as I move my feet towards your body, (for whatmenfear)

[reoccurring]

Mina turns back to face her English Literature class, having displayed on her laptop's projector screen the bare-bones timelines for the characters referenced in the novel they're currently reading — none other than Bram Stoker's Dracula.

"These timelines are also in the files I emailed to each one of you, for additional reading material," she notes, coming to perch at the edge of her desk. "Now. We've already talked about how Dracula’s forays into London, for example, and his ability to move unnoticed through the crowded streets while carrying the potential to afflict all in his path with the stain of vampirism, play upon late-Victorian fears of untrammelled immigration — particularly that of Eastern European immigrants."

She pulls up another diagram on her laptop, the image of a nineteenth-century map of England projected onto the screen behind her. "But let's examine things a bit further. This novel is also a sexual allegory, in which English female virtue is menaced by foreign predators. Dracula sets up his lairs in Whitechapel and Bermondsey, both run-down locations of rampant urban crime, where sensibilities of control are neutralised, and where free-thinking women lack the moral steadfastness to resist evil.

"His focus is on Mina, a woman who selflessly — and symbolically — spends her honeymoon nursing her sick husband in a convent; as well as on the beautiful Lucy Westenra, who is, by contrast, dangerously modern in her ways. Stoker paints Lucy as the more wanton of the two 'New Women', having more than one male love interest, while Mina is the more maternal." She folds her arms over her chest underneath her simple scoopneck sweater, as her class busily types and scribbles notes. "All women, though, are seemingly at risk, as the Count suggests when he pointedly taunts Professor Van Helsing and his followers by saying ‘Your girls that you all love are mine already’. During the course of the book Dracula attacks both Mina and Lucy; the more free-spirited Lucy is not so lucky, but Mina, due to the traditional Victorian qualities of determination and loyalty towards her husband — "

She trails off as she suddenly looks up, at the far corner of the classroom; Vlad is leaning with one shoulder against the wall seemingly having appeared from nowhere, his arms folded casually over his chest, cutting a clean, trim picture in his fitted collared shirt and trousers. There's a wry smirk on those sensual lips, his eyes fixed on her despite the students turning around to see what she's gawking at. Mina is overcome by the mere sight of him, knowing what it is that he's ultimately here for, and as a result has to struggle to finish her uncompleted thought as the corners of her mouth turn slowly upward.

" — is...able to...resist his advances."

The entirety of the class now turns around to face Vlad, their eyes following hers, and Mina finally takes a moment to collect herself before she speaks.

"...I'm sorry. Class, this is Mister Vlad Basarab, a — " she pauses, betraying herself by just the slightest lip twitch, " — good friend of mine, from Eastern Europe. Romania...specifically."

Some of the class titters in amusement at the coincidence, even as the majority of them are staring with undeniable fascination at the intriguing dark-haired foreigner in their midst, and Mina nods with something like faintly amused exasperation before she turns her smile back to Vlad. "Yes, just as our topic of discussion would have it — but although he is Eastern European, I can assure you that's where the similarity with the antagonist of our story ends."