Page of (Budding) Mind

It’s really interesting when I put my hearing aids in, because as someone with mild hearing loss, it’s not like I suddenly go from “very little sound” to “whole bunch of sound,” but rather it’s like it changes the *texture* of the sound and makes it more distinct. It’s not that I couldn’t hear the sound before, it’s that I couldn’t hear it from further than twenty feet away. It’s not that the sound is new to me, it’s that it’s different from what I’m used to hearing. It’s not that the sound was muffled before, exactly, it just wasn’t *as* clear as it is with the hearing aids in.

what is bro smiling about 😭

And then Susie enters the picture. She’s the first person in a long time who seems to not only like Kris well enough to consider them a friend, but who can also get what Kris is going through. She’s a kid from a broken family who lives in poverty, and because of that, she actively struggles to openly communicate with others and is frequently left behind by those who were supposed to protect her.

Susie has grown up with the conviction that she’s The Bad Kid, and that she cannot step down from that role no matter how much she wants to. This obviously parallels Kris’ status as The Weird Kid Next Door. They both want to be accepted and fit in so, so badly, but in absence of healthy ways to communicate their feelings, they just end up weirding out others, causing them to become increasingly more socially isolated than they were initially.

That’s why Susie eventually becoming more accepted is so crucial to Kris’ development: yes, a lot of their jealousy actively stems from the fact that they are no longer her number 1 in the Real World, but it’s not just the uniqueness of their relationship that is at risk; Kris is actively losing that sense of companionship that they shared in being The Odds One Out: Susie is no longer lonely, so she can lean on the Dark World in ways Kris currently can’t — their home is no longer the safe space that it used to be for her; Susie is learning how to communicate her feelings properly, so she doesn’t feel the need to resort to violence to obtain what she wants anymore, and she’s increasingly more liked because of it; Susie is getting a girlfriend, and while Kris is still undeniably important to her, they aren’t her only source of emotional support in the Real World at this point.

And it hurts them so much, and yet the most heartbreaking part in their eyes is that if Susie becomes less attached to them that’s actually… a good thing somehow, because now she won’t have to suffer just as much when they’ll inevitably have to break her trust later on.

Once again participating in the @mcytblraufest !!!! :D

This is the piece that i did for an awesome fic That's What Knights Do by @boonbeenblade !!! It's a very fun fic about an adventure of a knight trying to find his identity and finding friends along the way, and you should go and read it!!! ^^

This comic is animated. You can read a still version here <-

Death-Head's Deal #44 - Old Pals

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