hey lillie! astra's told me you're working on a biology and zoology major. would you mind sharing how you got into that and what you enjoy about it?
Oh! You're one of Astra's better friends that I bantered with a little bit before! It has talked a decent amount about you since this is a more proper introduction when we are not joking around.
Indeed, I am a dual zoology and biology major at Castelia University. I've previously explained why I am in Unova instead of Alola for this, so I will not repeat myself again to keep the post easier to read.
I intend to enter the xenobiology or xenozoology PhD program studying ultra beasts. The differences and similarities between them and pokemon are truly fascinating. Did you know that the digestive systems and tissue structure enabling that process are a radically different makeup that has arrived at the same black box assessment equivalent functionality? There are many little things like this in a large number of ultra beasts, at least as far as the initial data we have shows. Granted, it is not as much as we would like to start to draw these conclusions.
Astra has reminded me not to post a full dissertation, so I will leave off the details of the membrane transport mechanisms and chemical pathways that we know are involved in certain species of ultra beast. Suffice it to say I just love learning about these little things regarding them. It scratches an intellectual itch.
That said, I am not at liberty to give the full details of the inciting incident that prompted the trek down this path towards xenozological interests specifically. Certainly not in public on an open platform like rotomblr. However, I will leave it at I am a Faller by technicality, and have a personal history with nihilego and ultra space. It was traumatizing in many many ways, however I absolutely refuse to let that control me. While I was tackling this, I discovered I was actually truly interested in them specifically, so I am very thankfully that my therapy helped me discover this in a safe and healthy way instead of manifesting in strange fixations and behaviors.
Moving on, I can tell you that I grew up in a facility nominally supposed to be about pokemon rehabilitation and species preservation, which already inclined me towards something in this field. It wasn't a good upbringing ultimately, I was emancipated at 12 years old after all, but it did leave me with a deep appreciation for zoological and biological studies. Pursuing these appreciations has been deeply satisfying.
There also, of course, is my history with competitive battling, and how working with pokemon closely gave me another window into their world. This helped further spark curiosity into how the ultra beasts which had permanently altered the course of my life may differ from them.
I hope that was a useful answer. I know I was not particularly detailed about the topics at hand or what I find interesting. I will tell Astra to give you my discord information to talk further if you want.
