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.

But does it make sense to anyone else (as it does to me) that their breath would feel rather on the cool side? They have no body heat of their own. They derive it from drinking blood. But does that warm them up so much their breath would be as warm as a human's?

Opinions, anyone?

Comments

[davesmusictank.livejournal.com]

That is a good question and one i have thought of myself. For now i have no answer. I can only surmise that the blood does warm them up to a reasonable temperature but still feel cold to the touch against a human. In relation to this if they are undead how do they think as the brain itself needs oxygen and blood to survive.

[shapinglight]

In relation to this if they are undead how do they think as the brain itself needs oxygen and blood to survive.

This, I suspect, along with the question I asked, is one of those things you're supposed down to vampires=not natural.

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

I think their breath would come out at their body temperature. So if they'd just drunk body temperature blood it might be 37*, but otherwise it would be room temperature as they are.

I think of them as basically poikilothermic!

[shapinglight]

Erm...you mean like a reptile?

[curiouswombat.livejournal.com]

Yep!

Except they can't do a lot of basking in the sunshine...

[shapinglight]

Erm...no. They have a distinct disadvantage there.

[dalmeny]

Say the vamp has drunk the blood of one human. That's roughly 5 litres, which is roughly 5 kg. If the vamp weighs 70 kg, then there's not going to be much overall heating above room temperature. So, unless the vamp is drinking lots of people, or magic is invoked, I'd guess the temperature difference would not be noticeable.

I could pull out a physics textbook, but I want to go to bed soon :)

[dalmeny]

I suppose it might very temporarily warm the breath though, to get back to your original question.

[shapinglight]

Oh good. :)

[shapinglight]

Well, ultimately it all comes down to vampires=supernatural, I suppose. It doesn't really have to make sense.

But yes, I think they probably feel happier in a warm climate.

[felisblanco.livejournal.com]

If they'd just drunken hot blood, straight from the source so to speak, then I suppose they might manage to heat up the air a bit but otherwise I'd think it, as well as themselves, should be room (surroundings) temperature. So even if a vampire's skin feels cold to the touch against a warm human's skin I'm not sure its breath would feel cold unless the air around it that it is using is cold, and then, would the person being breathed on feel any difference?

But then again you'd need a pumping heart to fill certain body parts with blood to make them function and that never seems to stop anyone having lots and lots of sex so I'm not sure logic features anywhere into vampire activity. ;)

[shapinglight]

All this is true. I am now inclining to the opinion that vampires prefer a warm climate, if only because it makes it easier to pretend to be human.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't think so. Even if they just drank a whole body's worth of fresh blood, it would immediately begin cooling both from the loss of a heat source, but also because it would come in contact with a cooler object.

Plus, a breath of air is only inside a body for a second or so. Nowhere near enough time to warm it much, especially without a heat source.

[shapinglight]

No, blood probably wouldn't warm them up enough. I think the posters above are probably right. A vampire's breath is only as warm as the surrounding air.

So they should all move somewhere hot. Easier not to be noticed.

Also, I bet they hate air conditioning.

On the other hand, if it was too hot, I suppose they could overheat. Hmm.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I doubt they'd suffer overheating since they don't have a base temperature.

Which begs the question of how they don't freeze in cold places. We saw Angel in Ireland when it was snowing. I suppose they can go out for short intervals then rush back in where there's a fire. Like a snake or something.

[rahirah]

Magical antifreeze?

[shapinglight]

Yeah, they should definitely freeze in low temperatures. I guess you have to put them not freezing down to 'convenient magical exemption,' Barb says.

[infinitewhale.livejournal.com]

I guess it would be a fair trade for the bursting into flame in sunlight problem.

I'd think they'd like warmer places because food is more accessible. People tend to stay in their homes where it's warm in colder climates.

[shapinglight]

True. You would have to become a lot more cunning about getting people to invite you in.

[ringthebells]

I've always assumed they would freeze if exposed to sub-zero (Celcius) temperatures for long enough.

If they start out room temperature, though, it would take a long time for them to freeze (think about how long it takes to thaw a frozen chicken or whatever).

Plus (I just checked) the freezing temperature of blood is half a degree below the freezing temperature of water, so a light snow right around 0 degrees might still be in safe vampire range. :-)

[shapinglight]

:)

Hello, you.

Also, I love that you looked up the freezing temperature of blood. Only a fan would do that.

[quinara]

Someone had a fic once where the problem was that vampires did freeze in cold places, so Spike was having terrible problems on a supposedly romantic minibreak to the Northern lights, and was trying to battle through with enough furs to keep the cold out. (With a decent coat, after all, a snowshower in Ireland at around -2C or something wouldn't be enough to drop you straight down to freezing very quickly if Angelus had spent all day inside with a warm fire, so it would be realistic for him to go outside.)

But anyway, I always thought this fic made brilliant sense, and explained why Buffyverse vampires seem to flock to warm, sunny places with sometimes relatively short nights, rather than spending the winters in Stockholm and the summers in Chile...

[shapinglight]

It does make sense, and chimes in with what I wrote recently in one of my entries for the Fag Ends Anniversary Comment Fic Challenge, in which Spike told Buffy that vampires sort of shut down and hibernate when they get too cold (except that I think in my head, at the time, I thought he was lying).

What was this story called? Can you remember?

[quinara]

It was definitely a seasonal_spuffy fic... Maybe one of thisficklemob's?

[shapinglight]

Ah. I'll have to look it up. Maybe it'll give me an idea for what to write this round.

Nothing else has so far.

[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.livejournal.com]

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.

[rahirah]

That's right, I'd forgotten that bit...

[bogwitch.livejournal.com]

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

[shapinglight]

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

[sibilant.livejournal.com]

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.livejournal.com]

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.

[lyr]

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.

[ex_peasant441]

Their breath would be approx their body temperature, which we know from The Initiative is approx room temperature - so at times in California it could theoretically be hotter than a human. In that scene, Spike hadn't eaten for long enough that he was hungry so it provides no direct data on if the blood warms their core body temperature much above room temp. In theory, conservation of energy tells us it must provide some heat but given that the human body is designed to lose heat efficiently, the effect probably wouldn't last long.

In normal conditions, the breath being room temperature would feel cool compared to a human, it would also be slightly moist from the lungs, which must be why *cough cough* it sometimes seems to steam in cold night air.

[shapinglight]

So cold and damp? Eww! basically.

[feliciacraft.livejournal.com]

I have this creepy, disturbing headcanon of a freshly-fed vampire being warm with "borrowed" blood. (Possibly acquired from some fanfics I've read?) But probably not enough to warm their breath. Vampires are otherwise room-temperature, so their breath would be, too?

[shapinglight]

Yes, that does seem to be the consensus.

In the meantime, I've pretty much forgotten why I even asked the question. ;)

[slaymesoftly.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. I suspect it would feel quite cool. And I've often seen it written as such. ...Spike's cool breath on Buffy's neck... for instance.

[shapinglight]

Yeah, it was really because of mentioning cool breath in a story that I wanted to know what people thought.

[sandy-s.livejournal.com]

Your post was really helpful for my last fic...with the temperature stuff...so thank you for posting it! :o)

[shapinglight]

Heh! No problem. :)