Sam ran her tongue along the tips of her teeth. "Bear with me on this train of thought," she said. "But, see, the thing is, vampires like me--we call ourselves Kindred, I guess, because we like euphemisms. But Kindred possess something known as 'The Beast.' It's a kind of parasite. Sort of what makes us vampires, instead of baseline humans. And when we get mad or scared or hungry, The Beast basically takes over. It's like baser instincts. Fight, flight, food. There are vampires who dedicate their whole lives to finding ways to control The Beast, instead of letting it control them. And, well, since I've been here, I haven't had a single episode of frenzy. Even though I've been royally pissed off. I mean, like, beating-up-a-tree levels of angry."

Which was to say, Bruce might be on to something. Two points of data didn't represent a pattern. But there was the possibility that there was some common theme they'd stumbled onto.

Or it was just the Overlords being control freaks.

Or both. Both was entirely possible, really.

"I wonder if there's anyone else here with a similar MPD-like situation going on that's...no longer going on."

Sadly, the first name to spring to mind was Fucky Darns. But that was different. That was terrestrial in origin and completely in the realm of normal science. Also something he'd told her in confidence.