[color=#35FDF3][b][u]Ryoka[/u][/b][/color][center][img]https://ifd-spaces.sfo2.cdn.digitaloceanspaces.com/custom/157.132.png[/img][/center][color=#35FDF3]"Hrm. The eyes still need some work, not that Typhlosion eyesight is anything to write home about, but otherwise I'd say it's a success."[/color]
At those words, The Typhlitto or whatever you would call it began to vibrate before partially melting like something out of a horror movie. Eventually Alkahest had to give up and revert to their natural Ditto form. They still haven't mastered putting other pokémon heads on the body of a Ditto, but they've been making slow and steady progress, and the data generated was already valuable by itself.

Ryoka turned to her laptop to see that Archidoxis, her Porygon-Z, gave the transformation a stability rating of about 75%. Such a data point might have been useful if she didn't already know that Doxis was just making numbers up based on vibes. [color=#35FDF3]"Come on, don't you think that's a little harsh? It's certainly better than Shinx-Ditto. This transformation is at least an 80%. It's a solid 'B' grade in my book. We'll keep that version for now."[/color]

Archidoxis made its eyes appear on-screen for the express purpose of rolling them at her before bringing up an image of the Typhlitto and zooming in on its upper half, highlighting how its mimicry of Typhlosion coloration make it look like it's wearing a goofy hat.

[color=#35FDF3]"Those are arms, Dox. Well, half of it is, anyway."[/color]

Archidoxis responds by generating a poorly photoshopped image of Alkahest wearing a gaudy fur coat that was lazily color shifted to match Typhlosion's fur. The Ditto's small dot eyes were replaced with humanoid eyes with exaggeratedly extended eyelashes, and a handbag with a small Lillipup inside was edited over one of Alkahest's arms.

Ryoka simply gave her laptop The Look™, and Archidoxis silently deletes the image before bringing the compiled details about the Typhlitto back to the forefront. It was a collection of all the data they had gathered about the form recently, along with ballpark estimates of its relative capabilities.

[color=#35FDF3]"Let's see... Fire/Normal, has Flash Fire like Mom's, though a different sample would likely yield different results. We haven't been able to do much testing on the form's capability, but what we have found is consistent with the biased split we've found in Dittosion, only backwards. It seems Ditto-bodied pokémon aren't very physically inclined, though I suppose that was to be expected, and they likely make up for it elsewhere..."[/color] Ryoka is pulled out of her thoughts by some wibbly wobbly sounds, which she realizes is coming from Anthroparion, her Reuniclus, who non-verbally informs her that she's spent too much time on this instead of breakfast. Oops. She grabs a granola bar, her laptop, her bag, and everyone's pokéballs, and is soon out the door and on her way to class.

Pokémon Ecology was far from the top of her priority list, but if she put it off until her third year and her research had a breakthrough that prompted a visit from some government bigwig looking to farm Nine-tailed Slowpoke or to give beached Pyukumuku feet so they could walk themselves back into the ocean, she'd probably want to squeeze in a more advanced Ecology class in her third year to be able to give them a proper action plan. For that, she'd need to take the 101 class first, and if nothing else it was a graduation requirement, so she'd need to get it done sooner or later for the Professor title that some people cared more about than actual results.

She found a seat, took out her laptop, and began compiling the results of some of her previous experiments until some guy in a stained lab coat announced that he was the TA for Professor Birch and would be acting as a substitute until the Professor returned from Hoenn's Desert Underpass. After finding it, she opened up the class syllabus and began reading through it while mentally criticizing Professor Birch's inconcise wording and, simultaneously, listening to the TA just enough to register what he was saying. Basic habitats and biomes didn't seem like it would contain much new information, though she supposes classes always need to start off like this to make sure people don't get left behind. If it proved to be too boring, she could always just tune out the redundant information and start making plans for future experiments. In fact, she already had one, which she promptly began composing a message to Professor Birch for. DNA samples from uncommon regional pokémon weren't easy to come by, after all. Surely a professor wouldn't mind gathering a small piece of Trapinch carapace for a student, would they? Whatever else he can get his hands on would also be nice, but a Trapinch's jaw strength was truly something to behold.