Are You Shaken? There is so Much Worse in Store.

[Sophie]

Fumika Kanaka still hadn't gotten used to the swaying, back and forth, of the Dirian Merchant Ship Tispar. "I thought Kumo were born to brave the waves?" The Dirian human jeered as Kanaka again lurched over the side to hurl.

"Fuck off." Kanaka coughed and hacked, spitting up the last of her seasickness off the edge. "Our legs stabilize us, but it doesn't matter in seas this choppy." She wanted to sound angry, but she came across as defeated as she lay against the railing. For the past eight years, Kanaka had been employed by a food canning company in Diria. This, of course, was not her only job, as it paid a pittance. More importantly, she was employed by the Kumosenkan Ministry of Interstate Police. In simple terms, Kanaka was a spy. She had been relegated to a rather dull post in Diria after being caught stealing documents from a private company in Amali. She had managed to keep a low profile in Diria but had also collected little to no intelligence of value. She was an easy pick to pull off her primary mission and send her to Franerre with a critical task.

"Deliver message to King Dante II. Eyes only." The instructions told her. A manilla folder had been taped to her torso so it couldn't be lost nor stolen easily. She had bribed her way onboard this neutral vessel to gain easy access to Franneri ports, but getting anywhere beyond that would be challenging. Kanaka had decided on a tactic, though. As she couldn't hide her race nor throw off suspicion from a country so violently racist towards Kumo, she would be honest. "Hey, Kumo lady." The vessel's captain barked as she continued to heave over the edge. "We're going to be making dock in about nine hours. Go sleep if you can."

With a wave of dismissal, Kanaka retreated below deck. She had spun up a hammock for herself to sleep in as all the crew quarters were occupied, and she wasn't strictly legal cargo. The ship's rocking made it nigh impossible to fall asleep, but at some point, the exhaustion from the seasickness got to her, and she passed out.

---

A blaring foghorn panicked Kanaka out of her hammock and onto the floor. She quickly skittered her feet beneath her. With all eight legs steady and the boat not rocking, Kanaka headed for the surface. Tispar had docked in Pareau. A gangway had already been latched to the oiler, and the crew who needed to disembark had done so. With naught an ounce of hesitation, Kanaka headed down the gangway and onto the docks. Immediately all eyes were on her. This was, of course, part of her plan and inevitable. She strutted down the pier towards the city with complete confidence that someone with authority would stop her.

[callmedelta]

"Hey, whaddya thinks goin on over there?" Harbormaster Marcel Lebas felt the elbow of his assistant, one Luc Sawa, dig into his side as the man pointed at one of the ships moored at the docks, E-2 according to the signpost.

"What do you mean?" Marcel asked, staring at the ship. It was a Dirian vessel, almost certainly carrying some imported oil. He'd seen a few come into the docks at this spot, and there wasn't anything out of the ordinary. Whatever was being unloaded off the ship was on the other side, obscured by the bulk of the vessel. "The ship looks normal."

Luc sighed. "Not the ship, the people. Look again, ślepy." Now that he mentioned it, Lebas could see what his subordinate was on about. There weren't that many workers over there visible from their angle, but the men the pair could see were stock still, some still carrying crates in the middle of offloading them from the ship.

"The fuck?" Marcel muttered. As he looked further, he realized there was barely any noise coming from that direction, despite it being the closest dock with a ship in. This was downright weird. "C'mon," Marcel said, striding forward to see just what it was that was going on as Sawa tagged along behind him.

It was as the pair had rounded the side of the ship that Kanaka came into view. The nearly-forgotten words of a drill sergeant came flooding back to Marcel, screamed at him during nearly every fire drill. 'Those spiders are comin' to kill you and everyone you love soldier! Kill them first, shoot 'em before you end up in her stomach!' His rifle would be attached to the pack for marching, but why didn't he have that on him? His bayonet should be-

"B-Boss!" Luc said with a much harder than usual elbow to the ribs, his voice hurried. Marcel had lost himself there for a moment, falling back on instinct, and during that time that...thing had just kept on walking by. What in the name of Christ himself was happening? Where was it going? As much as he wanted to kick it up the chain of command like any good conscript, well, he was the chain of command in this situation. As much as a part of him wanted simply make it Luc's job, well, the man looked like he was ready to faint, his already light skin practically white. Marcel shoved his clipboard into Luc's hand, walking after the spider in that fast way one did when they didn't want to run. "Hey!..." Marcel called out. Just what the hell did you call one of those things, anyway? "...You! Stop!"

[Sophie]

Kanaka stopped immediately now that someone had finally shouted at her. "I got further than I thought I would." Kanaka mused to herself in her native tongue of shusugiris. She turned to see the Human standing about a foot below her. With a quick bow she spoke loud and clearly. Her accent came across thick as she tried to speak in Franneri. "G- Geoud maourining." The Kumo tried to stutter out the phrase she had learned from her phrase book on the short boat over. The Arabesque Orb-weaver Kumo's eight legs scrunched down slightly so she'd be slightly less ginormous compared to the panicked human. "Me am fraum Kumosenkan." She continued to the best of her ability. "King to me take. His letter." She tried to smile to show a non-hostile intent. "Umnderstaund?"

[callmedelta]

Marcel was so off put by hearing that spider speak in a way he could somewhat understand but was still clearly foreign, he automatically replied with a, "Morning," before he'd even realized it. Just what the fuck was going on here? Marcel would have never expected a spider to speak Franerri, he always imagined they hissed and growled at each other. To sound like a scared stuttering five year old was just...unsettling? Lebas didn't think he knew a word for it. The Kumo's odd body language didn't help the situation. Just what did it - Marcels' train of thought was interrupted as he saw the creature bear it's fangs at him. His heart skipped a beat, Marcel's hand instinctively going to his side where his knife should be sheathed - but, no, he wasn't in the army anymore. Did it just mention the King? Marcel turned around. "Hey, Luc!" he shouted, the pale, now sweating man watching the situation with the same grim inability to look away that accompanied car accidents, if either of the two men had ever seen one, that was. Lebas waved his hand over, and Sawa hurried over, eager to get this over with as soon as possible. "This thing just said something about the King," Marcel hurriedly talked in a low voice, "and maybe a letter? And it just bared it's fangs at me and-"

"I can see that!" Luc interjected.

Marcel shut him up with a glare and continued. "This whole thing is above both of our pay grades. I'll stall it here and you...I don't know, go tell the police or something. Someone in the government. They have a thing for foreign people, right?" Marcel turned back around to look at the spider. "Just, go and get someone, please." Luc gave a curt nod, slinking away as Marcel turned back around to face the spider. "If you're going to do that," Marcel said, "Then I think...you'd need to...go through customs first. I can show you where that is."

[Sophie]

Kanaka's eyes followed the conversation with intent as the Kumo strained her ears to try and follow the conversation to the best of her ability. She caught some words, but the majority of the conversation was lost on her. Though body language, she could read like a book. Fear. I'm sure it's their first time seeing a Kumo. There was little she could do to make herself seem smaller, less intimidating, or less scary, so she settled on smiling as much as possible and nodded along with the conversation like she was a part of it rather than the subject.

Finally, a word of importance got through her ears 'customs.' Her eyes lit up! She had already found the customs officer. "Customs?" She asked with a smile and nodded several times over. One of her forelegs reached to the satchel on her back and brought it forth to her hands. She dug through the bag for a second until she pulled out a handful of documents and passed them over to Marcel. On top of everything was a short letter translated into decent Franerri.

"Good day, customs officer or other forms of foreign entry official. My name is かななかふみか. In your language, this is pronounced Fumika Kanaka. You may address me as Kanaka. I am an official courier of the Empire of Kumosenkan. I bring with me letters from my government intended for your King and your King only. By international law, these letters are the legal property of your king and must be delivered to him by me. I have no weapons and have no intention of causing any trouble or any harm to you or your people. I am just a messenger. Once my message has been delivered, I will leave your country on the same boat I arrived on. Until such a case has been fulfilled, I will not leave. Please do not imprison me, as my government would do a lot to get me back. I have official seals and documentation signed by the Empress herself proving my identity." The prose was old and in a strange dialect, but it would be easily understood by anyone fluent in Franerri.

The rest of the documents were Kanaka's ID and a copy of the ID translated into Franerri. As well as a document expressing official intent indeed signed by the Empress of Kumosenkan. There was a translated copy of this document as well. The actual letter intended for the king was still taped to Kanaka's stomach.

[callmedelta]

Marcel took the letter from the spider, reading it. He looked back up to this 'Kanaka.' Read the letter again. This flew so high over his pay grade it was in a different tax bracket, and it likely was not anything good, But, if this letter was to be believed, trying to stop the spider would probably make a 'not good' situation into a 'definitely bad' one. Marcel handed the letter back to the spider. "In that case, uhhh, F...Fuh-meye-kay Kah-nah-kay(?), just follow me and I'll take you to customs." 'And make it their problem,' Marcel thought. Summoning up all of his admittedly meager managerial air and desperately trying to look and act like he knew what the fuck he should be doing in this scenario, Marcel lead the spider to the passenger customs which was at the other end of the docks from the freight customs, but, blessedly, it was relatively empty this time of day. No major ferries had docked, leaving the only people to spot the pair more dockworkers lazing around between shipments. They stared the same as those dockworkers before, and Marcel could practically hear the whispers that sprung up as soon as they left.

"Wait here for a moment," Marcel said, raising up his hand in a stopping motion as the two came to the entrance of the customs inspection building. Slipping inside, Marcel's luck ran out. The tail end of a crowd from a ferry appeared to be going through now, with plenty of women and children in sight. That would not do. Thankfully, at least, it looked like they were somewhat on top of the situation here as Andre de Villers, the manager of the harbor's customs, was already heading Marcel's way.

"What's this about a fucking Kumo at the docks, Marcel?" Andre asked, his tone somewhere between indignant and terrified.

"Apparently it has a letter for the King, and that it has to deliver the damned thing," Marcel answered.

"And you just believed that piece of paper?"

"Look, Andre, this thing is above me-" Marcel pointed at himself for effect "-and to be honest, it's probably above you-" He pointed at Andre now "-as well. But you'd know more about this than I, so you should at least know what to do when we have an important foreigner at our docks."

Andre let out an exasperated sigh. "Normally diplomats have a private and expedited customs process, but if anyone knew a Kumo was coming everybody at these damn docks would have been replaced by someone from the Gendarmerie. "

"So just do that!" Marcel exclaimed.

Andre paused. "That's...not the worst idea. There's an entrance on the right side of the building, bring her over there for me and I'll get someone ready as fast as I can."

[Sophie]

As the man made an attempt at her name, she nodded and pointed at herself, saying, "Kanaka." She didn't understand enough Franerri to understand his commands but could read his waves and hand motions to keep her moving. Her eyes focused on who she believed to be, her customs officer. Once he held up his hands, she understood and stopped just outside the customs door. Though once he disappeared inside, she hesitated. "Wait, does that hand gesture mean the same thing here as it does back home?" She asked herself out loud; confident no one could understand Shusugiris.

The dockworkers were quick to take note of the large Kumo just standing at the customs door, and Kanaka felt the eyes burning into the back of her skull. "Surely I'm supposed to go inside too, right? Is this the customs building?" She looked around for any sort of signage. Once she saw the word 'customs,' one of the few words she'd manage to memorize the pronunciation and spelling of, she shook her head. "I must have misunderstood." She confirmed to herself and pushed open the door in front of her. She leaned her torso in and looked around the room. She saw Marcel, waved to get his attention, and pointed at herself and then to him with a quizzical look on her face.

[callmedelta]

"Mommy?" Victoire Kapusta looked down at little Émile, tugging on her dress skirt, "I need to go potty."

Victoire sighed. "Can you hold it until we get back home?" Émile shook his head. "Do you think you can go by yourself?" Émile shook his head again. 'At the very least, we won't lose our spot in line,' Victoire thought, leaving the end of the line. She took her son by the hand and lead him to the bathrooms at the dockside entrance of the building. Victoire only vaguely registered a man hurrying in from the docks, another one from inside the building already hurrying over to meet him.

~

It was just as Andre and Marcel's conversation had ended when Kanaka poked her head into the door. The spider was still bearing it's fangs, and one of it's legs? Talons? Whatever you called the things it walked on was poking through the door. "Merde," Marcel muttered. He turned back to look at the terminals. The already thin crowd had halved, but there were still a good twenty, thirty people waiting to go through. None of them seemed to have noticed Kanaka, though. Marcel speed walked towards the door, ready to shoo Kanaka away, when he heard it.

~

Little Émile Kapusta left the potty, lead by his Mommy. "Come along now," Mommy said, walking away from the potty. Émile's attention was on the two men talking. They looked like they knew a lot about boats. Émile liked boats, that's why he always liked taking the ferry. One of them began walking back to where the ferry was. Was there another ferry? Émile's gaze trailed along back to the door. There was a woman there, but she didn't look quite right. "Mommy?" Émile asked, pulling on her skirt, "Who's that?" Mommy stared at the woman for a few moments, and then fell down on the ground asleep.

~

Marcel spared a glance back to the customs house just in time to see the woman faint. Damned weak-willed women! Andre was already rushing over to the collapsed woman and her child, and a few people from the end of the line had already turned around to see what was happening. Marcel broke out into a full on run, nearly barreling through the spider as he rushed outside and closed the door. Letting out a breath Marcel didn't even realize he had been holding, Marcel turned to the spider. He wanted to say so, so many things, almost none of which it would understand. It was time to get this damned thing out of his hair. "Follow. Me." He said slowly, leading the spider around the right side of the building, constantly checking behind him to make sure it was following him. He would have dragged it by the hand to the side entrance if Marcel actually wanted to touch the thing. This portion of the docks was empty, the side door clearly not seeing much use. Entering inside, the room didn't have anybody in yet, leaving Marcel and the spider to wait for the time being.

~

Luc Sawa stood hunched over, heaving outside of the police station. He'd probably had to run somewhere near a kilometer if Sawa would guess, and he'd never ran as fast in his life. Luc's entire lower half was on fire, and he didn't know if he could take another step. A pair of policemen exited the building, and Luc snatched the arm of one. "Spider," he breathlessly said between gulps of air, unable to remember the right word, "At the docks." The two policemen stared at Luc, confused.

"Are you drunk?" one of them asked.

"No...a big one," Luc had regained most of his breath now, and tried to illustrate the size of the spider with his hands. Which didn't really work that well, given that the spider was higher up than Luc could even reach on the tips of his toes. Didn't stop him from trying, though.

"He's drunk," the other agreed, the pair beginning to walk away.

"No, no, like one of those people-spiders, from Elenria, the fuckin' scary ones," Luc pleaded.

"You mean a Kumo?" the first officer asked, eyes wide. Luc nodded and gave a thumbs up. "Just one, you said?" Luc nodded again. "How many has it killed?"

"No one," Luc said, "It said something about a letter and the King. I work at the docks, my boss said he'd try to handle whatever's the thing wants while I got the cops."

That gave the officers pause. "The chief will want to hear about this."

~

Five minutes later, two cars, one of which was owned by the station, the other the chief's personal car, sped away from the station towards the Foreign Affairs Administration and Gendarmerie headquarters respectively. Meanwhile, a squad of 10 police officers began making their way towards the docks, Luc tagging along with them.

[Sophie]

Kanaka almost stifled a laugh as she watched a woman collapse upon just seeing her. If just seeing me is enough to cause a panic, imagine if I were actually trying to hurt someone here. Though before she could walk in and join the line of people for customs, Marcel shooed her outside once more. Kanaka recoiled and raised an eyebrow while pointing inside. "Customs?" She tried to ask, but Marcel just hurried her elsewhere. She followed along obediently like a lost puppy. Though once the two were alone, every muscle tensed in her body. She looked Marcel in the eye; four of hers twitched involuntarily. With a tense and hesitant breath, she asked. "Prison?" A small shot of adrenaline ran through her body as her thoughts spiraled quickly. If they try to arrest me, I can just run to the Dirian ship. I don't think they have any authority there. I can't fight them, though... I would get in way too much trouble if any of these Touli weaklings got hurt because of me. Should I just make a big show? Get him to retreat, and then I can sprint off? They can't be faster than me.

[callmedelta]

Marcel felt a surge of adrenaline, along with a mixture of equal parts anger and terror as he recalled the letter’s words. The damn inside of him broke. “Y-you are not in a prison, you stupid scary colonizing eight-eyed spider fuck,” Marcel hurried out, his anger and terror making the words spill forth without restraint, his hands enunciating every point, “Why the fuck did you just exit onto my docks off a fucking Dirian oil tanker of all things? Why couldn’t this go to people who actually know how to handle this? Why is this my God damned problem? I swear to Christ if a woman fainting is the worst thing that happens in this entire ordeal I will be surprised.”

At this point, and definitely hearing some of the conversation through the door, Andre entered with a stack of papers, facing Marcel. “I’ve got a few men making sure the woman is ok and keeping the crowd under control, and I think she and the kid were the only one who saw,” Andre said, “Now let’s just get this over with.” He turned to the spider, holding a few sheets of paper. “Whenever we get foreign diplomats we usually have the paperwork translated for them,” he said, “So I hope you speak Gaelian, Lusatian, Ashinaran, or Koian, otherwise this is about to get a whole lot more difficult.”

Setting a copy of each document on the table, it was entirely mundane paperwork about what items the diplomats had to declare, what items could be searched by port authorities, what items couldn’t be searched by port authorities, duration of stay, and other such things.

“You sure this is the best idea?” Marcel asked.

“You said yourself this is over both our heads,” Andre answered, “And unless you have any better ideas, be quiet while I do my job.”

[Sophie]

With the human's increase in aggression, so too increased Kanaka's. Her hands balled into a fist as she felt the need to prepare to defend herself. The bursting in of Andre made her heartrate skyrocket as she flinched backward. She didn't calm down until she heard the word Koian. "Spirits above." She swore in Shusugiris before answering in Franerri. "Speak Koian." She nodded. She took the Koian form and began filling out all of its pertinent information, including the declaration of the letter intended for the king. While she wrote, she spoke. "Your people. Not friendly to Kumo. No official channels. Diria best way in." She tried to explain, getting the gist of the two Franneri's previous conversation.

As she finished the form, she handed it to the man along with her translated identification papers. "Take king with to now?" Her voice came across as demanding as she manually translated every word in her head. Kanaka tried to keep her smile up, but her fight-or-flight response was making that a challenge.

[callmedelta]

10 policeman and one Luc Sawa arrived at the Pareau docks. “Where did you say they were at?” Captain Guy Segal asked Luc.

“Well, last I knew they were down on the docks,” Luc said, “But I think they said they were headed for customs.”

~

“Well gee, maybe there’s a reason we don’t like your kind,” Marcel muttered as the spider filled out the paperwork, “‘Diria best way in’ my ass.”

After the paperwork was done, neither Andre or Marcel really had anything to say. An awkward silence grew in the air, until Marcel broke it. “Well?”

“What?” Andre shrugged. “Normally diplomats have some sort of convoy prepared or something, but somehow I doubt that’s the case now.”

“So do we just let her go?” Marcel asked rhetorically, “We both know that just letting a spider walk out of this port would be the worst possible thing to do in this scenario.”

“You have any better ideas, other than just keeping her here?” Andre answered.

Marcel sighed, “Aren’t you supposed to have an idea of what to do in this scenario?”

“No?!?!” Andre said, “What about this situation makes you think I know anymore than you do?” The arguing men were interrupted by a knock at the door. Andre walked over, sticking his head out the door. It was a police officer.

~

“Are you Marcel?” Captain Segal asked the head sticking out of the door.

“No, I’m Andre, Marcel’s inside,” Andre answered.

“And…the Kumo?” Guy asked, more hesitant this time.

“Inside too.”

“Any issues so far?” Andre shook his head. “Let me in then.” Andre opened the door, letting Guy get his first look at the Kumo. It was…surprising how, dare he say human the Kumo looked. It was impossible to ignore the spider lower half of the creature, and with how she was smiling those fangs practically gleamed in the room’s light, drawing all of the attention from the six extra eyes the Kumo had. Still, with how tall the Kumo was and how short Guy was, his eyes were just barely to where the spider legs ended and the torso began, but that torso looked pretty human at least.

“My name is Captain Guy Segal of the Pareau Police Department,” Guy said, “I’ve been ordered to take you back to the station until further notice. Please, just come along and make this easy.” Andre signed, and Marcel paled.

”She…doesn’t speak Franerri.”

~

Two cars arrived at the headquarters of the Foreign Affairs Administration and the Gendarmerie.

[Sophie]

Again Kanaka couldn't understand the totality of the conversation, but she could very reasonably infer from tone and posture. Though she bit her tongue, her mission was more important than her and her Empire's pride. She followed the two's conversation back and forth, trying to catch bits and pieces as they decided what to do with her. She started to feel a bit more at ease once she caught word of "let her go." Though this immediately dissipated into paranoia once yet, another man entered the room.

"Police?!" She barked back at the Captain. She gestured at herself, "Diplomat!" Then she made a slicing motion with both hands. "No arrest! Bad plan!" She recoiled backward, getting as far as she could from the police captain in the room, sneering at the small man. She pointed at Marcel. "No arrest! Tell!" She pointed at the officer, hoping Marcel would tell him off or something.

[callmedelta]

Guy saw the Kumo bearing his fangs. Was she getting ready to strike? His first instinct to place his hand on the revolver at his hip, just in case. Marcel grabbed onto his arm, nearly tackling the man as he placed himself between Guy and the spider. “What the fuck do you think you’re doing?” Guy whispered.

“That spider had a letter sayin’ that we can’t arrest her or else Kumosenkan will get angry, and that’s gonna mean all our heads, now don’t fuckin’ antagonize it.”

“I’m not trying to arrest her!” Guy exclaimed, “She’s the one who’s showing off those damned fangs of hers, thought she was getting ready to bite my head off.”

“She doesn’t know that, you dumbass,” Marcel let go of Guy, taking a step back.

Gingerly, Guy lifted his revolver by the barrel, setting it on a table nearby. “No arrest, see?” he said, slowly. Guy placed his hand out in front of him. “Letter?” Taking the letter from Kanaka, he read it over. Searchings at his pockets for a few moments, he took a pen out and began to draw on the back of the letter. A half a minute later, a crude drawing of a spider at the docks, arrow pointing to a police badge and a spider, and an arrow pointing to a crown and a spider. “You, docks.” Guy pointed to Kanaka, then to the first drawing on the letter. “You, me, police station. No arrest.” He ran the pen along the first arrow to the second drawing. “You, King.” He ran the pen along the second arrow to the third drawing. “Understand?”

~

One car sped away from the Foreign Affairs Administration headquarters, and a fleet of four sped away from the Gendarmerie headquarters

[Sophie]

The moment the man touched his revolver, Kanaka's vision began to narrow. She wanted to fight. I can kill them. I can kill them all so easily. So fast. Her thoughts raced as she thought her life might soon end. Thankfully her brain quickly processed Marcel's interference. Kanaka took rapid, deep breaths to calm herself as the revolver was set on the desk. She watched closely as the police officer read her letter, and her heart continued to pound. The drawing was crude but easy to understand. She was eager to nod along as the officer explained his intentions. With a steadied heart, Kanaka placed a hand on her chest and nodded. "Police, okay. We go now." She confirmed, thankful that the Franerri weren't as quick on the trigger as rumored.