#nelson flatliners

[heeheehoohoo8]

Pick your poison Keifer edition:

The one thats being beat up

Or the one thats doing the beating

[midnight-in-santa-carla]

I finally come bearing Nelson studies as requested @mikey-stardust-way. I had so much fun with these, I just had to draw a second page too as that blue lighting is 🤌 Thanks again Joel!

This took longer than expected as I totally fell down the Flatliners rabbit hole on AO3 and discovered @zoi-no-miko’s amazing David/Nelson fanfiction. Please check their work out, it’s sooo good 🔥♥️

[bobmckenzie]

❝ With the six of us crammed into David's truck, quiet voices musing about Joe's recent journey to the other side, Cait—unacquainted with the late nights of med school, or the even later nights that came with being part of Nelson's deranged experiments—nodded off against my shoulder. It was only a second, maybe two. Our bodies jolted, shifted when David drove over a fracture in the pothole laden street... and she awoke without knowing that for a brief moment, my body had been a respite from her exhaustion. Pressed against her in the confined space, peculiarly aware of my own heartbeat and the lingering sensation of her warmth, I felt... I felt somehow like I had just woken up, too. ❞

[queenlakiefer]

Wendell Goddard clip 5: Morning scene.

The teasing! 😩 I love it! 😍🥰❤️

[myveryownfanfiction]

18+ MINORS AND THOSE WITHOUT AGE IN BIO DNI

tags: @eclecticwildflowers, @illiana-mystery

warnings: talk of death, Nelson wants to go through with his experiment, swearing

running my hands through my hair, I took a shaky breath.

“Nelson,” i sighed. “This is a bad idea. A real terrible, shit idea.” He shrugged as he looked at me over the rim of his cup.

“Oh come on (Y/N). You can’t tell me you never thought about what comes next.” Nelson shot back. I bit my lip and he smiled triumphantly at me. “This is our chance to see what’s on the other side. All I’m asking you to do is record it. You don’t have to be a part of it anymore than that.” I shook my head and sighed again.

“Nelson what you are doing is fucking suicide.” I said with a hard edge to my tone. “Literally. Or homicide depending on you look at it. Have you listened to suicide survivors versus real near death experiences? Suicide survivors have a vastly different view of the afterlife because they fucked around and found out. Near death experience is a whole other realm.”

“and how am I supposed to replicate a near death experience without it being construed as a suicide attempt? Huh?” Nelson growled. “I can’t. So I go the route I know. The one I know my classmates can bring me back from.”

“assisted suicide then.” I cried, throwing my hands up. “Dammit Nelson.” I put my head in my hands and took a shuddering breath. “Do you have any idea what this is going to do to me?” I looked at him, tears shining in my eyes.

“do to you? I’m coming back.” He laughed. I shook my head.

“And if Dave can’t bring you back? Or Rachel?” I asked. “You and I both know steckle is only there for the equipment and to be the voice of reason. Joe is just there for kicks.” Nelson looked at me with an eyebrow raised. “What happens then? You can’t tell me that isn’t a possibility.” We sat in silence for a few minutes.

“they can do it.” He whispered, reaching out to grab my hand. I pulled it back from him.

“and if they can’t? I want to know what happens then Nelson.” I shot back. “You are so damn positive this will work you can’t even think of the fucking reproductions.” I threw the papers he had given me back across the table at him as I stood up. “Like what would happen to the four of them if it was found out what you roped them into. Or what would happen to me.”

“I’ve got a note absolving them of any responsibility.” Nelson said, standing up with his hands up trying to calm me down. “You don’t have anything to do with this except recording. They can’t touch you. Besides you’re not even in the department.” Nelson gently wrapped his arms around me. I hit his chest, making him curl in on himself and step back slightly.

“Ow.” He moaned as I hit him again. “Hey. Stop. What’re you doing that for?” He tried to grab my hands but I kept hitting him.

“I don’t care about my reputation. Or if I’m kicked out of school. I’ll go somewhere else.” I ground out as I accidentally slapped him. Nelson grabbed my wrist and held tight. “I care about what happens to me after you’re gone. Do you expect me to move on? Go about my days with the same cold exterior you’re expected to have as a doctor? Forget you’re gone and just find someone else?” I finally started crying and I collapsed against Nelson’s chest as he hugged me tightly. He sighed and rubbed my back as I gripped his shirt tightly. Nelson pressed his nose to my head and kissed me gently.

“I get it now.” He whispered. “I get it.” His grip tightened on me and I gently hit his chest again.

“no you don’t.” I chuckled. “You never do. But that’s alright.” I pulled back to look at him. “I’ll be there Nelson. But I won’t record. I won’t help. Not unless I need to.” Nelson nodded, cupping my cheeks to wipe away my tears. “I know you all are certified but if they can’t do it, I’m going to be the one to do CPR. I’ll bring you back.” Nelson nodded as he gently kissed me, making sure he showed me how much he loved me in it.

“I don’t doubt that. Not for one second.” He whispered as he drew back. He rubbed his thumb over my cheek before drawing me back to his chest. “I love you.” I sniffled and hugged him tighter.

“I love you too.” I whispered back. “Just promise you’ll come back to me. Just come back to me.”

“I promise.” Nelson assured me. “I’ll always come back to you.”

[adharafirenze]

He is such a mess of a person-

[sarnie-for-varney]

For younger Tommy and Len (Inside No.9, Bernie Clifton's Dressing Room), I actually have headcanon actors for what I believe they would've looked like.

These are my personal opinions, and I am in no way claiming any of these opinions as fact.

Len

For Len, I chose Kiefer Sutherland.

Down to the colour of his hair, his mannerisms, and the sometimes violent tendencies of the characters he's portrayed. As well as this, Sutherland has a similar body shape to what I imagine Len would've had. I think Len would hold more weight on his body than Tommy, due to his genetics.

Kiefer Sutherland has changed his look many times over the years, but I feel like Nelson Wright in Flatliners (1990) correlates the most with my idea of a younger Len Shelby:

The cuts and bruises on the left are especially in character, as I headcanon that Len would've been the type to get into a lot of fights.

However, I believe Len was the type of guy to experiment a lot with his appearance. So his style could range from this to any look he put his mind to.

Throughout the film, Nelson appears to be washed in a sort of sepia or burnt orange colour. I associate warmer colours, like orange, with Len.

Len, I feel, does like to be comfortable and he wears more casual clothes. I think Len would lean more towards a grunge or punk style of dress. I always imagine Len's hair to be more red than it is blonde, perhaps strawberry blonde.

Tommy

For Tommy, I chose River Phoenix.

He has a fantastic range and ability to play any character, which I thought was perfect for Tommy. Tommy goes through many changes in terms of personality throughout his life. Before meeting Len, he was shy and quiet. A bookworm who sits alone. After meeting Len, Tommy started taking on quite a few of Len's quirks. He became more outgoing, hanging out in places he probably shouldn't be, smoking, riding on Len's motorbike or taking the truck out for a spin (I headcanon that Len has a very strong interest in vehicles and mechanics). Len is sort of a bad influence on Tommy, but whatever. Tommy enjoys it. Later in his life, Tommy becomes the boss of a rather large digital marketing company where he learns he needs to be authoritative and straightforward.

Tommy's personality took many turns in his life, just like the characters that Phoenix has portrayed. River is thinner than Kiefer, much like how I imagine Tommy to be thinner than Len. While River Phoenix is slightly taller than Kiefer Sutherland, Tommy would most likely be shorter than Len (like Reece Shearsmith and Steve Pemberton's height difference).

Like Sutherland, Phoenix had many looks over his career. But the most reminiscent of Tommy, I think, would be Danny Pope from Running on Empty (1988):

Tommy, I believe, would excel academically and be completely in his element when in classes. In the scene on the left, Danny Pope pays the utmost attention in his studies, and this fits Tommy very well.

Here, on this character, we see rounded glasses which I headcanon Tommy wearing when he was younger (as opposed to his more rectangular glasses in the canon episode). Pope also wears a lot of blues in the film, blue is a colour I associate very strongly with Tommy.

Tommy's clothing, like Len's, is comfortable and soft. But he isn't against wearing more elaborate and complex outfits, which he takes great care in putting together. I could see Tommy leaning more towards the artsy/preppy style of dress.

Despite Tommy's hair being dark on the poster of their younger selves in the episode, I cannot help but headcanon Tommy as blonde-haired.

[zoi-no-miko]

YES.

My favorite ultra-specific character type is "this fucked up little man clearly just needs a consensual BDSM relationship and some therapy and he'd be fine, but that is very much not what happens in this story."

[midnight-in-santa-carla]

“I need you. I need you to bring me back. Please.”

This picture took me ages (anatomy is my nemesis) but I think I’m finally happy with it. I wanted to show Dave reaching to save Nelson, who is being dragged down by Billy. Steckle, Rachel and Joe are pulling Dave back, to reflect when they were trying to convince Dave to stop working to save him.

I also wanted to copy Joel Schumacher’s use of light and colour in the movie, where blue is cold death and red is warm life.

[bobmckenzie]

the type of thing nelson would say about my s/i when he's in a bad mood

[queenlakiefer]

Watched Flatliners (1990) last night

Liked it and Nelson…oh my god! Don’t know how to feel about him (might need to watch it again).

Gave me an idea for a story about what if the reason Nelson bullied Billy was because he had a childish crush on the reader but they liked Billy and Nelson was jealous.

[zoi-no-miko]

The way the depth of field changes when he's tripping death balls is so fantastically effective

(and omg he looks so pretty)

[myveryownfanfiction]

18+ MINORS AND THOSE WITHOUT AGE IN BIO DNI

tags: @illiana-mystery, @eclecticwildflowers, @onedirectionlovers2014

warnings: swearing, talk of death, mention of the experiment from flatliners

I leaned against the door to the classroom as I watched Dr. Wolfson teach his class on clinical death. The information he was giving them seemed awfully familiar to the writings he’d shared with me of his own experiment decades ago. I raised an eyebrow at the group of five students who were rapidly taking notes. Everyone else was taking notes but not like these five. They were hanging on his every word. When wolfson looked up from the students, he smiled at me.

“if you’ll excuse me class.” He said as he walked over. He put a hand on my arm in greeting as he led me out into the hall. “What’s up?” Nelson asked. I smiled and shook my head.

“I’m not allowed to watch you teach?” I asked with a laugh. Nelson smiled wider and shrugged.

“I mean technically you should have enrolled in the class.” I laughed. “Seriously everything ok?”

“yeah. I overheard some of the kids mentioning that you were going to talk about clinical death.” I said, a knowing look on my face. Nelson looked sheepishly at me. I lowered my voice. “Nelson, you can’t tell them…”

“I know. I’m keeping it vague.” Nelson said. He rubbed my arm as he looked down. “I…yeah alright.” He sighed as he tapped his cane against the ground. “I’ll go over the repercussions too. Talk about what can happen if done wrong or, for lack of a better term, the side effects.” I reached out and put my hand on his waist, squeezing gently.

“thank you.” I said softly. “There’s five kids in there taking notes as if they’re the Ten Commandments. Be careful.” Nelson nodded before looking over his shoulder at the class.

“I’m sorry.” He said, more to the classroom than me. I cupped his cheek and turned his head back towards me. Leaning in, I kissed him gently. Nelson smiled into the kiss before breaking away. “And they’re looking. I won’t live this one down.” He laughed, backing away from me slowly.

“so what. They’ve done worse with each other.” I laughed. Nelson shook his head and went back into the classroom where the kids immediately started to make fun of him with kissy noises among other things.

“alright alright. Settle down. Dr. (Y/L/N) was just leaving.” Nelson looked at me with a smile, shaking his head at his students antics. “Alright now. Back to work.” I walked away as Nelson continued his lecture from where I had interrupted him. Later that night, Nelson and I were sitting in his townhouse after handing out candy all night.

“Nelson?” I asked, looking over at him as the last of the kids ran down the steps, two of them dressed as doctors. He hummed as he set up another movie for us to watch. “You know what they’re doing tonight don’t you?” I looked over at him with a worried look. Nelson sighed and came over to wrap his arms around me.

“yeah I do. Same shit I did in med school.” He nodded, resting his head against mine. I reached up and ran my fingers through his hair. “They’re smart kids though. I’m sure they’ll be ok.”

“like you were ok?” I asked, eyes flicking back to Nelson’s cane. He sighed. “I’m sorry. It’s just…” Nelson broke away and pulled me away from the door.

“I know. I’m worried about them too.” He admitted. “There isn’t anything I can do except report them. And then I’d feel responsible for putting the idea in their heads. Either way.”

“and reporting them would create a double standard since they aren’t doing anything their professors haven’t done.” I continued. Nelson nodded. “And if we showed up while they were doing it, we could scare them or shock them into something even more problematic than what they’re already doing.” I leaned my head on Nelson’s shoulder as we sat down on the couch.

“I’ll check in with them tomorrow. Make sure they are ok.” Nelson promised. “I think I know who is going under too. Which makes this so much worse.” He took off his glasses, running a hand down his face and staring at the ceiling. Sighing, we sat in silence while the movie played in the background. “I should never have done that myself.” I turned my head to look at him, reaching out and hugging his arm.

“at least you didn’t publish the paper.” I pointed out. Nelson nodded.

“they’d have step by step instructions then.” He agreed. Leaning my head down on his shoulder, I bit my lip. “I feel so helpless.”

“there isn’t anything you can do. Not right now.” I murmured. “Tomorrow, we’ll pull them aside. Tell them we know.”

“I…fuck I’d hate to do it…I can see if joe still has the tape.” I pulled back and stared at him. Nelson kept his gaze on the ceiling, biting his lip and trying not to look at me. “We don’t go over anything in it but it shows how…” he swallowed and squeezed his eyes shut. “How they nearly lost me.” I bit my lip and stared at my lap.

“you never told me that.” I whispered. Nelson nodded. “Why didn’t you tell me that?” I looked over at him to find him watching me, tears pricking my eyes.

“you know why.” He said as he reached over to wipe my cheeks. “You know exactly why.” Nelson leaned in to kiss me but I pulled back.

“Nelson.” I whispered, shaking my head. He nodded and held his arm out for me. I curled against him, ear pressed to his chest. His heart beat in my ear as I took deep breaths, realizing that there was more to his little excitement than he had let on.

“I know. I’m sorry.” Nelson said as he kissed my head. “You don’t have to watch the tape. I’ll do it on my own.” I squeezed him tightly.

“thank you.” I whispered. Nelson nodded and the doorbell rang. Nelson got up, gently prying me from him.

“I got it.” He whispered, kissing me gently. I nodded as he answered the door and handed out the candy. “Come here.” He murmured as he went to sit back down. “You aren’t getting rid of me that easily.” I nodded as I curled into him. We sat in silence for a bit. “What time does trick or treating end?” I pulled Nelson’s arm towards me so I can check his watch. He started to chuckle and smiled at me. “I think it’s time for you to get a watch. Or start carrying your phone around with you like everyone else.” I rolled my eyes at him and scoffed.

“as if that’s what you do.” Nelson scoffed at me in return and waited while I checked his watch. “It ended half an hour ago.” I said, letting his hand drop. Nelson nodded, gently pushing me off him so he could turn the light off and grabbed the candy bowl.

“want some?” He asked as he held it out to me. I nodded and grabbed some. Nelson sat down next to me and put the bowl between us. “So tomorrow we’ll confront them and if they refuse to stop then I show them the video after you leave.” I nodded.

“sounds like a plan.” I dug into the bowl a bit more to grab some of the good stuff. “And thank you. For not making me…” I trailed off as I stared at the candy in my hands. Shaking my head, I looked up at Nelson again. “Thank you.” Nelson nodded and leaned across the bowl to kiss me.

“of course.” He said, cupping my cheek. Leaning his forehead against mine, Nelson rubbed my cheek. “Happy Halloween.” He smiled softly at me.

“happy Halloween Nelson.” I smiled back at him.

[zoi-no-miko]

Me, currently

Tagged by the fantastic @themirokai, who I started creeping on because Person of Interest ( <3 ), and because I haven't done one of these in a millenia - ty!

Fave color: Red, red, every shade of it. Fortunately @jadedbirch shares this Very Correct choice or house decore might have been a problem. Now we can have things like this:

Currently reading: oh GOD I just finished the newest 'Locked Tomb' short, The Unwanted Guest, where everyone's favorite blorbo goes head to head in a battle of wits with the skrungly bitch and fam, sometimes porn does not need to include porn this is proof.

Last song: Nocturne Rain Song by BUCK-TICK. fuck how have they been making bangers for 40 years??

Last series: Season 2 of Good Omens continues to live rent-free in my head. (I think we've tried watching a few things since but honestly how CAN you???)

Last movie: I did a proper rewatch of Dark City (my darling!) for the first time in YEARS. It stars a John who is VERY different from John Reese but verrry pretty, and a little bespectacled limping intellectual who will always be Best Blorbo and really I should have realized long before I watched Person of Interest that you don't have to feel _sexually_ about A Type to HAVE A Type. (Rewatching was so delicious and correct and then I wrote an actual new canon compliant fic about it <3)

Currently working on: ... it took me 100,000 words to get a certain snarky little asshole fucked by a bear and I'm damn well going to post that shit on AO3 if it's the last thing I do.

Tagging, uh, anyone who wants if you want? @boopboopboopbadoop, @old-long-john, @trash-gobby, @kriskukko @hithelleth @bonnie131313 my dears~

[trash-gobby]

Ultimate Masterlist

Here is where you will find all the stories I've written along with each fandom as a header. If there are any new or old stories they can be found here. The old inventory system I had is dead. This will be the home of all content I've written or created from now on.

Fandoms

Action/Adventure

🔫 James Bond 🔫

Happiness Is a Warm Gun 🔞

All The Time In The World - *NTTD SPOILERS* 

Dario X GN!Reader - Yandere Headcanons 🔞

Dario X SadisticFem!Reader Headcanons 🔞

Drama

🏏 Heather's 🏏

Jason Dean - Yandere Headcanons 

Veronica Sawyer - Yandere Headcanons 

Horror

👽 Alien Franchise 👽

Bishop Headcanons

Bishop Headcanons - His friendship with the Colonial Marines 

First Snow on Earth 

How They Would Play Sims 2 & 4

Lance Bishop Fluff Alphabet

Dallas & J.M. Lambert Dating Headcanons

Colonial Marines W/ Virgin Reader 🔞

Scott Gorman NSFW Alphabet 🔞

William Hudson NSFW Alphabet 🔞

🎭 Behind The Mask 🎭

Leslie Vernon X GN!S/O who’s Jealous of Taylor

🎄🩸 Black Christmas 🩸🎄

Billy Lenz X Short Gothic GN! S/O

Harry Warden & Billy Lenz X GN!Reader with Short Coiled Hair

Billy Lenz X GN!S/O - Who Hides Gifts Around The House For Him To Find!

Jess Bradford - Fluffy Dating Headcanons w/ Trans Masc!S/O

🚶The Boy 🚶

Brahms X AFAB!Reader who is overly protective of him P1

Brahms X AFAB!Reader who is overly protective of him P2

Dating Brahms Headcanons (Possessive Brahms)

Brahms X GN!Reader - Trying to Leave The House 🔞

🚀 Farscape 🚀

Moya Crew w/ Artistic S/O

🪱 The Faculty 🪱

Zeke Tyler Dating Headcanons

🚑 Flatliners 🚑

Nelson Wright X AFAB!Reader Meet at a House Party

Nelson X GN!Reader - Cuddling For The First Time

🐺 Ginger Snaps 🐺

Ginger X Fem!Reader SFW & NSFW Headcanons 🔞

Ginger Fitzgerald Headcanons 👋

🎃 Halloween 🎃

Michael with a physically & verbally affectionate s/o

Michael Myers GN!S/O with Separation Anxiety

🔥 Hellboy 🔥

Poly!Hellboy & Liz Sherman X GN!Reader Headcanons

A Long Hard Day

Nuada X Agent!Reader Headcanons

⛓️ Hellraiser ⛓️

Pinhead - Hellraiser: Headcanons

💄Jennifer's Body 💄

Jennifer Check X Male!Reader

🦇🩸Lost Boys 🩸🦇

∞ When You’re a Stranger ∞ - Chpt. 1, Chpt. 2

When did Max get Thorn???

David - General Headcanons

David - Fluff Alphabet

Dwayne - Headcanons

Dwayne - Fluff Alphabet

Laddie - Headcanons

Marko - Headcanons

Paul - Headcanons

Descending Angel - part one, part two

♊ Malignant ♊

Gabriel May X GN!S/O - Who Writes Him Gothic Love Poems

🥀⚰️ Mortuary ⚰️🥀

Flowers For a Grave - Paul Andrews X Fem!Reader

❣️My Bloody Valentine ❣️

Harry Warden & Billy Lenz X GN!Reader with Short Coiled Hair

Harry Warden W/ Pregnant S/O

🦇🕶️ Near Dark 🕶️🦇

Severen Van Sickle X Pinup!Reader

Severen Van Sickle NSFW Alphabet🔞

👹 Nightbreed 👹

Dr. Decker X POC Plus Size!Reader Headcanons 🔞

Decker X Plus Size POC!Reader - Darkness Is A Stitch Away

📸 🔪 Scream 🔪 📸

Billy Loomis X Fem!Reader - Comforting her after losing someone close to her

Poly!Ghostface Finding Out Their Girlfriend is Pregnant

🚲 Stranger Things 🚲

Wipe Out

Eddie Munson - Fluff Alphabet

🥩🪝 Texas Chainsaw Massacre 🪝🥩

Christmas dinner with the Sawyer's

🌌 The Thing 🌌

R.J. MacReady NSFW Alphabet 🔞

Assimilation - Palmer X GN!Reader

Palmer - Headcanons

Science Fiction

👽💅 Earth Girls Are Easy 💅👽

Mac - Fluffy Dating Headcanons

🦖 Jurassic Park 🦖

Dating Ian Malcolm Would Include

🌠 Star Wars: The Old Republic 🌠

Two Bounty Hunters Walk Into a Guild Meeting

Superhero

☔ Umbrella Academy ☔

Luther Hargreeves X Fem!Reader - NSFW & Dating Headcanons 🔞

Fantasy

✨ Legend ✨

Wicked Game 🔞

🌊 Legend of Korra 🌊

Korra Dating Kuvira's Sibling Headcanon's

[zoi-no-miko]

omg I was so excited to start reading this and even MORE excited for so many Lost Boys examples.

In support of this great post, let me present: the plausible deniability of vampirism as an intentional tool of queer storytellers.

Think about it. The lure of the forbidden. The endless party. Giving in to what you really desire, and learning you can fly. Realizing after that if you continue down this path you’ll have to give up your whole family, your whole life. The regret. Trying to take it back. Trying to prove to yourself you can still feel passion for the opposite sex. The deep, painful struggle with what you truly desire that ends fatally. How, once you’ve irrevocably struck it from your life, you see it as soft and sweet and not the monster you thought it was. Spending the rest of your life thinking ‘what if?’ Joel Schumacher really didn’t have to go that hard, but honestly as a gay man during the war on homosexuality AIDS epidemic maybe he DID have to go that hard.

When looking at Joel Schumacher’s early body of work it’s extremely relevant to remember that in this time, we weren’t allowed to tell our own queer stories. Not if they looked like queer stories. We HAD to hide them, disguise them, make them straight-passing.

Vampirism was the perfect vehicle.

So why are there so many gay vampires?

From the time of Carmilla all the way up to the works of Anne Rice (a universe that seems to get only less subtle as the years go on), gay vampires have been a thing basically as long as anyone was writing about vampires. Lesbian vampires have been a genre all their own for decades. Bram Stoker, author of the most famous vampire novel ever written, was gay himself. So why vampires specifically?

I’ve seen people attempt to answer this one before, and there are all sorts of contributing factors I could point to here, from the genres’ beginnings with Lord Byron (infamous bisexual disaster fuckboy), to modern discourse about why queer folks so often find themselves identifying with the monsters and outcasts of fiction. Few other monsters besides vampires can so easily pass for ‘normal’, or are nearly so well known for their snappy dress sense and ‘unnatural cravings’ for human flesh. And that’s without even getting into all those skeezy outdated stereotypes casting queer people as predators, or the idea that even one ‘gay experience’ could somehow ‘convert’ you into being one yourself.

But to my mind, there’s just one really important thing that makes vampires so gay, and it’s the same thing that makes them sexy in the first place: plausible deniability.

You see, a vampire’s bite is simultaneously a) ridiculously sexual, and b) not even a little bit sexual at all.

You don’t have to look far for vampire canons where there’s nothing sexy about being bitten by a vampire. Bloody, violent, painful, sure ‒or just clinically miserable, human bodies torn open or hung up to drain like a human blood bag. What’s sexy about getting bitten by a mosquito, or a fecking leech? The diet of the actual vampire bat requires it to process so much water that it apparently spends mealtimes busily pissing out the difference, and the anti-coagulants in its saliva leave the wound bleeding messily long after it’s gone. The basic act of feeding is no more inherently sexual for a vampire than it is for a zombie.

Vampires are even a surprisingly acceptable monster to market to children. There’s a vampire muppet, a cartoon about a vampire duck, and a whole series of books about a vampire rabbit. You can put a vampire on the side of a cereal box without undue outrage. Vampires do not have to be R-rated for sex or violence.

So of course vampires will go after victims of the same sex. Do you stop to inquire whether the cow you’re eating was male or female? It’s all just predator and prey!

Until it’s everything but.

Do not let the ‘vampires aren’t supposed to be sexy!’-purists fool you. The tradition of sexy vampires goes all the way back to the oldest folklore, where the first victim of a newly-risen vampire was often their still-living spouse. Vampires were even occasionally known to get women pregnant (a convenient excuse for any widow who might turn up pregnant slightly too many months after their husband's death). The ‘original’ Nosferatu sounds more like an incubus than the naked mole-rat creature they made that movie about. The demon lover aspect of the vampire has been there all along.

And it’s not hard to imagine why. If someone is biting and sucking on your neck, then either they’re a vampire, or they’re well on the way to second base (other folklore has its vampires feed directly from their victim’s heart, which is scarcely less suggestive). The implications of an exchange of bodily fluids were never subtle, even in Stoker’s day (I'm looking at you, Lucy-with-the-three-husbands), and the vampire as a sexual predator was a popular literary device well before Stoker's time. Beautiful vampire women would seduce men to their demise, and the males of the species might visit the bedroom of some innocent maiden time and again. The Victorian obsession with mesmerism, meanwhile, provided the perfect explanation for how victims might be hypnotised into eager compliance, and perhaps not even remember being fed upon at all. Vampires have been the ultimate guilt-free sexual fantasy since way back in the day, compatible with all your awkward Victorian mores! (Not quite ready to admit they're sexual fantasies? No problem: he's just here to, y'know, suck on your neck a bit. No subtext here!)

The whole act of biting is so suggestive that in the early years of vampire cinema, it wasn’t shown at all, not even between opposite-sex participants. The camera of 1922’s Nosferatu maintains a demure distance during the climactic scene where the heroine is finally bitten and slowly drained of blood, and Universal’s Dracula conveniently fades to black or cuts away whenever it’s about to take place. But even if the biting has to take place off screen, who’s to say a vampire isn’t going to pick victims of both sexes?

The stately tradition of the lesbian vampire has cinematic examples going all the way back to 1936, with Universal’s Dracula’s Daughter. Though the titular vampire has a nominal male love interest – a psychologist who naively advises her to confront her temptations without fear – the result of his advice is a famous sequence where she picks up a young woman under the premise of wanting an artist's model, and convinces her to remove her top. No actual biting or nudity is shown (it was only 1936), but her fate is left in little doubt.

By the era of 70’s sexploitation, all such subtlety had been abandoned. If we’re all good with naked boobs, who’s going to be offended by a little biting?

In fact, when it comes to men rather than women, a vampire bite was, for many years, far too sexy to be shown, or even alluded to. Nosferatu clearly feeds on that film’s Jonathan-expy, but our only evidence is the bitemarks on his neck in the morning, and the final sacrifice to defeat the evil monster must naturally be female. Universal’s Dracula had to ignore explicit studio mandate that only the brides should be allowed to feed on their own Jonathan-equivalent, as to even imply that Dracula himself had fed upon a man was obviously far too homoerotic to contemplate (never mind that it’s Dracula who must be established as the threat in this opening sequence, or that it’s Dracula his victim will spend the rest of the film obsessed with).

But in that unspeakable land of male-on-male homoeroticism, you might be surprised how much homo we can squeeze in even without resorting to fangs-in-necks. The Lost Boys is surely one of the most homoerotic vampire films ever made, but there, the one big blood-drinking scene is rendered in a bloody massacre of slasher-movie violence. And though Anne Rice certainly describes the scene where Lestat drains Louis of blood in lurid detail (and even has them spend their first sunrise together sharing a coffin), Louis is already thoroughly seduced before he ever reaches this point.

You see, the lore of the pop-cultural vampire conveniently comes with a second and equally-compelling target for plausible deniability: the act of making a new vampire.

Obviously, to work, this has to be deliberate. A world where anyone bitten by a vampire becomes one hasn’t much to offer us, and the relationship between maker and fledgling can just as easily be framed as parental, as recruitment into a cult, or purely transactional. But whichever way you twist it, the implications of choosing another to share in your own eternal youth and immortality… like, I don’t have to spell this one out for you, do I? Did I mention how that thing where a vampire’s traditional first victim tended to be their own mortal widow goes all the way back?

But if we’re not ready to be completely obvious with our mainstream audience, some alternative explanation can always be provided for cover. Lestat doesn’t really want Louis, he just wants Louis’ money! (He also really wants Louis.) The Lost Boys just want Michael to join their gang! (Their very, very pretty gang, who swan around in mesh shirts, tank tops and assless chaps.)

The two sides of the vampire-deniability coin aren’t mutually exclusive, either. Carmilla drinks her new paramour’s blood, but also gazes into her eyes while promising her you will be mine. Drinking blood is a key part of making a new vampire in so many vampire stories, after all.

Carmilla isn’t even the only gay vampire story of the Victorian era. I recently posted about two other fascinating examples, both featuring male/male pairings: one being pretty much just a gender-flipped version of Carmilla, and the other a tragic love story filled with significant "vampire = gay lover" metaphors (why oh why must the townsfolk keep us apart, when we’ll only ever be happy once we’re united once more?) This stuff goes surprisingly far back.

In fact, you can find queer subtext in vampire fiction that predates even Byron and Polidori. 1819's The Vampyre was the first published vampire story, yes, but the first known work of vampire-fiction in the English language is a poem published by John Stagg in 1810, also called The Vampyre (look, the genre didn’t exist yet, you didn’t have to be creative with your titles).

In brief, Stagg’s poem recounts a conversation between a wife (Gertrude) and her dying husband (Herman), whose dear friend Sigismund, lately deceased and deeply mourned, has returned as a vampire. Night after night, he crawls into Herman’s room to drain his blood. Herman’s fate is already sealed, but unless Gertrude takes action, it will surely be she that Herman will take as his own first victim when he rises from the grave.

There may be nothing intentional about the queer subtext of this tale. A vampire’s victims often include friends he knew in life, as Stagg himself cites in his introduction. But if Herman’s first victim will be his wife, what are we to read about the fact Sigismund’s first victim is Herman? Especially given how long he’s kept secret from poor Gertrude that his dear ‘friend’ has been climbing into his bedroom each night, lying beside him in bed and sucking and draining "the fountain of my heart!" while Herman moans and tosses (in pain, obviously!), always leaving him "exhausted, spent." Ultimately, Gertrude is saved only when both Herman and Sigismund are staked through the heart, and we close on the image of them slumbering together in the tomb.

It is, however you turn it, pretty gay.

I reiterate: this is the very first known work of vampire fiction written in the English language. The second was the one that was kind-of-written-by, kind-of-stolen-from, and unambiguously based on bisexual-disaster-fuckboy Lord Byron. And the two most influential works of vampire fiction of the next hundred years would be Carmilla, the very lesbian vampire story written by a… presumably straight man? And Dracula, the not-completely-convincingly-hetero story written by #1 Walt Whitman fanboy Bram Stoker. Vampires have always been very equal-opportunity kind of monsters.

There are, of course, plenty of influential heterosexual vampire tales to fill out the roster too. Varney the Vampire, a penny dreadful from the 1840s, was so successful it ran for over 200 chapters. The 1960s had their own wildly successful Varney-equivalent in the soap opera Dark Shadows. Love it or hate it, we really can't ignore Twilight either. My own introduction to the genre was Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series, which came out alongside the original Vampire Diaries novels. So there's plenty of material around to keep the straights entertained – and honestly, that’s only as it should be, because the very thing that makes vampires so queer-friendly is that the sex of their victims doesn’t matter. And it’s so easy to make vampires sexy (let alone a full vampire-proposal!) that even the Victorians could do it.

Now, if your reaction to all this theorising is to tell me "but the LGBTQ’s shouldn’t have to hide behind plausible deniability!" I can only counter, "well sure, but why should the straights have all the fun?" Because playing with all the ambiguity of "is this monster really just after my blood or is this going somewhere?" can be all sorts of fun, regardless of the genders involved. And as long as they’re up for exchanging bodily fluids with persons-and-or-victims of either gender equally, why not have some fun with it?

So, okay, maybe the real title of this post should have been "why are there so many pansexual vampires?" But the answer doesn’t change. Vampires have been the bisexual disaster fuckmonsters for as long as anyone’s been writing about vampires, and have been a metaphor allowing people publish barely-coded gay attraction since 1872. And much like the queer community, they’ve only become more complex, more sympathetic, and all the more popular as romantic paramours as the years have gone by.