Glitter Golgotha and Faulkner
 

Stacy Torrence had always dreamed of making a documentary. Her current project was to travel to India and study a group of humanoid Mantis-people. Her hope was to become a member of the National Explorer research and reporting team. However at the moment she was just a college student working on a school funded project. Her less than stellar (in her opinion) team consisted of a film and photography major named Bridgette Howard and Sam Johnson. Both of them were hicks from little nowhere towns and unlikely to amount to anything if you asked Stacy. Bridgette was a homely round faced girl with long brown braided pigtails and freckles and Sam...well he was a long haired, bearded slack off who she was certain did drugs and got wasted in his spare time. But they weren't important, she was the star! and she would be the one who received fame and fortune in the future!

After two days of travel the group arrived in Bombay and made there way to a remote and out of the way town where the Mantis lived, Stacy put on her make-up and permed her bleached blond hair then made ready to interview the first Mantis...

Suyash was not too terribly surprised to see humans in the area; they wandered in from time to time--and usually never wandered back out. He shook his head as he went to pass by them. By the looks of things, they weren't bound to last long. Of course, he had more important things to worry about that day. He'd intended to pick up some new herbs for his garden, and so he was headed for his favorite shop, paying the trio of humans no more mind.

Stacy wasn't in town long before she noticed a prime candidate for her documentary. Motioning for Bridgette to aim the camera at him she began to speak.
"Here we get our first look at a mantis in his natural environment, note that the Mantis is a tall creature resembling a human with insectoid features. Let us follow him and observe his habits."

Suyash's antennae twitched as he sensed someone following him. It was the humans... They were watching him! He turned, shot them a glare, and picked up his pace. If he ducked into the shop quickly enough, perhaps they'd have to go and find someone else to bother.

"Now the mantis has entered the shop, I wonder what he is doing? Let's follow him and see." said Stacy entering behind him. Bridgette rolled her eyes. "Should we maybe ask his permission to film him?" she asked. "Shut up!" hissed Stacy. "You're ruining it! And I'm the boss so I'll decide what to do!" she snapped.

Suyash cringed inwardly as he heard them entering the shop behind him. He selected the small potted plant he'd been after, made his purchase quickly, and shoved past them. The sooner he got home, the better.

"The mantis just purchased a plant, it seems these creatures are capable of human transactions, I will now proceed to follow him to his home." said Stacy.
"Um...hey Stace...when do we eat?" asked Sam.
"Shut up!" Stacy turned to Bridgette, "Edit that out!" she snapped.
"But, I'm hungry," said Sam pushing his long black hair out of his face.
"Well to bad, follow that mantis!"

Oh, no, thought Suyash as he sped home. They are going to keep following me! Going just as quickly as his long legs could carry him without actually running, he turned the corner down the path to a small yellowish house and opened the door. He glanced behind him; they were approaching fast... He hurried inside and shut the door.

"Dammit! He went inside." screeched Stacy.
"Well maybe he doesn't like to be followed." offered Bridget.
"Yeah...it's all invasive n' stuff." said Sam.
"He's an animal, he doesn't have the same kinds of feelings we do," said Stacy fluffing her curls. As far as she was concerned he was just a big fat paycheck and a news story.
Bridgette shook her head, stupid princess....
"Can we get food now?" asked Sam
Stacy shrieked and stomped off to the trailer they'd set up at the edge of town.
Bridgette packed her camera, "Let's go have lunch Sam she said, the diva needs to cool off."

Suyash peered out the window and was relieved to see them go. Finally he could tend to his garden in peace.
Once he'd finished setting up the plant in its new home, he went to have a bath. Not only had it been a long day, but having such a close encounter with those humans had left him feeling just a bit dirty. At length he stepped out of the tub, rubbed his long, dark hair with a towel, and put on a clean blue skirt and a loose top to match. He had no more errands to run for the day. It was time to have dinner and relax.

Sam ran around town trying every thing he saw, putting on the clothes and eating the food and smoking the drugs until he was so loopy that Bridgette was having trouble keeping track of him. "Sam come this way! Get out of the road!" she cried tugging his sleeve, she accidentally took a wrong turn and ended up in front of the house where the mantis lived. "Great, I don't know how to get back from here again, you were the one keeping track of the directions." she said.
Sam giggled then toppled over,
"Duuuuude, look at all them purty colors." he said.
"I told you not to smoke that! Just because it's plant matter doesn't mean it's weed...." Bridgette groaned. There wasn't anything to do with him in this condition, she steeled herself and knocked on the door of the mantis's house...hopefully he had a phone.

Suyash groaned. Right when he'd sat down at the table... He stood and went to open the door.
Of course. Humans. "Why do you insist on bothering me?" he hissed, narrowing his large green eyes at them.

"I'm really sorry, my friend smoked some stuff without checking what it was and now he all high." said Bridgette,
"Wooowow, that guy's tall....he's purty." said Sam
"You're an idiot." said Bridgette, to the mantis she asked. "do you have a phone I could use to call a taxi?"
"Hey look....boobies." Sam gave Bridgette a poke and she dropped him.
"Please, help me." she begged the Mantis.

Just his luck... "I haven't got a telephone," Suyash muttered. After all, it was a relatively small community and he'd never seen the need for such a thing. Few mantises in the area had them, and those who did were generally of a much higher class than himself. He took a deep breath; he just knew he would regret his next words: "Come inside and have a seat for a while." Curse his manners.

"Thank you," said Bridgette tugging Sam in after her. "I'm sorry about my boss following you around earlier, she's making a documentary and she's more interested in getting famous than she is people's privacy." she sat Sam down on a chair.
"She's a bitch...but she's hot.....yeah," he giggled and stared into space. "I like hot." he said at length.
Bridgette shook her head. "He's a bum, don't mind him. I'm Bridgette by the way." she held out her hand to the mantis.

Suyash warily extended one slender, clawed hand and gave Bridgette a quick shake before retracting his arm into its usual position near his chest. "My name is Suyash," he replied. "I believe you should warn your friend to give the mantises their space. Nosy humans do not last long here."

Bridgette peered at him. "What do you mean by that?" she asked.
"They die, damn girl I'm stoned and I understand him." Sam grinned, "I'm Sam Johnson, nice to meet you Squash" he stood to offer a hand shake but ended up missing his target by a few feet.

Suyash grimaced and took a step back. "Suyash," he corrected sternly, "but you are correct about one thing. Humans are little more than a food source here."

Bridgette frowned, "That's disturbing. Maybe we should convince Stacy to do something else for her documentary." she said. "What do you think Sam?"
"Hey if I tilt my head everything looks like it's spinning....ugh, I think I'm gonna Ralph..."
"God you're useless."
"No you," said Sam draping himself over her. "Hey Sash, you got any food? I'm awful hungry." he asked.

"I am not feeding you anything if that means risking vomit," Suyash grumbled. He turned to Bridgette. "And perhaps that would be a good idea--for all of us," he said. "I don't care to be followed and I'm sure she wouldn't care to be eaten."

Bridgette thought about it, "This seems like a worse and worse idea by the minute.
"But then there's always the fact that I wouldn't care if she got eaten." said Sam. "Hey! Maybe we could film that! It'd be a nice part of the documentary, she's a bitch so I won't miss her."
"Sam That's terrible, I can't believe you're so heartless!" said Bridgette, "I don't like her either but I don't want her to get eaten!"

"Besides, I doubt she'd be the only one," Suyash murmured as he went into the kitchen to pour a glass of water. He stirred in a bit of extract from one of his herbs, then brought it back and held it out to Sam. "Drink. It should help."

Sam drank it all down, "Ugh that ain't beer," he said making a face. "hey...I don't feel high anymore." he blinked.
Bridget was impressed. "That's pretty handy, can I get a recipe? He'll be needing that again pretty soon." she frowned.
"You think we'd get eaten to? Just for being with her?" she asked, "That's troublesome."

"For being here at all," said Suyash as he took a seat in a chair across from them and began to braid his hair. "Unless you've made it clear that you serve some purpose--or are at least able to put up a good fight--you are fair game. The same essentially goes for us, though there is a sort of unwritten code which deems it very distasteful to attack another mantis without good reason." He smiled faintly as he finished braiding his hair and stood, then brought back the bottle of herb he'd put into Sam's water. "I have plenty," he said, handing it to Bridgette.

"Thank you, and thank you for being helpful." she grabbed a hold of Sam's shirt collar. "Come along you dirty bum, let's get back to the trailer and tell Stacy we need to clear out or we'll be supper." she said.
"Geez lady! I'm comin' damn woman you drag me around same as my ex-wife used to and I ain't even married to ya." Sam yowled as she led him away.