Chapter Text
"Tune in next time, on The New Normal, as I interview the host of one of the top conversation podcasts in the city, Danika Hart. See you then."
MJ clicked the stop button and removed her headphones. She left the closet-slash-recording office, and headed downstairs.
"How’s it going?" Pete asked.
"Great. Just finished the outro. Now I just have to edit, and keep doing prep for Danika."
"I think it’s so cool you’re interviewing her."
"Me too, honestly. I knew of her at ESU, but we only took a few of the same classes together."
Pete’s eyes widened. "That’s right! I kept seeing her face on billboards, I knew she looked familiar. She was younger than us, right? Want some coffee?"
MJ took a mug from the dish rack next to the sink. "Yeah, we overlapped by three semesters. She got into advanced writing classes when she was a freshman." Pete took the mug and stuck in under the coffeemaker.
"It’s a good thing Miles found her podcast."
"Probably a contributing factor to her success. The 'Spider-Man Effect', you know?"
"I hate that."
"Mostly that you can’t eat at the taco place near Times Square anymore." MJ poked him in the side.
"Especially that," Pete said. "Their carne asada? Ugh. To die for. Now you can’t get anything without waiting an hour." He pulled the coffee mug out and handed it back to MJ, deftly placing a second mug in place before it dripped again.
"You could talk to them, if you wanted to," MJ said. She grabbed a banana and left the kitchen. "Thanks for the coffee."
"I can’t do that! That would be using Spider-Man privileges."
MJ put on Danika’s episodes as she did her mindless editing and promos. Danika really was talented, if a bit zealous in her opinions. Her online blog attracted a lot of frenetic commenters, all looking out for the best new scoops. Danika, for one, seemed to be better at controlling her audience than…others. She kept them on track verbally during podcasts. She, or at least a trusted employee, was active in her comment sections and forums. And her moderation team was clearly skilled. Even if people thought she was too preachy, she was clearly talented at what she did, and she was rightly successful for it.
Jonah was going to be furious at this episode. He'd already made several episodes of Just the Facts bemoaning the lopsided news coverage favored to Norman. Never mind that Jonah himself owned a newspaper.
"…Spider-Man intervened to protect the neighborhood, but he didn't do it alone. I'm here with Ganke Lee, the Harlem local who helped Spider-Man save the neighborhood."
MJ paused her editing. Ganke on a podcast, in direct relation to Spider-Man?
Ganke's voice came through her headphones. "It felt really good to help people out. Even better when we found out Wilson Fisk was behind it. Shutting him down is a career highlight for me and Spider-Man."
She got a sick, swooping feeling in her stomach.
"Pete?" she called out, knowing he'd hear her even if the door to the closet was closed.
Danika kept talking on her headphones. " I bet! How did you guys stumble on the conspiracy?"
Ganke replied. "By talking to people in the neighborhood. They were all looking out for each other, which helped us look out for them. Teo, Caleb, Camila, Hailey, Stef, Gloria, if you're listening, thank you."
MJ paused the podcast. Peter opened the door behind her. She turned around.
"What's wrong?" Peter asked.
"The list," she said. "Ganke gave it away."
Pete pulled out his phone. "When? I didn't see that."
"On the podcast. Years ago."
"What?"
"Listen to this." She rewinded the podcast and hit play, holding her headphones out. He didn't move to put them on. He didn't need to.
His eyes widened as he heard it.
"We need to talk to her," he said. "Get her to take that one down."
"Won't that be suspicious?" MJ asked.
Pete ran a hand through his hair. "I don't know. Probably. But would it be more dangerous to leave it up?"
"I'm not sure," MJ said.
"Let's ask the group chat," Pete said.
MJW: Hey, just realized that the list's names are all read in one of the Danikast episodes
MJW: we wanna do anything about that?
GL: oh SHIT U RIGHT
GL: I CANT BELIEVE I FORGOT
TS: How? Why?
GL: it was after wr took doen fisk in harlem
GL: when he messed with the kings day party at cj walker park
GL: A bucnh of people had helped me and smy figure out it was fisk behind a bunch of crime in the nbhd
GL: the list, basically
GL: tbf it was before they knew who smy was
GL: smo was still out of the city
TS: I don't think I understood any of that.
MJW: [link to Danikast episode "Harlem Rising"]
SMo: not me saying "Smee" and "Smo" whenever you write those in chat, Ganke
MJ snorted in laughter. "It reminds me of 'fee, fi, fo, fum'," she said.
Pete's eyes twinkled.
GL: hahahaha
GL: but shoundt it be "sm-eye"?
SMy: im with ganke. why do I have the be the guy from Peter Pan? That's not even fair
[PP is typing...]
"You're going to say my joke, aren't you?" MJ asked.
"Of course not," Pete protested.
MJ raised an eyebrow.
"…it was going to be modified."
[PP has stopped typing]
YW: The question is, will taking down the episode cause more suspicion? Or is it a "hide-in-plain-sight" kind of strategy?
TS: Norman's already got the list. Taking it down would indicate more than we care to. I think leave it be.
YW: I can't believe i didn't catch this earlier
YW: Why did it take me so long to figure it out??
SMo: hiding in plain sight.
(30 seconds later)
PP: smee smeye smo smum
SMy: pETE NO
GL: ONE OF YOUR BEST, MR. PARKER
TS: Get me off this group chat.
FRIDAY protocol, SOB story (Stop Osborn's Bullying), daily summary:
- Osborn is planning to publicize a reward in exchange for information about Spider-Man's identity. Recommendation: Counter-reward ill-advised. Public statement against the program is most likely path for success.
- Dark web forums continue to indicate intent and planning towards kidnapping Mary Jane Watson. Recommendation: AI infiltration of forums to mislead and confuse. Increased physical security. AI update of phone planned to enhance prediction of dangerous situations. Watson should not go anywhere alone.
- OSCORP crime tower eavesdropping indicates potential investigation of Captain Watanabe forthcoming, at behest of Osborn. Recommendation: Notify Watanabe. Take no further action that could compromise Watanabe's position.