#ajaposting

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[genderqueerpond]

okay. okay. listen. I know this is trans icon against trans icon but you GOTTA know just how iconic AJA is before making a call.

so!!!

Alexander James Adams, the man the myth the legend:

Once upon a time, before he could even live, a boy was spirited away to faerieland and a girl changeling was left, illusorily, in his place.

This changeling grew up to be a fairly successful bard, and performed music at Ren Faires and the like for ~20 years. However, in 2006, "sidhe" (a word for the Fair Folk, pronounced exactly like "she") was faced with a conundrum: having recently come to understand her true nature, sidhe was tired, and wanted to go back to faerieland where sidhe really belonged.

So the changeling released three albums in the course of a single year, all of them chock-full of trans metaphors and trans angst, and made plans.

Meanwhile, the boy she had replaced was still locked in Faerieland and discovering that he really really wanted a chance to.... exist.

So he challenged the faerie queen to a fiddle duel, ultimately proving himself worthy and capable of inheriting and enchanted music career started by one of the faerie realm's own, and earning the right to return to the real world, at last taking his rightful place as a Real Boy.

As soon, of course, as the changeling stepped out of his place. Which sidhe did at the end of what was billed as a "farewell concert", explaining that sidhe would be going away to faerieland because sidhe had a long held wish that needed granting. There was a price that sidhe was willing to pay, but don't worry because the music would return when the time was right. However things would not be the same, so the audience would have to look carefully to find the truth.

Then, this changeling, this faerie, this glamour and illusion or whatever sidhe was, walked off the stage. And was never ever seen again. Ever.

....

Six months later, Alexander James Adams appeared for the first time, declaring himself the heir of the previous artist, dubbing himself the Faerie Tale Minstrel, and explaining how he'd won his freedom from the faerie queen.

Having now absolutely baffled a crowd of mostly cis people in the year 2007, Alec proceeded to only clarify in personal conversations and not-very-accessible secret interviews, causing a flummoxed fanbase to eventually figure it out... or not. Despite new fans and being an absolute trans icon, he never regained even a quarter of the modest numbers that were there before. I think this is a crime.

Alec has gone on to live his best life, making more music, forming more bands, remaking previously released music by transforming into duets with his faerie shadow, all while radiating trans joy and being literal sunshine in human form, as he is still doing today, at 60.

I mean! Look at him!

So yeah. This man is a delight and an inspiration and a joy, he is an iconic trans elder, and he deserves the world.

Also, man, this song! The incredibly gentle way he sings "come lay back your head, it means nothing to me" the first time, and how the line rises in tension each time it comes back until the forceful way it's practically spat the last time.... I love him! I love his music! I love him!

Please vote Alexander James Adams he is my hero and ultimate role model

Round 3 Poll 13

Use My Fkn Pronouns：　「I first met Allegra on the bus in 8th grade. I thought they were cool, but I didn't approach them for a couple months because I couldn't figure out if they were a boy or a girl. When I finally did talk to them, they told me they were nonbinary and explained what that meant. They asked me why knowing their gender was so important to me that I was afraid to talk to them, and that question spurred a series of epiphanies that lead me to who I am today.

The conversation moved on. We giggled about how mad their mom was that an *allergy medication* of all things used the same name just a couple years after she had her baby. They told me that they were a guitarist and that someday they were gonna be a rockstar. I said that when it happens, people will finally think of the musician first and not the medication, and we cheered.

Being openly gay and trans in a red state is fucking daunting now, but it was even moreso a decade ago. Allegra was *the* out queer kid in our class. Having the grit to withstand that kind of social abuse while remaining a goofy and deeply kind person speaks to their character. They used their music to carve out a precedent for the classes below us: showing them a queer person can be out and well-liked and successful while still having personal boundaries. Even here.

Next month they'll be onstage performing at the biggest music festival in the state. The song I submitted is the flagship single from their second album. It's about how tiring it gets to have to ask for simple respect all day every day. It's at about 3,600 some streams on spotify now, which puts it above the stream limit. (I submitted Windmill, a personal favorite of mine off the same album, as a backup.)

I think Use My Fkn Pronouns should be included in this bracket because it represents my friend standing on a stage and singing out to thousands of people, in the face of a government that is actively trying to erase them, that their life and experiences have value. They're gonna stand up there and BE the role model we needed when we were kids, and they're gonna fucking rock while they do it.

Even if it doesn't win, I want everyone to know that I am so, so proud to be their friend.」

Fang into Vein：　「okay listen.

Not only is this a chilling and beautiful song about vampires (the way he sings "it means nothing to me" the first time?! HOLY SHIT) it also is by someone so fantastic I don't have words for it.

So he is a Trans Elder TM, he is iconic for many reasons but most of all because he transitioned publicly in his mid 40s after having an established career and EXPLAINED THAT HE IS A CHANGELING, that a faerie had lived his life for him under a glamour while he the real boy had been kept in faerieland! It's the best metaphor of all time and he has stuck to it for 15 years no matter how much it baffles cis people. Also he is kind and thoughtful and if he were a spiritual leader I would follow him. Might be too popular for this bracket but this song only has 1.7k plays on youtube (I can't check spotify because I don't have a computer)... so, thank you for your consideration!」

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aja in e2 :)

shes bwue :]

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did a bunch of the requests i got in a batch

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92 aja

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lineup of the gang casual style

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hutch in 311 ?

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that post is literally so them to me

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see because arkangel retroactively paints over her own role in her bad relationship with her kid & in the conflict in the relationship at all but in doing so loses the truth of who her kid was at all, only kind of obsessing over the platonic ideal of the Daughter. whereas victor takes 1000% of the blame onto himself for why things turned out the way they did to the point where he sees their current relationship as unsalvagable and aja as Doomed To Be Miserable Forever Because Of My Failures. so like. by whitewashing their relationship arkangel idolizes her child to the point of stripping her of any autonomy but by only seeing the damage victor ALSO strips aja of any autonomy do u see what i mean. like he cannot see her as happy or trust that she is content with her life or even really value the person shes grown into because he only sees her as the miserable teenager she was the last time he knew her. both of them completely obsess over one side of their child and turn them into a flat blurry image of a person as opposed to like, a real person who exists.

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dont ask me to ever draw in this style again i literally dont know how this happened

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what if the sword was alive

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a bunch of doodles and stuff i never ended up posting

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when aja gets killed and then gets better she comes back like, Properly alive and gets to do the whole "reexperience the world and feel joy in your heart again" thing and like. gestured vaguely. its my favourite plotpoint no matter how many drafts i go through i keep it in because it means so much to meeeeee to have this character who deeply loves the world but is kind of doomed to be a lonely outsider get to experience everything for the first time again in that "comign out of seasonal depression" way like can you imagine. feeling the sun on yr skin for the first time. tasting food for the first time. sniffles.