As she climbed the long stairs leading to the temple, Kanna pondered.

Yesterday, her visit to the temple had been cut short by a meddling Otomo.

But certainly, today, that early in the morning, at a time the party animals were still sleeping sound, it wouldn't be interrupted by that kind of strange encounter.

No?

Strange encounters? Surely not!

...Well, Sumiko wouldn't consider herself strange, but a Spider going to the Temple of the Ancestors may appear unusual for some at least.

Sumiko had reversed her routine from the previous day - instead of starting further out and travelling back along her prayers route, she started closer. With the mention of potential history to be learned at this temple also, it gave her a second reason to visit.

Dressed in her traditional style of clothing - aka a simple black kimono- Sumiko made her way towards the long staircase and paused. Looking up, and up, and up. Large staircase. Tiny Spider.

With a small sigh she began the long walk.

Kanna almost crashed into the Spider. Almost. She realized there was an obstacle at the very last second and had to do some impressive gymnastics move – the kind she would be quite unable to pull willingly – to neither hit the Spider or fall on the floor herself.

But who could blame her really? The sun was barely lighting the world at this early hour, and the girl was just so tiny.

Plus, there was probably some part of her, not so deep in her subconscious, that would have found nothing wrong in crushing a Spider and wasn't in a hurry to raise the alarm. But she dismissed that thought. Courtesy above all.

"My humble apologies Spider-sama. I hope I've done you no harm?"

Sumiko was slightly startled, but was quick to cover it up.

"No, it was my fault. I wasn't moving very quickly" she bowed to the woman "it's a lot of stairs! I'm totally fine though, thank you for your concern" there was a smile as she noted the mons "I do hope I haven't caused any delay?"

"My schedule isn't that tight, and my visit to this temple is leisure, not business anyway."

She pondered that.

"Well, maybe leisure isn't the right term. It's part of my familial duty as a Kitsu to keep up to date with how the other clans revered their ancestors. But it's not part of the work I'm doing for the clan at the moment, and thus is not tied to as restrictive scheduling constraints.

In other words, I can spare a few minutes now, while I couldn't allow myself to be late to something like the party tonight."

"Hai" Sumiko nodded "I was intending to visit here for the first time from a historical knowledge point of view. If Kitsu-sama is well versed perhaps she would be able to assist? As long as it wouldn't interfere with Kitsu-samas schedule of course! I'm Susumu Sumiko" she bowed deeply to the woman "history is part of my duties as a librarian back on Whispers."

"Kitsu Kanna. Not a priest, and neither a historian, though those are definitely professions over-represented among friends and family."

The Lion scanned the tiny Spider from behind her glasses.

"My own experience of librarians is that they are more often than not the sort that prefer to remain in their libraries. What made you abandon your books and travel that far away from your home world? Surely, one does not wake up one day with just the irrepressible desire to study a Scorpion shrine?"

"Lovely to meet you Kitsu-sama."

Sumiko tilted her head, and chuckled.

"You would be correct, most librarians prefer to remain in their libraries. And while coming to investigate the histories World of Dreams would be high on my list anyway, my duties here are more of the Winter court variety. This visit however is more for my own personal curiosity rather than anything else. Someone I spoke to recently recommended this place as somewhere to look into in terms of historical learning. Does that view match with Kitsu-samas view of this temple?"

"So far, my own, personal, experience of the temple has been limited to what I've read about it and a glimpse at the inside with my own eyes.

From these meager information, I would say it all depends on what you're looking for. You're likely to find an abundance of details about the lives of some ancient Scorpion heroes, but not something like the archives of the district.

However, in all honesty, you won't find much you couldn't have read about from your home without first obtaining the support of the Scorpion for your endeavor. Most historical documents, even the most inconspicuous ones, aren't available to the public."

"Interesting, it was a Scorpion that pointed me towards the shrine. It would make sense for it to be focused around those who have departed which is what I suspected" Sumiko frowned "well, I have arrived here anyway, so I should pay my respects, and maybe see if the library Soshi-sama mentioned is in there. Shall we head up?"

"Right behind you."

A good practice when dealing with arachnids was to always keep them where you could see them instead of letting them creep into your blind spot.

"I think the Scorpions have a second shrine fully dedicated to Shosuro first of her name but I haven't delved into that subject yet. Logically, anything truly ancient, like texts from and about the time the clans were seven and united against the darkness, should be found there rather than here."

"I had visited that shrine as well, it's very...unique. Extremely quiet, with a lot of very helpful but quiet moving monks that can surprise you. I didn't delve too deeply into if it had libraries to visit though."

She took a quick pause to catch her breath as she reached the top of the stairs, looking up at the shrine.

"This is impressive..."

"It's definitely up to scale with the city hosting it. Aside of size however, it shouldn't be fundamentally different from the ancestral shrines you're used to.

... You're used to them right? Or do things work differently on Spider's worlds? Merged with fortunist shrines maybe?"

"We don't have shrines like this" Sakura shook her head "they're usually smaller, and more focused. Shrines to the Dark Fortunes are plenty, there's bigger ones in the main worlds but on Whispers we don't have as much space due to the planet not moving. The Hive has our biggest temple, not that I've been to it before."

She looked back to Kanna.

"How is it on Lion planets?"

"I was born on Kitsu Prime. The cities there are for the most part interconnected shrines surrounded by all the necessities required for their proper functioning. If you consider the countrysides are part of this ecosystem, since they provide the food and raw resources required by the cities, then the whole planet can be envisioned as a single gigantic self-sufficient temple.

Shrines on the other planets are more modest, more or less on par with the one we're currently facing.

We just don't do things halfway when our ancestors are concerned."

I kind of expected that...

"That sounds like quite an impressive sight. Both offering prayers to those who have passed, and providing for the future as well. Really impressive feats of engineering, I'd love to see it! Spider engineering and architecture has a very focused design, and often not very scenic. More functional."

Sumiko turned back to the temple.

"It seems Scorpion are somewhere inbetween."

"Functional and elegant are not mutually exclusive. The blade by your side is both prettier and deadlier than a kitchen knife.

But I get the idea that for more mundane items, when budget constraints are greater than symbolism, some sacrifices have to be made."

The image of the Lion embassy crossed her mind.

"And sometimes, even though money is not an issue, roughness is a deliberate design choice. To send a message."

She looked back at the shrine:

"I'm sure I've had at least one colleague uses the 'between tradition and modernity' cliché to describe that shrine. Not totally inappropriate though. Classical architecture and virtual altars."

"From my experiences here, between tradition and modernity seems to be a theme" Sumiko chuckled "still, I'm sure the inside is far closer to modern from what I've heard. Shall we?"

She motioned in, smiling.

"Certainly."

As they entered the temple proper, and were met with a flock of Scorpion devotees and monks, Kanna realized the chances were high she would lose the minuscule, unassuming, Spider in such a crowd. She didn't know if this was a bad or a good thing.

/scene?

Although she did her best, Sumiko did unfortunately get separated with Kanna. She attempted to find her again, but not knowing her way around made her eventually give up and go to locate the libraries.

/scene (thank you for the thread