in re nelson v the nexus, ltd

[aguacateatlaw]

Foggy had presumed that this particular hallucination was simply the result of too little sleep and too much stress so after repeatedly trying to put the whole thing to bed for the past several days, he resigned himself to the fact that either A) he had actually gone insane, which would affect his ability to practice law to some great extent or B) The Nexus was a real place, removed from New York and Hell's Kitchen and anything familiar.

Foggy had never particularly been enamored of insanity as a legal construct but contemplating it as an actual medical condition was a hell of a lot more frightening. He decided the cure for said insanity was going to be to drink, a lot, and had taken himself down to the Smoking Room to do that exact thing. It wasn't his usual place, no, but since that was currently unavailable to him, he needed to take advantage of the next best thing.

It really had to be stress. He was carrying as many secrets as a parish priest the week before Easter and there was a reason he'd never been interested in being a priest. While being an attorney meant carrying a number of secrets, there were ways to divulge those secrets through discovery and arguments and to purge one's self of that burden. Hell, as an attorney, he could confess to his priest and be covered both ethically and legally. But being a priest, or, apparently, Matt Murdock's best friend, meant carrying secrets he couldn't tell to anyone. It meant carrying things he'd never share with another soul.

"Keep 'em coming. Just leave the bottle, actually," Foggy said, plunking some cash down on the bar in front of him. "Might as well just finish it, at this point."

Comments

[nebaritralk]

"Horrible," Chiana assured him. "I don't recommend it." The less said about the Establishment, the better.

[aguacateatlaw]

"Are there any planets you do recommend?" Foggy had always thought as a kid that going into space might be cool. Maybe it wasn't something he'd ever do for real, considering he had always wanted to be an attorney, but it was a nice pipe dream.

"Any that are worth the visit?"

[nebaritralk]

"Oh, plenty," Chiana confirmed with another sharp grin. "In the Uncharted Territories, mostly. The lack of unified government makes for interesting places." She said interesting, but her smile said dangerous. They went hand in hand, if you asked her.

[aguacateatlaw]

"That might not be so good for the legal minded among us," Foggy admitted, laughing a little awkwardly. "So how does it work there? Every man unto himself, may the best win?"

[nebaritralk]

"Some places," Chiana agreed with a shrug. "Every planet out there's got its own law." Or more than one, even. It was the variety she liked, and the variety that made it dangerous. You never knew what to expect.

[aguacateatlaw]

"I guess it isn't different than earth in that way. Every country has its own laws and there's even regions of my country with different laws than the next," Foggy said.

"Makes for plenty of work for guys like me, trying to interpret that and defend it."

[nebaritralk]

"I'm sure," Chiana agreed, mostly because men liked people who agreed with them. Never mind that she didn't really care. She smiled at him. "What was your biggest case?"

[aguacateatlaw]

"Right now, it's this tenant case," Foggy explained. "They want to evict a whole bunch of people from their homes, jack the rents and turn the places into condos. I'm not going to let that happen. The neighborhood belongs to them and they deserve to keep being able to live their lives the way they always have. And, on top of that, their supers have the responsibility to make their apartments livable. That's part of the rent agreement."

[nebaritralk]

Chiana watched him in silence for a couple of seconds, clearly trying to figure him out. She ended up settling on, "You're a do-gooder." He seemed sincere enough.

[aguacateatlaw]

"Try to be," Foggy readily admitted. He had no shame in admitting that his goal in life was to use his talent to better the community he came from and rather than be a corporate lawyer who bills in the millions, he'd rather get paid in tamales and free labor. It was a good enough life for him. He was never going to be anything but a kid from the city anyway.

"I like to make sure the people who looked out for me as a kid are getting looked out for now, you know? I have a lot of pride in where I come from."

[nebaritralk]

That sort of sentiment was completely foreign to Chiana, having grown up under the Establishment's thumb. Still, she nodded as if she got it. "Sounds nice."

[aguacateatlaw]

"It can be, sometimes," Foggy said. "More often than not, it's about getting knocked on your ass in the dirt and getting back up again. I'm still not used to that."

[nebaritralk]

"I thought that was just life," Chiana remarked with a small, cynical smile.