Dear Yuletide Author 2019

[calliopes_pen]

The first half of this letter is copied from previous years, since my likes and dislikes are about the same. Several prompts were copied over as well.

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 may have been a rough year for a lot of people, and I have been looking forward to this more than you can even understand.

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. It doesn’t usually get that long.

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. He was nominated along with a bunch of Dracula-centered fandoms this year, so he’s getting a lot of stuff coming his way if possible.

I’ve made a jump list to make things a little easier, just like last year’s letter, and the one before that for however many years back. 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, and have only had to sit out two of them (the second being last year). The longer I keep with this, the longer the stories become. You can also look back at previous Dear Yuletide letters I have written via the Dear Yuletide Letter tag, which accompanies this post.

I am fine with gen, het, or slash. If you want to do anything pairing free, that is completely fine with me, as well. 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.

The fandoms I requested this year are the following: Dracula—Bram Stoker, Dracula (TV 1968), Dracula the Musical - Wildhorn/Black & Hampton, Horror of Dracula (1958), Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979), and Tanz der Vampire – Steinman/Kunze.

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, sensory deprivation, 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.

Dracula—Bram Stoker
Characters: Any

What if Peter Hawkins didn’t die so soon after Jonathan’s return? How would Mina and Jonathan have eventually explained the situation with the Count? Would Hawkins have believed it, and trusted in his surrogate son? Or would he think that he was still ill, and should rest? I think a talk between him and Van Helsing might be fun.

Following on from the above prompt: What if Mr. Hawkins knew all along about Dracula, and what he really was and had planned? What if he was merely in Dracula’s thrall? How would Jonathan and Mina react? Who finds out first? Did he even think that Jonathan would survive? How guilty does he feel? Especially given the state that Jonathan was in when he returned from his trip abroad, when they reunited. He’s basically the one that raised Jonathan, after all.

Other prompts (so many since I collected them all in a document over time):

-I see the Brides of Dracula were nominated this year. What if it was discovered that Jonathan was bitten by them? Or what if, like Mina and Dracula, he were force fed their blood and forced to forget? What if he had a psychic link with the women? What if, through them, Jonathan also had a link with Dracula? What if, unconsciously, he knew all that Dracula did and could track those movements like Mina does later in the novel? How does everyone learn of this prior to the implementation of hypnosis? Does he talk in his sleep, or behave differently at certain times? Does he just speak of things he shouldn’t know, and they grow suspicious of him?

-This prompt is on the darker side. What if Jonathan wasn’t left in the castle for the brides, and therefore didn’t get his last chance to escape out the window and down the wall? What if Dracula decided to keep him at his side, basically as a traveling hostage, since he considered Jonathan his? What if Jonathan was trapped in one of those boxes of earth, forced to be quiet through hypnosis and being bound up, and being used as a snack (just a bit on a daily basis) so that most of the Demeter’s crew would last and actually steer the ship?

If Jonathan survives all of that, how does he eventually fare when let out of the box? Does he remember his old life at all, or is he stuck in Stockholm Syndrome mode, and doing whatever he’s told to survive? Is he close to turning into a vampire after all those feedings? How does Jonathan get away? Is he dragged along as far as Carfax (if so, impressive mileage) From the ones nominated this year, does he run into Mina, Van Helsing, or Quincey first?

-What if Jonathan didn’t wake from that trance in time back in the castle, when the women came in on moonlight? It was his second time seeing them. Would something have happened without Dracula knowing? Or would Dracula have noticed when Jonathan was no longer quite so desperate to escape?

What if Dracula then gave permission to the brides to find their own way to England? Would anyone else eventually spot Jonathan going out nightly to meet them? Since they wouldn’t be married yet, does Mina still struggle valiantly to help Jonathan, and save his soul on her own? Is Van Helsing still drawn in? Since he was nominated this year: Is Peter Hawkins able to notice something major, if he’s still alive? He might be, if Jonathan returns home earlier than in the novel.

-Bonding time between Jonathan and Quincey, since they never really interacted much with everything going on. Quincey decides to teach Jonathan how to fight, seeing how quiet the solicitor is, and nervous around the weapons. It would be sometime before the night of October 3rd. What is Quincey’s verdict on how good Jonathan is around knives and guns, and who gave him that kukri, anyway? Is Jonathan absolutely dreadful at shooting, or is he competent? Make it as funny or dark as you wish. How close are they by the end, when Quincey is killed, dying in Jonathan’s arms?

-How about some hint of the deep friendship between Jonathan, Mina, and Lucy? It can be pre-novel, or Jonathan visiting the crypt with Mina after everything with Dracula is over, or even Lucy somehow coming back after she was staked and reuniting with them. Which could have happened due to a ghostly visitation, or if someone pulled the stake out and she was a full vampire again, desiring of their company in a myriad of ways.

-What if Jonathan had consumed some of Dracula’s blood without his knowledge? What if he was drawn to Carfax because of it, heeding the call of the Count, while the others were busy? Does he ever try to use his presence there to basically make a deal with the devil? Or is he simply entranced and doing as Dracula bids? Does Mina notice what’s going on when he leaves, possibly from the same meeting that Quincey ducked out on?

-What if Lucy wasn't bitten in Whitby? What if it was Mina that was bitten and turned, and Lucy was the one (with Quincey as chaperone, presumably) forced to collect Jonathan in Bucharest? How does Jonathan react to it all? How do things change if Lucy is the one involved, and not Mina? And does Mina, now undead, seek to draw Jonathan and Lucy to her side? How do they cope when they finally see her? Do Lucy and Jonathan talk it out, and decide they can't do that, or do they just go with her?

Lucy and Jonathan didn't interact in the novel, so it would be interesting to see their two viewpoints on the situation at hand.

-What if Dracula planned to survive any attacks on his life? What if he was able to send his spirit into the nearest suitable host, perhaps the one that killed him? Quincey died, but Jonathan didn’t. Would Van Helsing think of this? Would Dracula subtly take over Jonathan a bit at a time to prolong his terror, or would it be very obviously not him? Would he attack Van Helsing outright? Would Mina be the key to getting her husband back?

-What if, when the group returned to check out Castle Dracula seven years later, Jonathan accidentally disturbed the Count’s spirit, either while checking on the crypt or his old room? What if he was put into the Count’s power? Does he try to resurrect Dracula, or does he just seek revenge, while struggling to warn the others? Who notices first? How do they handle it?

If it’s not Jonathan that disturbs him and gets stuck being haunted, would whoever it was just start trying to gaslight the poor guy? I think Jonathan would catch on sooner after his experiences, if so. Would anyone believe his warnings?

-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. To everyone's horror, while pondering their next move, Jonathan wakes up.

They were waiting on an attack from Dracula, while he was waiting on Jonathan to rise 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 before anyone comes to harm? Where is Dracula during all of this?

-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 because he can't read the journal; he 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 uncertain of what became of him. How do things go when they finally reunite?

-What if everyone walked in on Dracula feeding blood to both Mina and an entranced Jonathan? Would it be harder to keep an eye on both, and would Dracula use two much more actively than he ever used Mina under his control?

Who stays with Jonathan as he slowly succumbs, falling into silences? Who stays with Mina to watch her? How pronounced are Jonathan’s symptoms in comparison to Mina 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 when everyone split up? Or would Quincey babysit him (since he's the only other one of the men nominated, everything falls on him, looks like). How do Jonathan and Mina try to comfort one another? Is the progression of their affliction different for each?

-The others never saw the harm in Mina and Jonathan continuing to share a bed following the blood exchange between Mina and Dracula. What if she did fully turn, and put Jonathan into her power? How would things change? Does anyone recognize the danger? Where are they during their journey when it happens? Or if she doesn’t fully turn, perhaps she has just enough of the power in her to ensnare his mind. Given what he stated in his journal, he likely wouldn’t have fought her at all.

Pairings I enjoy, whether or not someone was nominated this year: Mina/Jonathan. Dracula/Jonathan. Lucy/Mina (pairing or friendship). Mina/Jonathan/Lucy. Jonathan/Lucy. Jonathan/The Weird Sisters, aka The Brides of Dracula. Seward/Mina. Or simple friendship among the group as they go against Dracula.

If you don’t have access to the novel, you can read it online here or here on Project Gutenberg.

Dracula (TV 1968)
Characters: Any

After everything, Jonathan and Mina (with a reluctant Seward in tow) want to deal with supernatural matters. They want to help others who might be suffering from outside influences like the Count. How do they react to ghosts? Demons? Werewolves?

Other prompts:

-This year, I see we’ve got Rowse and Jenkins nominated. What are their reactions to all this vampire stuff? What if they happened to see when Jonathan was supernaturally let out of his cell there at the end? What if they saw everything that happened in the graveyard? How do they treat Jonathan then? Do they think it’s all craziness? Does Van Helsing try to get them to think they’re crazy and nothing happened? I doubt they’d listen. And I doubt Jonathan would be in a fit state to really explain anything well.

-If you can find a way to work Mrs. Hoskins into Jonathan’s recovery, more power to you. I liked her, and how she took care of Seward. By the end of that film Seward probably wasn’t the only one in need of hot tea and a blanket.

-Following his recovery, what if Jonathan ended up falling into more supernatural hijinks? Does Mina believe him, whether it be ghosts or witchcraft? Does Seward think the strain of Jonathan trying to reclaim his life after being the servant to a vampire was all just a bit too much and too soon? How does Jonathan react to more weirdness possibly invading his life? Is he taking it all in stride, and calmly noting it’s not as bad as being enthralled by a vampire and forced to devour insects for sustenance, or is the poor fellow hysterical?

-If, for whatever reason, you feel like giving Jonathan total amnesia about what he’s done while under the Count’s influence: How does the ever proper Seward manage to explain the situation? Does Jonathan feel the need to properly introduce himself to Rowse and Jenkins, if he can’t remember what he’s put them through? How do they take that? Make it as comedic or dark as you feel like.

-What if Mina tried to get through to Jonathan again, after the time he recognized and hugged her, but before she was bitten by Lucy (which led to him attacking Mina)? How well would this go? How long might they be able to reach him? What would he have to say to her, after that heartfelt and desperate embrace of her the first time, and the shouting for her?

-A couple years back, I threw a prompt out there of Jonathan trying to resurrect Dracula with the ring post-film. Given the characters nominated this year, how about this for a variation? What if it wasn’t Mina that had the ring at the end (even if she was still watching Seward’s throat). What if it was Rowse or Jenkins, mildly hypnotized by something supernatural in it? What if Jonathan recovered just enough to make a mention of the ring to Seward, and was ignored? Would Jonathan try to get it back himself in secret, while fighting a darker nature that still lingered? Or would he happily give in, feeling belittled by the ignorance?

-What if Mina turned, and bit Van Helsing--just to get him out of the way before she eventually targeted Seward? How formidable does Van Helsing remain, even under the influence of the bite? Does he get a secret kick out of it, considering it an experiment, even as he tries to save himself?

-Before Lucy was found a bit dead with fangs in her mouth, Dracula possessed Jonathan in the cell. We just go from there to finding her, and didn’t see what happened with Jonathan. What was his reaction? Glee? Devastation that he was gone? Did he beg Seward to try again? And was it, possibly, not the first time he had been used in that manner? What if he escaped again like that, and was used to deliver a message that had been mentally relayed to him, following Lucy’s staking?

-What if Dracula’s death wasn’t enough to shake Jonathan free, and back to sanity? What if Jonathan had even been bitten in the moments after Jonathan delivered Mina to his side? It could always have taken a minute or two longer for Seward and Van Helsing to reach and sanctify that grave, intruding upon everything.

What if Jonathan was slowly changing, and the others didn’t even realize it? Does Jonathan see something similar in Mina, based on the look she gave Seward at the end? Bonus points if Seward is completely oblivious to all of this danger around him, or even faints when confronted by the sight of fangs ever so slightly spotted in Jonathan’s mouth. Or maybe Jonathan had seen a cross and growled or hissed?

If you’re interested in giving this one a look, or want to know more, you can find a quick fandom promo for it by thisbluespirit. There are multiple uploads across Youtube for it, in one part, or many. Corin Redgrave absolutely loves skipping over headstones and eating flies in this incarnation of Jonathan.

I absolutely love this version, as might quickly become apparent if one were to check out the length of what I’ve written for it. As was stated in the fandom promo, there are so many ways you can go with this particular one.

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

Dracula the Musical - Wildhorn/Black & Hampton
Characters: Any

There is a line during Fresh Blood about how Dracula thinks Jonathan and Mina would do his bidding in time and eternal life would only be found through him. He would see terror in the streets of London, through them. What if he implemented this very plan, instead of going to Lucy first?

As an expansion of the above: Basically, what if, after biting Jonathan and draining him during Fresh Blood, Jonathan was transformed instead of just escaping the castle? What if Dracula loosed him on an unsuspecting populace, as a distraction?

Other prompts:

-What if Jonathan witnessed the graveyard musical number of Life After Life, due to a particular psychic connection to Dracula via the bite in the castle? How would he explain it? Would they use hypnosis to track such movements prior to Mina being bitten? Or what if he were there in person, and enthralled, aiding them in finding Lucy's first meal?

-During Zu Ende, as Van Helsing and Dracula are having a sing off in a fantastic moment, pay attention to the others. Jonathan is randomly punched out by Seward, and doesn’t revive until Quincey’s gun misfires because of something Dracula does. What happened to Jonathan? Was he in hysterics and about to go after Dracula for biting and doing the blood exchange with Mina? Or was he temporarily being used (hell, Van Helsing looked to be possessed during Zu Ende for a few moments when Dracula pulled a vanishing act, until Van Helsing got splashed with holy water; so, it’s feasible) like a puppet, perhaps to do Van Helsing injury when he least anticipated it?

Since Seward wasn’t nominated, have Van Helsing figure out what went down once the scene was done.

-During Forever Young, Jonathan tears off the crucifix and lets the brides get to him. What if that didn't happen? What if, instead, he tore it off while enthralled, and allowing the Count to shave him? It was the only thing holding Dracula back from biting him. What happens next? Does Dracula choose to hold him in his power, keeping him as a pawn after biting him?

My favorite version of Dracula The Musical comes from Graz, and that’s also the easiest one to locate online. You can watch it here in German, with English subtitles; however, if it’s taken down at some point, you can easily find it in chunks in a playlist here. And there is another (possibly the clearest) upload in two parts, with both English and Russian subtitles; to get to the English, turn on closed captioning: Act 1. Act 2.

And for the purpose of aiding you in finding the moments mentioned above, I’m going to list the times for those moments/songs, using the first one I linked you to (which does have a few faulty translations in Life After After at the least; and gets a line of Jonathan’s stuck there for a long time with the rest of the subtitles, letting it just hang out through Deep In The Darkest Night; however, you can see it and then consult the other links).

Dracula shaving Jonathan: 14:45-15:52
Jonathan escaping his room, then going through Forever Young and Fresh Blood: 16:43-24:37. It’s the 20 minute mark when he throws aside his crucifix.
Life After Life (happens at the same time as Jonathan shares his experiences in Transylvania)--though the translation isn’t the best in this particular one: 1:01:47-1:06:12
Jonathan being knocked out, leading to Mina’s seduction, and finally Zu Ende: 1:26:34-1:34:35

As a bonus, the production in St. Gallen came before Graz. Certain things were different, like Zu Ende not being written yet (it was written for Thomas Borchert and Uwe Kroger). You can't find it in its entirety on Youtube, but you can see a difference in Jonathan's seduction in Forever Young and Fresh Blood in this clip, since it's more than three brides--it's a castle filled with dozens of male and female vampires seducing him.

Horror of Dracula (1958)
Characters: Any

What if Jonathan wasn’t staked? What if, instead, he and Dracula planned to lay a trap for Van Helsing?

On TV Tropes’ page for the film, under They Wasted A Perfectly Good Character, there was a plot that I would dearly love to see. In case it’s been edited since then, this is what it said: “Having a vampiric Harker could've been actually pretty cool. At the very least, at the start, where he could've taken over Dracula's job of terrorizing the nearby village. Think about it, Van Helsing arriving into the area, the townsfolk in uproar over an attack. Van Helsing goes to the manor to confront whom he thinks is Dracula only to find his now vamped friend, corrupted and eager to feed on him. Would've made for a nice act 1 confrontation, extra points if he turned the barmaid he met earlier.”

What would Van Helsing’s reaction be to all of the carnage? What if Jonathan appeared to him at night, when the vampire was actually awake? What would Van Helsing do? Would Jonathan taunt him, or pretend to be his old self at first? Would he run, or would he attack? Would he briefly try to fool him into thinking he was still alive? Would Van Helsing be able to fight him off when it’s his former friend that is one of the undead? Or would Dracula arrive on the scene, proud of the devastation, and take Jonathan away with him?

Other prompts:

-What if Dracula had a way to keep Jonathan from turning into a vampire after that woman bit him? What if he just kept him in thrall, so he could Van Helsing and convince him all was well? Mina ended up grinning like the most smug and satisfied woman on the planet after she was bitten and was not immediately turned. How would Jonathan fare? What would Van Helsing see upon his arrival? Or what if the human Jonathan was used as the bait to lure someone else in? Seeing as Arthur was nominated, perhaps him, as a roundabout way to eventually get to Lucy.

-More of Van Helsing and Jonathan, as the former convinced the latter that vampires were real. How was he convinced? And what if Jonathan told the truth, unable to keep it a secret from his future brother-in-law? How would things change if Arthur knew the truth? How would Arthur even react to the thought of what the two were attempting to do, and would he question their sanity without proof?

-More interaction between Jonathan and Dracula after they first meet, instead of simply what we see in their limited screentime: meaning more than lock him in his bedroom after greeting him, rip the woman off his throat, and turn him. Or even more interaction between the two after Jonathan has been turned.

-What happened after Dracula closed the doors, trapping Jonathan in the crypt with him? We know the results, and that he turned. We know there was more blood on his throat. Go from there.

Pairings I enjoy in this fandom: Dracula/Jonathan, Dracula/Van Helsing, Dracula/Lucy, Jonathan/Lucy, Arthur/Mina.

Nosferatu The Vampyre (1979)
Characters: Any

After the movie ends, what does Jonathan get up to now that he’s had Van Helsing arrested for Dracula’s murder?

Basically, I would love to learn if Jonathan ever got his memory back after riding off, and if he continued to spread the plague. He only said there was “much to do,” and never implied that he actually recognized anyone that rushed to his assistance. There’s a chance he didn’t even remember the name of the maid that brushed away the holy wafer crumbs so that he could escape that circle Lucy stuck him in.

Does he end up going to the same city that Renfield was being sent to? Because I can see Renfield getting on Jonathan’s last nerve, especially if he doesn’t remember anything about his mortal life; he wouldn’t stay around him long. Or does Jonathan simply vaguely recall the castle, and go back there?

Another prompt: What if Jonathan managed to get free from the crumbs of the holy wafer sooner? Could he have stopped Van Helsing? What would have occurred if he had prevented him from staking Dracula? How would he have dealt with Dracula, curled up on the ground in the corner, suffering from the sun?

Pairings I enjoy in this fandom: Lucy/Jonathan.

Unless it ends up removed at any point, Shout Factory streams the film here, and it’s on Youtube here. With the latter, it’s in German with English subtitles. With the former, it’s in English; it was filmed at the same time, and they did both versions in their own voices. I recommend the Shout Factory upload, since the quality’s better. If that’s the one you’re looking at, you can see Jonathan once he’s fully turned (and soon to be accusing Van Helsing of murder) at 1:43:13

Other places to find it: Popcorn Flix (in English). Tubi TV. Amazon Prime (in English).

Tanz der Vampire – Steinman/Kunze
Characters: Any

-What if Krolock arrived before Sarah and Alfred could rush away into the wilderness? Do they go willingly back to the castle, or does Krolock have to force them? They probably want to rush away and eat all the villagers they can, and spread the plague of vampirism in that first thrill of it all. How do Sarah and Alfred behave afterwards, though? How evil are they?

Other prompts for you to work with:

-What if Alfred was seduced into betraying the Professor, and went with Krolock after Carpe Noctem? What if the Professor woke as this was happening? Would he care that his assistant was almost corrupted or entranced and about to wander to his doom, or would he figure out what was going on, and that Alfred was falling into their power if Alfred dropped the cross? Would he just be fascinated to see how an enthralled human behaves and treat it all as an experiment? Would he make Alfred snap out of it at any point? How differently would Alfred behave after that dream if the spell being woven worked right then?

-What if Alfred was bitten by Krolock at some point in the castle, shortly after he claimed that Alfred’s soul was his? When does it happen, and how are things changed when the Professor is the last human left (since Sarah’s going to it all willingly)? When does the Professor notice? Also, Krolock claimed that "Alfred's soul has long been mine!" during He, Ho, Professor (Reprise), but we don’t really see how Alfred was tempted, if he was at all, outside of when Krolock sang to him outside the castle. So if you could work in some of that, that would be fantastic.

-This next one is going with the original ending for the musical, and not the altered one in later performances, when Abronsius notices and starts calling out for Alfred, wandering away into the night as Krolock laughs. In the original, Abronsius sings and keeps taking notes in his journal, leaving the stage in one direction as Alfred and Sarah run away via a different route.

-I absolutely loved the Carpe Noctem portion of the musical. If you’re not totally familiar with it yet, it is Alfred’s nightmare, wherein Alfred is (eventually) the White Vampire and what is presumably Krolock is the Black Vampire. If you can manage anything of Alfred’s mental state in the midst of it all, when he’s turning or attacking Sarah, or joining Krolock, have fun with it.

What would Abronsius do if he noticed Alfred run off, and figured out he was a vampire now? What would he do if Alfred was just so hungry in his first rush of blood lust that he went for the nearest blood source: the villagers in the little area where Sarah and the Chagals lived? Does anything of the host survive, and does the Professor even care about his theories anymore in light of all this chaos? He thought he was triumphant, and that’s obviously dashed. Based on how he was behaving at the end of the version I watched on Youtube, Alfred was definitely going to be a vicious little thing.

I don’t know if the Professor would have gone back to the castle, but it would be intersting if he tried to rope Krolock into locating Alfred, just so it wouldn’t be a mess of the world being turned, using the reasoning of no humans equals no more blood supply for the vampires. It would be interesting if the Professor wasn’t as bumbling as he once was. As I saw mentioned on TV Tropes, Sarah did have to restrain Alfred in his first moments as a vampire, so he wouldn’t kill the unsuspecting Professor, in favor of presumably younger victims. I sort of want to see how devious he could be, and if he could lure the Professor into some kind of trap by making him think there’s something of the human Alfred that survives within him, even if there may not be anything. Or if there is, just not that much.

Pairings I’m fine with: Alfred/Herbert; Alfred/Magda. I’m not really into the pairing of Alfred/Sarah, given the circumstances of everything leading up to the end in the musical. I’m okay with it if they ended up just undead and monstrous friends. Friendships I’m comfortable with if it works in the story and if you feel like working in anyone that wasn’t nominated: Krolock and Alfred; Abronsius and Alfred; Abronsius and Rebecca Chagal; Alfred and Rebecca; Magda and Alfred; Magda and Herbert; Herbert and Alfred.

The first Alfred I ever watched on Youtube was Max Niemeyer from a Hamburg production, though his isn’t really my favorite performance. If you’re at all familiar with different versions and performances, two of the ones I preferred were Anton Zetterholm and Michael Heller. However, so many actors have played him that if you want him brunette or you want him curly with blonde hair, it really does not make a difference to me.

I love Professor Abronsius, even if he can be particularly oblivious about Alfred’s welfare and the entire situation. I believe I enjoyed the performance of Stefan Poslovski in the Hamburg production the most when it comes to him.

The first Krolock I ever watched (on Youtube, that previously mentioned production from Hamburg) was the Kevin Tarte version. However, I enjoyed the character more when portrayed by Drew Sarich, Ivan Ozhogin, and Jan Ammann. Favorite versions of Herbert: Kirill Gordeev and Máté Kamarás.

You can find a performance from Berlin with Anton Zetterholm as Alfred, in its entirety, here. It’s in German with English subtitles. Here, you’ll find the Hamburg production, with English subtitles; that is the one with Max Niemeyer as Alfred and Kevin Tarte as Krolock.

I halfway want to see a crossover between the Graz Dracula musical and Tanz Der Vampire develop in a fanfic, if only for Jonathan running into Krolock after getting to the wrong Transylvanian castle, or him just ending up there for whatever reason after the events of Dracula, and roping Van Helsing into aiding him-—however, I doubt it’s really in the same year. I do believe Tanz Der Vampire is somewhere in the early 1800’s, while of course Dracula is a few decades later. If you could figure out a way to implement such a crossover, I would love it. It’s not a must.

Comments

[strange_complex]

You've got all sorts of amazing prompts here! I won't be doing Yuletide, but I enjoyed reading your ideas and I hope someone picks them up.