This conversation between Cliff de Calais (designated "C") and Christian Parker (designated "P") illustrates Dr. de Calais's curious views on Vampiric Physiology. ---------- C: Thanks for coming by on such short notice, Parker. Come inside and we'll get started. Ok, now lie down and make yourself comfortable. P: No problem. C: Ok, the first thing you have to understand about yourself is exactly how important blood is to you. You see, I made a remarkable discovery a while back - I'm dead! Quit giving me that look. You see, when I was first embraced, I assumed that vampirism is just an altered state of life - that some sort of force had acted on my living body to alter the way it operates, and that the whole "unlife" thing was just a poetic term derived from folklore referring to our dietary requirements. The truth, however, is that my body is dead and kept in a perpetual state of suspension. P: This doesn't seem very useful. C: So you want to know how this affects you? Watch me move my arm. To move my arm, I flex my bicep, right? And the bicep is flexed because my brain has sent an electric signal down through my nervous system which causes vitamines in my muscle cells to ionize and therefor get pushed out of the cell membrane, resulting in a concentration gradient which pulls at the water in the cytoplasm causing the cell to contract and thus the muscle to flex, right? Wrong! You don't use vitamins anymore! You don't even use your nervous system! You're dead! Crazy, huh? P: Yeah Cliff... real crazy. C: You see, when you were alive, your subconscious mind, your involuntary nervous system, and your endocrine system worked together to translate your mental commands into bodily responses. Now, all of that function is carried about by the blood. If I want to move my arm, then the blood responds to that command, and if all the blood in my arm moves, then the arm has to move, too. Dig? Blood is the new connection between mind and body. I know it sounds a little sketchy, but think about it for a moment - it makes sense. What happens when you are low on blood? You're likely to lose control of your body, and you find out later that your body has done things which you normally wouldn't do. And when you're completely drained of blood, you enter torpor and you can't move at all. Additionally, when you need to, you can make yourself be stronger or faster or tougher than you normally are, and doing so requires use of blood. You could probably pick up a car if you wanted to, although you'd burn through so much blood that it wouldn't be worth it. That's because your strength has nothing to do with muscles (they're dead tissue), it's all in the blood. P: So you're saying I don't have to go to the gym any more. C: Well... yeah, but that's not the point. Let me think. I guess it would follow that your body isn't really necesary at all, right? It should be possible to reduce our corporal state down to pure blood without losing any of our mental abilities. What a thought. P: Shocking. C: Sorry, I'm getting sidetracked. Are you still with me? P: No. C: Good. Blood's got some other amazing properties, too, which I haven't been able to explain yet. For instance, your blood remembers who you are. That's how healing works - you spend blood, and it remembers how your body should look, and it puts your body back the way it should be. That's also why you have a "metabolism." Have you noticed that you lose blood pretty regularly, even if you don't use it? That's because your body is dead and your blood has to continually heal decay. Our ability to heal and our inability to age are in fact the same effect. But you also have a disability - unless you keep a constant connection between your mind, your body, and your blood, your blood's self-image will decay. Everytime you lose control of yourself, your blood gets confused and forgets who it is. Thus, since healing is of the blood, no amount of healing will ever make your feet go back to normal. That's why it is so important for you to keep your anger on a leash - you will slowly forget who you are until one day you might be unrecognizeable. I think that this disability might have some connection to your Fortitude, as in the more rigidly your blood holds its self image, the easier it is to be broken, but I can't really say anything until I have time to study both phenomenon. Am I boring you? Your eyes are glazed. P: Yes. C: I guess most of this isn't necessary information, but I wanted you to understand what you're doing. So everything you think you are doing with your body, you are in fact doing with your blood, right? By removing the body from the equation, you free yourself from the limitations of your body, as well. So settle back, relax, and focus on your metabolism. Imagine your heart beating faster. Imagine your adrenal glands going into overtime. No, of course you don't still secrete hormones, but the mental idea is the same, and your blood will translate your conscious desire into the effect we want. Ok, focus, focus, concentrate on burning through your blood. Make yourself stronger, whatever you want, just do it quickly. Hey! Did you feel that! You just flushed bright red. See, wasn't that easy? P: Not bad, Doc. C: Practice that as often as you can. You're going to have to do this mentally for a while - using that much blood that quickly is going to be a concious effort, but as you get more used to it and more comfortable with the fact that your body operates differently, it'll become more and more natural, until eventually you can do it without even pausing. That's about all I can teach you, the rest is just practice. Any questions? P: Does my insurance cover this? C: It's on the house. Were you listening to me at all? P: No, not really. C: Well, off you go. If you have any other questions, just give me a call. Transcribed and maintained Elizabeth Kent