i love today's entry. this is, if i'm remembering correctly, only the second time we've had van helsing as the recorder rather than just appearing in other people's entries, and he is definitely different in the privacy of his own memorandum. in everyone else's he is so effusive that, despite his supposed advanced age, he always seems rather powerfully larger than life. (how old he actually is is never specified, but he's introduced with red hair without any gray so it's unlikely he's truly agèd.) but in her recent entry, mina describes him as old and gray, perhaps a more figurative expression than a literal change in his hair color like jonathan's, but this situation has definitely tired and aged him, washed him out.

and now we get him, unfiltered, in his own entry, and he does sound old and gray (kudos to alan burgon who has been fantastic this entire time). there's none of that barely restrained energy, no meandering metaphor about corn or immortal parrots. instead, he's surprisingly straightforward recounting the events, and what he does write is just...he sounds for the first time old and scared. the weather is cold, cold, so cold, and the land is wild and rocky like the end of the world. and he is alone save for madam mina who sleeps all day and watches him with shining eyes in the night, and he is afraid, afraid, afraid.

(side note, mina's laugh is so scary)

and, just like last time, he isn't writing a general "to whom it may concern" to make sure their story is told to whomever finds this letter; he writes, specifically, to jack. it's just so very human that when they're scared, they all reach for connection, they write to the person they love most as a last desperate way to hold onto them, to talk to them, even in absentia, before they die. so mina writes of jonathan, and jonathan writes of mina, and van helsing writes to his old and true friend john seward

Lucy, Sept. 9, having recently received a transfusion from Arthur, writing about how she's thinking of their love for each other and how she knows he is thinking of her: "Somehow Arthur feels very, very close to me. I seem to feel his presence warm about me....My dear, my dear, your ears must tingle as you sleep, as mine do waking."

Lucy, Sept. 12, having recently received a transfusion from Seward:   "I quite love that dear Dr. Van Helsing."

I love Abraham van Helsing but I know that man would believe in SO many conspiracy theories in a modern day AU. Like I want to support him but I KNOW he believes the Loch Ness monster is a government cover up. And likewise modern day Jack would disagree with everything while also sighing, "I can't not fuck him".

Someone draw Jesse and Walter White with Jesse going “Mista White… we need to like…. hunt vampires, yo” and then draw Dr. Seward and Van Helsing with Seward going “Professor, we need to cook” I cba rn but I know it’d be magical

Me when I saw that the latest Re: Dracula entry is titled "Suck from My Wound":

4 November.—This to my old and true friend John Seward, M.D., of Purfleet, London, in case I may not see him.

Adaptations that make Van Helsing a lone wolf who makes vampire hunting his personal crusade because of an unspecified vampire past and who treats the others like NPCs and needs nobody, ignore how strong his relationship with Seward is and how connected they are from his first letter to his last.

He writes to Seward about what he fears to be the last bits of sanity, like how Jonathan wrote his final sane words for Mina, like Mina wrote that her "truest thoughts" will be for Jonathan.

It's one of the things that gets lost when you try to make a heavily individualist story out of one that is anything but.

van Helsing: Tell your friend that when that time you suck from my wound so swiftly the poison of the gangrene from that knife that our other friend, too nervous, let slip, you did more for him when he wants my aids and you call for them than all his great fortune could do. Jack: ...I'm definitely not going to tell him that, it sounds super weird out of context. Instead, I'll keep things vague but positive. Jack's letter to Arthur: Van Helsing would, I know, do anything for me for a personal reason, [...] he knows what he is talking about better than any one else. [...] he has, I believe, an absolutely open mind. This, with an iron nerve, a temper of the ice-brook, an indomitable resolution, self-command, and toleration exalted from virtues to blessings, and the kindliest and truest heart that beats [...] his views are as wide as his all-embracing sympathy. Jack: There. That raises far fewer questions about our relationship.

Van Helsing graverobbing fresh graves to collect testosterone for Seward. No one can change my mind.

fuck dracula sequels and prequels and sidequels the only dracula prequel i want to see is a detailed account of whatever the hell kind of adventure movie shenanigans got seward developing unconditional trust and starry-eyed admiration for a man with a phd in breaking and entering by sucking gangrene out of his knife wound

in honor of a previous post of mine and Mister van Helsing entering England.

oh god, jack. "i'm sure if van helsing went mad he would be the best most wonderful madman, he would excel at madness." like. i get what he's going for, but this is just hilarious.

he still can't accept the supernatural, so van helsing must be mad, but his love and respect for the professor means he can't believe he would be anything but the smartest, most specialest madman, so you get *gestures*

Dr. Seward was resting on the mattress, and, seeing me, he sprang to his feet. "Is anything wrong?" he asked, in alarm. "No," I replied; "but Mina wants to see Dr. Van Helsing at once." "I will go," he said, and hurried into the Professor's room.

October 4 starts with the open secret that, even when time is of the essence, everyone knows that Jack has seen Van Helsing in his pajamas before and can just barge into his bedroom unannounced

Yeah sex is cool but has anyone ever dragged you into another room so they could have a safe space to break down, raising their hand above their head in mute despair, helplessly beating their palms together, finally sitting down and putting their hands before their face, sobbing from the very racking of their heart??

jack is barbie (sad to be arrested) and van helsing is ken (being goofy while being arrested)

Van Helsing did Seward's top surgery send post