Shelobs, worms (or wombs), and noodles

After dropping Yoon off, Rachel drove up and we all had dinner in San Gabriel, home to the giant Chinese strip malls. As I commented, I think it's larger than the Chinese strip malls in three separate Bay Area cities combined. Though the restaurant Rachel was looking for seemed to have disappeared, we ended up getting noodles (and sausages and sticky rice) at Ah Tsong Noodles, which is a famous noodle place from Taiwan (here and here). Though we managed to go to Aji Ichiban and get chocolate-covered sunflower seeds, prunes, and preserved rose petals (amazingly tasty), it was too late to visit the massive CD/DVD store to look for kdramas.

Rachel and I then headed back and decided it was too late to watch any crack. So instead, I went to browse her manga shelves when we discovered.... a giant spider on the wall!

Well, it was not as giant as some of the monsters in Taiwan, which are as large as my hand, but it was still pretty freaking huge. And worse, it was lurking right above Flower of Life! Rachel bravely dashed in to rescue the manga as I kept an eye on the evil spider, which retaliated by crawling toward us. We both gave girly shrieks and ran out, closing the door behind us.

Then, instead of reading the manga Rachel had risked life and limb (er, or possibility of falling spider) to retrieve, I went through her Gundam Wing doujinshi! There is one with a pink sparkly cover, and when I flipped it open, I was traumatized to find Duo, clad in bunny ears, hot pants that did not even cover all of his ass, and a bunny tail. After that, I translated the one in which Duo is a werewolf. It is an AU. You can tell it is an AU because it has a giant toothed sandworm leaping out of the desert.

Rachel then regaled me with the plot of book 3 and 4 of Dune, which I never made it through because it was so incomprehensible. ( Spoilers for Dune )

Oh! And if anyone else remembers what happens in books 3 through eleventy billion of Dune, do spill in the comments! I will never read them, and I want to know.

Anyway, the doujinshi! I was very grateful when the worm appeared, as there had been a puzzling katakana phrase ("u(o)-mu"). "Womb?" I asked as Rachel snorfled. "Please tell me I am wrong, because I have no wish to see flying wombs in the desert!"

"And yet, it would be so appropriate for Angel Sanctuary," she said. As are so many things!

ETA: possible spoilers for Dune (all books) in the comments

Shelob addendum

And clearly I should never post pre-caffeine, as Rachel reminded me that I forgot about the reappearance of the evil spider!

We were sitting on the bed, happily reading doujinshi (or, I was reading and translating and Rachel was commenting). I had gotten to a key portion, in which Duo was dreaming that Quatre was telling him that he was actually a woman. Apparently his father had been trying for a boy, but had ended up with female!Quatre anyway, whom he raised as a boy. As one does.

In the midst of this startling realization, Rachel leaned over and said, "Oyce? You may want to move..."

I shrieked and leapt about three feet across the bed, flinging doujinshi everywhere. The spider had indeed crawled from the office into the bedroom and was evilly lurking behind the headboard while we were engrossed in the gender-bending dreams of Duo.

Rachel then had to rummage around looking for something skinny enough to reach behind the headboard slats as I kept an eye on the evil thing. She first got her vacuum cleaner, which both of us had difficulty assembling, then a squeegee mop thing, and finally, a broom. She whapped the spider, which fell to the ground. Both of us gave girly shrieks and scrambled onto the bed, toes curling in disgust. Since I am completely useless when faced with arachnid creatures, Rachel was forced to take the squeegee mop thing to beat at the corner the spider had gotten itself into.

It cleverly ran for the crack under the door and raced toward the office. But! Rachel killed it! She thinks it is a separate spider from the one lurking over the manga in the office, though I prefer to think that it was the same one.

"Good night!" she said. "I'm pulling the covers over my head to keep... things... from falling onto me."

"I can't sleep like that! I feel like I'm suffocating!"

And with that comforting thought in mind, I went to bed.