#hahah ace lunar lash go brrrr

[ultraclops]

I told ya

Days 7 and 8: Struggles & Freedom!

This one is based on my own experiences as an ace person, so I'm gonna slap a content warning for aphobia on this one.

[CW: Aphobia, s*x mention, ableism]

[Note: the red text boxes aren't any canon character, they just represent negativity towards aspec people]

[Dialogue transcript:

How do you know you're ace if you haven't had s*x?

But you'll have to have s*x some time!

You'll get over it eventually.

A relationship without s*x is meaningless!

Do you even love?

You just need to find that special someone!

But you're too attractive to be ace!

SCREW Y'ALL!

I'M ACE AND PROUD!

End transcript]

As I said in the intro, this comic is inspired by my experiences as an ace person. For a long as I can remember I've never felt s*xual attraction, nor enjoyed anything related to s*x (such as smut, NSFW art, mature movies, etc.). At first I thought it was normal, until I realized everyone else didn't feel the same way as I did. At first I figured it may be due to my neurodiversity, but my siblings are neurodivergent and they experience s*xual attraction. That's when I discovered that I was asexual!

The first person I openly told I was ace was a therapist I had while I was in foster care. She proceeded to invalidate me, saying that I'd just get over it and that I'd have to have s*x some time. It pained me to be utterly ridiculed by someone who's job was to make me feel better - but then again, this was the same woman who told me straight to my face that I couldn't possibly have PTSD because I was only physically abused for 16 years and she saw her best friend die in a car accident. Trauma ain't a goddamn contest, people.

I've seen plenty of aphobia online and offline, such as people framing our sexuality as if it's a "choice", something we'll "grow out of" or that we'll change our minds if we meet "that someone". I didn't make the choice to be born without s*xual attraction. I'm 20 - going on 21 - and I'm still asexual. I've dated like 3 guys in my lifetime, and - guess what! - I'm still asexual. It's exhausting to see other LGBT+ people spew out the same rhetoric against aspecs that was used against gay, lesbian, bi, pan, trans and nonbinary people without so much as thinking "Hey, isn't this a little f*cked up?"

So you know what? I'm ace. I'm s*x-repulsed and abstinent. My orientation isn't a decision that I can just change on a whim. S*x =/= love, LOVE = love. I'm ace, and I'm goddamn proud of it!

Tangent over, now why I chose Mao specifically:

Hehehehe projecting onto comfort character go brrrrrr

Mao doesn't really seem like the type of guy to be preoccupied with the thought of starting a family or anything along those lines - if anything he's just focused on becoming a legend, and the only family he makes is the family he finds along the way. He treats Adorabat like his own daughter and expresses grief when she's hurt or taken away from him, even if she's not his flesh-and-blood.

In Meet Tanya Keys, when Tanya keeps mock-flirting with him he barely reacts - if anything, he looks uncomfortable. He does blush briefly when Adorabat asks if he likes Tanya, but that doesn't exactly mean that they dated in the past - he's blushed out of embarrassment several times prior to this episode. Before you go "He told the King he loved him!" or "Then why couldn't he stop thinking about BC?", love =/= s*x. Also in Enemy Mime he makes fun of BC for flirting with the Mimic Blob sooo–

Not to be stereotypical or anything but I just really think it fits his straightforward, no-nonsense personality. "Why would I do that when there's monsters to slay, criminals to capture and people to save?" is probably his modus operandi

Literally the only suggestive joke he makes is about a tray of cobbler. I'm not saying ace people don't make s*x jokes (because I do too sometimes) but if this guy only jokes about screwing cobbler what makes you think he'll screw another person

Tangent no. 2, aside, had fun on this! Had fun on all my art for this contest honestly, but this one especially because purple and katana. I'm an ace that loves purple and katanas. I'm a walking stereotype.

Also for the bottom pose, I referenced the scene from Weapon Of Choice when he uses the Lunar Lash for the second time! Nice image 👌