OK campers... as anyone who hasn't been under a rock knows, Timeslip killed Excavator - a member of T2M Europe - back in August in The Chase. As you also know, she immediately declared that this was done in self-defense in 2 Minutes Hate. After months on the run - mostly in alternate timelines courtesy of Crosstime Travel - she finally decided for whatever reason to seek a trial "by peers" (meaning novas), and announced such on the OpNet.

As the discussion progressed, she finally agreed to waive her right to a jury and accept a trial by judge, so long as the judge is a nova. She has announced her intent to turn herself in to "a nova authority" on 20 May 2017.

So here's where you come in. I'm not going to write her trial... you are! There's as many ideas for what should happen at this thing as there are members of N!Prime, and so I am putting it in your hands. On 20 May, I'll start reading what you've done, and will pick a winner that will be the canon story of Timeslip's trial. The others will all be AUs (literally so, given Timeslip's timeline-travelling propensities).

Here's the ground rules:

1. Whatever you write, it must conform to the OpNet FAQ.
2. On 20 May, Timeslip will use Crosstime Travel to come from "Inca-World", where she will have delivered a healthy (albeit mildly aberrated) nova daughter on 8 May (who has been left in the care of Pachacamac and his temple priestesses). She will, from there, surrender to whomever you write her surrendering to in your fiction.
3. The character contract for Timeslip is waived for the duration of this fiction.
4. If you involve other N!Prime characters in a way that is out of character for them or will have meaningful impact upon their future, please secure permission from their players; if you don't and they complain, I can't declare your fiction canon.
5. Beyond that, anything goes. Want to have her killed by some faction or other while surrendering? Go for it! Want to take the thing right up through the verdict and sentencing (if any)? Great! Want the judge to be that one nova from the Supreme Court, or a Utopian, or Count Orzaiz, or whomever else you think would be dandy in the role? Yay! Self-reprentation or a nova laywer? Your call! Basically, this is as close to "anything goes" as you can get whilst staying within the OpNet FAQ.

So with that... have at it, campers! And remember: spelling and grammar do count....

Oh, come on! You know I suck at that part...

Sorry Stinky, but there's nothing the pulls the rug out from under a good story like a gaggle of misspellings and jumbled tenses and the like. Run the puppy through a grammar/spelling checker....

I'm offering my editing services to the board at general. That said, I'll be doing them at my leisure. So if you all swamp me on the 19th of May with all your edits, I'm not going to have time to do them all. First come, first served; get them in early, people.

Also, I may be taking a trip around mid-May, so there's a better reason to get them in earlier rather than later. And I'll have my own story to complete, too.

You make that sound naughty. Rawr...

You'd be surprised what I can make sound dirty.

Or maybe, seeing as it's you, Reven, you won't be surprised.

Reminder: Just over another month until the deadline on this thing, folks. I'm looking forward to seeing what you create.

Just under two weeks left, campers!

*cough* *gasp* *whimper*

"On it ... "

Can I submit just a plot outline? I'll never finish mine on time.

...fair enough.

Folks, I'm having the devil's own time selecting a winner here. There's two outstanding entries that pull at me for different reasons. That said, "there can be only one," and I'll pick that one no later than tomorrow.

OK, I can't delay it any longer. In order of receipt:

Timeslip's Trial: Terms of Justice, by Long. This was the bones of a helluva good story, Long... but it was only that: the bones. Fleshed out, it could have been a real contender. I very much liked the assassination scenes - both of Timeslip and of the assassin; they struck me as a very likely aftermath to her trial, regardless of verdict.

TimeSlip and the Cascade of Justice, by Jager. This was a remarkable exploration of the trial itself, of how the "obvious" outcome may not always be the correct one. It also did a bang-up job of featuring one of the most enigmatic novas in canon, weaving the story around her manipulation of the situation for ends that still remain at least partially cloaked. The attack after the verdict - a verdict that surprised the hell out of me - was beautifully described; the epilogue is notably open-ended. Great work, Jager!

Timeslip's Trial: A Bitch to the End, by Dawn. Wow. This, I didn't see coming. Using Sean of all people to drag Timeslip's soul back - just a notch - toward humanity was brilliant. But more than just that, it gave her cause to take the steps at the end: not for selfish reasons, but for the genuine love of her daughter. In a way, the trial itself was just window-dressing for this reconnection with being a person; you took this huge world-rattling event and boiled it down into a very personal story. I cried, Dawn.

If I had my druthers, I'd tell Jager and Dawn that they both win, and ask them to combine their stories into one. But I said that there would be one winner at the get-go... and in any event, I don't think that their two stories can combine into a single whole without stripping each of important elements.

The winner of the Timeslip's Trial Writing Contest is Dawn, with Timeslip's Trial: A Bitch to the End. This is the canon resolution of the trial, and the one from which future Timeslip stories will proceed. The other two fictions - Timeslip's Trial: Terms of Justice and TimeSlip and the Cascade of Justice are AUs... but given who and what Timeslip is, it is altogether possible that they may poke themselves into the the life of N!Prime's Timeslip (or other characters, for that matter).

Thank you Long, Jager and Dawn for helping to forge the path for Timeslip.