anthusa:

1953swan:

i understand why vampires traditionally look dead but for my own purposes i’ve always preferred the opposite. they look too alive, as though every part of them is trying to convince you that they’re human. that they can be trusted. their cheeks are flushed like a painted doll’s, almost unnerving. all the saturation turned up, creating richer dark tones and brighter lights. their eyes look glossy, teary, emotional but glass-like. their appearances compensate for what they don’t have and as a result they’re just curious enough to intrigue you, like an uncanny painting whose eyes follow you as you walk through the museum, persuading you to return once more before you go just to ponder, when in reality they’re like a frog in the rainforest, poison but incredibly beautiful.

anne rice’s vampires were so radiant, so diaphanous, that they couldn’t appear under lamp-light lest they be taken for ghosts or phantoms. and their eyes were glass-like, iridescent, as were their fingernails, which I always found interesting. I’ve always personally leaned towards the idea that vampires are both divine and hideous, a kind of mirroring between the beauty in decay and the decay in beauty.

Vampires that look human and alive at first glance but the more you stare the more you notice discrepancies? so vampires look like AI generated faces?