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vickyvicarious · 1 year

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Hi! So I'm working on a Dracula story of my own and I need help finding the character descriptions for the Crew. I know Jonathan gets white hair from shock at one point, but everything else is fuzzy. I think Lucy's a blonde and I seem to remember Van Helsing being described with red hair too, but I'm not sure if those things are actually in the book or a product of the adaptations.

Yeah, I can try to help you out. Honestly, most characters don't get very detailed descriptions, but I'll see what I can find... I'm going to be summing up what physical descriptions we know of, followed by an example quote for each characteristic in bullet points beneath.

I only looked in detail up to where we are now/a few specific scenes I remember from later on. I can add more if I notice it, but I think this covers the physical descriptors pretty well, since as far as I recall we don't get much new stuff later on.

Jonathan Harker: Has a young-looking face. His hair is brown until 3 October, when it turns white. Likely clean-shaven most of the time, since he's upset by his shaving mirror getting broken. At least used to have a 'quiet dignity'. Looks clever and full of energy (when not ill), but also quiet and business-like, so probably not a very tall or super muscular manly man.

5 May - "He is a young man, full of energy and talent in his own way, and of a very faithful disposition. He is discreet and silent, and has grown into manhood in my service."

8 May - "It is very annoying, for I do not see how I am to shave, unless in my watch-case or the bottom of the shaving-pot, which is fortunately of metal."

24 August - "I found my dear one, oh, so thin and pale and weak-looking. All the resolution has gone out of his dear eyes, and that quiet dignity which I told you was in his face has vanished."

30 September - "He is uncommonly clever, if one can judge from his face, and full of energy. [...] After reading his account of it I was prepared to meet a good specimen of manhood, but hardly the quiet, business-like gentleman who came here to-day."

3 October - "Harker was still and quiet; but over his face, as the awful narrative went on, came a grey look which deepened and deepened in the morning light, till when the first red streak of the coming dawn shot up, the flesh stood darkly out against the whitening hair. [...] Last night he was a frank, happy-looking man, with strong, youthful face, full of energy, and with dark brown hair. To-day he is a drawn, haggard old man, whose white hair matches well with the hollow burning eyes and grief-written lines of his face. His energy is still intact; in fact, he is like a living flame."

Mina Harker nee Murray: Very little physical description here. According to Jack she looks dainty and sweet and pretty. Her hair is beautiful. Temporarily has a scar on her forehead. Her teeth maybe start getting sharper when she's turning into a vampire.

29 September - "a sweet-faced, dainty-looking girl stepped up to me, and, after a quick glance, said: "Dr. Seward, is it not?" [...] She looked sweetly pretty, but very sad, and her eyes were flushed with crying."

3 October - "As he had placed the Wafer on Mina's forehead, it had seared it—had burned into the flesh as though it had been a piece of white-hot metal. [...] Pulling her beautiful hair over her face, as the leper of old his mantle,"

5 October - "Her teeth are some sharper, and at times her eyes are more hard."

Lucy Westenra: Definitely pretty, probably in an 'innocent/sweet' looking way based on other peoples' comments. Based on Mina's tracking of her health/color even early on, it seems like she might look pale/anemic on a semi-regular basis even before being bitten. Either pudgy when healthy, or too thin when ill, since her getting fat is mentioned as a positive sign of improving health. Wrinkles her face adorably at times. Super voluptuous as a vampire, and her presumably-blond (sunny) hair is now described as dark. Possibly red eyes as a vampire? Though Jack doesn't mention her eyes looking different when she was sleeping and van Helsing lifted her eyelids to look at them, so maybe not. 19 years old (maybe twenty when she died).

24 May - "Here am I, who shall be twenty in September,"

24 July - "Lucy met me at the station, looking sweeter and lovelier than ever,"

27 July - "Lucy frets at the postponement of seeing him, but it does not touch her looks; she is a trifle stouter, and her cheeks are a lovely rose-pink. She has lost that anæmic look which she had."

30 August - "I have an appetite like a cormorant, am full of life, and sleep well. You will be glad to know that I have quite given up walking in my sleep. I think I have not stirred out of my bed for a week, that is when I once got into it at night. Arthur says I am getting fat."

20 September - "He had even brushed Lucy's hair, so that it lay on the pillow in its usual sunny ripples."

29 September - "a ray of moonlight fell upon the masses of driving clouds and showed in startling prominence a dark-haired woman, dressed in the cerements of the grave. [...] Lucy's eyes in form and colour; but Lucy's eyes unclean and full of hell-fire, instead of the pure, gentle orbs we knew."

Arthur Holmwood: Tall, handsome, curly hair. ...That's it, that's all we've got. Jack thinks he's very manly. He does have a resemblance to Van Helsing's dead son, so he might look at least a little similar to the professor as well.

9 May - "I hear rumours, and especially of a tall, handsome, curly-haired man???"

7 September - "When first the Professor's eye had lit upon him he had been angry at his interruption at such a time; but now, as he took in his stalwart proportions and recognised the strong young manhood which seemed to emanate from him, his eyes gleamed."

22 September - "My heart bleed for that poor boy—that dear boy, so of the age of mine own boy had I been so blessed that he live, and with his hair and eyes the same."

Jack Seward: Handsome, good forehead, strong jaw. Common consensus usually gives him glasses and dark hair although neither is mentioned in the book. We have a canon age for him (29), unlike almost everyone else. Lucy says he's resolute and calm and imperturbable, but the way others react to him tends to disprove that since several other characters seem to be able to read him pretty well.

11 May - "He is an excellent parti, being handsome, well off, and of good birth. He is a doctor and really clever. Just fancy! He is only nine-and-twenty, and he has an immense lunatic asylum all under his own care. Mr. Holmwood introduced him to me, and he called here to see us, and often comes now. I think he is one of the most resolute men I ever saw, and yet the most calm. He seems absolutely imperturbable. I can fancy what a wonderful power he must have over his patients. He has a curious habit of looking one straight in the face, as if trying to read one's thoughts."

24 May - "I told you of him, Dr. John Seward, the lunatic-asylum man, with the strong jaw and the good forehead."

Quincey Morris: Looks young apparently. Sadly never once described as wearing a cowboy hat. Presumably handsome since Lucy talks up how charming he is, and Jack talks up how manly he is, but it's possible that's mostly force of personality.

24 May - "He is such a nice fellow, an American from Texas, and he looks so young and so fresh that it seems almost impossible that he has been to so many places and has had such adventures.

Abraham van Helsing: Tan/brown skin. Red hair, stocky frame. Clean shaven, high forehead. Blue eyes. Square chin, large mouth and nose, bushy eyebrows. Old, but it's unclear exactly how old.

20 August - "Very shortly after she opened her eyes in all their softness, and putting out her poor, pale, thin hand, took Van Helsing's great brown one; drawing it to her, she kissed it."

25 September - "a man of medium weight, strongly built, with his shoulders set back over a broad, deep chest and a neck well balanced on the trunk as the head is on the neck. The poise of the head strikes one at once as indicative of thought and power; the head is noble, well-sized, broad, and large behind the ears. The face, clean-shaven, shows a hard, square chin, a large, resolute, mobile mouth, a good-sized nose, rather straight, but with quick, sensitive nostrils, that seem to broaden as the big, bushy brows come down and the mouth tightens. The forehead is broad and fine, rising at first almost straight and then sloping back above two bumps or ridges wide apart; such a forehead that the reddish hair cannot possibly tumble over it, but falls naturally back and to the sides. Big, dark blue eyes are set widely apart, and are quick and tender or stern with the man's moods."

26 September - "It was so funny to hear my wife called "Madam Mina" by this kindly, strong-faced old man."

...and I know you didn't ask for him specifically, but just for completeness...

Count Dracula: Tall, thin, long mustache, bushy eyebrows, very pale, red lips, sharp teeth, hairy palms, dressed in black. He has a high forehead, a hooked nose, pointy ears, and red eyes. White hair at the start, which goes to grey and eventually black as he gets younger in appearance. No beard in Transylvania but he's sporting one in London. Bad breath, sleeps with his eyes open. His charming or suave smile is mentioned multiple times during Jonathan's stay. Shovel scar on his forehead after 30 June.

5 May - "Within, stood a tall old man, clean shaven save for a long white moustache, and clad in black from head to foot, without a single speck of colour about him anywhere. [...] His face was a strong—a very strong—aquiline, with high bridge of the thin nose and peculiarly arched nostrils; with lofty domed forehead, and hair growing scantily round the temples but profusely elsewhere. His eyebrows were very massive, almost meeting over the nose, and with bushy hair that seemed to curl in its own profusion. The mouth, so far as I could see it under the heavy moustache, was fixed and rather cruel-looking, with peculiarly sharp white teeth; these protruded over the lips, whose remarkable ruddiness showed astonishing vitality in a man of his years. For the rest, his ears were pale, and at the tops extremely pointed; the chin was broad and strong, and the cheeks firm though thin. The general effect was one of extraordinary pallor. Hitherto I had noticed the backs of his hands as they lay on his knees in the firelight, and they had seemed rather white and fine; but seeing them now close to me, I could not but notice that they were rather coarse—broad, with squat fingers. Strange to say, there were hairs in the centre of the palm. The nails were long and fine, and cut to a sharp point. As the Count leaned over me and his hands touched me, I could not repress a shudder. It may have been that his breath was rank, but a horrible feeling of nausea came over me, which, do what I would, I could not conceal."

30 June - "There lay the Count, but looking as if his youth had been half renewed, for the white hair and moustache were changed to dark iron-grey; the cheeks were fuller, and the white skin seemed ruby-red underneath; the mouth was redder than ever, for on the lips were gouts of fresh blood, which trickled from the corners of the mouth and ran over the chin and neck. Even the deep, burning eyes seemed set amongst swollen flesh, for the lids and pouches underneath were bloated."

18 September - "a tall, thin chap, with a 'ook nose and a pointed beard, with a few white hairs runnin' through it. He had a 'ard, cold look and red eyes,"

22 September - "a tall, thin man, with a beaky nose and black moustache and pointed beard, who was also observing the pretty girl. [...] His face was not a good face; it was hard, and cruel, and sensual, and his big white teeth, that looked all the whiter because his lips were so red, were pointed like an animal's."

3 October - "a tall, thin man, all in black. I knew him at once from the description of the others. The waxen face; the high aquiline nose, on which the light fell in a thin white line; the parted red lips, with the sharp white teeth showing between; and the red eyes that I had seemed to see in the sunset on the windows of St. Mary's Church at Whitby. I knew, too, the red scar on his forehead where Jonathan had struck him."

#dracula daily #dracula daily spoilers #jonathan harker #mina murray #lucy westenra #arthur holmwood #jack seward #quincey morris #van helsing #count dracula #anonymous #replies #if you want to mimic the characters' writing styles... most of them don't spend long on describing the appearance of others #or at least not of people they already know.

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yallemagne · 1 year

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I feel the thing with Mrs Westenra is that she's that specific brand of entitled old lady that keeps harming those around her with her own beliefs while having her own fragility used as an excuse. Its like someone punching a friend "for their own good" and then going "pwease dwont hurt me im so delicate n frwagile :("

She works well as a character as in she's basically another way societal expectations and lack of communication are a cog in Dracula's machinations, but on my personal opinion she's really frustrating. (Hehe my rambling got a lil long sorry abt that)

Yes, what pains me so much this that Mrs. Westenra is such a real person. I have suffered such real people in my life, some I love dearly, some I love out of obligation, and it is painful to see what Lucy is going through, to see her be punished again and again by her mother's willful neglect, and she cannot even muster the will to be angry with her. Lucy has been stripped of any ability to speak out against her mother, even in her most private of musings, because her mother is so highly prioritized over herself. Lucy's suffering must always be kept out of view, and she never has the self-preservation to just snap and say "no, I am a human being".

Mrs. Westenra's a cog in the machine of the plot. She was written this way purposefully. No matter how much damage she causes, you're meant to feel bad for her, because if you don't, you might demand to know why Bram hasn't just killed her already. The reason is that he never even intended for his readers to feel this resentment. Her behaviour is not meant to be taken seriously because she's a poor old woman who just doesn't know any better. She's allowed and expected to be ignorant, and if not her, there would be some other person, a maid unknowingly throwing out the blooms.

But it hurts so much more for it to be your own mother who hurts you. Your feelings don't matter to her except as an extension of her own. She finds the flowers that you love, and ignoring the clear signs of your contentment with the flowers, she projects her negative feelings onto you and throws them out. Then, self-gratulatory as ever, she brags to your doctors that she knows better than them when she can't even recognize how close you are to death. She has willfully abandoned you because your sickness stresses her, and she would rather leave you without a goodbye than face you like an adult and admit she is dying. And worse than that, she doesn't pull away enough to make room for the people who are actively trying to save you, no, she still intercedes, making their jobs harder and your life worse, and no one dares to correct her in any meaningful way because if she knew she wasn't perfect, it would kill her.

I'm not so naïve as to say that because I have such deep-rooted trauma surrounding personalities like this that I am sooo smart and right to take such issue with this fictional character. It is a bit of an overreaction. But you could say my feelings towards this entire novel are an overreaction. I know other people have probably experienced this behaviour, and their reactions to it aren't mine. There are most definitely people who have suffered this kind of neglect but their impulse is instead to forgive and defend Mrs. Westenra, and I cannot deny someone that.

But I hurt so deeply for Lucy. I recognize Mrs. Westenra's hurting but I cannot place it above Lucy's. I value Lucy so much more, and I don't feel a lick of guilt about it.

#'my rambling got a lil long' I see that and I present you with this #dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula #lucy westenra #mrs. westenra slander #mrs. westenra #update #people ask me things #ask to tag-- there's probably something besides character criticism that is triggering here #kachimera

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minas-diary · 2 months

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August 11

Read here, full story - thus far here.

Content Warnings: horror elements, allegorical sexual assault spoken about in vague terms (we the audience know Mina and Lucy do not - if you know - you know), blood, Jack the Ripper is mentioned briefly (if that upsets you), and period typical attitudes towards gender roles.

August 11th

Mina Murray’s Journal

Diary again. No rest so I might as well write. I was agitated to sleep. We had such an adventure that day that I fear I fell asleep as soon as I set my diary aside. Suddenly, I was well awake and alarmingly alert. I felt an emptiness in Lucy and mine’s shared bed. The room was dark so I struck a small match to better see in the dark. I had a lingering sense of forbidding, for Lucy, of course. In any case, the bed was empty and Lucy wasn’t present so I naturally went looking for her. The door was not locked nor even shut but left ajar and wide open. I found Lucy’s day dresses and dressing gowns in their usual place, “Thank God,” I said to myself for Lucy could not have gone far if only in her night dress. I ran downstairs in haste, though such haste was warranted. I checked the city room – nothing. I checked the other rooms in the house – also nothing. Finally, I checked the hall and found the door not wide open. The lock was caught in the key and the door was left ajar. I feared for Lucy that she might catch a cold. There was little time to think rationally about anything. The clock was striking and thankfully no one was out, so I went out to search for Lucy. I ran along the house’s North Terrace and found a pale figure (Lucy) sitting in the moonlight in our favourite seat, and… whether man or beast, I couldn’t tell what manner of man it was a dark figure seemed to loom over her – behind the seat. The town was ghostly quiet and well… asleep. Finally, when I could distinguish the young pale figure in the seat I realized it was Lucy. So, I called for her, “Lucy! Lucy!”

I ran down hastily to the seat as quickly as I could manage, I could hear my own heart beating in my chest with anxiety and hear my breath grow laboured. When I bent over her I found Lucy still asleep in the churchyard seat. As I came close she put up a hand defensively as though she feared some kind of attack, she also pulled the collar of her night dress closer to her pale neck. When I finally got her wrapped up and placed my shoes on her feet she placed another hand to her throat and moaned softly.

At first, Lucy did not respond, for which I do not blame her. Gradually she awakened and became more uneasy. So I wrapped her tighter and clipped her night dress as warm as possible, but in my anxiousness, I must’ve pricked her on accident for she shuddered inwardly and gasped for breath. She did not seem surprised by my presence but it took some time for Lucy to get her bearings on just where she was, all in all, she seemed exhausted and disoriented. Despite all this she kept her beauty, she always wakes very pretty, like that painting by John William Waterhouse of The Lady of Shalott. Lucy trembled from the cold and clung to me. Still pretty despite her understandable fears and being caught in such a seemingly ghastly mishap. Later, I dabbed my feet with mud to not be seen lacking shoes, for I lent Lucy mine. Fortune was kind to us and we met no one along the way save for one drunk whom we hid from in a crevice in town or “Wynds” as they call them in Scotland. In any case, no Jack the Ripper or other such scoundrels.

My heart beat so loud I irrationally thought I’d wake the town of Whitby. I pray sincerely I did the ring thing. I have locked the door and we shall not again be disturbed. Lucy is blissfully… sound asleep and dawn is a ways off over the sea.

Noon: August 11th

All is well, Lucy slept soundly and didn’t change the side she slept on. Lucy slept til I woke her up. She is unharmed thankfully and rather than damage her it seems to have improved her condition, she looks as well as she has ever been. I was sorry for my clumsiness however… for I noticed two marks like pinpricks on her neck and a small drop of blood on her nightdress. So I apologized, she lovingly laughed at me and petted me gently. She said she did not even feel or notice it, thankfully the marks are so small no one else will notice them either.

Night: August 11th

Our day was most happy. The fresh seaside air was clean, the sun shone brightly over Whitby. We made a picnic and took our lunch to Mulgrave Woods, Lucy’s mother, Mrs. Westenra, drove us and she drove by to check up on us at least twice. Lucy and I walked by the cliff paths and the ocean, I also joined her at the Gate a little outside Whitby. I was a bit sad myself… if only Jonathan were with us… but I must be patient. In the evening, we strolled by the pier and Casino Terrace and heard some excellent music from Spohr and Mackenzie, and then we went to bed early. Lucy seemed better than ever and she went to bed as soon as the sunset over the sea. I merely worry for Lucy and her reputation, it is only due to her mother’s poor health I do not inform the woman immediately. If word were to get out, that is all. I know Arthur Holmwood would understand, he is a gentleman of the highest calibre and though a well-to-do dandy he is no black, he would understand. I shall do my due diligence, lock the door and keep the key on my wrist. I do not expect any trouble tonight.

#ic / mina’s diary #solos / knowledege is stronger than memory #dracula daily #re: dracula #about / mina #solo #solos #drabble #drabbles #jonathan x mina #lucy x mina #jonathan harker / kept in shorthand #lucy westenra / longing to be with you #jonmina #lumina #strange love / queue

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longagoitwastuesday · 2 years

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It is true that everyone likes each other (Jack praising Jonathan, Quincey calling Mina "little girl", the sibling bond promised between Art and her, Van Helsing being Mina's #3 fan), but the way Mina and Jack's blooming friendship is being written seems to bring back Lucy's first letter about him even explicitly at times. In perspective, the fact that Lucy thought he was right for Mina hadn't she found Jonathan already doesn't seem to be so much about Jack being an elegible bachelor due to his professional merits or good jawline (or not just so), but mainly about how well suited they'd be for each other. Even though she hadn't known Jack for long, Lucy truly knew him and Mina pretty well and foresaw they would be a good match.

#Dracula #Mina Murray #John Seward #Jack Seward #Lucy Westenra #About books #I talk too much #Because I'm going to tagquote a few lines:#'Mrs. Harker gave us a cup of tea and I can honestly say that for the first time since I have lived in it this old house seemed like home'#'this beats even shorthand!'#'poor dear Lucy was right about him'#'You're not the girl the doctor wanted to marry are you?'#'Oh no! I have a husband of my own to whom I was married before I ever saw Dr. Seward or he me'#'I did not trust you because I did not know you. But I know you now; and let me say that I should have known you long ago'#I know they all get along and come to love each other but these two read different to me. It makes me think that Lucy may have been right #That perhaps had they met before...('this beats even shorthand!')#The text seems intentional about it #Not in detriment of Jonathan and Mina's loving relationship #but as another insight to Lucy's personality and good sight as well as her deep knowledge and fondness for the people she cared for #I guess it's another endearing detail that in retrospect makes her loss even more painful to both the reader and the characters #and so believable that they all loved her and the extent to which they go through in big part for her #I haven't read this book in many years and I don't remember thinking or noticing this before #It may be the translation or the Dracula daily format #I have not been keeping up with it entirely only reading the entries I remember loving best but I'm growing more and more interested again #I may try to catch up for the last couple of months

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see-arcane · 5 months

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Our good friend Jonathan Harker is getting ready to leave for his business trip, Mina Murray is picking out a new journal, Lucy Westenra is charming a gaggle of smitten suitors, Abraham van Helsing is wrapping up his lectures, and Castle Dracula is prepping the guest room for a very long stay.

Which must mean that Dracula Season is here again!

‘Dracula Season’ being a catchall term for the voracious reading, memeing, writing, illustrating, analyzing, and general fun-having that’s ensued since Matt Kirkland’s project, Dracula Daily, caught on with us back in 2022. The Substack had already been running before then, but it sparked a conflagration as time went on and readers old and new to Bram Stoker’s Dracula—the actual novel, not Coppola’s fanfiction—devoured it in a way that scratched an itch none of us knew we had. Stoker wrote the book in epistolary fashion, clumping sections together as needed for the pacing without perfect adherence to chronological order. Matt went ahead and put all the events in order and proceeded to set up a lovely chain of emails that delivered entries on those correlating dates.

This style of organization and pacing turned out to not only make the virtual book club that much easier to engage with, but left space in-between to stew on the story and relate with the characters themselves. Every day of waiting in the book feels weightier when you have to pace and sweat and worry in tandem with poor Jonathan trapped in the castle or Lucy wasting away or Mina running out the clock before she loses the fight for her own humanity. And while we sat with the story or the lulls between Dracula Seasons, some of us found ourselves craving more of that ghastly gothic horror goodness to the point that we figured:

“Well. Why don’t I make something?”

And then we did! Tons of creative works have been churned out in the wake of Dracula Daily’s high. I figured that while we’ve still got a bit of time to wait for May 3rd, we should check out all this new stuff in the meantime. (Plus a handful of neat stuff that just clicks with the Dracula itch overall.)

So, in the interest of Dracula Season pregaming, let’s take a look at…

FICTION

Blood of My Blood – A recent addition to the Dracula Bad Ending AU pile, and definitely one of the most harrowing and addictive group-produced narratives I’ve ever come across, Blood of My Blood is the dramatically gothic currently-WIP work of @ibrithir-was-here and @animate-mush’s devious design. Give or take a heap of other fascinated folks (hello!) adding ideas to put more Horror into the Horrors that our cast has to face. The premise:

The Transylvanian climax went fatally sour and the Harkers were forced to shelter with Dracula himself, including their half-vampire son, Quincey. Cut to two decades later, and Quincey finds himself out in modern London, smitten with Lu, adopted daughter of Arthur and Jack, and diving into certain bloodstained old documents that detail the real history of how his parents came to live in the castle. Said revelations coming not a moment too soon, as a storm is coming for him straight from the Carpathians…

Dracula Daily Sketch Collection – An array of illustrations that captures every entry beat by beat, the Dracula Daily Sketch Collection by Georgia Cook, alias @georgiacooked was dished out over the course of the last Dracula Season. Some of the most fun character designs out there.

Fanfiction Spotlight: BlueCatWriter – With a whopping 99 works devoted to the novel Dracula (so far, the number may have gone up since I blinked), @bluecatwriter is one of the most prolific and talented fanfiction scribblers out there. Romances, nightmares, and overlaps between the two seem to crop up the most, give or take a crossover. Seems fitting that those blue paw prints have contributed to BoMB too.

The League of Extraordinary Gentlefolk – An ongoing comic in which all your favorite characters from the Classics section get together and tackle some perils ranging from the mundane to the monstrous. Started by the amazing @mayhemchicken and posted on @lxgentlefolkcomic, this series is a love letter to beloved Victorian era lit, with a spotlight on the two couples leading the League. Namely, the Harkers, ala Dracula, and the Nortons, ala Sherlock Holmes,’ “A Scandal in Bohemia.” Mina and Irene are the driving investigative and steering forces here, and still deeply in love with their likewise-infatuated husbands, just like in their canons! What a concept! Alan.

Without spoiling the full character list, just know there are going to be a ton of familiar faces roaming around before you finish reading the first arc. Said arc having conveniently wrapped up just a few days ago! Give the comic and its bonus silliness a look if you’re in the mood for a new comfort-adventure epic.

Re: Dracula – Probably the most well-known and incredible thing to come out of the initial Dracula Daily wave. This podcast is a full audio drama that follows the same format as the Substack, with episodes coming out in time with the entries themselves. And it has an unfairly cool soundtrack. They have a Tumblr with @re-dracula, a site and a Patreon to check out before the series kicks up again on May 3rd. (Also, keep an eye out for their next work, an audio drama in the same style with Carmilla.)

The Soldier and the Solicitor – Another treat from @ibrithir-was-here, this one involves a bit of time travel trouble. Quincey Harker has stumbled out of World War I and into the same dark forest where his father once fled for his life…then runs into the man himself, on that same night. Jonathan Harker, young and starved and lost, who has no choice but to trust this stranger while the Weird Sisters are at his heels…despite said stranger having no shadow. It’s a tasty emotional trek, already complete on Tumblr, but now it’s turning into a Webtoon. While Ibrithir is juggling a number of other stories, she’ll be redrawing spruced up versions of the comic and adding a few new scenes as things unfold.

Substack Stack – You know what’s better than one emailed-out public domain book club? A mountain of them. Just. So, so many of them. You’ll see that a lot of these are finished, but some are still ticking along. Either way, they’re all great picks if you’re craving some more old school lit to fill the void between undead emails.

Frankenstein Weekly – Frankenstein

Jekyll and Hyde Weekly – The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

Voyage of the Nautilus – Twenty-Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Letters from Watson – Sherlock Holmes

The Invisible Mail – The Invisible Man

Letters from Bunny – E.W. Hornung’s short stories of the eponymous Bunny and Raffles

Letters Regarding Jeeves - P. G. Wodehouse’s Bertie Wooster short stories, including the novel, Right Ho, Jeeves

…

……

………

…The Beetle Weekly – The Beetle (NOTE: Do Not Read This.)

The Vampyres – A novella I finally wrenched through the gears of self-publication as of March this year. Starring a petite but powerful paranormal cast, The Vampyres, centers on an unscrupulous undead fellow who finds that the revenants of the world are being mowed down by an entity known only as ‘Quinn Morse.’ Between trying to save his neck and figure out where the shadowy bastard came from, the Vampyre in question crosses paths with a new paramour and handy human shield in the form of a grieving Good Samaritan. He’s even polite enough to invite the Vampyre into his home while he’s in dire straits! Surely this will end well. All the info is available here and a little author site is over here.

What Manner of Man – This is the one made for everyone who started out hoping there’d be a real love story with our good friend Jonathan Harker and the Count when he was at his most charismatic. Where that sea of wonders dried up into a mire of horror, What Manner of Man by @stjohnstarling keeps things firmly on the romantic tracks. This Substack stars the letter-writing priest Father Victor E. Ardelian as he finds himself meeting with one enigmatic Lord Alistair Vane. It isn’t long before interest turns into intrigue and intrigue into undead intimacies.

The entire novel has been completed—along with multiple epilogues in the author’s Patreon, allowing readers to choose for themselves just how the uncanny romance plays out in the end—and the Substack now has a number of other gothic goodies piling up in the meantime.

NONFICTION

Dracula Daily: A Unique Reading Experience: This one comes courtesy of @realwomenofgaming. It’s a short and sweet piece that amounts to a fun snapshot of the entire Dracula Daily ride. A cozy couple-minute read.

‘Dracula Daily’ is the One Substack You Need a Subscription To: Features my favorite Matt Kirkland interview. @mattkirkland, if you’re still floating around on here, thank you for dispatching our vampire newsletter again this year.

Dracula Daily is Tumblr’s hottest new book club: Alright, the ‘new’ part is worn out by now, but this one is still a delightful article to swing back around to. Two years on, this Polygon piece is a time capsule of those early months when people outside our bookworm bubble realized we were all happily receiving letters from our favorite classic gothic horror blorbos.

“How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” – Princess Weekes, if you ever read this, thank you, thank you, thank you. I am sending oceans of love and millions of rewatches to your video essay. If you haven’t seen it yet, “How Mina Murray Became Dracula’s Girlfriend” is one of the most refreshing and well-made breakdowns of both the title subject and numerous other issues that have proliferated in the public view of Dracula’s cast and plot as adaptations endlessly warp or outright bastardize the actual novel. An incredibly cathartic watch.

Literary play gone viral: delight, intertextuality, and challenges to normative interpretations through the digital serialization of Dracula: A mouthful of a title for an even more elaborate article about the Dracula Daily phenomenon. This one is a full-on study that analyzes just what happened within the big bloodsucker book club surge and how its ‘wandering reading practices’ enriched the experience for participants.

“The Undying Undead: An analysis of the Dracula Daily community for a theory of online community formation and interaction” – We have a thesis on here! Look at that! @sirangelothebestest’s MA thesis used our vampiric book club as the bones for a massive brick of an academic piece that definitely deserves a look.

…And I think I’ll go ahead and cap things here.

This isn’t everything I got recommended, but if I had squashed all of it in here, I think folks’ eyes would start to fall out of their head. I hope you can find something cool to comb through here. Or, if there’s something great I overlooked, tack it onto the list! We’ve got just two weeks to go until we’re off with Mr. Harker. Let’s enjoy our respite before those castle doors close behind us.

#time for Dracula Season pre-gaming :3 #thank you to everyone who sent in their suggestions!#dracula #dracula daily #re: dracula

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godzilla-reads · 5 months

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“I am longing to be with you, and by the sea, where we can talk together freely and build our castles in the air.”

—Mina Murray, to Lucy Westenra; from Dracula

#godzilla reads #book blog #dracula #bram stoker #dracula daily #book quotes #booklr #bookworm #reading #bookish

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thesporkidentity · 1 year

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oh god, mrs westenra actually dying on audio and then lucy starting to cry and almost unable to get words out "The time did not seem long, but very, very awful" nope this is terrible, i knew hearing it here would be even worse than reading it and yet i was unprepared for how much worse

oh no, and then the slow fading in and out of the audio at the very end as lucy is fading in and out then into nothing but the song of the nightingale. excellent sound design but also how dare you

#dracula #re: dracula

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astrangergivingthestrangewelcome · 3 days

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I do mostly blame Van Helsing and Dr. Seward for The way in which Lucy is not the least bit consulted or informed on the treatment she is receiving from them (particularly all the times they give her a transfusion and then they say that she wakes up and doesn't seem to remember that anything bad happened to her. Like. Hey chucklefucks. Your patient just almost died of a mysterious relapse you don't want to maybe. Ask Her If Anything Weird Happened to Her the night before to try and figure out where these relapses are coming from??????)

However. Like. I wouldn't necessarily blame Van Helsing or Dr. Seward for not thinking to cover sleepwalking in their medical history. In addition to contracting vampire, Lucy also caught a fatal case of that silent killer "I don't want to be a dumb bother"-itis. When you reread. Between Van Helsing, Jack and Lucy, there was enough information in those three brains to solve everything. Lucy made the connection between hearing the bat at the window and the sleepwalking incident and the onset of her illness, and if she had just verbalized that to Van Helsing he could have ran so long and hard with that. Like can you imagine. Maybe you can't really call vampire quite yet but you can be like "oh my God guys. I bet it's a vampire bat. How's it getting in? Well Lucy sleepwalks, she must be letting in this bat that's feeding off of her we have to make sure she's not alone at night to sleepwalk!"

Sure, that's an outlandish reason to fall deathly ill but like. You could sell it easier than an actual literal vampire, and it's not like there wouldn't be evidence to back it up. What with the neck scars and also the fact that it is not normal to hear a bat at your window all night every night for weeks in a row like they don't do that they're not moths. Van Helsing could sell that hypothesis to Seward & the Westenra's. If everyone was on the same page that they were dealing with a nightly animal attack. The measures that would be taken would be so much more successful than just trying to treat the symptoms of a weird mystery illness.

But Lucy never brings it up. Because it sounds crazy. And it must be all in her own head. And in her world it's better to suffer in silence then waste someone's time with your foolish fears.

#dracula daily #dracula

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spaceagebachelormann · 6 months

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𝐫𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐫𝐮𝐥𝐞𝐬

!!REQUEST REQUIREMENTS!!

-> state the character, romantic or platonic, the format of the request, and a plot

-> do you have any specifics for the reader? blonde, poc, male, neurodivergent, etc? (please keep in mind i will write poc readers but i’m white so they may be a little difficult for me)

-> requests are preferred to be sent through inbox, but i can make dms work if needed

-> PLEASE ACTUALLY SPECIFY WHAT YOU WANT WITH YOUR REQUEST!! ITS VERY HARD FOR ME TO WRITE “____ x reader fluff” GIVE ME A PLOT LINE

!!WHAT I WILL WRITE!!

-> platonic

-> romantic

-> familial

-> any gender x any gender

-> headcanons

-> long fics

-> multi character

-> blurbs

-> poly relationships

-> x reader

-> i will only write cheating if it’s a character comforting r after being cheated on, not a character cheating on r

!!WHAT I WONT WRITE!!

-> smut (i’m 15)

-> yandere

-> most aus, ask about the specific au before requesting an au

-> incest

-> age gaps

-> canonical gay/lesbian character x a man (if lesbian) or a woman (if gay)

-> song fics

-> things about ocs

-> ships

-> sunshine x grumpy tropes, i’m horrible at this trope

character list

keeper of the lost cities

sophie foster, dex dizznee, fitz vacker, keefe sencen, biana vacker, marella redek, maruca chebota, tam song, linh song, wylie endal, jensi babblos, stina heks, elwin hesledge

chronicles of narnia

peter pevensie, edmund pevensie, susan pevensie, lucy pevensie, caspian

riordanverse

percy jackson, annabeth chase, grover underwood, jason grace, piper mclean, leo valdez, hazel levesque, frank zhang, nico di angelo, will solace, reyna arellano, rachel dare, travis stoll, connor stoll, thalia grace, magnus chase, alex fierro, carter kane, sadie kane

harry potter

harry potter, ron weasley, hermione granger, neville longbottom, luna lovegood, ginny weasley, fred weasley, george weasley, sirius black, james potter, remus lupin, mary macdonald, marlene mckinnon, lily evans, dorcas meadows, regulus black, barty crouch jr, narcissa black, andromeda black, bellatrix lestrange

ride the cyclone

ocean o’connell rosenberg, noel gruber, mischa bachinski, ricky potts, jane doe/penny lamb, constance blackwood

shadow and bone

alina starkov, malyen oretsev, genya safin, zoya nazyalensky, david kostyk, tamaar & tolya, nikolai lantsov

six of crows

kaz brekker, inej ghafa, jesper fahey, nina zenik, wylan van eck, matthias helvar

the outsiders

ponyboy curtis, johnny cade, sodapop curtis, darry curtis, steve randall, twobit matthews, dallas winston, cherry valance

the hunger games

katniss everdeen, peeta mellark, finnick odair, johanna mason, cinna, effie trinket

it (2017)

bill denbrough, eddie kaspbrak, richie tozier, stan uris, beverly marsh, ben hanscom, mike hanlon

the school for good and evil

agatha, sophie, tedros, hort, hester, anadil, dot, nicola, rhian mistral, rafal mistral, clarissa dovey, leonora lesso

the land of stories

connor bailey, alex bailey, red riding hood, jack, goldilocks

scooby doo

shaggy rogers, fred jones, daphne blake, velma dinkley, thorn, dusk, luna

little women

jo march, amy march, beth march, meg march, laurie

dracula

dracula, lucy westenra, arthur holmwood, john seward, mina harker, abraham van helsing, renfield, quincey morris, jonathan harker, the brides

frankenstein

victor frankenstein, elizabeth lavenza, henry clerval, adam frankenstein, justine mortiz, ernest frankenstein, the bride

dr jekyll and mr hyde

henry jekyll, edward hyde, richard enfield, gabriel utterson, hastie lanyon, lucy harris

phantom of the opera

christine daaé, erik destler, raoul de chagney, meg giry, carlotta giudicelli

a good girls guide to murder

pippa fitz-amobi, ravi singh, naomi ward, cara ward, connor reynolds, jamie reynolds, nat da silva

the mighty ducks

charlie conway, adam banks, lester averman, guy germaine, connie moreau, fulton reed, dean portman, julie gaffney, ken wu, luis mendoza, dwayne robertson

monster high

frankie stein, draculaura, clawdeen wolf, cleo de nile, abbey bominable, ghoulia yelps, operetta, rochelle goyle, spectra vondergeist, elissabat, clawd wolf, deuce gorgon, heath burns, jackson jekyll, holt hyde, kieran valentine

the powerpuff girls

blossom utonium, bubbles utonium, buttercup utonium, brick jojo, boomer jojo, butch jojo

david bowie

david bowie, ziggy stardust, jareth, thomas jerome newton, celliers

sweeney todd

sweeney todd, anthony hope, mrs lovett, johanna todd

the rosewood chronicles

lottie pumpkin, ellie wolf, jamie volk, ollie moreno, raphael wilcox, anastacia alcroft leblanc, saskia san martin, lola tomkins, mickey tomkins, binah fae

hairspray

corny collins, link larkin, amber von tussle, tracey turnblad, penny pingleton, seaweed j. stubbs

attack on titan

eren yeager, mikasa ackerman, armin arlert, jean kirstein, sasha braus, connie springer, annie leonhardt, bertholdt hoover, reiner braun, hange zoe, levi ackerman, erwin smith, colt grice, niccolo, yelena, onyakopon, zeke yeager

daisy jones and the six

daisy jones, billy dunne, graham dunne, karen sirko, warren rhodes, pete loving/roundtree, eddie loving/roundtree, camila dunne, simone jackson

doctor who bbc

ninth doctor, tenth doctor, rose tyler, jack harkness, mickey smith, donna noble, martha jones, clara oswald, river song, simm! master

miss peregrines home for peculiar children

jacob portman, emma bloom, millard nulling, enoch o’connor, olive elephanta, alma peregrine

miscellaneous characters

sarah williams, bernard the elf, rodrick heffley, varian, lisa frankenstein, the creature (lisa frankenstein)

UPCOMING FANDOMS : les miserables, what we do in the shadows

#marlee organization <3

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ninadove · 11 days

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Nina reads Dracula 🦇

September 17th

OK HERE WE GO I AM MENTALLY PREPARED TO LEARN ABOUT LUCY’S DEA —

Lucy Westenra's Diary.

Nevermind that. Guess I’ll have to do it all over again.

Four days and nights of peace. 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. I have a dim half-remembrance of long, anxious times of waiting and fearing; darkness in which there was not even the pain of hope to make present distress more poignant: and then long spells of oblivion, and the rising back to life as a diver coming up through a great press of water.

The pain of hope alright…

To-night Dr. Van Helsing is going away, as he has to be for a day in Amsterdam. But I need not be watched; I am well enough to be left alone.

‘Cause here we go, go, go again 🎶

Thank God for mother's sake, and dear Arthur's, and for all our friends who have been so kind! I shall not even feel the change, for last night Dr. Van Helsing slept in his chair a lot of the time. I found him asleep twice when I awoke; but I did not fear to go to sleep again, although the boughs or bats or something napped almost angrily against the window-panes.

EVERYONE. IS TRYING. SO HARD.

Anyways BACK TO RENFIELD:

Suddenly the door was burst open, and in rushed my patient, with his face distorted with passion. I was thunderstruck, for such a thing as a patient getting of his own accord into the Superintendent's study is almost unknown.

Right. But he did escape the facility itself twice, including once with your complicity. So maybe the safety protocols need a liiittle bit of reassessing here.

Without an instant's pause he made straight at me. He had a dinner-knife in his hand, and, as I saw he was dangerous, I tried to keep the table between us. He was too quick and too strong for me, however; for before I could get my balance he had struck at me and cut my left wrist rather severely.

FIGHT!!!!! FIGHT!!!!! FIGHT!!!!! FIGHT!!!!

He was lying on his belly on the floor licking up, like a dog, the blood which had fallen from my wounded wrist. He was easily secured, and, to my surprise, went with the attendants quite placidly, simply repeating over and over again: "The blood is the life! The blood is the life!"

Renfield’s DYI Guide to Vampirism: now available in a bookstore near you!

I cannot afford to lose blood just at present;

This is a terrifying and strangely sweet thought and I will be reusing this turn of phrase.

Happily Van Helsing has not summoned me, so I need not forego my sleep; to-night I could not well do without it.

Telegram, Van Helsing, Antwerp, to Seward, Carfax. Do not fail to be at Hillingham to-night.

Now that’s what I call comedic timing.

Anyways back to… Lucy again… Oh…

I write this and leave it to be seen, so that no one may by any chance get into trouble through me. This is an exact record of what took place to-night. I feel I am dying of weakness, and have barely strength to write, but it must be done if I die in the doing.

Talk about an emotional roller-coaster.

Presently the door opened, and mother looked in; seeing by my moving that I was not asleep, came in, and sat by me. She said to me even more sweetly and softly than her wont:—

"I was uneasy about you, darling, and came in to see that you were all right."

I feared she might catch cold sitting there, and asked her to come in and sleep with me, so she came into bed, and lay down beside me;

SEE WHAT I MEANT LAST TIME. Yes Ms Westenra is dying but she still wants to watch over her little girl! Yes Lucy is a grown adult but she still needs her mum! It’s all about love

After a while there was the low howl again out in the shrubbery, and shortly after there was a crash at the window, and a lot of broken glass was hurled on the floor. The window blind blew back with the wind that rushed in, and in the aperture of the broken panes there was the head of a great, gaunt grey wolf. Mother cried out in a fright, and struggled up into a sitting posture, and clutched wildly at anything that would help her. Amongst other things, she clutched the wreath of flowers that Dr. Van Helsing insisted on my wearing round my neck, and tore it away from me. For a second or two she sat up, pointing at the wolf, and there was a strange and horrible gurgling in her throat; then she fell over—as if struck with lightning, and her head hit my forehead and made me dizzy for a moment or two. The room and all round seemed to spin round. I kept my eyes fixed on the window, but the wolf drew his head back, and a whole myriad of little specks seemed to come blowing in through the broken window, and wheeling and circling round like the pillar of dust that travellers describe when there is a simoon in the desert.

OK OK not to (surprisingly) turn into your local Mrs Westenra Defender™ but. But. If this exact ordeal happened to you and you did not have the benefit of knowing the lore, would your natural conclusion not be that the flowers attracted the wolf? Because that sure as Hell would be mine.

I tried to stir, but there was some spell upon me, and dear mother's poor body, which seemed to grow cold already—for her dear heart had ceased to beat—weighed me down; and I remembered no more for a while.

WAIT SHE’S DEAD????? WHAT ARE WE BLAMING HER FOR EXACTLY????? SHE FUCKING DIED

The maids shrieked, and then went in a body to the dining-room; and I laid what flowers I had on my dear mother's breast. When they were there I remembered what Dr. Van Helsing had told me, but I didn't like to remove them, and, besides, I would have some of the servants to sit up with me now.

I WAS TOLD LUCY’S MUM THREW THE FLOWERS AWAY AND THAT DIRECTLY CAUSED HER DEATH. THAT COULD NOT BE FURTHER FROM THE TRUTH. WHAT HAPPENED

My heart sank when I saw what had happened. They all four lay helpless on the floor, breathing heavily. The decanter of sherry was on the table half full, but there was a queer, acrid smell about. I was suspicious, and examined the decanter. It smelt of laudanum, and looking on the sideboard, I found that the bottle which mother's doctor uses for her—oh! did use—was empty. What am I to do? what am I to do? I am back in the room with mother. I cannot leave her, and I am alone, save for the sleeping servants, whom some one has drugged. Alone with the dead! I dare not go out, for I can hear the low howl of the wolf through the broken window.

WHO WHAT AND HOW

The air seems full of specks, floating and circling in the draught from the window, and the lights burn blue and dim. What am I to do? God shield me from harm this night! I shall hide this paper in my breast, where they shall find it when they come to lay me out. My dear mother gone! It is time that I go too. Good-bye, dear Arthur, if I should not survive this night. God keep you, dear, and God help me!

LUCY NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO —

Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra (Unopened by her.)

NOOOOOOOOOOOOO

My dearest Lucy,—It seems an age since I heard from you, or indeed since I wrote. You will pardon me, I know, for all my faults when you have read all my budget of news.

Why don’t you twist the knife even deeper Bram.

Well, I got my husband back all right;

A little bit of light in this God-forsaken world

'My dears, I want to drink your health and prosperity; and may every blessing attend you both. I know you both from children, and have, with love and pride, seen you grow up. Now I want you to make your home here with me. I have left to me neither chick nor child; all are gone, and in my will I have left you everything.' I cried, Lucy dear, as Jonathan and the old man clasped hands. Our evening was a very, very happy one.

And twist the knife deeper he did.

So here we are, installed in this beautiful old house, and from both my bedroom and the drawing-room I can see the great elms of the cathedral close, with their great black stems standing out against the old yellow stone of the cathedral and I can hear the rooks overhead cawing and cawing and chattering and gossiping all day, after the manner of rooks—and humans.

Windows! Parallels and contrasts!! Something monstrous VS something divine and most of all human!!! I’m fine this is fine we’re all fine —

How is your dear mother getting on?

ALRIGHT BRAM THAT’S ENOUGH TWISTING.

and Jonathan wants looking after still.

🥺🥹 (<- Hanging on by a thread)

And now I have told you my news, let me ask yours. When are you to be married, and where, and who is to perform the ceremony, and what are you to wear, and is it to be a public or a private wedding? Tell me all about it, dear; tell me all about everything, for there is nothing which interests you which will not be dear to me. Jonathan asks me to send his 'respectful duty,' but I do not think that is good enough from the junior partner of the important firm Hawkins & Harker; and so, as you love me, and he loves me, and I love you with all the moods and tenses of the verb, I send you simply his 'love' instead. Good-bye, my dearest Lucy, and all blessings on you.

Yours,

MINA HARKER.

(Thread snapped)

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#dracula #dracula daily #nina reads dracula #lucy westenra #ms westenra #john seward #r.m. renfield #jonathan harker #mina harker #jonmina #abraham van helsing

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vickyvicarious · 1 year

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van Helsing waking Jack by putting a hand on his head is quite sweet somehow. Maybe it's that he wakes him gently, and doesn't blame him for falling asleep even from the beginning. Of course, it's possible that when he first arrived he assumed Jack has just gone to sleep after the night was over, but still.

"That is one of the things that we learn in an asylum, *sighing* at any rate." He sounds so bitter here about his work...

I love the delivery of the "Gott in Himmel!"

"Even the lips were white, and the gums seemed to have shrunken back from the teeth, as we sometimes see in a corpse after a prolonged illness." the kind of dull horror in his voice is great.

van Helsing has "the instinct of his life and all the long years of habit" working to keep him from showing anger, huh? I wonder if this could be related to his backstory too

love the clinking of the decanter

the sigh and misery in the way he said "there is no young Arthur here now" - I feel you, van Helsing. I'm sad about it every time.

the reaching into the back noises!

once again, Jack and van Helsing are so on it. I love it, he's already rolling up his sleeves.

the little stutter on "a-already?"

van Helsing you do not know Art yet do you. Last time he shook Jack's hand. He would never be enjealoused!

I love the way Jack's voice gets so perplexed when he is talking about the mystery of Lucy's condition. You can hear him trying so hard to understand, but he's exhausted, drained of blood, and cannot see any explanation at all so he's just circling through the same thoughts again and again.

his fortifying breath before "Lucy slept well into the day", like he is dragging himself forcefully away from those thoughts.

"When her mother came up to see her, she did not seem to notice any change whatever" his voice getting sharper/snippier on the last bit, ooooh boy he does not like Mrs. Westenra at all

I for one love her voice and delivery. She sounds so kind of sweetly absent, well-meant but just lost in her own head in a way. and obliviously making everything worse even just in the context of social awkwardness

van Helsing doubling down on complete silence today is so annoying. I know it's consistent with his character and is a fault and even understand how it happens but. aaaagh

how softly he says "I was much touched by their kindness." Jack wants so badly to be cared for doesn't he.

and even now he's finding it hard to go to sleep apparently! jeez.

#re: dracula #dracula daily #jack seward #van helsing #mrs. westenra

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