OOC: Application.
Series: Supernatural.
Series' Medium: TV series.
Character: Gabriel, or The Trickster.
Age: Old. Very old. Like thousands of years old. Almost as old as God.
Sex/Gender: Technically genderless, but his vessel is male.
Canon Role: Though he starts out as a "monster of the week", he gets upgraded to "reoccurring monster" then "actual good guy, what the hell?"
"Real" Name: Noah Morgenstern.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
In the beginning, there was God. Before earth was created, He created the angels - millions of creatures meant to spend their existence praising God, doing His will, and eventually becoming intermediates between Heaven and mankind. The angels were organized in a hierarchy, with archangels being at the top. Particularly named of this caste are Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel, and Rafael. Michael was the first angel to be created, while, according to Gabriel, Lucifer was the "favorite". The archangels are particularly special in that they are the only angels to have seen the face of God.
When the earth was created - with humans on it - the previously peaceful Heaven suddenly split into two factions. God ordered angels to bow to the newest creation, humans, and to accept they were the superior beings that had come of His will. Michael, absolutely loyal to his Father, accepted this new declaration without argument. Lucifer, however, disagreed: he believed angels were clearly the superior creatures in that they were without flaw. He resented God finding a new favorite creation in humanity and rebelled. This rebellion led to all-out war between Michael and Lucifer, ending with Michael banishing and condemning Lucifer to Hell (though it's implied his "cage" in Hell is separate from the rest, since in episode 3x04, a demon stated that no demon has ever actually seen Lucifer.) God then sealed Lucifer's cage with two hundred seals, in which 66 would have to be broken to free him. Caught between these two warring brothers was Gabriel, who refused to pick a side in the conflict.
(Since biblical canon and Supernatural's timeline directly oppose each other, I'm not really sure when to place when Gabriel could have performed the messages he did in the Bible, including the Anunciation, telling Elizabeth of the birth of John the Baptist, among others. Since he supposedly escaped to earth during the war between Michael and Lucifer, there's not really a time in which he could have performed his miracles unless he was doing so while on earth. So if it's okay, I'm going to kind of… smudge that part.)
Angry with God, who refused (or rather, did nothing) to solve the conflict between Gabriel's brothers, Gabriel fled Heaven to take a form on earth among humans. Because angels can only appear on earth in vessels - humans (or, in some apparent cases, minor gods) who must be possessed in order for angels to manifest on earth - Gabriel had to find one of his own. Though purely speculation on my part, I believe he killed the Norse god Loki and reanimated him through possession. (The details regarding Gabriel's possession of Loki are very vague, seeing as canon only states that angels can possess certain genetic bloodlines that are unique to them and that other angels can "see" that angel's true face while in a vessel so they know who's who. However, Castiel, a fellow angel, is unable to recognize Gabriel when they meet, and apparently no angel ever found him before that. It might be because Gabriel's vessel is a god, or he just has that sort of power as an archangel. Again: it's not stated in canon why he's the only exception to the rule. Though it's been speculated that he could have created the body, this seems unlikely since a great deal of conflict comes from finding the right vessel, and that wasn't an option for Lucifer or Michael later on.)
Using Loki as a personal "witness protection program", Gabriel then took on Loki's role as a Trickster, which is a demigod-like creature that thrives on bringing "just desserts" in order to humble the self-important. Included with the demigod's guise was a whole new posse - a group of pagan gods that Gabriel fell into with (including a relationship with Kali, a Hindu goddess). Though unspecified how much time he spent with them, it's implied it's a whole lot, considering how Gabriel eventually adopted them as a new family, a replacement for his brothers and Father that had betrayed him with their conflict. During his time spent as a Trickster, the archangel Gabriel began to develop emotions - a side effect of an angel's absence from Heaven, as their "grace", which is basically the essence that makes them angels, deteriorates. With emotions came an appreciation of humanity; he realized that, flawed as they were, some of humanity did try to be good, to be better than what they are, and to forgive.
So he tried to help them along as he spent thousands of years as a Trickster as he settled in his spot among the pagan gods, using them as a cover while he hid from Heaven. By manipulating the reality around them, he tried to make humans better, by forcing lessons on them using deadly means. If they don't learn their lesson, he simply kills them - if they can't learn to be better, then there's no chance of salvation.
Thousands of years can pass quickly to something that doesn't die, however, and a prophecy that was long foretold was quickly heading to its breaking point. Lucifer was scheduled to escape his cage in Hell, bringing the Apocalypse with him. Using a demon called Azazel, a "special child" was to be found who could break the 66 seals necessary to unlock the devil's cage; he would have to be fed demon blood throughout his life so he would create a suitable vessel for Lucifer for when he manifested on earth. This child was found in Sam Winchester, who came from a bloodline that led straight to the biblical Cain and Abel; to prepare him, Azazel fed the boy demonic blood as an infant, which gave him special abilities. In order to create symmetry between Heaven and earth, Sam Winchester's brother, Dean, would be the vessel for Michael on earth, so he may battle his brother a second time and prevent the Apocalypse.
Gabriel knew Lucifer was scheduled to make his release through these two brothers and immediately became interested in them. While the archangel didn't want the Apocalypse - he liked humanity, after all - he believed it necessary for Michael and Lucifer to fight once again on earth in order to cease the war between Heaven and Hell. He tested the Winchester brothers, who were following in their father's footsteps as "hunters", people who destroyed supernatural creatures in order to save humans, as they investigated a series of bizarre deaths that Gabriel himself had created. Since the brothers hunt with a united front, Gabriel attempts to pit them against each other with a series of stupid pranks, like "misplacing" Sam's laptop so he would blame it on Dean, and popping the wheels on Dean's car so he would blame it on Sam. With the help of a consulting hunter, Dean and Sam catch on to the deaths and pranks being the fault of a Trickster and confront Gabriel. Though he attempts a peaceful resolution, the Winchesters deny it and eventually stab Gabriel in the heart with a stake dipped in his victims' blood (the only known way to kill a Trickster.) Since angels can only be killed with an angel-killing blade (which is given individually to each angel), Gabriel survives the encounter and disappears, letting the Winchesters believe they have killed him.
Gabriel eventually leads the Winchesters back to him a year later to teach a lesson to Sam after Dean sacrificed his soul to bring Sam back to life (which begins a never ending cycle of sacrifice after sacrifice as the brothers attempt to keep each other alive.) Once the Winchesters reach where Gabriel is, he traps them in a seemingly infinite time loop in which Dean repeatedly dies in strange ways and is continually brought back to life only to die again. Only after reliving the same Tuesday over a hundred times (and after Gabriel tips him off), Sam realizes the mystery spot was created by a Trickster and he manages to locate the culprit. While threatening him with another blood-tipped stake, Gabriel reveals himself and agrees to break the loop: however, the next day, Dean dies permanently. Sam spends the next few months growing colder as he hunts down the Trickster; eventually, the Trickster calls Sam to him to drive in the point of the whole exercise: the endless cycle of sacrifice for Dean isn't going to help bring him back to life, and in the long run it's going to destroy them both. "This obsession to save Dean," he points out, "The way you two keep sacrificing yourself for each other - nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain. Dean's your weakness, and the bad guys know it, too." With this lesson, Gabriel was pretty much tipping the Winchesters off to their fate as the Apocalypse loomed closer without their knowing - if Sam had listened to Gabriel, the Apocalypse might have been averted. With Sam's begging, the Trickster eventually relinquishes his attempt at teaching his lesson and brings Dean back to life.
Between this point and a year later, the Apocalypse is triggered exactly according to the prophecy: because Dean sacrificed his soul to bring Sam back to life, he is killed by hellhounds and has his soul dragged into Hell. As Dean spends more time in Hell, he goes through nearly thirty years of being tortured (time flows different in Hell than it does on earth); eventually he gives in to his demon torturer and agrees to become a torturer himself. This, unfortunately, is the first seal to trigger the Apocalypse: a "righteous man spilling blood in Hell". Heaven finally decides to intervene once the Apocalypse has begun; a lower-ranking angel named Castiel is ordered to retrieve Dean's soul and drag it out of Hell and back into his body because the prophecy also reads that the man who began the Apocalypse is the one who can stop it. Once the Winchester brothers are reunited, they being to try to keep the seals on Lucifer's cage from being released, as the entire demonic host is attempting to do. As they do so, it is revealed that a series of rebel angels were the ones who have been putting so much work into setting the Apocalypse into motion. The final seal is broken when Sam Winchester gets revenge for Dean's sacrifice of his soul by killing the demon who holds the contract to said soul. Lucifer is then released from his cage and takes a temporary vessel.
The next time Gabriel encounters the Winchesters, the Apocalypse has already been triggered and it's close. Since his last lesson didn't sink in, it's time for a new one - this one is infinitely more important because it's the only way Gabriel knows to stop the conflict between his brothers, now that he's accepted their coming to earth is inevitable. Because the angels have hit earth for the first time in 2000 years, his role in shaping the Winchesters becomes much more active and much more evident: he lures the two of them into an abandoned warehouse that has been transformed into Gabriel's personal reality in which he forces Sam and Dean through various iconic television roles. The point? They need to accept their roles as Michael and Lucifer's true vessels, now that they've learned the truth (and are so adamantly trying to deny it). Eventually the two brothers catch on that Gabriel isn't a mere Trickster. With Castiel's help, they obtain a holy oil, which can be used to trap an angel when set ablaze - and they do so with Gabriel. Since he's been caught, he reveals who he really is and his intense interest in the Apocalypse. He tells the Winchesters how they've always been fated to be the true vessels of Michael and Lucifer, the only vessels that matter because they are the only ones completely capable of containing the angels inside of them without being torn apart from the inside. They were chosen to be the vessels because their relationship to their father is identical to Michael and Lucifer's relationship to God - Michael, as Dean, is "absent to a loyal father" while Lucifer, as Sam, is "rebellious". Gabriel laments how cruel their fate is, but he firmly believes it is the only way to cease the war between his brothers, which is what he's always wanted and exactly why he escaped to earth. "I don't care who wins," he tells them, "I just want it to be over." (The brothers' role in being vessels is also important in that angels cannot possess a vessel without their consent… and that is exactly what Sam and Dean refuse to give to Michael and Lucifer.)
Sam and Dean continue to refuse to accept their roles and attempt to leave the warehouse; Gabriel calls after them (after bringing Castiel back from an undescribed location, where he had trapped the other angel as he attempted to interfere with Gabriel's role-plans for the Winchesters. An important thing to note is that this is the only time that Gabriel ever hurts a family member, and it's most likely he's infuriated with Castiel for attempting to interfere with Gabriel as he teaches the Winchesters his lesson). Gabriel wonders aloud if they're going to leave him trapped without the prison of holy oil - Dean's answer to this is no, because he doesn't "mess with people" like Gabriel does. He makes good on his word and starts the sprinklers in the warehouse to dissolve the burning holy oil, leaving Gabriel with a final thought: in the end, nothing is about the Winchesters' fight or their destiny, but the fact that Gabriel was too afraid to stand up to his family.
As the Apocalypse looms ever closer, things on earth become more dire: having been put out with the ridiculousness of letting Lucifer destroy the earth they love so much, a meeting of various pagan gods is called at a hotel called The Elysian Fields. Gabriel makes his appearance as Loki; because he knows Lucifer as his brother, he attempts to persuade the gods, his surrogate family, to refrain from attempting to stop Lucifer themselves. He knows that, should they attempt it, Lucifer could kill all of them in the process. The gods lure and capture Sam and Dean in order to use their role as vessels as bargaining chips against Lucifer. Because Gabriel realized Dean's words to him from their last meeting were so true, he finally becomes an active piece in the Apocalypse by agreeing to help Sam and Dean escape the hotel - after all, he wants them to say yes to the angels. Kali is also a player in the meeting; she comes prepared with the knowledge that she knows Loki is Gabriel in disguise, and she announces it to the gathered gods and takes Dean and Sam prisoner using a blood spell which binds them to her. After this reveal, she attempts to kill Loki with what she thinks is an angel-killing sword. Believing their way out is dead, Sam and Dean agree to lead Lucifer to the hotel as long as the gods let the humans captured in the hotel free. The gods agree with the deal.
While seeing the humans to safety out of the hotel, Dean discovers Gabriel hiding in his Impala outside: the blade Kali used to "kill" him was a fake. Still as cowardly regarding his surrogate family (and the fact that his brother is coming to the hotel) as he is to his real family, Gabriel urges Dean to go get their blood from Kali so they can escape her spell. Though Dean attempts to coerce Gabriel into using his real angel-killing blade to kill Lucifer, Gabriel remains solid in his refusal to do so - the reason he left Heaven was so he wouldn't have to choose a side or hurt either of his brothers, so he's definitely not going to do it just because a human asks him to.
Lucifer eventually arrives at the hotel and slaughters all of the gods meeting there and moves to kill Kali when Gabriel finally intervenes. He may be terrified of his brother, but the slaughter of his surrogate family is enough to finally bring the angel out of hiding in order to confront him - in a way, this is Gabriel's way of making up for the fact that he did nothing to stop the conflict between Lucifer and Michael in the first place. With Gabriel's interference, Dean and Sam have enough time to take Kali and escape the hotel - but not before the archangel hands a message to them in the form of a porno DVD.
Finally confronted with his brother after thousands of years, Gabriel raises his sword to him and tells Lucifer why his grievance against humanity isn't a legitimate one. "Look at yourself. Boo hoo, daddy was mean to mean so I'm gonna smash up all his toys! Play the victim all you want… we know the truth. Dad loved you best. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn't handle it - so this is just a great big temper tantrum." Lucifer mistakenly thinks Gabriel has finally taken Michael's side, but Gabriel scathingly replies, "Screw him! If he was here, I'd shiv his ass too." He quickly explains that he is still refusing to take a side with either brother - instead, he's picked humanity to team up with. His time spent with humans made the archangel realize how right God was, that humans were, in fact, better than angels. Gabriel cements his place in the fight by saying how "he's been in the fine a long time, but he's in the game now." Lucifer laments his brother's choice, saying, "Don't make me do this."
Gabriel's reply sums up all of his beliefs in one sentence: "No one makes us do anything."
The following is speculation on my part, but even though Gabriel seems to be standing up to his brother, I believe he knew that his conflict with Lucifer would end up with him being killed (especially considering that he tells the Winchesters that he's "skipped ahead" in time and seen how the Apocalypse ended - and he had the foresight to give his encoded message to Dean and Sam before his death.) He uses a "trick" to teleport behind Lucifer as if he is going to stab him in the back, but I believe it's a test at best - to see if the love Lucifer has for his family would prevent him from killing Gabriel. It was also a test to prove his point: if Lucifer wasn't capable of the forgiveness that Gabriel so envied in humanity, then it proved how right God was. Unfortunately, Lucifer chooses to kill his own brother than accept that humanity was the greater creature, leading to Gabriel's final demise.
The porno Dean and Sam watch reveals a message Gabriel left for them: apparently there is a way to stop the Apocalypse without killing Lucifer: it involves stealing a ring from each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse (who had returned to earth with Lucifer) in order to create an entrance to the cage that Lucifer would be sucked back into. By giving this alternative to Gabriel killing Lucifer, it further proves that the archangel probably knew he would die in his encounter with his brother and that he wouldn't be able to kill him himself.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
I'm taking him from immediately after his death for the "what the fuck?" factor. Gabriel's pretty disillusioned with his Father - he could've stopped his brothers from fighting, he could've stopped Lucifer from getting trapped in a pit. And what did Daddy do? He didn't do a damn thing. He let his kids run around and ruin the world and sat back while the angels killed each other.
So of course Gabriel's going to imagine that God brought him back to life - because nothing can bring an angel back except God. And that's going to shake his faith, or lack thereof. Why would God intervene now? Why bring him back to life? Why nullify that final sacrifice of his? Gabriel knew he was going to die when he faced Lucifer and he had accepted that - hell, giving Dean Casa Erotica was his suicide note.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Forget fluffy wings and halo: this angel possesses none of the above and is kind of a dick himself. He's like the "nice" bully in school, if you could simplify him to something like that. Being the judgemental angel he is, he only picks on the assholes that deserve it, focusing his tortures on those who are selfish, vain, and egotistical. Hedonistic to the core, he doesn't shy away from what his brethren would probably call sin - glutting himself on desserts (he has a distinct sweet tooth, an aspect of Tricksters he kind of just… picked up) as well as creating his own women to take pleasure in.
While not actively malicious, some of his punishments to his victims can get a little deadly - just ask the guy he threw into a wormhole. But Gabriel honestly has faith in humanity. All of his tricks and traps are to help them evolve, not just hurt them for the sake of his sadistic side. If he believes a human can change for the good? They don't die. They learn through their pain. However, if he's convinced that his victim will never be changed for the good…
Well. Ask the guy in the wormhole again.
In conversation, Gabriel is snarky and sarcastic to the core - he always has a witty comeback to everything that gets thrown at him. Outwardly, it seems he doesn't take anything seriously, and for the most part he doesn't. He's tactless and blunt, like all angels. But that's about all that he has in common with them. While typically portrayed as emotionless drones, Gabriel has emotion lining and driving every action he's done throughout his existence. The biggest? Love.
Which is why you should never, ever talk badly about his family in front of him. Because that? Is his itchy trigger finger. That is how you piss off a comparatively good-natured Trickster. That's how your ass gets killed. But if you stay away from insulting them, you're fine.
Relatively. His liking for people is fickle, and those he favors aren't probably treated any better than those he doesn't like. He's not unsympathetic to dire straits, but it probably seems that way. His version of sympathetic is kicking someone while they're down - if you're being a moron, he's going to tell you you're being a moron and list every reason why. Generally he seems unaffected by other people's problems until they start to interfere with his own plans.
Normally he isn't intimidated by anything (family doesn't count), and that probably won't change… externally. He'll meet threats with a smile on his face and an OH GOD WHY ME singing in his heart. Playing witness protection for so long has made him an expert at hiding his real feelings, and it's unlikely he'd ever reveal them to anyone… he makes small concessions for the Winchesters and his siblings, but that's it.
The most interesting part of Gabriel is exactly why he became the Trickster. He's a coward to the core when it comes to his family. He is, practically literally, unable to stand up to them. He's terrified of ever hurting them because he loves them so much - it'd be like hurting himself. He avoids conflict like it's going out of goddamn style and either a) goes away until the conflict vanishes or b) pretends it doesn't exist… which is exactly why he hasn't seen Michael or Lucifer for thousands of years.
That changes, of course, with some of Dean's bitching at him. But not really. While it seems he was going to try to take down Lucifer by stabbing him with an angel-killing sword, his utter devotion and love to his brothers (especially Lucifer, who is hinted at having a much closer relationship with Gabriel than he has with anyone else… or it seems that way to Gabriel himself, considering Lucifer "taught him everything he knows") makes it seem like it would have been impossible for him to kill his brother. (This is also my own interpretation of his final scene during Hammer of the Gods - he hesitated in "attacking" Lucifer to see if his brother would harm him himself. As Gabriel said before his death, "no one makes us do anything". He wanted to prove that Lucifer wasn't being forced to kill his brother, but that he had chosen to do so.)
Essentially: he sacrificed himself to keep safe what he loved, but don't ever expect him to do it again, for anyone… except his family. Clearly, he'd die for them. And he did.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Standing at 5'7", Gabriel is not a very intimidating guy (or rather, his vessel isn't. His real form would melt faces. Literally.) He has brown hair that's slicked back from his forehead, and pseudo-muttonchops. Though he changes form a lot, his "normal" garb seems to be rather Dean-like, with a jacket over a shirt and jeans.
An important thing to note is that Gabriel has wings; however, his vessel does not - or perhaps they're just incorporeal (it's not really stated in canon). They can only be visible as a shadow, and only if he wills them to be (or dies, wherein their image is burned into the ground or the nearest part of the environment that he dies in.)
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
Since archangels are totally god mods, I'm going to bullet point his powers (some are assumed as general angelic powers):
- Create false realities in which he has total control of them, including people/places/things within them.
- Nearly indestructible; can only be killed by an angel-killing blade, which is wielded only by angels.
- Telepathy… or really good hearing.
- Resurrect the dead.
- Directly affect a human's body (induce heart attacks, cancer, etc.)
- Able to create anything. Literally. From angel-killing swords to women in bikinis to cupcakes. Everything he creates has substance, texture, and weight; basically, it feels real. It basically is real until he decides to get rid of it.
- Superhuman strength.
- Meta knowledge, considering he knew Dean/Sam would be Michael/Lucifer's vessels and his "just desserts" way of torturing humans.
- Complete control over time, including creating time loops and travel into the future.
- Induce unconsciousness in humans.
- Instantaneous teleportation.
- Alter a human's memories.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
See all of those awesome powers up there? See them?
Yeah. He gets none of them.
Except his ability to create things: this is what I really want to focus on. This is the only power he's gonna retain; otherwise he's basically 100% human. I've decided to go this way since the ability to create things is… really powerful in and of itself, so I'm going to have to limit him in different ways.
Since nightshift is so long, I was hoping he'd be able to make two items a night - small ones, nothing bigger than his hands. His ability is going to be like alchemy in a way; he's going to need another item to take place of what he's going to make. The bigger the item, the more matter he's going to need to make it out of. The problem with this is everything he makes is going to have to stay near him; the farther away the item is, the more taxing it is to keep it corporeal. If the item is more than a room away from him, it's going to disappear and transform back into whatever item he created it out of. (This is honestly a way he'll use to keep allies. Blackmail. Awesome!)
In addition, if he wants to make a bigger item (something bigger than his hands, like a sword) he can only do it once a night. After creating an item, he's pretty much going to be incapacitated for 10 or 20 minutes, meaning he can't just conjure items in the middle of a battle or something. By incapacitated, I mean "so exhausted he can't really move". Though he'll eventually get over that initial exhaustion, the longer the item is around, the more tired he'll get over time. No item will be able to survive over two nightshifts simply because he can't keep it tangible for that long.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Considering Gabriel was there since The Beginning, he probably knows everything. I mean. Literally. He'd have to, seeing as he's lived on earth since humanity began. He's also acquainted with the inner workings of Heaven and Hell.
He's also quite familiar with pop culture. That counts, right?
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Landel's is really going to fuck Gabriel up. He's always been the most powerful thing around (except Michael, Lucifer, and God. But that's saying a hell of a lot.) Now that he has pretty much no power at all? He's screwed. He doesn't work well with people, especially assholes (though I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, since he did work with the Winchesters and they're the definition of assholes. At least Dean is.) But he knows he's going to have to make allies if he wants to survive.
And honestly? That's what he's gonna think this is about, since he is 100% going to believe God brought him back and threw him into Landel's. He's going to think this is some kind of perverted test, perhaps to see if Gabriel was telling the truth when he decided he was on Team Humanity, So… making friends is going to be priority number one. Looking at his vessel, it's kind of clear he's not going to be a physically strong guy without the angel mojo to back him up. He's going to need to build some sort of working relationship with a few strong heroic types.
But all of that's not gonna stop him from doing his self-appointed job. If he sees an asshole? He's gonna have to punish them. Somehow.
Also, Gabriel canonly is shown to have a vast and working knowledge of pop culture, so he's definitely going to have some "oh god my fourth wall what the hell, Dad" moments upon meeting some of the other patients. If this ever does happen, he's going to be wondering if this isn't some other Trickster's shitty rip-off of his own tricks (seeing as he had one guy get killed by The Incredible Hulk. Lou Ferrigno, not Bana or Norton.)
Series' Medium: TV series.
Character: Gabriel, or The Trickster.
Age: Old. Very old. Like thousands of years old. Almost as old as God.
Sex/Gender: Technically genderless, but his vessel is male.
Canon Role: Though he starts out as a "monster of the week", he gets upgraded to "reoccurring monster" then "actual good guy, what the hell?"
"Real" Name: Noah Morgenstern.
Please give us a personal history of your character's life and explain to us in detail how they grow and develop over the course of their canon:
In the beginning, there was God. Before earth was created, He created the angels - millions of creatures meant to spend their existence praising God, doing His will, and eventually becoming intermediates between Heaven and mankind. The angels were organized in a hierarchy, with archangels being at the top. Particularly named of this caste are Michael, Lucifer, Gabriel, and Rafael. Michael was the first angel to be created, while, according to Gabriel, Lucifer was the "favorite". The archangels are particularly special in that they are the only angels to have seen the face of God.
When the earth was created - with humans on it - the previously peaceful Heaven suddenly split into two factions. God ordered angels to bow to the newest creation, humans, and to accept they were the superior beings that had come of His will. Michael, absolutely loyal to his Father, accepted this new declaration without argument. Lucifer, however, disagreed: he believed angels were clearly the superior creatures in that they were without flaw. He resented God finding a new favorite creation in humanity and rebelled. This rebellion led to all-out war between Michael and Lucifer, ending with Michael banishing and condemning Lucifer to Hell (though it's implied his "cage" in Hell is separate from the rest, since in episode 3x04, a demon stated that no demon has ever actually seen Lucifer.) God then sealed Lucifer's cage with two hundred seals, in which 66 would have to be broken to free him. Caught between these two warring brothers was Gabriel, who refused to pick a side in the conflict.
(Since biblical canon and Supernatural's timeline directly oppose each other, I'm not really sure when to place when Gabriel could have performed the messages he did in the Bible, including the Anunciation, telling Elizabeth of the birth of John the Baptist, among others. Since he supposedly escaped to earth during the war between Michael and Lucifer, there's not really a time in which he could have performed his miracles unless he was doing so while on earth. So if it's okay, I'm going to kind of… smudge that part.)
Angry with God, who refused (or rather, did nothing) to solve the conflict between Gabriel's brothers, Gabriel fled Heaven to take a form on earth among humans. Because angels can only appear on earth in vessels - humans (or, in some apparent cases, minor gods) who must be possessed in order for angels to manifest on earth - Gabriel had to find one of his own. Though purely speculation on my part, I believe he killed the Norse god Loki and reanimated him through possession. (The details regarding Gabriel's possession of Loki are very vague, seeing as canon only states that angels can possess certain genetic bloodlines that are unique to them and that other angels can "see" that angel's true face while in a vessel so they know who's who. However, Castiel, a fellow angel, is unable to recognize Gabriel when they meet, and apparently no angel ever found him before that. It might be because Gabriel's vessel is a god, or he just has that sort of power as an archangel. Again: it's not stated in canon why he's the only exception to the rule. Though it's been speculated that he could have created the body, this seems unlikely since a great deal of conflict comes from finding the right vessel, and that wasn't an option for Lucifer or Michael later on.)
Using Loki as a personal "witness protection program", Gabriel then took on Loki's role as a Trickster, which is a demigod-like creature that thrives on bringing "just desserts" in order to humble the self-important. Included with the demigod's guise was a whole new posse - a group of pagan gods that Gabriel fell into with (including a relationship with Kali, a Hindu goddess). Though unspecified how much time he spent with them, it's implied it's a whole lot, considering how Gabriel eventually adopted them as a new family, a replacement for his brothers and Father that had betrayed him with their conflict. During his time spent as a Trickster, the archangel Gabriel began to develop emotions - a side effect of an angel's absence from Heaven, as their "grace", which is basically the essence that makes them angels, deteriorates. With emotions came an appreciation of humanity; he realized that, flawed as they were, some of humanity did try to be good, to be better than what they are, and to forgive.
So he tried to help them along as he spent thousands of years as a Trickster as he settled in his spot among the pagan gods, using them as a cover while he hid from Heaven. By manipulating the reality around them, he tried to make humans better, by forcing lessons on them using deadly means. If they don't learn their lesson, he simply kills them - if they can't learn to be better, then there's no chance of salvation.
Thousands of years can pass quickly to something that doesn't die, however, and a prophecy that was long foretold was quickly heading to its breaking point. Lucifer was scheduled to escape his cage in Hell, bringing the Apocalypse with him. Using a demon called Azazel, a "special child" was to be found who could break the 66 seals necessary to unlock the devil's cage; he would have to be fed demon blood throughout his life so he would create a suitable vessel for Lucifer for when he manifested on earth. This child was found in Sam Winchester, who came from a bloodline that led straight to the biblical Cain and Abel; to prepare him, Azazel fed the boy demonic blood as an infant, which gave him special abilities. In order to create symmetry between Heaven and earth, Sam Winchester's brother, Dean, would be the vessel for Michael on earth, so he may battle his brother a second time and prevent the Apocalypse.
Gabriel knew Lucifer was scheduled to make his release through these two brothers and immediately became interested in them. While the archangel didn't want the Apocalypse - he liked humanity, after all - he believed it necessary for Michael and Lucifer to fight once again on earth in order to cease the war between Heaven and Hell. He tested the Winchester brothers, who were following in their father's footsteps as "hunters", people who destroyed supernatural creatures in order to save humans, as they investigated a series of bizarre deaths that Gabriel himself had created. Since the brothers hunt with a united front, Gabriel attempts to pit them against each other with a series of stupid pranks, like "misplacing" Sam's laptop so he would blame it on Dean, and popping the wheels on Dean's car so he would blame it on Sam. With the help of a consulting hunter, Dean and Sam catch on to the deaths and pranks being the fault of a Trickster and confront Gabriel. Though he attempts a peaceful resolution, the Winchesters deny it and eventually stab Gabriel in the heart with a stake dipped in his victims' blood (the only known way to kill a Trickster.) Since angels can only be killed with an angel-killing blade (which is given individually to each angel), Gabriel survives the encounter and disappears, letting the Winchesters believe they have killed him.
Gabriel eventually leads the Winchesters back to him a year later to teach a lesson to Sam after Dean sacrificed his soul to bring Sam back to life (which begins a never ending cycle of sacrifice after sacrifice as the brothers attempt to keep each other alive.) Once the Winchesters reach where Gabriel is, he traps them in a seemingly infinite time loop in which Dean repeatedly dies in strange ways and is continually brought back to life only to die again. Only after reliving the same Tuesday over a hundred times (and after Gabriel tips him off), Sam realizes the mystery spot was created by a Trickster and he manages to locate the culprit. While threatening him with another blood-tipped stake, Gabriel reveals himself and agrees to break the loop: however, the next day, Dean dies permanently. Sam spends the next few months growing colder as he hunts down the Trickster; eventually, the Trickster calls Sam to him to drive in the point of the whole exercise: the endless cycle of sacrifice for Dean isn't going to help bring him back to life, and in the long run it's going to destroy them both. "This obsession to save Dean," he points out, "The way you two keep sacrificing yourself for each other - nothing good comes out of it. Just blood and pain. Dean's your weakness, and the bad guys know it, too." With this lesson, Gabriel was pretty much tipping the Winchesters off to their fate as the Apocalypse loomed closer without their knowing - if Sam had listened to Gabriel, the Apocalypse might have been averted. With Sam's begging, the Trickster eventually relinquishes his attempt at teaching his lesson and brings Dean back to life.
Between this point and a year later, the Apocalypse is triggered exactly according to the prophecy: because Dean sacrificed his soul to bring Sam back to life, he is killed by hellhounds and has his soul dragged into Hell. As Dean spends more time in Hell, he goes through nearly thirty years of being tortured (time flows different in Hell than it does on earth); eventually he gives in to his demon torturer and agrees to become a torturer himself. This, unfortunately, is the first seal to trigger the Apocalypse: a "righteous man spilling blood in Hell". Heaven finally decides to intervene once the Apocalypse has begun; a lower-ranking angel named Castiel is ordered to retrieve Dean's soul and drag it out of Hell and back into his body because the prophecy also reads that the man who began the Apocalypse is the one who can stop it. Once the Winchester brothers are reunited, they being to try to keep the seals on Lucifer's cage from being released, as the entire demonic host is attempting to do. As they do so, it is revealed that a series of rebel angels were the ones who have been putting so much work into setting the Apocalypse into motion. The final seal is broken when Sam Winchester gets revenge for Dean's sacrifice of his soul by killing the demon who holds the contract to said soul. Lucifer is then released from his cage and takes a temporary vessel.
The next time Gabriel encounters the Winchesters, the Apocalypse has already been triggered and it's close. Since his last lesson didn't sink in, it's time for a new one - this one is infinitely more important because it's the only way Gabriel knows to stop the conflict between his brothers, now that he's accepted their coming to earth is inevitable. Because the angels have hit earth for the first time in 2000 years, his role in shaping the Winchesters becomes much more active and much more evident: he lures the two of them into an abandoned warehouse that has been transformed into Gabriel's personal reality in which he forces Sam and Dean through various iconic television roles. The point? They need to accept their roles as Michael and Lucifer's true vessels, now that they've learned the truth (and are so adamantly trying to deny it). Eventually the two brothers catch on that Gabriel isn't a mere Trickster. With Castiel's help, they obtain a holy oil, which can be used to trap an angel when set ablaze - and they do so with Gabriel. Since he's been caught, he reveals who he really is and his intense interest in the Apocalypse. He tells the Winchesters how they've always been fated to be the true vessels of Michael and Lucifer, the only vessels that matter because they are the only ones completely capable of containing the angels inside of them without being torn apart from the inside. They were chosen to be the vessels because their relationship to their father is identical to Michael and Lucifer's relationship to God - Michael, as Dean, is "absent to a loyal father" while Lucifer, as Sam, is "rebellious". Gabriel laments how cruel their fate is, but he firmly believes it is the only way to cease the war between his brothers, which is what he's always wanted and exactly why he escaped to earth. "I don't care who wins," he tells them, "I just want it to be over." (The brothers' role in being vessels is also important in that angels cannot possess a vessel without their consent… and that is exactly what Sam and Dean refuse to give to Michael and Lucifer.)
Sam and Dean continue to refuse to accept their roles and attempt to leave the warehouse; Gabriel calls after them (after bringing Castiel back from an undescribed location, where he had trapped the other angel as he attempted to interfere with Gabriel's role-plans for the Winchesters. An important thing to note is that this is the only time that Gabriel ever hurts a family member, and it's most likely he's infuriated with Castiel for attempting to interfere with Gabriel as he teaches the Winchesters his lesson). Gabriel wonders aloud if they're going to leave him trapped without the prison of holy oil - Dean's answer to this is no, because he doesn't "mess with people" like Gabriel does. He makes good on his word and starts the sprinklers in the warehouse to dissolve the burning holy oil, leaving Gabriel with a final thought: in the end, nothing is about the Winchesters' fight or their destiny, but the fact that Gabriel was too afraid to stand up to his family.
As the Apocalypse looms ever closer, things on earth become more dire: having been put out with the ridiculousness of letting Lucifer destroy the earth they love so much, a meeting of various pagan gods is called at a hotel called The Elysian Fields. Gabriel makes his appearance as Loki; because he knows Lucifer as his brother, he attempts to persuade the gods, his surrogate family, to refrain from attempting to stop Lucifer themselves. He knows that, should they attempt it, Lucifer could kill all of them in the process. The gods lure and capture Sam and Dean in order to use their role as vessels as bargaining chips against Lucifer. Because Gabriel realized Dean's words to him from their last meeting were so true, he finally becomes an active piece in the Apocalypse by agreeing to help Sam and Dean escape the hotel - after all, he wants them to say yes to the angels. Kali is also a player in the meeting; she comes prepared with the knowledge that she knows Loki is Gabriel in disguise, and she announces it to the gathered gods and takes Dean and Sam prisoner using a blood spell which binds them to her. After this reveal, she attempts to kill Loki with what she thinks is an angel-killing sword. Believing their way out is dead, Sam and Dean agree to lead Lucifer to the hotel as long as the gods let the humans captured in the hotel free. The gods agree with the deal.
While seeing the humans to safety out of the hotel, Dean discovers Gabriel hiding in his Impala outside: the blade Kali used to "kill" him was a fake. Still as cowardly regarding his surrogate family (and the fact that his brother is coming to the hotel) as he is to his real family, Gabriel urges Dean to go get their blood from Kali so they can escape her spell. Though Dean attempts to coerce Gabriel into using his real angel-killing blade to kill Lucifer, Gabriel remains solid in his refusal to do so - the reason he left Heaven was so he wouldn't have to choose a side or hurt either of his brothers, so he's definitely not going to do it just because a human asks him to.
Lucifer eventually arrives at the hotel and slaughters all of the gods meeting there and moves to kill Kali when Gabriel finally intervenes. He may be terrified of his brother, but the slaughter of his surrogate family is enough to finally bring the angel out of hiding in order to confront him - in a way, this is Gabriel's way of making up for the fact that he did nothing to stop the conflict between Lucifer and Michael in the first place. With Gabriel's interference, Dean and Sam have enough time to take Kali and escape the hotel - but not before the archangel hands a message to them in the form of a porno DVD.
Finally confronted with his brother after thousands of years, Gabriel raises his sword to him and tells Lucifer why his grievance against humanity isn't a legitimate one. "Look at yourself. Boo hoo, daddy was mean to mean so I'm gonna smash up all his toys! Play the victim all you want… we know the truth. Dad loved you best. Then he brought the new baby home and you couldn't handle it - so this is just a great big temper tantrum." Lucifer mistakenly thinks Gabriel has finally taken Michael's side, but Gabriel scathingly replies, "Screw him! If he was here, I'd shiv his ass too." He quickly explains that he is still refusing to take a side with either brother - instead, he's picked humanity to team up with. His time spent with humans made the archangel realize how right God was, that humans were, in fact, better than angels. Gabriel cements his place in the fight by saying how "he's been in the fine a long time, but he's in the game now." Lucifer laments his brother's choice, saying, "Don't make me do this."
Gabriel's reply sums up all of his beliefs in one sentence: "No one makes us do anything."
The following is speculation on my part, but even though Gabriel seems to be standing up to his brother, I believe he knew that his conflict with Lucifer would end up with him being killed (especially considering that he tells the Winchesters that he's "skipped ahead" in time and seen how the Apocalypse ended - and he had the foresight to give his encoded message to Dean and Sam before his death.) He uses a "trick" to teleport behind Lucifer as if he is going to stab him in the back, but I believe it's a test at best - to see if the love Lucifer has for his family would prevent him from killing Gabriel. It was also a test to prove his point: if Lucifer wasn't capable of the forgiveness that Gabriel so envied in humanity, then it proved how right God was. Unfortunately, Lucifer chooses to kill his own brother than accept that humanity was the greater creature, leading to Gabriel's final demise.
The porno Dean and Sam watch reveals a message Gabriel left for them: apparently there is a way to stop the Apocalypse without killing Lucifer: it involves stealing a ring from each of the four horseman of the Apocalypse (who had returned to earth with Lucifer) in order to create an entrance to the cage that Lucifer would be sucked back into. By giving this alternative to Gabriel killing Lucifer, it further proves that the archangel probably knew he would die in his encounter with his brother and that he wouldn't be able to kill him himself.
What point in time are you taking your character from when he/she appears at Landel's and why?:
I'm taking him from immediately after his death for the "what the fuck?" factor. Gabriel's pretty disillusioned with his Father - he could've stopped his brothers from fighting, he could've stopped Lucifer from getting trapped in a pit. And what did Daddy do? He didn't do a damn thing. He let his kids run around and ruin the world and sat back while the angels killed each other.
So of course Gabriel's going to imagine that God brought him back to life - because nothing can bring an angel back except God. And that's going to shake his faith, or lack thereof. Why would God intervene now? Why bring him back to life? Why nullify that final sacrifice of his? Gabriel knew he was going to die when he faced Lucifer and he had accepted that - hell, giving Dean Casa Erotica was his suicide note.
Please give us a detailed description of your character's personality:
Forget fluffy wings and halo: this angel possesses none of the above and is kind of a dick himself. He's like the "nice" bully in school, if you could simplify him to something like that. Being the judgemental angel he is, he only picks on the assholes that deserve it, focusing his tortures on those who are selfish, vain, and egotistical. Hedonistic to the core, he doesn't shy away from what his brethren would probably call sin - glutting himself on desserts (he has a distinct sweet tooth, an aspect of Tricksters he kind of just… picked up) as well as creating his own women to take pleasure in.
While not actively malicious, some of his punishments to his victims can get a little deadly - just ask the guy he threw into a wormhole. But Gabriel honestly has faith in humanity. All of his tricks and traps are to help them evolve, not just hurt them for the sake of his sadistic side. If he believes a human can change for the good? They don't die. They learn through their pain. However, if he's convinced that his victim will never be changed for the good…
Well. Ask the guy in the wormhole again.
In conversation, Gabriel is snarky and sarcastic to the core - he always has a witty comeback to everything that gets thrown at him. Outwardly, it seems he doesn't take anything seriously, and for the most part he doesn't. He's tactless and blunt, like all angels. But that's about all that he has in common with them. While typically portrayed as emotionless drones, Gabriel has emotion lining and driving every action he's done throughout his existence. The biggest? Love.
Which is why you should never, ever talk badly about his family in front of him. Because that? Is his itchy trigger finger. That is how you piss off a comparatively good-natured Trickster. That's how your ass gets killed. But if you stay away from insulting them, you're fine.
Relatively. His liking for people is fickle, and those he favors aren't probably treated any better than those he doesn't like. He's not unsympathetic to dire straits, but it probably seems that way. His version of sympathetic is kicking someone while they're down - if you're being a moron, he's going to tell you you're being a moron and list every reason why. Generally he seems unaffected by other people's problems until they start to interfere with his own plans.
Normally he isn't intimidated by anything (family doesn't count), and that probably won't change… externally. He'll meet threats with a smile on his face and an OH GOD WHY ME singing in his heart. Playing witness protection for so long has made him an expert at hiding his real feelings, and it's unlikely he'd ever reveal them to anyone… he makes small concessions for the Winchesters and his siblings, but that's it.
The most interesting part of Gabriel is exactly why he became the Trickster. He's a coward to the core when it comes to his family. He is, practically literally, unable to stand up to them. He's terrified of ever hurting them because he loves them so much - it'd be like hurting himself. He avoids conflict like it's going out of goddamn style and either a) goes away until the conflict vanishes or b) pretends it doesn't exist… which is exactly why he hasn't seen Michael or Lucifer for thousands of years.
That changes, of course, with some of Dean's bitching at him. But not really. While it seems he was going to try to take down Lucifer by stabbing him with an angel-killing sword, his utter devotion and love to his brothers (especially Lucifer, who is hinted at having a much closer relationship with Gabriel than he has with anyone else… or it seems that way to Gabriel himself, considering Lucifer "taught him everything he knows") makes it seem like it would have been impossible for him to kill his brother. (This is also my own interpretation of his final scene during Hammer of the Gods - he hesitated in "attacking" Lucifer to see if his brother would harm him himself. As Gabriel said before his death, "no one makes us do anything". He wanted to prove that Lucifer wasn't being forced to kill his brother, but that he had chosen to do so.)
Essentially: he sacrificed himself to keep safe what he loved, but don't ever expect him to do it again, for anyone… except his family. Clearly, he'd die for them. And he did.
Please give us a physical description of your character:
Standing at 5'7", Gabriel is not a very intimidating guy (or rather, his vessel isn't. His real form would melt faces. Literally.) He has brown hair that's slicked back from his forehead, and pseudo-muttonchops. Though he changes form a lot, his "normal" garb seems to be rather Dean-like, with a jacket over a shirt and jeans.
An important thing to note is that Gabriel has wings; however, his vessel does not - or perhaps they're just incorporeal (it's not really stated in canon). They can only be visible as a shadow, and only if he wills them to be (or dies, wherein their image is burned into the ground or the nearest part of the environment that he dies in.)
What kinds of otherworldly abilities does your character have, if any?:
Since archangels are totally god mods, I'm going to bullet point his powers (some are assumed as general angelic powers):
- Create false realities in which he has total control of them, including people/places/things within them.
- Nearly indestructible; can only be killed by an angel-killing blade, which is wielded only by angels.
- Telepathy… or really good hearing.
- Resurrect the dead.
- Directly affect a human's body (induce heart attacks, cancer, etc.)
- Able to create anything. Literally. From angel-killing swords to women in bikinis to cupcakes. Everything he creates has substance, texture, and weight; basically, it feels real. It basically is real until he decides to get rid of it.
- Superhuman strength.
- Meta knowledge, considering he knew Dean/Sam would be Michael/Lucifer's vessels and his "just desserts" way of torturing humans.
- Complete control over time, including creating time loops and travel into the future.
- Induce unconsciousness in humans.
- Instantaneous teleportation.
- Alter a human's memories.
If present, how do you plan to tweak these powers to make your character appropriately hindered in the setting of Landel's?:
See all of those awesome powers up there? See them?
Yeah. He gets none of them.
Except his ability to create things: this is what I really want to focus on. This is the only power he's gonna retain; otherwise he's basically 100% human. I've decided to go this way since the ability to create things is… really powerful in and of itself, so I'm going to have to limit him in different ways.
Since nightshift is so long, I was hoping he'd be able to make two items a night - small ones, nothing bigger than his hands. His ability is going to be like alchemy in a way; he's going to need another item to take place of what he's going to make. The bigger the item, the more matter he's going to need to make it out of. The problem with this is everything he makes is going to have to stay near him; the farther away the item is, the more taxing it is to keep it corporeal. If the item is more than a room away from him, it's going to disappear and transform back into whatever item he created it out of. (This is honestly a way he'll use to keep allies. Blackmail. Awesome!)
In addition, if he wants to make a bigger item (something bigger than his hands, like a sword) he can only do it once a night. After creating an item, he's pretty much going to be incapacitated for 10 or 20 minutes, meaning he can't just conjure items in the middle of a battle or something. By incapacitated, I mean "so exhausted he can't really move". Though he'll eventually get over that initial exhaustion, the longer the item is around, the more tired he'll get over time. No item will be able to survive over two nightshifts simply because he can't keep it tangible for that long.
Does your character have any non-otherworldly abilities/training that surpass the norm?:
Considering Gabriel was there since The Beginning, he probably knows everything. I mean. Literally. He'd have to, seeing as he's lived on earth since humanity began. He's also acquainted with the inner workings of Heaven and Hell.
He's also quite familiar with pop culture. That counts, right?
What do you see your character doing in the scope of the game and how do you plan to use the setting of Landel's Institute to develop them and affect their psychology in a unique, interesting way?:
Landel's is really going to fuck Gabriel up. He's always been the most powerful thing around (except Michael, Lucifer, and God. But that's saying a hell of a lot.) Now that he has pretty much no power at all? He's screwed. He doesn't work well with people, especially assholes (though I guess desperate times call for desperate measures, since he did work with the Winchesters and they're the definition of assholes. At least Dean is.) But he knows he's going to have to make allies if he wants to survive.
And honestly? That's what he's gonna think this is about, since he is 100% going to believe God brought him back and threw him into Landel's. He's going to think this is some kind of perverted test, perhaps to see if Gabriel was telling the truth when he decided he was on Team Humanity, So… making friends is going to be priority number one. Looking at his vessel, it's kind of clear he's not going to be a physically strong guy without the angel mojo to back him up. He's going to need to build some sort of working relationship with a few strong heroic types.
But all of that's not gonna stop him from doing his self-appointed job. If he sees an asshole? He's gonna have to punish them. Somehow.
Also, Gabriel canonly is shown to have a vast and working knowledge of pop culture, so he's definitely going to have some "oh god my fourth wall what the hell, Dad" moments upon meeting some of the other patients. If this ever does happen, he's going to be wondering if this isn't some other Trickster's shitty rip-off of his own tricks (seeing as he had one guy get killed by The Incredible Hulk. Lou Ferrigno, not Bana or Norton.)