ALONE in the jungle

Mantis/based on the monster girl 2020 universe/lonely bug :( /no smut??

PART 1

Friday is the first day of the weekend, perfect for drinking after work, having fun with friends, or just resting after a long week of work, but for Hana, her stressful weekend just began.
This part of town was famous for being a den for the less than perfect members of society. This wasn't the ideal place for a girl like her to be wandering around this late. But she has planned this for weeks. Some scary places and menacing leers aren't going to deter her from her objective.
Standing in the middle of the block, fixing his hair with one of her raptorial arms, she is leaning against the shuttle of a closed shop, at the same time the other pair of her "more human" arms are occupied on other tasks, she is holding his cellphone improvising a mirror, checking the result of her janky attempts to fix her short wild hair while at the same time, her left index finger gets nibbed just as her right thumb plays around her palps. She always falls into these bad habits when nervous.
The reason for her to be taking this kind of risk was an important one, to calm her most "monstrous" urges. The FUK Immigration bureau provides all the girls that in these kinds of situations libido suppressing pills, but this only helps during the shot time required for most girls to find a suitable partner who will calm their urges the "natural" way, but the pills are not designed to maintain peek functionality after prolonged consumption. For Hana, it has been 6 months since she had the privilege of acquiring a "work and recreation" permit and after approving the required exams, saving enough money to travel to the closest human country, she was able to emigrate. But still, she would be in this part of town if all was going according to plan.
Since arriving she was barely able to find a half-decent job and only after receiving help from the FUK connections. But the most important problem, finding a partner, was proving to be extremely difficult for her. It seems that insect girls aren't popular in the human world and thanks to that she wasn't having any luck with the locals. She tried using the services that the FUK provided for the less popular girls like dating sites and mamono/human meet up events, but the only dates she was able to secure using these services were quite shocked once they saw her, but who could blame them. Understandingly the Dating services use pictures of beautiful and exotic girls in their ads but when the poor dude shows up, he's greeted by something that looks like it just jumped out of a cheesy 60's horror picture.

After reflecting on her situation she deducted that this was the logical outcome for her, how she could compare to the voluptuous and fit bodies or jinkos, the dashing wings of harpies, or the grace and intellect of elves. She was just a mere mantis, with barely any meat in her rear, 2 small bumps that sadly tried to pass as tits, her insectile abdomen that only caused problems finding comfortable chairs, and 2 extra appendages that looked more like killing weapons protruding from her shoulders. Her species didn't evolve to court their partners like the "romantic way", they evolved to haunt them. But times are different now. The emigration guides were quite explicit about the customs of the human world, "proactive dating" is strictly forbidden. Going for that option would not only cause trouble for her and her family back home but also cause a huge setback for the other mamonos in this country.
But every day that passed made it more difficult for her to think she could find someone who could willingly find her attractive and wasn't already taken. Situations like this make people or in this case mamono, desperate.

Still, no one ends up in this part of town without taking some bad decisions in the process. It all started when Hana was browsing different dating sites one night, stumbling by chance on a website that could only be access using FUK provided smartphone models and using your FUK citizen ID.
This site was a forum where mamono could talk about anything you could imagine, but it mostly centered on the acquisition of partners. The website had sections both for the girls traveling out and for the girls receiving guests, from where to go to find the best guys to how to attract their attention. There were also the girls that only entered the forum to brag about their catches and to taunt the less lucky ones.
During one of her multiple browsing sessions, Hana found the "insect den", a section mostly populated by arthropods and some crustacean where there could mostly try to encourage one another in their searches and vent their frustrations or, congratulate the lucky girl that found someone and even sometimes, congratulate the lucky ones that found someone.
One of the threads in this section of the forum was "paid human companions", this was a taboo subject in the whole website, it was considered not only disrespectful but only degenerate to exchange love for money, no matter how far one would go with this "fake "companion. But in the insect den, desperation started to take root a while back.
At the beginning were mostly hypothetical discussions, where to find them, how to start a conversation with them or how far one would go with them. But as the months passed and the desperation grew, the conversations started to become more "real". Some of the older members started to do more "in the field" research, finding people who would not only offered their services to this type of girls but also catered to their specific needs, lucky even in this part of the website the taboo of loveless sexual relationship was a big one, so they needed to find someone who could give them, as they decided to call it, the "boyfriend experience".
For human standards, this was comparative to romantic books for teenagers. The service that the girls decide to go with the companion included: hand-holding, hair combing, whispering nice things to their ears while cuddling on the bed, and hugs, a lot of hugs. For the average human population, this was only the fantasy of a little girl playing pretend princess, but for the girls on this website, this was a serious matter.
This was just short of adultery toward their husbands (in this case future husbands)in the minds of any monster girl and a huge disrespect for the single girls back in the motherland. They could not only get banned from the website but also could have their permits revoked indefinitely if they were to be reported to the FUK authorities. Because of these risks, the talks regarding "companions" were framed as hypotheticals so it could be denied as some kind of ironic joke or thought experiment. The name and location of the trusted escort were only given to older members after some real-life vetting progress and confirmation that the subjects could be trusted.
The vetting process was quite fast for Hana, she only had met up with one of the forum members living in the same city as her once. She was a crab girl named Sophie that had been living here for almost a year. They talked mostly about their daily lives, work, and after the coffees were replaced with more "strong" drinks, boy problems. They both were in similar situations, jobs that made it hard for them to interact with any single men, and that had disadvantageous working hours so that they couldn't easily go search for mates in their free time.
Sophie worked in the kitchen of one of the new all-monster diner that opened downtown, but all the male staff that they hired were already snatched by the owner and the other girls that worked at the kitchen or at the counter, and only the waiters had any contact with the customers so that avenue was out the question. And for Hana was even harder, she worked for a logistic company doing janitorial work cleaning office buildings during graveyard shifts, which meant that she only interacted with people when they do overtime or arrived early, and in both cases, they tended to avoid her out of fear or simply because none pays attention to the janitors.

PART 2

Hana had been loitering in that storefront while browsing in her phone and taking glances at her target for almost an hour. Almost no one approached him during the hour, only a Cyclops girl stooped to talk to him for a moment, but after a small chat, she went her own way. If she continued procrastinating she will not only missed her chance but also her chance to grab dinner after this.
He was wearing a leather jacket and jeans that tightened around his body reaffirming his well-maintained build, he appeared to be checking his nails while having a cigarette, a faint smell of cheap cologne mixed with sweat lingering in the air"
Now comes the hardest part. Let's hope the practice in front of the mirror works. She thought, reaffirming herself
"3 ... 2  ... 1 .... Go" she said to herself, finally deciding on crossing the street.

"He-Hello", Hana said finally approaching him.
"Oh! look who decided to stop staring as creep and finally came to say hi", He said while putting out his cigarette on the wall he was leaning on. "You got me worried for a moment there darling, I thought I've gotten myself a new stalker".
"An S-Stalker?, N-NO!, you got it wrong" Hana mumbled as she turner red from embarrassment.
"If you're not a stalker and I hope you're not a murderer, why are you talking to me here?, are you a cop?", The man said, clearly enjoying the teasing.
"I'm not a cop nor a murderer, I'm not...Dangerous, I promise". Having to reaffirm that took a toll on her self-esteem.
"What a shame, I like a little danger on my life", the tone of his voice clearly denoted the fun he was having tormenting this girl. "So, Mrs. 'not dangerous', who are you?".
"My name is Hana and I've come to...uhm...hire your ... services". The embarrassment caused her to instinctively look around for anyone who could be watching them.
"My services? What would those be?", He falsely pondered.
"Your...Em... Companion services. You know...", she said while lowering his gaze.
"No, I don't know, can you be more specific?", a smirk forming on his face.
"Emhhh....like hugging, touching,... and stuff".
"Hugging eh..." taking a step closer to her "and what else?".
"Cuddling, combing my hair, chatting and...K-K-Kissing", That last part was especially difficult for her to say.
"Ah!, the 'cuddle slut' packet. Of course I can do that!, But the kissing is extra. The crab lady told me you could be coming, but I wasn't expecting you so soon".
The prospect of being expected surprised Hana. "If you knew I was gonna come why don't you just said it".
"I'm just having fun. And although she gave me a description I never expected a cutie like you would need my services".
Being called cute by a man sent a jolt through Hana's spine. "I'm not that cute", she said while turning even more red than before.
"Don't be so harsh on yourself", Taking a look, checking Hana from top to bottom. "everyone has their own charms"
"You don't have to lie", she answered. "I bet you say that to all girls".
"Maybe, but now you're the only girl here".
Hana was trying to evade his gaze, but after a brief silence, the companion said after a sigh. "I like your skin, hugging you must feel nice", He took another step towards her while stealing a brief touch of Hana's forearm. "Cool and soft, life a Marmol counter on a summer afternoon".
"You think so?, Isn't it weird?" she refuted while hiding her less human arms behind her as she retreats one step backward.
"Nah, I like the sensation. I also like your blades, is that's how you call them?", Taking another step. "They are cool".
"They're scary", she refused. "I bet you think I look like a monster". Hana's paranoia starting take hold of the situation.
"I've wouldn't think that betcha they are useful", pausing for a second to think. "You could hold me thigh with those".
He extended an arm and motion her to extend one of her raptorial arms, "don't be shy". After a brief pause, she extended her right arm and placed it on his palm.
"See, I don't bite". He said with a smile, raising his other arm to cusp the tip of her raptorial arm with both of his palms. "You're not scary to me, I even feel safer by having you next to me".

Hana's mind went into overdrive after hearing that. Unaware to her was the smile that just formed on her face, leaving her fangs out in the open.
The man in front of her was a professional, making girls like her feel special was his job. Hana was full of openings and this opportunity was open for taking.
"I knew you would have a cute smile", He said going for the kill, "I want to see more of it".
She always was self-conscious about her sharp teeth.
When Hana realizing that she was standing there with her fangs showing, she tried to cover his mouth instinctively. But a swift hand stooped her movement and graved her hand in a move that looked almost like a choreographed move out of a movie.
This is taking too long, time to seal the deal he thought, "Why don't you show me your smile in private", he accentuated this by grabbing Hana's hand with both of his hands. Truly a professional.
"I know a hotel close where we can talk about my services more 'in deep'", he whispered to her ear.

Having him so close was making it difficult for Hana to form a coherent sentence.  Also, the mixture of cheap cologne, his sweat, and the smell of multiple women was sending mixed signals through her brain. Was she doubting now?
It was nice to be paid so much attention and care, but the smells of different monster girls reaffirmed in her brain that this was fake, this was wrong. If it wasn't for her money, this man would be avoiding looking at her like all others.

But.

He's so cute and I'm so alone. I want this, I Need this!. This was her instinct talking to her, her desires, the monster part of her. The part of her that she tried to hold for so long finally surfacing.
She fell a thug in her hand and came back to her senses.
"Hey! are you OK?", the man called out to her. "I know you're nervous, but don't space out like that".
"S-Sorry. It's just that this is... this is my first time being so close to a man and... and I don't really don't know what to do". Hana mumbled, tear starting to form in her eyes.
"Don't worry precious, you just need to follow my lead and tell me what you like", in a swift move he caressed her cheek and wiped away a tear whit his thumb. "shall we go now?", he moved and motioned her like someone motions when opening a door for a lady.
Finally having some space to breathe Hana's pulse lowered a bit. This is it! Time to have a good time at last. My life in this new world starts now. Hana thought as she took a step towards this imaginary door that this man was opening for her. A door to love, albeit a temporary and fake one.

BEEP !!! BEEP!!!

A red sports car parked on the corned blasted his siren. The sudden sound startling both of them. Where did it come from, how long has it been there? has she been spotted?.
A sudden new wave of embarrassment and shame flowed through Hana, but it seems like the companion knew this car because his demeanor changed suddenly.
"OH!, looks like a VIP just arrived!".
"I have to take this, sorry". He said while letting go of Hana's hand.
The car window opened and Hana saw what seemed like huge fluffy tails filling almost the whole car. The man leaned in the opened window and after a short conversation, he entered the car. Leaving Hana now alone on the street.
"Hey!", He called from inside the car, this startled Hana who was dumbstruck by the whole situation.
"I'm really sorry", he repeated.
The owner of the car who appeared to be a perfectly dressed blond kitsune could be seen deliberately adverting her face from here. "if you come next week I will give you a discount, OK?"
"Yeah...OK", Hana said instinctively. just muttering the first thing that came to her mind.
"Well, take care love, Have a nice weekend, ok?". The man said as the sports car took off with a sudden roar.
"Bye", She said to no one, waving at the thing that she has been expecting for weeks as it sped off into the night.

Now she was alone again after being stood up by a kinda literal whore, miles away from home in a place of town that she didn't know, Tears now running through her cheeks, her core burning for what she hoped was embarrassment, and to top it off. She was hungry.

PART 3

*Ping*
The door unlocked after the sound. She pocketed her card and entered the elevator, not even the guard was here.
The building was deserted, but that was understandable, no one works here on Saturdays. Well, except for her.
She requested the extra hours foreseeing a lack of funds after her "encounter" with the companion. But what she didn't foresee was getting stood up. And thanks to that she was taking extra hours that she didn't even need.
"Let's hope that yesterday's late shift did a proper job", she thought as she was changing into her uniform.
"Clean the bathroom, kitchen and let's finish this day with a nap on the lounge sofa", that was the plan. Lucky for her, this was only a 4-hour shift. Just a couple of hours and she could go back to her usual weekends of internet, romantic comedies, and ordering random takeout food.
After putting her own lunchbox in the fridge she noticed that there were still 4 lunchboxes on there. It's common on Fridays for people have lunch out of the office so people that go out and had also brought their own lunchboxes tend to forget them on the fridge, and if left there for the whole weekend they tend to stink the fridges and removing that smell it's a pain in the ass. She would need to deal with that later
The bathroom was easy enough, she only had to refill the soap and the paper towels, surprisingly for a Friday's late shift, the bathroom was spotless, "maybe they hired a new kikimora, those always do the best job, sadly they never last in this minimum wage job" she pondered while walking to the kitchen.
The kitchen was also quite clean, so she only needed to clean the fidged, clean the leftover cutlery, and take out the trash.
Moving to the human city was a big shock for Hana, the act of throwing perfectly edible food was alien to her before coming here, she still remembered the hungry nights she had to deal with during bad harvests or when she failed during a hunt. And now she is throwing a bowl full of rice and meatballs just because someone forgot to eat it. She sure was shocked when she was told to do it the first time, she even thought of keeping it to herself. "This place must be heaven, we have some much food that we are throwing away", she thought the first time she had to deal with this, but now this is just part of the job.
Just as she finished cleaning leftover lunchboxes 2 people entered the kitchen, they must have been in one of the meeting rooms during the day because she didn't see them during her cleaning round. It would seem that the nap on the longe's sofa got canceled.

"Let's hope that the merge gets done correctly so we can leave early, I'm tired of dealing with overtime because of the laziness of some random guy in India". One of the men vented as they picked a cup of water from the dispenser. "I'm sure they will replace us with them in no time".
Finishing the water in a single gulp he threw the cup on the trash bin with an exaggerated motion, taking advantage of being the only people in the office, he was wearing a t-shirt with shorts. In contrast, the other guy was wearing the usual uniform. A plain shirt, and jeans.
"Don't start with your paranoia again", the other man responding with a chuckle. "As long as they keep messing up we will still have a job".
"I hope you're right. If that were the case even our grandsons would have their job secured by the looks of thing". They both laughed at that.

Hana never understood what the people here were talking about, she didn't even know what these people did here. She supposed that they were some kind of mage guild judging by the strange symbols she saw on the screens while passing next to the cubicles. She once saw some strange magic symbols back on the continent and supposed they were related, she often lamented being born without the gift of magic, She always thought that being a mage would be nice, you could get a nice job and live an easy life.
Being lost in her mind and the cutlery she needed to clean, she lost herself in the monotonous task and stopped paying attention to the conversation the other people in the kitchen where having

"What you wanna do for lunch? did you bring any food?. The shorts guy asked casually as if the previous anger was never there in the first place.
"Yes. Why?. You have wanna go out to lunch?".
"As a matter of fact, yes, yes I do. How about going to the monster diner?, that place is always full during weekdays. I'm sure we will be able to get seats today without having to stand in line".
"Don't tell me you forgot to bring your lunch again? the guy with the shirt responded.
"No, I did not, I remembered to bring my insipid chicken breast today. So? you in?".
"Nah man, I pass. I don't want to be in a crowded place for too long today, I just want to finish the merge and go home".
"No prob man, I get you. Let's get this done quickly then so we can all go. I'll get our lunches, can you grab me a glass. of water from the dispenser will ya?". And with the plan in motion, they started heading for their respective tasks".
Just as the guy with shorts opened the fridge's door, he was left pondering looking inside".
"Hey Mike!" he spoke loudly, trying to get the other guy's attention.
"I'm going, I'm going, give me a second", he replied from the opposite side of the kitchen.
"I don't care about that, what did you bring for lunch?", he said mildly annoyed.
"Spaghetti and meatballs, why?. You want some?". Mike responded as he was leaving the 2 glasses on the table.
"No dude, Our lunches got taken again!", he said pouting. "There's only a sandwich in here", motioning to the almost empty fridge.
"Maybe someone else took it, I remember seeing your lunchbox when I left mine this morning".
"There should only be us here. Ah! and there is also Jeepers Creeper there!" he said nodding in the direction of Hana.
"Jeepers what?!", mike said surprised. "Is that a new kind of racial slur I'm not familiar with?".
"No dude! It's from an old movie", he said while moving towards the garbage bin. "I already got reprimanded by HR this month so no more racial slurs for a while", he added.
Arriving at the bin and opening he saw that indeed his (insipid) chicken breast and Mike's spaghetti and meatballs were in fact in the trash. "Just what I fucking needed today, a goddam alien ruining my lunch", he angrily said while slamming the lid on the trash can.
"Please Dick, don't make a scene again. I don't want to get barked by HR like last time". Mike said while trying to calm him down.
"I'm not gonna let it slide again, I'm tired of not doing their job properly", Dick angrily said just after arriving at the kitchen sinks"
"Hey You!", he said towards Hana. But He got no response, she was too focused on scrubbing the counter.
BAM! A loud noise cracked from the counter as Dick slammed his hand into it, "Are you deaf?!".
Whit a small yelp, Hana came out of her trance not understanding what was happening. "W-w-What?". She said meekly.
"Finally!". Dick exclaimed, "Why did you trash out lunch?". He asked Hana, mere inched from her face.
The sudden invasion of her personal space and the whole situation was overwhelming for Hana, she didn't even understand what was happening, so her mind and face were saying the same. "What?"
"Great, she can't even understand me". Dick complains to no one. "CAN YOU EVEN U-N-D-E-R-S-T-A-N-D ME? ENGLISH?", He says exaggerating his pronunciation as if talking to a deaf person.
"Y-Yes, yes I can understand you", she responds finally able to get back to reality a bit.
"Then, tell me", Dick grabs one of the empty lunchboxes that were on the during rack."Why did you threw our lunches into the trash". He points back and forth between the empty Tupper and the garbage.
"S-Sorry, I didn't know, I thought it was from someone who forgot about it yesterday", She responded, instinctively putting her 4 arms in front of her body.
"GREAT! What are we supposed to do now? Share your sandwich between us 3?". He raised his arm in frustration, this caused Hana to flinch a bit.
"You can have my lunch, but please don't fire me, Sir", Hana said while backing down. Tears starting to form in her eyes.
Sensing that this confrontation has lasted long enough for Dick to vent, Mike intervened and stood between them.
"OK OK OK", Mike raising his palms between them. "That's enough bullying for one day". Turning towards Hana. "Don't worry miss, We can't fire you. And even if we could, I'm sure it was a mistake, right?". Mike says softly, trying to calm Hana
Hana pauses for a second and nods rapidly.
Having calmed down Hana, Mike turns towards Dick. "See, it was just an innocent mistake".
Dick having calmed down a bit sighs loudly and crosses his arms. "This is not over, I'm going to complain to HR on Monday".
Mike rolls his eyes and chuckles. "Dude!, if he even tells half of what happened here, you will be losing your job instead of her".
Dick points at Hana and says. "You're lucky that I'm not a rat". He grabs a chair, spins it, and sits with the back at the front. "Now what bug lady, what are you gonna do about our lunches?".
Hana is just standing behind Mike as if she was hiding while grabbing the bottom of his uniform's shirt. "I don't know".
After a moment of silence, Mike interjects. "How about we go to the monster dinner you told me about a couple of minutes ago and she pays for our drinks? happy?".
Dick squints his eyes and thinks for a bit. "I also want a bowl of hot chips".
Mike then asks Hana, "Is that ok for you?".
Hana barely understanding what was happening just nods.
"We have a deal"



23/10/2019 work in progress
thanks for reading