Alexi J. Allen's Journal

(bio)
Name: Alexi James Allen (formerly Amanda Leigh Johnson)
Location: New York City
Story: Allan A Dale, Various Robin Hood incarnations
Age: 22 (will be 23 on the 25th)
Gender: biologically female, living as male. Preferred pronouns- he, him, his.
Birthday: January 25 1985
Sexuality: Bisexual, prefers men.
Magic: Under a certain set of circumstances, songs written and performed by Alexi becomes slightly true. (e.g. a song about ...Bob being happy would slightly improve his mood.)
Appearance: Simply put, Alexi has always looked rather androgynous. When he still lived as female, he wore makeup and dresses to try and cut down on the pronoun confusion, but never actually felt comfortable buried in layers of foundation and frillies. Things started to make a lot more sense when he started passing as male. He is an extremely attractive young man, with prominent cheekbones and piercing grey eyes. He ran track in highschool, and still has the look of athleticism about him.

He is at his most comfortable in jeans and a loose t-shirt, preferably something that doesn't clash with his barista's apron. He's got an NYU hoodie that he practically lives in when not at work, and at home, you can usually see him in a pair of plaid pyjama bottoms. He's usually wearing some charm or another on a cord around his neck, a watch, and earrings in one or both ears.

Personality: Alexi is incredibly easygoing, the stereotypical hippie folk singer with a tendency to get on your nerves with his utter cheeriness, the barista whose excessive chipperness makes you want to commit early morning murder. The perky banter often disguises his very real problems. Sure, he may be a single parent, struggling artist with more skeletons than clothes in his closet, but he can definitely make you feel better about your day.

Outside of work, Alexi is a great deal more insecure. Once he hangs up his apron for the day, all those things he manages to hide during his shift suddenly become much more real. He tends to spend his evenings quietly, working on his latest song and playing with his son Gabriel. Alexi is a devoted parent, and would do anything for his little boy. He doesn't go out that often, the social event of his week is usually Gabe's playgroup.

His insecurities make it hard for him to get close to people; he prefers being alone to the possibility of being hurt by someone. His last real relationship (with Gabe's father) ended rather horribly, and he hasn't really been able to get himself to open up to anyone since then.

Alexi is a firm believer in the "Grin and bear it" school of stress management. He doesn't whine, and often refuses to acknowledge something is wrong at all. In fact, unless directly confronted with something, he'll probably ignore it. He's very calm in the face of an emergency, and usually saves the freaking out until after the crisis has passed and he's preferably alone.

History: Alexi was born as Amanda Johnson in Chicago on January 25th, 1985. She was the youngest of three, and was immediately adopted as a breathing barbie of sorts by her older sisters. Her parents divorced when she was six, and her mother remarried and moved to New York within the year. She started piano lessons that same year.

She started running track in middle school, around the same time as she started realizing "Hmnn, I really don't identify with any of the girls my age!" Track gave her an opportunity to compete with girls and boys, and after a few schoolyard fights, managed to assimilate herself into the boy's track team. When she was in 8th grade, her older sister Jenn was killed in a car accident. After the funeral, she began to distance herself from her remaining sister, wearing less makeup and even returning her first pair of real high heels. Worried, her mother sent her to a counselor, who insisted that it was merely a "tomboy phase" that Amanda would grow out of.
It took until midway through high school for her to realize that she honestly wasn't going to grow out of this, and started trying to feel comfortable in her own skin. During this time, he started going by AJ, and using male pronouns (not in front of his family, of course). He went to NYU on a partial track and field scholarship. When he came out to his family over Christmas break of his freshman year, his parents kicked him out of the house without a second thought. He still keeps in sporadic contact with his sister. He spent the rest of that year living out of his car, and working in a small coffeeshop off-campus. He never got around to going back to university.

He changed officially changed his name to Alexi James Allen that fall. It was around that time that he started dating Thomas, a very nice young man who also worked at the coffee shop. They got a nice studio apartment together, and Alexi started writing his first album of folk songs. They were together for about a year when suddenly Alexi found himself pregnant.

Needless to say, things sort of exploded. Thomas insisted that Alexi have an abortion, they fought, Thomas left and Alexi was left alone and confused. Through the sort of support of his friends at the coffeeshop (who all agreed that Thomas was an ass), and an astonishing display of sheer willpower, Alexi made it through. His son Gabriel was born in 2005.
The past few years have been a bit of a struggle, but Alexi has worked his way up to assistant manager at the coffeeshop, and is plotting with the manager about opening up a second cafe at another location. He's happy living quietly with Gabe, and sort of pondering taking online classes to finish college.