Epilogue: Reset! Error 2027-Writer Block.

"This won't work. I hate writer's block!" Ichijouji Osamu stares at his workstation. "How do I get the heroes out of this?"

"Perhaps if the head writer hadn't busied herself with other projects," groans his mentor, Takaishi Takeru, "she'd help you write the actual end of this screenplay. Perhaps we can outsource this to other writers."

"Honestly, Osamu-she can't expect you to create an ending to her omelette of a story-you're only nine," pouts Akiko, Osamu's sister.

"I'd better tell her...." Osamu sadly looks at the final scene that was typed: a picture of Ken cradling Miyako's prone body.

==

"Outsource, eh? Thank you, Mr. Takaishi. And congratulations on your new novel." The head writer, an American animation director, ends her conversation with the famed author.

She sighs. While technology in 2027 had progressed to the point where a movie could be produced simply by typing the script, her particular story was too dense for even the combined creative genius of Takaishi and young budding screenwriter Osamu Ichijouji.

"I still have the outline of Tamed Instincts, and how I wanted the story to actually end," she muses aloud. "However, the producers at XING/FF.Net Entertainment will want an ending to the film after almost a year.

"Not to mention my other projects...." The director notes the Tenchi OVA parody, the Yu Yu Hakusho crossover, and the one story she had completed before submitting to XING; The Transformers Meet the Archies. Her independent productions were also proceeding sluggishly.

She also ruefully noted her one adult series--with the Pretty Soldier Sailormoon character Nephrite as host-was cancelled due to content restrictions. This was despite the fact that her writings scarcely registered higher than R, despite young Ichijouji Ken's presence on the show.

"It doesn't help that you have a Lupin III/Digimon crossover in pre-production," notes the director's niece, Lanae.

"Perhaps if I were in the story," grins her oldest nephew, the hip-hop recording artist Rytchis. He bats his eyelids in an attempt to curry favor with his aunt.

To no avail. "No."

"Can I work with Hiei?" begs another nephew, a longtime Hiei fan.

"Get out, Calvin." The director shoos all of her elder sister's progeny out of her office.

"But I'm the secretary!" pouts Lanae in protest.

"Then go answer the phone!" Shutting the door, the director lets out a long sigh.

She writes a scene to end Tamed Instincts abruptly, apologizing for the long delay. With a final note expressing hope that other XING writers will pick up where her, Takaishi, and young Ichijouji's writer's block dropped them off; she signs off.

== == END...? == ==

IOW...please forgive me. :) Rytchis, Lanae, and Calvin are real relatives whose personas were co-opted without permission-except Lanae can barely utter coherent words in 2003, let alone entire sentences as she did in 2027.