Kennedy Harris

Kennedy Harris is the main character of the musical Dazed as well as the Find Averno ARG.

Find Averno ARG
The events of the Find Averno ARG surrounded Kennedy's disappearance and (apparent) travel to Averno. Kennedy had been planning to meet up with their partner Echo on the evening of December 25, 2020, but never showed up. A group text between Kennedy, Echo, Alice and others showed that they had left a note for Echo that they were 'going to Averno' that evening, and messages on Kennedy's Twitter and Tumblr implied that they had successfully found a way there. During the course of the ARG, subsequent found tapes, notes, letters, poems, and even a physical letter sent to the Averno P.O. Box showed that Kennedy had been conducting massive amounts of research and experiments involving physics and CIA documents in order to try to generate enough energy to physically transport to Averno's plane.

Dazed
During the story of Dazed, Kennedy is a student at A New School and a member of the Department of Unconfirmed Existence. They find the journey of Hugo Selva, a former student of A New School that disappeared in his senior year, and use the contents of his journal to study Unverno, a distorted version of Averno found down a mysterious dirt road at the edge of Averno's Forest. Despite worry, caution and fights with their partner Clover, Kennedy ventures down Unverno alone and ends up in the Averno Cave System, where Clover catches up to them. By the end of Dazed, Kennedy's voice has taken on the same distorted quality that Hugo's had, and they remark that "there are some things [they] can't leave behind". What happens afterwards to the both of them is entirely unknown, but one thing is clear: Kennedy is no longer themself.

Differences between ARG!Kennedy and Dazed!Kennedy
Kennedy is a fictional character-- however, there is confusion as to whether they really 'existed' here on Earth, as well as how the timeline of Dazed lines up with the timeline of the ARG.

In the Gamemaker's final thoughts, they write that Kennedy's body [on Earth]: '' 'perhaps, it never existed in the first place. Perhaps it disappeared. We will never know truly. The ripples that extend from the moment that Kennedy slipped away, those echoes that have reached us- they are in words. In feelings. In songs and the repeated stories of others, but never in flesh. In fact, right now, we live in a world mostly devoid of that sense- of touch, of holding and brushing past and curling up and all of the verbs that have been saved for a later date. Right now, bodies are back burnered. What we have is this: what makes you feel alive. What animates you. That- that is what Kennedy was, what they took, and a little- what they left behind.' ''

Trivia

 * In the Dazed musical, as well as for all 12 recorded tapes, Kennedy is voiced by Alicia Selkirk (she/her).
 * On social media, Kennedy was played by Elodie (they/them).
 * Kennedy's handwriting in the found notes, poems and letters was written by Cayden Larossa (they/them), who acted as Hugo in the Dazed musical as well as directed the film.
 * Kennedy's art found throughout the ARG was drawn by Sock (@sock.averno.ans on Instagram).