maybe paint some pictures, it all depends

2026 Art Fight Dump <3

august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good august will be good

okay i meant to make a comic of this but couldn't figure out how to do it in a way that reflected kris' characterization enough. anyway. them third-wheeling susie and noelle's date and feeling left behind just hit me in a very aromantic place in my heart. like they aren't jealous of the nature of susie and noelle's relationship necessarily, but i feel like they're feeling upset about it, at least a little. like. their friends have started dating and they feel like they've become a lesser priority (this isn't true to susie, but she only gets to tell them in the weird route, which is its own kind of heartbreaking) -- noelle is trying to get closer to susie and in doing so steps over a lot of things that kris wants to keep specific to themself and susie, namely playing piano together. it's just upsetting to kris because previously they and susie had been each other's most important and favorite person, and now susie seems to be moving on to a level of relationship with someone else that kris feels like they can never have with anybody, as if there's a level of closeness with people they're just completely locked off from. their friendship with susie is the most significant relationship in their life and they feel like, now that she's romantically involved with noelle, it's not as important to susie as it is to them. and this is not to disparage susie and noelle for dating each other, or kris for feeling upset about it, nobody is to blame here. this is just an experience a good number of aro people (including myself!) have gone through. i imagine kris also resents themself a little for feeling this way, wondering why they can't just be happy for their friends, why they're jealous even though they don't think of either of them romantically, the works, we've all been there. this is not helped by kris' working with the knight and feeling like their impending betrayal of the party means that they think they don't deserve to be close with susie at all. also they're extremely good at flirting because they know they never need to actually be emotionally invested in the outcome of it. they're so smooth because they never need to be nervous because rejection doesn't matter if you're never gonna date anyone anyways. gotta win!