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It was something that Ryland didn’t quite recognize at first, he understood it or at least the general idea, but he didn’t recognize it the first time it happened.
The very first time Rocky regressed in front of Ryland they were still on the Hail Mary, a couple years out from Erid.
Rocky had begun running around in his tunnels they had put together. Ryland was in the lab when Rocky began running, studying some planets he was trying to sprout nicely before they reached Erid, and he didn’t pay much attention to him. Rocky often ran around when he was excited about something, it reminded Ryland of how some of his students would stim when they got excited about something.
However when Rocky began to trill something that the computer wasn’t able to translate it got Ryland’s attention. It had been quite a long time since the computer didn’t know a translation. He looked around the lab but didn’t see him.
“Rocky?” Ryland called out. There were more untranslated trilling noises. Ryland began to walk around to try and find him, heading in the direction of the noise.
When he eventually did find him in the bedroom, Rocky was spinning in small circles, which made Ryland just laugh. Rocky ended up seeming embarrassed by this, for some reason, and scuttled off once more. Ryland followed, curious on what was happening, but Rocky began running around again, this time directly away from Ryland.
The trilling turned to noises like giggles and Ryland soon realized that Rocky was playing some sort of game here, he loved being chased like this. Ryland found himself smiling and almost laughing as they went on for a while, not questioning what was happening.
To Ryland it felt like he was just playing a game with his students, and it just made his heart swell. He wasn’t sure why they were doing this, but it made both of them happy, so no harm.
When they eventually stopped running around Rocky immediately began to set himself up to sleep, and Ryland of course sat himself down to watch. Rocky must be exhausted from running like that, Ryland sure was and Rocky had been running around for longer than him.
“That was fun Rock.” Ryland half panted as he sat. Rocky trilled again and Ryland looked towards the laptop, it still couldn’t understand Rocky. Maybe it was broken? He really needed to learn more Eridian, he wasn’t the best yet.
By the time Rocky woke up later on Ryland had grabbed a laptop and was laying on his own bunk just watching a show.
“Grace friend no think Rocky is disgusting question?” Was the first thing Rocky asked once Ryland had paused his show. Ryland was wildly confused on why Rocky was asking such a thing.
And that’s when Rocky explained that he experienced the Eridian’s equivalent of age regression. The extra hyperness was normal for pebbles, their version of children, and the reason why the computer couldn’t translate was because Rocky was saying child-like phrases they never went over before, that and baby babble.
Rocky was terrified Ryland would find him disgusting or weird, but he could never. He honestly found it slightly endearing, and it seemed to make Rocky happy so no harm no foul.
By the time they reached Erid, Ryland had watched over little Rocky, pebble Rocky as Ryland nicknamed it, many times. It had been less frequent towards the end due to all the starvation and scurvy, but they had reached home. Eridian’s saved Rylands life for saving their stars, and he was healthy again.
Rocky was stressed out beyond belief throughout Ryland’s entire recovery process, often not wanting to leave his side unless Adrian told him to. As far as Ryland knew Rocky hadn’t regressed once during that time. He was too worried to relax.
Now that it had been about 8 months and Ryland was recovered and living in his new biodome he was trying to convince Rocky to regress, for both of their sakes. They were sitting in Ryland’s house, both on opposite sides of the couch.
“Come onnnnnnnn, I feel like it’s been forever.” Ryland said with a small smile on his face.
“It has been 18,402,078 seconds.” Rocky pointed out. After a quick moment of mental math Ryland responded.
“Rocky that’s like 7 months, that’s basically the whole time we’ve been here. You’re telling me you only regressed once since we returned?” Ryland asked but Rocky didn’t respond. “You know you want to.”
“Rocky wait until friend Grace feeling better, if Grace cannot care for self than Grace cannot be burdened with pebble Rocky.” Rocky said and Ryland frowned.
“Rocky, you’re not a burden, I’ve told you that. I like being around pebble Rocky, and I know you enjoy it too and it helps you relax. And look, I'm all better now.” Ryland flexed his arm to show off the muscle and fat that had returned to his arm. “I’ve gained almost all my weight back and I don’t feel sick.”
Rocky sat there for a moment like he was thinking. Ryland could tell he was still hesitating. The smile returned to his face as he continued.
“I’ll do a puppet show.” Ryland offered and Rocky perked up instantly at the offer. Ryland saw the way Rocky tapped a foot against the ground several times in excitement.
“Puppet show!” Rocky cheered and Ryland laughed. He loved how happy puppet shows made him.
“Or we could also watch a movie.” Ryland said but Rocky shook like he was trying to shake no.
“Puppet show! Then movie! Rocky and Grace do both!” Rocky demanded and Ryland could hear a slight inflection in the way Rocky was speaking, he was leaning into the regression.
“Yeah bud we can do both, and we can do a puppet show first. Let’s go find where the toy box got unloaded yeah?” Ryland asked as he stood up off the couch.
Rocky was quick to scramble off the couch, always faster when he was younger. Ryland didn’t have a great comparison yet for what pebbles and hatchlings usually were like. He hadn’t met many other Eridians besides the doctors and scientists who helped him recover, and then those who built his biodome including Adrian. He would in due time but his recovery had taken forever.
However if Ryland compared Rocky to humans, he would say Rocky was most similar to a toddler. Rocky’s vocabulary would lower, not because he forgot the words but the sounds were harder for him to make. He would move much quicker and a bit more recklessly, if Ryland didn’t know any better he’d say Rocky was regressed the first time he boarded the Hail Mary.
Rocky had made his way to the storage room, Ryland right behind him. When the Hail Mary got basically gutted anything that didn’t specifically have a place yet went to the storage room, including the toy box for now.
Ryland was able to tell that Rocky found the toy box before he even entered the room due to the high pitched trills he heard, baby babble yet again. Rocky was digging through the box for all the little toys he had built upon the Hail Mary, mostly used for puppet shows.
“Good job finding it bud.” Ryland praised as he walked into the room. Rocky picked out the little Earth bean bag Ryland had given him before he let Ryland pick up the box. They went back out to the living room, Rocky running a couple laps around the living room before he landed on the couch with a light thud noise.
“Grace do puppet show!” Rocky half demanded as Ryland took his spot on the couch, setting the toy box near his feet on the ground.
“Alright, alright. What story do you want?” Ryland asked as he propped the lid of the box open and began to dig in it himself, looking through the toys.
Rocky had made lots of little action figures like toys, lots of animals and science related things, as well as some basic fairy tale characters.
“Happy happy happy!” Rocky decided, which didn’t narrow it down much. Ryland thought for a moment before he decided to start pulling out animals, he had done the Princess and The Frog before and Rocky had loved it.
“Princess and The Frog?” Ryland asked and Rocky began making babble noises again, so he took that as a yes.
Ryland began the puppet show and Rocky sat and watched. He fidgetted with the Earth bean bag, moving it around in between his hands as he gently tapped with his foot so he could really pay attention to the story being told. It reminded Ryland of his students again and made him smile as he told the story.
Once he was done Rocky took the opportunity to start running around again, getting out the excitement he had contained during the story. Ryland took this as a chance to put the toys back in the box and to grab a laptop.
“Hey Rock, wanna come over and we can watch a movie?” Ryland asked once he had it all set up.
“Yes yes yes!” Rocky cheered as he made his way back to the couch, throwing himself on it once more.
“What do you want to watch?” Ryland questioned, leaving the choice up to him.
“SquarePants SpongeBob!” Rocky decided and Ryland laughed.
“SpongeBob SquarePants? Okay do you want the movie or the show?” Ryland asked as he began to pull up the options on the laptop.
“Grace say we watch movie so movie.” Rocky said and Ryland nodded.
“Alright yeah I did, movie it is.” Ryland agreed and he put it on the screen. He set the laptop on the table in front of them, pulling a blanket from the back of the couch and draping it over both of them. Rocky snuggled himself into Ryland’s side a bit more.
“Grace watch if Rocky fall asleep question?” Rocky asked and Ryland nodded.
“Of course bud.” Ryland promised at once, not a single bit of doubt. Rocky pressed himself more into Rylands side, content and happy.