Hello again and happy midsummer! I’ll be having a picnic in the park with my friends today to celebrate the longest days of the year. It’s a little cloudy, but it’s warm, so all is well.
I hope you all enjoyed our academic detour last time as much as my anon here did. I got some positive feedback so maybe I’ll do another one next week. I cannot overstate how hard it was compared to just enjoying a novel and being horny about it.
So today Jonathan notes that he hasn’t seen Dracula since last night, when he shut himself into his room early. Our boy went to look through the south side window to see what could be seen. Apparently the Romani are up to something inside the castle because Jonathan can hear them but cannot figure out what they’re up to.
Jonathan waits at the window for about half an hour when Dracula appears, emerging from his window (that we saw him crawl out of earlier) wearing Jonathan’s clothes! Dracula is non-consensually stealing his boyfriend’s clothes and now everyone is going to get the wrong idea.
Dracula also has “the terrible bag which I saw the women take away.”
Jonathan comes to a different conclusion than me, and it’s that Dracula is going to pretend he’s Jonathan so everyone sees him out and about and draws suspicion away from Dracula. He’ll also send the letters that Jonathan wrote from the correct locations, eliminating suspicion. Jonathan is furious and watches Dracula leave, apparently intending to wait until he gets back.
Instead, he gets hypnotized. He comes to his senses to the sound of howling dogs and begins to make out the shape of the three women in dust and moonlight, then he runs back to his room before they can get him. He shelters from the moon in the glow of lamplight.
Jonathan hears a cry from the Count’s room hours later and it creeps him out.
With a beating heart, I tried the door; but I was locked in my prison, and could do nothing. I sat down and simply cried.
I don’t know if Jonathan has mentioned crying before but this is an asset of whump fic: the moment the steely and confident man breaks down. High quality stuff.
Jonathan then hears a sound outside, and goes to the window. A woman outside is disheveled and tired and, when she sees Jonathan in the window, demands he give her child back. She is overcome with her emotion, screams, cries, and beats at the door.
Jonathan hears the Count’s “harsh, metallic whisper” from somewhere and, in response, the wolves howl. They appear in the courtyard, pouring in, and shortly after pour out, licking their chops. Knowing what happened to her child, Jonathan thinks that death is probably the more merciful option for her.
I love this scene a lot. What a vivid picture it paints, elegant and completely self-contained. We are as helpless to watch it as Jonathan is.
Since I’m gay trash I am thinking now about Hannibal. I wonder how far one could go comparing Hannibal and Will Graham to the relationship between Dracula and Jonathan? Hannibal’s snare is more psychological (for the most part) but the entrapment and helplessness is familiar. And also that show is extremely horny and gay and has thousands of gay fanfics written about it where Hannibal and Will get it on.
I feel like I’m always saying “this makes me think of x” and I think it’s because I once thought of going into media studies academia and I still write articles and essays sometimes. The train of thought nature of this blog has me making notes of things like this often, and maybe it would be fun to write these essays someday, if they don’t already exist. Making these connections is a lot of fun and someone could legit make a career out of it, but not me!