#dots answers asks

[honeydots]

Because I love you~Xanlow

"Because I love you." xanlow | 1.4k | rated T ask game

Laslow's been left in a heap of mud.

Not long ago, he and a small army of Xander’s personal guard were in the midst of fighting. Only against some bandits and ruffians, but they were facing off in a mucky marsh. That was trouble all by itself, it was hard to move around without worrying you were going to lose a shoe.

But Xander's father provided them with a battalion of faceless for protection during their travels. And as creatures that are notoriously hard to control, one of them carelessly thwacked Laslow in the chest as they fought. It knocked the wind out of him, and he actually flew backwards and straight out of the battle.

At that moment, Laslow was profoundly grateful for the squishy mud that broke his fall. It could've been a lot worse, and a lot more deadly, had he landed on something hard or sharp. The mud acted as a nice and slimy pillow, and he was promptly smothered in it.

Dazed, Laslow couldn't pull himself up right away. Then he started sinking, fantastically, and he had to use every muscle in his body to try and keep himself steady. With a dull ache in his chest, Laslow resigned himself to his fate of needing some help to get up.

Everyone left him behind, though. Smartly, the battle moved out of the swamp and onto the more solid ground of the forest. So now Laslow's stuck, alone, mind jumbled and chest sore, in a smelly bog. Perhaps the mud was more of a curse than he imagined.

Thick drops of rain begin flicking down onto Laslow's face. Ah, not good. He might actually drown if this place begins to fill up. He decides to stop mucking around (ha-ha) and give an honest attempt to get up. It isn’t exactly fun to be lazy in the mud, but he’s tired, and he wanted to wait out as much as he could.

And he tries to escape! He really, really does! He just realizes that he's still sinking more than he's making progress and stops quite quickly afterwards.

So that's horrible. Laslow’s senses don't sharpen exactly, rather he begins to panic. Wait, is he really stuck? He tries to struggle less aggressively, but he can't find any sort of solid ground, and he really regrets letting himself sink down this far. Oh, it feels gross, and the rain is still coming down. He’s going to be devastated if anything gets in his mouth.

Which makes Xander’s sudden voice all the more heaven sent.

“Laslow!”

Laslow tries to lift his head enough to see where Xander is—and he eventually spots him, only his blond hair standing out against the dark. But he’s looking around quite aimlessly, Laslow realizes.

“Milord?” Laslow calls, and Xander snaps to attention, eyes finally on Laslow in his personal mud bath. He comes running over, and Laslow kind of awkwardly plops his head back down. “I’ll have you know I was just thinking about getting up, but somehow my limbs aren’t entirely cooperating—”

“Are you hurt?” Xander asks, kneeling next to Laslow while safely out of any gooey spots. He’s looking him over, and also absolutely staring at the mess of muck Laslow’s gotten himself into.

“Oh—I think so. But I’m not bleeding.” At least he’s pretty sure he isn’t. He feels oddly moist, but he’s certain that’s because of the frequently aforementioned mud. “I think it’s my ribs? I’m achy.”

Xander frowns down at Laslow. Then, in what seems to be a quick decision, Xander grabs the top of Laslow’s vest in a hard grip, and begins to lift him out of his muddy heap. It’s weird, even more so because it works, and Laslow stumbles onto solid ground on his hands and knees.

An exhaust comes over Laslow in the moment. It was hard work, seriously, to keep himself from sinking, lazy as he looked. He slips a bit, rolls over to sit down, and looks over at Xander quite pathetically.

It should be noted that pathetic looks work enormously rarely on Xander. So when he sighs and begins to turn, at first Laslow thinks he’s actually leaving him to his own grubby devices.

But, a cautious “Climb on my back,” from Xander speaks a different truth which Laslow readily accepts.

“Ah, my savior,” Laslow says as Xander stands, holding Laslow’s weight very well. But he always does, despite the many burdens Laslow brings along with him. “I was worried I’d drown for a moment there. Someone once said to me that it’s not a bad way to go, but how could they possibly know that? I’m not convinced, I'm really not.”

“You’re awfully talkative.”

Laslow sighs. “I’m very lightheaded.”

“We’ll find a proper place for you to rest soon.” Xander continues walking, carefully avoiding the deepest mud pits in the bog. “You were quite a ways, you know.”

“Because you all ran off and left! Abandoning me in a literal pile of goop.” Laslow flings a slop of mud off of his hand for good measure, and Xander shakes his head with a scoff. It gets a laugh out of Laslow, which makes also his chest hurt. So he just rests his chin on Xander’s shoulder. All cold and metal, of course.

“…You came back and found me, though,” Laslow says. He’s teasing a bit, too.

“I did.”

“What made you?”

Xander scowls, eyes still ahead and looking at the thicket of trees they’re slowly approaching. “What made me? You disappeared.”

“I suppose so.” Laslow tilts his head back and forth, chin still planted on Xander’s armor. “Any better reasons?”

Very often, Laslow fails to amuse Xander. Unfortunately, there isn’t a happy ending to this. “I will grant you the mercy of not assuming that you were hoping to be praised for having been trapped in mire.”

“Well thank you, because I wasn’t. I’ll admit, however, that I’m always open to my ego being stroked.” Laslow tilts his head a little far, and manages to bonk the side of Xander’s head lightly. Xander doesn’t shake him off—he doesn’t really do that anymore. Laslow has been gracefully granted the right of toleration. “My heart needs an extra beat or two, or I’ll die right here.”

“Quite the exaggeration,” Xander says plainly. Laslow scrunches his nose.

“Won’t you indulge me? Savior?” He earns a huff from Xander for that.

“Was there something noxious in that mud?”

“You wound me!” Laslow kicks his feet about, until Xander readjusts and makes Laslow nervous to fall. “I’ll be quiet if you tell me something good.”

Xander seems annoyed, but not nearly enough so that Laslow will stop being playful. There’s always some room for this, he thinks. Unless Xander gets actually mad. But lately, many things have changed, and… He doesn’t, as much.

“Why did I rescue you,” Xander repeats, not quite muttering. “Am I correct that you wouldn’t be satisfied with my saying that you’re my valuable retainer?”

Laslow grins, feeling a small warmth radiate in his chest. It’s just beneath the pain, settling in soundly. “It would’ve been enough, though you’re welcome to go on.”

Because Xander is fundamentally a kind man, he doesn’t just drop Laslow for the comment. But there’s long enough of a pause before Xander speaks that Laslow’s sure he considers it. “What would you like me to say?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” Laslow presses his lips together. “Because I’m invaluable and not an idiot for getting knocked into a pit of mud and almost dying very stupidly?”

…Laslow is kind of embarrassed, actually.

“Hm.” Laslow waits, but that’s all Xander provides.

“Hm?”

Xander looks around. Though the army isn’t in sight even still. The two of them are very much in their lonesome, unless this muck and gunk all over Laslow is sentient.

“May I say because I love you?” Xander asks.

Laslow feels himself blush. He grunts a little, and he stuffs his head into Xander’s cloth collar, digging his nose into his neck. For a moment, he rests there.

“That works, I think,” Laslow says, still nestled in. He pauses. “…May I say I love you back?”

Xander slows his pace a bit, and he rests his head against Laslow’s. “Will you always be so needy with me?’

“Only a little.” Despite how he can’t find any exposed skin, Laslow still kisses Xander’s neck. “Thank you for saving me.”

Xander exhales. And he keeps walking through the forest while Laslow pecks his neck and bumps his jaw.

“It was only some mud.”

[dotstronaut]

A gift 🤲

Ahhhh thank you for drawing my silly fluffy eldritch beasts!

[daily-grian]

he's coming for you

(and wishes you health, hope you'll get better soon mod Owl 🫶)

(this is like my second time drawing Grian so forgive for any imperfections)

.

[therealraewest]

A friend and I were watching Little Shop of Horrors on a website frequented by sailors under a black flag but anyway we were nearing the end of the movie and Audrey was dying and I was like huh I thought she survived and my friend was also very confused like "hey this isn't how the scene is supposed to go" but I remembered reading about a second, apocalypse ending of the movie that was different from the theatrical release, which somehow we had stumbled upon by pure accident

So we both watched on in increasing distress and disbelief as Audrey II proceeded to eat Audrey, then Seymour, then be sold as a million tiny Aubrey II's that proceeded to have extended monster-movie montages of taking over various cities and landmarks and fighting the military

And at least I had some sort of knowledge this was a thing that existed but my friend just stumbled into watching the existential horror version of a beloved childhood favorite.

[howlonomy]

If Star is a lizard/some sort of reptile, does he have slit eyes like a snake? Is that why he hides his eyes with his big nerd glasses and hat? So that no one can see his eyes?

starlo eye reveal

[basilpaste]

can we boop looping isa?

so i like. misunderstood this a little bit when i first read it and by the time i realized i was in too deep. but. osisa boop.

[bokettochild]

For context, I have included a brief explanation of all of these stories below the cut :)

Opera House AU:

Hyrule Centric

Main plot but some side drama for the cast as well

Follows Hyrule going from homeless to (maybe) a superstar

Probably pretty trope-heavy <3

Downall Duo centric

Modern AU

Unabashed musical references and theatre crap from a kid who acted all of once in her life

probably unrealistic but girls just wanna have fun

Crown Amidst Courage:

Legend centric

Prince Legend

crack fic mostly, but knowing me we'll have some drama too

follow the chain finding out individually that Legend's a prince and all assuming they're the only one who knows

copious fluff and shenanigans

probably will end up resembling Feathered in some ways ngl

Probably some Dad Sky content

Copious Legend love

Legend & Everyone bonding

How I Met Your Princess:

Chain centric

the chain get separated and paired seemingly randomly with each others' princesses

Getting To Know You shenanigans

exploring the various princesses of Hyrule

heck ton of new dynamics

I have no clue what's happening but neither do they :D

Badass girlies

Confused boys

Served A Slice of Life (working title but I'm not too attached):

Legend centric

as advertised, it is slice of life

Legend learns to be a hylian boy instead of a hero

Malon content

Talon content

Parental Time I Promise

Post-LU, everyone gets stuck together on Lon Lon

Metal Health heavy but nothing too dark

Team As Family in every possible way

A Stitch In Time:

Semi Warriors-centric

"Wars isn't canon" fic

Angst/Fluff fic

Wars gets a factory reset because he was never supposed to be a hero. The boys meet him as a normal guy after watching him essentially die while traveling with them. He has no memory of them (or does he?)

Copious Taylor family headcannons

Warriors in Customer Service Hell

Slice of Life on one side and tragedy on the other

Lots of Legend & Warriors with other dynamics to be determined

Magic shenanigans

Sort of memory loss AU, sort of not

[shanastoryteller]

Happy lovers season Shana! I'm very excited for the upcoming prompts! 😀 Can I please request some more Enola Holmes or Miss Fisher's Murder Mysteries? 💚 If not please feel free to do a dealer's choice. I love all that you write and it fills me with joy to see new updates from you 😊

set in the same universe as Here is Your Home Country

Dot doesn’t want a big wedding, doesn’t want a lot of fuss. Married at her church, and then Prudence has offered to have the reception in her garden. Probably more at Jane’s insistence than anything else, but considering Mr. Butler has already insisted on handling the catering and logistics and anything else she might need assistance with, she might as well.

It’s sweet of him, really. She knows that he’s worried about her sisters that disapprove and her mother that disapproves and her brothers that had been apocalyptic at the news, and how that means she’ll be planning this wedding without them. She’s not worried. They’d never cared about her life or her happiness until it was something that would embarrass them.

The less said about what her friends from church think, the better. But she hasn’t headed their gossip for years, not since she started working for Miss Fisher.

Jack’s a good man and doesn’t deserve their ire. She won’t tolerate it.

~

“You’re really doing it, huh?”

Dot looks up and feels first pleasure then wariness that settles on a gut rolling mixture of the two. “Hello, Nell.”

Her older sister is standing over her, blocking her light, but she just closes her notebook and uses her foot to nudge the chair opposite her. The waiter should be by again soon.

She looks different out of the heavy makeup and light clothes of the club. Wearing a sweater and long skirt, she looks like the sister Dot remembers. “Mum called me. Me.”

Dot winces. “You’re invited, of course, I just wasn’t sure where to send the invite.”

Nell leans back in her chair, raising an eyebrow and reaching into her purse for a cigarette. Dot wishes she wouldn’t. She hates the smell. “I didn’t really get that impression from you two.”

“We were just colleagues then,” she says, which isn’t completely accurate, but neither is friends. Or perhaps it is. They knew one another then, and respected each other, and were kind to one another. But she’d had Hugh, and Jack’s eyes had been on Miss Fisher, and – they hadn’t known, then, where they would end up.

It’s nice.

She knew him and liked him and cared about him before she loved him. It makes her feel like she can trust him, that he won’t surprise her in a way she doesn’t like.

Nell hums, then says, “She wants to know if you’re having money troubles.”

Dot stares, wishing she knew her mother a little less well and didn’t understand exactly what she was saying. “She thinks I’m marrying Jack for his money because I have gambling debts?”

She shrugs. “You know what she sees at the church.”

She’s not going to get angry. Getting angry won’t do her any good. “I’m marrying him because I love him.”

“You loved Hugh,” she says. “He was cute. Your age. He even converted.”

Part of her wonders who was keeping Nell updated on the gossip of her life. The rest of her doesn’t care. “He didn’t love me right.”

“There’s a wrong way?” she asks, too lightly.

“Yes,” she says, biting the inside of her cheek to keep from scowling. “And I can’t love anyone right who loves me wrong. Hugh and I would have been miserable, in the end. We were in love with people that didn’t exist.”

She’d wanted someone who would love her through all of her changes.

Hugh had wanted someone who would never change.

Even in her bitterest moments, she can’t truly blame him. She had been a static woman when they’d met. She was the one that changed and she was the one that had wanted someone who would love her anyway and she was the one that had ended their engagement when she’d realized that someone wasn’t him.

Nell leans forward to steal her half-drunk cup of coffee, leaning back as she gulps it down in three long swallows. “Okay. I’ll tell Mum to back off, yeah? Not that it’ll do any good. She never listens to me anyway.”

“Oh,” Dot says, startled, and then Nell is getting to her feet and waving as she melts back into the crowd of the street.

~

Bert and Cec are in their room, sleeping after working through the night. Jack is over, but he’s never not known, and these days they don’t even bother to shove their twin beds apart when he's here.

She’s seated on her knees at the coffee table, Jack sitting behind her on the couch, nose buried in a case file that she’s going to look over herself as soon as she figures out this seating chart.

Jack clears his throat and she leans back, pressing her back to his knees and looking up. The file has been discarded and he’s looking at her with a sort of warm softness that has her reaching out her hand and letting him haul her upright just enough so that she can fall into his lap, seated sideways so her legs are stretched out over the couch.

His arms come around her waist and his lips quirk up in an almost smile. She smooths out the line between his eyebrows with her thumb, almost asks, but know it’s a waste when he’s nearly there already.

Sure enough, he looks at the space over her head and asks, “Do you want us to get a new house?”

She blinks. She hadn’t considered it, really, had assumed that she’d move into the house Jack has now. She’s been there. It’s a very nice house. A little empty feeling, perhaps, but she figured they’d solve that quickly enough. Instead of saying any of that, she asks, “Do you want me to want us to get a new house?”

He looks at her then, exasperated, and she smiles, shifting her hand lower to trace his bottom lip. He licks his lips, his tongue barely brushing her fingertip, and her breath hitches, but he says, “Rosie picked it.”

It makes sense that his first wife helped pick the house, and Dot has never tiptoed her way around Rosie, but that’s not quite what he’s saying.

Rosie picked it.

“Do you like it?” she asks.

Jack shrugs, looking away from her again. “She made a good choice.”

“Yes,” Dot agrees. It really is a very nice house, in a good area. “But do you like it?”

He shifts beneath her, meeting her gaze when he admits, “I let her pick what she wanted. I thought things would be okay, if I could give her what she wanted.”

And now it reminds him of how much that didn’t work, how she left that house and him both. He’d offered her the house in the divorce, but she hadn’t wanted it, for her own reasons.

“Why don’t we pick something we both want?” she asks, because no matter how nice the house is, she doesn’t want what he doesn’t’. “I bet Mac has some good leads on houses that are going to be on the market. She knows so many useful things like that.”

“Yeah?” he asks, relief making his whole body relax even as his arms tighten, tugging her that much closer against him.

“Yeah,” she echoes, then dips down her head for a kiss he’s eager to give her.

[canisalbus]

is there a reason you usually answer asks with a . and talk in the tags? i got confused when i first saw that bc usually when people do that its a 'presented without commentary' thing but you do have commentary haha it feels like you're answering just in whispers like a ghost

.

[lara-cairncross]

which fairy boy is the strongest?

uhhh this one's a little tricky to answer!! it kinda depends on what you mean by "strength" lmao

If we're talking about, like-- pure physical strength? Then the ranking would go Raph -> Donnie -> Leo -> Mikey, from strongest to weakest!

Raph naturally has a lot of muscle, and he does a lot of Scout training/animal wrestling, so ofc he's gonna be big and strong; Donnie is pretty jacked from wearing his wing brace constantly and blacksmithing/forging in his workshop, although he and Leo both have more of a sleeper build; Leo has less muscle mass because he's primarily a speedster, but he does occasionally have heavier deliveries to make, so he's not weak by any means; and Mikey quite literally works with light, so he really doesn't have any reason to be as buff as he is in the show!

on the other hand, if we're talking about how strong their talents are, thennnn from strongest to weakest it would probably go Mikey/Donnie -> Leo -> Raph.

Mikey and Donnie are pretty tied when it comes to how powerful they are relative to other fairies with their talent, since they're both considered "prodigies" in their talents. Mikey could probably edge Donnie out of first place just by a tinyyyy bit, but only because Mikey's ability could reasonably be considered "strong enough" to use in a fight (and other ways, but thats spoilers teehee), whereas Donnie's talent isn't something you could whip out in the middle of a combat scenario. the Tinker talent reminds me a lot of how, in the Percy Jackson universe, children of Athena don't technically have any special powers-- they're just more clever and innovative! the Tinker talent works similarly in my mind :]]

Leo and Raph are also pretty tied in this regard, but I see Raph as the weakest in his talent because he tends to get so excited and overeager that he accidentally scares the animals he's trying to take care of! he makes up for it by being a really good honorary Scout fairy though, and he got to learn sick combat skills on top of it, so it all kinda evens out :D

[honeydots]

Since you are still accepting asks: 1 and 21 for Xanlow.

OTP ask game~

1: Who is the better cook?

probably laslow!! i think he's had to cook for himself a lot more frequently than xander has. i don't think he's great, but he's not bad. you can put him on cooking duty and rest assured you won't be poisoned.

xander can follow instructions. important. he can do what a recipe says. but there's some know-how he lacks, and i think his food might end up slightly bland? but also this is a good chance to insert one of my favorite pictures i took from one of my fates runs

XANDER'S MACARONI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

21: Any routines one has that the other had to get used to (ex. morning, nighttime, sleeping habits)?

laslow being a total night owl was probably something xander needed to adjust to lol.... not necessarily how you would expect it tho, i feel like xander is late to bed and early to rise (king of 5hrs of sleep) and moreso has to get accustomed to not being alone so late into the night. laslow is late to bed but late to rise, so he probably needs to get used to xander getting up early. which i think he would complain abt because he wants to romantically wake up next to xander lmao. xander is certainly a man with Routines and i think laslow does know that, but he really wants to be able to sneak into that routine. which might not work at first, because he's interrupting and xander has shit he needs to get done. eventually laslow adjusts to that by finding ways he can slip in without being intrusive. xander compromises a bit, too, by actively making time for him when he otherwise didnt (or, well, not in the way laslow wanted. "quality time together isn't reviewing foreign policy in the same room, xander" dfjsd).

[dotstronaut]

Will you be doing an OFMD calendar for 2024?

Sorry I missed this ask!

The 2023 pin-up calendar was a collab between many artists for charity, and one that we had a lot of fun making. It was a lot of work but totally worth it - we ended selling more physical copies than I ever thought we would and raised $750 for Rainbow Railroad!

As far as I know, there were never any firm plans to do another one for 2024.

I was so busy at the end of last year that I didn't even think about it... I bought a house in December, so that whole process consumed ALL of my brainpower for months beforehand haha.

For what it's worth, the 2023 calendar (and all of the beautiful art inside) is available to download for free in my shop!

[daily-grian]

A boy I drew for a au I'm working on

(Feel better sooooon!<3)

.

[thirtysomethingloser92]

AND THE FACT THAT YOU NEED TO FIND A WAY TO WRITE IT INTO THE STORY.

[kelin-is-writing]

You do realise that villains in general are extremely abusive people. Dabi or any villain for that matter would be very toxic in a relationship given their cruel personality. Also their abusive and toxic personality is what drawn you to them. Just admit that you like abusive men.

I don’t know bubu… You have literally a HERO who has been abusive, a rapist and a groomer toward his family for YEARS, so I honestly think you should worry more about the self-proclaimed good guy who’s rotten inside than the bad ones who knows that they’re bad 🥺

Besides, you’re on Anon, give me a reason to care about whatever you’re saying and then I’ll give a fuck to you on my side 💜

[howlonomy]

Boo(spooky)

our clovers :D

(discussing the best & worst cowboy movies and their innacuracies)

OUR CLOVERS!!! THIS IS SO CUTEEE they r having an INTENSE debate do not interrupt them….