???

{ HodgepodgeofHooligans } - Star approaches Eclipse, staring at them for a moment before burping up a fairly large Hercules beetle at their feet. Somehow it’s alive, and very active! -

Though it took a moment for the Skitty to notice the skittering bug in front of him, he began his gentle pat down of the beetle at his feet. His ears twitched as he listened, before one swiveled in Starflower's direction.

"Cool hercules beetle. Whats his name? Also, did you burp him up? I only heard him skittering after you did. How did you do that without killing him?"

[ @pokitsune ]

???

…Uh.

“Big” isn’t food, he’s my friend…

“Small Dad” says you don’t eat friends…

He’s a “Die-nasty Herculease” Beetle. Small Dad got him for me.

His name is “Big”, because he’s big…

…

{ @bakfoo @sometimesplusheevee }

Ive recently been using ask hints for the first time this year and honestly I find them extremely useful but also very hard to come up with if the blog is either plotless or me pulling shit outta my ass 97% of the time (which is often) 🤣 I used to just go with whatever would come into the inbox, which can sometimes be fun to play around with, but I understand some people have Choice Paralysis when it comes to picking characters or asking certain questions even with the ask hints there. It helps to bold certain hints if you really want something pointed out!

I don’t usually send asks myself or have others send them, but only a very few number of people know the plots of my blogs lmao.

I wanna know some behind the scenes things!!

Ok! In replacement of taking munday questions, I have a few for fellow blogs. I'm always curious on how other people handle own their blogs behind the scenes and what types of responses they get. So here's a few questions I'd love answers for! Feel free to either respond as much or as little as you want through reblog, or reply. I don't mind.

Do you have your friends send questions to your blog with meta knowledge? (Alternatively, do you just send them yourself?) What do these questions normally highlight?

(Like, do you ask your friends to send asks specifically pointing out details that the general audience might miss. Or to point out specific nuances of your characters feelings over what they're going through. etc etc be specific if you feel the need to)

When people don't use the ask hints (if provided) when sending asks, do you still find that those asks that are still useful to you? Alternatively, if you don't have ask hints, have the asks being sent satisfy you enough to reveal what you want about your characters?

If you provide ask hints, how well do they work? Are the majority of the asks you get based off the ask hints? Do most of the hints you provide get used, or are there some that still never get covered?

Feel free to also include anything else that you feel useful to know! Add context, or maybe a different approach. I know this seems particularly plot-based blog focused but I'm all for hearing the responses of non-plot ones. It'll help with perspective! I did always feel a little.. lonely in knowing how other people feel about their blogs going, if it was going how they wanted or what challenges they face. It really helps to uncover the veil to understand the person behind the blog! Thank you, if you take the time to answer these, or even just read and consider.

Welcome to Pokitsune, a Pokémon Ask Blog!

Rules | About the Mod & Other Blogs | Characters | Ask Hints

@???: - Hana, a Very Normal Human™️, stands at a distance, surveying the gym and it’s leader- “Huh…so this is a gym. I’ve heard of these things, where Pokémon trainers challenge leaders in battles and win badges. I know people enjoy these things, but what about the Pokémon? Do they enjoy battling in these challenges? What happens if a Pokémon doesn’t “have what it takes” to keep up with a gyms reputation? Do they get retired or…?”

Characters

Pokemon discovered

---

The Arcanine looked about. This was the last place... right? As he tried to recollect, a throbbing in his head made him grumble under his breath. That Vulpix, a bitter thought as he paused in his search. That Hana actually did something... nice, despite their first encounter. It would be best to quash- something caught his eyes, a small Vulpix kit with a unique fur pigment. A squint. Pink and stardust... "Hey kid where's your parent?"

Admittingly, the child wasn’t expecting the hulking figure of the dog to cast such a wide shadow over them. Had they not realized they were being spoken too, they could’ve mistaken him for a tree, compared to their relative size.

Huh???

Starting from his paws and eventually craning their neck upward until they eventually toppled over, the child would struggle to see who was addressing them, considering they sun shined just behind their shadowed glare. Not bothering to get up, they would give a snort.

“…”

“Why are you so big, and stinky? You smell like dirt poop…”

[ @lustrous-dawn ]

Starflower

Yeah, I love my dads. Small Dad’s at home while Big Dad’s at work.

Sometimes Big Dad’s gone for a while, but sometimes they’ll bring me snacks when they come back, or they’ll come home for lunch. Small Dad sometimes works at home but sometimes they’ll go into the city to work, so I’ll go to grandmas house so she can look after me.

I like to visit Big Dads’ job with Small Dad, it’s kinda like camping, but no bears…

{ @askadelcatty }

Hey fam 👋

As I’m sure you might’ve noticed by now, my activity here has slowed to an occasional tumbleweed in the empty desert. 😅 I hate to admit it, but my muse for askblogging hasn’t been around for the past few months; which is a little embarrassing considering I was in the middle of rolling some minor plot out on some blogs lmao.

Rest assured, I haven’t abandoned askblogging altogether, I just haven’t been in the mood for it for a while. Needless to say, the brainworms have been throughly occupied by FFXIV and its grip is still quite firm on my throat.

I’ll still poke my head in here every now and then to catch up a little, but when I post and update on any of my blogs you’ll be sure to see it. For now, if you really need to reach me, you can have my Main & FFXIV Twitter:

Main: https://x.com/veiledvulpes?s=21

FFXIV: https://x.com/blorbooflight?s=21

https://x.com/blorbooflight?s=21

Alternatively, if you have my discord (mutuals only please), you’re always welcome to send a message. Be warned that I’m quite timid and I’m very bad with small talk though. 😅

Until then, take care! 🙌

Previously: Hana ordered a bowl of Kitsune Udon and Ray asked a rather deep question to which Hana responded with clarity. @pokitsune

Ray listens attentively. But, as Hana takes a pensive stop to think, his hands sneakily shifts to the x-transceiver behind the counter away from their view.

Sounds easy enough...

His attention is brought back to Hana as they started to talk once more. Other than a slight twitch at the words "I hated it-", Ray gives Hana his full attention..

It wasn't long until Rio came back.

She trots off, shooting a thoughtful glance over to Hana to see if her presence bothered them any longer. Nevertheless, she continues to do some "book keeping" away from Hana’s area–most likely to give them the reprieve from the cynophobia she was informed about.

After unpacking the groceries, Ray takes stock of what he has in front of him.

Hana has already humored him with a deep response to a heavy question, so to keep them waiting without food would just be rude. He’s going to have to work with what he’s got and take short cuts.

Short cuts or not, this was a delicate operation. Skipping the steps to soak the seaweed to boil it might risk a bitter and slimy stock if boiled too long. Take time too little to twice fry the tofu and you’ll end up with a sad addition of soggy tofu. He has to time it right…

The broth shimmers with golden clarity. The noodles look like they are not too firm and not too soft. While there may be traces of some of the spice falling to the bottom of the bowl, it looks complete and carefully concocted.

A tasteful addition of the necessary toppings sit proudly on top. The Inari-Age looks like it's not typical of what you'd expect from Kitsune Udon, but reminiscent of the sweet and salty taste despite its hardened and crispy texture.

This is the type of a lunch that will have you ready to take on the afternoon without feeling too bloated. 

By all accounts, Ray thinks he did a pretty good job. He’s quite proud of himself for this one. 

I followed this recipe to do some research!

I gave myself the limitation of "ok there's a customer who needs their food asap." So 10-15 minutes max. Here's what I found:

The recipe is absolutely right in claiming that dashi powder isn't as good as homebrewed dashi. HOWEVER I live in a place where Japanese ingredients are hard to come by. I'm actually surprised I didn't find bonito flakes.

You can skip the soaking konbu part, but I hiiiighly recommend it. You'll end up with a broth that doesn't feel complete if you skip this part. Speaking of broth, udon noodles are also extremely filling--if you make a broth with it, it better not be heavy because you'll be a vegetable after you eat. But if you get all the ingredients right, you'll end up with a good meal that I totally forgot to take a picture of. Just imagine it's what I drew because that looks better anyway

I didn't read the instructions close enough--the inari-age is supposed to be a marinated/seasoned in dashi, soy sauce, and mirin. I just had bland tofu puffs... In my defense, there's a lot of Japanese terms thrown around and the recipe blog was un-intuitive to follow.

Granted, there's absolutely no way you can make inari-age in the span of 20 minutes, especially if you're making the tofu from scratch. One way to change that, however, would probably be in the process of combining the seasoning/marinating process with the frying process. I can't confirm this, I haven't tried it and I was getting too antsy to let this reply go unfinished.

Angela@???: "Oh, you look so interesting, dear! I've never seen a Vulpix with a coat like yours. Where are your parents? Staying by yourself is quite dangerous for a kit like you."

Starflower

Big is here so I’m not by myself. He’s like Megaro, but Megaro is bigger and isn’t as strong as Gojira. He’s the king of pokemonsters so he has to be super strong.

…

Are you a bat? You kinda look like a “Crow-Bat” but bigger…and black…

…

I heard Crowbats need a lotta blood all the time or they feel bad, are you here to drink my blood?

It kinda looks like fruit juice, but it doesn’t taste the same…it’s supposed to be important though so you can’t have mine, okay?

Maybe they have some at the grocery store…

( @askwornhearts )