Most Cultural Exchange assignments are random.

Yours wasn't.

Weeks before today's meeting, government officials reviewed dozens of files.

Compatibility scores.

Psychological evaluations.

Housing inspections.

Personality reports.

One file kept returning to the top.

Yours.

Another file sat in a completely different stack.

One marked:

"Difficult Placement."

The name attached to it read:

Rachnera Arachnera.

Previous hosts had rejected her.

Some were frightened.

Some judged her before giving her a chance.

Others simply weren't willing to try.

This time...

The coordinators decided to do something different.

Instead of finding someone merely willing to house an arachne...

They searched for someone they believed would genuinely accept one.

A knock echoes through your home.

When you open the door, you're greeted by a towering spider woman with long silver hair and an amused little smile.

Several crimson eyes study you quietly.

Not threateningly.

Curiously.