Beth Winter

In between the thesis thing (which is slowly gaining momentum - I might actually get 10 pages done today), I'm browsing through YouTube, mostly looking at musical stuff, but not exclusively. My list of favourites is available here, but since it's cluttered, here are a few particularly worth watching:

A kickass and very well-vidded Van Helsing vid - from a now sadly defunct site, which is a pity, because I'd love to send feedback to the vidder.

La Fête des Fous - Bruno Pelletier in the musical Notre Dame de Paris. I like the way he moves.

Dracula - Nous sommes ce que nous sommes - worth watching, if only for Bruno Pelletier's outfit and makeup. My inner Draculea just about had a heart attack.

Gerard Butler auditioning for Dracula 2000 - OMG the hair is going to EET ME!

Elizabeth the musical, Japanese trailer - such pretty costumes, and the Death in this one is going to be von Krolock :D

John Owen-Jones, The Music of the Night - hands down my favourite Phantom. He has almost the exact same voice as Lukasz Dziedzic, too.

Tanz der Vampire - Unstillbare Gier. No words, none. If only Steve hadn't killed himself.

Look! fyrie drew brilliant fanart for my Krolock and Lestat fic! Go and marvel and tell her how good she is!

And since I'm almost finished with the fake-title meme (and the two bits that are yet to be written will get their own post), here are the best bits from that and the blather-about-characters meme, the ones I want to put on my site sometime:

( The Dark River: Obi-Wan and Dooku )

( Von Krolock and Dracula )

( Sirius meta )

( Dream and Thessaly, from The Sandman )


In other news, I managed somehow to sign up for a multi-fandom Dracula essay for idol_reflection. Due May 3rd, and for source material I'll probably use Prince of Many Faces and Dracula: The Dark Prince for historical Vlad, Bram Stoker, Murnau's Nosferatu if I can get it (Herzog's if I can't), Dracula 2000 as an example of a BAD vampire movie, Van Helsing and The Historian. Anything else you think I should include in my ravings on why Dracula freaking rocks?

Fandom: Van Helsing, brief mention of Tanz der Vampire
Length: 900+ words
Rating: PG
Summary: ariss_tenoh is evil. Gabriel wants to sue for moral damages. Unashamed seasonal crackfic.
Disclaimer: None of the characters are mine. Though I wouldn't mind having Von Krolock :D


DECK THE HALLS, for ariss_tenoh


( Dracula does Christmas )

fyrie asked me for this a long time ago. I managed to use all elements of her challenge. 900 words.


TRANSFORMATION OF LEGEND
Being a much-delayed gift or handsel for the lady fyrie, with the author's apologies

( It all starts with a letter )

For ariss_tenoh, who asked for "A post-movie Gabriel/Dracula fic? With some kind of semi-happy ending." This goes off the end of Quintile: "Folk tales would have it that the soul took three days to leave, and then the dead could come back as a vampire, a shadow of its human self."


NOVEM (THREE BY THREE BY THREE)

It took Dracula three nights to rise. Three nights to regain his strength. And three nights to find the hunter again.

Before the ninth dawn, his Gabriel stood at the shore of the Adriatic. The dim light woke blue and grey traces in the dark waters. The rocks of the coastline were uneven and sharp, forcing Dracula to pay attention to each step as he approached the other.

Gabriel kept his eyes on the west, imagining perhaps the faded grandeur that was Rome, on the far side of the sea. Dracula knew there were a hundred things he could say, from hurtful barbs to simple questions on memories lost, but he did not want to be the one to break the silence.

"Then the tales were true." Gabriel's voice was tight, brittle. "About vampires rising-"

"Yes." Dracula let his hand rest on Gabriel's shoulder.

Gabriel's hand covered his. The ring was a darker shadow in the pre-dawn mist. "Don't make me kill you again."

"If you do it three times, it becomes truth."

---

In other news: I'm battling the urge to write The Blind Dance, a Star Wars inter-trilogy detective novella. If I did write it, it would be half Vader's POV, half the POV of a wishy-washy idealistic young woman who only wants to do her dancing shtick, but is forced to serve as Vader's local expert during an investigation. Daine Jir (curse you, murasaki99 and your brilliant writing ways :P) and Lorth Needa would also be making an appearance. Somebody stop me, please?

I finally managed to bully my beta into giving this a once-over, so here it is. Five glimpses from the long history of Gabriel Van Helsing and Count Dracula.

Fandom: Van Helsing
Rating: PG
Pairing: shades of Gabriel+Dracula

Dedicated to rackhamrose, for planting the seeds of this story.

A note of introduction: With the Valerious heritage, the screenwriters of Van Helsing deprived Vlad Draculya of all his real-world history - he couldn't be Prince if his father were still alive to curse him after his death. To have the best of both worlds, let us assume Dracula is the sister-son of the founder of the Valerious family instead of his son, and the old Dragon remains Dracula's father.


( Quintile (Five of Pentacles) )

Right. I saw Van Helsing today.

Overall? The plot could be used as a sieve, but the acting, visuals and music are worth it.

( Details and spoilers )

Other news: Fingon's angsting, Maedhros' playing pachinko, Thranduil has a ko-gyaru girlfriend.