Dracula: Storm the Castle (Concept Poster)

Summary:

Wilhelmina Murray, a schoolteacher who goes by Mina to her friends, hasn't heard from her fiancé Jonathan Harker since he left on a work trip to Romania a few months ago. With no word and the months passing by, Mina has grown worried.

But then, a letter from Jonathan arrives. He explains that he is doing well and that he would like for Mina to come to Romania as a chance to scout the area out for their honeymoon. While suspicious of the contents, Mina now has proof that her soon-to-be husband is alive, and she knows his location. With her bags packed and a tearful farewell to her friends, Mina heads to Transylvania, Romania.

However, it does not take long for Mina to realize that something is amiss. How the townspeople react to the castle whenever she brings it up, the fact she is even having trouble to find a ride to the castle, not to mention the strange Ladies of the Castle who welcome her in... With no Jonathan in sight.

But Mina did not come all this way for nothing. No matter what horrors await her, Mina will find Jonathan and they will get married. They both waited long enough.

End of Summary

Hello fellow people of the Dracula fandom! I'm sure you all saw my draft ideas on how I would try to adapt Dracula floating around the tags. Being introduced to the pairing of Jonathan and Mina has done something to my brain and I felt compelled to get my ideas out there.

I would like to make this into an animated show since I am a storyboard artist but, in the meantime, I wouldn't mind posting all my concept art for my idea. Stay tuned cause I'm planning on doing concept designs for Mina and Jonathan, maybe the Vampire Sisters as well.

Castlevania: Belmont's Revenge

Original Sin

Friendship ended with Jonathan Harker. Now unnamed wolf lady is my new blorbo.

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.

It’s always been a fantasy of mine to be poly w/ multiple vampire partners (like dracula & his brides, but doesn’t even have to be dracula specifically). Just imagining being the next human they bring home to toy with and feed off before eventually turning <3 anyways love your blog!!

Imagine showing up on the doorstep of a large gothic castle, pathetic, sopping wet from the raging storm that caught you off guard. the place is clearly haunted, or at the very least, creepy as hell, but you have no other choice, nowhere else to go.

You're surprised when the man of the house opens the door for you instead of a butter or maid, but he invites you in to spend the night in his home with all the warmth and charm of a snake. You know something's wrong, you know you're a foolish little mouse, but what other choice do you have?

He insists you strip out of your wet clothes to let them dry and lets you warm up by the fire, he doesn't give you anything dry to change into so you awkwardly stand naked in front of the roaring fire, drying your hair and debating if it would be rude to rip down one of the grand tapestries to wrap around yourself when you hear a squeal of delight, you whirl around but no one's there.

Then, in a flash, there are three someone standing in the doorway to the room you're in, three beautiful women, all with ashy skin and blood-red eyes that stare at you hungrily. More snakes to come flick their forked tongues at the frightened mouse.

"Oh, you were telling the truth- a new toy to play with," one says.

"Told you, a pretty little thing all naked and ready for us, just waiting to be ripped apart," another says, clapping her hands together excitedly.

"Master didn't tell us about this one, maybe he wants them for himself, perhaps it would be wise to ask for permission," the third ponders. There is a flash of lightning through a nearby window momentarily blinding you, when your vision returns the man who let you in is there smiling.

"no my deers, go right ahead, have your fun," he insists, as if he'd been listening to the conversation the whole time. The three women pounce on you, even though they might appear frail and petite they are strong, much stronger than a pathetic little thing like you.

For the most part, the man of the house watches as his wives have their way with you, but the second blood is spilled he's on you too, taking his turn to break in the new toy. Even with four vampires biting and drinking from you, they won't kill you, that would spoil the fun after all and who knows. it might be more fun to keep you around for a long long, time

Before Dracula Daily starts tomorrow, people eager to hear from Jonathan Harker might be interested in knowing that there's good evidence that the first chapter of the book was originally Chapter III, and that in the first two chapters, Jonathan was possibly supposed to have:

Checked out the Pinakotek art museum.

Visited a leichenhaus in Munich where Count Dracula was seemingly hanging around pretending to be a dead body before apparently popping back to life.

Attended a performance of Wagner's The Flying Dutchman (which probably ties into Stoker's fascination with the play Vanderdecken, which Henry Irving starred in) .

Done all the stuff in the short story "Dracula's Guest," which includes (1) having a scary time on Walpurgisnacht before having his scary time on St. George's Eve, (2) finding a mysterious mausoleum in which a blonde woman--implied to be the blonde vampiress who later features in Dracula's castle--has a giant iron stake in her and gets struck by lightening in a storm, (3) spending the night in the snow with a wolf--who is probably Dracula--sitting on him to keep him warm and abrading his throat with its file like tongue.

While she was obviously unsuccessful, I have mad respect for that woman trying to storm Dracula’s castle and kick the ass of whichever monster stole her child.

Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dreden, from the Dresden Files

Mr "The building was on fire and it wasn't my fault", Wizard of Chicago, magical right hand thug of Winter, Dad of a small girl and a spirit of intellect, owner of a temple foo dog and a perfectly normal cat, etc. Has canonically fought vampires of the "black court" which are similar to Dracula. Has met the Dresden Files version of Dracula and survived barely.

Survivability will change according to where you are in the series, so let's say at the current book Battlegrounds. If you like, compare with him at the beginning of the series, Storm Front.

"Survived, barely" I think is Harry Dresden's whole mode of being.

I think the question here is going to be less "will Dracula kill Harry" and more "can Dracula kill Harry." Like of course Dracula wants to kill him. Everyone wants to kill Harry Dresden all the time and they're usually right. He aggros vampires on purpose because he is, if you'll pardon the expression, A Little Shit.

Yeah I was gonna say by Dresden Files rules we probably wanna say Dracula is Black Court? I am going to admit right now that I haven't read the books but I have designed a homebrew Sentinels of the Multiverse villain deck around them so I am broadly conversant with them. I've been told the wildest stuff. Santa Claus is there.

(I have seen the TV series but this is about the books)

The thing is... Harry Dresden is protected six ways from Sunday. He has every anti-vampire measure and he knows how to weaponize the rules of hospitality. He'll find some way that Dracula can't harm him while he's a guest in his home, and use that technicality to be an insufferable brat. He's owed favors by tons of ridiculously powerful entities that would love to see him dead. He's a whole wizard, and, unlike some, actually pretty good at it. He's the Winter Knight (is he still after the whole ghost thing?? I can't keep track?) which has got to do something.

And like, he's got that Jim Kirk sex appeal, rendered all the more inexplicable by the fact that he's fundamentally scrungly. For no reason that I've ever been able to determine (again, it might be more clear if I actually read the books), hot immortal women keep sacrificing themselves for him. It would be entirely in character for one or more of the Girlies to be his ex who hates his guts - but then ends up sacrificing herself for him anyway.

I think mechanically Harry should be able in principle to be just fine, BUT because this is Harry "born to suffer" Dresden he will find ways to make trouble for himself and everyone around him. He's creative like that.

......honestly now I want to put Harry Dresden and Harry DuBois in a room together and see what happens. Someone who knows these guys better than I do get on that.

Anyway I don't think it's a Dresden File unless Harry gets beaten within an inch of his life at least in part due to his own poor life choices.

So in all likelihood Harry Dresden, Wizard of Chicago, can survive Castle Dracula. But, as you say, Barely.

my reading list currently looks like....

frankenstein* (ill probably finish this one up in a day or two)

the salt grows heavy by cassandra khaw

dracula

wuthering heights

the death of jane lawrence by caitlin starling

the haunting of hill house by shirley jackson

howls moving castle by dianna wynne jones

the secret history by donna tartt

jane eyre

drive your plow over the bones of the dead by olga tokarczuk

dune by frank herbert

we have always lived in the castle by shirley jackson

birnam wood by eleanor catton

are prisons obsolete? by angela davis

a game of thrones* by grrm

daughter of smoke* and bone by laini taylor

a clash of kings* by grrm

days of blood and starlight by laini taylor

into the drowning deep by mira grant

dune messiah by frank herbert

their eyes were watching god by zora neale hurston

bunny by mona awad

a storm of swords* by grrm

the lottery and other stories by shirley jackson

a psalm for the wild-built by becky chamber

*rereads

Book Carmilla vs Adaptations (SPOILERS)

Here are a few 'interesting' adaptations. I like some of them for their own merits, but mostly dislike them as Carmilla adaptations for the below reasons, with some notable exceptions: Vampyr: The Dream of Allan Gray (1932 film): The first Carmilla inspired movie, although it keeps almost NOTHING from the novella except 'female vampire'. In this case, a creepy old lady rather than a charming young lesbian. This is a really moody, slow, acid trip of a film though, a treat for fans of vintage vampire film. (3/10) Hammer Karnstein Trilogy: The Vampire Lovers is the gayest and most book-accurate. Carmilla still kisses/seduces men before killing them, boo. The second one her identically-named reincarnation is blonde and has sex with / falls in love with a man booooooo. She's not in the third one at all. It's all very 70's and nowhere near queer enough, but at least we got the incomparable Ingrid Pitt in the first movie. 5/10. Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust: 'Carmilla' shows up as a surprise third act villain. She's an elegant and imposing vampire queen with a castle called "Cjethe" and the Vampire King offed her previously for being A Bit Too Extra. She's... Bathory. She's Elizabeth Bathory, right down to the name of her historical castle, the elaborate gowns and the blood-bathing. Bathory in Castlevania Nocturne even looks a lot like this one. Cool scary vampire lady, but Carmilla In Name Only. 4/10 Castlevania (Games): She's fine here, but mostly just kind of a big Dracula groupie like most of the other non-Dracula vampires. Often depicting as a flying skull or mask crying bloody tears, with optional succubus-like figure reclining on top of it. Cool. Rondo of Blood has her appear together with a ninja vampire Laura with bunny ears because why the hell not. 6/10 Castlevania (Netflix show): Baddass, angry Karen. She's amazing in the first season when she's scheming against Dracula, but after that she just sort of sits on her butt sipping wine and griping about men for a whole season until Isaac storms her castle. A cool character but not a great Carmilla, because Carmilla for me is defined by how much she loves women, not how much she hates men. Still amazing voice work by Jaime Murray though and her last stand was insanely baddass. 7/10

Carmilla Web Series / Movie: My favorite adaptation. It's obviously playing waaaay fast and loose with the canon and reframing her as a charming antihero in a zany urban fantasy, but there's deep current of love for the source material, especially in the movie. Natasha Negovanlis has charisma off the charts and the Hollstein romance is adorable. This Carmilla might be a black-leather-wearing snarky millenial goth with a Canadian accent, but as the show goes on it peels back layer after layer of the romantic, poetic, wistful, world-weary immortal hinted at by the novella. This show redeems LeFanu's lovelorn villain in all the best ways. 10/10. 2019 movie / Styria movie: I still haven't seen these, have heard good things about the gothic cinematography on the most recent one but not good things about the rest of it. The trailer looked moody and pretty though, I may watch it at some point.

How I would try to Adapt “Dracula”

Hello, resident Film student that is about to graduate here and I have been through the deep-dive of the Dracula by Bram Stoker waters. Suffice to say, I feel in love and was very disappointed that the cultural osmosis of adaptations that I grew up around to understand Dracula does not even come close to the masterpiece that I found within the original story. It’s Jonathan and Mina, by the way. Their relationship is the masterpiece of this story. Go away very problematic themes, stereotypes, and ideas, I will not let you take this relationship away from me.

Seriously, how was it possible for me to ship a Victorian couple so hard? Why do we not have this in more adaptations?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU HOLLYWOOD?!

…AHEM! Once again, I am sorry to my followers for another fixation has caught my attention. At least this is something I could probably put in a portfolio…

Moving back to my idea, I should make a point that I am a storyboard artist so my idea generally falls to making it into an Adult Cartoon Series. Something along the lines of the Legend of Vox Machina — because I really like that art style and it feels like it fits best with my plot.

Speaking of which, let me get into the plot! Strap in newcomers because I am a bit of a storyteller when it comes to explaining my whacky ideas, if you didn’t already figured that.

DARKY’S DRACULA ADAPTATION, GO!

The setting of my adaptation takes place relatively the same time period. In fact, things are largely the same as the beginning of the novel; Jonathan travels to the Count’s castle, he notices the strong ongoing, he has that horrible encounter with the Vampire Ladies, Dracula does who know what to him, he even has his refined taste for paprika!

You might ask yourself: “Well, how is your adaptation any different from the book?” Well, that’s easy, my good friends. Because Jonathan manages to kill Dracula that day on June 30th, where he successfully decapitates the monster that’s been tormenting him.

It all sounds well and good, right? That means no one to torment Lucy and she can have her big day with Arthur. Mina will be safe, no children get bitten. It sounds wonderful…

…But Jonathan can’t get out of the castle. He remains there, trapped, with the Vampire Ladies and a presence that won’t go away.

Months go by and Mina receives a letter, one from her missing fiancé. He is still in Romania working with the Count, but he would like for Mina to come by and look at the land. Thinking how it would be a wonderful place for a honeymoon.

Mina is confused by the contents of the letter, but it is her proof that her fiancé is alive. And now she has a location of his whereabouts.

With a sadden goodbye to Lucy due to the fact that she will miss her wedding, Mina heads to Transylvania in order to find Jonathan.

But when she arrives at the Castle, welcomed by the Three Women, Mina realizes what horrors had plagued Jonathan and now it will soon come to her.

And that’s the outline of the Pilot I had in my head. Do I think it’s possible for Jonathan to decapitate Dracula with the shovel? Probably not, but it needs to in order for this adaptation to work. And before anyone says, yes, this Adaptation is pretty much Mina Murray going all Resident Evil 7 on Dracula’s castle.

She deserves to have her rage moments. Also, she really wants to get married. If it means she has to storm a castle, then she will do that!

Some other facts that I wanted to include:

Lucy gets more of an active role in the story. She’s been poorly adapted for so long, I wanted to give her something more. She’s the Galinda to Mina’s Elphaba. You bet she’s going to lead a search party that involves her husband, their two best friends, and the silly Professor that was interested in the location in order to find her two childhood friends.

Also, yeah. Lucy and Arthur got married. I’m going to give these two a chance to be happy before things go wrong when they arrive at the castle.

The Vampire Sisters get a chance to be main villains for the first half of the show. Yes, I called them Sisters instead of Brides cause I read that two of the three look like Dracula and I’m just going to leave it at that. Also, I think the Blonde one is their mom? I’m not a hundred percent sure. It’s an adaptation. They’re getting more screen time and depth, is what I’m trying to say!

Mina has a gun, watch out.

Dracula still has a role in this story. That I can include.

I know I likened the plot to Resident Evil 7 so I ‘m just gonna go ahead and say this; Mina will not loose any of her hands.

Expect a lot of Jonmina moments, flashbacks and when they reunite included.

The Forgemasters x Dracula’s Daughter

A/N: So this is like if Dracula had a vampire daughter that was twins with Adrian, but she was on her fathers side about humans

Hector:

Tries so hard to stop simping, he doesn’t want to piss his master off and have him think he took advantage of your or something. He’s a bit more secretive and isolated, wanting to not socialize as much as he could avoid it and spend time with the undead, rather. But you wanted to get to know these humans your father trusted so much, so after visiting Isaac, you came to find Hector working in his quarters, a pile of dead humans in one corner while undead animals scurried about the room. A cat with half its muscles showing rubbed up against your leg and meowed up at you, earning Hectors attention. He was shy and tried not to look you in the eye, but he answered your questions and allowed you to watch him work

NO YOU SMILING AT HIM AND DRACULA GETS SUSPICIOUS IMMEDIATELY. He raises an eyebrow at you and you’re all “What? You picked a cute human general” “Y/N, don’t even think about it.” And you just laugh at him as he groans like the grumpy old man he is. You definitely like to flirt with Hector in front of him to make him blush 10x harder, and also annoy your father at the same time, which was always a bonus for you (you’re the only one who can get away with it-)

You liked to help Hector with all his pets, playing with Cezar and petting the cat, and letting the bird land on your arm to chirp and squawk at you. He always asks if they’re bothering you, and they never do, you enjoy keeping them all company while their owner works. Sometimes you’ll wander outside of the castle at night and find a dead or half dead animal on the ground, and you rush it to Hector asking if he could save it. You liked animals better than humans just like he did, animals would let you pet them and love them, human would point swords to your throat and calls you vile names

Isaac:

Isaac is arguably Dracula’s favorite of his court, so you probably got curious as to what was so special about this human in particular. So one day you wandered down to his quarters, hearing the screeches of night creatures behind recently brought to life by him. You stood in the door way to watch him, and when he noticed you, asked if he could help you with anything. You asked if you could just watch him do his work, curious about it, and he nodded before getting back to work

HE CALLS YOU MISTRESS Y/N, and gives you the same respect he gives Dracula. You ask him to just simply call you Y/N, and he bows his head before saying just your name as you requested

He doesn’t smile often in the show at all, but he can’t help but smile for you. Sometimes you ask to see his smile and he grants you that wish, sometimes your presence just brings a small smile on your face while he works. Even in front of the rest of the court, he’ll smile if you yell at Godbrand or sass back at Carmilla, and Hector just raises an eyebrow at him cause since when does Isaac know how to smile?

If you ever get into a fight with your father about what direction to go with this war and he overhears or witnessed it, he will talk down his master before following you to wherever you were storming off to. He allows you to rant to him, and you only stop when you hear a quiet chuckle

“Oh, you think this is funny?”

“It is amusing.” He smiles, before setting a hand on your shoulder. “I like seeing you passionate about things, is all.”

He has a hard time saying he loves you, the last time he said it he was beat harshly for it. You say it often, enough for the both of you, and you understand why he doesn’t repeat it. But when he does for the first time, neither of you realize it at first, but you stare at each other when you do. He doesn’t know how you will react, but when you smile and hug him, he relaxes into your gentle touch and reciprocates it

When it comes to note-worthy unnamed Dracula characters, I remembered the poor captain and the first and second mates, the mother trying to storm the castle, and the woman who gave Jonathan the crucifix, but I’d completely forgotten about the fast, self-positive, lyrical weather man.

With the perspective of Mina Murray apparently being a cheerful Victorian era goth girl on the hunt for headstones and ghost stories, it presents two very sweet pictures and one very unpleasant one.

1. She and Lucy, the girliest of girly girls around, made of Valentines and floating hearts and wedding lace dreams, are the original blueprint for all Goth Chick x Pretty-in-Pink Sweetheart girlfriends in media to follow, 11/10

2. She and Jonathan, he of the chronic ‘I Love My Wife More Than Life’-itis and generally romantic (in both senses) tendencies, would be an absolute Sight walking down a lane, Victorian Morticia Addams arm-in-arm with a man who has the soul of a golden retriever, also 11/10

3. Jonathan being Jonathan, he was probably looking forward to (and then desperately trying to convince himself of the silver lining of) sharing his creepy experiences in Transylvania with Mina. All the terror of the locals, the menace of the castle, fucking Dracula being himself. Before the penny dropped and he realized exactly how much danger he was in, I bet he rehearsed the telling of everything to Mina for when he got home. 

A fun scary story for his fiancée for them both to laugh over while she huffed and threw up her hands. Oh, he would get to live out a gothic horror story the moment she wasn’t there! Jonathan, darling, do arrange a meeting with this Dracula fellow when he comes to Carfax, I bet he has such stories to tell...

But, well. What happened, happened. And now there is Lucy’s horror story waiting in the wings.

All with Mina at the eye of the storm, watching the supernatural nightmare fall on the heads of the people she loves most. A nightmare that will inevitably fall on her too.

It reads like the world’s cruelest case of the Monkey’s Paw. You want a scary story, Miss Murray? Here. 

Live in one.

"It's him... The Belmont."

Every century or so, Dracula would face a new Belmont, each one a fierce and powerful warrior. But what made Simon so different when he followed his family's footsteps and stormed into that castle?

Just Look at him.

"Castle in sight — sun setting — time all important at sunset Drac can fly. Makes stand. Quincey to rescue with maxim gun — storm building up — sun setting victors hew top off box. Drac slain — mist melts — storm bursts on castle. Wild whirling figures of women on tower — obliterated by lightning. Quincey dies — as dying points to glow of red sunset hitting on Mina’s face no stain" - from Bram Stoker's Notes for Dracula (Rosenbach #34 verso)

I want everyone to see this one outline of the final battle sequence that was found among Stoker's working notes for the novel, and I want everyone to appreciate that there is some parallel universe in which readers got to hear a description of Dracula's Quincey P. Morris saving the day with an early forerunner to the machine gun before he died.