I think what people are missing here -apart from sarcasm, obviously- is a bit more of the old imagination, separate from the confines of the strict rules and regulations of Reality. Thus, as a writer, I would say the following: Blood is VERY reflective, while it is wet. It can also be quite reflective while congealing, AND in some rare instances on certain surfaces it can dry shiny. Though -more often than not it just turns a dark maroon color, looking nearly black in some lighting, rots, and gets hard and crusty.
If we were to place ourselves in a fantasy or horror setting - in a world outside of the normal living world - a world of death, we'll say, where the physics of our known reality need not apply and the life blood of humanity flowed as oceans and rivers with souls swimming here and there, --infested with demons and angels vying for control of them, navigable by sea-faring vessels-- I'd dare say one could look over the edge of such a vessel and see one's reflection quite clearly. If there were enough light. Most certainly the light of stars and planets or whatever made up your sky, be it hellish fire, screaming, tormented, lost souls, -cast out of the lake of life blood- (or great distant holes in a far-off cavern roof in the underworld which mimic stars, each showing the light of different realities)... ((Or maybe all of the above in different zones, levels or depths or this world, each with its own associated dangers)) So many choices, and life is so short.
However, blood is thick. Would you be able to see through it and see creatures beneath it? Would you see the demons and angels, and creatures making up the hopes and dreams and fears and greed and hate and love of humanity- if that was what you chose to put there? If you wanted to realistically describe such a thing, no matter what YOU wished to have beneath these blood waters in your dream or nightmare or fantasy realm of hell or death or what have you, I'd make it so that the things moving beneath that crimson surface emitted a radiant luminescence of their own. The souls themselves, made of bright living energy. Maybe the monsters born of human minds, or the demons or both were a danger to those traveling on these seas or rivers or lakes or streams. Those could be dark and harder to make out in the depths below. One would have to remain ever-vigilant, on-the-lookout for incoming dangers. Shadows coalescing in the murky depths could be harmlessly passing or moving in for the attack.
I think what people are missing here -apart from sarcasm, obviously- is a bit more of the old imagination, separate from the confines of the strict rules and regulations of Reality. Thus, as a writer, I would say the following: Blood is VERY reflective, while it is wet. It can also be quite reflective while congealing, AND in some rare instances on certain surfaces it can dry shiny. Though -more often than not it just turns a dark maroon color, looking nearly black in some lighting, rots, and gets hard and crusty.
I am drawing a great deal of this from a book of mine and I didn't come here to advertise it so I won't mention the title. But these things I've said could perhaps serve to inspire. At least I hope to have given a unique & useful answer. I didn't read all of the ones given.
Feel free to use any or all of what I've typed as inspiration. Even the parts that directly reflect bits from my book won't really matter in the long run, even if directly plagiarized from this post. you could give me credit, though, if you wanted. As well as the poser of this question for having inspired you, but no one is twisting your arm. :)
If we were to place ourselves in a fantasy or horror setting - in a world outside of the normal living world - a world of death, we'll say, where the physics of our known reality need not apply and the life blood of humanity flowed as oceans and rivers with souls swimming here and there, --infested with demons and angels vying for control of them, navigable by sea-faring vessels-- I'd dare say one could look over the edge of such a vessel and see one's reflection quite clearly. If there were enough light. Most certainly the light of stars and planets or whatever made up your sky, be it hellish fire, screaming, tormented, lost souls, -cast out of the lake of life blood- (or great distant holes in a far-off cavern roof in the underworld which mimic stars, each showing the light of different realities)... ((Or maybe all of the above in different zones, levels or depths or this world, each with its own associated dangers)) So many choices, and life is so short.
However, blood is thick. Would you be able to see through it and see creatures beneath it? Would you see the demons and angels, and creatures making up the hopes and dreams and fears and greed and hate and love of humanity- if that was what you chose to put there? If you wanted to realistically describe such a thing, no matter what YOU wished to have beneath these blood waters in your dream or nightmare or fantasy realm of hell or death or what have you, I'd make it so that the things moving beneath that crimson surface emitted a radiant luminescence of their own. The souls themselves, made of bright living energy. Maybe the monsters born of human minds, or the demons or both were a danger to those traveling on these seas or rivers or lakes or streams. Those could be dark and harder to make out in the depths below. One would have to remain ever-vigilant, on-the-lookout for incoming dangers. Shadows coalescing in the murky depths could be harmlessly passing or moving in for the attack.
I am drawing a great deal of this from a book of mine and I didn't come here to advertise it so I won't mention the title. But these things I've said could perhaps serve to inspire. At least I hope to have given a unique & useful answer. I didn't read all of the ones given.
Feel free to use any or all of what I've typed as inspiration. (except for copy and pasting the entire thing or most of it as your own post or article somewhere and claiming you wrote it, because that's just lame.) Even the parts that directly reflect bits from my book won't really matter in the long run, even if directly copied from here. you could give me credit, though, if you wanted. As well as the poser of this question for having inspired you, but no one is twisting your arm. :)
This post was edited so that purposely incorrect usage of formatting does not offend those who are bothered by such things... rolls eyes