Charlie
Charlie isn't an alter-ego. Charlie is a little kid who lives somewhere in England.
My first winter in London, I decided to go find a forest to walk in. My friends had already returned to Singapore so I was pretty much alone. I didn't think it was a big deal so I packed a cereal bar, water bottle and went off. I got there and just started wandering around. It was nice, really quiet. Then, I got lost. I overestimated my sense of direction and underestimated the size of the forest. I also didn't realise how quickly the sun sets during winter (we don't have winter in Singapore alright). So I had no idea where I was and it was nearing pitch-black darkness.
I found my way to a road and I figured if I keep walking along it at some point I'm bound to find a way out. At this point, I came across a carpark and I saw a man with a toddler just coming out from one of the many paths in the forest. Serial killers don't usually go walking in forests with their kids right? So I went up to him and asked if he knew where the nearest tube station was (we were so damn far away from any tube station, he probably was just thinking wtf). He tried to show me where to go on one of those big carpark maps that don't actually show anything, basically saying if I keep walking in that direction, I should see something. Based on the map, I was sort of right in the middle of the forest. At least I knew that I was on the right track so I thanked him and started walking off, as a woman (his wife?) comes out of the forest with another kid and talks to him, probably asking what I wanted. About two minutes later, she catches up to me. I don't know her name so I'm just gonna call her S for saviour.
S: Hi, we're not going to a tube station but we can drive you to an overground station and you can get to a tube station from there.
Me: Um are you sure? I can just walk, it doesn't seem that bad.
S: Yeah, it's getting quite dark and we just don't want you to be walking around in the dark all by yourself.
Me: Oh no it's...
S: But you'd have to sit in the middle because we've got 2 car seats in the back. Is that alright?
Look, I hate asking for help when I genuinely need it but also at this point I'm thinking why are you even giving me the option of being choosy? Nah, I hate the middle seat, could you move one of your kids. What is happening? You could tell me that you'd have to strap me to the roof because you have a 4-seater and you'd still be doing me a massive favour. The woman is a saint.
So I get in the car with them and I sit in between the 2 kids. Buddy next to me looks very curious about me (she wasn't with us this whole time was she?) I stick out my hand for a high-five and before he hits my hand, I move away (which by the way, pro-tip for anyone with kids, they prefer this much more than an average high-five). It becomes a game and of course eventually I do let him high-five me and as kids do, he repeatedly smacks my hand when he realises he's won. S sitting at the front doesn't see what we're doing but can hear the sounds, so she turns around and sees the kid smacking my hand, then says
Play nice, Charlie.
I don't remember what they look like. I don't remember the make of their car. I don't even remember which overground station they eventually dropped me at. But I do remember that once upon a time, I needed help and these strangers showed up. I also do remember that I dirtied their car as I was getting out because my shoes were muddy AF (dear S, I'm so sorry for that, I'll buy you a new car in another lifetime). And I remember Charlie.
Also this was the only domain name not taken yet so... It's whatever.
As I'm writing this, I believe Charlie is no longer a little kid and the domain thing no longer applies (since I'm merging my sites to github pages). However, I've decided to keep the site title as Play Nice Charlie as I've grown quite fond of it and I like that clicking the site title brings you(me) home. Also, me doing things like getting lost and not learning my lesson is very on brand for me (I would go on to get lost in different forests 4 more times after this) so this is effectively a second 'about me' page.