The Council In Depth

This was an incredibly rough chapter to get through, just because of all of the hoops that I had to go through to get this done. The original of this chapter was two pages (about 1.7k wordcount) longer, and had a total of twenty-five (or twenty-six?) characters joining to sit in on the meeting. While I did feel that I did pretty well considering that I had so many characters in one place and that each of them at least got a chance to have their say, it came down to the fact that all of these characters weren't necessary to the story, or in deciding what to do with the Time Defenders' Earth.

To be honest, I'm just so tired of even thinking about this chapter, because of how things turned out with moving and all of that messing up my schedule and the multiple rewrites I had to do on this particular chapter, this should have been uploaded in November actually I just checked my schedule that I had, and it was actually supposed to be the last update of October. That's kind of scary for me.

Now, however, it's much more stable, and I have a few chapters that I have (though they need minor rewrites), so it won't be so long without another update. This will be the last chapter of the year, and hopefully the schedule for 2018 will be much more consistent than it has been the past couple of months.

-EDR

Break In Depth

This is a weird part to talk about, because it was made very suddenly, and chapters that are after this one were actually written beforehand. And there are many reasons for it.

After Battle of Fate was concluded, Aftermath and Underworld were taken care of, and the Interlude was written up, it was very hard to decide what should be done next. Battle of Fate was a big event, and I couldn't just move on from it so quickly. I tried, though everything just seemed to move too fast into the next set of events too quickly. And I didn't want to immediately go into the next major thing so soon after this.

So, in an attempt to 'dip my toes' back in, I wrote Break. My husband/editor thought it was awful. So then I rewrote it (A couple of times) and now it's great, :D. When I had originally written it, it revolved more around Martha, and it was kind of muddled. I took the focus off of her (Because the ending was kind of confusing) and redid the entire last half.

I will be updating more regularly again, which is great, but right now I don't have a schedule. I will be posting at least once more this month, so it's not going to be as long as this last unwanted hiatus.

-EDR

Underworld In Depth

Underworld was stupidly fun to write, and I have no idea why. I wrote it in the span of only a couple of days, (Maybe one, I don't remember how long it actually took me), but I had been doing research and leaving pages up that were related to what I needed to know in the chapter a week before I'd even begun writing it.

Unfortunately, due to problems with the computer I'm using, I won't be putting up any photos like I have been recently. So everyone will just have to pretend.

I had a lot of fun writing all of these characters, but especially Hades and Charon. It was just really really cool to write them both interacting with Diana during the first section of this chapter.

I just... don't really have much to say except that I liked writing this! All of the stuff that's in here is more drawn from Greek Mythology rather than any of DC's versions of it, even though the Diana I'm most familiar with (The Diana of The Justice League) has Hades as her father, and most of Dianas' backstories don't mention Ares as her Grandfather.

I also do use dress-up games (Mostly from Azaleasdolls.com) to try to get a better visualization of some of the characters, and I made one of Diana after she receives all her cool shit from Hades. Unfortunately, I can't upload it, because as mentioned before, the laptop I'm using just doesn't like even trying to put up photos.

TLDR: I liked writing this. :P

-EDR

General Blog Post #1

So, I just decided to make a separate blog post for a general update, since I also have a few photos I can throw up here as well that wouldn't fit with a Space Between post. Right now I'm using my moms' laptop to update as best that I can. It is, of course, not the ideal way to do it right now, but it's really the only way I can.

The trip that we'd gone, (2.2k miles, as I had in 'Aftermath In Depth') was two days longer than we had expected, but we got lots of photos (Not many are much good), and our two little dogs were very well-behaved the entire way through.

I tried to upload more photos, including one that I got from the festival, of some Pumpkin Funnel Cake w/ Pumpkin Cream Cheese Frosting & Powdered Sugar, but I just couldn't get the laptop to put anymore photos on this post. I don't know why. :(

A few days after we came, we went down to a festival, and had some great food. (I wouldn't have eaten so much at the festival if I'd known our cousin was also going to be taking all of us out to eat afterwards, I was so stuffed that I didn't eat dinner).

We're still not in our own house yet, but we're staying with my Aunt and Uncle until my Moms' house finishes up in escrow. Hopefully we'll be moving in soon, then after a few months or so, we'll be looking for our own house. Until then, we'll be saving some money so that we'll have a little bit of cushion when we do actually have our own place.

Until then, my updates might be a little bit sporadic, so it'll be a little tough for everyone.

-EDR

Aftermath In Depth

So, just as a heads up, the dates that I had on my profile page before were before I knew that I was moving this week. We're leaving on Thursday and not expecting to get out there until at least Saturday, but probably Sunday. When we do get out there, we'll be staying with someone else for awhile, while my moms' new house clears, so I don't know how reliable the internet will be while we're staying somewhere else. We don't know exactly when we're going to moving into our own house, since we have a few houses to look at when we do get out there, but I'm hoping that we can move in right away. Even then, I don't know when we'll be able to have access to internet from our new house, as we try to set everything up.

I really wanted to update at least once a week for all of October, since its' the second anniversary coming up on the 19th, but I'll have to make up the lost time when I can. I'm really weighing out the pros and cons of just updating twice tonight, so I won't have to worry so much about being behind by a large amount.

Anyways, onto my notes of the chapter. The BIG change in this chapter (Which happened last chapter, but now we get a good look at it), is what happened to J'onn. I sort of drew inspirations from a few sources, all of them being J'onn. Well, except for one, who's J'onns' ancestor.

J'onn J'onzz from Generation Lost and J'onn J'onzz from the Amalgam Universe

These are the first two that I took inspiration from, specifically just the fact that J'onn is shown as much, much older (Which in many variations, he is, even for a Martian, but doesn't outwardly show it), but also physically much weaker, even if just visually looking weaker.

J'onn J'onzz from the cover of Martian Manhunter Vol 2 #11, and J'ahrl J'onzz from the cover of Martian Manhunter Vol 2 #25

These two were also used as inspiration from a visual standpoint... maybe J'ahrl less so. I wanted to (at least) convey the look of J'onn as sort of a 'pudding' through words, and a lot of this came from all four of these pictures.

Another major change was Peppers' chapter in this part. In this chapter, it had been Pepper speaking with Diana, instead of Pepper speaking with Barbara. I had to rewrite most of the conversation to fit, but kept the intent of the conversation much of the same.

I also had to delete a Diana chapter as well, one that was primarily a conversation between herself and Stephen, though it can't take place at all now (Even if I did try to put it into a later chapter), because it dealt with something that got taken out entirely during the Battle of Fate.

But that's about all I have to talk about in this part.

-EDR

Changing Fate In Depth

This chapter was sort of a tough one to write, because three of the Betweeners' (Martha, Diana, and Kal) were out of it for this one. I had originally written this with Diana, but when I wrote her out of the first and second part, so I switched Barbara in Dianas' place. (I'm explaining away Barbaras' competency in the fight as her having heightened senses due to her lycanthropy.)

The only other thing to talk about is Zero, the strange girl who Lacey brought into the fight. For one, this is not my own character, this is my Husband/Editors' character. He dropped the project that he was working on that Zero was from. Her name comes from 'Patient Zero', and hopefully we'll be able to explore her backstory in depth. Her backstory and power set are all from him, so almost nothing about her is my own creation.

An update on just the general chapter postings is that there might be a little hiccup with the next months' chapters. We're moving across country, (2.2k miles!), and I don't know how our internet situation will look once we get out to where we're going. If I miss any, I'll update them as soon as I'm able to, and then resume the schedule. (If you haven't seen my schedule for Space Between, I have them in my profile on Ao3)

I don't know which days we'll be moving, but the estimate will be in about 3 weeks. If that is the case, there'll still be a few more updates before it will happen.

-EDR

Damage In Depth

There isn't much to say about this chapter unlike other chapters with short In Depths in that this particular chapter is a bridge chapter in between Part I and Part III of Battle of Fate.

One major change that I had to do was the exclusion of Diana in this part. When I had written all three parts of Battle of Fate, Diana had been there, and Peppers' chapter in this part had originally been Dianas' where she reconnected with Inza. This was changed when my editor suggested changing the power of the dagger to something else than what it had originally been (Which was next to nothing at all, to be honest), and with it, Diana had to be sacrificed from this chapter and the next one, resulting in her chapter in this part to have to be completely rewritten.

The Kryptonite dust was directly inspired by The Dark Knight Returns, wherein during a two-on-one battle (Batman & Green Arrow Vs. Superman), Green Arrow shoots an arrow at Superman, which he catches, then the arrow releases Kryptonite dust, which Superman accidentally inhales.

(The Dark Knight Returns, Book Four)

I did this for two reasons: One, because it's actually doable as long as you have time and money, and two, because the enemies of the Betweeners have that amount of time/money/resources to pull something like that off, and I really wanted to highlight that. These aren't just villains that stumbled upon these guys and thought that they'd just fuck up their days, but more on that much much later in the story. :P

Also, the thing about it taking very little to break a timeline, but it being nearly impossible to fix a timeline, all you'd have to look to for that is the Flash. One of my favorite comics is Flashpoint (Despite my not liking the outcome that followed it. Damnit Barry, why'd you have to make New 52?) and I've watched a lot of The Flash (I haven't recently due to internet issues).

(Damnit Barry, stop breaking the timeline)

But the point is, is that because they know the future (via the comic book), then once the future is broken, it will be impossible for the Betweeners to line it back up perfectly to how it was before. This actually caused a lot of things that I had planned for the future to be changed (A lot of it had to do with complaints my editor had about how some things in the future of the Space Between didn't make sense).

I also just realized that I had more to talk about in these three chapters than I had actually realized when I had started to write this. :P

-EDR

Fate's Design In Depth

I can't really talk at length about this part, since it's the first part of a three-part storyline. And besides that, it is very clearly a much more direct chapter than most. I, however, am very fond of the exchange between Diana and Tony, when she notes that a larger group might travel single file to hide their numbers, and Tony dramatically whispers "Tusken Raiders".

There is legitimately almost nothing to talk about in this part, because it's so short, and because of just how much of it is very straightforward. 

The one thing I can talk about is the Tower of Fate. I based it mostly on the Young Justice Tower of Fate, since there's an entire episode dedicated to going through it, and if there was an episode similar in Justice League / JL Unlimited, I don't remember it. Whenever I see the Tower in comics though, it's only briefly. I'm probably just not reading the right comics.

But the Tower of Fate from Young Justice is the one that I'm most aware of, and has the tower as its setting for the most amount of time that I'm aware of. Even including that, I've noticed that the Tower of Fate hardly ever changes between the differing mediums.

With that, I didn't really feel that it would be much different across the multiverse, because it seems to keep its same general shape, style, and level of danger.

But be reassured, that there is a reason why Inza knew that they were in trouble. (Yes, it was because she's also from Dianas' Earth, and therefore connected to the Tower of Fate there)

:P

-EDR

All Roads Lead Somewhere - Gallery Post

Ella Rhodes

Cassidy DeLoria

James Rhodes Jr

Watson

Amalthea Dawson

Paulo Rafael Rivero


'Granddad'

*More screenshots (And art, later on. Hopefully. If I get around to it.) will be uploaded here as they happen in the story/as I acquire them.*

Gravity - In Depth

So, this was a little bit of a different sort of chapter, mostly in just the contents. The Betweeners haven't really had any 'adventures in space', and this turned out to be a bit darker than I had originally planned when I had started writing it.

You might get an alien vibe from it, and that's because I watched Prometheus and Covenant within the span of three days (We ordered Prometheus online, and now own a blu-ray of it, and then after watching it, we went to the movies to watch Covenant), and after we did that, I started on this. I didn't really mean to make it based on that, but it sort of happened.

On the other hand, I've been wanting to write something like this for a little bit, based a little off of the Doctor Who episode "Sleep No More" (S09:E09).

Also, I did a split narrative, entirely because my husband/editor never looks at the dates, or even locations of the setting, and since I have the dates/times and things like that, I might as well use them, right?

As for the enemies, the skull-heads, was at least partially inspired by the Vashta Nerada Astronauts in the Doctor Who episode "Silence in the Library" (S04:E08) (Which, come to think about it, also has a split-narrative as well), and Gelatinous Cubes from Dungeons & Dragons (One particularly evil DM of ours had an entire rooms' floor made up of a Gelatinous Cube).

(Vashta Nerada Astronaut - "Silence in the Library")

(Gelatinous Cube - D&D)

If I'm perfectly honest, about halfway through writing it was when I decided that it was going to be an 'unintentional' (It would totally be intentional if he even knew about it) invasion by Shuma Gorath. He may be an Elder God from another dimension, bent on taking over the different multiverses, but that doesn't mean he knows every little weakness. In my mind, he's probably trying to take over several universes at the same time, and with, you know, a Sorcerer Supreme thwarting his actions in every one, he probably puts more effort into some more than others.

And the two at the end, are Kitty Pryde Star Lord, and Krugarr, Sorcerer Supreme. I always try to do things where other characters are doing their own thing, so that it doesn't really seem like the Betweeners are the focal point of that entire universe while they're there, and came up with the idea that Star Lord (Kitty) accidentally went into the future, and Krugarr, being the Sorcerer Supreme of the future, is attempting to help her get back, but in order to do so, they have to go on awesome adventures together for awhile. At least until the writers get bored and give her a deus ex machina to get herself back, or they do something incredibly clever to subvert the laws of time and space. Or they keep writing it until everyone complains about dead horses.

Star-Lord (Kitty) - Star-Lord Vol. 3 Issue 6 ||| Krugarr - Guardians of the Galaxy 1991 Annual

I guess that sort of wraps up this post.

-EDR

Silver Moonlight - In Depth

It's a short chapter, unfortunately, but it's one of those parts where the entire thing takes place from one persons' point of view. And it had been awhile since Barbara has had any time to really shine since she was introduced. The chapter itself, as a chapter in my line-up of everything (Chapters that have already been posted, been written, and have yet to be written), has bounced around the list for awhile, changing where and when it was going to be, so it ended up being brought up quicker than expected.

Another thing, before I get into the chapter itself (More specifically though, The House of Secrets), is that I'm getting a little frustrated with myself for being so late with this part (And the last part). I do actually have a schedule of when I post stuff. I know I don't publish when I update next, but I do like to be consistent with myself. This part was supposed to be put up on the 19th, and Date Night was supposed to have been posted on the 5th, when it was actually posted on the 7th. I have been a bit busy with preparing to move (Hoping the house sells quickly!), and it's caused a bit of stress, and I don't always have access to the internet. But who in their right mind would want to hear me complain anyways?

So, moving on to the part. The Wolfssegen is a real thing, though it is only described as being able to keep wolves away, not werewolves.

And the House of Secrets, I sort of imagined being a cross between the comics House of Secrets and the Young Justice (TV) House of Secrets.

So why did the House of Secrets reveal itself to Barbara? Well, I think the real question is, is why (If she's so darned street smart,) she went into it in the first place when it could have very easily been a trap! That's some pretty dumb thinking on your part!

I also sort of imagined the back of the 'shop' to be a little bit like Warehouse 13, because this is technically a place of storage for magical items, you need a system!

(And a map)

-EDR

Date Night In Depth

This won't be nearly as long as the last one, but only because it's a shorter chapter.

Way back when I was writing the part after Sorcery and Specters, I had started to take a different approach to Martha's disappearance. Without going into too many details about it, it was more focused on making as many jumps as possible in a short amount of time, with each jump/chapter being something like a mini-story. Well, it didn't work out, and that was because I couldn't really focus in on any specific thing, but something that did happen was Stephen/Diana's first kiss via an accidental visit to an Earth they'd already gone to and a trip through Robinson Park again (Like in Ghosts).

The last chapter of Glass Roses was supposed to fill in for this hole in continuity, but ended up in a much different direction (Because I'd been wanting to do something like Hunter and the Moon for awhile, and it was the perfect opportunity to do it), but then I still had to fill the hole for the break in continuity!

So, while also having their moment, which I couldn't have feasibly stretched to an entire part, I also included a 'family date' for Kal, Tony, and Franklin (+Baby Theia), because I like Mini-Golf, and I think it's funny that Kal would totally not get it at all because he was raised Russian.

And of course Franklin would be using his powers to cheat to get ice cream. :P

-EDR

The Defender of Time - In Depth

The second part and resolution of Time Lock, the blogger post from last time would cover a lot of it, but I wanted to take some time to talk about the Time Defender. I wanted him to feel like a Golden-Age hero, someone you could feasibly see on a hero line-up, but not someone that people would normally walk up to and thank for saving the city. Sort of like Gray Ghost, Sandman, or the Question from DC, or Detective Fantôme and Night Raven from Marvel, or even Lobster Johnson from Dark Horse.

Visually (With my words) I wanted to take cues from Steampunk like sources, but the armor and costumes for them are far too intricate and would have too much detail for something that the Time Defender would wear. He's an android with time magic (And some other magic? I was kind of loose with his powers...), he doesn't care about aesthetics, and would only care about something that would be durable and useful.

I wanted him to be like some of the above mentioned heroes, a little like the old noir detectives, and a little like Noximilien from Wakfu (Except only seeming to be evil instead of actually evil).

Dana Andrews as Detective Mark McPherson in Laura (1944) (Top Left), Detective Fantôme from Marvel Comics (Top Right), the Question from DC Comics (Bottom Left), Noximilien Coxen from Season 1 of Wakfu (Bottom Right).

All in all, he would end up looking more like Rogue Bot by artist Ari Targownik (Gallery Source).

(Except with some plain-ish bronze armor as well :P)

To the actual chapter, I wanted another attempt at reality warping to happen to the group, but this time having them being completely/somewhat aware of what's going on. (Which almost immediately puts an end to it.)

And the reason I had the fight end the way it did, was because usually when there's a fight between two heroes or two hero factions, it always ends before any damage can be done, and I wanted to subvert that sort of trope, in that the fight goes on until there's a winner, and then the mistake is caught afterwards.

Without a doubt, this is probably the most effort I've poured into one of my In Depths about a chapter, which isn't a bad thing, because I've been skimping on some of these and they've been getting a lot shorter. I'm trying to take a new approach to it, trying to be more open about what inspires me to do certain things and not forgetting a lot of the whys (Which happens a lot more than it should). One way I'm doing this is by taking notes as I'm writing the chapters, because there's often months in between me finishing a chapter and posting that chapter, so that I can keep up a consistent schedule, and if things need to be rearranged, I can do it fairly painlessly early on, before the chapters that need to be rearranged/changed can go up.

Even this chapter was changed as late as a few days before being posted up. Could you imagine posting something up, and then having to retcon it, working around it, or having to go through with something that doesn't need to happen for another five to ten chapters? It would be a real pain to try to go back on what I've already posted.

There's only one planned update next month, but that might change to two. (Don't hold your breath though. :P)

-EDR

The Day that Time Stood Still - In Depth

This chapter started off as a suggestion from my Husband/Editor, who wanted to see something where the Betweeners come to a world, and as they explore, they find that the streets are empty, that the stores are empty, and slowly find that the entire world is frozen in time.

That was the original idea, at least. In this version, it comes a little more immediately than them travelling through an empty world.

It was also partially inspired by the movie Pleasantville and the old Golden Age Comics. It was certainly a little different to write, but I was happy how it came out.

-EDR

Stir Crazy In Depth

So... Stir Crazy. :P

I wrote this as a little thing to check in on Martha. I know that there's only been one part in between this and when they found out that she was pregnant, but it's been a month of Martha not being able to leave the Space Between.

There's also a more complicated reason why I wrote this chapter:

When I started writing for the Space Between, I didn't start off with these characters. I started far into the future, when the universe that it's set in (The literal 'Space Between Worlds') was more advanced and had already been founded. It had a government, a system for how things worked, and the most important thing: It didn't have any of these characters as the main ones.

It didn't get very far. A couple of chapters, not even enough to count as a part, but it was enough to kickstart what kind of world I wanted to build, and to this day, even though I know some things will have changed by the time I get to it, is something that I work towards. Already, a lot has changed because I've gone back and done all of this, and it was because of my Husband/Editor. He suggested that I make a 'Prologue' to it to explain how the universe of the Space Between came to be.

It was what the Prologue of this is now, the first five chapters, but when I wrote it, I decided that I really liked the characters, and I wanted to flesh them out and the world they lived in better. It was a great decision, as there are characters/items/worlds/etc. that I would have never put in beforehand. I have so much fun exploring this world, that I can't imagine that I would've just skipped fifty years or so ahead.

That being said, I do still write for some of the things that will be in the future. Not my first draft of what it was going to be about, as I don't believe I'll be able to do that storyline anymore, but additional content that I will (hopefully) publish when the time comes for those characters to be a part of the larger scope of the story.

But with the world being so far ahead of where the story is now, they have a lot of things that the characters don't have in the past. And one of those things is Smart Glass.

TLDR; I wrote it because Smart Glass exists in the future.

-EDR

All Roads Lead Somewhere (Master Post)

I did at one point have a big intro planned for the beginning of this blog post, or something like this blog post, but I realized that this will primarily be used for looking at my horrible Lones/Couriers/Soles and OCs that will be appearing here. I will, of course, be posting them in order of how they appear, along with a short 'about' section. :) (Just know that some of these will also feature my terrible photoshopping skills. :P)

And in the rare case that someone stumbles onto this blog and wasn't directed here through the story, you can find it >Here. (It's probably terrible, but that's okay.)

You can now find a gallery post for All Roads Lead Somewhere here.

Ella Rhodes

Ella Rhodes is the 'standard' Lone Wanderer, in that she is the daughter of James (Rhodes), and had to escape the Vault after he did the same. She is horribly pale, despite having been born outside the Vault, and almost immediately received a wound in the Capital Wasteland that impairs her vision in her left eye. She is slightly shorter than most, but not by a terribly noticeable amount. Most people would call her unassuming, and 'non-descript, if she wasn't so pale'. 

Ella's preferred weapons are rifles and sniper rifles. Her highest skills are Speech and Medicine, and she is good aligned.

Cassidy DeLoria

Cassidy DeLoria is (obviously) not the 'standard' Lone Wanderer, in that she escaped Vault 101 when the opportunity arose, not because she was forced or obligated to leave. Despite having lived her entire life in the Vault, she is a little more 'street smart' than most, being the brains behind the Tunnel Snakes. Cassidy grew up with little regard to the comfort of others, besides her twin brother, until she teamed herself up with Ella. She knows the importance of others having your back, and is disgusted by the level of disrespect that Ella receives from people who would call themselves her 'friends', so she takes it upon herself to protect her in the Wasteland.

Cassidys' preferred weapons are handguns and long reach melee weapons (baseball bats, swords, etc.). Her highest skills are Lockpick and Repair, and she is neutral aligned.

James Rhodes Jr

James Rhodes Jr (Goes by Jamie), is the elder brother to Ella. Their parents had him when they were very young, and was in his early teens when their mother Catherine died and James Sr took Ella into the Vault. Despite trying to be convinced to join them in the Vault, he ran away to start his own life in the wasteland, making a name for himself as a Mercenary. Years later, when his father and sister emerge from Vault 101, he feels obligated to protect his younger sister because he hadn't been able to be with her while she grew up.

Jamies' preferred weapons are assault rifles and sawed off shotguns, but also uses a .44 Magnum and a combat knife for close range assassinations, and uses a sniper rifle rarely. His highest skills are Explosives and Speech, and he's evil (/Morally ambiguous?) aligned.

Watson

I sort of avoided putting Watson on this list because they'd only really be a minor character in all of this. Watson is one of my Fallout 4 characters, not one of my Fallout 3 characters, and I was avoiding putting a picture of them up, but I found a pretty good one that looks somewhat gender-neutral (You could probably guess which gender I used though). Watson DOES have a first name, and does have a gender already, though it's kind of easy to figure out if you think about it. Their story is really just starting, because of how young they are, so this area won't be that detailed until later on.

Watsons' preferred weapons are really anything they can get their hands on, but is proficient in using pipe pistols. Their highest perks are Sneak, Locksmith, and Scrapper. (And they would be neutral aligned, if Fallout 4 had an alignment system)

Amalthea Dawson

Amalthea is prewar, having escaped the bombs and nuclear fallout in Vault 111 at the age of fifteen. When the Institute had come for Shaun, she had ripped open a panel on the inside of her cryogenic stasis pod, in an attempt to force the door open. Instead she accidentally switched the cryogenic array back on, freezing herself again for fifty more years. Both of these facts are lost on her, as she can't remember much, and can't even remember most of actually going to the vault after the sirens started. It is uncertain what caused her and Mr Lowells' pods to disengage at the same time.

Amalthea's preferred weapons are all models of pistols and automatic rifles. Her two highest stats are Charisma and Luck, and her highest (read: most important) perks are Armorer, Science!, and Chem Resistant.

*Bomber Jacket from [PS4] Separate Coats mod by ANDREWCX which you can find here.*

Paulo Rafael Rivero

Paulo, often called 'Raffy', grew up with a ghoul he calls Granddad, who has known his family line going all the way back to before the War. His parents were both Desert Rangers, and both had died in the line of duty when he was young. He and Granddad move often, so often that he doesn't know where he was born, or where his parents were buried. He's not great at making friends or smooth-talking people, so he tends to take jobs where he doesn't have to interact with people much or at all.

Paulo's preferred weapons are all models of rifle, wanting to take out threats from far away before they ever have the chance to jump him. He does carry a knife and a handgun, just in case. His two highest stats are Luck and Endurance, his highest skills are repair and survival.

<More characters will be added as they appear in the story>

The Hunter and the Moon In Depth

Just as a first little thing that I want to share, is that I don't really have a computer right now. My laptop can't really stay on for more than twenty minutes (Because it overheats that easily), and the screen only works on it about half the time. I did have a work around for the screen in that I could hook it up to my tv with an hdmi cord, but the tv made everything on screen blurry. So for right now, I'm sharing my husbands' computer (Read: Using it while he's at work). I'll still try to update on a regular schedule, but it's been a little more difficult. :/

Now, onto the chapter. There's a few different ideas for parts that had just sort of filtered into this one. The first one that I had thought of was Stephen and Diana saving the Wayne family, like how it's happened at the end of Glass Roses, but the difference was that when they returned, they'd find that Gotham had come under the regime of a dictator, and teamed up with a now older Bruce Wayne as a freedom fighter named the Night Hunter. (This was slightly based on part of 'The Savage Time' from Justice League.)

I also wanted to include some supernatural stuff, but I didn't have any ideas at the time of how I could do that, and while I write The Space Between, I try to have a balance. If I have something that's overly sci-fi, I'll usually counter it with fantasy or supernatural nearby. (I haven't had much that could be considered sci-fi, but I don't ever just want them going through fantasy dimension after fantasy dimension all in a row. That's why parts like Honor and Prophecy, a part that has Hellboy and witches and a Griffon, is nowhere near anything else that's pure fantasy related, like Round Table for instance.)

I also had the name 'The Hunter and the Moon', which I really liked and I was saving for a bit later to do a Diana-centric part on. 

When I put all of these things together, it just sort of clicked, if you know what I mean. It was like it was all meant to work as one solid thing. After that, Barbara just came naturally, as did Clark and Lois being in there. And then the twist at the end came naturally as well.

In short, I'm very proud of this chapter. I think this is the best part in the Space Between that I've ever written, and I hope that everyone else enjoyed it too. :)

-EDR

Thor: Ragnarok (Doubtfully optimistic) (Super long boring post) (Comics Lore)

Warning: Spoilers

So I've watched the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok, and I'm pretty hype about the movie, but kind of on my guard. The Thor movies haven't been the strongest of the Marvel Universe, as they tend to focus on Loki a lot, even when he's not the main villain. (Loki is important to Earth-199999, but he had much more screen time that he didn't need over the actual villain in Thor: The Dark World).

I'm not a huge Thor reader, so I won't be making a whole lot of points in this about Thor or Thor comics. (I have read a good portion of Vol. 3 though.) I have, however, read Planet Hulk and World War Hulk. (It's been years, so I might be a little rusty with the timeline.) These two story lines got me back into comics after a long time away from them. (I am also going to be talking about just how much there is in this.)

I personally think there just might be a little bit too much crammed into this movie. To be honest, I'm hoping that I'm wrong, but it certainly seems that way because of the trailer.

The first thing I want to talk about is Ragnarok, because Ragnarok is a big deal about Asgard, and is a big deal for the universe. Ragnarok is an extinction level event that occurs, but only after one specific thing happens. Balders' death.

(Balder the Brave)

Some time after Thor was banished, Odin left Asgard, and because Thor was still banished, Balder became the Ruler of Asgard until Odin returned. Instead, he died, and that death is what triggered Ragnarok.

But, Balder doesn't exist in the universe of Earth-199999. Of course there's going to be differences between comics and movies and what-not, but Balder isn't just any old Asgardian that you can just forget about, because he's a true-blooded son of Odin, and when Thor was exiled from Asgard a second time, he became the true King of Asgard in place of Odin and Thor.

I just sort of wanted to bring that up, because Balders' a good character.

The second thing (Character) I want to talk about is Hela. Hela is the Goddess of Death to the Asgardians, and looks absolutely badass in the trailer. But, because of how close Avengers: Infinity War is to Thor: Ragnarok, I believe that they may have rolled her up with Mistress Death herself.

(Mistress Death)                                     (Hela)

  

I make this assumption based on the fact that Avengers: Infinity War will have the Avengers going toe-to-toe with Thanos, and Thanos is famously infatuated with Mistress Death, and his whole reason (If I remember correctly) for getting the Infinity Gems was to kill as many people as possible to impress and woe her. Hela also being a Goddess of Death and her role in Ragnarok would be logical for them to make the jump to her also being Mistress Death.

In the comics Hela does ally herself with Thanos, and is able to grant him the only wish he's ever wanted.

(But before I say what, I also want to point out the differences in both Mistress Death and Hela. Mistress Death is a Cosmic Entity, as old as life itself and the only truly unkillable being in all of Marvel. Hela is the alleged daughter of Loki, or she was created by Loki, and then granted dominion over death, Hel, and Niflheim by Odin.)

She, at some point, was weakened and thrown out of Hel and Niflheim, at which point she allied herself with Thanos. That thing that was the only wish that Thanos wanted?

She granted him death, because at some point in the comics he was cursed with immortality, which prevented him from being with Mistress Death, his one true love. (And as you can see, she did this by making out with him.)

Now to switch over to Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, and why WWH is never going to happen. The reason that Planet Hulk and World War Hulk happened in the comics was because the Illuminati decided that the Hulk was too much of a danger to Earth, and sent him off to space.

A brief history of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk: Hulk shot into space. Hulk made into arena slave. Hulk kill Red King. Hulk make baby with Caiera the Oldstrong. Hulks' ship blow up and kill entire Planet that kills Caiera (And presumably baby). Hulk throws himself at Earth to kill everyone (Especially the Illuminati).

Do you see now why World War Hulk will never happen? It's because in the universe of Earth-199999, Hulk freely leaves the planet (Presumably). When his ship explodes and destroys Sakaar, he put blame on the Illuminati, but now that that isn't what's happening, there would be no motivation for him to return to Earth (Attempt) to kill everyone.

And if they were going to make a Hulk movie, they would've made one out of Planet Hulk and World War Hulk, but Planet Hulk is being smooshed into Thor: Ragnarok and World War Hulk is just something that's not going to happen in the Earth-199999 universe.

(A little side note: on first (and second) watch of the Ragnarok trailer, I sort of assumed that Valkyrie was Caiera, but obviously that's not the case. She does seem to take the role that Caiera had in Planet Hulk, being the bodyguard of the Red King, who seems to have had his roll filled by the Grandmaster in the movie.) Ragnarok Valkyrie does bear more resemblance to Caiera than she does to Valkyrie:

Valkyrie (Comics)

Valkyrie (Movie)

Caiera (Comics)

Her style of hair (How it's cut and then put into a ponytail) and the markings are all very similar to Caiera, of which Valkyrie doesn't share, having no markings and her hair loosely put into twin braids. Valkyrie from the movie also has armor that is similar to neither of them, it being full leather with an asymmetrical cut while Valkyrie has something similar to the style of Thor and Caiera usually dons a full metal ensemble.

Moving away from that though, there's also the fight between Thor and Hulk, which is very likely to end in a draw or something like that. The fight (Which Hulk has had two times before, once against the Silver Surfer in the comics and once against Beta Ray Bill [AKA Horse-Thor in our house]) usually ended with the Hulk winning, but this is a Thor movie, and a movie that also leads into Avengers: Infinity War, which they're both a part of. 

And something that I'm just bringing up to bring up, is the fact that in the Planet Hulk movie, Star Lord and Gamora both make cameo appearances in the audience.

Now (Above) doesn't really have any relevance to Thor: Ragnarok, but the overall tone of the trailer really just screams 'Guardians of the Galaxy' to me. Even if it's a mid or end credits scene, I really do think they'll make an appearance. But it's really weird to see Thor get a Guardians treatment with his trailer. Late sixties/early seventies song? Check. Beat up space ships? Check. Pretty glowing space stuff? Check. Colorful title? Super Check.

(And though I couldn't get a good screenshot of it or that much of a good look at it, it appears that one of the ships in the trailer looks to have Nova Corp markings and the Nova Corp colors [Black, red, and gold], though it isn't the same design as the other Nova Corp ships from the Guardians of the Galaxy. The one I'm talking about is the ship at about the one minute mark in the trailer, after Heimdall.)

Finally getting away from Planet Hulk/Guardians of the Galaxy, and moving to Doctor Strange. We already know he's in the movie, so it's kind of weird that he wasn't in the trailer. I sort of think I know what kind of roll he'll have other than helping Thor find Odin, like it was said in the mid credits scene in Doctor Strange.

Because the Mjolnir was also broken in the comics (It wasn't shattered though, as most of it was whole with an exception of a few pieces) and Doctor Strange is the one who repairs the Mjolnir, but binds it to Thor, so that if the Mjolnir were ever broken again, Thor would die for real. (This was after the Ragnarok cycle was broken, so if he died, he would die forever this time).

(Click for full image)

It is also possible that this could happen in Infinity War, since Doctor Strange will also be in that movie as well. But either way, I don't think the Mjolnir will stay demolished for long.

And finally we'll circle all the way back to my thoughts and feelings on the trailer. I'm hopeful, but I already know it's going to be a great movie. The Marvel movies seem to just keep getting better as time goes on. Obviously there's going to be cut content, no matter what source material gets made into a movie, but my concern is that they're shoving too many things with too much lore into such a small space that it may overwhelm the movie and the final product may seem a little unfocused. That's my thoughts on it anyways.

I'll still probably enjoy it though.

-EDR

Glass Roses In Depth

That's right, Martha's pregnant! :P

Of course it was going to happen sooner or later, especially since this is a long-term project. I always knew they were going to have children, it predated the Prologue and predated even Kitty being involved in the story (She wasn't originally going to join in The First Jump, it just sort of happened).

Nothing much has happened in this part, particularly because it mostly revolves around them finding out that Martha's pregnant. What else would there be to say about that?

Another things that's happened is that (Finally!) Stephen and Diana are dating! This has been almost as long awaited as Martha/J'onn, and it's been hinted at for awhile. I can't say much about the last part of Glass Roses, because it is leading into something else, and I wouldn't want to spoil it for everyone. I had been planning this in particular to happen for quite awhile, Stephen and Diana saving the Waynes from an untimely fate.

The library being named the Anax (As said in the chapter), is named after Anaxagoras, an ancient Greek philosopher who is regarded as having influenced Socrates and other ancient philosophers.

I know a lot of these are getting to be really short, and I don't quite mean to, it's just that some parts don't have that much to talk about, and it feels really annoying to have to type those words again and again as I post the parts up.

I do want to take a moment to say that I've been working on something, a 'second' in the series this was going to become. It'll be more like a side story, and will predate the Prologue by a number of years. I only bring this up now because after many rewrites (So many rewrites), 

I've finally completed a chapter, but I won't start posting it until I've got more of it fleshed out. When I finally do start to post it, I'll put a 'Reading Order' here on my Blogger that will be updated regularly. (I also want to stress that this is optional, it (Probably) won't add anything to the main storyline of the Space Between, but it's a story of other events that are happening around the same time. And because it also includes an origin story that takes places roughly two hundred years prior, I thought that it should be relegated to it's own thing. That, and it's going to have some major time skips, which the main story so far hasn't experienced.

-EDR

Obsidian Sky In Depth

Ever since Franklin was introduced, he hasn't really had a part that in centered on him, not like some of the others have. Sure, Alone (Part Twelve), where he was introduced, was about him, but it wasn't revealed to be about him until the very end. The things that he had caused with messing with time made him important to the Part Twelve sort of 'off screen'. Since then he's had a few chapters here and there, his largest role in a part after that was in The Tomb of Clea Strange (Part Eighteen), but he hasn't had anything to himself.

Since I had set his birthday (Or rather, my Editor did after I asked him), I decided to do a part based on him for his birthday. There'd been a few ideas and things that I wanted to get done that I was able to pull together for this part to make it a complete story-line.

One thing that I wanted to do was Franklin and Kitty going off by themselves to another Earth, but I didn't want them to run away, because they're not really the type to do that. So I settled for magical displacement. I also really wanted to get a visit in from Gwenpool, because I think she's great. And then I thought, well, Kitty and Franklin neither have their own superhero costumes, so I had them meet Ronnie and had her make them their costumes, which was really fun to write about.

(And just as a little example, I made Franklins' Emblem. Kitty's is a little more straight-forward, because you can just look at someone like M'gann [more specifically her covert suit from Young Justice, without hood and cape], and get the gist of the style.)

It was really fun writing Gwenpool and having a lot of back and forth of Franklin and Kitty trying to get back to the Space Between while everyone else is trying to track them down. I was a little disappointed with how the last Earth came out (the DC one) but it's sort of short because I've got a large DC storyline coming up in Part Twenty-Two. I hope everyone enjoyed reading it. :P

And if anyone's worried about the *Read about this in ___ #2423!, I mostly put it there because it's funny and so much like what would have actually been put into a comic book. I thought it fit with the chapters. :P

-EDR

Horizon In Depth

I'm really glad that I was even able to finish Horizon without having to scrap it all and start over (It was that bad). I am actually really happy with how it has come out, though not everyone may agree with that, since a good portion of it is just describing what their houses are like.

I didn't want to spend too long on them building the other houses, I mean, they have Kal working on it, so it definitely wouldn't take as long as normal.

I also did sort of cheat and give you guys a 'preview' into something that's going to happen way later on, but it'll be awhile.

There isn't much else to talk about though, or at least that I can think of. I am kind of sick as I'm writing this, so not in the best mindset at the moment. :P

If there's any questions about the chapter though, I'll answer them. ;)

-EDR

The Tomb of Clea Strange In Depth

This is a pretty short part, since there wasn't really much that they had to go through. I've been planning to introduce Theia since I began the story, but I waited so long because I needed it to be a believable amount of time before she was born and that Stephen would have still not known about her at the beginning of the story.

One thing I'd like to point out that isn't explicitly said and may not be for awhile (And that my Editor was a little confused about) is that the other Stephen is helping them to get favors from Pepper. Basically every time things go down or whenever he needs magical expertise, he can go straight to her because he knows that she can't refuse to help him after he's helped the Betweeners on her behalf so much. (All Iron Mans = Dickish, apparently by my writing).

Some misc. stuff about the houses/foundation and things: Kal helped put the frame together to keep the piece of land as structural as possible (The frame runs through the land as well, and Tony has already made couplings so that adding onto it would be easy. He wants to build a Burger King.)

Oh, and I totally made up that stuff about Faltine. It could be true, they're not human. /shrug

Not much else to say until the next part. :P

-EDR