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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/33011
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Unless the protagonist is sadistic, a necromancer, or an undertaker down on his/her luck, odds are that face won't be beautiful.

Depending on how long this person has been dead, and how they died, and how they're found... odds are it's going to be eerie, creepy, and downright horror and/or cringey.

Let me explain.

After a person dies, as in minutes after, they lose all muscle control. Meaning, if there was anything in their bowels or bladder? Well... HELLO WORLD!

Then comes the skin turning colour. Because the blood stops flowing, it changes colour. Slight at first, and highly dependent on skin colour, but noticeable all the same. Caucasians and light-skinned people turn greyish.

Then comes the lack of facial expression. Some like to say they look like they're sleeping. I call bullshit. They don't look like they're sleeping. It's a convenient little tale we tell ourselves. Because when people sleep, they BREATHE.

Then comes the creepiest point of all. If their eyes aren't closed, they look... Well. This depends on how long they were dead. But it's creepy no matter time lapse. First, there's the eyes being out of focus. Then there's the utter lack of expression. No matter what a person feels, it shows in the eyes. A lack of expression, therefore, is unnerving under normal circumstances. But when someone looks ahead with dead eyes? There's a reason this is used to convey a creepy sense. And if they're dead longer than a few hours (I can't recall exactly how long), their iris loses colour. It starts to look faded at first, dull almost. Slowly faded to white. Because the eyes decompose fastest, this means that the first thing people do is shut the eyes (not to make them look like they're sleeping, but to not freak anyone out).

Adding more time adds more issues. After two to three days the body should bloat from the gasses formed by decomposition. And don't get me started on the smell!

So uh. Yeah. How did this person die that they look peaceful?

Original score: 6