History Fanfic / PoundTheTable

* ForWantOfANail: One result of Jameson's [[spoiler:successful investigation of Spider-Man and Peter Parker]] is that he now holds PI Mac Gargan in high esteem, so there [[https://forums.spacebattles.com/posts/89807432/ will not be an impetus to turn him into the Scorpion]].

* BondVillainStupidity: If [[spoiler:Bullseye had not spent a few extra seconds [[KickTheDog kicking the dog]] by smashing Noa's magical focus and making a one-liner about how he finds her efforts at defending herself annoying trying to shoot her,]] then [[spoiler:Dr. Stephen Strange would not have [[BigDamnHeroes arrived to save her]] but instead to avenge her.]]

** Then there comes a subversion. [[spoiler:After Noa becomes a NervousWreck due to Nick Fury TrespassingToTalk in her home, Dr. Strange teaches her an alarm spell that will signal him no matter where they are. When Noa is suddenly attacked by Bullseye, she attempts to use the spell to signal Strange... but she is so panicked that she draws the symbols in the wrong order, and the spell fails without her even knowing why]].

* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Charles Xavier is very cautious about how he uses his telepathy for this reason; according to Erik, he was more cavalier about it when he was younger, until he accidentally caught a glimpse of what is implied to be Erik's memories of the Holocaust. He hasn't casually read anyone's mind since.

* PerspectiveFlip: The sidestory ''From the Other Side'' does this for Cassie Flye, the young mutant whose job application was rejected by Noa due to her not looking the part and not following interview etiquette. She was living on the streets, had scrounged up the best clothes she could find and afford, spent what money she had to get her resume printed out, cleaned up in nearby restrooms to get ready for the interview, hoped that showing off her powers would get her sympathy... only to get turned away by who she thought to be her idol for not reaching a standard she'd never be able to achieve even on her best day (and overhearing Noa tear up her resume was just salt in the wound).

* FrivolousLawsuit: One of Noa's major cases as a lawyer involves her defending Jacques Canter, a tennis player accused of being a mutant (and thus that he used his powers to cheat) [[SoreLoser by the man who lost to him in the U.S. Open]]. Noa is able to prove that the alleged "enhanced physical abilities" that let Carter win are non-existent and his skills are the same as those of the average well-trained tennis player, and so the judge declares the lawsuit frivolous.

** For the Jacques Canter case, there are two things that the author admits would not happen in reality. The first is the speed of the pretrial proceedings, which would normally take several months to process and not just two. In-universe, it is justified by the fact that American professional sports have ground to a halt as an indirect result of the lawsuit, meaning there is a massive push for a quick resolution. Secondly, [[spoiler:the judge engages in "additur" (increasing monetary damages rewarded in a lawsuit) in a single instant, where in real life deciding damage takes as long, if not longer, as the actual trial, and occurs very rarely. In-universe, this is because the judge wants Noa to owe him a favor for a friend of his]].

* ChekhovsSkill: When Noa was interviewing Joshua as a possible hire for her firm, the latter mentions he was getting his Masters in Computer Engineering. Following the vandalization of Noa's office, Joshua ends up to first to recognize a major issue with the computers, and while he can't solve the problem, he does know an expert in the form of his professor. [[spoiler:Said professor not only recognizes the issue as a computer virus, but has seen the virus before in the computers of major firms.]]

* CurbStompBattle:[[spoiler:Magneto vs. Green Goblin is not much of a contest. Dr. Strange vs. Bullseye is even less of one.]]
* DeathByAdaptation: [[spoiler:May Parker was the one to die in this story rather than Ben Parker.]]

* BaitAndSwitch: When Katherine Pryde is asked to testify at St. John Allerdyce's trial on his behalf, many readers were worried that the stress would activate her mutant gene, reveal her powers on the stand and torpedo Noa's whole case. [[spoiler:Kitty doesn't, but in the kerfuffle after St. John is declared guilty, Noa's [[GlamorFailure glamor is broken]] and her mutant features are revealed for all to see.]]

* GuileHero: In a world of superheroes and mutants, Noa's weapons are her wits, her words and the law.

* MoodWhiplash: The moment Noa elaborates that she could argue all of Spider-Man's vigilantism to be considered as citizen's arrests, Peter Parker immediately flips from cold suspicion to earnestness so quickly that Noa finds it [[EndearinglyDorky adorable]].

* TrespassingToTalk: One of the biggest OhCrap moments for Noa (aside from [[spoiler:Galactus' visit]]) is when she arrives to her house to discover ComicBook/NickFury broke in, is waiting for her in her kitchen, and then shows her that S.H.I.E.L.D. has begun to assemble a pretty hefty dossier on her (and they suspect heavily that Noa has some degree of future knowledge, although they don't know how), that they are worried about her being one of the closest confidants to Magneto, and that they are going to keep an eye on her. Adding insult to injury is how (well, [[SergeantRock by his standards]]) casual he is about it.

* ExactWords: During ''voir dire'' of St. John Allerdyce's case, Noa tries to invoke the case of [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Batson_v._Kentucky Batson vs. Kentucky]] to prevent DA Young from using his peremptory challenges to exclude any mutant from the jury pool. Judge Andrews overrules her on the basis that the case ruling prevented exclusion based on ''ethnicity'' like race, and mutant status and sexual preference are not ethnicities. That said, he does prevent Young from doing the same based on sexual preference.

* DistantPrologue: The fic opens in 1996, where Hank [=McCoy=] is on trial, only for Noa to unexpectedly arrive to represent him. In private, Hank accuses Noa of betraying both the professor and the X-Men. The fic then cuts back to 1987, and Noa's first meeting with Magneto.

* AMindIsATerribleThingToRead: Charles Xavier is very cautious about how he uses his telepathy for this reason; according to Erik, he was more cavalier about it when he was younger, until he accidentally caught a glimpse of what is implied to be Erik's memories of the holocaust. He hasn't casually read anyone's mind since.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Ben Parker is among the living in 1990. However, he is mentioned to be a widower, which basically means [[DeathByAdaptation the opposite is true for May Parker]]. As it turns out Ben and May roles were switched in this timeline in regards to forcing Peter Parker becoming more responsible about being Spider-Man.]]

* {{Housewife}}: A woman named Sophie Walsh shows up to apply for the job of Noa's secretary, with Noa taking particular interest given that she put "stay-at-home mother" as the largest chunk on her resume. Sophie explains that in addition to previous secretary work, she wanted to work for the notorious [[spoiler: outed mutant]] lawyer because [[EmptyNest she wanted a job almost as interesting as raising triplet teenage boys (who are now in college)]]. Noa is so impressed at the acknowledgement of stay-at-home-motherhood as a full-time job and the chutzpah to put it on her resume that she hires her on the spot.

''[[https://forums.spacebattles.com/threads/pound-the-table-an-x-men-self-insert.951637/#post-77387485 Pound The Table]]'' by ''October Daye'' is, as you may have guessed, a Marvel SelfInsert fic with a rather... unusual take on the genre. Notable for being written by a real-life lawyer, and thus averting ArtisticLicenseLaw, and its use of DeliberateValuesDissonance.

* SparedByTheAdaptation: [[spoiler:Ben Parker is among the living in 1990. However, he is mentioned to be a widower, which basically means [[DeathByAdapation the opposite is true for May Parker]]. As it turns out Ben and May roles were switched in this timeline in regards to forcing Peter Parker becoming more responsible about being Spider-Man.]]

* ArrestedForHeroism: When Quicksilver wants to come forward after learning that the city wants to honor him for using his SuperSpeed to [spoiler: save a large number of people during Galactus’ arrival]], Noa points out that he technically broke several laws during this and his status as mutant means that there is a good chance of someone framing all of his actions as crimes to get him arrested on trumped up charges.