Crouching Acolyte, Hidden Dragon

[Dirt Nap]

Dirt Nap smiles. "Well, I spent a lot of time in hospitals, before I was embraced, and the humans all seemed to respond differently to their medicines and surgeries and treatments too," he says. "I think there's a tendency for all kinds of people to make something simpler in our minds then it really is, to pat ourselves on the back for understanding it."

"Honestly, I am not sure I have a spiritual part anymore. I suppose you could say I am agnostic tending towards cynic on the subject. I tend to go on the assumption that my physical existence is all that is really real, since my embrace. So, I tend to believe that physical changes are the only kind that are real changes."

He chuckles and shakes his head, saying, "I don't expect to ever walk in sunlight, at least not in my own body."

Dirt Nap nods as Thomas Boyle describes the mysterious reticence to share any information as to the local lair of the Dragons. "We are somewhat of a mysterious bunch." he agrees, sympathetically.

[Dirt Nap]

"Oh, I do believe in souls, very much. I just tend to doubt that I have one. I have a beast where a soul used to be, I think." Dirt Nap says thoughtfully. "As to other, scholarly types and their thoughts on the matter; like we were saying, I tend to put more stock in my own personal experiences."

"I am a beast whisperer. It isn't just a Gangrel thing. It's possible to get further enough along to where you can live through an animal, feel what it feels, and go about in the day like that." he says.

"I suppose if the main purpose of a Covenant is to show how powerful it is to everyone than mine might be doing it wrong." Dirt Nap considers. "I don't believe that's the main point of it, myself."

Dirt Nap ponders, "I wonder what the practical steps along the way would be, you having such a big goal for yourself. What's your next step, do you think, Thomas?" he asks Thomas Boyle.

[Dirt Nap]

Dirt Nap nods in understanding, "Now, I am not saying I'm right. Not that I know it somehow, for sure and certain. Just what my personal lean is. I think our physical bodies hold in 'em a recollection of who we were. Maybe like a movie projector, that's unplugged, with no power. I think modern medicine someday might be able to take a regular old dead body, and play out the story of everything that was thought and felt and done in it, when it had a soul in it." he says.

"I think the beast is an outside thing, that slides in where a soul is meant for, and gives it energy."

Dirt Nap looks at Thomas Boyle, "That's what I think I am, anyway, not a baby god, but a recording of everything a man was once, fighting against something that came later, took that man's place, but doesn't yet have the full run of it, because it's given some life to his memories, an echo of the man, not the man himself."

When Thomas Boyle challenges the dependibility and reilability of personal memories and experience, Dirt Nap shrugs. "Well, I guess I'm still somewhat of a youngster as our kind goes. I might have to rethink things in a while." he says.

Dirt Nap chuckles at Thomas Boyle's pop culture reference. "Well, that was a good story, and somewhat based on some things I believe in the way to properly treat horses and people." he says. "If you liked it at all, I could recommend a book I like, 'Zen Horse, Zen Mind' that kind of speaks to what we were talking about somewhat, underestimating the physical and its power over the mind and soul."

He shakes his head slightly, "But that's a thing called, 'Natural Horsemanship, and what I was referring to is pretty much the opposite, being as unnatural as you can get. A Discipline of our kind, about dealing with animals, maybe a little the way you dealt with people, on our investigation together. You might remember how we ended up finding that place in the end, me having some conversations with some local four legged types in the neighborhood."

Dirt Nap nods, "I don't much disagree with you about trials, though I might mean the word a little different, like a trial and error and observation in a scientific method of experimenting."

[Dirt Nap]

Dirt Nap nods, apparently agreeing to disagree on the thoughts of what is or is not 'natural'. "I think the scientific method, namely theorizing and then testing and repeating to see if a theory holds water...can apply across the boards. If a theory can't be tested, then best to always bear in mind it's 'just' a theory, no matter who says it or where it was written down or how long ago." he ventures.

"As to faith." Dirt Nap chuckles, "The scientific method to my thinking takes a whole bunch of faith...when the experiment to test a theory are on yourself." he says. "Like the saying, when you're eating a breakfast of eggs and ham, the chicken believed and donated; the pig was committed."

[Dirt Nap]

Dirt Nap chuckles at Thomas Boyle's observation. "Well, yeah. You have a point there. I only have to succeed once, I guess. But since failing is a good shot at ending me, I do like to have some repeatable evidence that success is likely to happen before that last all or nothing roll of the dice." he says.

At Thomas Boyle's observation of the Grand Wrym's choices, Dirt Nap shrugs, "You know, I've noticed that it's a dangerous thing, when a man gets to be an expert in something." he says. "Seems like it tends to tempt him to think he's an expert in any other thing he happens to have an opinion on. In my experience, that's a dangerous temptation, leading to all kinds of assumptions and mistakes, much of the time, fatal."

Dirt Nap sighs. "I have some areas I am pretty confident about. Why a horse does a thing, being one example." he says. "I am no kind of expert on why any of our kind do anything we do. And I'm just plain ignorant of what any of us are likely to do next."