#except probably not

[coldasyou]

The fact that there’s people my age performing in broadway shows is so crazy…we might have been mutuals posting about great comet on tumblr together omg

[garnetcoloredsky]

yeah okay I love female Durges but it’s so much funnier if my giant, drow, never-visibly-pregnant Dark Urge just……..produces a child. literally, just presents an infant to Gortash one day like, “This is our child. You’re welcome.”

and……..obviously Gortash isn’t that certain of his favorite bhaalspawn’s abilities. (and said offspring does have his hair and skin coloring, and little pointed half-elf ears with crimson eyes.) what’s more likely, that Durge acquired a very specific-looking child through violent means? or that he actually made it with strange but undeniably unique demigod biology?

anyway, it’s cool. Gortash has an heir now. Thanks, Durge

[mxcottonsocks]

Book Order of Late-August Dates in Dracula (for context)

There's a lot of confusion following the 30 August Dracula Daily email about several things:

Is Lucy actually better or is she lying / hiding the truth?

Is Dracula no longer feeding on her? If not, why not?

Has Lucy travelled back to Whitby? If so, why?

Is Arthur's "getting fat" comment caring or mean?

(And this is all in addition to previous confusion about Dr Seward's recent-ish entry where he talked about events which supposedly happen a week later than an event of which actually only happened the night before.)

To have a better idea of understanding what's going on, I think we need to take a step back from the Dracula Daily order, and return to look at the order of events in the book, i.e. the order Stoker actually intended us to experience the events in.

Too Long, Won't Read: All the dates at the beginning of Chapter 9 (late August) are suspect, and many of them are likely to be wrong. Lucy wrote the supposed-30 August letter before leaving Whitby, so she genuinely is getting better at that point because Dracula is all the way down in London. Arthur's comment is highly likely to mean "thank god you're putting some healthy weight back on". Dr Seward's diary entries of 20th August (supposedly) and 23rd August (supposedly) are meant to come nearer the end of the month than their dates indicate, and Lucy's diary entries of 24th August (supposedly) and 25th August (supposedly) immediately follow Dr Seward's and show us exactly where that bat flew off to.

So what's the order of the end of August in the book?

The time period we're looking at spans Chapters 8-9.

Here's the original order of entries:

Chapter 8

(I think this chapter is mostly, if not entirely, fine date-wise. You can pretty much trust these dates, but this is provided for context of what happens before Chapter 9, which is the one with the weird dates.)

Chapter 8 begins at 11pm on 11th August. You may remember that it was later that night that Lucy sleepwalked to the churchyard and was fed on by Dracula for the first time. I won't list all the dates, but the first half of Chapter 8 consists of Mina's diary entries about Dracula trying to get to Lucy to drink her blood (and sometimes succeeding). Then:

17th August: Mina's diary. She writes, "No news from Jonathan, and Lucy seems to be growing weaker [...]"

Also 17th August: The letter from Samuel F. Billington & Sons saying that the boxes will leave Whitby by the 4:30pm train (on the 17th) and arrive in London tomorrow (18th). There are stern instructions to deliver them that night (18th) to Carfax, near Purfleet (East London).

21st August: Confirmation from Carter, Paterson & Co that "Goods are delivered in exact accordance with instructions" (i.e. on the evening of the 18th).

18th August: Mina's diary. A jump back in time, to resume Mina's diary where we left off. We read this entry in the context of firmly knowing that Dracula left Whitby on the afternoon of the 17th. So when Mina says, "Lucy is ever so much better. Last night she slept well all night, and did not disturb me once," and that, "all the morbid reticence seems to have passed from her, "we know it is because Dracula is no longer in Whitby. However, she notes that Lucy "is still sadly pale and wan-looking".

19th August: Mina's diary. "Joy, joy, joy!" Mina has had news of Jonathan and will begin the journey to join him tomorrow morning (20th).

12th August: A jump back in time to Sister Agatha's letter, included in the place it was received by Mina (19th) rather than the date it was written.

ALSO 19th August: Dr Seward's diary. "Strange and sudden change in Renfield last night." Renfield is being uncharacteristically rude to the staff and no longer cares for spiders. 'Last night' was the 18th, the same night where Lucy, up in Whitby, slept undisturbed; the same night we know Dracula and his boxes arrived at their destination. On the night of the 19th, Renfield escapes, and Dr Seward follows him over the wall "which seperates our grounds from the grounds of the deserted house", which we find out in the next paragraph is called Carfax - the same place we know from earlier this chapter the boxes were delivered to. Renfield speaks of/to a "Master", and is restrained and put in a padded room.

So: at the end of Chapter 8, Lucy is still in Whitby, and is returning to normal. It is now Renfield, who Dracula has just moved next door to, who is acting outside of his usual patterns of behaviour (which we've had time to learn over previous chapters).

Chapter 9:

This is where I suggest you mainly ignore the dates and pay attention to the order.

24 August (maybe): Mina's letter announcing her and Jonathan's marriage. She seals up Jonathan's journal. We worry about the consequences of locking this knowledge away but:

30 August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Lucy's letter to Mina, written from Whitby. So the time of writing the letter, Lucy has not yet left Whitby (i.e. she just hasn't left; it's not that she goes away and then returns later). This letter is almost certainly written after Mina's letter to Lucy, as she makes mention of "[Mina's] husband". While she knew Mina was intending to marry Jonathan abroad, I doubt she would have been confident enough of Jonathan's survival to write about Mina's husband before she knew for sure that he lived long enough. As for Lucy, at some point since Mina left in the morning of 20th August, she has finally been joined by Arthur, as he was always intending to do. When he arrived, Lucy was probably still looking ill following Dracula's departure. However, he's now been up there with her long enough that they've done a whole bunch of activities and she says she is "quite restored" ("quite" here meaning "completely" not "slightly"). She talks about her recovered appetite, her vibrancy, and her quality of sleep and the fact that she hasn't sleepwalked recently. It is immediately after this that she mentions Arthur's "getting fat" comment. She therefore doesn't say this out of the blue; it is yet another symptom of her returning health. Readers know that this is because Dracula is still far away.

20th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Dr Seward's diary saying "For the first week after his attack [Renfield] was perpetually violent". 'One night' (approx 26th) about a week after 19th, Renfield grows quiet for the first time, and remains so until just before dawn. This happened for 3 nights in a row (say 26th-28th). Dr Seward plans to help Renfield escape "tonight" (probably 28th or 29th).

23rd August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date): Dr Seward's diary. This is the one where he initially was hoping Renfield would escape, but he didn't, and then Renfield escaped later in the night (of the 29th?), and they saw a bat heading west "as if it knew where it was bound". What's to the West? Well:

24th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date - however, it does and should be the next day from Dr Seward's supposed-23rd August entry): Lucy's first diary entry, written from Hillingham, in North London. She talks about "last night" (the same night the bat flew west from Carfax which is in East London; possibly 29th?) when she "seemed to be dreaming again just as I was at Whitby. Perhaps it is the change of the air, or getting home again." So it seems that Lucy only got home yesterday and immediately got preyed on by Dracula again. She is today (probably not the 24th - maybe the 30th?) unhappy and scared, and when Arthur saw her, he immediately clocked that something was wrong. Lucy resolves to try to "sleep in mother's room tonight".

25th August (supposedly - unlikely to be this date - however, it does and should be the next day from Lucy's last entry): Lucy's diary. She was not able to sleep in her mother's room last night and so had "another bad night", where she heard "scratching or flapping at the window" and then had more bad dreams. She wakes up very ill indeed. This entry likely takes place near / at the very end of the month, which brings us to:

31st August

I won't say what happens on 31st August as that's spoilers for Dracula Daily. But I think the 31st August entry definitely follows on a lot better from the supposed-25th August entry than the supposed-30th August entry.

So the beginning of Chapter 9 sees both Mina and Lucy happy, in Buda-Pesth and Whitby respectively. The only person who is majorly unhappy is Renfield, who is aware of Dracula's proximity but can't get near him for a long time. When Lucy returns to London, her health and happiness take a sudden and drastic turn for the worse as she is again preyed upon by Count Dracula.

(I might be wrong, but I think the dates return to being pretty-much reliable from 31st August. Which is good, because a lot happens in September.)

[poisonedsimmer]

💀🪦

[odd-ysseus]

Types of Twilight "Fans"

A non-definitive list of what I have observed from my first few weeks of being on Twilight Tumblr.

Unironically a fan. Thinks the Cullens are the perfect found family. Yes, Edward is a little overbearing at times, but it's Bella's fault for not standing up for herself and setting boundaries <3

JUST here for the aesthetics.

Not a fan, but still invested in spite of themselves. Justifiably angry about the racism/misogyny. Otherwise, thinks Twilight would have been better if *insert trait of any character/a certain scene/worldbuilding, etc.* had been written like this instead.

Looks at Twilight from a 187 degree angle and is somewhat confused because how did Stephenie Meyer accidentally write an absurdist Vladimir Nabokov novel?

"Effervescent"

[grackle-atx]

october 31st, 2023

Took me long enough

[beautifulterriblequeen]

So I'm thinking about how Callum wasn't able to do the wing spell until he jumped and as much as I adore the "Power of Love and sheer determination unlock your power in a clutch moment" trope, I'm not sure I'm buying that this was enough. We know the primal magic is weaker or stronger in certain circumstances. The Sky magic is strongest in the storm, but a strong wind is said to have similar boosting effect. And you would experience a pretty strong wind in freefall - could this be a factor?

Possibly, anon. But Ibis cast the spell while standing still. He was standing on the pinnacle, and it’s always windy up there, but not as windy as freefalling. Ibis is also an experienced mage, and fully confident in his abilities, but I think there’s something else at work for Callum.

Callum’s wing spell does seem like a Power of Love moment. But I think it’s more about Callum being able to concentrate and center himself. That calming breath he took before he cast his very first spell is more important than we thought.

Storm Dragons can only be born in the eye of a storm. That’s where it’s calm. Callum realized when he connected to the Sky arcanum that he is the wing, not the wind. He needs to be the unmoving center in the midst of the whirlwind. He needs to find control over chaos and harness it. Or it will never bend to his will. Sky magic puts me in mind of saidin, the male magic power from the Wheel of Time series. And it fits with the general concepts of air, wind, freedom, abandoning your duty to the Dragon Queen and other things that Sky arcanum creatures value.

Callum is able to calm his terror about falling to his death by concentrating on his love for Rayla. They’re both going to die in about twenty seconds flat (ahaha) and it hits him like the uprushing ground that this may be the last time he ever sees her. And she’s reaching for him. Reaching out, even in her last moments. She’s not afraid--Rayla’s never been afraid of dying. But she would never want Callum hurt, because she loves him. And Callum realizes how much all of that--everything about Rayla--means to him, and gives it a name: love.

In that moment, Callum’s emotions center, and he becomes the calm at the center of the storm. In that moment, Callum is in the perfect mindset for spellcasting, no matter what strength the winds have. He knows himself, and that’s never an easy thing. I have a headcanon that beings with arcana are naturally inclined to knowing themselves better because they have to understand that magical part of themselves, and that lends itself to introspection. It can be subverted with too much outward influence--see: Khessa just wrecking people for fun and profit--but I think it really is harder for humans to understand themselves without an arcanum. I think they’re meant to have one, and they struggle a bit more without it.

But now that Callum has an arcanum, I think he will come to know himself better than he would without it. His love for Rayla--and his awareness of that love--literally saved both their lives. There’s nowhere to go from that plunge but up.

[epitheterasedgen]

Somtimes Percy feels guilt even when she shouldn't Ex- Percy: I can't bealive this. I'm officer of the law and I ignor the rules. I'm a monster! Ramsey: The game bord said 13 and up, Molly's only 1 year younger then the game said.

HBAGLKSMDSMN YEAH