AJ Charming

"You should always have a choice on who you want to be and what you want to do."

- AJ Charming

Axel Jayden "AJ" Charming [he/him] is a 2018-introduced all-around character. He is the son of King Dylan Charming and Queen Alisa Charming, the younger brother of Sasha, Liam, and Adelaide Charming, all of which have graduated from Ever After High, and is destined to rescue a princess. In the destiny conflict, AJ is on the Rebels side as he wants to be a Cook and own his own restaurant rather than save someone.

Personality
AJ is a sweet, kind, somewhat shy, and caring young man. He respects people and their choices and believes they are doing what they think is what they want. Despite that, AJ does have some down sides. He is self-conscious on his appearance at times and because of that, when he's scared or nervous he tends to pull his jacket tighter around him and pull his hair. That's just his way to try to make him more comfortable.

AJ is shy when talking to new people, not sure how to start a conversion. He is extremely shy when he talks to girls, especially pretty ones (he blushed and stuttered when talking to Fay Fairer). He usually rambles about something, mostly on cooking when he's nervous and he does have a small shutter.

AJ isn't the greatest with feelings. He doesn't know how to tell people how he's feeling because he never really had anyone ask how he was feeling back home and when he was growing up. Sasha literally, had to force it out of him (which did not end well), before learning a new way to get him to reveal his feelings. Because he is not the best with telling emotions, he's known for keeping all emotions to himself, which overtime can cause him to have a mental break down (also doesn't help that he has anxiety)

AJ has anxiety and deals with panic/anxiety attacks that can pretty much happen whenever something is too much for him. The anxiety started when he first came out as Trans, not being female. He is also very shy about telling people he is trans, afraid how they will react (he doesn't have many people at home to support him). It would take time for him to calm down, but eventually he learned that calling his older sister Sasha helped a lot and that's what he does when he feels a panic attack coming. Now that he has Citrine, he doesn't call Sam as much, but does notify her when he has a panic attack.

AJ's anxiety does cause him to have bad days when he absolutely refuses to leave his room. During those times, Citrine will go and get Dreamy or Casting, depends who she finds first and drags (or tries to) them to AJ to try to help him. Whoever Citrine gets depends on who stays with AJ. After Dreamy and AJ begin to date, Dreamy starts taking over, but of course, there are days when she cannot be there and Casting takes over. But either person, AJ really appreciates them for both helping him, even though he can be the moodiest–and be slightly annoying–person ever on those days.

Appearance
AJ is a young teenager with semi-long dark purple-black hair and ocean blue eyes. AJ prefers wearing silvers, grays, and dark midnight purple colors. AJ's midnight purple hair is kept in a messy sort of way but still slightly tamed with some bangs hovering over his stunning ocean blue eyes. He also has pierced ears.

Prior to transitioning, AJ had long, near waist length dark purple-black hair, normally kept in a half-up, half-down double twist hairstyle, with some bangs slightly pulled to the side. His then princess dress was purple and blue.

Cooking
AJ loves to cook. He enjoys it very much and finds much joy in making his own dishes. When he was back living with his family, he'd help the cooks with meals and even make something for his older sister. He was scared to cook for his other family so never did it.

Reading
While he does enjoy an enjoyable book, AJ much prefers to read a cook book.

Horseback riding
When he was a child, Alisa would take AJ and his siblings horseback riding. However, between the four siblings, only AJ really showed any interest. Despite his changes now AJ still enjoys a good ride.

Mirror Blog Posting
AJ enjoys posting pictures involving his cooking and other random things, mostly pictures of Citrine. He often gets Amran Charming to take the pictures since he's better at it. Because he's shy when talking to people and stutters, he tends to just drop the treats at the person's room and leaves, and returns to his dorm to post something to their Mirror Blog or something.

Skillset

 * Cooking: AJ is a very skilled cook having started when he was a small child. He is still working on his skills but he has made his own dishes. But, he cannot make multiple dishes at once; he did it one time, was not pretty.
 * Horseback Riding: AJ is a very good horseback riding having learned since he was very small.
 * Swordsmanship: AJ has some knowledge in swordsmanship as a Prince. He doesn't care for the knowledge, but takes the class the please his father.

Fairy Tale
Prince Charming is a fairy tale character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress, and stereotypically, must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all.

Often handsome and romantic, these characters are essentially interchangeable, serving as a foil to the heroine; in many variants, they can be viewed as a metaphor for a reward the heroine achieves for the decisions she makes. The prominence of the character type makes him an obvious target for revisionist fairy tales. "Prince Charming" is also used as a term to refer to the idealized man some people dream of as a future spouse.

How Does AJ Come Into It?
AJ was born to King Dylan Charming and Queen Alisa Charming, but was born female, under the name Anastasia Jennifer Charming.

When AJ was about seven, they couldn't see themselves as female and ended up keeping it from everyone. It wasn't until Sasha walked into AJ's room seeing him Liam's old clothing he had out grown. Scared, AJ had run into the closet but to his shock, Sasha calmly got him out and to talk. Sasha was fine with it and began to ask what they wanted to do.

Unfortunately, AJ did not come out to his parents, or other siblings for another four years when he was eleven. While Sasha was the most supportive, Adelaide and Liam were unsure on their sister preferring to be male, along with their parents. Two years later, AJ finally transitioned from Anastasia Jennifer Charming to Axel Jayden Charming, thanks to Sasha, but did not have the operation, as they lead to an argument with their parents.

Despite having transitioned, AJ is still having issues with being male, but has help from his sister. AJ is now attending Ever After High to follow his father's destiny as another prince, but would rather be a cook.

Viewpoint on destiny
As a son of a King Charming, AJ takes his role as a prince charming. However, AJ has no desire to be a prince and would rather be a chef and open his own restaurant.

Parents
AJ has a strained relationship with both is parents. AJ's strained relationship with his father originated with AJ coming out as Transgender. Dylan tries to understand but still hard for him. Most of the time, AJ avoids his father, and Dylan avoids AJ. They have yet to have a sit down and talk but AJ feels them avoiding each other is better than them having a yelling match (which did happen one time when AJ tried to talk to his father). The last time AJ talked to his father was when he wanted to get the operation done to fully turn from female to male. While it did not lead to any yelling, they came to an agreement that AJ would finish school first before the operations and Dylan would take care of it.

AJ used to be very close with his mother, but after AJ came out as Trans and wanted to change from female to male, Alisa and AJ's relationship went down south. Alisa really tries to understand AJ but it's hard for her to have her youngest change gender. Alisa also does not approve on AJ wanting to rebel and be a chef. She believes that her child should follow their destiny to the T, just like Sasha did.

Sasha Charming
"Sasha is the best sister there is. She's been with me since the beginning and even helped me go through the change."

- AJ about Sasha AJ is very close to his oldest sister Sasha, who is 12 years older. Sasha cares for her little brother very much. Out of all his siblings, Sasha respects AJ's decision to being trans and doesn't miss gender him. Sasha is very protective of her little brother and will jump in to defend him when needed. Sasha was the first person to know that AJ was trans having talked in on AJ when he was trying some of Liam's old clothing. Of course, AJ was scared and shocked and ended up hiding in their closet, refusing to come out.

It was thanks to Sasha's help that AJ even came out, if it weren't for her, AJ would have most likely waited until he could move out to reveal he was trans. Sasha is a big help to AJ with involving his trans. She does everything she can to help him out even help him go shopping for binders - which he absolutely hates.

When AJ first came out, Sasha almost threatened her parents that if they kicked AJ out she would fight to be his legal guardian. She has told her parents that, and is keeping it should anything happen to AJ when he's at home.

Liam and Adelaide Charming
Liam ad Adelaide are AJ's older brother and sister by six years. His relationship with them is a bit...weird. AJ mentions that he can't be in the same room as either of them. It is possible that AJ still cares for them like any other sibling, but that's just a big wild guest.

Grandparents
"Grandmother is not one I am close with...When I was first coming out, she would ignore me and call me by my first name, which I hated. She would even try to get me to wear dresses when I was slowly not wearing them!"

- AJ about his paternal grandmother, former Queen Eleanor Charming AJ is on off terms with his paternal grandparents Daniel and Eleanor Charming. He is more off with his grandmother due to him being trans. He avoids them at all costs when they visit often going to Sasha's place where she lives with her boyfriend. The last time they met, AJ had a panic attack, lucky for him Sasha was visiting at the time. Now whenever they visit, AJ leaves the castle entirely and goes to stay with Sasha and her boyfriend Shan-Yuan Zhang, who does not mind.

Shun Xian
Not yet family, Shun is counted as family for AJ since he's always with Sasha. He knows Shun wants to marry Sasha one day and has his blessing. Shun cares for AJ like a little brother and helps him with all his "male" problems, including his then growing crush on Dreamy Charming. Shan is highly protective over AJ and will jump to defend him if needs be.

Future Family
In the future, AJ marries Dreamy and together they have three children: Gene. Leia, and Lucas. AJ becomes the maternal uncle of Sasha and Shan's daughter Jia Zhang, Liam and Zoey Charming's children Devon and Mikayla Charming, and Adelaide's son Grayson Charming.

Ayden Kīlauea
AJ met the child of Pele when he went tot watch Fay during the Dragon Games Tryouts with Jasper Rai coming with a bunch of dragons. They formed a bond for being slightly different from others: AJ being trans and Ayden non-binary, and also because they both deal with anxiety. Despite being in different parts of the schools, the two meet up outside of school, mostly at the Hocus Latte, and just talk about things.

Casting Charming
Casting Charming is a close friend of AJ's, but not quite there with "Best friend" title. Casting was the first to even find AJ after his anxiety/panic attack but didn't mind that AJ had anxiety. They just asked if there was anything they could to help him out.

Classified
Classified is a good friend of AJ's and one of his cooking buddies. With Classified being French, he knows quite a few French Treats, which helps AJ, especially when he tries to make French Dishes for Fay and her Prince Charming Airmé Arc-en-ciel.

Fay Fairer
AJ first became friends with the Rainbow Princess after giving her a fresh batch of éclairs having learned that she enjoyed treats like that. That was the first thing that got the two to be friends. The second was when AJ needed help buying new clothing and couldn't think of anyone beside Fay. She is the Rainbow Princess and would probably know about colors. AJ wanted to expand from his dark purples and silvers. Lucky for him, Fay was glad to help!

Fay completely respects AJ with his choice in being Trans and does all she can to help him out.

Amran Charming
Not exactly friends or anything, AJ considers Amran an acquaintance. AJ often calls Amran to take pictures for his and Dreamy's Mirror Blog, which Amran is happy to do.

Thalia Farrow
AJ has had no interaction with Dreamy's roommate. He has delivered some treats for her but that's about it.

Pets
During Animal Calling, a baby female leopard cub came to AJ and he named her Citrine. AJ loves Citrine dearly and Citrine loves AJ. Citrine is very protective over AJ and tends to follow him around, even during class, and when he is out delivering his goodies to his classmates. Citrine cares very much for AJ and is always there to help him when he has a panic attack. Lately, Citrine has been able to help AJ calm down after a panic attack.

Though, when he's having a difficult day, AJ will send Citrine to deliver the goodies. Citrine enjoys doing it and loves getting pets from the students. On days like that, Citrine usually goes to Dreamy and Thalia Farrow's dorm to get Dreamy.

Romance
AJ originally met Dreamy Charming when he had snuck out of his dorm heading the kitchens and was shocked to find Dreamy already in the kitchen. At first, Dreamy thought AJ was related to her, but he wasn't. After that the two became good friends, soon best friends over their talents with baking and cooking. They would end up sneaking out of their rooms to create some amazing and tasty treats so share. Over time, they became friends and AJ revealed to Dreamy he was trans and to his relief, Dreamy didn't care.

As time went on, AJ began to develop feelings for Dreamy not even knowing she was too. They two confessed after AJ told Dreamy that he was trans and had anxiety. Shortly after, they began to date. AJ loves Dreamy very much and loves how much she supports him with being trans. Dreamy tells him every day she is happy how he is and is special in his own way. She also protects him from his parents' mean comments. Dreamy is also there to help AJ when he has some "bad days". On those days, Dreamy kinda kicks Casting out of their and AJ's room (sadly) and stays with AJ all day long.

Years after graduating and having their bakery/restaurant - Sweets and Charming - get into full swing, AJ proposes to Dreamy who readily accepts. Shortly after their wedding, Dreamy becomes pregnant with their first child who they name Genevieve Anastasia Charming. A year later, they have a pair of twins, a girl and a boy.

Outfits
{| class="article-table" !Art !Description
 * Will be Drawn by Jade-the-Tiger!
 * Will be Drawn by Jade-the-Tiger!

Signature - Rebels
AJ's signature mostly has him wearing a dark purple jacket with silver accents, dark silver-gray shirt, dark blue jeans, and sneakers. His ears are pierced and wears a small pair of hoops and wears a yin-and-yang necklace that can come apart. He leave his hair normal, and has some bangs hanging over his eyes, but not enough to get in the way.
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Legacy Day
AJ's Legacy Day outfit consists of a dark purple military jacket over a light silver-gray shirt, with a darker silver tie, black pants, and shoes. He also wears a purple cape and large crown. AJ doesn't do anything special with his hair, though Dreamy has pulled and brushed it back to look decent and better for Legacy Day. He also wears his earrings with his outfit.
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Getting Fairest
AJ is still unsure about showing more body or skin parts than he likes, so he usually wears a long-sleeve pale purple shirt, with dark plaid pajama pants and sometimes slippers. He takes his earrings and necklaces off, and also his binders.
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Mirror Beach
Since AJ has yet to have the operations to fully change to male, he is not very comfortable in going out in public with less clothing on. But when asked to go by Dreamy, he puts a black t-shirt on and wears dark purple and black swim shorts and a pair of shoes.
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Hat-tastic Tea Party
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Wave 2
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Thronecoming
AJ wears a dark purple tuxedo, silver shirt, with a mulberry purple bow and princely attire. His hair is left messy and kept in his normal appearance. His date is Dreamy Charming.
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Spring Unsprung
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Through the Woods
AJ is dragged to go through the woods with Dreamy when she is looking for inspiration.
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Way Too Wonderland
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Date Night
With help from Fay Fairer, AJ is able to come up with an outfit that is hexcellent for his and Dreamy's first date.
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School Spirit
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Royally Ever After
After Graduating from Ever After, AJ finally gets the operations done to fully transition from female to male. As a chef-in-training, he normally wears the white chef robe and chef hat while at work.
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Epic Winter
AJ wears a light dark purple faux hooded long-tailed jacket, blue jeans and dark winter boots. He also wears matching gloves. He also has his hair tied into a low ponytail to keep out of his face.
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Quotes
"Enjoy~"

- AJ when giving someone one of his treats

"I uh...I brought some treats for you and Destiny, Fay. I uh...hope it helps with studying?"

- AJ shyly telling Fay Fairer and Destiny Claus he brought some French treats and Swedish dishes for them

"Oh My Grimm. I like Dreamy!"

- AJ coming to terms that he likes Dreamy.

"Dad and I made a deal. I graduate, he'll take care of everything else for me to fully become what I want."

- AJ to Dreamy about the deal he made with his dad.

Trivia

 * AJ's birth name was Anastasia Jennifer Charming. His new name is "Axel Jayden Charming", was picked by his oldest sister Sasha.
 * AJ was born on March 3rd, making him a Pisces.
 * AJ is Transgender and transitioned from female to male, and is out to his parents and older siblings.
 * He first felt out of place as a girl when he was seven years old.
 * He has yet to fully transition, like do the operations. He made a deal with his father that he would get both done after he graduates. So, for the time being he wears binders, which he hates.
 * Some of his files have yet to be correctly changed, mostly his parents' fault, Sasha is working on getting every single file fixed.
 * His parents are still struggling to accept that his fourth child is transgender
 * AJ absolutely hates wearing binders.
 * AJ once got sick and had to go to the hospital because he left a binder on too long; he tries to remember to take them off before he falls asleep.
 * AJ owns a Mirror Blog for food that he co-owns with Dreamy Charming called Sweets and Tasty Treats Charming.
 * He and Dreamy later name their joint bakery and restaurant Sweets and Charming.
 * Seen in Beginning of the School Year, AJ has panic attacks/anxiety attacks and has to call his older sister up to help him calm down.
 * AJ's Thronecoming Gift is the same his older brother Liam got: a sword made by the Family's best Blacksmith.
 * Had he stayed as Anastasia, his gift would most likely be something that would keep him occupied while waiting for the Prince Charming to save them.
 * AJ originally wasn't going to be Trans; he was going to full male.
 * The idea to make AJ trans came when Shadows read some Fanfiction on a Transgender character. She wanted to expand her characters.
 * AJ was not going to have anxiety originally, but Shadows thought it would add more to his character if he did.
 * AJ does not like clothing with real fur; he finds it mean and horrible, yet he is not a vegetarian.
 * AJ would not survive as a vegetarian, he tried once. He lasted only three days.
 * Once he and Dreamy graduate, they buy a building and make into Sweets and Charming, their bakery and restaurant. They later add a house behind where they can raise their family.
 * AJ's Pinterest
 * AJ and Dreamy/Sweet-Baking's Pinterest

Gallery
'If anyone wants to draw AJ, they can! Just make sure to credit me or something~ Have fun with AJ~ Questions, message me here or Discord!'