***
Excerpts from Stephanie's Research Diary
August 12: Today, at the base of a tree, Jacob found a nest with a completely new species of beetle. It's large enough to fill up most of the palm of my hand. They occasionally release a small dose of a sweet-smelling pink pollen-like substance. Jacobson inhaled most of a dose when he first found them, which prompted him to call the rest of us over. After 12 hours of observation, he's exhibiting no side-effects, leading us to tentatively rule the pollen harmless. Thank Christ, too - each member of the team has inhaled some over the course of the day. I know this is very unorthodox, especially for the discovery of a brand new species of insect, but I have authorised each team member to each keep one insect and take them all home with us tomorrow so that we can learn more about it. Something about its physiology - its psychedelic red-and-black swirls on its upper shell, its curious nature, or the strange pink pollen it sprays - whatever it is, something about it tells me it'll be a very interesting specimen to study.
August 15: The team is settled back home now, each of us smuggling an insect through customs. I should feel guilty, but the scientific value of this creature can't be overstated. I haven't heard much of anything from the other 8 members of my team, but so far my observations have been incredible. I've been feeding the creature mostly on instinct since we arrived home on the 13th. Its diet consists of vegetation - I've been experimenting slightly, and it's happy with garden variety leaves, but I've also fed it grass, lettuce, broccoli, and even grated carrots. It's happily eaten everything I've put in front of it.
Oh, and one minor detail - the creature grows exponentially. It's about the size of a Beagle now. I'm embarrassed to even be typing this out, but I've actually begun to treat it as though it's a puppy - I've been petting it, talking cutsey to it, asking it if it's hungry and such. Strange behaviour, but harmless enough, I think. The funny thing is, the insect almost appears to be responding positively to this treatment - using both its mandibles and its mouth, it responds to my talking and affection with a clicking and popping manner. At this stage, I can't tell if it's attempting to communicate affection in a similar way to a dog, or if it's just responding to stimuli like noise and touch. I also don't have enough data to determine if there is any sort of meaningful pattern to the insect's "dialogue".
Though I can see markings on its shell indicating the presence of wings, my insect seems quite content to walk throughout my house. I've begun to theorise that the pollen is similar to a musk, used to mark territory rather than to paralyse or poison predators or prey. It's been spraying the musk throughout my house, and often on me. At this point, I just kind of grin and bear it. At least it's making the house smell nice.
***
Stephanie saved the Word document and swivelled her chair away from the computer's glowing screen. At her feet, she saw the creature to which she was becoming increasingly attached. She bent over and picked it up. It clicked-and-popped happily as she started gently caressing its glossy shell, tracing her fingers over the red swirls, then the black. It crawled up her stomach and made its way up to her chest.
"Ooh, no, not there, please," she winced. For some reason, her breasts had become very sore to the touch over the past week or so. And, perhaps this was just her imagination, but they may have even gotten larger. Nothing about it made sense; she was still 3 weeks away from her next period, and Lord knows she couldn't have been pregnant - the last time she'd slept with a guy had been over a year ago.
It's not that she was exactly a stranger to sex, though. It just seemed that ever since she accepted her promotion to a full-time entomologist, Stephanie was just far too focused on her work to actually pursue anything too serious. And, for a girl who enthusiastically studied bugs all day, 26 year old Stephanie was far from the cliched unattractive female scientist. Standing 5'10" tall with silky-but-short very light brown hair, with bright green eyes framed beautifully by her blue cats-eye glasses, Stephanie certainly had her pick of men if she wished. Sure, big tits are always the fashion, but Stephanie was proud that her B-cups were still very perky, despite how much they were aching lately.
Besides, who needs human contact when she and her team could be onto the entomological find of the century? Stephanie hadn't seen anyone to talk to since she arrived home from the jungle two days ago. Not that it really mattered, anyway. She could do all her work online from home, and order pizza while she was at it. That'd been her diet at university for four years; why not go back to it for a week or so, just for nostalgia's sake? It's not as though she needed to lose weight, either - Steph was blessed with one of those figures that stayed slim and sexy no matter what she ate.
Her train of thought was interrupted by her insect pet spraying her with another dose of pollen. "Okay, okay, I get it," she joked. "Feeding time it is."
At the fridge, she discovered she was completely out of plant life to feed it. In fact, the only food she still had was a packet of beef mince that was due to expire tomorrow.
"Fuck it," she decided. "As a fun little experiment, let's see if you're an omnivore or just a herbivore, hey?" Steph opened the packet and placed it on the insect's plate. "Now, if you don't like it, you don't have to eat it, alright? I can just go to the store if you want some more green stuff."
Thankfully for Steph, who was still in her pyjamas at 3PM, her insect ate the entire 500 grams of beef mince in about 10 seconds.
"Well, holy crap," she exclaimed. "You wasted no time there, huh? That's certainly something to note."
The evening of August 15 passed without incident. Stephanie ate her half of the meatlovers pizza and stored the other half for lunch tomorrow. The creature she was studying fell asleep in what had become its usual place at the foot of her bed. By 11PM, she had showered and was climbing into bed, to dream a dreamless sleep.
In the morning, Stephanie decided she didn't really need to go and buy more groceries for her insect - now that she had discovered it was an omnivore, she decided she'd share the leftover pizza with it. She ate her cereal with the now Great Dame-sized creature by her side, clicking-and-popping while she rubbed its back absentmindedly. Once she had washed up, Stephanie changed into her casual clothes but chose to skip the bra - her nipples were just too damn sore today. Maybe she should see a doctor about that soon? Anyway, that can wait; she had so much more of the insect to study.
She led it into the living room. First, she wanted to see how much weight it could carry now that it was standing even with her waist. She climbed onto it like it was a miniature pony and yes - it can withstand the weight of a full-grown woman. But was that really such a breakthrough? Everyone knows that insects can hold many times their own weight, and now her bug was many times heavier than she was. Okay, fine. There was no scientific value in riding the bug, but it was just damn funny.
Hopping off the insect, Stephanie stood over it, pondering what to investigate next. Whatever else she had planned for the day, however, was immediately cancelled when the insect raised up on to its four hind legs and stared at her with its black, compound eyes. The time was now. Before she could register the horrible regurgitative sound her insect made, it spat thick, dark green acid onto her. As she ran to the bathroom, she could hear the mess bubbling and dissolving her clothes. Very quickly and very carefully, she stripped out of her shirt and her jeans, throwing them into the bathtub.