so I finally got around to reading bram stoker's dracula (1897)

The natural progression of reading the Dracula/Jonathan interactions (pt 1)

On the night before Dracula Daily, don't forget to leave out a young solicitor, full of energy and talent, for your friend the Count 🍷

Speak your mind

Inspired by @perfectflowerdestiny's prompt and the Princess Mononoke scene <3

“If there was anything resembling a sexual act between Dracula and Jonathan, Stoker would simply have made it more explicit” imagine believing this, about a self-admitted closeted man’s years-hidden, self-censored book written post-Wilde trial. In a society where even a male victim was considered a criminal. I have to Laff.

nooo dont bite me haha you're so sexy - jonathan harker if he slayed

On my yearly re-listen to OSPs Dracula reading! Thought I’d take a crack at drawing the characters, maybe I’ll do some more if I feel like it. Drac’s design is pretty heavily inspired by the OG Hotel Transylvania Drac designs (they’re so good omg)

So, thanks to the beautiful mind of @bendy-n-stuff , I have a new Vampire Jonathan headcanon. Because vampires don’t have reflections in mirrors, and Vlad has a vendetta against mirrors for some odd reason, Johnathan has no idea that his hair has gone white when he first turned. Because of this, when ever he turns to a bat and runs off, he hides in a nest of other bats. Dracula is always able to find johnny, because a white vampire bat is pretty easy to spot. Harker, being dumb, always asks how the Count manages to find him. And the Count, being the asshole that he is, simply says something along the lines of “Oh, Johnny. You know no matter how far you flee, I will always be able to find you.” It’s not until they get their first portrait done together that johnny actually finds out about his unusual hair color.

hecula and harkula for the ship ask game please? 👀(movies/books/series/games whatev, your choice)

:)

Book Harkula and game Hecula get the same placement:

because I may be predictable, but I am also coherent 👍

(the reason I didn't go full 100% on "makes sense" is that I leave that tiny room for ships that are peak wholesome romance. obviously. obviously these two ships are less than wholesome.)

Anyway, creepy gross old bastard playing sick mental games with his favorite pretty boy stuck in his castle goes brrrrrrrr <3

I don't know how things go in Dracula 2020 (Jonathan becomes undead I think?), but in the book the Jonathan section is a marvel of realistic horror, of genuinely scary subtle abuse where you can see how finely Dracula is working Jonathan, destroying his sense of reality and making him feel all sorts of small and vulnerable and dependent on him. While I love how Jonathan manages to run away and the way he struggles with his trauma (honestly written better than in many modern works), at first being in deep denial for the shock but then getting ready to kill God if He stands in the way of him and shanking that monster, I'm also interested in AUs where Dracula manages to turn his new crush in a twisted, unholy marriage :) doing everything in his power to replace Mina in his heart :) corrupting this fine young upstanding man :) or does he :)

And well. I don't know what else I can say about Hecula. It's just. the narrative of the golden child who feels so loved and accepted only to realize that he's losing his sense of self, his dignity, his humanity for a cruel mentor and so decides to run away :) but the lingering effects of his servitude are always there, always affecting him and his life :) and Dracula didn't turn Hector and Isaac into vampires but he did infuse them with part of himself :) and Hector thinking about Dracula as he's dying and when he's renouncing his powers :) and the hints that Dracula did in his own way care about Hector ("the more precious things are...") :) and the narrative parallels of Hector almost falling as low as Dracula :) it's So Clear to me.

And just because I feel petty :P N!Hecula:

And this is my best explanation:

(we call N!Hector "Caesar" and N!Isaac "Abraham" as an inside joke :P)

nah jokes aside, I can tell N!Hector respects and cares about N!Dracula, going so far as to be concerned about his wellbeing regarding Lisa's death. And as much as his plan to revive him is a spit in the face of decent character development, I can at least snicker that ohhh look at him, wanting his master back, that's true love <3 game Isaac would be proud <3

But since N!Dracula is so mean to him and treats him like deadweight and clearly is in a relationship with N!Isaac, it's not as interesting. When I want to indulge in simp who'd die for his lord/lord who only sees his simp as a toy, Isaacula is right there :V

The Harkula fic is finally finished, for anyone into that.

°˖✧◝( ⁀ ᗢ ⁀ )◜✧˖°

@hollowchaoscrescent and I accidentally wrote a Harkula fic :D Where the two I caught in a time-loop and Drac decides to go the seduction rout.

The more I think about the Dracula novel the closer I get to wanting to dismantle the story and put it back together again in a way that would kill Bram Stoker if he wasn't already dead

He's not getting any less dead though so my antagonistic approach to the text can't kill him

When I say antagonistic I mean:

A story inspired by thoughts of how the Queen should get snacked on by Dracula along with the British aristocracy, actually, because for all the xenophobic imperialist mental backdrop of a book where the enemy is a spooky foreign dude, the British empire was bloodier than one single vampire in a silly little castle (even if we focus just on the imperial core, there's plenty to zoom in on with the British industrial revolution, e.g. "the machinery of capitalism being oiled with the blood of the workers", the poverty and deprivation of the working class, everyday exploitation with the added bonus of young men being asked to go off and die in wars because people in silly hats are having a pissing contest). Once Dracula is finished using them as a juicebox he should get beheaded in a worker's revolt because he would underestimate the courage and resiliency of the lower classes and expect to just rule over them. And he doesn't have an iota of awareness of how to manipulate the levers of power in a complicated post-feudal social system he ate most of the rulers of. (For context, I am Irish and a socialist and I will go toe to toe with the fear-laden mental landscape of one of the most famous Dubliners to ever write a novel where British aristocrats are some of the good guys.)

Dracula creeping on Jonathan Harker is spooky in the novel but I also don't respect Stoker's intent there. The overtones of unsavoury interest as supposed to imply some sort of homosexual proclivities was then part of the horror especially for audiences of the time, and I don't want to unquestioningly reproduce this dynamic because sincerely fuck that. The fact that Dracula is queer-coded as a villain as part of what makes him villainous is not something I care to take at face value and reproduce. Potentially writing Dracula/Jonathan Harker where Dracula isn't a manipulative creep engaging in subtle psychological abuse and torture of Jonathan is completely contrary to canon characterisation but there's been a long line of Dracula adaptations with a tenuous relationship to canon and I want to break free of the confines of the text and upend its assumptions. I want an aggressive reading/transformative work that disregards the author's intent to create something different from it, and maybe if I have time I will do it myself. Move over fear of the other we have fear of the self (as being attracted to the same gender) to tangle with and then overcome.

The least antagonistic to the text would be fun little bad ends where the failure of the heroes' mission is part of the enjoyment. I'm gonna write a bit of spooky sexy turning characters into evil vampires who are gleeful about being horrors of the night, as a treat.

I enjoy(ed) reading Dracula but I also want to explode it into its constituent atoms and reassemble them in a configuration that suits me more

This man is popular with vampires and they all wanna kiss him

Fics? 🤕

Sure! Here are a few of my fave Dracula x Jonathan (Harkula) fics:

as if death itself were undone by platinum_firebird (Explicit) “You will be a quick study, I am sure,” the Count whispered, humour suffusing his voice. He set both hands under my thighs and lifted me as easily as if I were a child, settling me upon the altar, then caught my lips again.

Be Mindful by Highsmith (Explicit) It all seems to happen all at once, whether by virtue of the logic of dreams or Jonathan's own eagerness, he does not know. Both perhaps. Even though he has gone to bed clothed, he finds himself swiftly exiting his clothes in fits and tears, possibly though vaguely assisted in this endeavour.

Compromise series by Assimbya (Mature) Excellent canon divergence AU. Dracula/Jonathan/Mina + others

dead to all pleasure series by peculiar_mademoiselle (Explicit) “Missed you,” Jonathan murmurs, pulling away to look into Dracula’s eyes. His eyes are dark as night, and he is perfectly reflected in them, small and trapped. Like an insect preserved in amber. The Count’s smile is wicked, as he moves a hand to cup the back of Jonathan’s head.

Savage Delight by Anonymous (Explicit) “Be still, my little fool,” he said in a low whisper. “Your employer bade you follow all my instructions.”

The Harker Papers by KaelsMiscellany (Mature) Another great canon divergence AU. Dracula/Jonathan/Mina + others

Through the Bitter Water by StopTalkingAtMe (Mature) “You still intend to resist me, then?” he said, his voice as courtly as ever. He leaned close, bringing his face close to the hand over my throat, and licked between his fingers, the pointed end of his tongue stinging my torn skin. “I thought you might have learned by now, my dear young friend.”

And once again, a blanket recommendation for aLittleBirdToldMe!

Th- they kiss. They kiss. In Dr- Dracula. A comedy of terrors. They kiss in Dracula - A comedy of terrors. Johnny and Drac. Kiss. They kiss. In. Dracula - A comedy of terrors

Beautiful but deadly brides of Dracula...

We know so little of the Brides of Dracula, who were these females of the count that tempted both human victims with their beauty and intellegence, that derived great pleasure in hunting down their victims and seducing those they hate and loved, and their beloved husband Count Dracula himself.... I dont think R.M.Renfield of even Johnathan Harker could have predicted that their very lives would be shaped by the Count let alone his vicious seductive bride in such way.