Dear Yuletide Author 2017

[calliopes_pen]

Dear Yuletide Writer,

First of all, thank you so much for signing up Yuletide writer. The fact that you are thereby offering to write even for one of the fandoms that I inhabit is delightful. If it was more than one fandom that we matched on, I’m pleasantly surprised in retrospect. This has been a rough year for everyone, and I have been looking forward to this more than you’ll ever understand.

The letter I wrote for last year turned out to be a bit comprehensive, to put it mildly. So please bear with me; I’m sorry if it’s happened a second year in a row, but at least you’ll soon see what and where my tastes gravitate towards.

Before I get started, let me say one thing. Just let the prompts take you where they may, and I’m certain that I’ll be happy. For my likes and dislikes, I’ll be copy/pasting what I wrote last year, since it had enough content for anyone. In at least one instance, the copy/pasting will extend to several prompts in a particular fandom. Try not to be horrified by the length of last year’s story and letter if you look that way to see what I’m prone to writing.

Try not to feel pressured or like you are being forced to write by these specifications, and have fun. This isn’t a point-by-point thing that I demand you stick with. You can pick whichever you want to do. You can mix and match if you like. As Jonathan Harker is my favorite character, I like to see him tormented far more than most. I’ve made a jump list to make things a little easier, just like last year’s letter. You can skip around to whichever fandom you like faster that way. Also, for each fandom I will provide a list of pairings that I am fine with seeing, whether or not they are already canon.

If you do wish to see what I have written for prior Yuletides, please step right this way. I’ve been doing Yuletide since 2006. The longer I keep with this, the longer the stories become. You can also look back through the tags each year, at previous Dear Yuletide letters I have written. It’s the same tag as I’m using for this letter.

I am fine with gen, het, or slash. If you want to do anything pairing free, that is completely fine with me, as well. A friendship story is great, too. For me, the characterization is the most important aspect of the story. Just do your best. Use your own judgment for what works from the huge selection of prompts, and I’m sure I’ll love the end result.

Just as my nominations were Dracula centered so, too, are most of my requests. This was the Year of Dracula for me in that regard, with a drizzle of gothic horror. It was hard to narrow things down, and I copied a few of the prompts from a previous year, as I already stated.

The fandoms I requested this year are: Count Dracula (1977), Dracula—Bram Stoker, Dracula (TV 1968), Horror of Dracula (1958), Crimson Peak (2015), and Dark Shadows (1991). Yes, all the Dracula ones are in alphabetical order, before the last two fandoms enter the picture.

So now we get to my likes, as well as my dislikes. My likes: Plot. Victorian horror, gothic romance, gothic horror, horror—psychological or otherwise, slow building suspense, ghost stories, ghosts, haunted houses, demons, werewolves, folklore, mythology, dark and twisted fairy tales, darkfic, Dracula and vampires, Hammer Horror Movies, possession (ghostly or demonic) and exorcisms, mind control, hypnosis, loyalty, character studies, adventure, action, unreliable narrators, missing scenes, séances, devoted friendship and relationships, character development, introspection, AUs, worldbuilding, snark, hurt/comfort, graphic violence, PTSD, eldritch abominations, Stockholm Syndrome, brainwashing, drama, nightmares, sleepwalking, mystery, crossovers, fantasy elements, Faustian bargains/pacts, captivity, slow moving zombies, black magic/rituals/summoning of something, necromancy, graveyards, mounting dread.

Dislikes/Do Not Want To Read List: Cancer. Body horror, when it is outside of the genre of vampirism, ghosts, or the supernatural. PWP or anything explicit, rape, incest, underage, BDSM, humiliation, mpreg, character bashing, bestiality, necrophilia, kidfic, animal abuse, child abuse, cannibalism, fast moving zombies, tentacle porn, sex pollen, RPF.

I may have added a few things in my Crueltide comment that I left off in my likes or dislikes in this letter. So just to be on the safe side, please take a look over there, too.

When it comes to nominated characters, you don’t have to use only the characters that I have requested. You are fine with using more only if you are obliged to do so, because in some cases it might be the only way to properly fill a prompt if it grabs you. In the cases where there wasn’t enough room and I like or dislike other characters, this has been noted.

Count Dracula (1977)
Characters: Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Mina Westenra Harker, Renfield.

What if Renfield did as Dracula wanted? What if he hadn’t tried to warn Seward and instead did as Dracula expected and drank from an “initiated human”—meaning Mina, somehow, while Jonathan and Seward were in shouting distance? Mina might do likewise, being in Dracula’s power at that moment from all that was implied. Or maybe it’s her choice. How would this work without drawing attention, and how would the men not notice?

Does Jonathan notice anything odd about her at all later? Does Dracula encourage Mina to “initiate” Jonathan, turning him and also providing Dracula’s own blood to do so faster? And if he was turned, what would the four of them (since Renfield’s bound to get out of that cell even if they don’t come for him; seriously, the guy’s fantastic at that, so he’s right behind them eventually) manage to do before they were found out? Does Seward or anybody else ever notice a change in Renfield before an impromptu escape? What happens in the aftermath?

I loved this particular version of Renfield, (and Jonathan, and Mina, and pretty much all of them aside from Quincey’s accent) so have fun with it.

If you’d like to go another way, I also have this prompt:

-In the castle, Jonathan sarcastically noted to the Count that they would never have found the time to see the countryside, since the Count was never around in the daylight. What if Jonathan had actually asked Dracula to show him the countryside, despite his increasing terror? What would Dracula’s reaction have been? What strange things would have happened to him? What does Dracula do to him or those nearby, and is Jonathan annoyed to be sightseeing by the light of a lantern or candle, when mortal eyes can’t see as well in what is otherwise total darkness?

Pairings I enjoy: Mina/Jonathan. Jonathan/Dracula. And, oddly enough in this version, a dash of Renfield/Dracula.

If you’d like to watch the canon, you can find a better quality upload of Count Dracula (1977) in two parts on Youtube. Part 1. Part 2.

Dracula—Bram Stoker
I selected Any. Therefore, that is these characters: Van Helsing, Brides of Dracula, Dracula, Golden Krone Innkeeper’s Wife, Jonathan Harker, John Seward, Mina Harker, Lucy Westenra.

What if the Innkeeper’s Wife at the Golden Krone saw everyone on their way through Transylvania to destroy Dracula? What if everyone stopped at that hotel, since Jonathan knew it was hopefully safe? Would Jonathan try to confide in her his fears, despite the occasional language barrier? Would he—hoping she didn’t understand—even confide he was willing to follow Mina, and become a vampire if it did come to that? Does the older woman think he must be mad or tainted himself to consider such a thing? And does she try to help them at all?

When it comes to classic novels, this might have been the first novel I fell in love with at a very young age.

The above was just the first of many prompts (quite a few are older, and a couple are new) I have in this fandom. Sister Agatha wasn’t nominated this year, or there were at least two others I could have thrown in. If you want to skip the prompts that include those characters you didn’t sign up for, or that were not nominated at all this year, I completely understand. These are only suggestions, as I have previously stated. If you don’t have access to the novel, you can find it here or here.

Other prompts:

-What if Lucy wasn’t staked that night in the graveyard? What if she got away? Does she aid Dracula in any way? Does she bite Mina instead? Or would she bite Jonathan while Dracula bit Mina? Would she try to tempt Seward? Arthur wasn’t nominated this year, but I’m fine if you feel like writing her going after either him or Quincey, as well.

-What if Van Helsing didn’t stake all three brides? What if one of them escaped? What if he was only hypnotized into believing otherwise?

-Jonathan in the convent. How did he handle learning that he had been mad with brain fever/a nervous breakdown for so long? Or if you want his POV during that time, go for it. If you’d like to have a story of Mina and Jonathan acclimating to his weakened state and gradual recovery, I’m good with that. If you want to have the Brides of Dracula scratching at the window during his brain fever, trying to lure him out, with him either utterly horrified or screwed up to the point he almost goes with them before his mental breakdown ended, I’m equally fine with that.

-To keep Mina safe, what if Jonathan secretly goes to Carfax Abbey before the others? He rightly expects that Dracula might attack them all through Mina. He strikes a deal with Dracula, before the others go and consecrate the boxes of earth. His servitude or whatever you want to come up with for Mina’s safety. He claims he will go to hell itself if it means Mina is spared, which would be similar to what he wrote in his diary. Do they talk about his time as a guest in his castle, Jonathan’s honor, and how he wouldn’t go back on his word? Might Jonathan willingly offer his neck, to become his spy, or his ally, or even his monstrous offspring if he had no other choice? All of this to keep Mina from being hurt. Would Dracula be amused? Would he agree? Or would he just use Jonathan’s presence there to fuel discord and suspicion among the men?

-What if, instead of being bitten that very night, Mina woke to see Jonathan was the one entranced, having invited the vampire inside? How is everything changed?

How does everything change? Who stays with Jonathan as he slowly succumbs, falling into silences? Van Helsing? Seward? Who else would it be that keeps track of Jonathan, and how he’s doing? He would be more alert to anything after Lucy. How does he help him? How pronounced are Jonathan’s symptoms if you go this route, and does hypnosis work very well or at all to either follow the Count or calm Jonathan if he’s too worked up over everything? Is he forced to do anything by the Count? Does he have another breakdown, while struggling to resist? And if they all chased Dracula to Transylvania, would Jonathan stay with Van Helsing, as Mina did?

-What if Dracula kept Jonathan at his side when he moved towards England? Bitten and placid, Jonathan follows his orders. Mina, still back home and having not heard from him, worries. She never has the journal to give to the others. How do things change? Does he eventually get turned into a vampire, too? Or is he just forced to guard Dracula when the vampire sleeps? Is he forced to explain English customs that baffle the vampire from time to time?

If you go the vampire route, how does Mina respond to the news so soon after Lucy’s death? Would he try to get Mina to come to him, or just attack at Dracula’s side like a feral animal? If you go the controlled route, how does Jonathan behave when they try to destroy Dracula? Can Van Helsing get him away from the vampire? Or might they even find him put to work guarding Lucy from threats for her first few nights out and about? Would she have survived longer as a vampire due to this?

And if she did, would her coffin have joined Dracula’s (and, potentially, Jonathan either wanting peace of mind after being freed by seeing the vampires die for himself, or desperate to protect them if still being used, or stuck in a trance) in the final race back to Transylvania? Could the joined efforts of Mina and Van Helsing save him? Maybe Jonathan remembers Lucy as Mina’s best friend, and some warped sense of chivalry makes him want to protect what’s left of Lucy?

It might be oddly fascinating if Jonathan continued to keep a journal even while guarding them, just to stave off boredom. Or even if the others managed to catch him, and get him away from Dracula, he might still have it with him. Perhaps it just became second nature, and he had a compulsion to write things down for if ever he forgot something, and needed to relay it to Dracula. Van Helsing might debate it was the man’s true nature trying to resurface, and there was hope for him. If they ever did break through to Jonathan, as a gesture of trust, would he turn the journal over to the man? Or would he destroy it?

-What if Jonathan and Mina returned to England just a bit sooner than in the novel? Perhaps the night Lucy rises from the grave. Neither has received word of her death yet, and Jonathan goes out for a walk that night, to try to clear his head. Does Lucy bite Jonathan, while he genuinely believes he’s just hallucinating? Is Mina able to handle him succumbing to a strange illness so soon after his brain fever? Does Van Helsing track Lucy to their home? Or does Jonathan just spot Lucy, and invite her inside so that she can speak with Mina? He wouldn’t know about Lucy’s supposed illness yet.

-An AU. What if Van Helsing was in Budapest briefly and was the one to discover Jonathan in the terrible state that he was in? What if he was already well-versed in vampires? The AU truly comes about if he hasn’t been called in for Lucy’s case yet. How does he try to get the delirious and traumatized Jonathan to trust him, after realizing the problem? He wants to know if the man was bitten, so he needs to calm him down. Also, he wants him calm so he can read the journal to him, because Van Helsing can’t read shorthand.

Upon receiving word of Lucy, how does he proceed with Jonathan in tow? Is Jonathan able to help, even with tenuous and confused sanity, as he struggles to forget what happened? And does Jonathan recognize Lucy, and ask where Mina is, or is he too messed up? Without a letter from Sister Agatha about him, Mina is still in town. What does she do when she finally sees him again?

-What if Jonathan’s breakdown didn’t happen until after he returned to England, and was safely back with Mina? He held it together until then. Would he end up at Seward’s sanitarium? Does Van Helsing realize where he is and the answers he might have after reading Mina’s journal? Can Jonathan provide those answers, or is he too busy, lost in the midst of raving about the supernatural from his trauma? Are there any times when he’s particularly lucid? And in this scenario, would he be in good enough mental shape to even try to help hunt down Dracula, and would the others trust him?

-What if Jonathan was killed instead of Quincey, and Dracula escaped in the carnage? Nobody guesses he was bitten or given blood somewhere along the way at the castle. Even he can’t remember. Nobody guesses. None of them ever know, until it’s too late. They all wonder where to bury him…and then he eventually wakes up near their camp as a vampire, to the horror of everyone else.

They were waiting on an attack from Dracula, while he was waiting on Jonathan rising from the dead. How scary and different is the solicitor in the aftermath? When he wakes, who notices first? Are they able to drive him away with crosses, or does he get any blood? Where is Dracula during all of this?

Pairings I enjoy: Mina/Jonathan. Dracula/Jonathan. Lucy/Mina, platonic or otherwise. Jonathan/The Weird Sisters (aka Brides of Dracula this year, or whatever you wish to call them), Jonathan/Lucy (despite them not interacting in the novel, they may have met through Mina). Seward/Lucy, platonic or not. Seward/Mina.

Dracula (TV 1968)
I selected Any. Therefore, that is the following characters: Van Helsing, Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Mina Harker, Lucy Weston, John Seward, Mrs. Weston, Mrs. Perkins

What if Dracula chose to target Jonathan to fulfill his promise after he successfully turned Lucy, instead of going after Mina by way of Lucy? Would Lucy try to tempt Seward instead, to lure him away from the cell so that Dracula could go to Jonathan? What happens if Van Helsing is there, too, and drives her off? Are they able to reach anything of his old self, to appeal to what’s left of it, or does Jonathan run into Dracula’s arms? Does he escape first, so that they can get him bitten in the privacy of the graveyard? If Lucy never revealed herself to Mina in this version, it would be nice if she still figured out the existence of vampires and tried to fight for Jonathan’s soul.

Other prompts: -What if Dracula’s death wasn’t enough to shake Jonathan free, and back to sanity? What if Jonathan had even been bitten? What if he was slowly changing, and the others didn’t realize it? Does Jonathan see something similar in Mina, based on the look she gave Seward at the end? Do Jonathan and Mina, still not themselves, attempt to get revenge on Van Helsing? Or would Mina try to keep Jonathan as stable as she could at first? Bonus points if Seward is completely oblivious to all of this danger around him, or even passes out when confronted by it.

-Does Jonathan try to resurrect Dracula with the ring?

-What if Lucy’s unconscious cries of pleasure during that bite drew attention? What if Dracula was caught by Mrs. Weston?

-We only have a brief glimpse of Jonathan in the castle, as he fell into the Count’s power. I’d like to know more of what happened in his time under the Count’s servitude, before they left for England. How long was he like this before they left the castle? What was he forced to do? Was it something that he would feel extreme amounts of guilt over, once Dracula was dead, and his mind was freed?

If you can find a way to work Mrs. Weston or Mrs. Perkins into your story, so much the better. I have also always loved the characterization of Jonathan in this, as he’s basically been merged with Renfield. As I stated in last year’s letter, Corin Redgrave is clearly having the time of his life.

The character of Jonathan was just having so much fun merrily skipping through graveyards, and leaping over headstones, that I just know I would love to see what the character would be like in the aftermath. Once he thought he was of use to Dracula again, he relished everything. He’s bound to miss that feeling, though he may not miss the bug eating side.

Pairings I enjoy: Lucy/Mina; Jonathan/Mina; Seward/Mina. Jonathan/Dracula.

You can watch Dracula (1968) here.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Characters: Arthur Holmwood, Count Dracula, Jonathan Harker, Van Helsing.

Does Dracula stay as Jonathan changes? Did Jonathan rip the room apart in a feral state, or was it just the last shred of lingering humanity that was horrified at what he had become? Or did Dracula make that mess which Van Helsing found? Did Jonathan have time to go hunting for fresh blood with Dracula before Van Helsing killed him? After a quick search around online, I see it was about 10 days for Jonathan to be a vampire. What was he like as a brand new vampire? We only see him sleeping in his coffin before he was staked. Did he actually bother to organize the books when Dracula left him alone, in between whatever else he did as a new vampire? While I’m joking about the last, I can sort of picture Jonathan trying to fix up the library.

What if Jonathan woke fully before he was staked by Van Helsing, and tried to fight back? Is there anything left of his personality to trick Van Helsing with, or is he just starving for the nearest source of blood? Or what if Jonathan traveled with Dracula, and targeted (per Dracula’s orders) Arthur while Dracula went after others? Arthur could barely handle seeing a staking of a vampire. How would he handle seeing Jonathan as one of the undead? And would he be the one forced to stake him? Or would he be bitten by him?

Another option for this one:

It’s not entirely clear if Jonathan Harker had risen yet as a vampire, or if he was at the end of turning and going to awaken momentarily. There isn’t blood on his mouth, so presumably he hadn’t been out having a decadent feast of villagers the night before. What would he have been like if he managed to wake up before Van Helsing arrived? I presume smugly evil based on the grin he was wearing in his coffin. How would he try to attempt to deal with Van Helsing? What would he do? Would he torment him with memories of what he once was to fool him, and make him think he was being kept as a prisoner? Or would he simply attack?

If he managed to get away and hide, would he have tried to help Dracula against Van Helsing at the end? What would have been his response (rage? Confusion?) to Dracula turning into ashes, and would Van Helsing have managed to drive Jonathan into the daylight, too?

You can find Horror of Dracula (1958) on Vimeo here.

Crimson Peak (2015)
Characters: Edith Cushing, Thomas Sharpe, Lucille Sharpe, Alan McMichael.

Edith, at a séance, realizes that Alan can see the dead, too, after his brush with death at Allerdale Hall. Explore the consequences. Do they begin proving which psychics and mediums are fakes? Do they lend out their services to speak to or on behalf of the dead haunting an abode? Do they use this to try to help the dead find peace? They each have their own fortunes, so they would be fine with it being a side job. What do Alan’s family think of it all? Do they think he went crazy? Does Enola suddenly speak through Alan at one sitting and freak out everyone with news of unfinished business?

I wrote for this one for Yuletide back in 2015, and I still love this film.

Other prompts:

-After everything they’ve been through—ghosts and Thomas and Lucille—Edith discovers that vampires are real, too. She didn’t believe at first, until Alan was bitten. As he begins to lose his will to the creature, and go to it each evening (with no memory of doing so when told of it, and quite possibly in denial until she shows him the clues) what does Edith do? How will she save him? Can she? If you want to somehow connect all of this back to Crimson Peak, then you could have one of the Sharpes come back as a vampire (my bet is on Lucille, because Thomas probably wouldn’t do that to Alan; you could make it an AU where she wasn’t a ghost at the end of the film) to target him if you like. Are the marks hidden by his tie or cufflinks? Is he absolutely terrible at lying to Edith?

-Alan and Edith: Regular Ghost Hunters.

-What happens when Edith feels like she needs to face her past, and return to Allerdale Hall before it ends up caving in? Alan comes along, to make sure nothing happens to her, like falling through crumbling floorboards, or over a weak railing. But Lucille is waiting. She uses the last lingering bits of whatever jealousy there once was for Thomas to get inside Alan’s head. How soon before Edith notices? Would it start small, with it seeming that he’s just talking to himself, and doesn’t know why? If it was possession and not mind controL: Would the possession be permanent, once Lucille steps across the threshold of the place that had once confined her? Would Thomas show up, and try to warn Edith? He appeared to move on in the film, I know, but the option is always there.

If you feel like doing a crossover with another gothic horror/gothic romance fandom on my list of requests, or even that was just nominated for Yuletide that you happen to enjoy, feel free to do so. Crimson Peak and one of the Dracula adaptations are in the same general time period. Last year, my letter extended to a request for Crimson Peak/Penny Dreadful.

Pairings I enjoy: Thomas Sharpe/Edith Cushing. Edith Cushing/Alan McMichael. Alan McMichael/Lucille Sharpe. I am equally fine with Alan and Edith remaining just friends, or ending up together.

You can find Crimson Peak (2015) on Putlocker here.

Dark Shadows (1991)
Characters: Victoria Winters

How does Vicki readjust to life in the present day, knowing the secrets that she knows about Barnabas? Can she handle all that happened to her in the past, what she left behind, and the fact that she was hanged for witchcraft?

This one was tough, since I wanted to see both the 60’s Dark Shadows, as well as Dark Shadows (1991). I love them equally. In the end, I went with what happened to have fewer episodes to spare what remains of your sanity if you’ve read this far, Dear Yuletide Writer.

It’s merely 12 episodes to consume this way, vs. 1225 episodes.

Hulu has all the episodes of this series, if you happen to have an account with them. I don’t have access to that and therefore cannot verify how good the quality is. You can also find most of the episodes on Daily Motion: Search for Dark Shadows Revival. You can find deleted scenes from the pilot here. You can find the pilot here, though it’s unfortunately been altered with a white smudge in the center to keep it from being pulled.