Child. Daughter. Clara. Love. Family is a sensitive subject not because it comes with inherent difficulties or unpleasant, forced holiday dinners — it’s because Cliff fucked up. If every mistake was a step, Cliff would be capable of making a trip to the moon and perhaps even the return trip. He should have died with his wife and child, and though a horrid guilt and depression fogged the last part of his living self in a metal tomb, it saved him, too. Without Clara, there was absolutely nothing to live for, however even after gaining full function over his robotic body, Cliff did not break himself to a million pieces when he could have so easily done so. It was not fear of a potential afterlife, certainly not paying thanks to Niles — it was his daughter’s death. The guilt worked against him, worked to keep him alive. Mistakes and guilt existed for a reason. Bad people needed to be punished. His punishment was to keep on living, keep on repeating the horrors of the car crash and every fuck up leading up to it. No one is gone if they live on in your memory. Cliff had never been big on anything sentimental and philosophical; his own wedding vows were thought of on the spot ( a little tipsy nonetheless ). He liked those words however. The truth behind them leached into his heart brain, and he sobbed something robotic and ugly when he found a private corner of the Manor. He HAD to live to pay penance to his family and keep his beautiful Clara alive. It took years, and then Cliff smiled internally at the thought of . . his daughter would be alive forever as long as his brain kept on ticking inside the metal tomb. Clara had always been alive even before he discovered the truth.
▋ 𝑴𝑨𝒀𝑯𝑬𝑴 𝑩𝑬𝒀𝑶𝑵𝑫 𝑫𝑶𝑶𝑴 𝑴𝑨𝑵𝑶𝑹 . . . . . Hc + daughter + cliff!! 𝙁𝙍𝙊𝙈 @vihilum . . . . . ┖ send me ‘hc’ + a word ┒