Please read this.
I think I know what this topic pertains to...I was that character (age 13) who got injured and was in the hospital. I didn't know what to say concerning parents, so I came up with something on the fly, which, is a pretty common reason (in my experience) why kids go into gangs. Drugs, parental negligence.
I wanted to explain why I had made him, why would a 32 year old woman do that? This is, at least, my reasoning. I grew up in Detroit, and at times on the rez in Montana. Very much not safe places, not great. I saw tons of kids & teens get involved in gangs from an early age, and their life goes down a dark path. When I made Leon, I was giving him that struggle but ultimately my hope was that he'd have a success story and turn around. Something that I rarely saw any of my former friends to, I lost tons of friends to the streets.
I'd much prefer family RP, that is what my hopes were, but I was letting RP decide we're he'd end up. I don't know everyone's situations, but kids on the streets and without parents is VERY realistic, and happens frequently in poverty-stricken areas. It's unfortunate. Yet, I understand not everyone wants to see that in RP, to each their own.
He wasn't shooting people up with guns, flirting with adults (disgusting), he wasn't driving vehicles. He was riding his bicycle around trying to help out people in the area of Grove street to get recognized. Someone even told him to drive to another area, and he simply said he isn't old enough. Of course.
I didn't make him adult like, but oftentimes scared and impressionable. Leon was told that gangs are family. That is what he wanted, actually. Character development!
A nice nurse and a nice officer took the time to help him, and now things are going better for him. He learned a lot about why he should not have been looking for a gang, so thank you! He is in the foster care system, and would have been aged up to 16 or so. If any would have wanted to adopt him I would have been %100 willing to go with that, as Peter Muskrat had said.
I've deleted him (going to do so), so none of this will happen again.