, more than other days since the weather in Whitby seems to be affecting everyone, and everything.

"If I only knew where to write to or where to go to."

One character trait which is a core trait for Mina is her "do-er" personality. It's a layer that is intricate to all of her actions. Mina is a very active character, she thinks and she acts. She needs to act because Mina searches for the answers to her questions so she can know what to do. This line implied that the only thing stopping Mina from going to Transylvania herself to search for Jonathan is the lack of concrete information about his fate.

Mina is an active character, but she needs information to know how to act, because above all Mina is a very grounded woman who knows what limits her in her actions.

"Here comes old Mr. Swales. He is making straight for me, and I can see, by the way he lifts his hat, that he wants to talk.... I have been quite touched by the change in the poor old man."

Something is affecting Mr. Swales. It seems that Mina expected another story, or a anectode, but the old sailor came with an apology. Mina's control over emotions may have slipped a little bit if he noticed. Then, an incredible speech about the comfort of death is said with the property of someone who knows it well.

All old people are like that, they speak of death in a more "careless" because they have lived well, and since all of their friends (the ones that are still there) are in the same road, they often forget how this may "upset" younger people, people who have still not lived enough like Mina. It is touching to hear Mr. Swales to tell Mina that she doesn’t need to worry about his death because he is not either, and she only needs to remember him as that cynical old sailor who told her so much about ghost stories.

Yet, after Mr. Swales' speech what Mina has left is unrest, no actions, and no answers. Lucy is still sleepwalking, and Jonathan is still on the limbo between life and death. If Whitby's weather warns of something coming, and Mr. Swales speaks of how death is the only thing that awaits all of US in the end...

... then what would become of her, and her Jonathan?

[amazingspider-z]

some more ghost rider sketches, version i guess i wanted to draw some bones,

including a partial prototype of whatever the hell the Rider has going on underneath his skin-suit (which might need more leather 'muscles' but. whatever), a theoretical endpoint of how dead Robbie could get in my verse, which. unlikely? extremely. but fun to draw, and a line-up of Robbie, Lisa, and Gabe

in theory, Lisa's sense of style was inspired by @wazzappp 's post of Claire's fashion Lisa, but, well, outfit design eludes me. so. brightly colored vague y2k vibes are. the best i got

[gentleman-aster]

Reasons why Count Dracula is babygirl:

Fictional

Old man

Homicidal

Kinda gay

Beyond redemption

Spooky and isolated

Tries to act formal and like his plans work but is actually pathetic and kinda silly

[chibishortdeath]

General Simon brainrot sketch page :3, as per usual, explanations under a cut. Apologies if my posts tend to be kinda huge and difficult to scroll past, I try to do the cuts to make sure they do the least inconvenience to anyone! (>-< ;)

Just the whole page in full ft. My thumb lol

Expression practice! Simon is feeling the weight of his situation rn alas :(. I’ve always imagined him being panicked the whole game; the overarching entire game timer really gives a pretty good feeling of dread imo. The two doodles at the bottom were attempts at multiple ideas I’ve seen floating around about the curse, but they’re kinda bad in execution looking at them no tbh. But the first one is based on the idea that the curse gives some vampire traits like sharp teeth and would probably lead to proper vampirism if he were to die from it. The second was general attempt at like skull practice and comparing facial features to skull structure, but oh my god the page kept smudging and I tried making it look ok with some random blood on there but it just made it look even sillier 💀.

These next two are based on two random like liminal space images I ran into on Pinterest and I drew them mostly because I suck at backgrounds and idk Simon’s Quest itself is like Castlevania: Liminal Space Edition a lot of the time, so it fits X,,,,D. The first one I really liked the composition of the path on the far side contrasted to the trees. Imagine the water is the purple cursed swamp :3. Hopefully Simon has laurels just standin around in there.

This second liminal space for Simon to be in was this neat nighttime photo of a graveyard! Trees are HARD TO DRAW, especially just in pencil and a solid black background. There’s blood on the ground and stuff cause he was just fighting some monsters, probably those two headed lizard guys. It’s the awkward stillness after clearing out an area of enemies.

The pose for this one is based on the LOL~lots of laugh Miku figure lmao 💀💀💀

Simon is very fun to put in exaggerated poses! Especially cause you have to exaggerate them more to get the same ratio of pose to negative space because muscles and armor. I had no idea how to make metal belt armor thingies sit in a like legs up floating sort of pose like this so they kinda bend a little weird but eh he looks cute otherwise. The other doodles present are one that says “brainrot” which is kinda making fun of my own dedication to an NES character 💀 and also cause haha rot like the curse. Also, teeny tiny Simon with a heart!!! :3

Yippie! Simon posing again! I think the first pose was inspired by this like random old anime style angel figure??? Idk I think she was just an original character figure and the pose was pretty different, I just used the reference mostly for the arm position. Anyway, he’s vibin, just sitting curled up and momentarily comfy. Alas, the horrors persist in the second doodle that was an attempt at showing how the curse kinda deteriorates him but he just kinda ended up having a scarily snatched waist and it looks more stylized than like sick. Also the armor kinda bends around him in a way that makes it look like it shrunk with him which is so dumb lmaooooo (XwX). I’ll have to revisit the concept eventually idk, just look at his face for this one XD. Hahaha tiny doodle based on Larval Rin on the left there, nothing to see here—

The main doodle is just Simon looking into the distance bewildered and holding the whip, standard stuff. There’s also a side profile doodle and an attempt at drawing crying again cause I was getting kinda rusty at both of those things.

Simon Belmont but if he was 2000s anime lol. A fun little style experiment, I might keep this as like another secondary art style. There’s also some doodles of a hanged man skeleton, the eyes of Vlad, a skeleton hand, and a couple little chibi Simon’s of various expressions.

More 2000s anime Simon, but in a more silly way like the art style change for joke sections. One is him just goofily holding up Dracula’s head, but it’s contrasted immediately with a more gritty usual art style doodle of him with harsh shading lol. Get you a man who can do both I guess 💀

I gotta practice more on backgrounds and composition and stuff, probably also get some curse effects consistent augh. Lately I’ve been on and off working on random things or just staring into space tired, getting back to using social media is hard and an exhausting uphill battle unfortunately (_ _ ;). Sometimes I feel like I should probably split these up into multiple posts to make things more visible and to put more focus on specific drawings, but idk I don’t really want to, it just feels weird to me breaking up a doodle page like that, if that makes sense??? Eh idk.

[todayisafridaynight]

thinking about vampiric arakawas again just so i can make a 'blood-sucking politician' joke

[solradguy]

I wish there were more books from a sad/angry monster's point of view like Grendel by John Gardner but every time I look for "books similar to grendel by john gardner" the lists are just a bunch of books I've already read and aren't the same as Grendel; Beowulf, The Epic of Gilgamesh, Sir Gawain & The Green Knight... Not the same... These are all heroes, show me the monster's point of view. Tell me about the agonies of Fafnir and Dracula and St George's dragon before they were murdered by the hero...

[illusioncanthurtme]

UHHHH

I JUST READ THE PART IN DRACULA WHERE MINA RECALLS HER CONFRONTATION WITH DRACULA

and uhhhhh

This book is a fucking soap opera I swear to god

[the-crow-binary]

Hi! In scenarios where Dracula gets together with Isaac and/or Hector, what would Death's reaction be? This is just my Deathula self wanting to see that (つω⊂* )

Oh Death <3 Dracula's first, eternal simp <3 His forever husband <3 I bet seeing him get with Lisa was already hard enough, but then with his general(s)?? When he's right here?? :< Rude. :< It's not Hector nor Isaac who betrayed their old Lord to give him his soul :< It's not them who've been by his side for 400 years and protected him and nourrished him and guided him and helped him become who he is today :< What the hell? :<

He wouldn't say anything, of course, but Dracula starts to know him after living together for 400 years. It's obvious he is unhappy, even though all he wants is his master's satisfaction and happiness... and mouth and body and soul and love and

But even though, and he's the first surprised by that, he'd be a bit jealous... he also knows that Isaac and Hector are humans, and so, momentary :) They'll never develop the bond he already shares with Dracula, one that only immortal beings can understand. Dracula can have all the affairs he wants with mortal people, in the end, it doesn't matter, because he's always going to be The One. His only companion in eternity. Dracula always comes back to him no matter what, and Death is patient... a few decades are nothing in the face of eternity. <3

[umbranocturnes]

Valerius Draculya

Character introduction for my OC Valerius the second main character of the novel series I have been developing for many years now behind the scene. I really enjoy doing these character portraits even though they are repetitive. I am posting some information below about him if you would like to read! There is also a second version of this portrait where you can see proper colors without the lighting effects.

TW/CW: World War I & II, Real history, mentions of nazis/fascism.

Valerius has an extensive history, perhaps some of the longest in my story.

Background

As a mortal man he was quite literally Dracula. Born in December 3rd of 1431 he had a long and strife filled life for a man of his time and possessed a long running list of enemies. He became one of the most notable rulers of his time and depending on who you ask he was a ruthless butcher or a just ruler. During this time Setheroth Noctus became his closest advisor and confidant. Having known each other since childhood, and having been raised to inherit the position as right hand to Valerius as ruler, Setheroth was the only man he trusted fully with his life. The two were inseparable forces, riding into battle together and covering about all manor of political issues freely, they also grew a rather infamous reputation amongst their peers. They both die in battle trying to defend Valerius' kingdom which falls under the rule of another. Terrified that the two would come back from the dead and seek revenge Ottoman soldiers decapitate and dismember both Setheroth and Valerius in death, Setheroth would go on to be buried in a deep grave under a tree in a field, what happened to Valerius' body remains unknown.

Something curious happens after Valerius dies. Undead beings are given a choice when they are reformed into dead beings, to change themselves in ways that wouldn't have been possible in life and to even forget the memories of who they were in life. Valerius makes the choice to completely change his image, adopting the new name Valerius and burying most of the memories of his former life starting over new.

Victorian Era

Valerius returns to life as a vampire during the early Victorian Era where he lives utterly isolated away from society for decades, keeping to the ruins of his old strongholds and forests of shat was then Wallachia and Transylvania. Over the course of decades Valerius spent time educating himself on world history and 'modern' advancements in science, medicine, and language changes. He amassed collections of reading material and repaired one of the old fortresses he used to inhabit, taking up residence there. Having lived in isolation for many decades attempting to teach himself how to speak a few very rudimentary languages he begins to travel to different countries namely Germany and Autria-Hungary meeting other undead beings. He sets his mind on visiting and moving to Great Britain but being out of touch with the new laws now governing undead beings in society and their interactions with humans, he finds himself in trouble with a real estate agent, his wife and their friends. They chase him out of the country all the way back to his fortress and kill him for his crimes, however Valerius would not stay dead.

WWI

He awakens again in 1916 shortly after the Kingdom of Romania declares war on Austria-Hungary during the Great War. He fights alongside Romanian units for a long time careful not to reveal his identity. However, after taking extreme casualties and being one of the last of the unit left alive he leaves behind fighting alongside Romania and with great hesitation joins up with the British army resuming the fight now part of a different unit headed by Captain Sheridan Levingston and his Lieutenant Francis Rothwell. He will remain fighting alongside the British army until the end of WWI, growing close to the unit he was a part of despite some language barriers.

Following WWI Valerius falls on hard times, living in poverty in Britain due to the demobilization crisis. Being severely injured in the Great War and suffering trauma he once again isolates himself away from society taking up residence in a farmhouse in the countryside that had belonged to a soldier who died in the war. There he struggles to live off the land, scraping by without a job being unhirable in British society. Being a vampire Valerius requires blood to sustain himself, during the war it had been easy enough to obtain but following the war he's forced into stealing it from unsuspecting families in the countryside. When people start experiencing fatigue and illness in large numbers a young freelance doctor is forced to get to the bottom of it, Brahm Faulkner. Brahm along with some friends who were members of undead hate groups / hunting organizations came to the conclusion the illnesses were due to vampire attacks and Brahm tracked down Valerius to the old farmhouse.

Interwar Years & WWII

Brahm discovering that Valerius living in poverty and having fought in the Great War and even had medals to show for it doesn't have the heart to kill him. Instead Brahm offers to help him and Valerius accepts his offer coming to live with Brahm in his small flat. Brahm and Valerius become quite close as Brahm's friends cut him out for 'sparing the life of a monster'. Brahm teaches Valerius many things including how to drive, speak modern English, and the laws governing the undead that Valerius had been unaware of and breaking. Valerius eventually starts to assist Brahm with his medical practice running errands for him.

However, as fascism begins to rise into prominence and starts threatening peace in Europe in 1929 Valerius gets a unexpected visit from one of the men he served with during the Great War, Alfred Hackett. Alfred now working in intelligence asks Valerius for his help wanting him to become a spy for the government and go to Germany to keep watch on the newly forming Nazi party. Valerius agrees to it understanding the importance of the assignment and rejoins the army now as a spy and leaves for Germany in 1931. From then on Valerius stays in Germany infiltrating the ranks of the Nazi party reporting his findings back to Alfred in Britain. As war threatens Europe Valerius goes through officer's schooling and climbs the ranks of the Nazis ending up as the head of the undead sector for the army. This puts him in both a unique and precarious situation, placed perfectly to foil nazi plans from the inside saving the lives of allied soldiers and partisans alike. Valerius devotes himself to interfering with nazi plans throughout the war and handing over information to the allies.

Throughout the war he rewrites and interferes with battle plans so that they favor the allies, burns and loses information critical to axis plans, plants misinformation to confuse axis command, assassinates axis commanders, and conducts sabotage operations all in a effort to help the allies from behind enemy lines. He is joined by Setheroth Noctus in 1941 after reuniting under strange circumstances, and following his induction into the SOE, the organization Valerius was grandfathered into Setheroth assists him in his operations.

Random Facts:

Valerius has a lot of random medical knowledge from reading Brahm's medical notes from university.

The scar over Valerius' eye is from WWI he was gashed by a bayonet. He was also caught out in a gas attack and gave his mask to a human soldier. As a result he suffers permanent lung damage and has issues with them.

Valerius' hobby is working on vehicles having taken a liking to them as the technology progressed. He compares it to surgery but without all the risks. He does not allow anyone to drive his cars.

Valerius' main ability is to manipulate iron, he can manipulate it in varying amounts including traces of it present in blood. He can manipulate how it moves and use it as weapons.

Valerius' first language is 'vulgar Latin' as this was the precursor language to Romanian. He can also speak with varying degrees of success and fluency, Romanian, English, German, Turkish, Hungarian and some smaller more regionalized languages.

Valerius is a good cook but almost exclusively over an open fire. It takes him years to get acclimated to using a stove and still prefers to cook over open flame. He likes spicy foods or foods with a lot of flavor and cannot stand overly sweet things.

//Thanks for reading if you made it this far! Valerius is one of my favorite OCs and I enjoyed combining both military history and classic literature into his lore. I have always been obsessed with Dracula as a story, it's one of my favorites and has a lot of influence on my own story along with the anime Hellsing. This is another version of the image above with the proper colors.

[ibvix]

Thank you for sharing your well developed and meticulous style of creating life alive … Your exquisiteness to breathe life in to Your Brilliant Creative Art, occurring almost simultaneously giving the life saving dose to the boy the world would forever consider living life alive !!!

Someone said "Jonathan Harker but what if he was a Vampire but also still a dork?"

That someone might have been me.

[jrueships]

if anyone has seen the 5 heartbeats (movie) & wanna talk abt it in the gay lens lmk bcs i love my divas . jt is my fav slut and dresser is so hot for having to deal with him (they stood next to each other) idk lmk. OR IF U WANNA TALK THE TEMPTATIONS MOVIE.. yall it's literally free on UTUBE !!!!!!!! it's a 2 parter so yall can watch it while eating or whatever idk yall pls Paul is so hot. Melvin has such soulful eyes. Pls yall plis

[meggettes]

continuing my Halloween monster movie marathon with Frankenstein (1931)! commentary in the tags 🧟‍♂️

[eff-plays]

Ok so I watched the interview with Stephen Rooney, Astarion's writer, and here are some highlights. (I'm an aspiring writer and current game design student who wants to write for games so I'm sorry if some of these insights aren't as interesting to you as they are to me <3)

He calls Astarion his "horrible little vampire boy"

He loves seeing the fandom around Astarion<3

He did write other characters in the game, but mostly NPCs surrounding Astarion or his storyline, so it mostly revolved around Astarion

Astarion is not as connected to other companions/Origins as, for example, Lae'zel and Shadowheart, or Wyll and Karlach are to each other, but he is still reactive to their stories, even if it's just to stand off to the side and laugh when something terrible happens

He had a clear sense of where Astarion's story would start and end, but it got "muddy in the middle", but those are also moments where the best ideas come from

They write from the general idea that every character has one "good" and one "evil" ending, in order to give the player choice. RIP Ascendant apologists :(

According to Stephen, two of the most important aspects of Astarion's character (to keep consistent when bringing him to Idle Champions, at least) is that he enjoys violence, but is also fun about it

"He has a certain appreciation for violence, I guess? A bit of a murdery streak. [...] He's a vampire, he's all about blood, and he's all about, kind of, those darker sides of humanity. [..] But at the same time, he is ... He is really fun, he's really fun to write, he's really fun to have in your party, and it's very important for me that that is also represented."

"He's gonna stab you, but will have a smile on his face as he does it? I mean, I dunno. That's kind of him in a nutshell."

Larian would not have allowed for Astarion to be a typical brooding Dracula type, and there were scenes that were shot down for not being original enough

The main thing about Astarion was trying to get a "sense of fun." It would be easy to write a character that was very unlikable, and they absolutely did not want to do that

Rooney says Astarion is consistently terrible throughout the game and awful in a whole lot of ways, but he also needed to be charming enough that you could tolerate his presence and wanted him around

Rooney also had a lot of input on Astarion's stats (meaning the 10 Charisma is probalby 100% intentional)

He also had input on how certain lines should be delivered, even though the writers didn't directly work with voice actors

The way Astarion moves and poses is "all Neil"

Apparently, Neil Newbon worked on the character for years and Rooney did not speak to him once, though his voice work did influence how Astarion's lines were written and it became a "feedback loop" (Possible context for "ONLY SLIGHTLY, NEIL")

There were no points where a line delivery drastically changed Astarion's writing; rather it was a constant, slow evolution

However, there was one very spoilery moment where Neil gave such emotion to some "basic" lines that it fundamentally changed the scene (WHAT IS IT OMG)

It's difficult to balance approval, as you don't want to straight up write a monster. Every character needs to have some humanity in them. So if it comes to leaving the party, it needed to be the result of something central to said character. They wanted to be mindful of situations that would cause actual rifts between characters. (I assume this is why most generic disapprovals/approvals are +/- 1 or 2, while character-related ones give +/-5 or more)

However, as they don't write straight up horrible people/monsters, it doesn't come up as often as one might think.

The interviewer makes a point about how characters like Astarion and Lae'zel are good examples of how to play "evil" characters, as they are maybe not the best people but are still eager and willing to stick around the other party members

They worked to make sure the characters would work as a group, no matter the configuration of the group. The characters needed to be on the same path, even if they don't always agree or walk that path the same way.

Stephen Rooney is very proud of the "climactic" scene of Astarion's story. (AS HE SHOULD BE.) He even had to step away from the computer and have an emotional moment. Me too, man.

He's also "extremely pleased" that there's a point where you can punch Astarion in the face. "Actually, that one might be my favorite part" A MAN OF THE PEOPLE!!

Stephen Rooney's tip on what specific thing you should try out with Astarion: When he's trying to get a "sneaky nibble" at night, you should "probably" let him bite you. Way ahead of you there, sir.

No discussion about Astarion's romance unfortunately, but that's that!