I return!

[piplupcommander]

First, administrivia:

• I've got some Dragalia Lost icons in the works; it's a very pretty game that has taken over my life, thanks Nintendo.
  
• There's a bunch of ShortOneGaming icons I need to add to this post, as well.
  
• I wrote a small thing introducing Mollymauk and Gilmore into what I'm calling my Modern Magic AU (modern au but D&D mechanics, races, etc are still a thing), that'll go up when I get a chance to post it to AO3.
  

Now, personal stuff:

• I came out to my mom. Well, I told my mom something she was already aware of. ("You know me and [Datemate] are together, right??" "Yeah, I figured.") She's not totally on-board, she's had Bad Life Experiences that make her not trust people, but "you're a grown woman, you can live your life however you want." Which is refreshing when placed next to my dad's attempts to micromanage me. He doesn't know, though, according to mom he'd be Weird About It so he's out of the loop for now. My brother's known for ages, so at least that's half the family I don't have to watch myself around as much. Even if I feel like I'm going to be defending Datemate at every turn, that's kind of a normalish thing with parents, right? I don't know what normal parents look like.
  
  (Sidebar, apparently Datemate's sister-in-law is also the thing? Which surprised the hell out of me. Looks like we all got a support network for Christmas.)
  
  
• I got into my annual argument with my dad on Christmas Eve, because of course I did. (Backstory: My dad and I started arguing when I was 8 and never stopped.) This time it was about cops, how much we should trust them, and how accountable we should hold them. He's on the more lenient side, because he's a white male cishet baby boomer. Like he admits there are issues, but that we should all give the police a little space while they work it out amongst themselves. Which has clearly been working thus far. Also gave me shit about having a "bad example" for every scenario, like I was being unfair by introducing facts into the argument? Which is hilariously hypocritical for someone whose favorite pasttime is bitching about Republicans and Fox News. Anyway this is the first time I've actually been able to stand my ground against my dad without getting frustrated and upset, and he actually apologized for putting words in my mouth, so that's a thing. Looks like we also got character development for Christmas. Though I did walk away, twice, and he brought it back up, and I let him, so only teensy character development.
  
  
• Datemate's wife (I gotta get a better codename for her) got me a 5 gal. tank for my betta fish, Brimscythe, which is excellent because I've been wanting to get him out of that 2.5 gal. for ages. I gotta make room on the desk for it without moving the 2.5, which will require actually cleaning off the rest of the desk, but there are worse chores. Especially if it means a happier, healthier fish. He's come so far since the raggedy-finned thing I rescued from Walmart almost 3 years ago, I'd like him to live as long as he can.
  
  I also got the Sawbones book, Rejected Princesses, and One Tough Mother, which will keep me reading for A While, as well as the entire PS4 Kingdom Hearts collection + KH3 preorder, which will keep me video gaming for a while, and a stupid-cute Squirrel Girl wallet, which will keep my money for a while. (Also a bunch of wristbands so I can be the Matthew Mercer I want to see in the world.) Kiddo (Datemate's kid) got so much stuff, she's so spoiled, but it was worth it to see how happy it made her. She's the only kid, only grandkid, and only niece, so I suspect there will be a lot of this in her future. Her birthday's in like two weeks, too, I gotta get her something for that. (Datemate was very adamant that she gets full Christmases AND birthdays, none of this "one big present for both occasions" stuff.)
  
  
• SURPRISE FOURTH ENTRY My contacts from CircleColour came! I have vague notions of either a Lup or a Glimmer cosplay (or both), and they had a huge Black Friday sale on cosplay contacts so I jumped on a pair of purple ones. They look amazing and they wear really comfortably. I still have to wear my glasses with them but a. you can't prove Lup doesn't wear glasses b. it's a modern AU Glimmer so you can't prove she wouldn't wear glasses. And the color shows up behind them so it works out.
  
  
  So that's me until I get these icons and fics done and posted. Hope you had a fantastic holiday!