thevagabondexpress

So it looks like the common understanding of Mina Murray is that she is thin and has brown hair and brown eyes. In RE:Dracula she has a Black voice actor so I've also been seeing art on Tumblr where Mina herself is Black. It looks like there was at least one, maybe two though where she's blonde. For the sake of this fic I'm choosing to have Mina look like Charlotte Branwell from The Infernal Devices because I think that really fits the vibe.

I've also made an executive decision to make Johnathan Harker a) short and b) blond because I think it better suits his character. Hollywood always has him be dark haired and dark eyed but I don't remember any existing visual description of him in the books other than that after he escapes the castle his hair goes white in the fever, and I feel like with his whole "God's favorite sacrificial closeted transfem gothic heroine" vibe in the first part of the book it works better to have him be fair and delicate and "Edith from Crimson Peak" looking.

Speaking of visual descriptions, I'm using three different castles as inspiration for Castle Draculesti in this fic. One is Bran Castle, obviously: this is the place that inspired Bram Stoker in the first place. I am also using Poenari Castle aka Poienari Castle, which was the real residence of the actual Vlad the Impaler. Also on my list is of inspirations for Castle Draculesti is Houska, a thirteenth century black site commonly referred to as the Castle that guards the gates to hell, though most likely it was built as a kennel for starved bears or dogs to be unleashed on attacking forces.

Poenari is little more than a ruin, but I'm using its geographic location and its cliffside surroundings where access to the castle demands the climbing of 1,480 stairs. All three castles were stone, and Castle Draculesti most takes Bran's aesthetic shape, with red tiled turrets and a stuccoed, half-timbered interior, but it's structurally most like Houska: the defenses are on the inside, intended to keep both Dracula, his meals, and his three housemates in, rather than keep invaders out.

Speaking of Dracula's housemates: they're never referred to as his brides in the primary text; that comes later. However, I think it's kind of weird that he'd just keep three random women in his house for no reason, and also two out of the three are described as looking like the Count, with the same high forehead, dark eyes, and strong nose. Hence, the three women in the castle in this fic are Dracula's daughters rather than his brides. As you can imagine, getting their inheritance swept out from under them by some guy that doesn't even want it hasn't gone over well.