#polycula

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Took some time during free class discussion to explain the Polycula to my classmate

Simplified for space of course

[vergess]

You live in the year 3000 for primarily shipping polycula (Harkers/Lucy/Arthur/Quincey/Jack/Van Helsing) in Dracula. And I am baffled that in everything Dracula, including the supposed Most Horny Adaptation, it is limited to hetero encounters, primarily Jonathan with the Brides, Lucy being "the devil's whore" to be punished about it, and the soulmate wife subplot. Maybe a kiss between Lucy and Mina (who she forgets for daddy drac). They are the most polyamorous group in pre-20th-century literature. Everyone claims Dracula is bound to be all sexual and all insist on repeating the above formula. Where is all the homoerotic TOUCHING they do in canon, the insane amount of kissing? The charged college gangreene suck, the ear pulls and caresses, the surprise nudity between student and teacher? Mina literally kisses everyone while married.

If you want eroticism and sexuality inspired by the book... Where are the post-transfusion make-outs, where is the giving mutual relief in grief? Where is the collective horniness from the proximity of death or worse? Where is the cabin fever in the asylum, the Orient Express, the Varna hotel? The comfort sex, the 'practicing for our husbands' sex. The threesomes? The guilty, dangerous semi-vampire sex as the clock is ticking? Where is Harker on his knees tipping the velvet like a starving madman, or the wedding night on a hungarian sickbed under the crucifix with the bride riding her broken man, paralleling the vampires on him while supine? Where is any desperate goodbye sex between all those people whose blood has mingled? Notice I mentioned no Dracula or Brides, and rarely specified names, because those could fit most of them.

Or is that too bisexual when it's not 0.5 seconds of girls kissing?

Yeah, I have a lot of complex opinions about the sexually charged underpinnings of this novel, and I swear to fuck, it's just you and me and @bluecatwriter's cohort against the fucking world somehow.

Like, come on, even if you truly want to keep it mono-hetero, the Harkers are never more than 10 seconds away from fingerblasting in the sitting room. Their entire marriage has been a nonstop stress parade and their limbic systems are at max 100% of the time from their wedding to the end of the novel, and you expect me to believe they aren't in a constant embrace? Really?

They're late victorians, that's a culture that was just beginning to really get Freaky With It after a century of repression!!! Those bitches only don't have matching nipple chain piercings because Jack hasn't gotten around to it as they've all been busy.

It makes no sense!! This novel is rife with messy, intimate, emotionally rich, sexually charged relationships between every significant character (yes, even Dracula much as I am loathe to admit it), and EVERY adaptation INSISTS this is not the case and that they must "fix" it by adding a "sex is demonic" subplot.

Also oh my GOD the way people mistreat my girl Lucy, hot damn, they are just insistent on the "she deserved it" angle of victim blaming with her, despite the fact that the book beats you over the head with how innocent and pure and perfect a victim she is.

[vickyvicarious]

Would any of the Dracula crew have read Frankenstein or would it not suit their literary tastes

Oooh, let's see! I think that's a yes for sure on some of them. Let's just go down the main cast one by one, shall we?

Jonathan - Yes. Hamlet's his blorbo so he obviously isn't averse to tragic stories, and I honestly love the idea of Jonathan being into gothic romances. Not that this is that, but there's enough overlap that when Mina suggested it to him he'd enjoy it. He gets really sad about how it all went wrong.

Mina - Yes. I think science fiction is very much her taste, as is spooky/tragic stories. This is both, it's great! She really enjoys the nuance and complexity of the characters. It's maybe even a favorite of hers.

Lucy - No. She doesn't like spooky stories, necromancy-adjacent anything is too much for her. The tragedy doesn't necessarily bother her too much (she enjoys crying over a good story from time to time) but everything about how the Creature is made creeps her out too much and she doesn't want to read about it or what comes after.

Arthur - No. Rather, it's possible he may have read it but it's generally not the sort of story he likes so if he ever did it would have been because of a class or at the urging of Jack, and he never got into it. He likes funny stories and adventures more.

Quincey - Yes. In large part because my initial impulse was to say no, and Quincey strikes me as the kind of guy who happens to have read all the stuff you assume he never would've read, haha. But also, I think he just really enjoys a good story. Regardless of genre, if it's well-written he'll give it a go and often really enjoy it.

Jack - Yes. I think he read it a sleep-deprived frenzy in school while he was supposed to be studying and ever since has had occasional recurring dreams of trying to give Victor and the Creature therapy.

Renfield - Yes. He's very well-read. His sympathies used to be for Victor but after being in an asylum they tend more towards the Creature since he understands now how dehumanizing it can feel to be looked at as Other or Monstrous.

Dracula - Yes. He considers it a comedy.

van Helsing - No. He doesn't have a lot of time for reading novels what with writing a new doctorate thesis every other weekend; he's typically neck-deep in a bunch of different scholarly articles and such at any given moment. When he does read fiction, it tends to be stuff he's picked up at random because it sounded interesting - or children's stories and fables, he likes those. He might have a copy lying around somewhere maybe but if so he hasn't gotten around to it.

[thebibi]

I think Mina should get Valentine's cards from all the Boys.

Arthur gives her a most beautiful and ornate card with with gold leaf and different types of lace. Jack writes her a poem, simple, heartfelt, and yet Mina knows how much effort it took. Van Helsing sends her a lengthy message within an austere card with a church and angels on it. Lastly, Jonathan gives her a pretty homemade card with a message written in shorthand, so that no one else in the household can read the message except for the two of them.

[bluecatwriter]

Post-Canon Droughtcula Reading, Part 1: Sequels

Sad that Dracula Daily is over? Want to binge-read some fics? This three-part Droughtcula Series is for you! First up, scenes that either coincide with the ending or serve as sequels:

Love Multiplying: Did you ever wish that Dracula had a 40,000-word sequel written from Arthur's point of view? Apparently I did, because I wrote it! When Quincey dies and the Count is defeated, Arthur must learn to live on with his new family, but figuring out what that looks like can be tricky. (Rated Mature, primary relationships are Arthur & the Harkers and Arthur/Jack.)

Step Into the Light: Some scenes from Quincey Morris's and Jonathan Harker's complicated relationship, from their time in Varna to the end of the novel, told through their alternating points of view. (Rated Teen.)

My Old and True Friend John Seward (Chapter 4 of "When You Have Read Those Papers"): On the train home from Romania, Van Helsing reads Jack Seward his memorandum. (Jack/Van Helsing, Rated Teen)

From This Day Forth: Van Helsing finally invites Jack Seward to his bed. (Jack/Van Helsing, rated Explicit.)

[see-arcane]

Mina's like: it's been a rough week AND the men are staring at my husband and blushing. i had to transcribe one of them calling him a living flame of manly vigor.

Honestly, I think Mina's an exact mirror of Jonathan when it comes to people being extremely heart-eyes about their significant other.

Mina, just arrived, starts being Mina: Hello! I'm here to ruin Dracula's life and transcribe it in triplicate so everyone knows it

The Suitors Three, tripping over their own feet: Oh damn she's amazing <3

Jonathan: I know c:

Jonathan, just got anime man hairstyled, starts sharpening his kukri: I Am Going to Fillet Dracula Whether God Helps or Not

The Suitors Three, all sweating: Oh damn he's amazing <3

Mina: I know c:

I just think it'd be hilarious that the Harkers remain completely oblivious to the polycule choking on their crushes simply because they see it all as: 'Oh yeah, absolutely, I get it, my spouse is the greatest person on Earth, totally understandable to react that way, they're wonderful <3.'*

(*Which also ties into my low-key belief that while Jonathan and Mina are biromantic, they stand somewhere between demisexual and asexual. These two have probably walked through a lifetime of unnoticed flirtation from others because it just Did Not Register. That they realized they were smitten with each other was a genuine miracle. Lucy clocked it months before either of them and assumed they were already together.)

[diavorchid]

an "i know it can't happen for various reasons but i love it too much to throw it away" polycula thought i had a while back:

they dont want to burden Lucy with so many hyphens so they took it upon themselves

(not drawn: multiple hand-holdings)

also behold! my quincey debut! tho I'm not sure he'll stay that way still trying to vibe him.

still in my no-dracula-drawing break bc i still yet to finish y but x is done but dammit im treating myself by drawing them :)

[somnesca]

Confession: I just got here (the Dracula Daily fandom) and didn't fully understand what the difference between the Polycule and Polycula tags was and thought the "-a" suffix was a remark on the gendery benderiness of its members (because, you know, it's a feminine suffix in most Romance languages)

I only JUST NOW realized it was a pun on "Dracula"

Listen... I'm sorry... can I still hang out here