#renfield ff

[herarcadewasteland]

Danger Lurks

A/N: There's a significant lack (pretty much none) of Teddy Lobo x Reader from 2023 Renfield and since I'm fulfilling my own Renfield x Reader fics, I'm doing this for those hoomans who also wanted this but couldn't find it. (Such a good movie btw I've seen it like 4 times now) Nine google doc pages of this shit-

-Teddy Lobo x Reader

-Mentions of drugs, violence and the likes. Swearing. You're old enough to know what you can handle. This is your warning :) (also sui*ide :/.... it turned darker- sorry if you're triggered. this is your warning again)

TW TW TW TW TW TW TW

_______________________

Teddy Lobo. Yeah. Him. Your boyfriend. The one currently ranting about some guy who killed a bunch of his men in Mulates the previous night. A sigh left you as you sat and listened patiently. It wasn’t like you had meant to get involved with a crime family. It just… happened. On a Thursday. A couple years back. It wasn’t worth the mental effort to think on how you had met with each detail in place. So you settled for the simple thought of it all. You were working. He walked in, you smiled at him while everyone looked away. You kept eye contact.

You didn’t look scared, and you didn't know who he was. He took you out a couple times, wined and dined you. Took you places. Treated you right. And then after mind-blowing sex, you met his mother at the breakfast table as she plotted with her son on the next drug deal. There was no out at that point. Plus, Teddy was quite a nice guy… past the killing and cocaine and stuff. So, you stayed. Which landed you here as he continued in disbelief at what had happened to a good number of his men. It wasn’t easy to believe what he told you he saw, but you had to at least try to believe. 

It was a lot easier when he walked up to your chair and landed a kiss on your lips with a pleading expression,

“You have to fucking believe me, Y/N. We’re looking for the fucker right now and when we get him, you’re coming. It’s time you get out there with me. You’ve been staying behind with mother for too long. I’m better with you at my side. You know this, lovely.”

You sighed again and nodded, hands brushing over the stubble on his jaw, 

“I know, Teddy. I’m just worried. I don’t want to see you get hurt. Or anyone else. It’s just not my  thing.”

He sighs in return and pulls you from your chair into a bear hug, his deep breathing calming you against his chest as you snuggled in. His hands stroked over your hair and you hummed while he let out a short chuckle at how cute you were. 

“We’ll have the info by morning. I’ll wake you up an hour before we’re ready to go. There won't be many of us. I’ll keep you safe, lovely.”, his lips pressed against your head and you smiled into his chest, “Now go get some rest. I want you not to be groggy when we go get this dickhead. You’ll need to be alert.”

“Ok. Goodnight Teddy.”

“Goodnight lovely.”

He spun you out of his arms towards the stairs. You giggled and walked up them to the left towards your now shared room with Teddy. You could feel his gaze on you as you walked above him past the railings blocking the fairly large fall. Looking back at him, you smiled. He smiled back with love in his gaze. You felt it too. The love. You loved him. Unfortunately for you, Teddy felt a nagging in the back of his head about the upcoming events. And he didn’t like it one bit. 

—--

The next morning you woke to an empty bed. It was normal, but it felt wrong today. The day just felt wrong. It made your eyes water as Teddy walked into the room looking down at a tablet as he grabbed a suit jacket from the closet. 

“Teddy?”

He visibly jumped at your voice, his eyes searching you out immediately and noting the tears in your eyes. His panic was next. He hated it when you cried. All he wanted was for you to be happy around him and for you to be crying so openly, it was new. Off putting even. Especially for Teddy.

“Love? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Tell me what’s wrong.”

He rushed to the bed and held your trembling hands in his steady large ones as you looked at him sadly. Just shaking your head, you took your hands from his as he scanned you constantly for any visible wound. 

“N-No I’m…”, your voice cracked and you took a steadying breath, holding Teddy’s hands again to calm him as well as yourself, “I’m okay. Just… today feels wrong. Maybe it’s just one of those days but something feels different and I’m scared. What if the feeling is right, Teddy? I don’t want anything to happen to you… to us… to anyone.”

His grip tightened on your hands as you spoke, his eyes softening further as he watched the tears make a path down your flushed face. You sighed shakily and watched him watch you. It was simple. But it calms you down enough to take a deep breath, loosen your hold on his poor hands and kiss him gently. The kiss was… as it always is, wonderful. His lips cushioned yours in the best way that you never thought possible before kissing Teddy Lobo. It took over the fear as his tongue swiped over your bottom lip, a small groan leaving him as you parted from the kiss. 

“No no, come back. You should stay with me like that forever.”, he falls back onto the bed dramatically, his hand on his forehead as you giggle. “It’s heaven on earth. You can’t take that from me!”

You laugh loudly as you crawl on top of him, his hands resting on your hips as you place kisses around his face, “We have somewhere to be, don’t we? Maybe later, pony boy.”

You wheeze at the confused and nearly offended look on his face as you scramble from the bed, gathering your most Lobo coded outfit from the closet to rush into the ensuite bathroom and change before Teddy could fully recover and get you back with many, many tickles. His huffs reached your ears from the other side of the door as you tugged on the red leather jacket you had gotten for your birthday from Teddy a year back when he first asked you to go public with him. Properly. 

Finishing the outfit with a spray of your favourite perfume, you step back into the bedroom to see Teddy waiting for you on the bed, his eyes trained on you immediately. A whistle filled the room as he clapped you into the room, his applause guiding your steps subconsciously. Placing your hands on his shoulders when you reached him, you played with hair at the nape of his neck, his smirk making you smile shyly as he looked you up and down a few times. 

“Bout fucking time I see you wear this for me. Let’s make it count, lovely. Mother sent word for us to head down. The boys are ready. We have his location.”

You nodded with a sigh and pecked his lips, stepping towards the door and shaking off your hands. You were nervous. Sure you felt a little better but that feeling, that bad one, was still present and somehow got stronger as you loaded into the van with Teddy and a few of the Lobo troops. The drive was longer than you thought but also shorter than a trip to the costco somehow. You forgot to question it all as you pulled up to the very clearly abandoned hospital, pieces of the roof hanging off, boarded windows, broken windows, graffiti. It all screamed sketchy and abandoned. But Teddy was determined. So when he saw your hesitance standing in front of the tall building, he sighed and pulled you into his side with a gentle kiss to the top of your head. 

“Just stay close. I’ve got you.”

You nodded not trusting your voice the moment you stepped into the building. The air was suffocating. Heavy. Musty. Definitely smelled like a place many people died in. That feeling you had increased ten-fold as you continued down the falling hallway, the roof and pipes clanging together and causing a few of the men to hit their heads on the way. Off-handed comments were made along the walk to find something, anything that indicated life, that the place must be haunted. The men made the typical ghost noises as they walked before stopping abruptly in what you assumed to be the reception or waiting room. It was open, large. Echoey. And you hated it more than the man who thought it would be funny to scare you into Teddy’s strong arms. You stayed away from that man for the rest of the walk. But now, standing in the entryway with Teddy as he spewed profanities, you wanted all the knowledge you were surrounded by capable people. 

Glancing around and purposefully avoiding the hundreds of suspended blood bags, you counted each of the men with growing relief that there was no one else. You looked up at Teddy with worried eyes, his own angry ones softening at your fear. HIs large hand rubbed comforting circles into your back as he led you forward to search for this Renfield guy. He called out to his men once you reached a very rank smelling room, the flies making you cringe away from the room while Teddy looked inside.

“Ronnie, call my fucking mom. RIGHT NOW.”

His voice echoed as he shielded your eyes, walking back into the open space, his mom’s voice sounding from a discarded phone that you couldn’t see until Teddy dropped his hand from your eyes to pick it up and freak out. You glanced around again, the feeling back in stronger waves as Teddy grabbed your hand again, your own trembling in his grasp as he talked with his mom before a whooshing met your ears and you both glanced around in panic. 

“Teddy- I don’t like this… Let’s just go.”, your frantic eyes met his and he frowned at the pure fear in your eyes before he glanced at something over your shoulder and froze. “Please, I don’t want to be here anymore. Can we find this Renfield guy another day? Baby...?”

Your pleading fell on deaf ears as he stared over your shoulder with a rapidly paling face. You froze in turn, hearing a dark chuckle over your shoulder. Your first instinct was to step further into Teddy, his arms wrapping around you as you slowly turned in his hold to see what caused him that much fear. Meeting the eyes of the man, you gasped. His lips curled in a smile, his pointed teeth clenched together as he watched you. You let out a shaky breath and tugged at Teddy’s arms to tell him to get you the fuck out of there. Teddy being Teddy guided you closer instead, your body falling further back into his solid frame as you were now at least a foot away from the strange man in a bedazzled suit blazer. 

Teddy’s hand reached out holding his phone, pure confidence on his face until the man took the gap in security to dart a hand out with inhuman speed and grab you from Teddy’s hold, pulling you into his chest with a hand on your neck. You whimpered at his hold, eyes wide as you stared at Teddy, who waved his hands in panic, repeating “Woah” in an attempt at subduing the hold this man had on you. 

“Look, we don’t want any trouble-”

“Who are you? You were sent by the church?”, his last word was dragged out with disgust and contempt. 

“I’m a criminal! My organization is all about evil! We’re evil, okay?!”

“Why are you here?!”, the pale man growled as he jerked you back against him. 

“We’re looking for this guy! I’m tryna find this guy! He meddled in our business and killed a bunch of our guys tryna save a bunch of innocent people.”

The phone held out in front of you showed the man, Renfield. The man holding you growled and tightened his hold on your neck, your own hands grasping at his pale appendage as you gasped at the increased pressure. You didn’t move more than that, too afraid of the claw-like nails on the man's hand to move more than you already dared. Teddy watched you carefully as the man laughed maniacally. The panic in Teddy was clear as he took an almost threatening step forward.

“Do you know who I am?! Who she is?!”

 The guy holding you in a death grip tilted his head in confusion, a nearly mocking “Hmm?”, vibrating your back with his voice.

“I’m Teddy fucking Lobo and that’s my girlfriend!” 

The strange man chuckled and lifted you above him after turning you to face him, his eyes meeting your widened ones as your legs kicked in the air, the lack of ground frightening you enough to struggle in his hold despite the claws so close to your neck.

“I am Count Dracula.”, the man's smile was back as he somehow lifted you higher, your face turning slightly red as you shook your head. 

“You win!”, Teddy shouted as he watched you turn your head to look down at him, the desperation in his eyes so clear to you as the man who claimed he was Dracula brought you down enough to make eye contact with you directly.

“He is my servant.”, Dracula growled as you trembled in his hand, lips parted to take in more air than you could through your nose. Dracula’s eyes focused on the phone again, Teddy’s other hand shaking by his side.

“He doesn’t seem to be serving you very well.”, Teddy chuckled hesitantly as you glared back at him the best you could. 

Dracula’s clawed hand set you on the ground, your back to his chest in a split second as Teddy stepped forward again. Your hands shook as you gripped the arm around your neck again, Dracula’s maniacal, almost hysterical laugh filling your head as you stared down Teddy with a mounting anger. The man's free hand shot out to grab the phone, the looped video of Renfield being stopped as the phone was crushed in his hand like it was nothing more than a piece of paper. You winced, pushing yourself against Dracula in fear before you realized and tried to move forwards, out of his harsh hold. Your attempt failed as Dracula grabbed you again and held you still against him forcefully, your forearm exposed as he twisted your arm around under his hold to drag a claw down the vein. You whimpered and shook, Teddy panicking further and reaching out to you with his shaking hands. 

“Wait, no, no, no, no!”

“This crime family of yours, would it enjoy witnessing the beheading of it’s enemies and the impalement of all who oppose it?”, Dracula's claw traced up and down the vein in your arm, your hand shaking violently at the base of it. 

One cut into it lengthwise and you would bleed out in 2 hours max. A horizontal cut would take multiple and even deeper ones, he would have to cut your vein clean in half to get you dead in that same time frame. It was still a frightening situation, having experienced his strength. The blood around his mouth and dripping down his chin didn’t help your fear. 

“That's like- that’s like our w-whole thing, man.”, Teddy’s voice trembled as he tried to get you free from the man's hold without causing a fight or pain to you.  

“And can the family raise me soldiers?”, Draculas’ tone was curious now, his claw stilling just above your wrist.

“We can… I can make a couple calls, yeah.”, Teddy almost had a smile on his face now from the turn the whole situation took. 

“Whatever pain Renfield caused you, I will return 10, 000 fold.”, he said in a rumble, his claw returning to its original path with a small detour of your neck. “I will unleash an army of death whilst warming my skin next to mountains of burning corpses.” 

The tone of his voice turned whimsical, like he was day-dreaming of the scenario. Teddy watched in concern and growing excitement that this guy seemed to want to hurt this Renfield guy as much as the Lobo’s. 

“How does that sound to you?”, Dracula finished his speech while turning his fanged smile into your neck, his tongue tracing over your pulse point while he made eye contact with your lover. 

Teddy took a steadying breath and released it with a groaned sigh, “It sounds… like you gotta meet my mom.”

You groaned as Dracula burst out laughing a few seconds later. Teddy laughed quietly with him, his eyes focused on you the whole time while you trembled. Dracula’s pure evil laughter got louder and Teddy nearly retreated in fear as he laughed a little more openly, concern growing at the rate the laughter from the other man was. 

“Are you happy or are you gonna fuck us up?”, Teddy’s smile died as he spoke, Dracula laughing still.

His claw made a small cut on your arm as he reached out to Teddy who screamed as his laughter turned into an almost screamed laugh, Teddy’s scream turning into slight laughter as Dracula continued laughing with a hand now on your boyfriend's shoulder. You hissed at the residual sting, sliding from Dracula’s body to Teddy’s side as they laughed continuously until Dracula went stock still. His eyes were staring you down as you hid behind Teddy. You froze your tugging at Teddy’s sleeve in response, his eyes flashing with something before he ended up behind you both, hand trailing over your shoulder before he spun you and grabbed the arm he had sliced. You froze further somehow as he gazed into your eyes with an intensity while Teddy watched in disbelief as his tongue snaked out of his mouth to lick the small trail of blood from your arm. 

“Can you not do that, man? She’s still my girl. You’re scaring her.”

Dracula met Teddy’s eyes with a growl as he dropped your arm, stepping back with a new expression of politeness. Almost like he had been conveniently forgetting that you were in a relationship with the same man who screamed moments before at a hand movement. He knew what he was doing though, he had too. He seemed too self aware to not know exactly what he was doing as he eye-fucked you while you cowered into your lovers body again. 

“My apologies.”, He spoke with reverence that you could tell was a cover, but Teddy accepted it with a simple nod, leading you around the guy with a hand on your back and shoulder.

“We’ll be back in a few moments, we need to gather some more men to bring you to my mom.”

Dracula nodded and watched you go as you looked back at him one last time, hand rubbing over the small laceration he had made on your delicate skin. 

—--- 

It was days later when this Renfield guy burst through the doors, Teddy’s mom standing beside you, her son on your other side, his hands crossed over his chest. 

“Must be nice not having to be invited in.”

You blocked out the conversation from there, watching as the officer’s eyes scanned you with blatant interest, the conversation clearly shifting towards you as everyone looked your way.

“She’s merely a bystander. No harm has to come to her.”

Teddy’s voice had rung across the front room clearly, the two on the ground floor looking at you with increased interest as you shuffled behind Teddy to hide yourself from their searching gazes. Tugging at your newly acquired fiance's sleeve, you mumbled in his ear that you didn’t want to be out front with him, requesting that you go into the back with his mother. He refused, insisting that he could keep you safer while you were with him. You agreed reluctantly and grasped him by the waist as the conversation continued. You felt a pair of eyes on you the entire time but shrugged it off as a few men jumped the railing with increasing dramatics to fight this Renfield guy who now shared powers with a handful of the Lobo men. 

The fight went quickly, Teddy realizing quickly that he may be better off sitting behind the scenes with his mother. You both jogged to the door before you heard a voice calling out to you both. Officer Quincy. You shook your head as you both turned, Teddy pulling his gold pistols from his pants in a threat. Hands reaching up to pull his arms down, you stepped in front of him to stop him. Muttering at him, you sighed. He was stubborn, you knew that but for him to be this stubborn at that particular moment irked you. So you reacted. Grabbing his guns from his hands, you saw his eyes narrow at you. Before you could think on it more, you turned to the railing and leapt over the edge, running for the door as he called after you in urgency.

Nothing stopped you as you booked it for the doors, Renfield’s carnage doing nothing to stop you as you nearly made it to the door before Teddy reached you. His hands grasped your arms as you panicked, hands trembling as his golden eyes looked into your own coloured ones. Dropping the guns, you burst into tears, hiding your face in his chest as his hands rubbed up and down your back to calm you.

“Hey, hey. Look, it’ll be okay. I promise. Let’s get you upstairs to mother and we’ll see each other soon, I promise. I won’t let you get hurt.”

You sighed, wiping your tears with shaky hands as he picked you up, carrying you through everything calmly, the destruction avoiding you narrowly as Renfield downed the last man. You tapped Teddy’s shoulder frantically as you noticed his advance, the cop approaching from the opposite direction as your tapping got more panicked. Teddy noticed quickly, his hands gripping you tighter despite setting you on the ground.

Being exposed more for any attack, you stood still with your back pressed against the chest that had been pressed against yours the night before. The officer quickly approached, Teddy acting quickly and snorting the centipede that had been crawling up and down his arm without you noticing. You cringed away from the sight, Teddy’s eyes flashing gold again as he gently pushed you to the side before he lunged at the officer. That left you completely exposed. 

Renfield took advantage of the situation and pulled you into his hold like his master had done a night or so before. In a few moments, Renfield had you held on the balcony above, arm crossed over your throat as Teddy and the officer fought. It didn’t take long for Teddy to notice, his distraction enough for the officer to pull the shotgun on him and shoot him down. You gasped and fought the hold on you, your eyes stuck on your lover’s as he fell to his knees, bloodied wounds decorating his tattooed chest while you watched, unable to do anything but cry. Renfield took pity on you and let you go, your fist meeting his face before you raced past the murderer of your fiance to the man himself. 

“Teddy! No, no, no no no nonono. You can’t leave me! We were gonna be together forever…”

His pained chuckle met your ears as tears fell from your pained eyes. 

“Don’t you know who I am? I’m Teddy fucking Lobo and I’ll always be with you, lovely.”

Your head shook as you pressed frantically on his wounds, eyes scanning his face continuously as he just watched you, a single tear tracking down his face and meeting the small puddle of yours on the floor beneath him. You chuckled roughly, of course he would say that while dying. Footsteps drew your attention momentarily, the culprits sprinting to get to Dracula while you sat with the love of your life and talked him into the afterlife. You’d meet him there one day. You just hoped it would be sooner… seeing his pistols out of the corner of your eye, you nodded. You’d be with him soon. 

As you held his pistol to your head, you laughed in pain,

“Teddy fucking Lobo... I’ll see you soon, baby.”

-------

A/N: oh man im sorry it got dark :/ if i missed any words im so sorry but hopefully it made some sense. kinda my own take with a few direct quotes from scenes.

[elvisgrace]

Happy Simblreen!

Not all vampires are wealthy, titled, European nobility, so for the somewhat less discerning Simpire, I bring you the Slightly Less Deep Sleeper by R.M. Renfield & Associates

R.M. Renfield & Associates, crafters of affordability and convenience for over one hundred years has done it! Form! Function! Convenience! You can rest assured that when you take sanctuary beneath the pretty solid lid and settle into its easy clean polyester embrace that only the dead will find a sounder sleep. Arise somewhat refreshed and ready to deal with the night. Homeland soil not included.

This coffin is geared towards vampires who are just a little too declassé for music-making creatures of the night, creeping fog, and flaming braziers.

Enjoy!

SFS/Mediafire

Credits :

@Pinofurude's Informal Vampire Coffins - textures

Leefish Place Me Anywhere Lamp - lamp

@mustluvcatz-reloaded's It's A Hobo's Life For Me - crates

Necrodog's Open Coffins - coffin

@beautifulnerdkitty's 4t2 conversion of mxims' pallet bed - pallet

*the preview looks kinda janky in ff, but in real time those are sparks coming from the lamp 🤪

[gardenofshadcws]

Dracula Daily Day 70

Lucy Westenra’s Diary

She’s feeling better again! And no more nightmares! That can only be good, right?

…. right?

Dr. Seward’s Diary

Jack certainly seems so

Oh hey Renfield whatcha doin with that knife

Renfield licking up the blood is such a visceral reminder that we are in a vampire story and not a medical mystery

Jack ffs go to bed

Telegram, Van Helsing, Antwerp, to Seward, Carfax

Even when he’s not here Van Helsing’s making sure shit gets done

Memorandum Left By Lucy Westenra

Awww we were so hopeful this time

Go away brat bat

Mama Westenra does she look all right

Poor thing’s desperate for someone to be there with her but Dracula’s scaring her mom almost as bad as he’s startling her. And we all know that’s not good.

Dude! Manners! I thought vampires couldn’t enter a room without being invited, not just turn into wolves and bash their way in

RIP Mama Westenra

But honestly who wouldn’t react in surprise and alarm if a wolf jumped into their bedroom window

Come on Drac, why drug the servants? They have blood too. Leave her alone.

Who’s going to watch over the babygirl now?

“If I should not survive this night” Oh nooo babyyyyy

Letter, Mina Harker to Lucy Westenra

It has been a while since our two favorite girls talked, hasn’t it?

Our good friend Jonathan is back in England!

Huh. I wish my employer would leave me a house

It seems like Jonathan is feeling better, working as a partner to his old boss

“How is your dear mother getting on?” Awkwaaaaard. I know she wrote the letter not knowing what just happened but still. Oof.

Jonathan’s having nightmares too poor baby

Goodbye my dearest Lucy :’(((

[cupparosielee]

OK, listen, hear me out...

Renfield is an absolute work of art and I need everyone to stop what they're doing and go and see this film ASAP.

It's funny, it's got that Cornetto style comedy horror gore, it's got brilliantly performed character dynamics, it's got some genuinely moving moments thrown in there, it's got STUNNING lighting and set design, it's got Nick Cage as Dracula ffs!

Go. And. See. This. Film.

[cherryqueenoftarts]

I do not, I confess, recall much of anything about Renfield in either of the adaptations of Dracula I have encountered. But I'm pretty sure he wasn't beaten to death as he attempted to defend Mina.

I am flabbergasted.

In the school play I was in, he was comic relief and survived. In Coppola's movie... I don't remember. Does anyone know what happens to him? Does he sacrifice himself for Mina??

I'm so totally floored.

I always thought he was an evil character. He wants to eat cats ffs. I did NOT see this coming.

[mywingsareonwheels]

Well today I want to knock the two doctors’ heads together.

FFS you twits. Mina has the best brain of all of you and is exceptionally stalwart and courageous, and Renfield genuinely needs to get out of there. You have some excuse for not realising the latter (ish, but the mental health ableism is still painful). You have no excuse whatsoever for not realising the former. I am reminded so very heavily of this bit from The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, and Lord Peter Wimsey (from a similar class/situation to Arthur) realising he’s messed up (towards the extremely excellent wife of a friend of his) and imbibing some respect women juice:- “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to bully. One has an ancestral idea that women must be treated like imbeciles in a crisis. Centuries of the women-and-children-first idea I suppose. Poor devils.” "Who, the women?" "Yes. No wonder they sometimes lose their heads. Pushed into corners, told nothing of what's happening and made to sit quiet and do nothing. Strong men would go dotty in the circs. I suppose that's why we've always grabbed the privilege of dashing about and doing the heroic bits."

At least I am fully expecting that it’s going to be come very clear that Seward and Van Helsing have each made an awful mistake wrt Renfield and Mina. I like that Jonathan clearly is having doubts; I wish he would voice them. Also I hate that VH’s stupid decision is driving a wedge between the Harkers. :(

[resonanteye]

renfield: please ffs listen to me, I don't want to be a wolf instead of a lamb

[scribe-of-monsters]

"Isn't it SPOOKY and CREEPY that Renfield can talk like a NORMAL PERSON?? Isn't that SO SCARY" No. Stop treating mentally ill people as beneath you. Ffs

[cartoonus-maximus]

A Look Back on the Media I Consumed in 2023

(complete with graphics and bingo charts!)

♻️ = a re-read or a re-watch

According to Goodreads, I read 35-ish books in 2023. Let's break those down a little more.

📚 Books I Read:

"Bedtime Stories for the Criminally Insane" by Shawn Bailey

"Circe" by Madeline Miller

"FNAF Fazbear Frights: Felix the Shark" by Scott Cawthon et al

"FNAF: the Freddy Files Updated Edition" by Scott Cawthon

"Percy Jackson and the Olympians: the Demigod Files" by Rick Riordan

"Peter Pan" by J.M. Barrie ♻️

"Rhinoceros and Other Plays" by Eugene Ionesco

"the Shadow Queen" by C.J. Redwine

"Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere" by Maria Bamford

"To Sleep In A Sea of Stars" by Christopher Paolini

"the Wish Granter" by C.J. Redwine

📚 (Comic)Books I Read:

"the Amazing Spider-Man: 2099 Companion" by Nick Spencer, et al

"the Amazing Spider-Man: Renew Your Vows vol 1" by Dan Slott, et al

"Archie's Holiday Magic Special" by Mike Northrup, et al

"Cryptid Club" by Sarah Andersen

"Fantastic Four, vols 1-6" by Jonathan Hickman, et al ♻️

"FF, vols 1-4" by Jonathan Hickman, et al ♻️

"Marvel Masterworks: The Amazing Spider-Man vol 1" by Stan Lee and Steve Ditko

"Marvel Masterworks: Marvel Team-Up vol 1" by Gerry Conway and Roy Thomas, et al

"the New Fantastic Four: Hell in a Handbasket" by Peter David, et al

"Sabrina the Teenage Witch Holiday Special" by Kelly Thompson, et al

"Scooby Apocalypse vol 2" by Keith Giffen, et al

"Spider-Man and Venom: Double Trouble" by Mariko Tamaki

"Wolf Walkers the graphic novel" by Tomm Moore

That gives us this year's reading bingo chart! Two full bingos and almost a third, so that's pretty good.

My favorite book this year was "Circe." I've been away from the classical Greek period for several years now, and Miller's book scratched a particular itch.

📺 Shows I Finished:

Be Cool, Scooby-Doo (best revision of the franchise ever tyvm)

Good Omens (finished season 2… honestly didn't like it as much as the first season)

Grimm (finally finished watching this damn series... I'm glad I did, but I don't think it was worth the time, tbh)

the Horror of Dolores Roach (we support women's rights and women's wrongs)

I'm A Virgo (the irony of watching it on Amazon Prime was not lost on me)

the Legend of Vox Machina (finished Season 1)

📺 Shows I'm Currently Watching:

The Adventures of Batman and Robin (1968, Filmation)

Being Human (American version, partway through Season 1)

the Feed

Frasier ♻️

the Legend of Vox Machina (partway through Season 2 rn)

Psych (partway through Season 2 rn) ♻️

Tokyo Vampire Hotel

🎬 Movies I Watched:

I may not have produced a lot of art or written much fic this year, but boy howdy did I watch movies!

the Addams Family 2 (2021, MGM)

the Aristocats (1970, Disney) ♻️

the Batman (2022, Warner Bros.)

the Birdcage (1996, MGM)

Black Panther (2018, Marvel)

the Black Phone (2021, Blumhouse)

Bros (2022, Universal)

Doctor Strange (2016, Marvel)

Doctor Strange: Multiverse of Madness (2022, Marvel)

Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022, AGBO)

Hellboy: Sword of Storms (2006, Starz Media)

Invincible: Atom Eve (2023, Amazon)

Jack and the Cuckoo-Clock Heart (2013, EuropaCorp)

Judy (2019, LD Entertainment)

M3gan (2022, Blumhouse)

Mama (2013, Universal)

the Map of Tiny Perfect Things (2021, Amazon)

Merry Little Batman (2023, Amazon)

Morbius (2022, Sony)

Nope (2022, Monkeypaw Productions)

Pirates of the Caribbean: the Curse of the Black Pearl (2003, Disney) ♻️

Renfield (2023, Universal)

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (1964, Rankin Bass) ♻️

Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019, Warner Bros.)

Scrooged (1988, Paramount)

Secret Window (2004, Sony)

Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (2023, Sony)

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018, Sony) ♻️

Totally Killer (2023, Blumhouse)

Uzumaki (2000, Omega Micott)

Violent Night (2022, 87North Productions)

Wonder Woman (2017, Warner Bros.)

Words on Bathroom Walls (2020, LD Entertainment)

And this year's movie watching bingo chart is... completely covered.

I have achieved ultimate bingo.

I'm not sure what my favorite movie of the bunch was, but "Nope," "Across the Spider-Verse," "the Black Phone," "Totally Killer," "Words on Bathroom Walls," and "the Batman" are all pretty up there.

I tried to watch a movie every Saturday of this year. I didn't hit them all, but I did manage to watch a whopping 33 movies, exposing myself to stories and genres that I normally wouldn't, and I'm very happy to have gotten that far.

I probably won't watch anywhere near that amount of movies in 2024 (I have other plans for the year that are going to be fairly time consuming), but this was a fun experience.

[enberlight]

[ID: White text on grey background reads: Dracula: June 18. Back to Renfield! (Uploaded 9 hr ago) Dr. Seward's Diary. End ID.]

I'm going to leave the Dr. Seward and Renfield entries behind a readmore and tag those characters in these posts going forward. (I'll have them tagged retroactively after this post.)

This is for those who want to skip the psychiatric hospital stuff. I don't know how bad it's going to get. But this entry also has spiders so, that's one of my common caution tags too.

As an aside I find this entry Odd rather than Alarming or Disturbing.

Today we're back with Dr. Seward for a short entry about his patient Renfield. I have to assume that both of them are quite bored. Renfield still has his flies, but the numbers are dropping, as promised... because he now has pet spiders. He's also luring in more flies for the spiders with his food, so I don't think he'll be getting to zero flies soon.

I don't have a good read on Seward yet, but I would venture he's not bothering with activity options for his patients. Just staring at them and making conjectures and interrogations so far. Of course they're going to get odd hobbies. Get them some books and a garden ffs.

[cherryqueenoftarts]

Someone here asked why Jack doesn't yet suspect that someone is preying on Lucy, and it got me thinking. It's a great point. The Jack the Ripper murders predate Dracula by a few years. Why wouldn't Jack, a man who deals with people like Renfield every day, think of the Ripper and begin putting together a theory of some madman (his term) crawling through Lucy's window at night?

I poked around Google to see if there's any connection between Stoker and the Ripper. Aside from him meeting two men suspected of being the Ripper (did he know they were suspects? it didn't say), there doesn't seem to be much there. One source did mention that he made a comparison between the evil of the Ripper and the evil of Dracula. So we know Stoker was aware of serial killers; hence Seward should be, too.

Anyway as I was reading my findings I was struck by something else. In multiple sources people dismiss the idea that Dracula was based on the Ripper because the Ripper tortured and killed prostitutes while Dracula "romantically" preys on high class ladies.

You guys.

Okay, to be clear, I don't see much evidence that Stoker based Dracula on the Ripper.

But like. Did any of these people read the book? Romantically? Ffs.

Also (and this is the point I've been working towards, believe it or not) the idea that Dracula doesn't prey on poor sex workers just annoys me. We have no idea. No one would tell us, in this epistolary novel, if sex workers were turning up dead in London gutters. It's not newsworthy when a sex worker dies looking pale but otherwise unharmed. We've seen that Drac has a huge appetite (*cough*Demeter crew*cough*). The fact he *hasn't* killed Lucy yet implies an almost guarantee that he's eating other people. Who better than sex workers? Maybe some vagrants here and there, too. The way they die would likely mislead most people who found the bodies into thinking it wasn't by violence, too.

Dracula likes to slowly torture and draw out his kill when it comes to Lucy. Is she the only one? We have no idea.

Aaand now I want a story about Dracula's unknown victims.

Okay, so what about the fact that London isn't becoming overrun with fledgling vampires? Well, idk if Stoker ever gives us an explanation for how Drac makes new vampires, but it's clearly not an automatic thing, or Transylvania would have a lot more of them (a lot of them babies--yikes).

Will someone pretty please write the story of these missing victims?

Maybe I'll take a crack at it...