I have decided Romani Archaman and Anders are going to be my next two cosplays

Happy Birthday Jiang Cheng! Sadly I didn't manage to complete any fics for my favorite MDZS character's birthday, but I have started writing Chengqing for the first time ever, so I thought I'd share a snippet of that:

People speak of Jiang Cheng the way they do his mother, the Violet Spider-- driven into a marriage he didn't ask for, made sharper and stern and defensive for it. It's true, that Yu Ziyuan and Jiang Fengmian were given no choice by Wen Ruohan but to wed their son and heir to his niece, lest Lotus Pier be razed to the ground in his wrath. It is also true that Jiang Cheng's responsibilities in Qishan, away from his siblings, have not left him as open to the world as he might have been. None of the actual rumors possess real weight, but every time Wen Qing hears them from the streets, she reminds herself she has done her best to be good to Jiang Cheng. If he wanted to leave Nightless City he had the chance to do so long ago.

"My uncle is dead now, and he forced this marriage. If you wish to end it, to return to Yunmeng, I will allow you. I will still consider our sects on friendly terms, unless yours makes a move toward us." It had been perhaps a month and a half since Wen Ruohan was assassinated, three since Wen Qing made her bows with Jiang Wanyin. He still hadn't settled into the crimson robes just yet, the color unfamiliar on him, his frame still carrying edges of boyish lankiness. But his response had been sure.

"I'll stay."

"And you understand the consequences?" A point of no return, years spent in the mountains of Qishan with only visits and holidays to Yunmeng's lakes. A second chance for the life he'd been raised for, locked away. Though if, later, Jiang Wanyin truly changed his mind, Wen Qing would have let him go.

She doesn't know if she could bear to do the same for Jiang Cheng now. She hopes she never has to find out.

"I knew them when I came here, and I do now." Jiang Wanyin's voice was determined steel. "My duty is to my family. You need my help more than Lotus Pier does." Wen Qing's position as the next sect leader had only just been confirmed, precarious, with only a fortnight after Wen Xu and Wen Chao had followed their father to an early grave. "Unless," Jiang Wanyin raised his gaze to hers, "You don't want me here anymore?"

There had been an ocean of uncertainty in his eyes, the weight of not feeling like enough, of not being enough to not fear rejection settling over his shoulders like a cloak. He'd never had to voice that to Wen Qing. She'd gotten used to seeing the look often enough, in A-Ning.

My duty is to my family. Already, Jiang Wanyin's definition of it had expanded to include Wen Qing. A liberty she hadn't had from years of Wen Ruohan's rule, when it was all she could do to keep herself and A-Ning safe. Family was small and held desperately to your chest, because otherwise you were doomed to lose them.

Perhaps, now that she was master of Qishan, Wen Qing could learn something from Jiang Wanyin.

Touch was still an unfamiliar thing to them, careful and hesitant, but when Wen Qing brought her hand up to his face Jiang Wanyin leaned into the sensation. "I will never send you away if that isn't something you decide yourself," she murmured, and felt the tension he held uncoil at the promise.