Gabriel

Appearance: Always tired and haggard looking, life has not been kind to Gabriel. He is pale but rather than freckles has what look like burns or rashes on his skin. he has spent many long and tiresome days where the sun has beaten down and worn out his skin. His eyes are a crystal-like watery green, just as pale as his skin. His eyes appear as though he is always on the brink of tears. Bags and wrinkles form under his eyes and around his mouth, and his resting expression looks somewhere between annoyance and just about to fall asleep. His hair is short and orangeish red though much of it is coated in a light dusting of white. His left ear has three small silver/gold stud piercings that stay on the lobe and loop up toward the cartilage. They are held in by silver pieces, which have burnt and scarred away at the holes in his ear. His right hand has a severe, yet old, bite wound.

Personality: Prone to sighing, Gabriel always has an air that any small annoyance in his life will set him over the edge. Rather than yell or scream however, he simply adopts a tired voice and expression, each task or daily trouble adding to a tired weight he bears. It's not rare to annoy him and cause him to cringe or twitch only for him to sigh heavily and speak with a gentle, almost sleep-walking voice. Even this feels strained, however, as if one day he will snap and the built up burdens will break his back. Gabriel is a sensitive man above all, and he is unable to lie or otherwise hide his emotions with any real degree of persuasion. When he is hurt, he is hurt, and if he doesn't tear up he'll surely adopt a wounded expression. His sensitivity, especially toward anger and toward the demands of others means he is something of a welcome mat; people can and do walk all over him. He doesn't keep friends due to this and elects instead to keep as far away from others and his personal life as much as possible. He tolerates and works with co-workers but never invites them to his house nor keeps any photos of his child in his wallet; he is private and impersonal, which is good, because if he was ever questioned on the matter he'd be unable to lie about it.
Toward his daughter, however, while he seems to have a short fuse, he always checks himself. Always pausing before he lets her requests and touch be the straw that breaks his back; he tries his best, always doing the best by her. But his fear of the outside world and his concern and desire to protect her breeds a distrust of outsiders; he has taught her to be selfish and expect that those around her will leave or hurt her. He is an intelligent man, teaching her to the best of his ability - he is wracked with guilt after she becomes a werewolf and is never able to forgive himself.

History: Gabriel was raised in a cult-like pack of Royal Werewolves. His pack was full of ancient werewolves who were more beast than man, all of which were Maned Wolves. They lived on the outskirts of humanity as nomads, invading towns and neighborhoods and wiping them out: sometimes in the sense of stealing food, sometimes in the sense of murdering everyone in the town. Gabriel was a toddler, innocent and unaware, when he reached out to touch the elder of the pack and was met with a horrible bite that nearly cost him his right hand. From then on, he was part of the cult.
Gabriel was fiercely intelligent, but emotionally was a cripple. Unable to murder humans and unable to gain muscle mass like his superiors, he was often relegated to the worst missions and riskiest challenges. It was Gabriel who had to make up stories to police when he was caught at the scene of a crime his family had committed; it was Gabriel who had to protect the family and be the last to flee even when silver bullets or blades were drawn; it was Gabriel who stood before a judge and pleaded innocence when he was brought to trial. He was not alone in this task, but over the years, he became the last one. As his family aged and became more bestial and violent, their raids on neighborhoods and cities became more and more common, ravenous, and without forethought.

One night while he spent one of many nights in a jail cell, he overheard talk among cops and other prisoners: they knew where his pack was and were planning to wipe them out. He had time and the means to contact them; his siblings and parents always visited him in jail, but he made his choice. He kept silent. He doomed them all, and was rewarded with release. A free but lonely man, the raid had been a success, he heard, and he was the only one left. His record was wiped clean, and he was free to pursue his own life, although many years late and wasted. He was already an adult by the time he was learning to read.
He struggled. He lived among the homeless and poor, both as a wolf and a man, as he attended classes and schooling; he fell into drugs both medicinal and recreational, but whether due to shear luck or his werewolf blood, he was able to live and maintain good standing in his grades. When he eventually earned the equivalent of a Highschool education, he began to court a woman by the name of Magnolia. He attended college and kicked his drug habit, moving into an apartment and bringing Magnolia with him, marrying her soon after. Magnolia never quite quit the drug habit, but he loved her and knew that she was trying - he never batted an eye even as any funds he had saved and gathered up were suddenly withdrawn and leaving him with very little to eat. He could hunt and had fur to keep himself and Magnolia warm during the winter months, he had no need for money as long as he could make rent. He studied biology, focusing on genetics not without an extreme interest in Lycanthropy and why his family had been driven to the madness that drove them insane.

When he graduated University he was rewarded with the birth of his daughter, Engel, a welcome surprise.

He tried hard to keep Engel safe, both from werewolves and Magnolia, who grew more and more addicted by the day. With a heavy heart, and unable to provide both for his daughter and his wife, he kicked Magnolia out to live on her own. He pursued higher degrees, keeping Engel with him always, eventually moving them to an isolated cottage in the woods. In time, Gabriel earned a Doctorate and became a Genetecist, joining the Gilgamesh corporation as a low-level scientist.
Engel never heard of Gabriel's job, her mother, or his past. he educated her away from the outside world, providing her with anything she needed in order to keep her occupied and let her pursue interests, but never once letting her wander far into the outside world. Begrudgingly, however, he let her explore the wilderness of their home. When she turned 9, her mother showed up at Gabriel's doorstep one evening, begging Gabriel to let her return to their family. Gabriel rejected her, turning Magnolia into the woods - she claimed werewolves were after her and she hadn't slept for days, claiming that wolves that looked like him had been after her. He turned away and locked the door.

When Engel did not return that night, he set off in a blind panic into the woods, fearing Magnolia had kidnapped her. He had forgotten the early full moon, and came upon the sight of one of his remaining family members - the elder who had bitten him - both hovering over the corpse of his wife and about to do the same to his daughter. In a rage Gabriel attacked one of the last remaining members of his pack, who blamed him and threw nothing but insults and curses at him, even as Gabriel ripped him apart.
But it was not enough.
Gabriel returned Engel to their home, but found with sadness that she had been bitten. From then on he dedicated himself to trying to cure the curse that she had been dragged into; he feared that she would have nightmares or otherwise come to him with questions about that night, but he soon found Engel seemed to all but forget the event entirely, other than the new found ability that she could now turn into a wolf whenever she pleased. This was all the better for him, as he stammered and stuttered anytime he even attempted to tell a lie, the voice of his family member's pain and anger coursing through his memories.

As work continued at Gilgamesh, Gabriel discovered the cure for Lycanthrophy and found himself instantly promoted and privy to the ultimate goal of Gilgamesh: the Clockwork Virus. His Royal Werewolf DNA proved vital to the virus's proliferation, and when he threatened to whistle-blow the dangers, he was met with extreme violence.