Charles Michael Smith

Birth and Early Childhood

Charles Michael Smith was born on 11 September 2001 at the Broken Hill Base Hospital in New South Wales, the sixth and youngest child of Noah James Smith and Greta Anne Smith (née Morrison). His arrival completed the Smith household—a large, devout Mormon family already shaped by the complexities of blended family life. His older half-brothers Paul and Luke came from Noah's first marriage, whilst his full siblings Lisa, Eli, and Jerome preceded him in Greta's pattern of biological children.

The family home in Broken Hill, a remote mining town where red dust coated everything and the nearest city lay hours distant, provided the backdrop for Charles's earliest years. Noah ran Broken Hill Auto Solutions, a mechanics workshop essential to the local community, whilst Greta managed the domestic sphere with the organisation required by a household of eight. Faith structured their weeks—Family Home Evening on Mondays, church attendance consuming much of Sunday, morning and evening prayers bookending each day.

From his earliest months, Charles displayed the spirited temperament that would come to define him. Where Jerome, just four years his senior, gravitated toward quiet observation of the natural world, Charles seemed drawn to the centre of activity, his infant laughter echoing through the house with an intensity that charmed even his most harried family members. These early characteristics—the ready smile, the delight in social interaction, the instinct for performance—represented the first stirrings of the personality that would shape his entire life.

Childhood and Family Dynamics

Charles's position as the youngest of six children placed him in a unique familial role. By the time he reached conscious memory, Paul and Luke had already left home, their presence more legend than daily reality. Lisa assumed responsibilities and received attention that naturally accompanied her position as eldest daughter, whilst Eli carved out his own identity through academic achievement and religious dedication. It was with Jerome, closest to him in age, that Charles formed his most natural alliance.

Jerome's patience and quiet strength complemented Charles's exuberance. Together they built cubby houses from salvaged materials, tracked animal footprints through the red dust, and created elaborate games that transformed the harsh outback into landscapes of wonder and possibility. Yet where Jerome would spend hours silently observing wildlife, Charles inevitably grew restless, his energy demanding outlet through pranks, jokes, and the pursuit of laughter.

Greta's influence on Charles manifested through her garden—that remarkable cultivation she had created from the unforgiving Broken Hill earth—but also through her steadfast emotional presence. Charles gravitated toward his mother with an openness he struggled to show his father. Noah's steadiness was comforting, though sometimes intimidating. Charles often joked to break the silence between them, but he quietly absorbed his father's example. He saw Noah's loyalty and calm as something to aspire to—he simply was not ready to show it the same way.

As the family's youngest, Charles discovered early that humour could secure attention, diffuse tension, and carve out space for himself amongst older, more accomplished siblings. His pranks began simply—hiding shoes, swapping sugar for salt—but grew increasingly elaborate as his confidence expanded. By the time he reached school age, Charles had established himself as the household joker, a role that brought both affection and occasional frustration from family members who found themselves his unwitting targets.

The Move to Adelaide

In 2006, the Smith family relocated from Broken Hill to Craigmore, a northern suburb of Adelaide. The move was motivated by several factors: the desire to provide the younger children with broader educational opportunities than the remote town could offer, Noah's parents' advancing age requiring closer proximity, and the sense that Broken Hill, whilst meaningful for a season, was no longer the right setting for the family's next chapter.

For Charles, the transition proved both challenging and liberating. He left behind the familiar landscapes of his childhood—the red earth, the vast skies, the particular freedom of outback life—but discovered compensations in suburban Adelaide. The neighbourhood offered new audiences for his pranks, whilst the proximity to better facilities allowed him to pursue his growing passion for animal welfare through volunteer opportunities at local shelters.

Secondary Education and Emerging Interests

Charles's secondary schooling at Craigmore High School revealed a student of broad but unfocused interests. He excelled in subjects that captured his imagination—drama, media studies, anything involving creative expression—whilst performing adequately in more traditional academic disciplines. His teachers recognised genuine intelligence beneath the clowning exterior, though they often struggled to channel his energy into productive outlets.

His physical development during adolescence proved remarkable. Charles grew tall and lanky, eventually reaching around six feet, his long limbs and agile frame lending themselves perfectly to both athletic pursuits and the physical comedy that characterised his pranks. His sandy blonde hair, usually styled in a casual, slightly messy manner, and bright blue eyes, always twinkling with a hint of mischief, became characteristic features that reflected his lively personality.

Charles's passion for animals deepened during his teenage years. He volunteered regularly at local animal shelters, taking particular pride in caring for abandoned or injured creatures. When he acquired Nibbles, a pet hamster who became his constant companion, Charles demonstrated a tenderness that surprised those who knew only his prankster exterior. The tiny creature occupied a sacred space in his life where jokes gave way to genuine responsibility—a canvas upon which he painted his gentler nature.

It was during these years that Charles formed his most significant friendship outside his family. Chloe Baker, a fellow member of the LDS community, possessed qualities that complemented his own personality perfectly. Where Charles leapt headfirst into adventures, Chloe provided thoughtful navigation through ethical complexities. Her technological expertise balanced his creative spontaneity. Their friendship deepened through shared seminary attendance, youth activities, and countless hours of conversation that revealed unexpected depths in both.

Faith and Adolescent Questioning

The family's religious practice continued throughout Charles's adolescence, though his relationship to Mormonism developed its own particular character. He attended church services, participated in seminary and youth programmes, and maintained the outward forms of faithful observance. Yet his approach to faith differed from his siblings—less earnestly devoted than Eli, less quietly sceptical than Jerome, more performative than deeply contemplative.

Charles found comfort in the community aspects of church life—the fellowship, the structured activities, the sense of belonging—whilst sometimes struggling with the more demanding spiritual disciplines. His pranks occasionally extended to church settings, much to his parents' mixed amusement and exasperation. Yet beneath the joking exterior, a sincere if unexamined faith persisted, instilled through years of family devotion and community involvement.

By 2018, at the age of seventeen, Charles was in his final year of high school and beginning to look toward the future with characteristic indecision. His love for pranking, combined with his growing interest in media and entertainment, led him to jokingly consider a career as a "prank consultant." Though it started as a light-hearted idea, Charles's creative thinking and entrepreneurial spirit made the prospect seem possible in his mind. His parents, Noah and Greta, encouraged their children to follow their passions, offering support and advice as Charles navigated the complexities of adolescence.

Entry to Clivilius

On 1 August 2018, Charles's life underwent transformation that defied rational explanation. His older brother Luke, estranged from the family for years, had arrived unexpectedly and was closeted with Noah in the study. That afternoon, Charles returned home from school to find the house unusually quiet, seizing the rare opportunity to break family rules and indulge in unsupervised computer time. His plans were abruptly interrupted when Luke appeared, revealing a startling secret that challenged everything Charles thought he knew.

A Portal—a shimmering gateway to another world—had manifested in their home. His parents, along with Jerome, had already crossed through. Luke explained that they had ventured to a new realm called Clivilius, and that Charles needed to decide whether to follow. At first, Charles was sceptical, unable to reconcile the fantastical idea with the reality of his life. Yet Luke's persistence, combined with video evidence of the swirling gateway, gradually transformed his disbelief into stunned acceptance.

Charles immediately activated what he and Chloe had long called "Operation Phoenix"—their private code for any situation requiring mutual support and strategic thinking. Through encrypted messages, he documented the Portal and shared footage with Chloe, her swift response crystallising his determination. She became his mission controller, her steady presence across digital channels providing the anchor he needed as his world transformed.

The actual crossing came suddenly, complicated by unexpected police intrusion that forced Charles and Luke into a high-stakes flight from their home. The brothers had to evade capture whilst working to activate the Portal before it was too late. When Charles finally stepped through, he emerged into the region that would become known as Bixbus—a harsh landscape of rolling hills and sparse desert where a fledgling settlement of equally displaced people was struggling to establish basic survival infrastructure.

Early Days in Bixbus

The settlement in those first weeks was little more than a collection of shelters and desperate people. Charles's characteristic optimism proved unexpectedly valuable during this period of adjustment. Where others succumbed to despair or paralysis, his ability to find humour in barren moments lifted spirits and maintained morale. The prankster had become something more—a beacon of hope in circumstances that demanded emotional resilience.

Charles threw himself into the practical work of settlement building. He joined his father Noah, brother Jerome, and fellow settlers in clearing and preparing the Drop Zone site—a quarter-acre area that would serve as the arrival point for essential supplies transported through Guardian-facilitated Portals.

Later, Charles helped mark the locations for shipping containers using stakes and rope, his precision transforming from instrument of pranks to tool of civilisation-building. He discovered that the attention to detail he had honed through years of elaborate jokes translated perfectly into systematic organisation. By mid-August, he was helping organise general storage, setting up shelving units and storage bins inside the first containers with the same creativity he had once reserved for comic mischief.

Chloe's Arrival and Rekindled Friendship

The Baker family's arrival in Clivilius in early 2019 marked a profound turning point in Charles's adaptation to his new world. Chloe, the friend whose strategic thinking had guided him through his own Portal crossing, now stood beside him in the flesh. Their reunion carried emotional weight that surprised them both—the months of separation, combined with their shared experience of impossible transformation, had deepened bonds that predated dimensional travel.

In Bixbus's challenging environment, their complementary natures found new expression. Charles brought optimism and social ease to a community often overwhelmed by the strangeness of their circumstances, whilst Chloe contributed technological expertise that proved invaluable for the settlement's emerging infrastructure. She assisted with environmental mapping projects and provided unofficial data encryption consulting for community records, her analytical mind finding purpose in Bixbus's practical needs.

Their friendship evolved naturally into something deeper. The young man who had once relied on Chloe's strategic guidance for pranks now found himself seeking her counsel on questions of purpose and identity. Their daily interactions—working alongside each other on community projects, simply talking through the strange realities of their new existence—revealed depths of connection that transcended their teenage camaraderie.

By 2020, Charles and Chloe's relationship had transformed into courtship. Their complementary personalities and mutual experience of dimensional displacement created foundations for a partnership that seemed almost inevitable to those who knew them.

Marriage and Family Life

Charles and Chloe were married on 20 March 2021 in a ceremony that brought together families from both the Smith and Baker households, along with friends from across the Bixbus community. At nineteen years old, both young people committed to building a life together in circumstances their Earth-bound selves could never have imagined. The wedding, whilst modest by necessity, carried profound emotional significance—a declaration that love and hope could flourish even in the most extraordinary circumstances. Jonathan Baker, Chloe's father, officiated the ceremony, whilst both mothers wept openly at the union of two families whose bonds had been forged through shared displacement and mutual faith.

Their first child, a daughter named Hope Evelyn Smith, arrived on 8 February 2022, bringing joy that illuminated their small household and rippled outward through extended family. The name carried deliberate significance—Hope reflecting the optimism that had sustained both Charles and the broader Bixbus community through their most challenging seasons, whilst Evelyn honoured Chloe's mother, whose steadfast faith had anchored the Baker family through their own transition to Clivilius. Charles approached fatherhood with the same infectious enthusiasm he brought to all things, though observers noted a new gravity beneath his characteristic humour. The responsibility of parenthood, combined with the challenges of raising children in a settlement still establishing its foundations, demanded maturity that Charles rose to meet.

A second child followed on 15 May 2024—a son named James Noah Smith. The name honoured Charles's father twice over, drawing from Noah James Smith's full name to create a tribute that moved the elder Smith to uncharacteristic tears when announced. The arrival of a son expanded their family and deepened Charles's transformation from teenage prankster to devoted father. The young man who had once found purpose primarily through jokes and elaborate stunts now discovered meaning in the daily rhythms of family life—the morning routines, the bedtime stories, the quiet moments of connection with his wife and children that required no audience and sought no laughter.

On 12 January 2025, Charles and Chloe welcomed their third child, a daughter named Eden Grace Smith. The name Eden carried particular resonance—a recognition that Clivilius, for all its strangeness, had become their garden of new beginnings. Grace completed the tribute, its spiritual significance speaking to the faith that had sustained both families across worlds. The growing household cemented their status as one of Bixbus's thriving young families, embodying the settlement's broader trajectory from survival-focused outpost to community capable of nurturing new generations. Charles's infectious optimism, now channelled through parenting rather than pranking, continued to lift the spirits of all who encountered him.