#RESD THIS NOW | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

vickyvicarious · 3 months ago

Note

Somehow Arthur feels very, very close to me. I seem to feel his presence warm about me. I suppose it is that sickness and weakness are selfish things and turn our inner eyes and sympathy on ourselves, whilst health and strength give Love rein, and in thought and feeling he can wander where he wills. I know where my thoughts are. If Arthur only knew!

I know there have been a bajillion thinkpieces written lectured and adapted about how blood giving or taking is sex and sexual appetite etc but man vampire lore is sleeping on blood being a vessel of one's love

So true!

Especially when we consider the difference between the vampires drinking vs. the humans transfusing. Like, I was musing about this exact thing the other day. With each transfusion, Van Helsing (et al) is performing a kind of medical vampirism. But there are a couple key differences between that and actual vampirism. And the love is the biggest one.

We see humans giving blood as an expression of their love. They are willingly sacrificing their own health to heal another. The first transfusion makes this extremely clear, with Arthur speaking of his devotion using the words:

"My life is hers, and I would give the last drop of blood in my body for her."

And that's before he even knows she needs it! Love and devotion and bleeding for another are already linked concepts in his mind, and this line makes the connection clear to readers too. As for the result - in this diary entry you quote, Lucy describes the effect as not only a physical boost, but a kind of spiritual/emotional one too. It's not just that she is physically doing better and feeling happier because of that. She is specifically thinking of Arthur after he has given her blood, and feels her love for him stronger than ever. There's a sense that his blood, full of his love for her, is in her veins now, and her love for him is strengthened by it. After Jack gives her blood, we get one of the best moments in their relationship, with the shared secret/smile at one another about the past failed proposal. I think this is such a wonderful gesture of friendship and platonic love. I wouldn't be surprised if Lucy is feeling closer than ever to him in that and similar moments too... and it doesn't have to be because of his blood in her veins, but couldn't that be a contributing factor? (We can also say maybe empath!Lucy helps her feel the effect of the emotion in the blood even more, but that's slightly beside the point.)

I've even wondered if perhaps in-universe, emotional connection makes a transfusion more likely to be successful. Remember, at the time the book was written, blood types had not yet been figured out, so the success or failure of transfusions was kind of a mystery (though only for another like three years after publishing). We can easily say "oh, Lucy is conveniently a universal recipient" and leave it at that. But thematically, it would be quite fitting if the closeness between two people makes them more likely to have their blood 'accepted'. It would also fit with the comments Van Helsing made that Arthur "can do more than any that live," or is "better than me, better than my friend John" when it's time for him to give Lucy blood. Sure, it makes logical sense for someone who isn't her doctor to do it, and he is young and healthy (and tall! more blood!), but there's also a sense that he has more 'right' to do so than the others, because he is her lover. If we run with that, the love linking them makes his blood more effective, or at least more likely to be accepted.

Now, let's contrast all of this good, love-filled blood-gifting with vampires, shall we? Just as Arthur spoke of his love in terms of giving blood, the vampires speak of taking blood in terms of love:

"He is young and strong; there are kisses for us all."

(Not to mention the whole "you never love"/"oh yes I can" exchange afterwards. That's an even more explicit example in a lot of ways, just a bit longer than this one line.) In a sense, vampires taking blood is an expression of their 'love'. But as I discussed in the post linked above, a vampire's version of love is predatory. It consumes. They don't accept blood that is willingly given. Instead they take blood, and forcibly compel people to 'offer' it to them by suppressing their minds/negative emotions in a hypnotic trance. This is where you could bring back the sex comparison, but only in the sense of an assault. They might make their victims come to them, but they aren't really consenting. There's a reason the word love is in quotation marks for them! And the absence of blood being willingly given means that rather than being a vessel for love like we see amongst the humans, instead any link created between the vampire and their 'donor' is very predatory. There is a connection created there, but it's one that is designed to make it easier to feed more, to corrupt their victim more. Maybe Dracula can feel Lucy in some way, just like she felt Arthur - but maybe it's more in the sense of him being able to know where she is or to influence her more. In fact, there is plenty of suggestion that some kind of psychic link is created between a vampire and their victim, one that can perhaps go both ways at times (such as Jonathan possibly getting a glimpse of Dracula's plans after being drunk from) but typically only serves to weaken and manipulate the victim (Lucy unable to remember or speak about what happens to her, down to the point of even hiding her bitemarks with her choker; if we go back to that Jonathan scene, his brain fever coming on so abruptly could be some sort of psychic attack/backlash).

There are also some interesting implications regarding spoilers, so I'm going to put those under a cut:

Firstly, Mina being forced to drink Dracula's blood clearly establishes a connection between them. It is explicitly a corrupting influence, and is described as being like a "poison" - very much the opposite of the strengthening connection Lucy experiences with willingly given human blood. And some of that is clearly just due to it being a vampire's blood, but maybe the fact that she's forced to ingest it against her will could be a factor too. Like, Lucy is unaware of getting transfusions, but they're all from people she loves and who love her, so her body doesn't reject them. I wonder whether, if someone really wanted to become a vampire and very willingly drank the vampire blood, then the process of turning into one might be easier or faster than the slow, disorienting decline Mina suffers in canon. Obviously how much human blood you have left in you and how close you are to dying makes a difference too, as seen with Lucy. And we don't officially know if Dracula made Lucy drink his blood too and that's always part of the vampire transformation, or if that was an extra magical measure against Mina. So it's getting way into speculation.

But the drinking blood = connection is definitely made clear with Mina. She is able to turn that against Dracula, so it at least can go both ways when the blood-giver is supernatural. I doubt it would go both ways with an ordinary human donor, but it still could support Lucy getting more connected with the people giving her blood. In fact, you could play around with that idea since she's also connected to Dracula as his victim.

Anyways, speaking of getting super far into speculation, let's dive a little more into the idea of a willing donor/victim for a vampire. For example, the reason a vampire doesn't get the loved-up connection is not necessarily entirely inherent to their nature, but to the behavior that nature leads to. Maybe it's the way they are preying on people and taking things that twists whatever connection is created into such a bad thing. And if so, what would happen if a human willingly donated their blood to a vampire as an expression of love?

Instead of taking, the vampire would be accepting a gift. Maybe then the love really would flow through. Maybe, even, this would mean that the person giving the blood didn't suffer as many negative effects, and the vampire drinking the blood would receive some of that more healing influence. You all know what I'm getting at. If Jonathan gave his blood to Mina in full knowledge of what was happening, would it connect her to him even more strongly? Would it, rather than hastening her descent into vampirism, conversely help her hold on to her humanity because she feels more connected to his very human love? Maybe he wouldn't suffer the same effects as usual victims - he wouldn't forget and maybe he wouldn't even feel as weakened as blood loss usually should make someone feel. Maybe he'd even get a bit of vampiric influence leaking back, but only the beneficial stuff.

It's not something I've ever considered before, but it could be a really fun idea to play with. You could even make a case for it in canon if you really tried, citing stuff like Jonathan's cold hands and flinging the coffin near the end of the book, and Mina's certainty about his location and safety. She feels the humanizing emotional connection and his presence; he isn't weakened and maybe even gets some vampiric strength/intimidating vampire aura when he needs it. Rather than a predatory connection, it is one which goes both ways and strengthens both, because it combines the supernatural elements of a vampire with the strengthening effects of willingly given love-filled blood.

That might only work in the short term, and the vampiric corruption would overwhelm and ruin things in the long run, of course. And you definitely don't have to go down that road at all in the first place. Or all the way - maybe you only like the idea of his blood helping her feel more connected to him/feel his love for her, rather than going down the whole rabbithole. But however much you use, it's a fun concept to play with, I think!

#dracula daily #dracula daily spoilers #only under the cut #vampire abilities #dracula meta #my meta #anonymous #replies #sorry i got carried away with the possible supernatural effect resding #veered away from the symbolism. but it's totally there #apparently this glitched when posted and put the readmore way lower than i meant it. sorry y'all fixed now

12 notes · View notes

durudurururu · 1 month ago

Note

Hi! Just popping in to shake you by the shoulders like a maraca because oh my goodness, oh my goodness, OH MY GOODNESS

I’ve only done the two comments for them cause my computer’s been broken for the past few months and I can barely type off a keyboard but I need you to know I am constantly screaming internally about your fics, like constantly, like constantly constantly, like AHHHHGGGGHHGGHHHHHHHH HALFGOAPWGWOSHEKQOSGQKGSPRGWGDOOR

I love them :3

IT'S YOU!! I LOVE GETTING YOUR COMMENTS ON MY FICS I ALWAYS GET SO HAPPY THAT I SOMETIMES FEEL LIKE I'M GONNA CRY. It's hard to believe that someone actually likes my fics (Esp cause not everyone likes first person POV) but I have to believe it as the numbers don't lie lol. I've been working on the newest chapter of Poker Face for like...almost 2 weeks, and when I want some motivation I just open the comments and re-read them.

...Thank you😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

Also have a sneak peak of next chapter >;)

I sigh as I slowly wake up, even if I really want to go back to bed—though I'm already in bed anyways. I don't dare open my eyes, even when someone starts shaking me.

"Fourrrrrrr. Four, wake uppppppppp.", a familiar voice says, and I believe it's Wind. I just grab my blanket and pull it over my head, and I can feel Wind pout. But instead of trying more, someone else joins him.

"Wake up, birthday boy. If you don't I won't give you your present.", we all stay quiet for a moment before Wind practically screams.

"IT'S YOUR BIRTHDAY?!?"

#duruduru yapping #you're too kind #not crying #Now I want to write but I have to finish other stuff first #ughhhhh #been kinda wanting to talk but been shy #Talking to strangers always feels weird #Even tho they're very cool and I wanna gush about them or just anything #poker face lu fic #this also reminds me to write on my other fics #still devistaded to lose my Shadow foc notes #and it feels so...weird to write on the orher two 'cause my characterisation was so different #It was pretty easy to tell I hadn't really resd most of the comic yet #did you know I actually found LU through LoZ fics #I specifically remember finding one Four/Colours fic and going:#“What the fuck is a Blue?”#then I read the Four Swords manga at the library and ascended

3 notes · View notes