Palace Tour
			   A Final Attempt Vignette
			       by Suika Roberts

	I step up to the door the guard indicates, then knock nervously,
carefully keeping my eyes off the joints between surfaces, and some of the
surfaces as well.

	The pink-haired little girl who answers the door is almost normal, a
total relief for my straining brain.  `Hello, I'm with _Better Homes,'

	The girl interupts smoothly, `And Gardens_ magazine.  Come in, I'll be
your guide for this part of the tour,' she smiles a very charming smile, `Your
head hurts, doesn't it?'

	I nod, a little surprised.

	`Ami-chan went a little overboard when she did the design work, but
it's really rather nice, once one gets used to it.  The headache should
disapate after a week or so in CT, if it doesn't you should check with a healer
about it.'

	`Does this happen to everyone?'

	`Most people; there have been reports of people going into convulsions
upon seeing the main concource at Haneda for the first time, but none for a
while.'

	`Really?' I ask nervously, `How long of a while?'

	`Oh,' she wiggles the fingers of one hand, `the last one I heard of was
in 3625, about the middle of Confusion.'

	3625, that isn't all that, wait, it's now 3853.  Bah.  "I heard?"

	`Princess,' I drop to one knee, the sudden realization scaring me off
my feet.

	`Oh, get up.  The whole groveling thing is just so old.  If mom saw you
she'd be real tempted to kick you, and if there was any hint of real training
to you she'd do it.  A tiny bit of kendo, and some karate, right?'

	`How do you know?'

	`You don't get to be my age without learning some things.  We can talk
later, but for now we should get this tour out of the way, shall we?'

	`As you wish.'

-

	I gulp, closing my eyes and clutching my belly as I try to fight off
the nausea induced by what's in front of me.

	Princess Usagi rattles along at a comfortable clip, providing much
needed normalacy, `And this is the innermost part of the palace, mom calls it
"Escher's house," after the drawings Ami-chan used as partial inspiration.
Despite how it may seem, no natural laws were actually broken constructing
these quarters, and only a couple were severely bent.  You should be able to
open your eyes now,' and I can see the slight smile on her face, even with my
eyes closed.

	I decide to trust her, and open my eyes.  Somehow seeing the back of my
head above and to the left doesn't seem as horrible anymore, and my gorge
settles unhappily.  `Oh, and who's mom, if I may ask?'

	`Mom's Rei; Usagi doesn't give much stock in titles, as you may know.'

	I nod, for that is almost notorious, `How did you get, come to be named
Usagi, then?'

	`Mom insisted.  I tend to go by Em, though.'

	`Em?'

	`For "menace," which was one of my primary use-names 'til I was almost
forty.'

	`Oh,' a thought comes up, `Doctor M. Hino?  One of the six most famous
names in child development?'

	`That's me.  If you're thinking about the article that I think you are,
then so are two of the other names.'

	I blink at her, my head forgetting to hurt for a moment.

-

	I look out my hotel window over the impossible angles of the city,
appreciating for the first time since I got here the way they make my mind
stretch to encompass them, the eldritch beauty.  I wonder for a moment if
Commadore Mizuno read Lovecraft before she designed this place, and run mental
fingers over Em's email address.

---
log:
1999 Oct 2:	read something about right angles in CT today, and this came
		out.
2002 Jul 27:	editted a tiny bit

Note:
Em/Chibi-Usa/Princess Usagi is just on the low side of three hundred and
fourty, and still pre-pubescent.  She's both the single most influencial
researcher and the most famous case study on the subject of extended childhood.
She's also just a little weird.