The Time For Reveals Has Come

[calliopes_pen]

Wrap The Cloak Of Night Around His Shoulders (58042 words) by calliopes_pen
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dracula (TV 1968)
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Mina Harker/John Seward, Count Dracula/Jonathan Harker
Characters: John Seward, Mina Harker, Jonathan Harker, Lucy Weston, Count Dracula, Abraham Van Helsing
Additional Tags: When Vampires Attack, Exorcisms, Hypnotism, Possession, Bats, Temptation, Friendship, Mind Control, Jonathan runs away with Dracula, Van Helsing is clever, Mina protects Lucy, Seward needs a blood transfusion and blanket right about now, There's something in the basement, Vampire Bites, Hurt/Comfort, Character Turned Into Vampire, Elements of Lucy/Mina, staking, Vampirism Causes Irreconcilable Differences, Suspense, Nightmares, Fog, Journey to the Castle, Happy Ending, Blood Drinking, Adventure, Alternate Universe
Summary:

What if Seward and Van Helsing told Mina about the danger Lucy was in sooner? What if Lucy wasn’t bitten a final time that night, because Mina was in the house? This gives them a reprieve. Everything changes for the better and for the worse. Each takes a more active role in their fate as they fight to keep Dracula away from Lucy, and the darkness closes in around them.

Yes, thisbluespirit. I guessed you may have written at least one (The Poison Tree) of the stories I received, but I didn’t guess that it was both of them. So thank you so much.

This story clocked in at a whopping 114 pages in Microsoft Word, for a grand total (no matter what Ao3 says—it might register the scene breaks) of 57,748 words. This is, by far, the longest thing I have ever written. The outline alone was 10 pages. I printed it, so I could have access to it at all times that I was away from the computer. I did not print the story, but I’m still genuinely amused that you did.*

I should have made it into separate chapters, but I didn’t even think of it at the time after all the edits were completed. Sorry about that. I do see in retrospect where a few chapter breaks could be, as one scene in particular was nearly 10,000 words.

I really must thank you, by the way, specifically for this post. The Picspam came in handy. So did the gif set in another post where you showed Seward fainting, and these promo shots in color. I might have used the fainting gifs for reference.

I can’t post the story to Livejournal, just like I couldn’t post it there last year, since it exceeds the word count limit. This year, I’m almost certain that I cannot post it to Dreamwidth, either, for that very reason. So…if someone ever feels the desire to comment on the story, you can do so in this post, or the cross-post on LJ, or just go to Ao3 by way of the link in this post if one happens to have an account there.

*Tomorrow or the next day, I plan another post about trivia from the writing process. I’ll try to make notes of all the random references sprinkled throughout the story that I alluded to in my author’s notes. There are a couple extra deleted moments that you can decide if you do or do not wish to see after they're described.

Edit: Or I could (and did) just post it today, since I gathered everything sooner than expected.

Comments

[thisbluespirit]

Ha, oh dear, I'm a little embarrassed about the picspam - I was being very silly and flippant in it & I've grown more sensible as a viewer since. Although it's a fairly accurate representation of my first very ill and foggy reaction to this black and white thing with everyone being very entertaining in it. But I'm glad some of them were useful. The colour pics are really kind of frustrating, because it's clear that the costume designer did a particularly excellent job on it. I do wish there were more shots on the disc, because there must have been at the time. I'd love to see more detail on Lucy's evening dresses and Mina's outfits. And I watched it four times while writing it (although the last two were mainly to catch a few specific points - the disc doesn't have subtitles, so working out things like which housekeeper is which and exactly what their names and things took a few times), and I, er, don't think I'd ever watched it when I wasn't in a brain-fog. It's a lot better when you have a brain, I have to say, and I still don't get that contemporary reviewer who thought it was as dull as a party political broadcast. (I've seen far duller 60s TV! The man had clearly never sat through some episodes of Doctor Who, for a start!)

I knew I wasn't exactly at my most anonynous - I mean, we pretty much are Dracula 1968 fandom between us - the treat was my only way to try and make you wonder which was me. And, ha, I failed. I'm not surprised. And don't worry about the chapters; once I had it printed out, I could see it just flowed as one big thing, and I still have problems reading a lot online, so I'd have printed it out anyway, really. (68 pages, double-sided, Georgia 9; it looks v nice, btw!) But I did sit there with my Mum's unfamiliar netbook going, ... oh wait... how do you navigate a thing this long? LOL. (If I had an e-reader, I wouldn't need to, but I don't think I'm in immediate danger of getting too many gift fics of that length.) Mine was the longest thing I've written since I've been ill and, lol, you dwarfed me by 30,000 words!

Anyway, thank you! I look forward to reading it again. And you can be fairly sure that I will naturally want to see deleted scenes. Yours was meant to have a bonus deleted scene, but it all wound up going in the fic. :-)

[calliopes_pen]

I had so many viewings, because if it's Yuletide I seem to feel it's a requirement to do nothing but watch the source material or something relating to it. I even went so far as to burn it to a DVD-R and keep that in my purse, since I didn't have access to the official release (it's not Region 1) and might need it elsewhere.

There are a few other promo shots I've seen of the three vampire women that I've spotted elsewhere, but I'm not sure where at the moment. None are as clear as your screenshot.

I might have transcribed the entirety of the scene between undead Lucy and Mina in the graveyard. Otherwise, I've never spotted a transcript for this floating around online.

(So many trees must have died because of us. Me, for at least 15 notepads that I went through before I stopped counting.)

It's a lot better when you have a brain, I have to say, and I still don't get that contemporary reviewer who thought it was as dull as a party political broadcast. (I've seen far duller 60s TV! The man had clearly never sat through some episodes of Doctor Who, for a start!)

I saw that review, too, and he probably would have even more disgusted had Denholm provided the entirety of the "blood of Atilla flows in these veins!" speech. I liked it. (and laughed when they kept fading in and out to different angles--upon my first viewing a while back, I believed that he was going at the speech for hours, but no)

Yeah, definitely some dull ones in the early years, from the ones I've watched.

I'm reasonably certain that before I started piecing it together and deleting from it what was done, the document where I kept all the bits of scenes and notes was well over 100 pages.

[thisbluespirit]

Heh, that's true dedication! Although, I suppose I had already watched it a couple of times this year when I was really ill, and then all the rewatching of clips to get the gifs - and I helpfully had another TV show to watch and give me a break while still keeping me in period!

I might have transcribed the entirety of the scene between undead Lucy and Mina in the graveyard. Otherwise, I've never spotted a transcript for this floating around online.

No, it's rare to find stuff like that for old telly! I worked out a reasonable timeline for it (because I was a little puzzled at first as to exactly when in the year it was taking place), but I don't think I have the notes. :-D

I think I got all the shots off the M&I gallery for Dracula, but I'll have to check. I didn't put two of them up on tumblr, though, and, yes, one of them is of the three Brides (showing some really nice set-work, too); the other one of Denholm Elliott and Susan George on location. I don't know why I didn't add them at the time, but I didn't!

[calliopes_pen]

That's definitely the shot with the brides I was thinking of, yes--found that one via a Google search after a bit. I agree--great set work, and a pity they couldn't show more of it in the flashback. Granted, it was probably too expensive.

When I needed a time out, I switched to DVD's of Dark Shadows (which also has a sad little bat on a string) and quite a few other adaptations of Dracula. (And discovered one novel, called Dracula's Demeter, showing everything that happened to the crew of the doomed ship before Dracula made it to the shores of Whitby.)

[thisbluespirit]

There must surely have been more at the time - it seems very weird not to have a shot of either Corin Redgrave or Suzanne Neve. But that's all that's on the disc! Still, they're nice little glimpses into some of the work that went into it that doesn't show up so well on b&w videotape.

Oh, well, you were well-covered as well. :-)

[lynndyre]

That is an amazing wordcount! Does it work if one only knows book canon, or should I be sure to watch the 1968 movie first? The picspam and Seward fainting look intriguing.

[calliopes_pen]

With the film, the fanfic is sort of branching off at a critical moment for them. It's only an hour and twenty minutes if you'd rather watch the upload of that on Youtube prior to reading the story. I tried to give enough information that if someone's going in blind, they might still be able to follow it.

There's a little bit of a difference from the book, as Renfield and Jonathan's characterizations were merged for the film (and as a result, Corin Redgrave was having the time of his life, and is a delight to watch and write). Quincey and Arthur aren't in it; Seward was engaged to Lucy. (And assorted other things happen in the film, which I don't want to spoil for you if you watch.)

[lynndyre]

Cool! Thank you for the link- I don't know when, but I'll check it out. :)