gift of the night / o, injured child

[GABRIEL]

[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-size: 9.4pt; line-height: 1.4;"]Personally, Gabe believed life all too predictable, though if it made any sense, he found it so because of its many shots from left-field. Maybe he had the years of expecting the unexpected to skew his perspective; rolling with the punches had always been innate, but when life decided to toss shit at him from every direction, he considered himself a bit of a veteran dodger. Beyond that, he wouldn't compare life to a tapestry, if only because it'd be one fugly piece of work, and Gabriel couldn't see much of art in the days anymore. It wasn't the same fatigue he felt however many months ago, drained by one too many shitshows, but it was debilitating, kept him awake in ways even his ridiculous sleeping schedule couldn't.

Seemed like he was destined to always lose sleep over something, though nothing could steal his rest better than a child. Specifically, a down-trodden child, and the planet had no shortage of those. One Gabe had adopted, who'd needed his path righted before he'd gone too far down to change course; another, Gabe kept an eye on, and who put him even more on his toes because of his manifesting abilities. Then there were the countless young faces he'd see back in the old group he ran with, some accusing, some relieved, and others just- defeated. Each wore him down as the wind did stone, until he couldn't recognize himself anymore, and one clusterfuck later, Gabe was here.

Apparently it was too much to hope that he wouldn't wring himself dry over more children, although in all honesty, he hadn't even wished for that in the first place. As far as he was concerned, he was already a bit of a lost cause, but that didn't mean the kids had to be.

Unfortunately, most of his expertise was in protecting and guiding, not- healing, so much. Patching up the small things he could manage, but wounds more severe than that needed more experience that he didn't have. This would have been easier if he were with someone else, because he could go fetch who was needed; however, the hybrid was alone with the collapsed child, their neck open, crimson haloing their body. "Hey, can you hear me, kiddo? I'm not here to hurt you. Just stay calm for me. Don't try to talk." He couldn't do much to slow the flow with his owl feet, so Gabriel had to awkwardly improvise, attempting to stem the bleeding via pressing the side of his face firmly against the wound. Not the best way, no, but one of their many medics would arrive soon.
[align=right][i]——INFO