Venice sits upon shallow coastal mudflats four kilometers from the mainland, formed by 118 small islands connected by 401 bridges. Interlaced with 177 canals, boats have become the city's primary mode of transportation and, naturally, its signature tourist attraction.
Today, Venice remains an important Italian port city, though it has long since lost the global influence held by the Republic of Venice during the Middle Ages. With a permanent population of only about sixty thousand, the city has evolved into a massive tourist destination, hosting over three million visitors annually. Essentially, the vast majority of people you see in Venice are tourists; locals are few and far between.
Peter arrived at Venice's St. Mark's Square, where he began taking photos for Gwen and Cindy. This area is the heart of Venice, home to nearly all the city's most significant landmarks—as well as its political and economic history—including St. Mark's Basilica and the Doge's Palace. Of course, for tourists, the greater draw consists of tens of thousands of pigeons, the various bands playing at every turn, the occasional costumed street performer, and visitors dressed in Renaissance attire.
For a photography enthusiast, this place was a paradise on earth.
"I thought you'd be on the boat with Jessica," Peter said as he snapped a photo of Cindy. She was sitting on a chair outside a plaza café with several pigeons foraging at her feet. One pigeon was just spreading its wings to flutter past her, a moment Peter captured perfectly with an excellent angle.
"It sounds a bit strange, but I actually get seasick, so I'm staying out here to keep an eye on her," Felicia said, sounding somewhat helpless. "Her energy has been boundless these past few days. It feels like she wants to go everywhere and get involved in everything. I can't keep up with her antics indefinitely."
Peter knew what Felicia meant when she said Jessica wanted to go everywhere. If she didn't visit certain places and run around now, she might never get another chance.
However, Peter wasn't worried, because the name Jessica Drew carried its own destiny. Dr. Jonathan Drew would eventually invent the spider serum and inject it into his daughter, and she would become Spider-Woman.
So, Peter never panicked; he knew she would ultimately be fine. Felicia, however, didn't have that foresight. Knowing nothing of the sort, she was deeply worried about her close friend.
As for why Peter didn't tell Felicia, he simply felt it was better to let her worry about one of her few friends for a while. It served as a healthy distraction from her singular obsession with revenge.
"Also, Jessica discovered that Spider-Man is a student at our school and is part of this tour group. More importantly, a girl named Mary Jane is investigating you; she's an intern reporter for the Daily Bugle. You really should have used a different identity for this trip. As it stands, the risk of exposure is too high. Jessica fed her some fake information to throw her off, so remember to say thank you."
That was indeed a problem, but Peter was currently learning a spell that could make people forget the connection between a specific event and himself. It wasn't as reality-bending as the spell from Spider-Man: No Way Home, and the side effects were much smaller. It simply made people subconsciously fail to remember the detail.
For example, the fact that "Spider-Man fought the Elementals in Europe" would still exist in the public consciousness, but people would treat it as a piece of very trivial news and wouldn't think to bring it up.
Therefore, Peter wasn't worried at all.
"Speaking of which, I still don't know why you and Jessica are so close. You looked quite panicked when you saw Dr. Jonathan's genetically modified spider therapy project."
Peter asked the question with an air of casual indifference. "It doesn't quite seem like a typical classmate or friendship bond."
"It's nothing..."
Peter nodded and continued taking photos. He didn't just photograph Cindy or Gwen; he captured anything he found aesthetically pleasing. Many tourists dressed as medieval or Renaissance residents were more than happy to be photographed.
Felicia, however, felt a wave of frustration stifle her chest. Peter Parker had asked a question that was very important to her, yet he didn't even seem curious enough to follow up or press for an answer?
"Aren't you... curious?"
"I am curious, but if you don't want to talk, I can't exactly force you," Peter said honestly, looking at the photos on his camera display. Felicia rolled her eyes at him, exasperated, before giving in and beginning her story. "Fine. Back then, around freshman year... my father had been dead for a long time. I had just started at Midtown High. It's a public school, so the tuition was lower."
"At the time, I didn't know how my father died. I had just discovered his gear, and back then, I thought... I thought certain things were cool."
Peter seemed to realize where this was going. "Theft?"
"Not exactly. I hadn't been specifically trained yet, nor had I been injected with any Super Soldier serum. I did steal some money from people to buy alcohol, though... yeah, back then I thought drinking was cool."
Peter looked at Felicia with a bit of amusement. To be honest, Felicia looked like someone who could hold her liquor. Felicia herself didn't want to think that way and simply continued with her past: "Then, when the semester started and the school clubs were recruiting, Jessica was signing up at the Detective Club booth. She pointed at me and laid out a whole chain of reasoning to prove I had been drinking the night before school started."
"She... her emotional intelligence is a bit low, isn't it?"
"You think so too, right? I mean, we were high schoolers. Sneaking a drink or a smoke seemed normal enough. I was furious at the time, but then I realized something: if she could figure out I'd been drinking, could she also figure out I'd been stealing money?"
That possibility terrified the Felicia of that time. She was very worried about her mother finding out she was stealing. Curious about how Jessica had done it, she joined the Detective Club as well to learn about deductive reasoning. By extension, she could use that knowledge in reverse to learn how to hide her tracks.
It was during that time that Felicia discovered some very strange items left behind by her father. Using what she learned in the Detective Club, she began to search for the truth of what had happened to him.
"So now I think, if I hadn't met Jessica, I might never have discovered any of this. I would have gone on believing my father was just a man who abandoned his wife and daughter. I have to thank her."
As she finished, Felicia broke into a smile. She heard the click of the shutter, followed by Peter's own smile.
"That's a great smile. And a great photo."
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