Post by Kenzie on Jul 8, 2015 12:30:59 GMT -5
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Name ||
Heathcliff Reginald Arkwright. Though his mother remarried after the passing of his father, Cliff refused to take Johnathan’s surname.
Nicknames/Aliases ||
He goes by Cliff. Other nicknames include Clifford. He’s always entertained by nicknames people can throw at him, and encourages it, except for the insulting names the popular crowd tends to throw at him.
Age/Year/School ||
15, he’s a sophomore. His birthday is March 20th. He attends Metric High School.
Reason for Enrolling ||
Cliff is a wood carver. He’s always been very talented with his pocketknife and creates intricate designs out of the wood that he finds in nature, be it sticks or logs. When his mother received a job opportunity in Metric, Cliff didn’t want to go, but some of his sculptures were sent for evaluation anyway and he was awarded a scholarship to Metric. Cliff takes art courses, but holds limited interest in them and just wants to graduate so he can move back to his hometown.
Major/GPA ||
He’s in the art program, and his grades are Bs and Cs. He doesn’t care enough to try to make straight As, but he does care enough to at least pass.
Gender ||
Male
Sexuality ||
Heterosexual (though he’s still young, so potentially questioning).
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Job ||
Cliff works part time at a little ice cream store in the food court. He hates his job but uses it as an excuse to get out of family outings and church when he can. He uses the money to buy his witty shirts and equipment for his expeditions out to the woods.
Reputation ||
Cliff is what most people in the high school would call a ‘nobody’ or a ‘loser’. He’s quiet and sticks to himself, and he hates the popular crowd at school and is very vocal about it. He doesn’t seem to care if people in the school like him or dislike him. His best friend’s reputation is dragged down with his own, but Cliff sees it as doing Noah a favor.
What little good reputation he had faded when rumors spread about him and Pippa like wildfire – originated by Shyanne and her posse, of course, when they found out the duo were cousins at the dance. Rumors spread that they slept together incestuously, that they made out, that they knew they were related but dated anyway, ect. All of the rumors are ridiculous, and their spreading is part of the reason Cliff hates the popular crowd with so much more venom than he did before (before he just kind of ignored them).
Friends ||
His best friend is Noah Wilson. He’s not very popular so he doesn’t have any others, but he’s fine with that. He is friendly with Pippa Scott, who he found out was his cousin after the last dance. It was awkward at first, but when they discovered they were housemates they began to actually become friends.
Enemies/Rivals
Cliff’s biggest enemy, though the feeling certainly isn’t mutual, is his stepfather. He feels like he’s trying to replace Rhett and that is unacceptable. Though he claims to hate his mother he does still love her – he just thinks that she’s betraying him by moving on when he’s still hung up on Rhett’s memory. His half-sister is someone who he also claims to hate, though he wouldn’t want her hurt, he just dislikes her. On top of that, too, he’s never really been good with kids.
Cliff dislikes Shyanne Volle, the ‘queen bee’ of the school, and makes no effort to hide his eye rolls and sassy remarks when Noah gushes about her or how hot she is. Her best friend Issy is also on Cliff’s dislike list because she’s basically Shyanne’s second in command and he’s completely convinced her kindness is just some act – like anyone who’s friends with Shyanne would be genuinely nice, right? Rylan is more annoying than he is an enemy, but he’s still a part of the popular crowd that Cliff dislikes, especially since he’s so devoted to Shyanne.
Robyn is about as bad as Shyanne is, and clearly hates him in return, as does Shyanne’s entire posse. Seamus and Brad are both members of the football team. Seamus gets aggressive with Cliff when he badmouths the girls, and Brad’s just a douche. Cliff hates the both of them, too, and considers them his enemies as well.
Relationship Status ||
Single. He had a brief love-at-first-sight crush on Pippa Scott… until he realized she was his cousin. Ever since, he’s been mortified of pursuing anyone.
Clubs and Organizations ||
None.
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Height/Weight/Body Type ||
5’6”. He’s average in height and his legs are long and well-muscled from all of the hiking and running he does. He’s slightly stronger than average from his physical activity.
Hair color/style ||
Brown, thick, and wavy.
Eye color/makeup preferences ||
Brown, none.
Clothing Style ||
He likes to wear witty tee shirts and jeans most of the time, and let his shirt speak for him. For work, he wears a red button down polo, jeans, and an apron.
Notable Traits ||
His hair is extremely thick.
Ethnicity ||
English-American
Playby ||
Dylan Schmid
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Likes ||
Hunting, nature, his father, the woods, long hikes alone, apples, his best friend, shooting arrows, country music (it was his father’s favorite genre as well), dirt, memorabilia, running away, his house in the high school, traveling long distances, key lime flavoring, lemonade, cooking, wooden sculptures, his pocketknife (used to be Rhett’s), watching anime when he’s got the time (he’s a casual fan—his favorite is Attack on Titan), Newbury comics, really bad/lame jokes, puns, freedom, animals, Florida Georgia Line, video games
Dislikes ||
Strong perfume, popularity, gossip/rumors, John and Annabelle, death, religion, family outings, ghosts, guns, gospel music, singing, rainy days/overcast weather, poison ivy, bees, children,
Nervous Habits ||
Running his fingers through his hair and biting his lip. When annoyed it’s blatantly obvious because he rolls his eyes a LOT.
Hobbies ||
Hunting and shooting arrows – he loves to go hiking too, and sometimes will take day long or even multiple day long hiking trips into the woods all alone.
Positive Traits ||
Loyal, smart, passionate, sarcastic, animal lover (when hunting he keeps their deaths brief, and makes use of their meat by cooking it), artistic, patient (only with certain people, though), frugal, wanderer, aesthete, calm under pressure, quiet, protective of those he cares for, athletic (in terms of hiking and running, anyway, he’s not very muscular)
Negative Traits ||
Judgmental, shallow, self-isolated, short tempered, cynical, biased, bitter, guarded, reclusive, difficult to impress, passive-aggressive (especially towards his mother), smart-ass
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Family ||
Rhett Arkwright – Father – Deceased || Cliff idolized his father when he was a child. Cliff grew up to be almost exactly like his father in terms of personality. The both of them loved to go out on excursions all throughout the summer when Rhett had some time off of work. Cliff inherited the same wanderlust and intuit with nature that Rhett had, and when he lost his father, being in touch with nature and hunting was how Cliff kept connected to him. The older he gets the more like his father Cliff gets, and the person who Cliff tries to model himself after is his father. Especially now that his father has died, Cliff looks at his memories of him through a rose colored lens, and glorifies his father. He’s convinced that God made a mistake when taking his father from him, and Cliff hates God because of it. Cliff is very protective of his memories with his father and is paranoid that he’ll forget his father someday, which is why he clings so tightly to memorabilia that seems pointless to others.
Eldin Arkwright – Uncle – 33 – History Professor at Metric College || The only person in his family that Cliff doesn’t think has abandoned Rhett’s memory is his paternal uncle, Eldin, Eldin moved back to the states shortly after Rhett passed and got a job at Metric Academy, the same school that Natalie got a job at. Eldin will often take Cliff out on hikes or hunts, activities that Cliff used to do with his father, and Cliff likes being with Eldin because he knows that Eldin loved his father just as much as Cliff did, and doesn’t have reason to doubt that. Often Eldin will give Cliff trinkets from his travels, all of which Cliff keeps in either his bedroom at his mother’s or in his dorm room.
Pippa Scott – Cousin – 15 – Student || When Cliff first met Pippa in the forest while hunting, he was smitten. She was beautiful, funny, and has a captivating accent. He mustered up the courage to ask her to the upcoming dance. But unfortunately that crashed and burned when Eldin came over and claimed her as his daughter… making her his cousin. The fact that he tried to make moves on his cousin traumatized Cliff and he became a recluse for a few weeks, especially when he realized that Pippa was his housemate. After a while, the awkwardness started to fade when he realized that Pippa was still funny and got along with him. And even with the idea of dating her long gone, he realized that being friends with her make him feel a little less lonely. Now he sees her, sort of, like a sister, though he’d consider it awkward to say that out loud given the circumstances of how they met. The both of them have extreme issues with their current ‘father figures’ (Johnathan for Cliff and Eldin for Pippa) and can relate to each other even without bringing up why they’re upset.
Natalie Hall – Mother – 35 – English teacher at Metric High School || Cliff does still love his mother, deep down, but he resents her because he sees her re-marriage and efforts to move on after the death of Rhett as a betrayal to not only his father but to himself and the family they used to have. Cliff doesn’t think that Natalie suffered as much as he did when he lost his father simply because he never saw Natalie mourn after the funeral; though she hid her depression to try to help Cliff he took it as her never caring about his father. Cliff has a hard time seeing the things that Natalie is doing as being better for the both of them and thinks that she is throwing Rhett’s memory and the family that they used to have when he was a kid into the trash can. He’s convinced in his mind that she’s trying to replace Rhett with John, and so Cliff pushes her away in favor of clinging onto the memories he has of the Arkwright family, not daring to ‘betray’ his father like his mother did and make another.
Johnathan Hall – Step-father – 34 – Art History Professor at Metric College || When Cliff first met John, it was when he was just friends with Natalie. Cliff was neutral on John’s existence until the two of them told him that they were dating. When he found that out Cliff started to dislike John, and was convinced they didn’t need John around, even though John was nothing but nice to Cliff. Cliff generally avoided John whenever he could and barely spoke to him during this period. However it was when Cliff was told not only that Natalie was getting married but that she was also pregnant, Cliff’s dislike turned to hatred as he began to believe that John was trying to replace Rhett. Cliff is not ashamed to admit that he hates John and anything he tries to do and reach out, and avoids him whenever he can. Cliff believes that if he gives John a chance to be like a father to him it’ll be a betrayal to his real father, and so he shoves John and his attempts at including Cliff in the family away.
Annabelle Hall – Half-sister – 3 || When she was born, Cliff was already not happy about it. He is not a good brother to his half-sister and doesn’t see her as his sister—rather, he sees Annabelle as John’s daughter, and usually refers to her as such. Cliff doesn’t even spare a glance to Annabelle when he’s at his mother’s house and refuses to offer to babysit or look after her. As far as he’s concerned he never asked for a sister, or for a new family. When she was first born Annabelle was a very fussy baby and required a lot of attention from Natalie and John, allowing for Cliff to distance himself even more from the budding family. When no one could really afford to reach out to him due to taking care of Annabelle, it helped solidify the belief that Cliff has that this “new family” of his mother’s means more to her than the “old one” with himself and his father did.
Elvis Arkwright – Pet Dog || Elvis was Rhett's dog when he was alive and was extremely close to Rhett and Cliff. After the loss of his father Cliff allowed his dog to comfort him, finding some kind of comfort wrapping his arms around the dog in a gentle hug, and when they moved Elvis was the only real connection that Cliff felt was coming with them to Salem. Cliff loves Elvis and Elvis loves him back, and it's probably Cliff's fault that Elvis never took to Johnathan or Annabelle. Elvis is usually the main reason Cliff even goes to his mother's house at all during the school year.
Eldin Arkwright – Uncle – 33 – History Professor at Metric College || The only person in his family that Cliff doesn’t think has abandoned Rhett’s memory is his paternal uncle, Eldin, Eldin moved back to the states shortly after Rhett passed and got a job at Metric Academy, the same school that Natalie got a job at. Eldin will often take Cliff out on hikes or hunts, activities that Cliff used to do with his father, and Cliff likes being with Eldin because he knows that Eldin loved his father just as much as Cliff did, and doesn’t have reason to doubt that. Often Eldin will give Cliff trinkets from his travels, all of which Cliff keeps in either his bedroom at his mother’s or in his dorm room.
Pippa Scott – Cousin – 15 – Student || When Cliff first met Pippa in the forest while hunting, he was smitten. She was beautiful, funny, and has a captivating accent. He mustered up the courage to ask her to the upcoming dance. But unfortunately that crashed and burned when Eldin came over and claimed her as his daughter… making her his cousin. The fact that he tried to make moves on his cousin traumatized Cliff and he became a recluse for a few weeks, especially when he realized that Pippa was his housemate. After a while, the awkwardness started to fade when he realized that Pippa was still funny and got along with him. And even with the idea of dating her long gone, he realized that being friends with her make him feel a little less lonely. Now he sees her, sort of, like a sister, though he’d consider it awkward to say that out loud given the circumstances of how they met. The both of them have extreme issues with their current ‘father figures’ (Johnathan for Cliff and Eldin for Pippa) and can relate to each other even without bringing up why they’re upset.
Natalie Hall – Mother – 35 – English teacher at Metric High School || Cliff does still love his mother, deep down, but he resents her because he sees her re-marriage and efforts to move on after the death of Rhett as a betrayal to not only his father but to himself and the family they used to have. Cliff doesn’t think that Natalie suffered as much as he did when he lost his father simply because he never saw Natalie mourn after the funeral; though she hid her depression to try to help Cliff he took it as her never caring about his father. Cliff has a hard time seeing the things that Natalie is doing as being better for the both of them and thinks that she is throwing Rhett’s memory and the family that they used to have when he was a kid into the trash can. He’s convinced in his mind that she’s trying to replace Rhett with John, and so Cliff pushes her away in favor of clinging onto the memories he has of the Arkwright family, not daring to ‘betray’ his father like his mother did and make another.
Johnathan Hall – Step-father – 34 – Art History Professor at Metric College || When Cliff first met John, it was when he was just friends with Natalie. Cliff was neutral on John’s existence until the two of them told him that they were dating. When he found that out Cliff started to dislike John, and was convinced they didn’t need John around, even though John was nothing but nice to Cliff. Cliff generally avoided John whenever he could and barely spoke to him during this period. However it was when Cliff was told not only that Natalie was getting married but that she was also pregnant, Cliff’s dislike turned to hatred as he began to believe that John was trying to replace Rhett. Cliff is not ashamed to admit that he hates John and anything he tries to do and reach out, and avoids him whenever he can. Cliff believes that if he gives John a chance to be like a father to him it’ll be a betrayal to his real father, and so he shoves John and his attempts at including Cliff in the family away.
Annabelle Hall – Half-sister – 3 || When she was born, Cliff was already not happy about it. He is not a good brother to his half-sister and doesn’t see her as his sister—rather, he sees Annabelle as John’s daughter, and usually refers to her as such. Cliff doesn’t even spare a glance to Annabelle when he’s at his mother’s house and refuses to offer to babysit or look after her. As far as he’s concerned he never asked for a sister, or for a new family. When she was first born Annabelle was a very fussy baby and required a lot of attention from Natalie and John, allowing for Cliff to distance himself even more from the budding family. When no one could really afford to reach out to him due to taking care of Annabelle, it helped solidify the belief that Cliff has that this “new family” of his mother’s means more to her than the “old one” with himself and his father did.
Elvis Arkwright – Pet Dog || Elvis was Rhett's dog when he was alive and was extremely close to Rhett and Cliff. After the loss of his father Cliff allowed his dog to comfort him, finding some kind of comfort wrapping his arms around the dog in a gentle hug, and when they moved Elvis was the only real connection that Cliff felt was coming with them to Salem. Cliff loves Elvis and Elvis loves him back, and it's probably Cliff's fault that Elvis never took to Johnathan or Annabelle. Elvis is usually the main reason Cliff even goes to his mother's house at all during the school year.
Hometown ||
Springfield, Maine
Vehicle/Transportation ||
His feet can take him anywhere. He’s never liked the idea of driving very much, he prefers to sit in the passenger seat (and, spoiler alert: when he eventually gets lessons, he’ll be atrocious at it).
Backstory ||
Cliff was born in the forest-covered state of Maine, in a small town named Springfield near the Canadian border. That place is and always will be his home; that was where all of Cliff’s memories are held. His father, Rhett Arkwright, was a police officer for the town and loved his job. His mother, Natalie Arkwright, loved the state for the scenery. Cliff grew up in a modest but well-off home and loved his family more than anything. When he started going to school, his father would usually pick him up in his police car, and Cliff thought it was really cool to ride in the passenger seat even though he technically wasn’t supposed to. Cliff looked forward to going to church every Sunday with his parents, and Rhett, always the family man, would take his wife and son to town events all the time. His uncle, Eldin, lived overseas but made it a point to bring his young nephew gifts whenever he came to visit. When Cliff started going to school so did his mother. Cliff wound up being looked after by his father a lot, and most of the time when it was just them, Rhett would call Cliff ‘Clifford’ rather than Cliff or Heathcliff, and the nickname stuck, but Rhett never called him that around Natalie and Cliff never questioned it.
By the time Cliff was 6, Rhett was taking his son out on nature walks and hikes. It was a lot of work for the young child to keep up with his father but he did it happily, and every night they’d come home to have dinner with Natalie. Rhett was always a very active person who loved to explore, and he passed that desire on to his son, often taking his long vacations off to hike with Cliff through the forests of Maine, sometimes even trekking all the way up to Canada before they turned back around and went back home. Oftentimes Rhett would take both Cliff and Natalie out on camping trips in the woods, usually resulting in Rhett and Cliff getting a real kick out of how scared of bugs Natalie got, but overall ending in a good family experience. Camping wasn’t always a family bonding experience though, but oftentimes for the more treacherous and dirty trips Rhett took Cliff on his own. From what Cliff remembers, he swears he must have seen the entirety of Maine’s coast with his father by his side as they climbed mountains and hiked out in the woods on cliffs, overlooking the ocean below.
While out camping, Rhett taught Cliff many things. One of which was how to carve. Rhett always had a natural talent for carving and in his spare time when he wasn’t on the force, he sold his wooden designs to the townsfolk. While out in nature, Rhett gave Cliff his pocketknife and allowed for Cliff to start carving. It was hard at first and Cliff cut his hand up pretty bad, but by the time they went back home to Natalie Cliff was so proud of the little designs that he made he practically shoved them into his mother’s arms, always going on about how great the trip was. When Cliff was 7 his father decided to teach him something that Cliff had always admired about Rhett—shooting arrows.
Cliff was very bad at it at first. He couldn’t hit the trees, and he could barely muster up the strength to pull the drawstring back. His father taught him but Cliff wasn’t ever very good. Still, Cliff enjoyed his father’s voice as he told him how to do it and what to aim for. Cliff was only given a child’s bow, his father never trusted him to fire the actual set that was his own from when he was younger. Cliff was also rather bad at hunting—his father could take down a bird from the air with one arrow, sometimes two birds if he lined the shot right and every time it did Cliff was always extremely impressed. Cliff wanted to do that someday but his father never let him practice on the animals. Rhett always told him that if he was going to hunt the animals, he couldn’t let them suffer—because of that, Cliff would only be allowed to hunt when he was good enough to keep a steady arm and hit the targets that Rhett carved on the woods with his pocketknife.
When Rhett was busy working, or had particularly long assignments, it was just him and his mother. And while Cliff was always extremely close to his father, his relationship with his mother didn’t suffer. His mother was the one who taught him to cook, and the two of them would work together to make dinner. At first Cliff really was more in the way than he was a help, but as he got more experienced in the kitchen he actually helped Natalie out more than he slowed her down. By the time Rhett got home, he was usually greeted by the sight of his wife and son in the kitchen, working together to put food on the table. Cliff really grew to love cooking as well. When his father was gone for days at a time, Cliff and Natalie would take long road trips down the coast, trips that Cliff grew to love. The view was always gorgeous outside of the backseat window, and he’d listen to the radio and the voice of his mother while they drove along. Cliff loved his hometown more than anything. The town was small enough that everyone knew everyone. He had friends his age, was doing very well in school, and had a good relationship with his parents.
When he was about nine years old, nearly ten. It was a typical day in Springfield and Cliff was bored in class when his teacher received a phone call from the office, calling Cliff downstairs to the principal’s office. At first he thought he was in trouble and took his time getting downstairs, until he saw his mother looking worried. She ushered him to the car and they zoomed down to Springfield General. Cliff was confused and got no answers about what was going on while they waited in the ER, but he knew something was wrong. Soon a grim faced doctor came out and told Natalie that there was nothing they could do. Rhett was dead. He died of a bullet wound that had struck him while on duty, defending the local bank against some robbers who had gotten away. That entire period up until the funeral was completely numb for Cliff. He didn’t believe it and when Rhett didn’t come home from work he got angry, he didn’t understand, where was his father?! Why wasn’t he home yet, and why was his mother so devastated? It was wrong, Rhett couldn’t die from being a police officer, that wasn’t how it worked. Police officers killed bad people. Not the other way around!
It didn’t sink in until the funeral. Not until he saw the grim faced faces of everyone in the town that he knew coming in to say their final goodbyes to Rhett, their mouths falling silent at the emotional faces of his wife and ten-year-old boy. Cliff didn’t celebrate his birthday that year, and even years after, he never felt the desire to. Rhett died on March 12th, and the funeral was a few weeks later. There was nothing for Cliff to celebrate, except for the broken promise that Rhett had made that he’d take Cliff out on a week-long camping trip for his birthday, school be damned. Listening to the preacher give a service to Rhett’s memory was even worse. Their pastor spoke about God and about how Rhett had been taken too soon and Cliff just wondered why. Why, why.
After the funeral, Cliff was still not happy. Nothing would make him happy after losing his father, not even his mother who after the funeral… changed. She was happier, trying to keep life going. But for Cliff he just let his life stop. He was completely numb to everything and everyone who tried to reach out to him. He was told to go to therapy but that didn’t help, and he refused to open up, just caving inside himself. It seemed as though being here, surrounded by all of the memories of Rhett, was bringing Cliff down and making it so that he couldn’t move on.
It wasn’t until his mother told him that they were moving all the way to California that Cliff showed any emotion at all. When she told him to start saying his goodbyes he didn’t express any physical changes, but when she wasn’t looking Cliff let go. He didn’t want to move! He wanted to stay here, where his father was, where his memories were. Cliff stormed into his father’s den and stole (though technically they would have been inherited by him anyway) the pocketknife that Rhett loved and Rhett’s grown up bow-and-arrow, running out of the house and slamming the door behind him. He ran off into the woods, seeing the carvings of targets on the trees. Cliff took one of the arrows and did what his father taught him, resting the arrow on his hand as he drew the string back, and released. The first few shots were messy but he eventually got one hours later, but before he could be happy about it, he realized his father wasn’t there to congratulate him and he got angrier, grabbing another arrow, shooting another target that his father had carved into the tree. This shot didn’t hit the bulls-eye, and Cliff wasn’t even paying attention to his hands as the aggressive nature with which he kept firing injured them. When he managed to get two bulls-eyes in a row, he decided that he was good enough to hunt. Or if he wasn’t, his father would come out of the woods and stop him. His father would never let him hurt an animal if he wasn’t good enough. Cliff took aim at a squirrel minding its own business at the base of a tree. He was counting on his father to stop him. He drew back the string. There was nothing but the wind. He fired.
He struck the squirrel in the back, right above its butt, and the animal let out a yelp of pain but didn’t die. The second he fired the arrow Cliff realized his mistake and ran to the animal, not sure what to do, because it was dying and it was his fault and the thing was suffering and his father didn’t come to stop him and he was crying and the tears wouldn’t stop. The poor squirrel died in agony while Cliff cried knelt over its body, mumbling apologizes. Cliff left another few hours later, leaving the squirrel’s corpse with the arrow still inside of it, unable to physically bring himself to remove the arrow and return it to the quiver. When his mother asked where he’d been, Cliff said that he had been doing what she said he had to do: saying goodbye. He slammed the door to his room and didn’t come out until the next day.
In the period until they moved, Cliff took to the forest every day. He lost interest in school, barely paying attention, and just ran home after to grab the bow and arrow. He felt like when he was shooting the arrows at the targets that his father had carved, he was still with him. Cliff took advantage of the time he had left in Springfield, improving his aim and skill. He didn’t go for animals yet, the memory of the squirrel still fresh. But when he started getting bulls-eye after bulls-eye, Cliff started to pretend that his father was with him, rooting him on. Cliff started to get a little happier, pretending that his father was there as he relieved old memories. Cliff didn’t talk to his mother except to say good night and thank you for dinner. He became very quiet, restricting his comments to his mother to, “I’m fine”, “good”, “sorry”, “gotta go”, “love you”. Cliff took into a shell of who he used to be, one of his own creation, building walls around his heart he refused to let his mother penetrate.
The move was inconvenient. Cliff hated to go. And his mother moved happily from Springfield, the town that Rhett loved enough to literally die for. Cliff was bitter as he rode all the way to California with his mother, saying nothing, just sitting there with his headphones shoved in his ears as he watched the beautiful scenery he loved so much change to gross, barren land and by the time they got to Cali, Cliff realized how dry, hot, and gross it was. His mother got a teaching job at a prestigious academy and they moved into Salem. Cliff didn’t like the new area at all, though Natalie just seemed to love the change of pace. In his own head, Cliff made snarky remarks as his mother talked up the place.
When his mother got help from her coworker, Johnathan Hall, Cliff didn’t think anything of it. Whatever, some nice guy was helping them. He didn’t feel the need to talk to him much. Cliff instead enrolled at the school in Salem. He didn’t like it, it was too different from his hometown. The kids were mean, the teachers didn’t care. By the time he entered middle school Cliff was a total loner, both at home and at school. In his free time, Cliff took his father’s old bow and arrow and walked to the woods, which weren’t nearly as nice as the ones back in Maine. Still, they worked well enough, and Cliff carved targets into the trees. He improved his shooting, he improved so much so that by the time he was 13, he was as good as his father had been when he demonstrated. Cliff could hunt just like his father. He kept the birds and squirrels suffering-free. He wished his father could see.
When Natalie sat Cliff down and told him that she was seeing Johnathan—like, dating seeing—Cliff went numb again. What did she mean, she was dating him? In Cliff’s head, the only man who could be with his mother was his father, anything else was infidelity. Cliff did not approve of the relationship but didn’t say anything about it to either of them, though his interactions with John grew even worse than before. Cliff kept everything inside himself, and vented his anger by shooting arrows in the woods.
But that was nothing compared to when Natalie and John both, together, told Cliff not only that they were engaged but expecting a baby. The dislike that Cliff had before for John reached an all-time low. He saw his happy-to-be-engaged-and-pregnant mother and saw her as trying to build a new family, while Cliff was clinging to the one they left behind in Maine. And then, suddenly, it all made sense. His mother was replacing Rhett. She wanted John to be Cliff’s new dad, and this baby… this baby would be the new golden child. The one that would replace him. The baby would be the happy-go-lucky child that Cliff once was, John would become the new Rhett. And though she and John wanted for Cliff to be a part of this new family, what place did Rhett have? If Rhett wasn’t going to be a part of this family, neither was Cliff.
He distanced himself even more. The fact that he was entering puberty didn’t help his angst at all. His mother was too focused on her pregnancy to pay much attention to Cliff, who went out to the woods every day on hikes of varying length, sometimes coming back late. By the time a curfew was enforced Cliff entered high school, insisted on getting a dorm, and moved into it. Cliff appreciated the space, and though he was entered into Metric based on his wood carving abilities, his interest in the art had faded around the time they moved. Cliff couldn’t stand John and rejected every offer the man extended his way. When the family went to church, Cliff refused to participate. He rejected God now—he didn’t want to worship a ruthless, power-hungry, brutal murderer. Sometimes when Cliff was particularly annoyed at the fact that John was trying to replace Rhett, he’d pretend the targets on the trees were his stupid face. Despite that, though, Cliff would never seriously harm the man. He hated him, yes, but he still loved his mother, and as much as he couldn’t stand the thought of her replacing Rhett, he wouldn’t deliberately hurt her like she was doing to his father with every second she spent with that man. She was the one making the mistake here, not Cliff.
One saving grace Cliff did have, though, was his best friend Noah. He met the boy in middle school, when Noah was the new kid and was given the locker next to his. Cliff took pity on the kid who had like, no friends, and showed him around the school. He eventually got closer to Noah and actually managed to make a friend. Having one person in his life who he felt like he could actually be himself around helped Cliff become the person he wanted to be, rather than the stoic shell he forced around himself when he was around his family. Sure, he had his uncle Eldin, but he was an uncle, not a friend. Cliff’s best friend was his father and in his friendship with Noah, he tried to be what his father was to him. Encouraging, cool, and impressive.
High school hasn’t been very much for Cliff—he’s not impressed by it. He continues to create wooden carvings simply because that’s how he got into the school. His treks out to the woods have become more and more lengthy. He picked up a part time job when he turned 15 at a little ice cream shop in the food court. The job’s not that great and he’s pretty sure his boss hates him, but Cliff gets free ice cream and an excuse to get out of family gatherings and church when he can avoid it. Cliff goes to the woods almost every day, armed with his bow and arrows, to practice shooting. He goes on long walks, too, and when he does so he feels like his father is with him.
Sometimes Eldin will join him on hikes and long walks, and Cliff likes it because they usually talk about Rhett, about how Rhett was when he was Cliff’s age—Cliff loves to hear stories that Eldin tells him about his father. Cliff feels like he can’t talk about Rhett around his mother or his step-family, he just feels like they wouldn’t care to hear or would think he needs to forget and ‘move on’. Cliff refuses to let go of Rhett’s memory and instead will do anything to feel like he’s still there.
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Notes ||
- Cliff identifies as an atheist, though his step-family is casually religious and goes to church every Sunday. Cliff used to care about church and actually loved going back when his father was alive, but when they moved to Salem and he started acting out Cliff began to resent God, blaming him for the premature death of his father. When dragged to church, Cliff folds his arms over his chest and sits in a pew, making no moves to join in the worship or prayer. Now he laughs at religion and thinks that the ‘merciful’ God is really just a manipulative killer. He finds no comfort in thinking that Rhett is with God now, and that just makes him even angrier.
- Though Cliff has a short temper, his anger isn’t hot. It’s actually very cold and passive-aggressive. When he’s angry, he tries to push the person or thing that made him angry out of his mind and out of his life.
- Even though Cliff isn’t necessarily crazy about kids right now, he does really want to get married and start a family someday. He’s decided that when he has a son, he’ll be named Rhett. In the future, Cliff is determined to keep Rhett as a part of a family (since he’s convinced he’s not a part of Natalie’s anymore). And going off of that, no matter what (even if he ever gets along with the Halls), he’s going to keep the surname Arkwright and carry on his father’s name. He likes when people call him ‘Mr. Arkwright’, because it makes him feel like he’s following his father properly.
- The picture above backstory is him and his father, taken a few weeks before he died. Cliff still has that picture in his dorm, framed, and it’s one of his most prized possessions.
- I changed the picture to the side of this info to a clogan gif because I do what I want
- The song lyrics are from I Hope You Dance by Lee Ann Womack.
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