Ask Professor Sumac

Hmm.  Did it change at all?

Well, it appears to know Sing now, but I can’t convince it to open its mouth underwater

Oh goodness, they seem very happy.  And they’ve also immediately started hugging Pipuff and chattering very loudly, which in Pokemon culture I think means they’ve adopted it. How exciting that we have a whole family of mystery evolutions!  Each evolved from the stone and not through leveling, which is highly unusual but very interesting!

I’m not really sure much changed, except that it’s called “Rufflet” now. Best not to rufflet’s feathers.

That’s Venonat saying hello.  Or did you mean my favorite Pokemon species and not just my favorite individual Pokemon?  Well that’s a bit tougher, but of course I love all Venonats, which is why I punched that Pigeot in the first place.   But let’s see!  I also love Parasect and Joltik and Caterpie and Burmy and Beedrill!  And don’t get me started on how beautiful and majestic is any given Scolipede!   This might surprise you, but I was specialized in Bug types back when I was a Trainer!  I was very strongly considering a career in Bug type research, but ultimately I chose Evolution because it had more room for.... GROWTH

First rule of Pokemon evolutionary science:  never promise anything feet.

I’m not sure if this Rolltorb is happy with its new form.  But the Voltorb family has some very difficult body language to decipher, since it mainly consists of rolling around.  If it’s mad, well, I’ll see about getting it to forgive me.

Oh my, that’s a very top-heavy Pokemon.  Side-heavy?  Unbalanced, anyway, but it seems to be managing well.  With that kind of roundness, you might even mistake it as an Oddish from a distance.

Well, it looks like I’m compelled to pick it up and hold it for a bit.  Not my decision, that’s Pipuff’s decision and I cannot argue.  It might be a while before I can get back to you on that evolution question.

She was very well behaved for the test, and I daresay she seems to be enjoying the results.  Strange that this Evolution Stone would make every Pokemon so round.  But what fun is science if it doesn’t lead you to new questions you never had before?

Goodness, I didn’t think Togepi could get any rounder but it seems I was mistaken.   But Togepi evolutions!  That’s a brilliant idea!  Since I’ve only got this one Togepi (or “Togepuff,” as of now), I’m going to loan it out to a willing Trainer who might be able to level it up and evolve it outside the lab.  I don’t know yet if this will work, but as our experimental stone is difficult to come by, it seems prudent to study all possible avenues for Evolution before wasting any. It really is hard to give up this Togepuff, though.  I’m writing a prescription for cupcakes on Tuesdays as we speak.

I think Venonat likes our new friend better now that we’ve tried out the stone.  She’s closer to Venonat’s size now, which is odd since normally Evolution would make a Pokemon larger, not smaller.  And she’s also much rounder, just like the Bidoof we tested. I’ll be referring to this Pokemon species as #123.5 for now, though she seems to be referring to herself as “Scuffer.”

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this experiment, but this wasn’t it.

Professor Sumac