[Participant in the June 2023 Community Magazine Contest] <--- I hope. * Utter chaos! The interactive novel where you can save the hero(ine) or ruin it all! The readers of this novel decide every single aspect of it. Cast your vote, derail the plot. Paint the canvas of this collaborative project with your colors. * There's a Courthouse that oversees the whole multiverse. Ten Judges. Their rulings reign absolute upon all of creation. Today they convene to pass judgment upon one Defendant. Each will provide their opinion and evidence, and the very fabric of reality will shift according to their will. * There are only three rules: 1. They must be fast and precise in their commentary. 2. They cannot overrule or criticize a Judge that gave an opinion before/above them. 3. They cannot violate the ruling body (community)'s guidelines. Else, anything goes. --------------------------- This is an interactive, comment-driven story. The first ten commenters will provide their input, and the next chapter will happen in a way that incorporates most of the feedback of these ten commenters. Here are the commenting rules: - RESPECT YOUR FELLOW COMMENTERS. - All submissions in the comment section are considered donations to the author. The commenter relinquishes any claim of intellectual property on the comment text. Therefore, any mention in the comments of any copyrighted material that's not owned by either the author or the commenter must be ignored. Any mention of copyrighted material owned by the commenter constitutes an irrevocable license to use it in this fiction and this fiction alone. - Only comments posted 10 minutes (+- 1 minute) after the chapter is uploaded will be counted. Comments posted in the first ten minutes will be ignored. The author's computer clock denotes this time. This is to allow commenters (Judges) to fully read the chapter. - Chapters will be short. I'll use Firefox reader mode to estimate the reading time. - At the end of each chapter, there may be some questions that can be considered or thoroughly ignored by the judges. - Whatever the first ten valid comments say about the direction of the story, will happen in the next chapter. This will be done to the best of my ability. - Story directions can be, but are not limited to: Character actions. Scenery and worldbuilding. Plot points. New elements. New characters. - No automated text generation tools will be used by me (i.e. ChatGPT or other LLM AI). - Respect the Royal Road community guidelines and the Community Magazine rules. - Replies to the first ten valid comments will NOT be considered. Top-level comments among the first ten that are not a Judge ruling (i.e. telling what should happen next chapter) will be ignored. - The author will star the ten valid comments. Mistakes by the author are non-disputable (i.e. if I mark the wrong comment, that's fate). - Commenters (Judges) should not edit their comments. I will monitor the first 20 minutes after posting a chapter to see if they are edited. - Chapters will be posted every other day, at exactly 23:00 GMT. Yes, that's a 24h clock time. - Tags will be added as the story progresses.