Nessie Hart (messynessie) wrote in shadows_rpg, @ 2024-05-09 13:24:00 |
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Entry tags: | #flashback, kennedy, kennedy x nessie, nessie |
Who: Nessie and Kennedy
When: Last year, late summer
Where: Salem, MA, in a cheap hotel, out
Status: Complete
The podcast team had been in Salem for a few days and Kennedy was already in love with it. They’d come in the “off season” on purpose, to avoid the crowds ... from everything he’d read, this town turned into Spooky Disneyland in October. From their experience digging into places like this, throngs of tourists could be entertaining, but ultimately got in the way of doing real research. The locals tended to let their guards down more in the off season too, more willing to share when they hadn’t told the same stories a hundred times already that day. Kennedy got the impression they were more likely to be honest too, and not play up the supernatural stuff to get extra tips. So late summer in Salem it was.
Kennedy loved it so far, the vibe of the place was so New England, different than Jersey, and the air felt nice. There was a lot to see, tons of cool little shops to browse -- even if some of them were obvious tourist traps -- and a lot of history to learn. He and Moth both loved the research, but Moth was better at the interviews themselves, and he’d had a couple scheduled for that afternoon, so Kennedy was left to his own devices.
He’d settled in the hotel lobby, in a chair pushed up close to a big window near the entrance, legs pulled up and crossed with a sketchbook braced against them. There were a couple of colored pencils tucked behind each ear, peeking out from his curly hair, and one between his teeth as he drew. Being in a new place was always so inspiring, and there was a lot of Salem art already in his fingers, he could feel it.
Nessie was a fan of Salem as well, having spent most of the day walking around the town, taking photographs, talking to a few people on her own and writing down notes. Moth was off interviewing and Roland was back at the hotel in their room, working. She enjoyed the time alone. No one was making her feel rushed, or making fun of her for buying some of the kitschy touristy stuff in the gift shops. She knew the small, black witch hat she had purchased was going to annoy Roland something fierce, which was exactly why she bought it and wore it now as she walked into the hotel lobby, her arms full of various bags.
Her intent had been to go up to her room but she spotted Kennedy near the windows and impulsively decided on a detour. It looked like he was sketching and she was nosy and wanted to see. Flopping into the empty chair beside him, she sighed and dropped the bags on the floor before pulling her messenger bag off her shoulder to ease some of the ache that had begun to seep into her shoulder from carrying it around all day.
"Can I see?" she asked, grinning at Kennedy and gesturing to the sketchbook.
Kennedy had left his hearing aids back in his room to avoid the annoyance of people trying to talk to him, but Nessie was a welcome exception. He spotted her coming out of the corner of his eye and looked up, taking the pencil out of his mouth to smile a bit as she sat down. It looked like she’d been enjoying herself shopping, and he found the witch hat adorable as fuck. Kennedy’s eyes ticked down to her lips while she spoke, and he nodded a bit. Lip reading was always way easier with the people he was around all the time, and not just because they knew to speak clearly to him, it was just all familiarity. He never minded staring at Nessie’s lips, either. “Just sketching some of the headstones we saw yesterday,” Kennedy explained as he turned the sketchbook to show her. Then he gestured at her head. “Cute,” he added, brushing his chin with two fingers to make the ASL sign for it too.
Nessie leaned in just a bit to take a better look at what he had been drawing. It was amazing, as usual. She had absolutely zero artistic ability, and her own attempts at drawing or painting had ended up looking like her artwork from the second grade. But Kennedy's stuff always impressed her, and she smiled, showing her appreciation for the art and his compliment. "Thanks," she said, lifting her hands to sign back. She wasn't perfect with the ASL, but she was learning. It didn't seem fair to always make Kennedy have to read her lips, though he never complained about it. "I thought I would wear it and try to turn Roland into a toad later," Nessie added. "What do you think?"
There was a reason they had nabbed Kennedy up to be their artist. He did new art for every topic they covered, and designed the podcast logo, in addition to how he contributed with their tech needs. They’d just begun talking about putting out merch, to boot, and his head was always spinning with ideas. A shirt with one of these types of Salem-grave designs on it would be pretty rad, he thought. He snickered at what she said, turning the sketchbook toward himself again. “I think it would be a vast improvement,” he said and signed. Moth was getting good at the ASL and he appreciated Nessie making an attempt to learn too. Roland seemed like he couldn’t care less, but that was okay, Kennedy still tended to sign as he spoke just the same. His grin widened a bit. “We could get him a ... what’s it called? Ter- ... tore- ... fish tank with plants. I can’t say it. But it would be fun to feed him bugs and stuff.”
Nessie chuckled softly but then felt a little guilty for making fun of her boyfriend. It was just that Roland could be such a pain in the ass sometimes. "Terrarium," she said absent-mindly, trying not to grin too much at the mental image of Roland the toad hopping around in a glass bowl. "I bet he'd eat dead crickets if it was served at a fancy restaurant, so who knows, he might enjoy it. Just call them by their french names, whatever that may be.” Nessie blew a soft breath between her lips. "We're so mean. Oh well. What're you doing the rest of the day? Is Moth here or is he still out talking to people?"
It was one of those words he would probably never get right, Nessie’s lips didn’t help too much. Kennedy hadn’t been born deaf, he’d grown up speaking as a hearing kid and hadn’t gone deaf until his adolescence, so his pronunciation was pretty good, but there were still words he hadn’t known at that point and stumbled over now. But that wasn’t the important part, the important part was laughing at the mental picture of frog-Roland at a fancy restaurant, snapping up dead crickets with some long gross tongue. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the guy ... but sometimes he didn’t. It seemed like sometimes Nessie didn’t either, and she knew him best. But that wasn’t Kennedy’s business, no matter how cute she was. “He’s out jabbering,” he said with a nod, then shrugged a little. “I’m just here. Sketching and soaking up the vibe. What are you up to now?”
Nessie didn't give Roland much thought after the guilt faded. She knew she got on his nerves sometimes too. They fought a lot but that wasn't always a bad thing. It kept things interesting, didn't it? Plus, make up sex was always nice. Stretching her legs out in front of her, Nessie sort of wished she had tagged along with Moth. She loved his interviews, and a lot of them she had set up herself. "I don't know what I'm doing now," she admitted, looking at Kennedy. "Roland is upstairs and I should probably go up, but I don't want to get stuck inside the room for the rest of the day. I don't think he has a lot of interest in exploring, either. Oooh, we should go do one of those haunted tours tonight. See what kind of supernatural bullshit they've come up with."
His lips twitched a tiny bit but he managed not to smile when Nessie said she didn’t want to go up and hang out with her boyfriend. It wasn’t his business in the slightest, but he’d often wondered what Nessie saw in Roland in the first place. He had money, there was that, but he acted like such a turd sometimes. And that was with witnesses, was he even more of an asshole when they were alone? Again, not his business. Kennedy just happened to have little crushes on two out of three of his work partners. “Yeah, that would be awesome,” he told Nessie with a warmer smile than the one he’d suppressed, because that did sound like fun. “Meanwhile ... are you hungry? Want to find a bite to eat with me? ... you can stash those in my room if you want.” Kennedy nodded toward all of her shopping bags.
Food! Nessie brightened immediately and made the gesture for yes before reaching for her bags. Stashing them in Kennedy's room was brilliant, because then she wouldn't have to interrupt Roland and answer a ton of questions about what she was doing and where she was going - again. Plus, if he knew she was going to get food with Kennedy alone, Roland would want to come too and right now she just wanted to relax and chill out with Kennedy. "I want something fried. And a strong drink. You don't think it's too early to drink, do you? Should I wear my witch hat? Maybe I should stash it. Nah... I think I'll keep it." They were there on "podcast business", but she was still sort of a tourist too, so why not own it. "What are you in the mood for?"
He stood up with his pencils and sketchbook while Nessie gathered her bags. “Someplace with fried stuff and beer, I can get behind that,” Kennedy answered with a little grin. “Keep the hat.” He patted his pockets with one hand to confirm he had his room key, then led the way to the elevators. He was glad she was cool with not swinging by her room first, Kennedy didn’t want Roland to join them any more than she did. He could be jealous and annoying, and Kennedy didn’t want either of them to have to deal with it. He glanced over at Nessie in the elevator and nodded at the bags in her hands. “What else did you find?” he asked. If it wasn’t art supplies, Kennedy felt like he never knew what to treat himself to, so he was curious what kind of trinkets she’d found.
Nessie glanced down at her bags, a sheepish smile forming on her lips. "Really cheesy, touristy things." She shifted them around a bit to reach into one of the bags, pulling out a plastic bag. "Dream sage," Nessie said with a laugh before dropping it back into the bag and pulling out a necklace. "Magically infused pendulum! Some candles, crystals, some prints, and a magnet for the fridge at home..." She tried to buy a magnet in every place they went to for the podcast. It was a fun way to keep track of all the places Nessie got to visit. "Oh! And a Ouija board, because why not?" She lifted the bigger bag. "It feels like embarrassing buying all of this stuff when you're surrounded by hundreds of people doing the same thing."
Kennedy looked delighted as she showed off her haul, glancing between her stuff and her face, amused that she’d been drawn in by the tourist trap shops. That stuff was so kitschy but it was fun, and that was the point, right? He was sure there were some people who really believed in magic and that you could buy it at a store, but he was pretty skeptical of that kind of thing. But Nessie looked happy with it all, and that was what mattered. “Nah, that’s what keeps places like this running,” he said, half-grinning at her. “Feed that tourist economy, baby. I love it all though, I wanna play with the Ouija board. It’s got to be special, coming from Salem, right? We should see if we can channel some dead witches later.” The elevator doors opened and Kennedy stuck a hand out to make sure they didn’t close, giving Nessie room to exit first.
Nessie stepped out into the hall but was careful to stay facing Kennedy in some capacity so he could "hear" her. "I like to think it's a cursed Ouija board and we'll end up speaking to the dead for real. You know this place has to be overrun with spirits considering its history." She followed him to his room, well aware that there hadn't been any real witches in Salem... or maybe there had been and they had just been careful about not getting caught? It was hard to be a super skeptic considering their line of work. "Midnight margaritas and Ouija. Sounds a lot better than anything else I've got planned. You think Moth would go for it?"
He caught enough of what she said to understand, though it was always challenging to walk and lip read at the same time. Kennedy laughed softly at the question. “We gotta try it, at least. I think he’ll be pissed if we don’t invite him,” he answered, grinning as he pulled his room key out to let them in. The group of them often worked in one another’s hotel rooms, though they tended to make Roland and Nessie’s room the base camp since two of them were in there. Still, it didn’t seem like a big deal to invite Nessie into his space. Roland could be a jealous dickhead, but Kennedy didn’t give him two thoughts, just led the way inside. “Make yourself at home,” he said. “I’m gonna grab my ears.” Since they were going somewhere more public, he wanted to be able to really hear her. Kennedy tossed his art supplies onto the bed and plopped on the edge of it to dig his hearing aids out of the drawer he’d stashed them in.
Nessie set her bags down against the wall and remained near the small space by the door, hovering. She didn't want to intrude too much and maybe a small part of her was worried Roland would come by and knock or something and find her in the room. Nothing was happening, obviously, and Nessie had never cheated on him before, but her boyfriend could be paranoid and jealous and while it drove her crazy, she also didn't want to do anything to set him off. He was the one bankrolling all of this, after all. So instead she waited, looking around the hotel room with mild interest, though it wasn't all that different from her own. Maybe one day they would make enough money from the podcast to stay in a super nice hotel somewhere, with a minibar and proper room service.
Nessie didn’t make herself at home, but that was all right. Kennedy could understand why she might not be fully comfortable with being alone in his hotel room with him. He had the luxury of being laid back about it all, as a guy, though he was the most comfy with Moth, out of their crew. They’d just spent the most time together, and Moth was the kind of person who could put pretty much anyone at ease. It was part of why he was their main interviewer. Kennedy made quick work of putting his hearing aids in and turning them on, then got on some proper shoes before he stood and gave Nessie a smile. “Okay, ready,” he told her, then reached up to twist the tiny knob in his left ear. His own voice always sounded so weird, but he’d learned to use it to make adjustments. “Let’s go see what kind of haunted food we can find.” Kennedy gave her a little grin.
In all honesty, Nessie loved hanging out with Moth and Kennedy, and she felt perfectly comfortable in their presence. She just knew the things that irritated Roland and she had taught herself the best ways to avoid setting him off. But as they walked out of the room, she forgot about her boyfriend, mostly, and smiled at Kennedy. "Haunted fried food. God, I love these kind of towns. I especially love that the businesses here seem to be in on the joke." Nessie pushed the button for the elevator. "I wonder if there are any angry spirits hanging around, pissed that their history is now a tourist trap."
While they waited for the elevator, Kennedy glanced up and down the hallway a couple of times. Whatever Roland was doing, he hoped he stuck to it and didn’t decide to emerge until after they were gone. Kennedy wasn’t afraid to fight with him, he’d done it multiple times before, but he didn’t want to make any uncomfortable situations for Nessie. She deserved way better, in Kennedy’s humble, useless opinion, but he knew that would be a hard knot to untangle, since they were all in business together now and Roland bankrolled most of it. “Probably a lot,” he answered her with a little laugh. “I know I’d be mad if I got tortured to death in some Puritan dungeon and a few hundred years later people are selling cute t-shirts about it.” The elevator doors opened and he let her step in first again, then hit the button for the ground floor. “But hey, if that’s all they got to worry about in the afterlife, could be worse, you know?”
Nessie knew things could be tense in the group from time to time, but it was a complicated situation and much easier to ignore when there weren't any fights going on. Probably not the healthiest way of dealing with the situation, but Nessie wasn't quite ready to do much of anything else. Things were good right now, and that was enough for her. "Yeah, could be worse... imagine being stuck here, though. Like, when you die, your spirit is tied to the place where it happened. That would suck." She eyed Kennedy and smiled. "What's your ideal afterlife?"
He wrinkled his nose at that idea, nodding his agreement that would indeed suck. Especially for them, since they traveled around so much. Kennedy tried to imagine being a ghost stuck at the side of a highway because he died in some car accident and it seemed pretty miserable. He at least wanted to be able to haunt his loved ones. “Ideal?” he echoed with a little laugh. “Hmm, lessee ... I think I’d just wanna know everything. And I mean everything. Like I want to be able to explore ancient places, know the truth behind every myth or conspiracy theory, know everyone’s secrets ... that kinda thing. Just wander around as a spirit, learning everything. Guess I’m just a nosy shit.” He grinned. “What about you?”
Nessie nodded enthusiastically. "That's me too, though! I mean, I really just want to know the answers to all of the unsolved mysteries. Find other dead people who died under mysterious circumstances and ask them what really happened. I wonder if ghosts would lie in the afterlife." She trailed off thoughtfully before shrugging. "Yeah, I mean I guess there's no such thing as an ideal death, other than passing away in your sleep at an old age. I hope if there is an afterlife, you can teleport to wherever you want, instead of having to float all the way there." Nessie paused and squinted one eye. "Sorry, you probably don't want to talk about death right now. It's just interesting to hear the different views on it, and what might come after, if anything."
It probably shouldn’t have been surprising, considering their field of work, but it was pretty delightful to hear that they had similar afterlife desires. Kennedy dimpled at her while she spoke, then waved off her ‘sorry’. “I think it’s fascinating, don’t apologize,” he said. “I’ll talk about death anytime.” Hell, they were in Salem for fuck’s sake, the whole place was known because of the deaths that had happened there. Maybe all of them were super morbid at heart, Kennedy didn’t know and didn’t care. They vibed together well and that was what was important. “I hope teleporting is how it works too though. Seems inconvenient to try to find a ride if you’re invisible.” The elevator doors opened for them and he gestured Nessie out first again. “Did you grow up religious?” he asked once they were walking toward the exit.
Nessie knew she was pretty lucky, being able to work with like-minded people. Neither Kennedy nor Moth seemed put off by morbid topics, and why would they? Considering the subjects of the podcast. This was a hell of a lot more fun than any office job she might have gotten stuck with otherwise. Nessie glanced at Kennedy as they left the hotel, her nose scrunched up in thought for a moment. "Not really? My parents believe in God and heaven and all that, but we never went to church and I don't think I ever saw a Bible in the house growing up. Every now and then my mom posts scripture on her Facebook," Nessie said with a chuckle, "but that's the extent of it, really. What about you?"
Kennedy might have stuck with religion for longer in his life if he’d grown up with it being more of a casual thing like that, just something comforting for funerals or a vague notion of being looked after. But his experience had been very different. “My parents are extremely Catholic,” he answered, wincing a bit as he glanced at her. “So I was raised in it, went to Catholic school until high school and everything. Crazy brainwashed for a long time. I kinda got tired of being told I was a piece of shit who deserved to go deaf though.” He’d pivoted fairly hard the other way in his teens and had caused plenty of trouble for his parents -- and himself, in a couple of cases. Kennedy felt like he’d evened out now, for the most part. He still had a temper and didn’t hesitate to unleash it on deserving assholes, but he had a better sense of when that ‘deserving’ part came into play. “I dunno what the truth really is, but ... I’m glad to be out of it, honestly.”
Catholicism was something Nessie didn't know much about, beyond the scandals that consistently surfaced. Religion as a whole didn't make a lot of sense to her, so she could definitely understand where Kennedy was coming from. Anything that used a higher power's name in order to shame and guilt was pretty much bullshit, in her opinion. "I don't blame you for that," Nessie said after a moment of thought. "I think I'd rather be kept in the dark about it and just live how I want to live without some threat of damnation constantly hanging over my head. That sounds miserable, if you ask me." It was nice being outside again and she lifted her arms up happily, breathing in the fresh air. "I kind of do hope there's an afterlife so people who're wronged can come back and haunt their tormentors. There's a story I heard a while back that a man killed this young girl and got away with it for years... he finally walked into a police station to confess... he said her ghost had been haunting him since it happened and he couldn't take it anymore. I guess you could say it was just a guilty conscience, but I like to think it was literal."
Nessie reaching for the sky made Kennedy grin a little and he resisted the sudden urge to try to tickle her while her armpit was so close and vulnerable. He dug his hands into his jeans pockets instead, nodding along with what she was saying. “If somebody kills me, that’s totally my plan,” he said with a little laugh. “Haunt the shit out of them. People always talk about like, perving on the living in the shower when they’re a ghost? Well I’m gonna be there with my murderer, making fun of his dick instead.” He tittered. Kennedy hoped there was an afterlife too, but in truth he more wanted to be floating around in the cosmos, at one with the universe but aware of it, something like that. Not just knocking on walls or flickering the lights or something. It seemed shitty to be stuck as a ghost. Maybe that was the real hell, instead of some lake of fire. When he died he wanted to be free of the world. “Trust me though, be glad you weren’t raised thinkin’ you’d burn in hell for having dirty thoughts or talking back to the nuns or whatever. I had nightmares about it for years, it’s pretty fucked up.”
Nessie pictured Kennedy in ghostly form, hovering over someone's shower, insulting their dick size. It tracked, honestly, and she loved it. "It sounds fucked up. I don't envy you," she said, slipping her arm through his and squeezing gently. "But you got out of it and you're not letting it dictate your life, which is amazing. We get to enjoy doing what we love to do while talking back to people and having all of the dirty thoughts we want. If we're going to burn in hell we might as well earn our place and have fun while doing it." In her opinion, Kennedy was a good person, just like Moth was. They were interesting people and respectful of what they did and how they spoke to people. At least in terms of work. Nessie felt like she was a decent judge of character and she had never seen any major red flags while working with either of them.
The arm squeeze gave him a nice little flutter in his stomach and Kennedy grinned, lightly bumping shoulders with her. “Fuck yeah, I wanna get down there and have a seat reserved for me,” he agreed, his cheeks still dimpled. He didn’t really believe in Hell anymore, in the Christian sense, but it felt pretty metal to the little Catholic schoolboy inside of him to say stuff like that and not give a shit about it. Nessie seemed too sweet to end up in hell, if there was any justice to any of it. She kept some questionable company, but they all had a good time together. Sometimes Kennedy vaguely wished it was a more debauched sort of good time, but he was happy with what he could get. He hadn’t had such a close social circle probably since high school, and it felt really good to be part of something. They’d walked far enough now that he could see a couple of restaurants coming up, and Kennedy nodded to the first one on their side of the street. “Tried that place yet?” he asked.
Occasionally Nessie tried to convince her friends that she wasn't as sweet as they thought she was, but she tended to fail. She could have a morbid sense of humor, but being edgy or mean just wasn't in her nature... unless she was provoked into it, of course. Roland was good at drawing out that side of her. It drove her crazy, and yet she found it exhilarating too. A bad combination, but not one she really wanted to give up. Nessie squinted up at the restaurant before shaking her head. "Not yet. Let's do it." She waited until they had gone inside and was seated before she started looking over the menu, her gaze searching for anything fried. "Do you ever miss being home?" she asked, glancing up at him in between reading menu items. "I mean, staying in one spot? Dating? Having more of a stable existence?"
Kennedy glanced up from the menu too as he considered the question. “I don’t mind instability so much,” he answered. “It keeps life interesting and fresh, that’s for sure. Dating though ... yeah I do miss that sometimes. It’s hard to do anything more than hook up here and there, the way we’re living. Well, me and Moth, anyway.” He smirked at Nessie a bit. “Guess it’s probably easier to travel around with your person, yeah?” He knew there were probably drawbacks to it -- not much alone time or space from each other, combining work with their everyday life, doing both together. He obviously didn’t overhear Nessie and Roland’s fights very often, but Moth had mentioned a few, and Kennedy could still pick up on the bad vibes when they were all together and the couple was having issues. “What about you? Miss anything about living like a normal person?”
Nessie doubted they had much trouble finding someone to hook up with on their travels. Both were good looking guys, after all. She couldn't remember the last time she'd had a random, casual hook up, even before she had met Roland. "Living normally is overrated," she said with a quick smile. "I like seeing new places, meeting new people. I think I would be miserable if I had to work a steady nine to five in the same place, you know? I miss my parents a lot, not being able to see them consistently, but it's not that bad with Facetime and all that." She flipped over the menu to see if there was anything else that piqued her interest. "And it's nice traveling with Roland, but obviously there are downsides to it. Like when you're in the same hotel room and you can't get any space. Sometimes it's like we're on top of each other all the time, and not in the good way. But there's more good than bad, so I don't want to complain about it too much. Do you and Moth ever get on each other's nerves when you share a room?"
Hookups were fewer and farther between for Kennedy than he would’ve preferred ... sometimes they were just too busy with the pod, sometimes there was no good hookup selection in the places they were staying, other times he thought he was doing well with someone only to slide into the more off putting version of himself by accident. Kennedy didn’t really think he was all that attractive, and being the right kind of charming took effort for him. He admired Moth’s smooth personality that seemed to draw people to him effortlessly. Kennedy watched Nessie while she spoke, a habit even when he had his hearing aids in, then chuckled a bit. “Yeah, think it’s kinda unavoidable sometimes,” he said with a little shrug. “But it’s never bad. We’ve learned when to take space, and we usually vibe together real well. ... hard not to, with him.” He grinned faintly, sure that Nessie knew what he meant. Moth was easy to get along with. “Probably helps that he can be as loud as he wants after I go to sleep.” He skimmed the menu again and decided what he wanted, then put it down. “I agree though, having some nine to five and a commute and shit? For the birds.”
Nessie did know what Kennedy meant. Moth had the right kind of personality for hosting the kind of podcast they were doing. And he was laid back enough that he could deal with Roland without losing his temper, which, in Nessie's mind, was the most important factor. Maybe not entirely for the success of the podcast, but... for everyone's sanity. Sometimes it felt like Moth was the glue that held this whole thing together. Nessie was often jealous at how effortlessly cool he was. But he was a good friend and fun as hell to hang out with. "For the birds," she agreed with a grin. "That's why we need to keep this going for as long as possible so I don't turn into one of those birds."
It would’ve been easy for Kennedy to gush about Moth for an hour if Nessie had voiced her thoughts -- sometimes he felt stupid and immature for having these silly crushes on two of his colleagues, especially since one of them was very un-single. But it hadn’t gotten in his way when it came to the work, so it was all pretty harmless in Kennedy’s head. They were cool good-looking people, he could admire them from not-so-far and not let it show enough to trigger Roland or make things weird with Moth. Hopefully it would stay that way, at least, Kennedy didn’t want to get kicked from the group for causing issues. He’d been the last to join, and would probably be the easiest to replace. “You’d be a pretty one, even if you did,” he said, shooting her a smile. A second later the waitress showed up to take their order, and was a little grateful for her timing.
The compliment made Nessie's cheeks flush, but thankfully the waitress appeared and distracted Kennedy from the blush. It wasn't like she didn't get compliments - her boyfriend complimented her all of the time - but it hit different coming from someone other than Roland. She ordered her drink and some food and then set her menu to the side. "I'd be a hummingbird, always flapping my wings at a high rate of speed." She chuckled. "Eager to get from one place to another. I'd be a terrible nine to five bird. Always wanting to fly out the window." Nessie paused before releasing a short laugh. "I think I've effectively killed the analogy."
Kennedy laughed a bit too as he pictured a hummingbird tapping madly at an office building window, trying to escape the rat race. Nessie could be full of energy, so he could definitely see her as a hummingbird. Not to mention how cute they were, but he knew he shouldn’t say that out loud. He rubbed his palms together and squinted one eye thoughtfully. “I dunno what kind of bird I would be,” he mused, then arched an eyebrow at her. “Did you know birds can’t go permanently deaf? They can like, heal from any kind of hearing loss, it’s pretty amazing. I’d probably be some kinda cranky parrot or something.” Kennedy snickered a bit and shrugged. If he had to pick an animal to be, a bird wouldn’t be it, but it felt lame to say he’d be a hawk or an eagle or something, because that didn’t seem genuine either.
"A parrot?" Nessie laughed and shook her head. "Nah, you wouldn't be a bird at all. I'm not sure what you would be, but you'd definitely be a land animal. It'll come to me, eventually. I think I just have to observe you a bit longer." That wouldn't be a hard thing to do. She liked being around Kennedy, and people in general... most of the time. "What cryptid would you be, though?" She grinned, since it was more on topic for the podcast, and Moth's nickname.
They’d been beating a bird metaphor to death, so that’s why Kennedy’s mind had been on birds, but it was reassuring to hear that Nessie didn’t think it suited him either. The question made him laugh a bit, and he plucked at the front of his t-shirt and bounced his shoulders a little. “I’m the Jersey Devil, baby,” he answered with a sly grin. Kennedy’s accent came and went in strange ways sometimes, but he knew how to play up the Jersey in him when he wanted to. The nickname was mostly a joke, something he and Moth had come up with on some long drive or another -- Kennedy liked how it sounded even if he didn’t personally identify much with the monster. “You? Your namesake, graceful, elusive, mysterious?”
Nessie grinned. Jersey Devil made sense for Kennedy in a certain context. Just like her own nickname, and hell, maybe even Moth's. "I don't know how elusive I am, but I'll definitely take mysterious and graceful. Okay, I don't know how mysterious I am either, so maybe just graceful? Roland hates calling me Nessie. I think he prefers my full name, since it sounds less.... cryptid." She chuckled and then paused as their waitress brought them their drinks. She took a sip, happy to find the liquor didn't overpower the rest of the drink. "Does this mean I should start calling you Jersey? Or Devil? Doesn't feel right calling you Kennedy when we call Moth... well, Moth."
He did agree that Nessie wasn’t terribly mysterious, at least not to the people she was around all the time. She was chatty and could be downright bubbly sometimes, it was cute when it wasn’t annoying. But everybody could be annoying, especially to Kennedy when he was in a mood. He lifted his beer for a sip and resisted rolling his eyes at the part about Roland. In Kennedy’s opinion he was just jealous he didn’t have a cool nickname of his own. “See you two got lucky, ‘Moth’s already part of his name too,” Kennedy pointed out with a chuckle. “But yeah, you wouldn’t be the first to call me Jersey, you can call me whatever you want. ... do you like Nessie though? That’s the important question.”
Nessie was so used to calling Moth Moth that she often forgot what his actual name was. He was just Moth to her and the nickname fit. "Yeah, I like it," she said with a shrug. "If I didn't, you all would know, believe me. Honestly, it kind of makes me feel like one of the team. Which, I know I am, obviously, but..." It was hard to explain without sounding lame, and Nessie knew it. Usually she was pretty eloquent when speaking with people, but that was usually when she was all business. This was different. She squinted thoughtfully for a moment. "Like, I'm less of a third wheel. Does that make sense?"
It made sense to Kennedy, but he made a face of disbelief at her anyway. “First of all, you’re not a third wheel at all,” he said with emphasis. “You work your ass off for this show just like the rest of us.” She was the girlfriend of one of the founding members, but that wasn’t as pertinent as the job Nessie actually did -- she didn’t coast along on that fact like Roland did with his money. Kennedy respected her so much more for it. “You’re definitely one of the team. And if anybody’s getting the boot ever, it’ll be me, watch.” He gave her a little grin to show he didn’t care, even if he did. It wasn’t happening yet so whatever. “We need all four wheels that we got, so don’t think like that. ... but good, I’m glad you don’t mind it, Ness. We’re all dumb, so you gotta kick our asses if we’re doing stuff you don’t like.”
Nessie chuckled and relaxed back against her chair. "You're not dumb all the time," she teased. She knew they all contributed to the podcast in their own way, but she also knew how Kennedy and Moth felt about Roland from time to time, and she felt weirdly desperate to make sure they never clumped the two together just because they were dating. Maybe that was mean but she knew better than anyone that Roland could be an asshole sometimes. "And for what it's worth, you're never going to get the boot, either. I think Moth would hold a one man mutiny if that ever happened. Well, two man mutiny, because I'd be there too." It was hard to imagine the podcast without Kennedy. He was just as essential as anyone else involved. Nessie knew Roland had jealousy issues - unfounded ones - but she wasn't going to let that affect the actual work.
That was nice of her to say and it made Kennedy grin. It was good to know that both of them would have his back. He sometimes felt out of place in the group, or like it was stupid to want to work on an audio-based podcast as a deaf guy ... but the fact was Kennedy loved the show and the people involved, even Roland when he wasn’t being a dick. They were a weird little family, seeking out weird stuff in the world to marvel at, and it had changed his life so much for the better. “That’s two against one, I like those odds,” he said, lifting his beer again. He hoped it never really came to that, Roland had never threatened to fire any of them before, he was more prone to immature sulking when he was upset. Kennedy didn’t want things to ever turn more serious. “So did you go through a witchy phase when you were a kid?” he asked, making a vague gesture around them, since they were in the witch capital of the country or whatever. “Some girl threatened to curse me when I was in like, fifth grade.”
"Oh god, yeah, what girl didn't go through a witchy phase?" Nessie sipped her drink, her gaze drawn to a group of women walking by, all of whom wore dark cloaks and witch hats not unlike the one Nessie had been wearing. That witchy phase didn't always start and end with girlhood. Her lips twitched as she brought her attention back to Kennedy. "I bought books from some woman named... Julia Silverwolf, or something like that. I went all out. Spells, all that crap. None of it ever worked. I liked the aesthetic though." She grinned. "I've got to know what you were cursed with and why."
Kennedy had known several ‘weird’ girls growing up who were into that occult stuff, but he hadn’t had a ton of female friends, so he wasn’t sure how common it was. He’d had a very Catholic upbringing, and if his mom had known he’d been supposedly cursed, she never would have shut up about it. He grinned as he pictured a much younger Nessie trying to do spells in her childhood bedroom. It was a cute picture. Hearing stuff like that tended to reinforce his skepticism though -- if magic was all about belief, who could be more sincere than a young girl trying to harness a modicum of power? “Oh I dunno if she actually tried it, but I think she said she was gonna make all my hair fall out,” he answered, amused. “It was longer back then. For the why ...? Fuck if I remember, I was probably harassing her because I thought she was cute or something.”
Nessie snorted with amusement. "The whole... if they tug your pigtails they like you, sort of thing. More girls ought to curse boys who do that. No offense, or anything." She grinned and nudged his foot under the table. "Me, I just wrote horrible poetry about boys I liked in school, and listened to sappy love songs, unless I was angsty, then it was emo pop rock. Ah, those were the days." She arched a brow and shot him a curious look. "What do you do now, when you like someone. I'm guess there's no harassing."
“No, I grew outta that, thank god,” Kennedy answered with a laugh. He didn’t take what she said personally -- she wasn’t wrong. Young boys were terrible in a lot of ways, and he’d been no exception. “Now? Well, depends on the setting, I guess. If I can chat them up and ask them out, I do. If not, I just ... admire and pine from afar.” He laughed a little and shrugged his shoulders, feeling his upper cheeks get a bit hot. What other options were there when someone he liked was taken or not interested or unavailable in some other way? “What I definitely don’t do is chase them around the playground to put bugs in their hair, I have learned my lesson on that. It never worked, not once.” Smirking, he picked up his beer for a long drink.
"God, that sounds so simple, doesn't it? Chat them up and ask them out. Come across as confident even if your palms are sweating." Nessie sipped more of her drink and then waited as their food was brought to the table and placed in front of them. Once the waitress was gone, Nessie grabbed her fork, snickering softly. "You know, there was this boy in junior high who made fun of my ears every fucking day. He called me Dumbo. Then he asked me to the spring dance. Like... what the fuck? Too many guys get raised believing that insulting a girl is the best way to get her interested." She paused for a moment before forking up some of her fried food. "I mean, did I go to the dance with that guy? Yeah. But I was stupid back then. Pining is a great aesthetic though. So angsty, right? You could write some great poetry about it."
“After a ton of rejection, you kind of get numb to it, so yeah, the asking out gets easier,” Kennedy told her with a chuckle as he picked up his own fork. He knew all about being told No, nicely and not so much. He kind of felt like he’d already heard the worst that could be said to him, so flirting with people out in the wild didn’t seem so intimidating anymore. “I draw about it, Moth is the writer,” he said, glancing up at Nessie again with a little grin. “So many portrait sketches, filled with longing and tossed in the trash. That guy was an idiot though, your ears are adorable. Boys just learn that insults are a sign of affection among each other, and some are too dumb to know that doesn’t apply to girls. Or they wanna make you insecure so you’re more likely to say yes to their sorry asses. Neither one of ‘em is a good thing.” He forked some food into his mouth, wondering idly if Roland ever said mean stuff to her like that. He seemed like that kind of idiot to Kennedy sometimes.
Maybe it was because she was around him a lot and for the most part, Kennedy seemed like a pretty great guy, but she had trouble picturing him getting rejected a lot. He was cute in an unconventional kind of way and he was talented and creative. Obviously beauty was subjective to a lot of people, but Nessie thought he was a catch. Nessie took another bite of food, happy to be eating something unhealthy but delicious. She would have to make use of the hotel's gym tomorrow, but at least it was worth it. "Surprise, most girls are already insecure enough, no need to pile it on." Nessie took a sip of her drink and lips her lips before eying Kennedy with mild amusement. "Do you and Moth insult each other when you're feeling affectionate?"
Kennedy let out a snort-laugh and shook his head. “Nah, Moth’s too evolved for that shit,” he said, just as amused as Nessie was. “He musta been a weird little kid, honestly.” He’d tried to picture baby Mothman many times since they’d become friends, but the man just seemed like such an old chill soul, it was hard to think about what he must have been like as a little mini-Moth on the playground. Kennedy himself had been a hyperactive terror even before he lost his hearing -- after that had happened, there’d been a lot more anger in the mix, and it had taken him a long time and quite a bit of maturing to find his footing within himself again. He would’ve laughed at being called a catch, even now. “Do you think you are? Insecure?” he asked, peering at Nessie curiously.
He was probably right about Moth. Kennedy definitely knew him a lot better than Nessie did, but she would have agreed that Moth had been born an old soul. Then again, people could be surprising from time to time, especially once you got to know them better. His question prompted a soft laugh from Nessie's lips before she dug into more of her food. "Well, no and yes. I mean, I have my moments, but I think everyone does. I'm more secure in myself now than I was when I was a teenager. Surrounding yourself with people who seem to see and like certain qualities in you helps, I'm sure. What about you?"
It wasn’t a standard question, and maybe it was kind of a rude thing to ask, but Kennedy rarely thought about that kind of shit when he wanted to know something. Moth and Nessie were some of his closest friends, and not just because of proximity. They were all like-minded in many ways, that was how they worked so well together. Kennedy liked radical honesty in people, so much of the population was so full of bullshit. He huffed a bit and tilted his head from side to side before he answered verbally. “Depends on the day, who’s around, I guess,” he said, shrugging one shoulder. “Like you said, everybody has their moments. Sometimes I’m king of the world, sometimes a piece of shit, you know?” Kennedy grinned faintly. “The duality of man, right? It’s a lot better than it used to be though, yeah. I couldn’t have even like, talked to you as a teenager.”
It was easy to be honest with Kennedy, and even Moth. She could tell them her feelings on any matter and for the most part, they heard her, even if they didn't always agree. It was refreshing not to feel like she had to walk on eggshells around them, especially when there were days she had to do just that with her own boyfriend. "Yeah, well, that's okay, because I would've talked to you," she said with a grin. "I feel like misfits tend to be drawn to one another." Belatedly she hoped he didn't get offended by that. And Nessie knew she was just assuming certain things, but at least right now, as adults, it felt that way. People who enjoyed putting together a podcast about the weird in the world... she had a hard time labeling them as anything else.
Kennedy was the opposite of offended, it felt like Nessie had nailed it. They were all misfits in one way or another, and he’d been a pretty big one for almost all of his life. “Hell yeah, we are,” he agreed with a grin of his own. He felt incredibly lucky and grateful that he’d met this particular group of misfits who had readily accepted him and hadn’t laughed him out of the room for wanting to work in a mostly-audio industry when he was deaf. Kennedy had run into plenty of ableist bullshit in his life, but had never even whiffed a hint of it with these people. Even Roland had never said shit about it, and Kennedy knew he wasn’t the guy’s favorite person. It made him feel good and a little fluttery to hear Nessie would’ve talked to him first back in the day, he could only imagine his crush on her would’ve been a thousand times bigger ten years ago or whatever. But he couldn’t tell her that. “Glad I found some misfits I actually like to hang around with,” he said instead, lifting his glass in a little toast before he took another drink.
She took her own glass to salute him before taking a quick sip. The three of them, hell even the four with Roland, were involved in the kind of podcast that she knew drew in the weirdos, which was just fine with her. They were all weird too, even Roland in his own way, though he tried to pretend otherwise. For as much as they fought, Nessie did love him. She saw the parts of him he didn't like to show people and somehow that made her appreciate him more. The four of them fit together and that was probably why they had so much fun doing what they were doing. "So, after this we track down Moth, get some beer and have a sinful night of alcoholism and conjuring spirits?"
He’d wandered through several social groups throughout his life, and Kennedy hadn’t felt like he clicked with any of them as well as he fit into this particular group of people. His podmates and some of their fans he’d interacted with all seemed to get him on a level he’d never been gotten before. They were definitely different from his family and most of the kids he’d grown up with, and it was nice to feel Different, but Together finally. “Sounds perfect,” Kennedy told Nessie with a lopsided grin. It wouldn’t be an evening that was even out of the ordinary for them, but every place was different and they enjoyed each other’s company, so it was never boring. He turned his attention to finishing up his meal so they could get on with making the most of their time in Salem.