Vampire physiology question

[shapinglight]

We all know the whole 'unneeded breath' thing is silly, right? We do, right?Vampires may not need oxygen to live, but they do need to breathe in order to speak. Fine

Comments

[rahirah]

I would think that their breath would be whatever the ambient air temperature is. I'm not even sure that Buffyverse vampires warm up from drinking blood; I don't think that's ever been mentioned one way or the other in canon.

(I mean, the blood they drink would be warm, but is there enough heat in that amount of blood to warm the whole body? I'm dubious. When you drink a bowl of hot soup it doesn't necessarily warm your feet up. And I've always felt that Buffyverse vampires digest blood rather than absorbing it directly into their veins or anything, otherwise they wouldn't get tummy rumbles when hungry.)

[shapinglight]

I'm not even sure that Buffyverse vampires warm up from drinking blood; I don't think that's ever been mentioned one way or the other in canon.

I think you can infer it from Spike's speech in The Gift about blood what 'keeps us warm, makes us hard' etc.

But yeah, they probably are only as warm as their surroundings.

[infinitewhale]

He says 'you' though, not 'us', right? I thought he was referring to Xander and humans.

[shapinglight]

Yeah, you're right, though what he says seems to infer there's a knock-on benefit for vampires, I suppose.

[bogwitch]

Moving about would cause a little fiction heat too, no?

[shapinglight]

I suppose so - though wouldn't chafing be an issue with that?

[sibilant]

Definitely room temperature - that's why I never understood Riley and the Initiative spotting'a cold one' with their infra red, or heat sensor thingy or whatever it was. Real dead bodies are only cold because they've been in cold storage, after all.

[shapinglight]

True, though maybe comparative to a living human a vampire's body might look cold on their gizmo thingy, whatever it was.

[paratti]

Presumably non-actively smoking vampire breath would be room temp, while a vampire smoking a ciggy and talking would be hot.

[shapinglight]

Hmm, yeah, great way of not being spotted as a vampire. No wonder Spike smokes all the time.

[lyrstzha]

Still unneeded if they're not talking! Just had to get that in. But yes, I would think that their breath would be pretty much room temperature. The blood they drink couldn't possibly hold much heat for very long.

[shapinglight]

Still unneeded if they're not talking! Just had to get that in.

Quite true, though fic writers do have this tendency to shove 'unneeded' in front of 'breath' when it comes to vampires with rather tedious regularity. ;)

The blood they drink couldn't possibly hold much heat for very long.

No, so I suppose it would depend on the temperature of the room as to how warm/cold their breath was.