thinking about teacher grace on erid explaining human culture to his students specifically like. what kinds of activities kids on earth do (bc he wants these kids to know about his kids ! !) and for the most part the pebbles get it (soccer? okay. makes sense. tag? sure!!) but then he tries to explain hide and seek and his students are like mr grace sir what the hell are you on about. they can't wrap their carapaces around the thought of Hiding Behind Objects and it being difficult for someone to find them. this then leads to them seeing if it actually works by hiding from grace at the beginning of next class and laughing as he runs around looking for them
by now I'm just drawing any stupid scenario that comes to my mind. also this is my hc where Pebbles are like. Pebbles . Like really really small and Grace teaches the bigger pebbles who are of schooling age so yeah 👎
I love love love the genre of fics about Grace coming to Erid and being mistaken for a pebble so much. It's such a delightful misunderstanding that can be such an interesting vehicle to dive into Eridian culture or the horror of what happened to Grace or to just have some good old crack <3
Anyway, in no particular order, these are the fics about it that I've read these past few days for anyone who also loves these kinda fics! Please do send more recs my way if I am missing out, because there isn't a canon ao3 tag yet (dont be nervous about self promo'ing, I encourage it)
Adrian is a simple creature, they see sad pebble, they adopt sad pebble. by BusyBee (Anonomousdisco360)
Rockabye by Skye_the_Lofty_Nutcase
Speech pattern by Chaotic_aroace, Lizgir12
Of Packs, Promises and Pebbles by C4t1l1n4
Rocky's Guide to Adopting an Alien Space Pebble by Caspyre
Baby Bird by disasterdrow, Taraxinium -> series
Hope from the Silence of Space by WolfeOfLullabies
Some years into his life on Erid, Grace might slip back into saying "my kids" about his students (or about Rocky and Adrian's pebbles?). Maybe he would clarify that he didn't mean to overstep, but they'd be delighted that he cares so much
Grace gets overwhelmed and some pebbles sit on him as a form of weighted blanket-like therapy. They all hum at a soft frequency to calm him down, like cats do when purring. 🥺
25 years later, he's still getting on Rockys nerves.
Click for quality, close ups under cut
Grace design: Thin, leggy, still taller than simon, more sag and wrinkles from many years in weird gravity, slight spinal curve, and arthritis. Mate ceremony earring, has like a weird mullet thing going on that he keeps up if not fem that day, braclet is a gift from Adrian for saving Rocky and Erid, half of body is scarred. Simons mate mark, rockys "mate mark" Simons sapling, "I put the Ace in Areospace" shirt. Xenonite cane with adrian and Rocky Charms. Hair is turning both grey and white. Aroace socks (obviously) stained dirty shoes, pants are the bottom half of his space suit. *still* does not curse. Really bad at keeping his shoes tied.
Simom design: 6 years younger then Grace, crow feet, greying beard, sagged eyes. Beard is thicker, Hair is longer, greying in streaks and patches. Keeps his hair up most times. Scar across nose and under other eye from being flung around the iron lung. More muscle and fat mass (actually stable nutrition did this man a lot) makes his clothes tight. His mate mark is on his left shoulder above his heart. Forgot to draw his eden tattoo, but he still has that too, including some other Ink on his right arm that I forgot to draw (god damn it forest, we all say collectivly). Muddy boots, petrova line colored left eye. Teeth are a little more controllable. (With his anger and stress managed, so is his mutation) Xenonite prostethic arm (dosn't like it much but is useful)
Pebbles design: self-explanatory. Can you guess which one is Rocky Jr?
Comment from @junimotardis that inspired the fic: "That would be so cute! Maybe [Grace's] students if [they're] a little nervous about tickles get to try it on him before trying to get tickled themselves 💕 alternatively its break time and they all just team up on their teacher like a hoard of Little rocks running after grace hehe~"
Author’s note: HOORAY! I finally did a pebble fic! This is like the Project Hail Mary version of the Magic School Bus (kidding). I just kept being reminded of the show when I wrote it. There's science, there’s kids, there’s a teacher—you see the idea lol. Thank you to @junimotardis for the comment that inspired the fic! It was so good I couldn’t pass it up. This is also inspired by @cocoa-critter’s (I hope it’s okay if I tag you!) pebble fics, since I love that you gave them names so I gave mine names too! And inspired by the other wonderful pebble fics and art I’ve seen! I hope you enjoy! Oh, and I did research to remind myself of basic earthquake facts, but if my science doesn’t make sense just, uh, pretend it does 😭 Lol
(Also posted on AO3!)
Series: Project Hail Mary
Characters: Ryland Grace, Rocky, and six pebbles
Word count: 4,944
Summary: While teaching six young Eridians about earthquakes, Grace uses Rocky as a ‘demonstration’ of sorts to show how seismic waves work on Eridians. The pebbles, curious but weary of the new concept, wonder: Do humans feel seismic waves like Eridian’s do? Rocky, seeking a bit of playful revenge on his human friend, is more than happy to help answer that for the pebbles.
---
It’s no surprise that the Eridian kids love learning about Earth knowledge, and that Grace loves teaching it, but what did surprise him was there were a few young minds in the crowd who really took a shine to it. Even after the lesson was done, they wanted to know more or continue to hear Grace talk about the subject, and politely asked their teacher if they could do extra experiments.
So, Grace thought of a solution: A science club! It was actually something he did back on Earth for a bit with his students, and he always enjoyed being a part of it.
Of course, he had to explain what a club was first to the young Eridians, or the pebbles as they are also called, but once he did, these little rock creatures were all for it.
Today’s club meeting and experiment focuses on earthquakes. Grace holds the science club in his human biodome out on the dirt with six pebbles, each different colors, shapes, and sizes, and who are safely equipped in their own form-fitting xenonite suits. Rocky is also present as a special guest assistant for the club today.
Grace and Rocky place three pans of water in front of the six pebbles that are currently split into groups of two. The young Eridians stare at the rippling liquid curiously, some wanting to touch it already, but respectfully waiting for their teacher’s instructions.
Grace’s laptop, sitting nearby on the ground on top of a notebook, acts as the translator for both parties as he stands and begins his lecture, “Okay, so in front of you all are pans of water. As you can already see, the water is moving after we placed it on the ground. Those are called surface waves. Give it a second. Once the water stops moving, go ahead and dip your claws into it.”
Per Grace’s instructions, the little pebbles all watch the water become still, then one-by-one, they carefully tap the liquid with their claw. Grace knows it works from the happy trills and chirps of wonder that release from the creatures.
“See? Cool right? When your claws ‘disturb’ the water, it creates surface waves that make a ripple effect. Now try making one big splash- but be careful not to get it all over yourself or your partner next to you,” Grace adds with a chuckle after seeing Cole, a black pebble with dull points and a gradient orange pattern around each claw (like hot coals, which is how Grace gave him his name), just about ready to slam the water. Cole’s partner, a jagged reddish brown pebble named Flint, nudges his best friend and giggles at him.
Following Grace’s directions, all the pebbles carefully paw at the water.
“Ooh! Ooh! Waves are bigger!” a dark blue and more square shaped pebble with rounded corners squeaks with excitement.
“That’s right, Aqua,” Grace replies. The square, teal-colored pebble paired with Aqua leans over Aqua’s shell to get a closer look at the water. That’s her sister Marina. Grace thought it was cute when he named the pair of sisters after the aquamarine stone. Sue him.
In group three, Coral—a pink, rectangular pebble, who has thin brown stripes that look like branches—raises her hand. Beside her, watching Coral with admiration, is the littlest pebble of the bunch, Fossil. Fossil is a small brown pebble, shaped similar to a mountain range, with a few spots of green that look like dinosaur scales. They may be shy, but they've got a curious heart and a big roar when something sparks their interest.
Grace acknowledges the pink pebble. “Yes, Coral?”
“Are waves bigger because pebbles made bigger splash, question?” Coral asks.
“Exactly,” Grace says. “The more the force there is, the bigger the surface waves.”
Cole raises his claw. Grace nods at him for the pebble to share his question. Cole points at the sea in the distance in the human’s biodome. “Large pool of water is also made of liquid. Does large pool of water have surface waves too, question?”
“You got it, Cole. You might not be able to see them from here, but they’re happening,” Grace explains. The human paces as he speaks, “During an earthquake, the Earth also experiences surface waves, but the small ones we can’t see and can barely can feel. The big ones, however, can shake the ground beneath our feet. Sometimes they can even be dangerous, so strong that they can knock buildings down.”
The pebbles watch him and hold on to his every word.
Grace continues, “Then, there’s the second type of waves we talked about briefly in class—body waves. These types of waves travel inside the Earth.”
Grace takes a seat on the ground and crosses his legs. On cue, Rocky skitters up to his side. “As a matter of fact, Eridians can actually experience a mini form of an ‘earthquake.’ You can feel it inside of you.” Grace holds his fist out to Rocky. “Rocky, if you would be so kind as to demonstrate.”
Rocky lifts up his arm, curls up his claws, and provides Grace with a fist-bump.
“Now, we couldn’t see any waves, but Rocky, you felt the fist-bump right?” Grace asks.
“Yes yes. Rocky felt vibrations of human hand colliding with Eridian claw,” the older Eridian replies.
“As discussed before, earthquakes occur when the tectonic plates inside the earth shift against one another,” Grace uses his hands to mimic the plates colliding. “So, similar to an earthquake, when your shells collide with another object, you feel it. For Eridians, the collision causes a vibration inside of you that is similar to an earthquake’s body wave.”
The pebbles appear to nod with some understanding. Marina raises her claw.
“Yes, Marina?” Grace asks.
“Mr. Grace said there are big earthquakes. Is it possible for Mr. Grace to demonstrate big earthquakes in Eridians, question?” the teal pebble tilts her body like she's tilting her head.
“Hmm, good question Marina,” Grace taps his chin. He didn’t have a demonstration planned for a ‘big earthquake,’ but, if memory serves him correctly, he thinks he has an idea.
He turns his head towards Rocky, a small smirk curling on his lips.
“Oh, I know a way,” he wiggles his fingers at Rocky.
Rocky suddenly squeaks, like a gasp. “Grace! That was NOT part of plan!”
“Come here, Rocky!” Grace reaches for the Eridian, but Rocky leaps back and scatters. Grace immediately jumps to his feet and starts chasing his friend in a circle.
“Grace! GRACE!” Rocky’s voice exclaims through the computer. Their chase only lasts another half a second before Grace cuts him off with a side-step and dives his hands downwards, scratching along his friend’s xenonite suit. Rocky lets out a squeal.
The pebbles flinch in surprise at the noise, but they soon realize that Rocky’s shrill sound has been followed by the silly sound of laughter.
“Grahahahahace!!!” Rocky spasms and chirps out a flood of giggles as the human taps his fingers along his carapace, tickling him. Fortunately for Grace, he learned previously from Rocky that Eridian’s can feel tickling, even through their suits.
Grace chuckles and plops himself down on the ground next to Rocky, pulling him in closer and making sure to scribble at the sides on his rock face, right in-between his arms. Rocky flails, then flops into the dirt like a crab that was pushed over on its side, Rocky’s legs kicking at the air and shoving at Grace.
“Rocky, relax!” Grace giggles, “It’s just for the demonstration! Hold still!” Grace pulls one of Rocky’s flailing legs towards him, dragging the Eridian in the dirt.
“Fihihihine!” Rocky clambers back to his feet, wobbling, but trying to do his absolute best not to run from the tickling. “Huhuhuhurry up!”
Grace chuckles again. He speaks to his students as he has a squirmy Eridian beside him in his clutches. “Now, you see how Mr. Rocky can feel my touch? His reaction is much different than when we bumped our fists together. This is because my fingers are tapping along his shell, creating larger seismic waves that he feels not only on the surface, but through his body too.”
With the explanation finished, Grace stops and releases Rocky. The Eridian stumbles on his legs and takes a breath. He shoves Grace in the arm, to which the human chuckles. Yes, Grace was teaching his students, but he totally didn’t also use it as an excuse to play around with his friend. Nooo, of course not (Yes he did).
“Warning next time would be good!” Rocky stomps his back leg.
“Hehe, sorry,” Grace laughs again. Then, he turns to his students, a playful adrenaline still in his system. “So, who wants to experience an earthquake!” Grace wiggles his fingers at the pebbles, a big smirk on his face like a hungry tickle monster.
His students don’t react the way he hopes. The six of them squeak, some taking a step back or hiding behind their peers or in their own arms.
Grace changes his tone immediately. “Hey, hey, it’s okay. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you guys,” Grace comforts the pebbles. “I promise, it didn’t hurt Rocky. Tell them, Rocky,” Grace turns to his friend. He knows the pebbles will already believe the words of their teacher, but he also wants Rocky, a fellow Eridian, to give the pebbles extra reassurance too.
“Yes. Does not hurt,” Rocky confirms. “It is just a funny feeling, statement. It is like Eridian tickling with vibrations and sound waves, but humans use more touch.”
Grace bounces off of his friend’s claim, “Yes, like Mr. Rocky said, for humans, we use touch to tickle each other. When I tickled Rocky, my touch was creating waves, like an earthquake, that created that funny feeling for Rocky.”
The pebbles glance at each other and stay silent. He can still tell they’re a little weary of this new concept.
Flint, cautious but being brave, raises his claw.
“Yes, Flint?” Grace asks.
The red Eridian pauses, shyly tapping his claws together. “But Mr. Grace said that big earthquakes like that can be dangerous.”
Ah, he did say that.
“This is true,” Grace explains. “The magnitude, or the strength of an earthquake can be very high and cause destruction like I mentioned. However, in your case, even though Rocky had a ‘big’ reaction, it is comparatively very small. It also happens back on Earth all the time. Sometimes, an earthquake’s seismic waves are so small that humans can’t feel it. We need a special machine called a seismograph to record them.”
His six students appear a little more intrigued now, thankfully. Grace takes a breath, relieved.
To Grace’s surprise, Fossil is the first to raise their claw.
“Yes, Fossil?”
The little pebble speaks in a squeaky voice translated by the computer, “Do earthquakes work on Mr. Grace too, question?”
“Hm?” The question confuses the teacher for a moment, but he makes sense of what the little pebble is asking after connecting the dots with what they just saw.
“Oh, by ‘earthquakes’ do you mean tickling? The thing I was doing to Mr. Rocky?” Grace asks.
Fossil nods. Grace knows that his students are aware of the concept of tickling, but the human word and human version of it to them must still be a bit confusing.
Grace answers the little pebble’s original question. “Then technically yes, but it works a little differently for humans. Remember our anatomy lessons on the human nervous system?” Grace holds out his arm and points at his skin to provide his students with a refresher on the information. “For humans, we feel through tiny electrical waves that pass through the ‘branches’ of nerves under our skin. Those ‘branches’ inform our brains of what we’re feeling,” he drags a finger from his wrist to his shoulder and ends his sentence by pointing at his head.
The pebbles blankly stare at their teacher like he just sprung an explanation of quantum physics on them. It has been a while since they went over anatomy. Maybe he needs to bring this lesson back for the whole class.
Rocky also notices the pebbles’ confusion. “Grace, pebbles may need a demonstration of what Grace means. Rocky has idea.”
“What is it?” Grace turns to his friend.
Rocky, pleased with the answer from his human companion, wiggles his body. A faint clicking can be heard from Rocky and he turns to the pebbles.
Wait, hold on a minute… that’s the sound Rocky makes when he’s–
“Who wants to try earthquake on, Mr. Grace!” Rocky exclaims.
…when he’s about to pull a trick on him.
The pebbles cheer and chirp with excitement, some hopping up and down. Well, at least they’re not scared anymore.
The scientist leans back. “What?!” Grace can’t help but turn giggly already. He stands up on feet, watching the pebbles below him with a close eye. He supposes this is what he gets for using his friend as a demonstration for ‘earthquakes’ earlier.
“Rocky will also teach human version of tickling for pebbles to understand! First lesson! Approach Mr. Grace slowly with claws up. Movement already gets human giggling before the tickling,” Rocky informs them. “When Rocky says ‘go,’ run at Grace!”
All six of the pebbles chirp with joy and follow Rocky’s lead, holding their claws up and slowly, and almost menacingly, approaching their teacher.
Grace’s smile already wobbles. He takes a step back with his hands up in defense. “Hold on!” he giggles. “We’re getting off topic! We’re learning about earthquakes not–”
“GO!” Rocky shouts and all six of the pebbles speed towards him like a rocket.
“Eeek! Rocky!” Grace yells at his friend before running from the swarm of chirping pebbles right on his heels. They are surprisingly fast, like little crabs skittering after him if crabs were as fast as a litter of puppies. And he has six of them coming after him. Oh boy, he’s doomed.
Rocky gives pointers nearby like a coach, as if their science lesson just turned into physical education. “Humans have long legs to run fast. Grace has very long legs. Better to get Grace on the ground first!” Rocky informs.
“Nohohoho!” Grace laughs as the pebbles chase down their teacher. He circles back around, sprinting towards Rocky’s direction and gaining a little bit of distance between him and the pebbles. Maybe if he keeps this up, he can tucker the little Eridians out before they can get their curious claws on him.
Rocky sees Grace heading his way; the human is preoccupied with looking over his shoulder. Rocky, so smooth and calculating like a spy slipping through a maze of lasers, steps in front of Grace.
Not paying attention to where he’s running, Grace hits his foot on his friend and trips on Rocky like… well… like a rock.
The teacher flops into the dirt. Grace lifts his head up and scolds his friend, “Rocky!” Grace hears the scuttling of little feet behind him and suddenly he remembers—oh right. He’s in the middle of a chase.
His flight or fight response springs into action. He flips onto his back, only to see the stampede of little rocks coming at him. He tries to frantically crawl back on his arms.
“Oh no no no!” Grace giggles as the pebbles swarm him. In an instant, little claws are poking and squishing at his soft flesh, eliciting giggles out of the human. Aqua and Marina surround his right side, Flint and Coral at his left, while Fossil and Cole sit at opposite sides of his stomach, but Fossil only observes, for now.
Rocky chirps with joy. “Good good, pebbles! Best way to tickle Grace is to scrunch claws in and out and wiggle for maximum effect,” Rocky shows the example on his own claws to teach the small Eridians.
“Hehehehehehe-HEY!” the scientist jolts and wraps his arms around himself when the pebbles, like a sponge, immediately utilize the information Rocky shared.
Aqua, positioned at one side of Grace’s ribs, lets out a pleased squeak. “Hehe! Mr. Grace makes funny sound!”
Marina, claws on the upper part of Grace’s side, hops next to her sister, “Oh oh! Marina remembers! Human word for funny sound is ‘laughter’!”
“Marina correct!” Rocky says. “In fact, if Grace’s laughter is mentioned while tickled, it actually gets Grace to giggle more. Very fascinating, statement.”
“Nohohohot all the tihihhihime!” extra giggles spill from Grace, not helping his case in the slightest.
“Most of time,” Rocky replies to the ticklish human.
Grace feels a claw squeeze above his hip. He squeaks like a mouse through his laughter and notices the little culprit: the tiniest, and usually the quietest, Eridian in the club, Fossil finally joins in.
“Hehe! Mr. Grace produces lots of funny sound at this spot,” Fossil’s little computer voice beams as they add in more squeezes with their second claw.
“Yes, Fossil. Humans have different places where they’re more ticklish. Grace makes lots of laughter at sides, ribs, stomach, neck,” Rocky loses count on his claws, “almost everywhere, actually.”
“Rohohohocky! Yohohohou’re supposed to be hehehelping mehehehe!” Grace tilts his head back to look at his friend through the fence of pebbles.
“Rocky is helping. Teaching pebbles about electrical waves in human nerve system,” Rocky rattles with pride, his way of grinning.
“Rohohohocky when I gehehet ohohout of this, I swear I’ll–” a snort cuts off Grace’s sentence. He slaps a hand over his mouth and scrunches his shoulders, feeling a new claw fluttering against his neck.
“Whoa! Mr. Grace made a new funny sound!” Flint chirps, exploring around the human’s neck and by his ears.
Coral squawks from her spot by Grace’s other pair of ribs. “Mr. Rocky, Mr. Rocky! Mr. Grace is trying to muffle funny sound!” the pink Eridian points at the human like she’s tattling on him.
Rocky notices what Coral is talking about. “Ah, yes. Humans go into defensive mode and try to hide their laughter, even though it is pointless since we can still hear and see them.”
WOW rude. Okay pal.
Rocky moves over in-between Coral and Cole, positioning himself by Grace’s stomach. “Tickle another part fast, fast to make Grace’s arms move. Like this,” Rocky plunges his full-grown claw into Grace’s stomach. Grace yelps, shoots his arms down, and curls up like an armadillo.
“Rohohohocky!” Grace cackles, trying to nab at Rocky’s claws specifically.
“See,” Rocky says.
“Mr. Rocky is good at this!” Cole admires.
Grace tries to slap at Rocky’s arms, but Rocky easily grabs both of Grace’s wrists in his clutches and holds them above his stomach. “Had lots of practice,” Rocky replies to the pebble, a smile in his tone. With Rocky holding Grace’s hands, it allows Cole and Fossil to perform further tests on his squishy stomach.
Grace kicks out his legs, but is careful not to accidentally knock off one of his students, despite how much it tickles all over. “Cohohohome ohohohon! Quhihihit it! Ohohohor everyone is going to get a pop quiz on earthquakes!” Grace manages through his laughter.
All the pebbles freeze in place. Ha! That got ‘em.
Grace was hopping for a breather, but his few seconds of peace are cut short when he feels one of his wrists being let go and Rocky’s claw suddenly going for his belly. “AHA!” Grace yelps and spews out surprised giggles. He grabs hold of Rocky’s arm with his free hand, especially when Rocky slides his claw under his shirt.
“Do not listen to Grace. Humans say things when they don’t actually mean it to escape from tickling,” Rocky counters. He pulls his wiggling claw away and releases the human’s other hand to actually give the teacher a well-deserved breather this time.
Noticing that Grace’s shirt has been pushed up from his most recent squirming, Cole curiously tilts his body at the human's revealed torso. He carefully hops onto his teacher’s hip, perching himself there and not disturbing the fleshy being.
“Noho! I’m gonna do it!” Grace’s words are still giggly towards Rocky.
“No, Grace is not,” Rocky states, moving over to stand next to the side of Grace’s head.
Well, it was worth a shot.
“But I totally could!” Grace argues.
“But Grace will not, statement,” Rocky says, knowing his friend all too well. Grace is about to counter his claim, but a yelp in response comes out instead. Cole, wondering about the human's patch of skin, delivered a poke to Grace’s bare stomach.
The obsidian-colored pebble shakes and squeaks with excitement, “Pebbles! Pebbles! Look! Mr. Grace’s stomach has surface waves like earthquake!”
It's like all the pebbles gasp from amazement.
Coral slides up next to Cole. “Whoaa! Really?”
“Let’s see! Let’s see!” Aqua leaps on Grace’s leg and rushes to Cole’s other side, nearly crashing into him. The rest of the pebbles quickly gather around his stomach.
“Do it again!” Marina, next to her sister, leans on her teacher’s leg like a puppy awaiting a treat.
“Wahait, hold on-” Grace then squeaks from Cole gently tapping at the slight pudge of his belly. The pebbles awe as they observe the strange phenomenon of the squishy human skin bouncing gently from his touch like a wave.
“Yehehes,” Grace replies through soft giggles, “Tehehechnically you can see the waves of movement on my skin when yohohou poke me.”
Marina gurgles, “But Mr. Grace said tickling isn’t like earthquake for humans!”
Flint replies, “It’s not an earthquake! It's a humanquake!”
All the pebbles giggle.
Coral hops up and down. “Oh! Oh! Coral has idea! Let us try Eridian vibrations to make earthquake on Mr. Grace!”
“Yeah! Yeah!” Fossil chirps in agreement along with their friends.
“Wait, what?” Grace says with a wobbly smile.
“On count of three!” Aqua already proposes.
The pebbles nod and Cole leads the count, “One, two-” The pebbles pause to put their claws up.
“Hohold on!” Grace’s frantic voice to reach them.
“Three!!!” all the pebbles trill. In an instant, their claws touch down on his stomach, vibrating like a bunch of little raspberries are being planted on Grace’s belly.
Grace practically shrieks.
“EEEK! GUHUHUHUYS!” Grace flutters his legs behind the pebbles and waves his arms in front of his chest. Cole and Aqua, sharing the middle of Grace’s stomach, perch themselves closer on his hips so they don’t fall off the giggling human. “That- AH!!! Thahahahat tickles! That tickles!!!” Grace’s wheezy laughter goes up an octave. He leans his head back and slides his hands under his glasses to cover his face, giggling and snorting into his hands.
“Success! Success! Vibrations are working!” Coral cheers.
“Working like seismic waves!” Cole adds.
“Human nerves must be turning vibrations into electrical waves Mr. Grace can feel!” Flint chirps.
Marina giggles, “Vibrations produce lots of loud laughter from Mr. Grace.”
“So loud Mr. Grace shakes and rumbles!” Aqua exclaims, keeping herself balanced.
“Like earthquake!” Fossil happily squeaks.
All the pebbles giggle at Fossil’s statement.
Rocky rattles with pride. “Pebbles learn so fast,” he leans towards Grace and snickers at his friend.
Grace ignores Rocky’s attempts to get him to blush even more than he already is. The human waves his hands to signal the pebbles. “Ohohohokay! OKAY! Nohohohoho more guys! Mr. Grace neeheheheeds a break!” he calls out to them.
With happy trills and squeaks, the pebbles listen to their teacher and pull their claws back. As they do, they observe as the waves on Grace’s belly come to a stop like the water they experimented with earlier.
Taking a breath, Grace pulls his shirt down and hugs his torso, still letting out giggles from the ghost feeling of vibrations lingering at his tummy. Cole and Aqua hop off of Grace’s torso and they watch as their teacher curls up into a ball on his side.
“Mr. Rocky?” Coral’s voice asks. “Is Mr. Grace okay, question? Pebbles stopped tickling but Mr. Grace is still laughing.”
Grace braces himself for an incoming tease.
“Mr. Grace is fine. Humans need a second to adjust after tickling to recover, like Eridians do,” Rocky explains. Surprisingly, even his Eridian pal thought Grace could use the rest from the bombardment of flustering teases he just endured (whether the teases were intentional or unintentional).
“Yeheah, I’m okay,” Grace double reassures his students. He slowly sits up with an arm around his belly and his knees pulled close.
His students patiently await their teacher. They look up at him, ready whenever he is.
Grace can’t help but smile at the pebbles. “So, do you all see how surface waves work now?” Grace reminds them of their lesson.
All of the pebbles let out happy trills to agree.
Aqua moves herself from the pack and skitters up to Grace’s side. She tilts her carapace upwards to talk to him.
“Mr. Grace?” Aqua kindly asks, “Can Mr. Grace try making earthquakes on pebbles now, question?”
“Huh?” Grace blinks. He realizes what she’s asking. “You mean, you want to try being tickled?”
Aqua excitedly squeaks as a yes.
“Oh oh! Me too! Me too!” Marina dashes to her sister’s side.
“I asked first!” Aqua playfully nudges her sister, sounding like she’s being defensive but making it clear she’s just joking with her sibling.
“I know! I know!” Marina laughs. “Marina will be next!”
“Oh, so you both want to be tickled, huh?” Grace asks; a hint of a tickle monster smirk can be heard in the human. He shifts his body to face them. “Well, it’s a good thing I have two hands!” Grace exclaims before pouncing one hand at each of them, gently scratching and tapping his fingers at the xenonite suit covering their shell.
Aqua and Marina squeak in unison, already giggling. Grace sits on his knees to reach them better. Aqua curls herself up on the dirt while Marina scrunches her shoulder joints closer to her carapace.
“EEP! Mr. Rocky was rihihihight! It is ahahaha- a funny feeheheheeling!” Aqua happily squeals.
Marina gently holds onto Grace’s hand, but doesn’t push it away. “It tihihihickles! It tickles!” Marina repeats through her giggles, sounding like her teacher.
After a few more seconds, Grace pulls his hands back, allowing the sisters to giggle out the ghost tickles.
Cole and the other pebbles step forward. “Mr. Grace! Can other pebbles try too, please?”
Grace chuckles at the excited young Eridians. “Hehe, if you say so!”
And so each of the pebbles take a turn trying out human tickles, Grace giggling along with them. Grace thinks it’s adorable that each of the pebbles have their own laughs and the different ways they react. Coral shakes and wiggles with her laughter, Flint flails and tries to bundle himself in his arms, and Cole wobbles on his legs as he paws at Grace’s hand like a cat. Even Fossil tries, letting out squeaky adorable laughter as they hug Grace’s fingers. If he had to say, Flint seemed like the most ticklish of the six (don’t worry, buddy, Grace knows the feeling).
After each of the pebbles had their turn and a moment to gain control over their giggles, Grace smiles at his students, "Alright. I think that’s enough experiments for one day. That concludes our club meeting for today.”
“Thank you for the lesson today, Mr. Grace!” Fossil exclaims. The rest of the pebbles chirp to show their thanks as well, overlapping ‘thank yous’ coming from the translator.
Grace chuckles at the big voice from the smallest pebble. “You’re welcome. Now why don’t you all go play for a few minutes while Mr. Rocky and I prepare to take you guys home.”
The pebbles squeak in agreement. They go off to play, already making a game out of their new discoveries. Like baby lions, they playfully chase and pounce on one another, using the human version of tickling as a part of their game. He thinks he hears Cole say he’s an ‘earthquake monster’ before Coral and Flint tackle him to the ground.
As Grace observes the pebbles with a smile on his face, Rocky crawls up to his friend’s side. Rocky also observes the young Eridians.
“Pebbles appear happy,” Rocky says.
Grace nods. “They do.”
“Sorry not sorry for teaching pebbles how to tickle Grace. Had to get Grace back,” Rocky says.
“Heh, I know. I deserved it,” Grace lets out a huff of laughter as his eyes are still drawn by the happy chirps of the pebbles.
A moment of silence passes as Rocky and Grace continue to watch the pebbles play like they’re watching the calm waves of the sea in the biodome. They hear the gentle rocking of the water in the distance.
Rocky quietly speaks, “Rocky has said before, but Grace is good teacher.” The human’s eyes meet the gaze of his Eridian pal.
Grace replies with a warm smile. “Thanks, Rocky. It’s nice to hear that from time to time.”
Grace takes a breath, then gets up from the dirt. He dusts himself off, then he and Rocky clean up the pans of water from their first experiment.
After another minute or so, Grace picks up his laptop and places the open device lying in the crook of his arm.
Grace calls out to the pebbles, swinging his free arm wide as a signal. “Come on you little earthquake monsters! Let’s go!”
Hearing their teacher, the pebbles stop their game, hopping off of each other, and join Grace at his feet as he leads them with Rocky safely towards the exit of his human dome.
Today’s club meeting may be over, but Grace can tell, this is one meeting that will stick with the pebbles for a long time.
