Penthesilea wrote on Apr 18
th, 2007 at 7:28pm:
This sounds like it could be something that could turn exploitive, at the least, very quickly. I would think that it could also cause a problem in relationships in general. How to do you tell genuine affection from the charisma/charm induced feelings that facilitate feeding? Are the people so fed upon seen as nothing but food? If so, how can it be justified in moral terms? After all, these are human beings who are being manipulated, probably unknowingly, and should be deserving of some consideration. Sorry, if I made it sound that way, I didn't mean for it to.
To break it down:
Quote: How to do you tell genuine affection from the charisma/charm induced feelings that facilitate feeding?
Some people can't. They get emotions confused with reality. This is not always just on the vamps part -donors can also form a very significant attachment and attribute more to it than there is. For psi feeders, many are also empathic to some degree, and if they have not previously learned to separate their emotions from those of others, this can be a real concern. For psi donors, this relationship is often as intimate as a lovers relationship, as they are exposing their inner self, their essence, to another person - something rarely done outside of very close interpersonal relationships. Most psi-vamps don't bother to teach their donors to shield, not considering the consequences of that link beforehand, and thus leaving both themself and the donor open to a potential issue of obsessiveness/posessiveness.
Especially in repeated situations, this becomes an issue. Repeated feedings from the same source, whether intentionally done or not, creates a link. The more that link is used, the more intense the feelings become, and the harder it becomes to separate emotions from purpose.
Genuine affection is difficult to determine under
normal circumstances, let alone one such as this. I think what you look at is this: take away that bond - what do you have? (Gotta be honest though... which people aren't always good at.)
For Sangs... it's a little different. Rarely do a sang/sang exchange, as this creates one of those bonds that go well beyond the norm. However, each person they feed from becomes a part of them, in a way. Essentially, it is the same thing - but with blood, rather than energy.
ETA: Blood-bonding tends to be extremely intense, especially if the 'psychic' senses are awakened as well. Hence my above-reference to the rarity of a sang/sang exchange. If it's done, it's typically done for exactly that purpose - bonding. A lot of people also believe that two sangs cannot get what they need from one another unless one or the other (usually the stronger) also has an outside donor.
I'm always wary of anyone claiming to want to be a sang donor, or anyone looking to do any sort of blood-play. Maybe that is me being paranoid... but blood is a powerful tool, and I wouldn't share mine with just anyone - so I'm a bit leery of anyone who is willing to give theirs freely and openly without some other sort of bond beforehand. (And there are PLENTY of those types of people out there. Eh.)
Anyways...
Quote:Are the people so fed upon seen as nothing but food?
To some? Yes. That's all they are. For me personally, no.
Quote:If so, how can it be justified in moral terms?
Aha, the never ending ethical battle of the vampire.
The short answer is: some people have no morals, and therefore need no justification. Others just don't care.
Those of us that do... are more picky and careful about who and what we take.