Why does Abby Undress in Owen's bedroom?

[intrige]

And here comes a question that twist my mind whenever I write a LTROI fan-fiction. If Eli, and Abby too I suppose, don't feel cold. (It shows with all thise bare feet and so on, without doubt Eli and Abby doesn't feel cold. Do they feel heat, warmth? And if so, would we feel cold or heat different than them?
Abby did not get undressed to feel human warmth in that sense to get worm again because she was cold, that's for sure. But if you say human warmth in "confort, cuddling etc" I think that migth be so, for both of them.

[lombano]

And here comes a question that twist my mind whenever I write a LTROI fan-fiction. If Eli, and Abby too I suppose, don't feel cold. (It shows with all thise bare feet and so on, without doubt Eli and Abby doesn't feel cold. Do they feel heat, warmth? And if so, would we feel cold or heat different than them?

I think they can perceive temperature, but are not bothered by heat and cold. It's like people who go somewhere much warmer or colder than they're used to - if you live somewhere cold and go to a warmer place, you can still perceive nights are cooler than days, etc, but you might not be bothered by it, you might be comfortable wearing short sleeves at night while those used to the warmer weather might be wearing sweaters.

[Jameron]

I always thought it was like Lawrence of Arabia, where he says "The trick Mr Potter(?), is not minding that it hurts".

[a_contemplative_life]

I think maybe the cold issue is related to the idea that their flesh is dead in the natural sense.

[EEA]

I hadnt thought about why they don't feel cold. Now i think that it was due to their need to survive. Not feeling cold is advantage for when is time for them to feed. Or when they are in a place where the weather is harsh.
Probably the same think for not feeling warm.

[sauvin]

I think maybe the cold issue is related to the idea that their flesh is dead in the natural sense.

This proposition has always amused me. Their flesh is dead, meaning, there's no metabolism to maintain it, but they heal wounds many times faster than a living person can? There's no metabolism to convert matter to energy, but they're so much faster and much stronger than living people? Biochemical processes have ceased, but their nervous systems lend them now superhuman hearing and sight?

[PeteMork]

I think maybe the cold issue is related to the idea that their flesh is dead in the natural sense.

This proposition has always amused me. Their flesh is dead, meaning, there's no metabolism to maintain it, but they heal wounds many times faster than a living person can? There's no metabolism to convert matter to energy, but they're so much faster and much stronger than living people? Biochemical processes have ceased, but their nervous systems lend them now superhuman hearing and sight?

I think Lombano has it right. As a rule, pain and discomfort are nature's (or evolutionary adaptation's) way of telling us we are either damaging, or will damage, our bodies in some way if we don't avoid the source of such pain or discomfort. Since heat (except for fire) and cold have no detrimental effect on vampires, why should either cause them discomfort?

It's because of Sauvin's observations above that I have always thought that a vampire's body temperature would be the same or higher than our own. Their metabolic rate seems likely to be much higher than our own, from which we can infer this higher body temperature. (Unless of course we simply ascribe all their powers to the realm of the supernatural, in which case all rational bets are off)

[Swaefheard]

Is the flesh really dead and has metabolism completely ceased? LTROI's Eli said he hadn't died when Oskar asked the question. I assumed that the blood consumed would be metabolised in much the same way as food is by a normal human and the body temperature raised by the various reactions during that process. The metabolic rate after the blood meal has been digested would likely be something approaching zero which would lower the body temperature. Near zero metabolism during daytime rest and the hibernation periods would increase the time between needing to kill again as well as making the vampire seem cold and dead as in the classic coffin-sleeping variety.
For a vampire to have a constant high temperature it would surely need to feed more regularly and increase the risk of detection.

[metoo]

[...]It's because of Sauvin's observations above that I have always thought that a vampire's body temperature would be the same or higher than our own. Their metabolic rate seems likely to be much higher than our own, from which we can infer this higher body temperature. (Unless of course we simply ascribe all their powers to the realm of the supernatural, in which case all rational bets are off)

Well, Eli seems to ingest a few litres of blood about once a week. That is substantially less than a normal twelve year old kid eats, which would rather suggest that Eli's metabolism is lower than a normal human one. And some of the feats Eli does, like jumping two metres straight up from still standing, or, indeed, ripping the heads off two kids, require a strength no human can muster. Not even someone who is built like this guy.

So, some magic is required, I think.

[PeteMork]

[...]It's because of Sauvin's observations above that I have always thought that a vampire's body temperature would be the same or higher than our own. Their metabolic rate seems likely to be much higher than our own, from which we can infer this higher body temperature. (Unless of course we simply ascribe all their powers to the realm of the supernatural, in which case all rational bets are off)

Well, Eli seems to ingest a few litres of blood about once a week. That is substantially less than a normal twelve year old kid eats, which would rather suggest that Eli's metabolism is lower than a normal human one. And some of the feats Eli does, like jumping two metres straight up from still standing, or, indeed, ripping the heads off two kids, require a strength no human can muster. Not even someone who is built like this guy.

So, some magic is required, I think.

I agree. Some magic is required, but I like the idea that it is minimal.

Keeping this in mind: (Unless of course we simply ascribe all their powers to the realm of the supernatural, in which case all rational bets are off),

We can see Eli's breath (and Abby's, to stay on topic) in the cold air night air, from which we can infer that her normal temperature is well above ambient temperature. Also, other animals not far from us on our family tree (Chimps come to mind) are much stronger than ourselves per pound of body weight. (Perhaps we can ascribe the difference between a chimps strength and Abby's to magic.)

It is also implied (At lest in the book), that Eli can't urinate. I prefer to infer from this that perhaps she metabolizes blood much more efficiently than a human could; or else she would sweat like a pig or get bloated really quickly. (In fact, I'm not sure a human can really metabolize large amounts of blood at all so normal human metabolism is likely not a factor. The rest is magic.)