An Afterword

This can all be considered a large author's note



Thanks for all the comments! They are most assuredly appreciated. I didn't start this out as a long story more as a ficlet with the idea of Dru meeting the Creeper (The Mustard Man) on top of Gotham's cathedral, and it kind of rolled off from there. I wrote this in bursts in between coding at work, and as I work from home and at all hours of the day or night, updates were at...peculiar intervals.



Dru and the Slayer concept are Joss's, Gotham and its residents are DC's, and Emma and this story are mine.



Dramatis Personae


Prologue

Lady Drusilla Lune/Drusilla the Mad/Dru -- A Vampire



Part the First

The Mustard Man/The Creeper/Jack Ryder -- A Hero

The Colourful Boy/Robin/Timothy Drake -- A Hero

The Smoke Clad Girl/Batgirl/Cassandra Cain -- A Hero

The Rag Golem/Ragman/Rory Regan -- A Hero

The Daughter of Bastet/Catwoman/Selena Kyle -- A Rogue

The Dark One/Batman/Bruce Wayne -- A Champion

The Fat Man/ The Penguin/Oswald Cobblepott -- A Mercenary

The First Beast/Bane -- A Villain

The Second Beast/Killer Croc/Waylon Jones -- A Villain

Creatures of Muck and Slime/Various Clayfaces -- Villains

The Cold Man/Mr. Freeze/Victor Freis -- A Tragic Villain

Solomon Grundy -- An Indestructible Zombie

The Rude Cousin/Scarface and the Ventriloquist/Arnold Wesker and Dummy -- A Villain

The Fey Queen/Poison Ivy/Pamela Isley -- A Villain

Janus Touched Devil/Two-Face/Harvey Dent -- A Villain

The Deathwatch Beetle/The Madman/Mister Punch/Puddin'/Mister J/The Joker/? -- True Evil in Human Shape

Red Haired Witch/Little Tree/Willow Rosenberg -- A Hero

Dru's Slayer/Emma Lasker -- A Hero

The Faceless One/The Question/Renee Montoya -- A Hero

Dr. Leslie Thompkins -- An Ally

Angelus/Angel/Liam -- A Vampire

William/William the Bloody/Spike/William Pratt -- A Vampire

Kendra Young -- A Slayer

Herr Kasper Heinz -- A Demon and a Lawyer

Batwoman/Kate Kane -- A Hero



First Interlude

Leslie Lasker -- Emma's Sister

Ms. Lasker -- Emma's Mother


Part the Second

Clement/Clem -- A Demon

Buffy Summers -- A Slayer

Mr. Osbourne/Oz/Daniel Osbourne -- A Werewolf

Ollie, Claire, and Bill -- Members of a Modern String Quartet

Detective Bullock/Harvey Bullock -- A Police Officer

Sir Jason Blood/Etrigan -- A Rhymer Caste Demon Lord


Second Interlude

Nightwing/Dick Grayson -- A Hero

Spoiler/Stephanie Brown -- A Hero


Part the Third

Harley Quinn/Dr. Harleen Quinzel -- A Villain then a Hero

Delphi/Oracle/Barbara Gordon -- A Hero

The Old One/Alteria -- Old One with control of Causality. The Season's Big Bad.

Deadman/Boston Brand -- A Hero

Doctor Fate/Nabu -- A Hero and Lord of Order



Where the heck this story came from...(or Batzulger reads far too many comics)



In the 1970s Marvel and DC did a few very high profile team-ups. The first was, believe it or not, an oversized Wizard of Oz comic based on the movie. The two companies pooled staff and printing costs and split the profits. The next big one was 1976's Superman vs. Spiderman with Luthor and Doc Ock as the villains. And then in 1981...Batman vs. The Incredible Hulk.



Yeah, sounds pretty dumb doesn't it? And it really pretty much was, but what was truly inspired was the choice of villains. The Joker, and the Shaper of Worlds. The Shaper's kind of hard to describe so here's his wikipedia page. I used chunks of Illyria's personality quirks, bits of the Shaper's MO, and a whole lot of Joker from Batman: The Animated Series to come up with Alteria.



Once I had the overarching plot, the hard part was bringing it from start to end without telegraphing too badly. I don't outline, rough draft, or beta and believe me, I know it shows. I had the beginning with the scene on top of the cathedral and an idea of the end with Dru getting a new soul after defeating the Old One. But the points in between...not a clue. So I would sit down, open the "Add a Chapter" tab and just start typing until the chapter was done. It really was that straight forward. I would occasionally go back and fix errors, but the "Edit Chapter" interface was annoying enough that I usually didn't bother. It also helped that I just wanted this story out of my brain so I could use the freed up space for writing code.



Anyway, thanks for reading! I loved writing Dru, and for a spur of the moment concept, I really don't think it turned out too badly.



BZG