I feel like in reverse retransmigration AUs where Shen Yuan gets sent back to the modern world, he should get to be a bit weird. A bit bizarre. A bit baffling.
This man spent like the entirety of his twenties and early thirties as a graceful and powerful peak lord in a fantasy novel. That does some weird shit to you I'm sure.
Imagine he gets shot back into his old life, and after freaking out then compartmentalizing everything, he starts incorporating things from his life as Shen Qingqiu into his life now.
I think the funniest way to conceptualize this is through the POV of, like, his sister.
- Shen-mei just got back from college to visit her brother, who got out of a hospital stay a week ago. Last time she saw him, he mostly grumbled about a shitty web novel and binged some anime with her and ate takeout.
- when she gets there, the house is, like, unsettlingly clean.
-When her brother appears, he has hair going to the middle of his fucking back. When asked about it, he just shrugs and says he got extensions. Extensions that look extremely fucking expensive
- It's summer. It's the middle of fucking summer and this man is wearing a collared shirt with a large-sleeved sweater over it, and loose pants. She has not seen him in anything more formal than jeans since her graduation
- he offers tea. She's only ever seen him microwave tea, but before she can decline he whips out a whole traditional tea ceremony tea set. The tea is really fucking good, and he has matching snacks???
- there's new paintings on the wall, when she asks where he got them, he sheepishly admits he painted them. They're incredibly beautiful traditional paintings. She wouldn't believe him if it weren't for... Everything else.
- A curly haired man comes in and introduces himself as A-yuans boyfriend
- A-YUAN HAS A BOYFRIEND??? WHOS A 10???
- AND NAMED LUO BINGHE???
Honestly if I was SYs family I would have just as big a conspiracy board about him being replaced as the peak lords have for SJ. It would be so fucking funny