Renfield - Tumblr Posts
Bite Me
A/N: I have no fucking clue what to title this, it's just Renfield x Reader cause i just watched it and brain went brrrr. Also such a funny movie, 10/10 recommend if gore/violence doesn’t bother you cause Dracula and shit. so many tags TT
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Sitting in Mulates with a cup of coffee and your laptop, you sighed. Robert was supposed to have met up with you over an hour ago. It wasn’t uncommon for him to vanish for hours upon hours at a time only to show up looking ruffled and frantic as he panted for breath clearly having ran from wherever he was. But this was pushing a new record, the waitress giving you a knowing look as you popped your back and cracked your neck.
“Just the bill please, thanks.”, you sighed once more as the waitress walked off for your bill.
The door slamming open made you jump as you turned to look at what the disturbance was, Renfield sprinting through the tables to reach your side with his usual messy hair. He gathered you into a tight hug as you huffed at him.
“You almost made a new record for how late you are for dates, Renny.”
The nickname made him smile sheepishly as he met your annoyed gaze, your own softening at his genuine guilt. He nodded and pulled you to the door as you frantically dropped the cash onto the table you were sat at.
“I know, I know. I am sorry for making you wait, Y/N. I attended that meeting last minute.”
You hummed in thought and let him drag you to a drab and downright sketchy studio apartment building a little more than halfway across town. The sign blinked at you with its last letters as you stumbled up the stairs, Renfields smile growing as you neared an apartment on the corner of the floor. Birds chirped their goodbyes as you walked into the air conditioned space with yet another sigh, your clammy hand slipping from Roberts as you toured the small and obviously recently cleaned area. The bright orange, green and pink trimmed walls hurt your eyes before you got used to it, the motivational posters stuck all over the walls making you smile at Renfield as he gave you a vibrant one in return.
“Renny it looks great. I thought you were staying with your grandmother though? Will she be okay on her own?”
Robert nodded and wrapped his arms around your waist, his bright yellow and orange jacket falling like a blanket around you as he towered above your frame. A kiss landed on the top of your head as he chuckled.
“She will be quite alright. I have made sure she is settled in and comfortable to be on her own while I’m away.”
You nodded to him as you left his hold to wander the small space some more, your eyes roaming the posters and landing on a book that lay on the bedside-table.
“What in the- Renny! I thought you said you quit that job!”, you huffed at him in exasperation as he scratched the back of his neck.
“Well I was going to, but something came up and I didn’t have the chance. I’ll quit soon, I promise. It’s just complicated.”
“I know Renny but you have more power now, that asshole boss of yours isn’t here to stop you from sending in a letter of resignation.”
He shook his head as he shushed you, his arms wrapping around you again as he shook slightly against you. Your eyes closed as you relaxed in his hold, his breathing calming as yours did. Turning your head to admire his features, you smiled. He had this boyish charm about him with the aura of danger and desperation. It was so uniquely Renfield that you smiled brighter. He caught onto your smile as he looked down at you with a raised eyebrow, his finger booping your nose. Going cross-eyed involuntarily, you giggled at him.
“Renny why~! You know I go cross-eyed every time! It’s not fun.”, you pouted up at the laughing man as he ruffled your hair.
He acknowledged your statement with confirmation that yeah he did know, but his eyes stayed trained on your pouted lips as you blinked at him innocently. Quickly leaning down to capture your lips in a kiss, you let out a gasp as he pulled you even closer.
Getting lost in the kiss, neither of you noticed the door opening slowly as a polished black shoe stepped through the frame dramatically.
“Marvelous attire, very colourful.”, a voice droned from the door as you parted from the kiss to catch a glimpse of a pale man in a sparkly suit before Renfield pushed you into the adjoining room frantically, his eyes panicked and holding desperation as he shut the door on you.
The voice carried through the door as you pressed your ear against it in an attempt to hear if Robert was alright, “You look like the kind of boy who has to fight ‘em off!”
A wheeze laughed followed as Renfields hesitant laugh filtered through, making you tense against the door,
“So I suppose that’s a “no” for you bringing me my dinner tonight, hmmm?”
“A no? No.”, Roberts voice was clearly terrified of the idea behind saying no to whoever this sparkly pale dude was.
“Nooo?”, it was drawn out sarcastically and almost mockingly.
“No, not a no.”
“No not mm?”, the man drawled as he took an audible sip of something.
“Uhm...Yes. Big yes to dinner!”, you could hear the over-exaggerated enthusiasm behind Roberts voice as he struggled to please whoever that man was, “A feast. A full feast, Master. In fact, I’m so glad you’re here...”
You could hear pacing and clinking as he busied himself with one thing or another as he stalled for an excuse.
“I was actually on my way to see you!”, the clinking got more frantic.
“Oh you were on your waaaaay.”, the disappointment and judgement was clear in the drawl of the man’s voice.
“Yes but I had uhm, too many bodies.”
“Oh you-you have bodies hm?”, the mocking was at full force as Renfield stumbled through his sentences while your confusion grew rapidly.
“Too- too many!”, the clinking gained speed with his voice, “So many bodies that I couldn't carry them all! You should have seen it.”
He paced over to the door, mouthing a silent apology as he opened it to glance at you briefly to busy himself anxiously. A disbelieving “Mhm” meeting your ears.
“You see the problem is, my back has really been playing up! Anyway, the plan is to rent a U-Haul and that way I’ll be able to get all the bodies...”
His entire sentence was backed by even more sarcastic “Mhmm”’s as you peeked through a small crack in the door.
“You know what? It’s so silly but you don’t have to worry, um, and I-I won’t bother you my- my problems.”, Renfield's shrug and self pitying laugh made you furrow your eyebrows as you watched.
“No, no~”, the sparkly dressed man stood slowly as he spoke, “Please, tell me all about your problems.”
The ‘please’ was backed with a growl as Renfield stood with lowered shoulders, hoping to avoid whatever was coming his way as ‘problems’ was emphasised with hatred.
You burst from the room to stand next to Renfield as the pale man paused in his stride to eye you up and down as Robert pulled you close to hide you from view even as you peaked from around his arm to watch the man carefully.
“Tell me all about the gun-wielding criminals who came after you for killing their men because you were protecting so-called innocent people.”
The way he spoke his last two words was bone chilling as his clawed hand extended towards your lover with an almost threatening flick as his hand rested on his hip behind his back.
“I’m-I’m sorry.”, Renfield spoke softly and hesitantly, his arms pushing you back further as he shifted in place, “I’m sorry Master, I never meant to hurt you.”
“Hurt me?”, the eyebrow raises the man gave were almost comical if not for the promise of pain written in his jagged smile and dead eyes as he let out a wheezed chuckle, “Are you actually suggesting that anything you could do would hurt...me?!”
HIs voice raised as he threw the vase of flowers to the ground with a loud smash to match his raised voice as Renfield raised his hands to his hips in an attempt to non-verbally console the man as he stuttered through an apology.
“No. No no no no no no, Master, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean... I didn’t mean that.”
He was nearly cut off in his apology as he grabbed your hand for moral support while you watched the man comb his greasy hair back from his forehead with a disgusting smile.
“No, no. It’s alright- it’s alright. It’s alright.”
“Really-?”
“No, it’s, yeah.”, he finished combing his hair and held out a placating hand towards the two of you, “Let me explain something to you, okay?”
The ‘okay’ left an uneasy feeling in your stomach as he toned it like he was talking to a child. His hand pointing dramatically with each word,
“I was wrong about you. I should’ve realized what you were capable of when you were so eager to join me.”
His menacing steps forward caused Renfield to step back with a worried expression, your feet matching his movements as you backed away slowly from the approaching man.
“I don’t think I was eager,”, Robert looked down in contemplation with eyebrows furrowed further, “I think that you caught me at a low moment and you maybe manipulated me too.”
“No, no no, no, no...”
The sparkly dressed pale man furrowed his own eyebrows in confusion as Renfield continued on his explanation before his denial clashed with Roberts sentences.
“And you just caught me at a low moment, and used some of your power...”
“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no! I use my power for a lot of things, but I didn’t need to use it on you. You were a lawyer who wanted to get rich off a real-estate deal. You’re the one who used me!”
Renfield cowered slightly to the side to block you fully from the mans view as he continued his degrading.
“You used my power because you were a husk! An empty void that nothing can fill. The only thing that gave your life meaning was my power! The power you used to bring me victims while you pretended to be one yourself!”
His voice raised to a shout as you glanced up at Renfields face, his eyes full of tears as he listened. Roberts eyes closed with a shaky nod as he swallowed harshly, his hand squeezing yours tightly as the pale man sighed loudly.
“However, I am the real victim here! I am the one you swore to protect! And you...”, his breathing grew rough and loud as he glanced at you with narrowed eyes, seething with anger. “Abandoned ME!”
The clenched fists of the man made you tremble and grasp at the back of Renfields jacket tighter as he shook his head again, his voice soft and full of tears.
“No. That’s not true.”
The man leaned in with a mocking smirk, “Just like you abandoned your wife and your daughter.”
The smug look you caught on the mans face while he placed a clawed finger on his lips made you seethe. He was getting off on humiliating your lover and for what? Some kind of power trip he only got from Renfield? You tugged on Roberts jacket slightly as he looked down with more tears in his eyes.
“That’s not... I didn’t...I didn’t abandon them.”, he whimpered slightly through his sentence, grip getting tighter on your hand.
“Look into your own eyes, Renfield. You’re the monster, Renfield, not me.”
Robert shook his violently as he made eye contact fleetingly with the man, his sharp-topped finger pointing at him mockingly and almost proud,
“It’s you.”
“No. No.”, Renfields hands shook as he let go of yours to point back at the man, “That’s enough.”
Robert took slight steps around you, making sure you were still protected by his body even though the man's eyes scanned you up and down like he could see every memory you had. Renfield walked back to stand in front of you as the greasy haired man panted from his anger, his eyebrows furrowing in pure confusion as Robert held up the book in front of him. “How To Defend Yourself Against A Narcissist” held between the three of you in a defensive position.
“What?”, the pale man voiced his confusion over the book held in shaky hands as you grasped the back of Roberts jacket.
Renfield sighed and opened the book with shaking hands, the pages sticking together as he fought to open the book to a specific page, the other man’s confusion palpable as he leaned forward to see exactly what was happening.
“I will no longer tolerate abuse.”, Renfields shaky voice filled the confused silence as he stood straighter.
The man laughed hysterically, his back bending from the disbelief of what he heard and the strong laughter.
“Stop laughing.”, Renfield mumbled grumpily as he flicked through to another page, “I deserve love.”
Roberts “Master” raised an eyebrow at the statement, his eyes flickering towards you and back to Renfield as though connecting something in his head.
“I deserve happiness.” Robert was sure in his statement, his tears clearly subsiding as he spoke stronger only to be shut down again.
“You deserve only suffering!”
Renfield let out a shaky sigh as he flipped to a new page, taking slow steps back as you followed, “Uhm, I know being undead, it’s a painful existence, it is, and I empathize with your pain.”
He gestured lightly with an expression one could only consider as empathy. The man gestures back as he continues approaching the two of you, his disdain extremely clear on his face and his words.
“Oh please. Illuminate me. Let me learn from you. I will find everyone you have ever loved and I will drain them. I will reduce this...this...”
Renfield continued backing up with you, his body lowering in a cower, “S-Studio apartment?”
“Studio apartment until it’s ash!”
“Uh, uh...”, Roberts back hit your chest with a light thud as you got cornered easily, your hand finding his biceps as the pale guy kept approaching while you both looked around in realization of your positioning, “Affirmations. Affirmations.”
The man snarled down at you as you both shrunk closer to the ground in an effort to get away from the enclosed space and intimidating aura.
Renfields head snapped from the pages to look up at the man and back down again repeatedly, “Uh, I’m enough. Uhm, I deserve some happiness.”
His fingers trailed over the pages as he flipped them, “There is some other stuff I have to say...”
The frantic boys page flipping was interrupted by the man as he ripped the book from his shaking hands with a snarl, “Who put these ideas in your head?”
Renfield cowered further into you as he flipped the book around in his clawed hands, eyes finding the stamp of the church on the back of it. A light growl left his mouth between pointed teeth as he snarled down at you both, his hand reaching behind Robert to pull you from behind him easily. A gasp left you as he held you against his chest, his claw pressing against your chest as he stared down Renfield.
“Of course.”, he chucked the book at Renfields head as he covered it with his hands in fear as he stared at the ground. “The church.”
Renfield looked up in fear, meeting your terrified eyes as he shook in his spot, “Let her go, she’s not a church goer. She’s atheist! Perhaps even a little spiritual! She practices witchcraft in her spare time if she feels like it!”
A growl left him as his claw lowered and pierced through your stomach, your eyes widening in pain as blood trickled from the wound. Robert sat up in fear, his eyes pleading with the man as his cold eyes watched Renfields every move.
“Bring me my dinner by tomorrow or she won’t live to see it. Only I can awaken her now, act fast Renfield. You wanted to be the good guy so go ahead and play the good guy. You have until Midnight tomorrow or I’ll come back and finish her off.”
A gust of wind filled the apartment and you fell to the ground unconscious, your blood soaking into carpet as Renfield cradled your head carefully,
“I’ll be the hero just for you, Y/N. No matter what it takes.”
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A/N: I’m not very proud of the ending or the full thing in general, it was so much better in my head and a lot less repetitive and much more reader involved... kinda happy with it though. lemme know what you thought?
Danger Lurks
A/N: There's a significant lack (pretty much none) of Teddy Lobo x Reader from 2023 Renfield and since I'm fulfilling my own Renfield x Reader fics, I'm doing this for those hoomans who also wanted this but couldn't find it. (Such a good movie btw I've seen it like 4 times now) Nine google doc pages of this shit-
-Teddy Lobo x Reader
-Mentions of drugs, violence and the likes. Swearing. You're old enough to know what you can handle. This is your warning :) (also sui*ide :/.... it turned darker- sorry if you're triggered. this is your warning again)
TW TW TW TW TW TW TW
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Teddy Lobo. Yeah. Him. Your boyfriend. The one currently ranting about some guy who killed a bunch of his men in Mulates the previous night. A sigh left you as you sat and listened patiently. It wasn’t like you had meant to get involved with a crime family. It just… happened. On a Thursday. A couple years back. It wasn’t worth the mental effort to think on how you had met with each detail in place. So you settled for the simple thought of it all. You were working. He walked in, you smiled at him while everyone looked away. You kept eye contact.
You didn’t look scared, and you didn't know who he was. He took you out a couple times, wined and dined you. Took you places. Treated you right. And then after mind-blowing sex, you met his mother at the breakfast table as she plotted with her son on the next drug deal. There was no out at that point. Plus, Teddy was quite a nice guy… past the killing and cocaine and stuff. So, you stayed. Which landed you here as he continued in disbelief at what had happened to a good number of his men. It wasn’t easy to believe what he told you he saw, but you had to at least try to believe.
It was a lot easier when he walked up to your chair and landed a kiss on your lips with a pleading expression,
“You have to fucking believe me, Y/N. We’re looking for the fucker right now and when we get him, you’re coming. It’s time you get out there with me. You’ve been staying behind with mother for too long. I’m better with you at my side. You know this, lovely.”
You sighed again and nodded, hands brushing over the stubble on his jaw,
“I know, Teddy. I’m just worried. I don’t want to see you get hurt. Or anyone else. It’s just not my thing.”
He sighs in return and pulls you from your chair into a bear hug, his deep breathing calming you against his chest as you snuggled in. His hands stroked over your hair and you hummed while he let out a short chuckle at how cute you were.
“We’ll have the info by morning. I’ll wake you up an hour before we’re ready to go. There won't be many of us. I’ll keep you safe, lovely.”, his lips pressed against your head and you smiled into his chest, “Now go get some rest. I want you not to be groggy when we go get this dickhead. You’ll need to be alert.”
“Ok. Goodnight Teddy.”
“Goodnight lovely.”
He spun you out of his arms towards the stairs. You giggled and walked up them to the left towards your now shared room with Teddy. You could feel his gaze on you as you walked above him past the railings blocking the fairly large fall. Looking back at him, you smiled. He smiled back with love in his gaze. You felt it too. The love. You loved him. Unfortunately for you, Teddy felt a nagging in the back of his head about the upcoming events. And he didn’t like it one bit.
—--
The next morning you woke to an empty bed. It was normal, but it felt wrong today. The day just felt wrong. It made your eyes water as Teddy walked into the room looking down at a tablet as he grabbed a suit jacket from the closet.
“Teddy?”
He visibly jumped at your voice, his eyes searching you out immediately and noting the tears in your eyes. His panic was next. He hated it when you cried. All he wanted was for you to be happy around him and for you to be crying so openly, it was new. Off putting even. Especially for Teddy.
“Love? What’s wrong? Are you okay? Did you get hurt? Tell me what’s wrong.”
He rushed to the bed and held your trembling hands in his steady large ones as you looked at him sadly. Just shaking your head, you took your hands from his as he scanned you constantly for any visible wound.
“N-No I’m…”, your voice cracked and you took a steadying breath, holding Teddy’s hands again to calm him as well as yourself, “I’m okay. Just… today feels wrong. Maybe it’s just one of those days but something feels different and I’m scared. What if the feeling is right, Teddy? I don’t want anything to happen to you… to us… to anyone.”
His grip tightened on your hands as you spoke, his eyes softening further as he watched the tears make a path down your flushed face. You sighed shakily and watched him watch you. It was simple. But it calms you down enough to take a deep breath, loosen your hold on his poor hands and kiss him gently. The kiss was… as it always is, wonderful. His lips cushioned yours in the best way that you never thought possible before kissing Teddy Lobo. It took over the fear as his tongue swiped over your bottom lip, a small groan leaving him as you parted from the kiss.
“No no, come back. You should stay with me like that forever.”, he falls back onto the bed dramatically, his hand on his forehead as you giggle. “It’s heaven on earth. You can’t take that from me!”
You laugh loudly as you crawl on top of him, his hands resting on your hips as you place kisses around his face, “We have somewhere to be, don’t we? Maybe later, pony boy.”
You wheeze at the confused and nearly offended look on his face as you scramble from the bed, gathering your most Lobo coded outfit from the closet to rush into the ensuite bathroom and change before Teddy could fully recover and get you back with many, many tickles. His huffs reached your ears from the other side of the door as you tugged on the red leather jacket you had gotten for your birthday from Teddy a year back when he first asked you to go public with him. Properly.
Finishing the outfit with a spray of your favourite perfume, you step back into the bedroom to see Teddy waiting for you on the bed, his eyes trained on you immediately. A whistle filled the room as he clapped you into the room, his applause guiding your steps subconsciously. Placing your hands on his shoulders when you reached him, you played with hair at the nape of his neck, his smirk making you smile shyly as he looked you up and down a few times.
“Bout fucking time I see you wear this for me. Let’s make it count, lovely. Mother sent word for us to head down. The boys are ready. We have his location.”
You nodded with a sigh and pecked his lips, stepping towards the door and shaking off your hands. You were nervous. Sure you felt a little better but that feeling, that bad one, was still present and somehow got stronger as you loaded into the van with Teddy and a few of the Lobo troops. The drive was longer than you thought but also shorter than a trip to the costco somehow. You forgot to question it all as you pulled up to the very clearly abandoned hospital, pieces of the roof hanging off, boarded windows, broken windows, graffiti. It all screamed sketchy and abandoned. But Teddy was determined. So when he saw your hesitance standing in front of the tall building, he sighed and pulled you into his side with a gentle kiss to the top of your head.
“Just stay close. I’ve got you.”
You nodded not trusting your voice the moment you stepped into the building. The air was suffocating. Heavy. Musty. Definitely smelled like a place many people died in. That feeling you had increased ten-fold as you continued down the falling hallway, the roof and pipes clanging together and causing a few of the men to hit their heads on the way. Off-handed comments were made along the walk to find something, anything that indicated life, that the place must be haunted. The men made the typical ghost noises as they walked before stopping abruptly in what you assumed to be the reception or waiting room. It was open, large. Echoey. And you hated it more than the man who thought it would be funny to scare you into Teddy’s strong arms. You stayed away from that man for the rest of the walk. But now, standing in the entryway with Teddy as he spewed profanities, you wanted all the knowledge you were surrounded by capable people.
Glancing around and purposefully avoiding the hundreds of suspended blood bags, you counted each of the men with growing relief that there was no one else. You looked up at Teddy with worried eyes, his own angry ones softening at your fear. HIs large hand rubbed comforting circles into your back as he led you forward to search for this Renfield guy. He called out to his men once you reached a very rank smelling room, the flies making you cringe away from the room while Teddy looked inside.
“Ronnie, call my fucking mom. RIGHT NOW.”
His voice echoed as he shielded your eyes, walking back into the open space, his mom’s voice sounding from a discarded phone that you couldn’t see until Teddy dropped his hand from your eyes to pick it up and freak out. You glanced around again, the feeling back in stronger waves as Teddy grabbed your hand again, your own trembling in his grasp as he talked with his mom before a whooshing met your ears and you both glanced around in panic.
“Teddy- I don’t like this… Let’s just go.”, your frantic eyes met his and he frowned at the pure fear in your eyes before he glanced at something over your shoulder and froze. “Please, I don’t want to be here anymore. Can we find this Renfield guy another day? Baby...?”
Your pleading fell on deaf ears as he stared over your shoulder with a rapidly paling face. You froze in turn, hearing a dark chuckle over your shoulder. Your first instinct was to step further into Teddy, his arms wrapping around you as you slowly turned in his hold to see what caused him that much fear. Meeting the eyes of the man, you gasped. His lips curled in a smile, his pointed teeth clenched together as he watched you. You let out a shaky breath and tugged at Teddy’s arms to tell him to get you the fuck out of there. Teddy being Teddy guided you closer instead, your body falling further back into his solid frame as you were now at least a foot away from the strange man in a bedazzled suit blazer.
Teddy’s hand reached out holding his phone, pure confidence on his face until the man took the gap in security to dart a hand out with inhuman speed and grab you from Teddy’s hold, pulling you into his chest with a hand on your neck. You whimpered at his hold, eyes wide as you stared at Teddy, who waved his hands in panic, repeating “Woah” in an attempt at subduing the hold this man had on you.
“Look, we don’t want any trouble-”
“Who are you? You were sent by the church?”, his last word was dragged out with disgust and contempt.
“I’m a criminal! My organization is all about evil! We’re evil, okay?!”
“Why are you here?!”, the pale man growled as he jerked you back against him.
“We’re looking for this guy! I’m tryna find this guy! He meddled in our business and killed a bunch of our guys tryna save a bunch of innocent people.”
The phone held out in front of you showed the man, Renfield. The man holding you growled and tightened his hold on your neck, your own hands grasping at his pale appendage as you gasped at the increased pressure. You didn’t move more than that, too afraid of the claw-like nails on the man's hand to move more than you already dared. Teddy watched you carefully as the man laughed maniacally. The panic in Teddy was clear as he took an almost threatening step forward.
“Do you know who I am?! Who she is?!”
The guy holding you in a death grip tilted his head in confusion, a nearly mocking “Hmm?”, vibrating your back with his voice.
“I’m Teddy fucking Lobo and that’s my girlfriend!”
The strange man chuckled and lifted you above him after turning you to face him, his eyes meeting your widened ones as your legs kicked in the air, the lack of ground frightening you enough to struggle in his hold despite the claws so close to your neck.
“I am Count Dracula.”, the man's smile was back as he somehow lifted you higher, your face turning slightly red as you shook your head.
“You win!”, Teddy shouted as he watched you turn your head to look down at him, the desperation in his eyes so clear to you as the man who claimed he was Dracula brought you down enough to make eye contact with you directly.
“He is my servant.”, Dracula growled as you trembled in his hand, lips parted to take in more air than you could through your nose. Dracula’s eyes focused on the phone again, Teddy’s other hand shaking by his side.
“He doesn’t seem to be serving you very well.”, Teddy chuckled hesitantly as you glared back at him the best you could.
Dracula’s clawed hand set you on the ground, your back to his chest in a split second as Teddy stepped forward again. Your hands shook as you gripped the arm around your neck again, Dracula’s maniacal, almost hysterical laugh filling your head as you stared down Teddy with a mounting anger. The man's free hand shot out to grab the phone, the looped video of Renfield being stopped as the phone was crushed in his hand like it was nothing more than a piece of paper. You winced, pushing yourself against Dracula in fear before you realized and tried to move forwards, out of his harsh hold. Your attempt failed as Dracula grabbed you again and held you still against him forcefully, your forearm exposed as he twisted your arm around under his hold to drag a claw down the vein. You whimpered and shook, Teddy panicking further and reaching out to you with his shaking hands.
“Wait, no, no, no, no!”
“This crime family of yours, would it enjoy witnessing the beheading of it’s enemies and the impalement of all who oppose it?”, Dracula's claw traced up and down the vein in your arm, your hand shaking violently at the base of it.
One cut into it lengthwise and you would bleed out in 2 hours max. A horizontal cut would take multiple and even deeper ones, he would have to cut your vein clean in half to get you dead in that same time frame. It was still a frightening situation, having experienced his strength. The blood around his mouth and dripping down his chin didn’t help your fear.
“That's like- that’s like our w-whole thing, man.”, Teddy’s voice trembled as he tried to get you free from the man's hold without causing a fight or pain to you.
“And can the family raise me soldiers?”, Draculas’ tone was curious now, his claw stilling just above your wrist.
“We can… I can make a couple calls, yeah.”, Teddy almost had a smile on his face now from the turn the whole situation took.
“Whatever pain Renfield caused you, I will return 10, 000 fold.”, he said in a rumble, his claw returning to its original path with a small detour of your neck. “I will unleash an army of death whilst warming my skin next to mountains of burning corpses.”
The tone of his voice turned whimsical, like he was day-dreaming of the scenario. Teddy watched in concern and growing excitement that this guy seemed to want to hurt this Renfield guy as much as the Lobo’s.
“How does that sound to you?”, Dracula finished his speech while turning his fanged smile into your neck, his tongue tracing over your pulse point while he made eye contact with your lover.
Teddy took a steadying breath and released it with a groaned sigh, “It sounds… like you gotta meet my mom.”
You groaned as Dracula burst out laughing a few seconds later. Teddy laughed quietly with him, his eyes focused on you the whole time while you trembled. Dracula’s pure evil laughter got louder and Teddy nearly retreated in fear as he laughed a little more openly, concern growing at the rate the laughter from the other man was.
“Are you happy or are you gonna fuck us up?”, Teddy’s smile died as he spoke, Dracula laughing still.
His claw made a small cut on your arm as he reached out to Teddy who screamed as his laughter turned into an almost screamed laugh, Teddy’s scream turning into slight laughter as Dracula continued laughing with a hand now on your boyfriend's shoulder. You hissed at the residual sting, sliding from Dracula’s body to Teddy’s side as they laughed continuously until Dracula went stock still. His eyes were staring you down as you hid behind Teddy. You froze your tugging at Teddy’s sleeve in response, his eyes flashing with something before he ended up behind you both, hand trailing over your shoulder before he spun you and grabbed the arm he had sliced. You froze further somehow as he gazed into your eyes with an intensity while Teddy watched in disbelief as his tongue snaked out of his mouth to lick the small trail of blood from your arm.
“Can you not do that, man? She’s still my girl. You’re scaring her.”
Dracula met Teddy’s eyes with a growl as he dropped your arm, stepping back with a new expression of politeness. Almost like he had been conveniently forgetting that you were in a relationship with the same man who screamed moments before at a hand movement. He knew what he was doing though, he had too. He seemed too self aware to not know exactly what he was doing as he eye-fucked you while you cowered into your lovers body again.
“My apologies.”, He spoke with reverence that you could tell was a cover, but Teddy accepted it with a simple nod, leading you around the guy with a hand on your back and shoulder.
“We’ll be back in a few moments, we need to gather some more men to bring you to my mom.”
Dracula nodded and watched you go as you looked back at him one last time, hand rubbing over the small laceration he had made on your delicate skin.
—---
It was days later when this Renfield guy burst through the doors, Teddy’s mom standing beside you, her son on your other side, his hands crossed over his chest.
“Must be nice not having to be invited in.”
You blocked out the conversation from there, watching as the officer’s eyes scanned you with blatant interest, the conversation clearly shifting towards you as everyone looked your way.
“She’s merely a bystander. No harm has to come to her.”
Teddy’s voice had rung across the front room clearly, the two on the ground floor looking at you with increased interest as you shuffled behind Teddy to hide yourself from their searching gazes. Tugging at your newly acquired fiance's sleeve, you mumbled in his ear that you didn’t want to be out front with him, requesting that you go into the back with his mother. He refused, insisting that he could keep you safer while you were with him. You agreed reluctantly and grasped him by the waist as the conversation continued. You felt a pair of eyes on you the entire time but shrugged it off as a few men jumped the railing with increasing dramatics to fight this Renfield guy who now shared powers with a handful of the Lobo men.
The fight went quickly, Teddy realizing quickly that he may be better off sitting behind the scenes with his mother. You both jogged to the door before you heard a voice calling out to you both. Officer Quincy. You shook your head as you both turned, Teddy pulling his gold pistols from his pants in a threat. Hands reaching up to pull his arms down, you stepped in front of him to stop him. Muttering at him, you sighed. He was stubborn, you knew that but for him to be this stubborn at that particular moment irked you. So you reacted. Grabbing his guns from his hands, you saw his eyes narrow at you. Before you could think on it more, you turned to the railing and leapt over the edge, running for the door as he called after you in urgency.
Nothing stopped you as you booked it for the doors, Renfield’s carnage doing nothing to stop you as you nearly made it to the door before Teddy reached you. His hands grasped your arms as you panicked, hands trembling as his golden eyes looked into your own coloured ones. Dropping the guns, you burst into tears, hiding your face in his chest as his hands rubbed up and down your back to calm you.
“Hey, hey. Look, it’ll be okay. I promise. Let’s get you upstairs to mother and we’ll see each other soon, I promise. I won’t let you get hurt.”
You sighed, wiping your tears with shaky hands as he picked you up, carrying you through everything calmly, the destruction avoiding you narrowly as Renfield downed the last man. You tapped Teddy’s shoulder frantically as you noticed his advance, the cop approaching from the opposite direction as your tapping got more panicked. Teddy noticed quickly, his hands gripping you tighter despite setting you on the ground.
Being exposed more for any attack, you stood still with your back pressed against the chest that had been pressed against yours the night before. The officer quickly approached, Teddy acting quickly and snorting the centipede that had been crawling up and down his arm without you noticing. You cringed away from the sight, Teddy’s eyes flashing gold again as he gently pushed you to the side before he lunged at the officer. That left you completely exposed.
Renfield took advantage of the situation and pulled you into his hold like his master had done a night or so before. In a few moments, Renfield had you held on the balcony above, arm crossed over your throat as Teddy and the officer fought. It didn’t take long for Teddy to notice, his distraction enough for the officer to pull the shotgun on him and shoot him down. You gasped and fought the hold on you, your eyes stuck on your lover’s as he fell to his knees, bloodied wounds decorating his tattooed chest while you watched, unable to do anything but cry. Renfield took pity on you and let you go, your fist meeting his face before you raced past the murderer of your fiance to the man himself.
“Teddy! No, no, no no no nonono. You can’t leave me! We were gonna be together forever…”
His pained chuckle met your ears as tears fell from your pained eyes.
“Don’t you know who I am? I’m Teddy fucking Lobo and I’ll always be with you, lovely.”
Your head shook as you pressed frantically on his wounds, eyes scanning his face continuously as he just watched you, a single tear tracking down his face and meeting the small puddle of yours on the floor beneath him. You chuckled roughly, of course he would say that while dying. Footsteps drew your attention momentarily, the culprits sprinting to get to Dracula while you sat with the love of your life and talked him into the afterlife. You’d meet him there one day. You just hoped it would be sooner… seeing his pistols out of the corner of your eye, you nodded. You’d be with him soon.
As you held his pistol to your head, you laughed in pain,
“Teddy fucking Lobo... I’ll see you soon, baby.”
-------
A/N: oh man im sorry it got dark :/ if i missed any words im so sorry but hopefully it made some sense. kinda my own take with a few direct quotes from scenes.
can't believe hollywood really pulled a renfield centered dracula modern!au and called it a film
Gasp, is Dracula a big thing on tumblr, I fucking love Dracula
Wait a minute, they used Na Na Na in Renfield, a vampire movie... Which presumably means that they paid My Chemical Romance for use of that song... Which means....
They finally did it. MCR got their vampire money!
How it started How it's going
Updated my Van “Hell”sing and Renfield designs earlier while drawing with my friend ette. We made an AU. He now works for the Devil
Now that today's entry closes the book on Renfield, I'm confident saying the chap doesn't deserve the bad rap he gets.
My pop cultural understanding of Renfield was as a simpering minion of the baddie who actively helps seduce or misdirect other people towards evil. The Monster of the Week RPG even has an NPC minion type that it explicitly labels a "Renfield", whose motivation is "to drive others towards the monster".
But your man straight up doesn't do that! Yes, he seems to admire and worship the Count at first, but based on later scenes, my take on that is that it's vampire mesmerism working on a vulnerable subject - vulnerable because the thinking that landed Renfield in the asylum, about consuming life, lines up so neatly with what the Count does and can offer. But unless I missed something, there's no scene where Renfield tries to drive anyone into the Count's clutches, or where he wilfully puts anyone in danger. He's the reason Dracula is able to get into polycule HQ, but it seems pretty clear Drac mesmerised and/or terrorised him into "inviting" him in.
In fact Renfield seems to spend most of his time trying to warn people about Drac, but being either dismissed or unable to get his meaning across coherently. Wherefore this reputation as a slippery quisling? Renfield's as much a victim here as anyone else!
Renfield Anniversary Week, day 5: Favourite Ship
NO ONE CAN STOP ME FROM COMBINING MY SPECIAL INTERESTS!!!!
Dracfield as the three cheers for sweet revenge cover because I'm FERAL and RABID
*Renfield and (y/n) chilling outside and a butterfly lands near by*
(Y/n): A butterfly Renfield! Renfield: *eats the butterfly and runs off* (Y/n) *screams in horror and runs after him* NO NO NO, RENFIELD RENFIELD!
Renfield
do NOT kill a bug loose in your home. do NOT release it outside. mail it to me P.O. box 453 in LA CA. i teach them circus tricks. if my training doesn’t work i will eat it
People in Hollywood are cowards because you could totally do a book accurate Dracula movie and it really wouldn’t be that hard.
Johnathan is just vloging his trip to Draculas castle but the castle doesn’t have any service or wifi so he can’t post anything or send it.
Lucy and Mina’s letters are now text messages or voice memos that are super long.
Dr. Steward voice dairy is wouldn’t have to be changed or it could be changed to him filming himself talking. Or even recorded sessions of him and Renfield
The newspaper clippings could become morning news stories.
All the diary entries are now them just filming themselves talking about what happened in like a video diary format.
It would be so easy! Can you see the vision?
Renfield
My dumb little gay brain has hyper fixated on this upcoming vampire film so I wanted to talk about it. Really long post under the cut, so read on at your own risk 👍👍👍
So Renfield is this movie about Dracula’s minion, Renfield, and I got really excited about it when I saw the trailer. I’ll probably still go see the movie, the aesthetic is cool and I like the colors, but based on that trailer, I had an understanding of the plot that did not pan out. Maybe I’m wrong and the advertisement was misleading, but as I’m aware of it, the plot goes like this:
Renfield is your average guy, save for one thing: he works for the narcissistic Lord of Evil, Dracula, who I think serves as a literal representation of his low self-esteem and self-worth. To help alleviate this problem, he goes to a toxic relationship counseling group, who see his panicked rambling about his boss’s powers as hyperbole. His job is to bring Dracula people to eat, and, in exchange, (by eating spiders??? I think???) he gains superhuman strength and agility. But Dracula treats him terribly, and he’s looking to get out of their bargain. He, at some point, saves a bunch of people, and teams up with a police officer lady to an unknown degree. I assume the movie will end with him defeating Dracula, symbolizing him overcoming his mental struggles and finding peace.
Now, I thought this movie was gay. Perhaps that’s my gaggles (gay goggles) talking, but given that he goes to relationship counseling, the bizarre intimacy shown in the promotional material, as well as my inkling that it would have its romantic/sexual undertones addressed narratively if either Dracula or Renfield was a woman, I think it’s justified. So my first thought was, “Cool! Gay vampire action movie with Nick Cage!” And then I thought, “Oh, not gay vampire action movie with Awkwafina.” And some of my initial enthusiasm dipped. But I figured, “I can’t’ve been the only one who caught on to these subtleties, right?” So, to the Internet I went.
Come to find out, almost everyone saw the very homoerotic subtext between the dominating evil fancy man and his submissive good-hearted henchperson.
Of course, some certain corners of the Internet, such as Pinterest, Tumblr, and Ao3 are perhaps a bit hardwired to see two men in close proximity and diagnose them with gay, but I think that says more about how writers write these characters, and less about how the fans see them. Since straight relationships are largely unappealing (read: unhealthy and possessive) as portrayed in modern media, and a majority of characters with speaking lines and interactions are male, gay pairings are an essential part of the shipping conversation. The top ten pairings in Ao3 fanfiction are all between two guys, for Pete’s sake.
So why aren’t canonical gay relationships more common? The obvious answer is, obviously, the aggressive heterosexuality of Hollywood, action movies in particular. Sometimes it seems like hetero romance is a quota to fill, as if while making these movies, they thought, “We have to make these to opposite-gendered characters kiss,” with very little reasoning or logic behind it. And even if a straight romance is given buildup and payoff, it seems that many writers are uninterested in actually writing about two people in love, beyond the falling in. (The Thor movies are actually a great example of this, as the relationship between Jane Foster and Thor in the first movie is a pretty well-written one. But then they’ve broken up in the second film, Jane isn’t in the third one, and then she dies.) Indiana Jones has three different love interests for three straight movies, Maverick gets back with Penny in Top Gun 2 for literally no good reason, and Endgame ends with Captain America having gone back and inadvertently removed Peggy’s agency to get his romantic ending. In my opinion, straight romances are largely superficial, not impacting plot or characters in meaningful enough ways to be included.
And that’s, I think, at the heart of why I can’t stand romantic subplots in action movies. Their superficially and toxic insanity. I can count on two hands the amount of movies with enjoyable and well-progressed romantic subplots. (Howl’s Moving Castle, Shrek, and Tangled come to mind, though that might be my animation bias showing.) It feels tacked on. Cheap. Unimportant. It’s hard to get invested into when the characters are so… not interesting. And when it’s not boring me to tears, it’s making me question the sanity of whoever signed off on it.
For an excellent comparison, look at the 1999 and 2017 Mummy movies. In the ‘99 film, Rick and Evie’s romance couldn’t be removed without substantial changes to the narrative. They positively drive each other’s development. Rick by feeding into Evie’s more outgoing and adventurous tendencies, and Evie by driving Rick to be more open and compassionate. They’re totally focused on each other, and time is given to developing their relationship naturally. It also provides a good foil against the villain, Imhotep, who was destroyed not once, but twice by his obsession with Anck-su-Namun.
But the 2017 version has one of the most heterosexual stories I’ve ever seen in an action film. The protagonist, Nick, has two love interests, the paranoid researcher Jennifer, and the mummy herself, Ahmanet. He’s linked to Ahmanet through some psychic BS, and she wants to marry him. But he also has a past with Jennifer, and ends up sacrificing himself for her. But instead of these relationships serving as juxtaposition, one driven by genuine caring passion, and the other driven by desire and selfishness, one just keeps getting in the way of the other. At the end, neither are developed or compelling. Too much time is spent with Nick bemoaning his ties to Ahmanet to grow into his relationship with Jennifer, and too much time is spent with Nick angsting out with Jennifer to elaborate on his relationship with Ahmanet. And they’re all such boring characters that you can’t even really bring yourself to care.
So, along comes Renfield. A film with the perfect opportunity to structure most, if not all, of its story around a romantic relationship, albeit a failing one. It felt (and still feels) incredibly What We Do In The Shadows, given the poppy neon lighting, dry-humored dialogue, timeless atmosphere, and campy characters. And, above everything else, a lot of very gay subtext. (Of course, What We Do In The Shadows is a lot more overt with the character’s obviously not-straight sexualities.) Because while the common Internet users seem to look at this movie and say, “they’re gay,” the more official, widespread Internet journalists and film critics seem to look at this movie and talk only about how cool it is that not-so-subtle meme king Nicolas Cage is playing a classy-classic tuxedo vampire. (And, don’t get me wrong, I love that too.) Is it the gaggles rearing their homo heads again? Is this just something we’ve read into too deeply?
I don’t think so. Any millennial/ gen-Z consumer of vampire media, excluding maybe the die-hard Edward versus Jacob Twilight fans, is familiar with the homoeroticism that comes with the genre. Carmilla, widely considered the very first vampire novel, is literally about a lesbian romance! The sexual tension between Jonathan Harker and the Count in the first few chapter of Dracula is wild. So much vampire media is queercoded, if not outright gay, so I think assuming a 2023 “modern monster tale” would address or lean into these expectations is reasonable.
(As a side note, whatever Renfield and Dracula’s relationship is, it’s a toxic one. If my assumption is correct and Dracula represents Renfield’s internalized insecurities, that’s a pretty bad basis for a romance. The promo material has made it very clear that Renfield is unhappy with how he is treated by his boss. His journey in the movie is about getting away from that.
Online fandom culture has an unfortunate habit of romanticizing (fetishizing) gay men in toxic relationships. Look no further than the enthusiastic Killing Stalking fan base, who think a psychopathic, unfeeling murderer and an emotionally unstable, abandonment-issue-riddled nervous wreck should be together romantically. Oh, and the murderer kept the nervous wreck locked in his house for months, physically, emotionally, and sexually abusing him, while feeding into his Stockholm-Syndrome mentality. Such a relationship is similar to Dracula and Renfield’s. A lot of this culture stems from teen girls, which I am, and I don’t want to feed into that.)
If Renfield is gay, it has an interesting opportunity to write an extremely interesting queer romance about a gay dude breaking away from his abusive old boss, and perhaps finding new love and comfort in his sexuality. I would suggest the police officer, but, on top of the fact that she would bring it back to the realm of heteronormativity, she’s unfunny and annoying. (Although, her name is Rebecca Quincy, and Quincy P. Morris is the name of the bisexual Texas cowboy himbo from the original Dracula novel.) Oh, well. She’ll probably be his love interest anyway.
It’s possible that I’m just wrong and Renfield will have all this “good queer writing” that I didn’t expect, and this whole essay will be null and void. (I seriously doubt it.) Honestly, though, I’m really just using Renfield as thinly- veiled window dressing for other romantic- adjacent topics that I’ve wanted to organize my thoughts on for a while.
Thanks if you read all this way. Lemme know what your thoughts on stuff like this is.
Renfield from Dracula can be faster than a car and I have evidence.
Carfax Abbey is in London. (marked red)
Seward Sanitorium is in Whitby. (marked purple)
It is a plot point (at least in the 1931 film) that Renfield escaped the sanitorium and fled to London, where he knew Dracula would be. These locations are estimated to be 231 km apart. It would take about 5-6 days to travel this distance, though he seems to end his journey within mere hours. It is presumed he didn’t use a carriage. The trip, car or train interchangeably, is roughly 5 hours. Let’s assume his journey to return to Dracula was 3 hours. 231 / 3 = 77 km/h.
Renfield’s running speed can reach up to 77km/h or higher (we don’t know what he’s capable of)
can I coin the term tumblr sicklyman for our poor pathetic little meow meows. you know the ones. you just wanna find em shivering in a wet cardboard box on your doorstep and take them in and nurse them back to health. there are at least 5 guys like this come on
My blood pressure is spiking just thinking about all of the things on Dracula’s to-do list.
See Renfield, only in theaters April 14th.