Noa (October)

Chapter Eighteen

[Content Warning | N/A]

What happens after you die?

The sandbag swung to the side and rotated some as my left hook struck home, the chains holding it aloft clinking against each other as it spun. I followed with a left jab, a right cross, one more clean punch from the left, then danced away from the bag and held my taped-up fists in a guard position. Just a sandbag, but still, bad habits were worth avoiding regardless of the situation. 

The boxing...

Chapter Seventeen

[Content Warning: N/A]

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I waited at the morgue for as long as I was able, watching emergency responders bring bodies in from last night’s inferno. But despite how badly I wanted to have an answer, regardless of whether it meant good news or bad, I wasn’t able to stay forever. Court still started at eleven. 

I left the DC Medical Examiner’s building with barely any time to spare. If I were a normal person, I wouldn’...

Interlude Two

[CONTENT WARNING | I am not going to provide a more specific, accurate content warning for this chapter. That would spoil the contents. Just... this is one of the two chapters that I cried while writing.]

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Seventeen-and-a-Half Years Ago…

Early June, 2003

“And who are you supposed to be?”

“My apologies for the delay, sir and madam. I am Sir Ambros...

Chapter Sixteen

[Content Warning: pettiness, panic, and fox nibbles]

“Well this is a fine little pickle we’ve found ourselves in,” I murmured, poring over the assembled documents on counsel’s table. 

“What’re we thinking?” Julio asked, eyes roaming the juror profiles we’d laid out. 

We currently had our tentative jury of six, with four alternates selected, each alternate corresponding to one of the outstanding peremptory strikes. Whoever got struck would be ...

Chapter Fifteen

[Content Warning: the type of racism that "polite society" allows to exist because it's unobtrusive]

“How much longer is this going to take?” Fatima quietly groused, giving the contractor’s attorney the evil eye as he questioned the eleventh potential juror of twenty-four. “We’ve only got half a jury! It’s been hours!”

“I wish I knew what to tell you,” I murmured in return, ears pinned back in annoyance. “This can happen when you’ve got multiple defend...

Slight Modification To Patron Tiers

Hello everybody;

So, as a slight confession... I really didn't expect people to sign up, let alone so quickly.
I also didn't expect to have quite a few people tell me in DM's "you are charging way too little for far too much, you really need to consider changing things up a bit there".

So... a small change has gone into effect.

There are now TWO main tiers: Aide to Chambers (new), and Amicus (old).

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Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Fourteen

[Content Warning — N/A]

The deposition of Leslie King was not the last time we put the screws to somebody for this case. Another trio of depositions followed, along with being present to help with Mr. Arroyo’s deposition defense. But there was only so much to be done before we finally ran out of documents to uncover and people to question.

That point was the first week of November, and after we filed with the court saying we were done with discovery, we got our first ma...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Thirteen

[Content Warning — racism & general, nonspecific bigotry]

Three months had passed since that day in the conference room, since the moment Destiny Banks crushed the defendants’ hopes of a quick, if costly, settlement. 

Throughout those three months, I’d sat down with Julio and Fatima on almost every Thursday at 3:15pm, ensuring all three of us were on hand for check-in calls with Mrs. Banks. We kept her apprised and up to date on everything that had happened, ...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Twelve

[Content Warning — Racism, sexism, and classism]

Service of process was made to all named defendants on June 15th. That set the deadline for all defendants’ responses as July 6th, assuming none of them decided to just let it run late and pay whatever fine the judge mandated. Or, rather, that would’ve been the case. But we lucked out.

We were assigned to Judge Marcus Leroy Friedman. 

For those with the good fortune to never have sat before a judge, it was im...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Eleven

[Content Warning — N/A, unless you count the pyromaniac foxgirl]

“Hero, thank goodness you’re here! Your objective is to breach the building and handle all the bad guys! You’ve only got three minutes, so make every second count!”

Whatever voice they used for the facility’s audio instructions, it was far too peppy for this. It needed to be more dour, appropriately serious. Most of the Moonshot who ran this course did so in full riot gear or the closest e...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Ten

[Content Warning — microaggressions that become macroaggressions]

I gave Julio and Fatima the rest of the week to handle other cases on their respective dockets. Realistically speaking, Julio should’ve been the one summarizing the interview into an affidavit and ensuring we had a good account of it, but, well… neither of them looked to be in a good way on the car ride back. Fatima was visibly rattled, and while Julio hid it well, he wasn’t good enough to keep it all benea...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Nine

[CONTENT WARNING — Traumatized people still discussing traumatic events]

“What happened after you arrived on the scene?”

My question hung in the air for longer than was comfortable. Barricade said nothing for a good ten seconds. He just sat there, staring at his hands, clenching his fists until his knuckles turned white.

“The NMR gave me a motorcycle to get me around,” he began. “I can use my powers to sort of just, give me a track to ride on...

Foxfire, Esq. | Chapter Eight

[CONTENT WARNING — Traumatized people discussing traumatic events]

The last week of May arrived before our chance to sit down with Barricade came around on the calendar, and realistically, I wasn’t surprised. To give a better idea of the time frames involved here, Mrs. Banks had first met with us in March. It was now May, and we were still at least another month out from filing suit, then another month from an initial conference, and after that, we probably wouldn’...

Welcome!

Welcome to my Patreon!

Readers of Foxfire, Esq. can join as members of the Amicus tier for access to another 4 weeks' worth of chapters. As of now (January 14, 2025), patrons can read up to Chapter 14. Chapter 15 will release on Jan20, and Chapter 16 on Jan27, at which point we will have a one week break.

The posting cadence will be 3 weeks on, 1 week off. This is to allow me to build back up my backlog, and let me work my day job as a practicing attorney — which i...