Human Version
Grace gets playful while Rocky tries out the Eridian’s artificial human body (1699 words)
Lee!Rocky Ler!Grace
tw: tickles, slight sensory issues, the lack of ability to protest(?), tell me if I missed something
Author's note: I beg of you, tell me if it moves too fast. It’s not exactly long and I feel like the tickle scene is all over the place. I cannot improve if no one tells me I’m doing something wrong, constructive criticism is appreciated! Alright, ENJOY!! 😃
Rocky held the thinking machine up to his eyes curiously, making happy humming sounds when the screen lit up. He still wasn’t over the fact he could now perceive LIGHT. It was amazing!!
It had taken almost a year of pure struggle, but the Eridians had finally made an artificial human body. The body itself hadn’t been that big of an issue to make, the Eridians used Grace’s DNA to replicate muscles, blood, skin, the works, but figuring out how to use the body took a while. Eventually though, after a very long talk with Grace about electricity, they figured that they could hook Rocky up to some xenonite electrodes to send his brain signals through the air and into the brain of the body. Grace compared it to a human technology called “wifi.”
Despite the time and thought that had been put into the design of the body, there were still some major flaws that would need to be fixed. For Rocky, it was the sensitivity of the body. All light was either too bright or not bright enough, the temperature was either too hot or too cold, things were either too exciting or not exciting enough, and it was always tired! It was overwhelming sometimes, but it was a price he was willing to pay.
For Grace, it was the height of the body. 6 feet 3 inches. That was three inches taller than himself. It wasn’t fair. The only somewhat human thing around for 11 lightyears was TALLER THAN HIM.
Grace tried to pout about the height difference, standing beside Rocky, but he was unable to keep the silly smile off his face when Rocky screeched in excitement. Rocky didn’t know how to work the vocal cords of the body yet, so any sounds that came from him were entirely uncontrollable and accidental.
Honestly, Rocky would have found it humiliating to be acting like a pebble if he weren’t so gosh darn distracted by all the human things he could do. He was jumping happily around, giggling and squealing at just about everything, even tackling Grace into the sand to curl up on his chest in a cuddle.
The happy noises that came from Rocky were enough to make Grace start tearing up. Rocky smiled widely with his head on Grace’s chest, listening to his heartbeat. He could hear so much less but the things he could hear were just…amazing. When he heard Grace sniffle, he looked up at him with concern. Grace leaking! Why Grace leaking, question?
Rocky hummed, moving his sandy fingers up to Grace’s cheeks to wipe away the tears. Grace giggled and pushed his hand away gently. “I’m fine buddy. It’s just…great to see you enjoying yourself.” Grace ran a hand through Rocky’s hair, chuckling as the Eridian (man?) nuzzled the side of his head into his fingers.
When Grace pulled his hand back, Rocky couldn’t help the saddened noise that came from his throat. He tried to grab Grace's hand to put it back, but he was shoved into the sand before he could do anything. He wiggled around in the sand, sitting up to give Grace a finger waggle. No Grace, bad bad bad. Push Rocky off, statement, not nice.
Grace laughed at the disappointed look on Rocky’s face, finding this to be the peak of entertainment. “Whahat’s up buddy? Having fun over there?” He teased, poking Rocky in the forehead. Something about being able to survive in the same atmosphere made Grace quite playful. He figured it was the pack instinct humans had that made him want to connect…or he just wanted to royally screw with his buddy now that he was physically able to. Either way, Grace was giving in to the playfulness.
Rocky swatted at his poking hand, a sound close to a growl coming from him. Grace pulled back, holding in another laughing fit at the noises that Rocky was making. The more Grace looked ready to laugh, the more grumbly sounds Rocky would make.
When a little snicker left Grace’s mouth, Rocky threw some sand onto him angrily. Of course, it was playful anger, which Grace could see by looking at the smirk on his face, but he still had to make a point. Grace sputtered, sitting up with his stern teacher face on. “No throwing sand Rocky.”
Rocky rolled his eyes and did it again, this time making sure to get some in Grace’s shirt just to piss him off more. He squeaked when Grace got him back by poking him quickly up and down his side.
Grace paused at Rocky’s reaction to his poking. Was the artificial body…
“Rocky, are you ticklish?” Grace giggled and stood up to loom over Rocky. “I mean, I knew you were ticklish, but I didn’t know that…this body was.”
No no no, bad bad bad!!! Rocky quickly shook his head, starting to giggle at the sight of Grace standing above him. Since he wasn’t able to protest verbally, he tried to tickle him first. Yes, that would work! Both of his hands flew to Grace’s tummy, a well known tickle spot of his, but that just gave Grace an easy way to pin both of his hands at the same time. Despite being physically bigger than him, Rocky’s body wasn’t all that strong.
“No, no, no, none of that Rocky.” Grace scolded playfully while he pinned Rocky’s arms to his chest with one hand while the other went to his side with little pokes.
Rocky squealed and pulled on his arms, but the man above him had that stupid upper body strength that held him still. Human tickling was so weird! It felt like being attacked by soft electric currents that wanted nothing more than to hug you. It wasn’t nearly as buzzy as Eridian tickling was. Human tickling was more like soft kisses and Eridian tickling was like being shaken so much you get dizzy and stupid happy.
Well, at least now Rocky can honestly say that both versions drive him crazy.
Grace couldn’t help but tease Rocky, using the teases he would normally receive if he were in Rocky’s position.
“Why are you giggling so much, Rocky? I’m hardly touching you!” He dug his nails into Rocky’s armpits, making him cackle. “So loud, Rocky, you’re so loud.” He pretended to be annoyed at the fact that Rocky was now screaming with laughter, the same way Rocky would pretend to act annoyed when Grace was laughing under the attack of tickles.
“Neheh AHAAHA pfhfhfhft eheeheehehe” Rocky let his head fall back in the sand, unable to really do anything about the tickles in this weird and unfamiliar body.
“You okahay? Goodness, you’re giggling a lot. How ticklish are you? You really are just so tickly tickly ticklish!” Grace snickered to himself when Rocky’s face began to turn a dark shade of pink from both the intense tickles and the flustering teases.
In a random fit of strength (gotta love adrenaline) Rocky pulled his arms free to push at Grace’s face. No, not his hand, his FACE. STUPID HUMAN BODY! NO HIT GRACE FACE! HIT WIGGLY FINGERS!
Grace fell back dramatically at the push, acting like he was fatally injured. “Ow! Oh no…Rocky, I see the light…” Rocky rolled his eyes at the display, poking Grace’s exposed tummy with a smirk.
The poke made the teacher grunt and end the act of dying. He sat up with a wide, goofy smile. “Poking the tickle monster isn't such a good idea buddy.”
Rocky’s smile fell at the name Grace gave himself while Grace stood up with a growly chuckle.
“Running would be a wise decision."
Rocky didn’t need to be told twice. He sprinted down the cost, giggling softly with nervous excitement. He could feel Grace catching up to him.
“Rocky! The tickle monster wants to eat your nummy giggles!” Grace yelled, “and it's gonna TICKLE!” Grace’s arms finally wrapped around Rocky in a tickly hug, sending them both to the ground giggling.
“ehAHAH eheh mmhmhmmhm.” Rocky fell onto his belly, giggling into the sand below him. He squealed when he felt Grace spider his fingers up and down his back.
“What delicious giggles you have Rocky.” Grace purred into Rocky’s ear, snickering at the sounds coming from him when he pinched his shoulder blades. “The tickle monster loves hearing it.”
“AK eheha AHAHAHAH” Rocky smacked the ground with his hands as he cackled. Grace's fingers moved quickly around his back, trying their best to elicit the sweet, sweet giggles Grace’s pack instincts craved.
While Grace was having the time of his life, Rocky seemed to be getting quite tired. His hands stopped flailing and he stopped fighting the laughter. Grace, fortunately for Rocky, took this as a sign that he needed to let him breathe.
Grace stopped tickling, his tickly fingers switching to gently massage Rocky’s lower back.
Rocky’s laughter slowly diminished into gentle giggles and hums at the massaging sensation. He turned his head to look up at Grace, a wide smile on his face.
After a moment of enjoying the massage and the feeling of Grace cuddling him, Rocky stood up, waving Grace to come with him.
The two friends walked to the body’s sleep station (a xenonite box with a bed and some feeding tubes) to let the body get the well deserved rest it needed.
Once the body was safely hooked up to the feeding tube and laying on the bed, the signal from Rocky’s actual brain ended so it was just an empty shell of living cells.
Rocky came back into the biodome with his xenonite suit surrounding his rocky figure, tapping his back leg in mock annoyance.
“Grace make Rocky tickle! What wrong with Grace, question!? Grace very mean mean mean.”
Grace stuck his tongue out playfully at the Eridian. “Yeah, and? What are you gonna do about it? Hmm?” Grace knew EXACTLY what he was doing. His students would have called it something like “ragebaiting.”
Rocky lowered his carapace, looking like a house cat getting ready to pounce on some string. “Grace asking for it, statement.”
It wasn’t long before Earth heard the sound of Ryland Grace’s squeals.