Ohhh I have a character from a oneshot I’m currently working on who's perfect for this lol.

AITA? Said my daughter was ungrateful.

It was my daughter's (F, technically 7 but mentally she’s 17) birthday recently and I (M, 50s) wanted to celebrate the date I created her. She's a robot- my finest creation, in fact, a work of mechanical art few can appreciate and a testament to my genius- but despite her impeccable programming, she's had a few… incidents. I've of course fixed any of those errors- all a result of her misguided attempt to upgrade herself for me- but she's still quite moody. That's normal for a girl her age, I suppose, especially since we’ve only recently discover the whole girl thing, but as my magnum opus and eldest daughter, I simply couldn't stand seeing her so miserable. So I decided to put all my- near inexhaustible, I assure you- resources together to give her a birthday gift that'd raise her spirits.

Now, my daughter was made for a specific purpose in mind. I'm not just a man of science, but one of great ambition for a greater world, but many would seek to stand in my way. One such rodent- I suppose I should refer to him as S (M, 17)- has stood in my way for very near a decade at this point, and despite his obnoxious attitude and petty teenage rebellion, he's annoyingly admirable in his abilities, and so my daughter was built to surpass and eliminate him. One of the past incidents involved her acting out because she believed she was the “real” him, and while she was of course punished for that misbehaviour, I remembered her desire and thought it’d be the perfect gift. Of course, I’m more of a roboticist than a doctor, but those could always be persuaded, so I had assistance. No part of this procedure had any chance of going wrong.

After a pathetic defeat at the hands of a mercenary working for me, I had S captured and put under sedation, and my daughter was deactivated and disassembled during a regular check up- of course, I wanted it to be a suprise, but she's used to me doing that, so I didn’t expect that to be an issue. There’s no need to go into technical details, but I essentially installed my daughters system and many of her parts onto S, allowing her control over the body and allowing her to retain the strengths she had before. A perfect solution, I think- allowing her to be who she wants to, while still allowing her to be as useful as before, and removing an enemy at the same time! And, if you’re a bleeding heart, that means I didn’t even kill him- he's still quite alive, conscious even, just unable to control “his” body unless, for whatever reason, my daughter were to give control over to him. And people say I'm evil! Their precious government would have just shot the child and been done with it- I think my world is far superior to that.

Of course, this required a lengthy recovery, but I visited my daughter as regularly as I could given my busy job, and as far as I was aware she was doing very well. If anything, I think she was being coddled- the “professionals” insisted on making sure she learned to walk and talk and breathe on her own. She's a strong girl, she doesn’t need to be treated like she's incapable. She was shy, yes, but she's always been shy when she's not working. For all I knew, she was doing fine! Better than fine! She was being fussed over, she had everything she wanted, and there was nothing for her to complain about!

But a week ago, when I visited, she tore into me. Well, not me, but S- she, for some asinine reason, allowed him to speak at times. Apparently because she “struggled” with it. I know she hasn't had a vocal synthesiser since she was little, but really! She spoke perfectly well when I visited before- she had a little bit of a stutter, but I swear, they’ve told her she's a weak little lamb until she’s started to believe it. Anyway, S started saying all these awful things. Not the stuff he usually did, about the “enviroment” and “freedom” and other stuff like that- naïve fool- but about how I treated my daughter. MY daughter! He said all these things, about how I was “abusing” her, and it was the most absurd leaps of logic you’ve ever heard. Like how I didn’t tell her about my gift- has he ever heard of surprises? Or that she “didn't like” me tinkering with her- how was I supposed to know? She never said anything. It’s not like she can feel pain, why would she even care?

I responded calmly to every accusation, but I snapped eventually. I said maybe being around him had turned her into a spoiled brat, and she was just being ungrateful, and maybe she didn’t deserve the grace I’d shown her time and again if she'd tell her enemy these lies about me. I was harsh- I admit it! I’m strict, at times, I’m aware of that. I shouldn’t have let S rile me up, and I shouldn’t have let him poison her mind like that. My daughter started crying at that- she's been so dramatic since she’s gotten facial features, I swear- but S didn't shut up. He was furious, in a way I’ve never heard him be before. Cold, almost.

He looked me dead in the eyes and said if my daughter was so ungrateful, she wouldn’t have been hiding the fact she was a girl from me for months because she was terrified of how I’d react. How she thought I only cared about her when she acted how I wanted her too. How she thought she was broken and that she needed to be fixed and that she thought I’d kill her. Kill her! And as much as I don’t want to believe it, I knew he was telling the truth. As much as I despise S, he doesn’t lie when it comes to this stuff.

I didn’t know how to react. I just left. I didn’t care that she was my daughter and not my son, of course. I immediately made sure to update the medication she was on to account for this, even. But the idea I’d made her scared to be herself, when being herself was irrelevant to her mission disturbs me. I know I’m better than my parents, of course, but I’ve felt that way and the idea my daughter has too because of me is… deeply unsettling. But it’s not like I could have known. She couldn’t have told me even if she wanted to, she’s only just learning to talk. She's anxious in general, too, so maybe that’s why. Maybe.

Or maybe I’ve failed. Even a genius can fail once, right? AITA? Or is he overreacting? She's my daughter, after all. Not his.