The update is here, as promised:
NOTE: The 'Lanterns' of Earth Prime are mostly on a fairly low power tier, relatively few of them being even as dangerous as a WWI light tank... that flies at around twice a normal human's running pace, and has a flight ceiling of 'I can't breathe at a higher altitude'. The Green Lantern of Dieselpunk Earth is on another level entirely, being roughly as powerful as Superman and Doctor Fate, but there's only one of him.
On another note, the reason I'm not using 'OTL-Earth' anymore, is that the modern Earth in this setting is not OTL Earth, as OTL means 'Our Time Line', and that Earth grows less like our own every day. Instead, 'Earth Prime', 'Earth One', 'Infopunk Earth', or 'Inp-Earth' will be used. While there is no official in-universe name that everyone accepts, many politicians, some scientists, and some news services on Inp-Earth use 'Earth One' for modern Earth, Earth Two for WWII Earth, and so on as they get younger. The other Earths don't all agree on this.
I would have preferred to have March finalized before posting, but then, I was hoping to have March finalized in February. I said I'd update, and here it is.
Additions to earlier parts:
March 3: Instructions for a 'techbane' spell called
Hexus are posted to the internet. This is surprising mainly because it's a bit difficult for a Dresden-style spellcaster to use a computer (you generally need someone who uses a different style to shield your computer, or you need to be very, very calm while using it). The existence of this and similar spells is a large factor in the interest so many governments and corporations have in the development of 'anti-magical' or 'anti-psionic' defences.
March 4: In Infopunk Iran, the 'mutant' rat problem reaches the point that ten sniper teams are sent to hunt them (
from Real Life, but weird enough to belong here; they're probably weirder and more threatening in this timeline, though).
March 5: A group of four glowing, spindle-shaped objects enter the Dieselpunk Earth-Moon system on a vector from the Mars of that world, pass through, and continue on separate courses for each of the other Earths, traveling at an average speed of around four light-seconds per hour. Maser flashes from Dp-Luna indicate that these are high-speed scout vessels of a design common to the more advanced Martian races: the Ice Warriors, the Changing Martians, and the Mysterons (each has variations, but the Lunarians aren't sure which is which), and that they travel by 'compressing and stretching the cosmic tapestry,' a process which allows very high apparent speeds and great maneouverability, and leaves them at rest relative to the largest mass near anything they collide with. Four light-seconds per hour appears to be their cruising speed, and the highest pseudovelocity the Lunarians have seen them use is nine light-seconds per hour, for about seven minutes. As each scout enters the 'portal' it's aiming for, it comes to an immediate dead stop relative to that Earth, starts and stops a few times at various speeds (and not the same ones in every dimension), makes a partial orbit around that Earth, and slowly accelerates to something other than normal cruising speed (to various degrees), on a course for the Mars of that timeline.
March 6: Advanced Idea Mechanics founded, in Dp-USA. The Frank family is among the more than a hundred Jews smuggled out of Amsterdam to the UK on this date, by the newly-reformed 'Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare' (Special Operations Executive). Young Anne is rather startled to learn that there are many millions of people on another planet who know her through a diary she hasn't even been given, yet. Speculation in the press that tight-beam masers are used to supply the Dp-Earth Allies with intelligence in a way the Germans cannot intercept are refuted when it's pointed out that at a range of about 26 light-seconds, the beam would be too wide to remain unnoticed (which is not
necessarily true).
March 8: First confirmed Drop-Bear attack, in Inp-Australia. In Dp-Sunnydale, California, having been tipped off by observers on Inp-Earth who were also BtVS fans, the FBI, assisted by Dr. Fate, arrests Mayor Richard Wilkins II (who as it turns out, is also Mayor Richard Wilkins I), for electoral fraud, negligence in office, and general corruption, among other things.
March 9: Inp-USA launches its first interplanetary fire mission, a retaliatory strike againse Nazi Germany. ETA of the missile is June 13. PLACEHOLDER (Black Lantern Ring toys vanishing; reactions; government has lots of other things to worry about, intelligence & military services concerned but don't admit it, to avoid public panic over what
may be only a super-prank)
March 13: The Martian scout in the Infopunk timeline reaches Inp-Mars, and begins its survey of the planet.
March 14: The scout in the Earth Five/Fantasy timeline returns, and begins what appears to be an orbital survey of Fa-Earth.
March 15: In the Vatican City of Earth Prime, Pope Innocent XIV takes office. His choice of papal name comes from his desire to 'restore innocence' to the Church; among other things, it is his intention to seek the resignation and, where possible and necessary, prosecution of those in the Church who have 'deeply betrayed the trust of those in their care'. This strong stance is said to be of great surprise even to some of those who elected him, and to popes on the other Earths who become aware of it.
March 16: The scout surveying Earth Five appears to have finished its work, and returns to the Earth Two system. As before, it comes to a dead stop upon crossing the portal, then zooms off to Mars Two, at its normal cruising speed. The scout surveying Mars One breaks orbit, and begins its return to Earth One.
March 17: A fairly small particle spray (though larger than the house and dragon produced) is detected in Earth Prime orbit, on the vector from Dp-Earth. The operational detection stations narrow down the location fast enough that the satellites are able to focus in time to see an older man in a labcoat and a suit that was out-dated even in 1941, silently screaming and struggling as he suffocates in the vacuum of space. His remains are carefully monitored, as military and intelligence personnel begin making new plans, and in a few cases, having a bit of a panic (as they have no way to know that the three light-second 'barrier/gate' is as close as teleportation can get you). DARPA is ordered to begin serious work on teleportation, as are the R&D services of other governments; many Trekkers, Gaters, and Schlockers do likewise, with much tinier budgets. It is made more dificult due to the paradigms they are working with, which include the belief that matter transmission involved breaking up that matter into it's component particles (whether molecules, atoms, or even smaller particles), and reassembling them at the destination. This tends to result in test objects being dissociated into said particles, or at best, being somewhat... rearranged. Unfortunately, the DARPA scientists assigned to Project November are mostly using the same paradigm.
March 19: The International Astronomical Union gathers online for the first of a series of emergency meetings, intended to replace the current definition of a planet, due to 'strong reactions to the current designation of Pluto, particularly given that an exception was made for Neptune.' Rumour has it that many members of the IAU were personally visited by the Roman goddess Proserpina (Persepone, in Greek), to inform them that her husband Pluto, god of the dead, is not a dwarf by any measure, nor is he minor, and that they ought to remove such insults from their way of naming things in the Heavens, before he chooses to take notice, and smites them in great wrath.
March 21: On Dp-Earth, James Buchanan 'Bucky' Barnes, a few days after his 17th birthday, applies to join the Army - which is very difficult, due to his youthful appearance. He is eventually recruited by the Military Intelligence Division, where his mastery of linguistics and disguise are greatly appreciated. Also on Dp-Earth, American businessman Andrew Ryan first has the glimmer of an idea that might become the under-sea city of Rapture. On Earth Prime, a rampage by an apparent 'Red Lantern' ends when a cop with a Sinestro Corps ring cuts off the finger that the perpetrator's ring is on. This results in the Red Lantern's death, as the ring had already rendered his heart unusable. Paramount Pictures and CBS make substantial donations to the IAU. In the UK, Scotland's devolved Government announces that a referendum on Scottish independence will be held on 18 September, 2014. Reactions off-planet are decidedly mixed, although the governments of Dp-Germany and the USSR come out strongly in favor of it, and of similar movements in Dp- and Stp-Scotland. Alex Salmond's reaction to this 'support' is... not printable.