Dracula: a mind overborne (Dracula/Renfield)
I am so behind on EVERYTHING -- I have all these awesome things to post about and NO TIME. But I am at least going to get this out of the way, only a million years late: my yuletide reveal!
a mind overborne (5,887 words)
Dracula/Renfield, adult, explicit
An alternate universe using elements of both the novel and the Lugosi film. Inspired by my recipient's comment that Renfield is overwhelmed by Dracula's "too-strong love." Note: potentially disturbing content.
(Read the story)
I wrote for joannesopercook, and found myself a bit perplexed initially by the request, because she wanted Dracula/Renfield but NOT any kind of master-slave relationship, and I was all, but, but -- what else is there! Renfield! Crazy guy eating bugs! Dracula! Undead lordly creature of the night! How does this work?
She had mentioned the Lugosi movie in the details and in her LJ; I had never seen it before, so I checked it out and discovered that the whole section in the opening of the book where Harker goes to Castle Dracula and ends up a prisoner of the Count and his brides, in the movie, that is Renfield. Renfield starts out a dapper, dandyish young American clerk who gazes at the Count all wide-eyed, and the segment ends with him in a bedchamber at the Castle, swooning away on the floor as the French doors swing open and the Count comes in from the gardens, cloak spread wide, looming -- so we get Renfield very much in the vampire's victim position, and it is deeply slashy.
(And after that he is crazy guy eating bugs for the rest of the movie, but that opening was totally the best part anyway.)
The other really interesting thing is that the movie doesn't follow the typical horror trope where the vampire conceals what he is and there's a huge dun-dun-DUNNN moment where he is revealed -- Dracula seems not to particularly care when he is unmasked as a vampire, beyond a bit of mild annoyance.
So the story became Renfield falling into love and madness at the same time, unable either to become a wholehearted monster or to deny himself the pleasure and power. And meanwhile Dracula -- who I think does really love Renfield (like his brides, like Lucy and Mina), in his way -- is unable even to comprehend Renfield's distress, because he has so very different a morality and personality. In this Dracula's mind, the only real sin is cowardice, and it's unknown to him; he doesn't grasp the psychology, and while he eventually grasps that he has somehow broken Renfield, he doesn't ever understand how.
Meanwhile Seward understands the mindset, but is denying the reality of the monster and what's happened to Renfield in the physical world, which makes him equally unable to help. I had a vague idea initially of having Seward himself also follow Renfield's path, falling under the Count's spell, and there are touches of that in the notes -- but in the end, I realized I wanted Seward to remain the opposing figure, and came to the resolution in the end where Dracula sets Renfield free, and Seward goes to confront him.
I ran out of time to get the formatting the way I wanted to, alas -- the bolded bits I wanted to be hand-drawn writing, and I wanted to have Seward's notes consistently in the same color and position, but I couldn't do that except with images, and I thought that wasn't crisp enough once I got to the longer sections at the end, so I improvised.
I may revise that bit at some point, but mainly I am happy! Largely because I totally creeped myself out writing it. *grins*
Okay, omg, that is one thing down, FIVE BILLION TO GO.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)
a mind overborne (5,887 words)
Dracula/Renfield, adult, explicit
An alternate universe using elements of both the novel and the Lugosi film. Inspired by my recipient's comment that Renfield is overwhelmed by Dracula's "too-strong love." Note: potentially disturbing content.
(Read the story)
I wrote for joannesopercook, and found myself a bit perplexed initially by the request, because she wanted Dracula/Renfield but NOT any kind of master-slave relationship, and I was all, but, but -- what else is there! Renfield! Crazy guy eating bugs! Dracula! Undead lordly creature of the night! How does this work?
She had mentioned the Lugosi movie in the details and in her LJ; I had never seen it before, so I checked it out and discovered that the whole section in the opening of the book where Harker goes to Castle Dracula and ends up a prisoner of the Count and his brides, in the movie, that is Renfield. Renfield starts out a dapper, dandyish young American clerk who gazes at the Count all wide-eyed, and the segment ends with him in a bedchamber at the Castle, swooning away on the floor as the French doors swing open and the Count comes in from the gardens, cloak spread wide, looming -- so we get Renfield very much in the vampire's victim position, and it is deeply slashy.
(And after that he is crazy guy eating bugs for the rest of the movie, but that opening was totally the best part anyway.)
The other really interesting thing is that the movie doesn't follow the typical horror trope where the vampire conceals what he is and there's a huge dun-dun-DUNNN moment where he is revealed -- Dracula seems not to particularly care when he is unmasked as a vampire, beyond a bit of mild annoyance.
So the story became Renfield falling into love and madness at the same time, unable either to become a wholehearted monster or to deny himself the pleasure and power. And meanwhile Dracula -- who I think does really love Renfield (like his brides, like Lucy and Mina), in his way -- is unable even to comprehend Renfield's distress, because he has so very different a morality and personality. In this Dracula's mind, the only real sin is cowardice, and it's unknown to him; he doesn't grasp the psychology, and while he eventually grasps that he has somehow broken Renfield, he doesn't ever understand how.
Meanwhile Seward understands the mindset, but is denying the reality of the monster and what's happened to Renfield in the physical world, which makes him equally unable to help. I had a vague idea initially of having Seward himself also follow Renfield's path, falling under the Count's spell, and there are touches of that in the notes -- but in the end, I realized I wanted Seward to remain the opposing figure, and came to the resolution in the end where Dracula sets Renfield free, and Seward goes to confront him.
I ran out of time to get the formatting the way I wanted to, alas -- the bolded bits I wanted to be hand-drawn writing, and I wanted to have Seward's notes consistently in the same color and position, but I couldn't do that except with images, and I thought that wasn't crisp enough once I got to the longer sections at the end, so I improvised.
I may revise that bit at some point, but mainly I am happy! Largely because I totally creeped myself out writing it. *grins*
Okay, omg, that is one thing down, FIVE BILLION TO GO.
You can also read this entry on Dreamwidth (
comments)