Poll: Shen Wei's composure (drama)

[china_shop]

Poll #33203 Shen Wei's composure

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 13

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When the drunk guy in the Dixing bar says, “[Zhao Yunlan] is dead! He has been killed by my huge fist," why doesn't Shen Wei react?

View Answers

Shen Wei has a lie detector power
5 (41.7%)

no one else is acting as if a murder's taken place
5 (41.7%)

Shen Wei would be able to sense if Zhao Yunlan were dead
8 (66.7%)

Shen Wei would be able to bring Zhao Yunlan back from the dead
2 (16.7%)

drunk guy is infamous in Dixing for boasting about killing people for real or imagined offences, every other day
4 (33.3%)

other (please specify in comments)
1 (8.3%)

The real purpose of Shen Wei's sleeve garters is

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they keep his shirt cuffs safely clear of the inkstone when he's writing
4 (33.3%)

they're purely a fashion statement
7 (58.3%)

when he’s in Envoy mode, he wears them as hair ties, and he just keeps them around his biceps the rest of the time so he won’t lose them
3 (25.0%)

they restrain his tentacles and/or other alien appendages
2 (16.7%)

other (please specify in comments)
1 (8.3%)

Thanks to trobadora for help with the poll options in question 1.

Comments

[facethestrange]

:D Fantastic polls, as always! :D ♡

In the first one I was like 'this guy just looks like he's lying his ass off' (and if he's a known liar it makes it even funnier, and less stressful for Shen Wei, I'm very in favor of that :D), but after reading the options, hell, why not all of them? :D Well, nearly all of them because I don't think he can sense anything about Zhao Yunlan (if he couldn't before they met). I'm not voting for lie detector power either because he probably does have one but I don't think he needs it here, lol.

At first I also thought he wouldn't be able to bring him back either, but he can revive people at least partially, lol, and I may be strongly influenced by your fic rn because I went 'and he could use the power of love stored in the lollipop wrapper for the rest'. :D :D

And the sleeve garters are a fashion statement, like the ass chain. :D :D

[autodach]

I was so tempted to vote for everything!
So many fun options :D

I see we drew the same connection between sleeve garters and ass chain, lol.

[facethestrange]

*HIGH FIVE* A man who wears a wallet chain with no wallet attached will absolutely wear sleeve garters that serve no practical purpose. :D

[trobadora]

'this guy just looks like he's lying his ass off'

RIGHT???? It would be more shocking if someone took him seriously, LOL.

I don't think he can sense anything about Zhao Yunlan (if he couldn't before they met)

He could have put a black energy tracker on him after they met. Just saying. *g*

(I don't think he can sense anything either; he has to actively search for him. With the park scene, I assume it's the Hallows activation he's sensing.)

he can revive people at least partially

What did you have in mind here? I'm drawing a blank.

[facethestrange]

"He could have put a black energy tracker on him after they met. Just saying. *g*"

Hah, he could, but he wouldn't. :D

"I don't think he can sense anything either; he has to actively search for him. With the park scene, I assume it's the Hallows activation he's sensing."

Good point too, yep!

"What did you have in mind here? I'm drawing a blank."

Whatever he did to Zhang Ruonan counts as partial reviving in my book? She wasn't fully dead, but she was as good as dead, and I don't think any other chance of survival existed.

[china_shop]

(I don't think he can sense anything either; he has to actively search for him. With the park scene, I assume it's the Hallows activation he's sensing.)

True. And if we go back far enough, I don't think he was expecting to be caught at the crime scene in ep 4. But I think he might have been expecting ZYL to intervene in the mugging...

What did you have in mind here? I'm drawing a blank.

Wu Tian'en?

[china_shop]

<3 <3 <3

In the first one I was like 'this guy just looks like he's lying his ass off'

Hee! Yes, he is super drunk.

Well, nearly all of them because I don't think he can sense anything about Zhao Yunlan (if he couldn't before they met).

Maybe if it were after the Dial exchange?

I'm not voting for lie detector power either because he probably does have one but I don't think he needs it here, lol.

Hee! (I always wonder if he has one, and that's why he gets so exasperated with early-canon ZYL's bullshit. :D)

and I may be strongly influenced by your fic rn because I went 'and he could use the power of love stored in the lollipop wrapper for the rest'. :D :D

LOL, awwww! <333

And the sleeve garters are a fashion statement, like the ass chain. :D :D

*nodnodnod* (Fwiw, the sleeve garters question is recycled from the days of yore, and fashion won hands-down then, too. :D)

[trobadora]

Maybe if it were after the Dial exchange?

Oh duh! I forgot that during his captivity in Dixing, when he's chained to the Pillar he can sense ZYL's energies in turmoil (while ZYL is in ZH's dream), and later in the Palace IIRC he's sensing ZYL coming to Dixing. So there's evidence of ZYL-sensing, but it's after the Dial exchange, so that explains the difference very neatly!

[autodach]

Drunk guy is the least credible witness ever, which is no surprise to anyone present clearly. He's obviously spouting bullshit. And even if he wasn't, I think Shen Wei would have to see Zhao Yunlan's dead body with his own eyes to believe this.

For the second poll, it's fashion. 100% impractical, just like the decorative butt chain.
Although I love the hair tie option, I think Shen Wei would have dedicated ties for his hair, and not misuse his sleeve gartners.

[facethestrange]

"Although I love the hair tie option, I think Shen Wei would have dedicated ties for his hair, and not misuse his sleeve gartners."

Hee, YES, I was thinking the exact same thing too. :D I adore this option but he has high quality hair ties only for this purpose. :D

[trobadora]

And even if he wasn't, I think Shen Wei would have to see Zhao Yunlan's dead body with his own eyes to believe this.

Oh yes, great point! (And also 100% agreed about drunk guy, yes!)

And now I do want Shen Wei to have dedicated hair ties. :D

[china_shop]

Drunk guy is the least credible witness ever, which is no surprise to anyone present clearly.

True, but otoh, drunk and angry and potentially violent means something could have happened? And then he might get defiant about it when speaking here. (But I really don't think the ordinary citizens of Dixing would be calmly sitting around drinking with a murderer, lol. And you're right, where's the body?)

I think Shen Wei would have dedicated ties for his hair, and not misuse his sleeve gartners.

Hee! That sounds right. :D

[maggie33]

I love this poll. It made me laugh so much right in the morning. Thanks. :DDD And yeah, that guy clearly looks like a lying liar who lies. So no wonder Shen Wei doesn't seem worried. Heh...

[trobadora]

that guy clearly looks like a lying liar who lies

100% agreed, it's not even remotely credible. Hee! :D

[facethestrange]

Heee, it was a delightful poll to wake up to for me too. :D And ITA, I wouldn't believe that guy either!

[china_shop]

Yay, I'm so glad! <3

And yeah, that guy clearly looks like a lying liar who lies.

Haha, true. And everyone else is just watching, like, yeah, there he goes again. :D

[trobadora]

Poll 1: All the options are fun, but honestly, I think it's just obvious the guy is drunk-bragging and not for real.

Poll 2: fashion!!!! Collar stays, sleeve garters, that chain - Shen Wei likes his fashion accessories. :D

[facethestrange]

Yes to both. :D And there was a post somewhere about how his collar stays don't serve any purpose either, but I really don't know enough about collars to have understood why, lol (I think he used two different ways to keep the collar in place simultaneously, from what I remember?) Either way, everything he wears is ultimately for the aesthetic. :D

[china_shop]

but honestly, I think it's just obvious the guy is drunk-bragging and not for real.

I mean, he does have a legitimate grievance. His mask! But yeah...

Collar stays, sleeve garters, that chain - Shen Wei likes his fashion accessories. :D

Aww! That makes me a little sad that he woke up after hats went out of fashion. ;-D

[donutsweeper]

That guy definitely is a bad liar but I also think Shen Wei would just *know*

[china_shop]

Aww! That's fair -- they have a connection that spans millennia, after all! *smishes them*

[facethestrange]

The more people say it, the more I'm into this idea that he would just know. :D ♡♡♡

[lunarriviera]

So I'm gonna be the only person in the world who thinks this, but the sleeve garters serve a psychological purpose. Just like the flawlessly tailored three-piece suits with the jackets that fit like a glove, the unnecessary vest, and the trousers that are painted on. Just like the glasses he doesn't need and the unassuming haircut (that probably cost a month's salary to look that artless) and the prim little smile that fools exactly no one (or anyway stopped fooling Zhao Yunlan pretty early on). If Shen Wei weren't literally held together by a thousand tiny artifices, he's afraid he would fly apart into a galaxy-sized being made of nothing but overpowering lust and rage.

He wouldn't of course; he's come a long way, over the millennia (and has never been anything like his drama twin anyway). But the fear is always there. If you drop one thing—if you skip, say, for example, the sleeve garters one day—then how do you know you won't start putting other things down, maybe just for a second, because you're getting awfully tired, and then what if you don't pick them back up again? As a scientist, Shen Wei should know that the slippery slope is a logical fallacy. But he generally thinks the rules are different when it comes to him.

(Honestly don't ever stop to consider the sheer level of conceit the little ghost king/黑袍使 has. He really believes the world would end if he were to be anything less than flawless. Men would rather pretend they're a god than go to therapy.)

—The ass chain tho? None of this accounts for that; the ass chain is just slutty.

[china_shop]

You're not the only person! The sleeve-garter question is recycled from an old poll, and there were plenty of people there who agreed with you, iirc. To me, it seems a rather novel-derived reading (by which I mean, I personally don't see that tendency in drama!Shen Wei when I approach the drama as a thing unto itself), but given how closely the drama adaptation follows the novel in certain ways, it's not unreasonable to assume that subtext is in the drama, too. Thanks so much for adding it to the discussion (and expressing it so beautifully)!

ETA: I was going to say that by episode 20, Shen Wei is already wearing looser, less fitting clothes, but checking sakana17's clothes reference, I think that's mostly in ep 20? He goes back to fitted clothes (complete with sleeve garters) for a long time after that. :D

—The ass chain tho? None of this accounts for that; the ass chain is just slutty.

Hee!

[facethestrange]

Ooooh, I'm listening. What a gorgeous comment, it reads like a story in itself. ♡♡♡ I see all of this so much for novel Shen Wei (not really for drama Shen Wei personally, just because his backstory is so different), but damn, I LOVE novel Shen Wei and I'll be thinking about this a lot now. This is SO GOOD.

"If Shen Wei weren't literally held together by a thousand tiny artifices, he's afraid he would fly apart into a galaxy-sized being made of nothing but overpowering lust and rage."

"But he generally thinks the rules are different when it comes to him."

SO GOOD.