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"This whole damn world's a lesson kid, so make damn sure you learn."
The Player
User Name/Nick: Chris
User LJ: kawaiispinel ”kawaiispinel”
AIM/IM: KawaiiSpinel42
E-mail: whatineverhad@gmail.com
Other Characters: N/A
The Character
Character Name: Gabriel, aka the Trickster, aka Loki
Series: Supernatural
Age: Really, really, really old.
From When?: 5X19: Hammer of the Gods, moments before he’s killed by his brother, Lucifer.
Abilities/Powers: Because he's an archangel, Gabriel's abilities are almost limitless. However, due to being away from Heaven for so long and because he's likely possessing a Trickster god, it's arguable that some of his more specifically angelic abilities don't exist anymore. I'm mostly going on what he's exhibited in canon and what seems to be true for all angels.
The biggest part of Gabriel's powers is his ability to bend reality. He can place people in time loops, create pocket dimensions, and manifest anything he wants out of thin air from slow-dancing aliens to hot chicks to wormholes- and all of his illusions look and feel real. When he creates a reality, he holds complete authority over it and whatever he says goes. Anything he wants to happen, can happen, no matter how ridiculous- and he can get pretty ridiculous. As he brings things into reality, so can he make everything vanish just as quickly, as if it was never there at all. He can shapeshift to a certain degree, although, in canon, it seems to be limited to human forms, although there's nothing to suggest that he couldn't assume other forms if he so chose. He can also make perfect copies of himself (which is really just another form of manifesting things), although it's not clear if these copies have his exact powers or not, as he's usually always nearby when he sends a copy to act for him.
He can affect a human's biological make-up, which is mostly assumed as all higher-tier angels seem to be able to do this. He has shown an ability to remove someone's voice, as he did it to Sam and Dean, however, so he could probably do a lot more if he wanted to- it's just not really his style. He can also, presumably, alter a person's memories. Whether or not he can bring people back from the dead is up for debate, because the only time he does it, he was operating with a time loop and screwing with time, but I like to assume that he probably can, if he really, badly wanted to.
He can fly at extremely high speeds to the point where it looks like teleporting and while you can usually hear another angel's wings, you can never hear Gabriel's, so whether he's learned to mask the sound or this is just Kripke covering his ass since Gabriel wasn't always meant to be Gabriel, the world will never know. He can also banish people to wherever he wants with just a flick of his wrist.
He has some degree of what can only be described as telekinesis, strong enough to throw another angel across the room when he's not even in the same room with them (but nearly) and capable of putting down Lucifer, himself. In keeping with this paragraph's psychic theme, his "angel radio allows him to read minds and memories (and, likely, emotions) and also, assuming his constant mention of "skipping ahead" in episodes, seems to allow him some measure of seeing the future, as well. His senses also appear to be extremely acute as he constantly seems to be hearing conversations he has no business hearing, so whether this is just really good hearing or an angel radio thing is unclear.
He is extremely strong, as evidenced by the fact that he once, despite being a good several inches shorter and a lot less in-shape, lifted Dean up by his collar and pinned him to the wall with one hand with little to no effort. Dean's obvious discomfort implies that Gabriel was clearly crushing his collarbone in that scene, furthering proof of his strength. (Earlier in the same episode, he also pried Dean's hand off of his shoulder with such force that Dean whined like a little girl.)
And finally, he's invulnerable to everything but an angel's blade- anything else, he can recover from extremely quickly, if he's not intentionally trying to play dead (and he does that a lot). He was stabbed in the chest with a stake and was fine some odd hours later- although you could argue that was one of his copies and not him, himself- and Anna, once, pulled a crowbar out of her chest with barely any reaction and she's a lesser angel. This is because the body he's in is not his true body, but merely a vessel. He can also be trapped inside holy fire and kept from entering a building by specific Enochian sigils- he can also be banished by Enochian blood spells. Certain spells can expel his angelic essence from his vessel and send it back to Heaven, although that would... Not work here and it's never been attempted on an archangel, so it might be a bad life choice to try.
Power Limitations: Gabriel will be stripped of almost everything but his superior strength, his invulnerability, and his telekinesis. His teleporting will be limited and his angel radio will get a lot of static in the wood, so it’s almost impossible for him to pick up anything about it beyond WEIRD AND CREEPY. He can’t manifest anything, but he can make extremely detailed illusions, but they’re simply that- illusions.
Inventory
♠ 1 small railroad spike sword, silver.
♠ 1 army-green jacket
♠ 1 pair of blue jeans (noticeably too big).
♠ 1 pair of leather loafers, brown.
♠ 1 flannel shirt (roughly a size too big), red plaid.
Personality: When we first meet Gabriel in the guise of the janitor, we see him as an extremely open, extremely flippant man, uncaring of how he might be perceived. He makes jokes regarding the dead professor and seems completely unperturbed by the whole thing and would probably, if Sam and Dean had shown shock or distaste regarding his reactions, just shrug it off. Gabriel's flippancy, his inability to take anything but the gravest of situations (and even then, he can rarely hold onto his seriousness) is one of his most obvious attributes. He's a sarcastic, smarmy jerk who speaks his mind and doesn't sugarcoat anything, even if it's to the detriment of people he's talking to. If people don't like him, then fine. He'll still find an excuse to hang around and aggravate them if he wants to be around them, and very little will get him to back off. He appears unintimidated and will snark at people threatening him like they’re nothing and not even worth his time. He exists to be disarming- even backed into a corner, he’ll still keep his sense of humor, although it tends to falter, the more desperate a situation becomes- he stayed perfectly calm in the holy fire trap until it became evident that Sam and Dean might leave him behind, for example.
Gabriel is layered to the point of it almost being a fault. There's so much to him that it's almost impossible for one person to peel back the facades he puts up and that makes it hard for people to get close to him, due to the fact that he pretends to not care about anyone or anything and uses his sarcasm as a defense mechanism- Dean calls him on this in Hammer of the Gods, even noting it's something that they share (although, they have completely dissimilar reasons for sharing it- Gabriel uses his to maintain his standing as a dominant force). Getting past all of his defenses is something that just doesn't happen (except in rare cases), because anytime someone does, he slams the walls right back up again, although, by that time, he's probably already snapped and shown that he's affected and given himself away, anyway. He is extremely fond of denial and does not like admitting to be anything other than a creature of trickery and pleasure, and being forced to admit that he's anything more than that means confronting a lot of things he's buried. In a lot of ways, he's become The Trickster and trying to get to the parts of him that are still inherently Gabriel means dealing with parts of himself he's tried to openly leave behind, so he keeps away from it as much as he can- he kept up his facade all the way up until the point where it became clear the boys weren't falling for his jokes anymore. He became a creature lower than his station, because that creature was what he needed to be- one who is actively involved in the lives of mortals, but one who delights in sheer amusement and little else. He drowns himself in distraction, dancing through life in a haze of mindless self-indulgence and meaningless pleasure. As evidenced by his decadent apartment in Tall Tales, he’s hedonistic to the core. Whatever he wants, he gets, one way or another, because he’s too relentless and stubborn to give up- it was only after Sam begged him and he'd gotten so bored with the failed outcome of his game that he let Sam go in Mystery Spot, for example, which strikes home as a rare occasion when his tricks haven't worked, given how aggravated he seemed by the outcome. Also, it should be noted that the fact that he let Sam go at all is indicative of his mercy- he had no reason to continue to the game if Sam wasn't going to learn anything, so he released him from it. This is something that he claims he wouldn't do again in Changing Channels, but, by that time, the situation had become more frustrating on Gabriel's end and he was far more determined to get his way there.
In a lot of ways, Gabriel is extremely human to the point of coming off as a cocky frat boy or an overgrown child. He speaks in pop culture references almost to the point of it being a second language, which puts him way ahead of most angels in that department. He's been on earth long enough to have probably watched/read/whatever everything ever, so he's like a vast encyclopedia of knowledge that he does absolutely nothing with except use it for snarking purposes. It's a testament to how much he enjoys earth and humans that he appreciates the entertainment and is a good indication of how he was probably always gonna end up on humanity's side- he likes humans. He thinks some of them are better than others, but if he respects anything (and I'll get into that in a minute), it's humanity. It may have taken him a long to realize this due to his family loyalty, but it's clear that his interest and adoration has always existed. Due to the fact that he died before he ever had to really stop and think about what this meant, however, he tends to avoid stopping and thinking about it for too long- it means he's given up on his family, in some ways, and even if it was the right thing to do, it's still a sore spot (headcanon based on my experiences playing him post-death).
His moods can shift on a dime. He can go from being calm and rational one minute, to throwing you into a wall the next. While he defaults to a belligerently cheerful state (or a grumpy, cynical, sardonic state, depending on the day, but there's some level of snark to his attitude, no matter what mood he's in), it can change with almost no warning. At his worst, he can run hot and cold- flitting between two extremes until it feels like you’re stepping on eggshells, waiting for him to snap again. He doesn't stay angry long and he doesn't hold obvious grudges, but when he gets mad at you, you are keenly aware of it. His temper is heavy, but short-lived.
Respect isn't something that comes naturally to Gabriel- he prefers love. He loves deeply and passionately (platonically and romantically) and has a tendency to get attached quickly (this is proven by his almost immediate attachment to the Winchesters- while he's obviously tortured them plenty, he still gets a certain enjoyment out of playing with him- much to their dissatisfaction), but the people he's respected over the years have turned on him, so while he still loves them, he refuses to bow to them. His flippant attitude towards Lucifer all but proves this, even though it's clear Lucifer is one of his favorite brothers. It's almost impossible to earn what he terms as "respect" (as in, someone he won't mock, talk down to, or generally torment). He treats everyone as equals and even if he's afraid of someone (again Lucifer), they get just as much of his snark and attitude as anyone else- he doesn't discriminate and he doesn't treat anyone differently just because they're a "special snowflake" who dareth not be offended- heck, he even treats his friends with the same amount of smarm he uses on everyone else. His aggressively dominant, arrogant attitude generally means that he doesn't find it easy to show people respect anyway. Conversely, however, he also doesn't expect to be respected in turn- he expects people not to think their dick is bigger than his, but he doesn't give a damn about respect.
His sense of morality is skewed, but not completely absent. He believes firmly that every person he screws with deserves it and would never hurt anyone who didn’t deserve it or didn’t have a lesson they needed to learn. The people he kills are people who couldn’t have changed their ways, no matter what he tried- the ones who survive his pranks are the ones that there’s still hope for. He would point out to anyone that the people he doesn’t kill greatly outweigh the ones he does- it’s just that no one pays attention until bodies start turning up. He firmly believes what he does is right and that he's perfectly in his rights to deal out this brand of justice- sorry, he's an angel. It's what they do. He's not a hero and he would never refer to himself as such, even if he does have an almost vigilante thing going on, if you take away the fact that he clearly enjoys giving people what's coming to them that paints him in a heavily negative light. He's not a bad person. He's not a good person. He doesn't pretend to be either. He's just Gabriel.
He loves attention and being in the limelight. You can argue that his histrionics and his usually grandiose shows of his power are just subtle ploys to get the attention of someone, anyone to basically prove that his leaving Heaven meant something and that someone actually cares that he left, and that's probably true. He goes out of his way to be a show-off, taking victims in noticeable ways when he does it and hamming up everything does. He's a natural performer, in true trickster style, and he has a lot of style and a lot of flair that he enjoys showing off, but if there's a deeper meaning to it all beyond his massive ego and need for histrionics, he hides it well, much like he hides everything else.
With all his layers and conflicting parts, Gabriel is something of a contradiction. Despite his jerky nature, he has a certain sense of charm and style that keeps him from being a total bully. He can be a royal douche, but he doesn’t do anything without having a reason for it. He’s blunt and tactless, but that’s because he doesn’t sugarcoat things. He’s sympathetic to people, but his methods of showing sympathy are questionable at best and usually lacking. He will say exactly what he’s thinking and act like an arrogant prick, but he’ll do it in such a shameless way that it’s almost hard to take him seriously. He's generous, but only to people who deserve his generosity. He’s confident, probably overly so, but it’s not without merit- he’s an archangel and naturally defaults to an alpha status, usually without realizing it, simply because he knows he’s the most powerful being in a room at any given time and when you’re that powerful, you can’t help but come off as something of a dominant presence, even if it’s unconscious. He’s complicated, a contradiction, a mystery. He likes it that way.
That’s all outset, however.
Inside, he’s broken so deeply that he can become tempermental at the drop of a hat if you poke at his sore spots (and he has several). Say one triggering phrase and he’ll turn on you on a dime. Make one insinuation that gets to him and he’ll tear your throat out with his hands. Back him into a corner or trap him, and he becomes an emotional powder keg that flits between confidence and fear. Put him in a situation that he can’t win, and he starts to fall apart (except in Hammer of the Gods, but you could argue that he planned to come out on the losing end there). Take him down a peg and he’ll claw the walls to get back on top or else get the heck away before the situation becomes untenable and if he can't get away, he'll do everything in his power to make sure he, at least, looks like he has some level of control. It’s very hard to crack him, because he’ll hide even the most painful of emotions, and every time he comes close to breaking, he swallows it down and covers it up with more cocky sarcasm. He’ll swallow down everything but anger- anger’s the only thing he’ll sustain and even then, he won’t sustain it for very long. He hates being seen at his weakest and will do anything not to give anyone the impression that he's cracking.
He's a coward in many ways. He ran from Heaven when he couldn't take it anymore, but didn't have the balls to actually Fall, so he took an alternative route and hid himself from his family. He avoids confrontation and when he can't, he uses conjured proxies to fight his battles for him. He's horribly afraid of his family, both because he's afraid they'll kill him and because he's afraid that they'll see what he's become, look down on him in scorn, and just take him out and he can't stand the thought of being looked down at by the people he loves more than anything (this part is primarily headcanon, but taken from heavily implied context clues). Despite his cowardice, he's not actually afraid of very many things, which has a lot to do with being an archangel and generally being more powerful than most things and even when frightened, he adamantly refuses to show terrified he is. You'd have to be stabbing him to death before he'll show his fear.
For someone who is naturally dominant, he doesn’t believe in outward aggression unless forced to show it. He would much rather be a manipulator, than an enforcer, and unless pushed to that point, he would prefer to work behind the scenes to get back at his enemies, rather than confront them directly. He avoids conflict to the point where he’ll pretend it doesn’t exist until it’s shoved so far in his face that he has to admit it and once it gets to that point, he’d rather run and hide, then actively deal with it, especially if he thinks he's gonna wind up on the losing end. Even in Hammer of the Gods, when he confronts Lucifer, he goes out of his way to avoid starting an actual physical altercation with him. It's possible that he's actually just not that good at combat and does everything he can to avoid fighting fairly.
As an archangel, Gabriel is naturally inclined towards dominance without even realizing he is. When he walks into a room, he knows he's the most powerful creature in it and people will respect that. Take the scene in Hammer of the Gods where he crashes the god meeting, for example- to them, he's a minor deity, but he walks in and talks to everyone in the room like his is the biggest dick there and alpha males his way through the entire conversation. He doesn't need to show off or abuse his powers to prove to people what he can do, because he expects people to already know. When he brings down the pain on someone, that person will have deserved it in some way, either because they were a target or because they needed to be shown that he won't be toyed with. Gabriel doesn't expect to be taken seriously or even respected, but he does expect to be considered the dominant force in the room- the alpha, essentially. He doesn't flaunt his abilities, aside from providing himself with creature comforts- he merely does what's necessary to keep up his appearances as a Trickster and nothing more.
(Note that it's only after Dean implies that he's "someone's bitch" in Changing Channels that Gabriel officially snaps and attacks him. He had been coiled and ready to strike right before that, but that was the moment when he snapped- his authority and status had been challenged, as well as his relationship with his family and it broke something in him and destroyed his carefully cultivated nonchalant veneer, forcing him to take action.)
It bothers him immensely to not hold all the cards in a situation, even though he tries not to let it show. If anything, he tends to get cockier and more belligerent when he knows he's losing just to show that he hasn't completely lost it. Even when the Winchesters had him trapped, both in Mystery Spot and in Changing Channels (a similar situation happened with Kali in Hammer of the Gods), he retained his sense of cool and snarked at them up until the situation became dire and only then did he show some hint of strain and nervous anxiety towards the situation. Losing his power is one of the worst things that could happen to him- it would destroy a good portion of what he's made of himself. It's hard to be the belligerently cocky, controlled powderkeg when you have no gunpowder to speak of. Note the scene in Hammer of the Gods, when he's bloodspelled to Kali, he is extremely visibly uncomfortable any time he's not speaking. He knows he can't do anything- he's utterly powerless and it scares him. And while he does cover it up better than he might have had the situation not be an elaborate ruse, the fact that Kali still had him by the balls bothered him.
As he told Dean in Tall Tales, "I don't wanna hurt you and you know that I can." That's Gabe's entire philosophy on dealing with people who challenge him and aren't typically the people he targets. He wants to hurt people who deserve it, but if you don't, then he has no business with you and you either move along or he shows you exactly why he's not a force to be reckoned with. Gabe depends on people knowing he can hurt them, more than just walking around and showing it. He's arrogant. He's an archangel. He doesn't have to show people how powerful he is, because he already expects them to know. It's like walking up to a bear. The bear doesn't have to say, "I WILL MAUL YOU" before you go, "Hey, guys, that bear might just maul us."
Conversely, Gabriel only uses his powers on other people when he's teaching a specific lesson or if he's defending himself, otherwise he doesn't just bother. Even when he uses his powers on others, he has a sense of style and substance to the tricks he plays- all of them are just desserts specific to a person's "crime" or a tailored to teach a certain lesson. For a creature of trickery and indulgence, he takes his lessons very seriously, even as he acts like it's all fun and games- it is, but that's not all it is. There's a certain nuance to his work that only he gets the opportunity to really appreciate it. He's an artist and his tricks are his art. They're extremely important to him and while he does play around, occasionally, to defend himself or to get rid of people who are getting on his nerves, the big guns are saved for actual targets.
Gabriel's most obvious fatal flaw is own arrogance and overconfidence, while he can generally handle any threat, he has a tendency to miss the bigger picture and doesn't consider alternate means of attack, beyond the obvious, so when people get the jump on him, it's usually because they turned his tricks back on him and as soon as he thinks he has all the cards in a situation, the trap is already sprung. The Winchesters have pulled this tactic on him twice now and Kali pulls it on him in HotG- the easiest way to lure Gabriel in is to make him think he's winning until the last second. He's not stupid. He's a product of an overinflated ego and a stubborn attitude that has him repeating mistakes, BECAUSE WHAT ARE THE CHANCES ANYONE'S GONNA PULL THAT AGAIN? REALLY?
Despite abandoning his family, Gabriel is unquestionably loyal to them and would probably do anything for them, even if indirectly, because taking it up with them personally is too much. His decisions and choices in Changing Channels were ultimately selfish, but that was his way of trying to keep his family from tearing each other apart, even if (and he won't deny it for a second) he was trying to end it quickly for his own personal comfort. Gabriel's family (any of his families) are his most obvious vulnerabilities. Hurting them or threatening them or insinuating that he's abandoned them and doesn't really care is likely to make him snap, although how far he'll snap and what he'll do is greatly dependent on who is doing the taunting. If he knows people are doing it specifically get a rise out of him, then he'll shut down and pretend he doesn't care, because he hates being manipulated and he knows that showing how much it hurts him will only cause more pain (Dean tries to pull this on him early in Hammer of the Gods to guilt him and Gabriel brushes it off- it's only after Dean presses the matter later that Gabriel actually starts breaking down a bit about it). Even though he's a clear coward, his actions in Hammer of the Gods suggest further the sort of things he'd do for family- he risked putting himself in harm's way to keep his surrogate family away from Lucifer and even, after choosing humanity's side over his brother's side, stood up to Lucifer to look out for them. He's protective the people he cares about, even if most of his protecting comes in the form of telling them off for being stupid. What Lucifer fails to understand in HotG when he chooses to stand by humanity, rather than angels is that he's just choosing a different side of his family- they're just as much his family as the angels, "new baby" and all.
Gabriel has an atypical trait for an angel- his lust, considering he’s sexually active (and Lucifer didn't seem to find this strange at all, so, apparently, it's not completely unheard of, although when you consider the Fallen who had sex with humans to form the Nephilim... Yeah.) However, he's also capable of deep, romantic love. As it stands, Gabriel is the one angel in Heaven who seems to love the most (platonically, anyway), besides Lucifer. His leaving Heaven was motivated by love for his family- he loved too much to watch them kill each other, so he left. No other angel since Lucifer, himself, has expressed such intense love for other angels. They’ve all been devoted to causes or are, at least, to some degree selfish. Even Castiel has issues with the concept of love, although he’s capable of it to a higher degree than most other angels. Gabriel is completely driven by it. Even after so long on earth, he keeps hiding, because he’s afraid of what might happen when he tries to go back- he wants to keep the memory of his family loving him in return in his mind, rather than deal with facing their wrath for what would likely be viewed as a betrayal (again, this is headcanon based on extensive analysis of his relationship with his family and from playing him). .
The appearance of Kali in Hammer of the Gods all but confirms that Gabriel's something of a romantic. Gabriel acts like she's merely a fling, but when he gets in a room with her, even as he's duping her, it's easy to tell that he deeply, deeply cares about her, although he tries to pin all the affection all on her, rather than show weakness. ("Still love me?") Even later, after she senses his betrayal and binds him to her and then "kills" him, he brushes the whole thing off without even the slightest indication that he was hurt when it was clear that they both were, because he'd rather lie than show that he's the weak one. However, it's Kali he saves from Lucifer, even knowing that she would have killed him had the blade not been fake. So Gabriel is, in fact, capable of honest-to-God passionate, romantic love, even if he'd hardly be the sort to admit it.
In both romance and family, Gabriel's love is unconditional. No matter what he says otherwise, he loves strongly and intensely to the point where the people he loves can hurt him, but they can't do anything to make him hate them, even if they wind up bickering, even if they wind up betraying each other, he's not capable of truly hating someone he once loved. While he treats people the same, he is still capable of immense compassion and sympathy and when it comes down to the wire, he'll desperately try to protect someone he loves- for example, the way he tried to convince Kali not to fight Lucifer. Even the fact that came out of hiding to protect the gods at all was a show of his compassion. He looks out for the people he cares about. Even as Lucifer kills him, when the look of betrayal has passed, Gabriel almost looks genuinely upset, but there's no hint of hatred of malice- just the pain that it had to be this way. It's even clear from their entire confrontation that Gabriel planned the situation around not killing his brother- he made it way too obvious that it was a trap. Even after everything, he still loves his brothers and will never stop loving them.
History: The youngest of the first three archangels in Heaven, Gabriel was known as The Messenger, the angel who bore good tidings to humanity. He was the signal to Lucifer's beacon and Michael's tower (Biblical canon, not specifically Supernatural canon) and, more than anything, he loved his family to the point where he would have done anything for any of them. He loved the Father with all his heart and even though he never quite shared God's enthusiasm for humans, he still respected the fact that He believed they were worthy and watched over them and protected them.
And then Michael and Lucifer had their falling out and while all the other angels supported one or the other, Gabriel hung back. Both of his older brothers urged him to choose a side and Gabriel just turned to God and asked Him why He didn't just stop them from tearing each other apart. God refused to answer, Lucifer was cast into the pit, and Gabriel departed from the curtain of Heaven sometime after the Birth of Christ, never to see his family again until much later.
The strain of being away from Heaven would've eventually rendered him one of the Fallen and he half expected that his family would eventually track him down if he wasn't careful, so he entered what he would eventually call "witness protection" by taking the Trickster god Loki on as his vessel (angels must take human vessels when they're on earth, but it's heavily implied that Gabriel is using Loki as a vessel). Using Loki's powers to supplement his Grace, he was able to stay on Earth for two thousand years while still keeping hold of his archangel powers. He took on Loki's identity and mingled amongst pagan gods, turning to them as a surrogate family and among them and the pleasures of Earth, he became less and less of an angel and more and more of a Trickster. Using a Trickster's MO, he delivered "just desserts" to people who deserved them and delighted in every second of it.
Years (more like centuries) later, while targeting a college campus in Springfield, Ohio, he met Sam and Dean Winchester, two Hunters who were investigating his string of murders and general weirdness in the town. Well aware that the boys were Michael and Lucifer's destined vessels, he decided to toy with them to keep them off his scent and to see just how far he could push their buttons, figuring that if they couldn't even get through a prank war without wanting to kill each other, there'd be no hope for them when the eventual Armageddon rolled around. Eventually, he was found out and believing Dean to be trying to go after him alone, tried to tempt him with women as a means to get away without having to hurt the boys. Dean refused and then when "The Trickster" told him that he shouldn't have come alone, Sam and Bobby showed up, revealing that the Trickster had gotten tricked. The Trickster held them off with his manifestations, but eventually Dean got one up on him and stabbed him with a wooden stake, supposedly killing him. Unfortunately, what Dean stabbed turned out to be a copy and The Trickster lived to fight another day.
He turned up again in Broward County, Florida. Sam and Dean came to investigate the disappearance of a man named Daniel Hasselbeck (on top of their current mission of trying to find a way out of Dean's contract that would send him to Hell), but during their investigation of the town's infamous "mystery spot," Dean was killed and Sam woke up the next morning to find the day repeating itself. Sam lived through a hundred Tuesdays before he realized it was the Trickster's work and eventually cornered him. The Trickster, after playing the boys as long as possible, eventually owned up to his actions and, under threat of stabbing, told Sam that he'd stop the loop if they promised to let him go. Sam refused and the Trickster worked his way out anyway. Unfortunately, while it was Wendsday when Sam woke up, true to the Trickster's promise, Dean was still killed and Sam went through six months of revenge, trying to hunt the Trickster down, eventually finding him. Cornered and with the upper hand over a broken Sam this time, the Trickster explained to him that the whole time loop had been a lesson to teach Sam that he needed to stop obsessing over saving Dean from Hell, because "nothing good comes out of it." It's heavily implied that the Trickster was trying to keep Sam from heading towards the road to the apocalypse, given he turned to the exact same revenge-driven route the Trickster showed him after Dean finally went to Hell. Either way, through Sam's being a whiny bitch, the Trickster eventually agreed to reset the time loop back to the Wednesday Dean died for real, giving Sam his brother back and allowing the Winchesters to continue on their downward spiral to pain.
During the next season, we don't see the Trickster/Gabriel at all, due, more than likely, to the fact that with the Apocalypse drawing near, angels were thick on the ground and he needed to keep from being seen by his family. By the time the Winchesters started the Apocalypse and learned that they were the chosen vessels for Michael and Lucifer, Gabriel (because, well, he had to wake up sometime and realize there's no getting away from his true identity) began to get sick of his family tearing itself apart and created an elaborate ploy to get the boys to agree to be the vessels. He trapped them in TV Land, orchestrating a game where they had to "play their roles" as a metaphor for playing their roles out in the real world. When they refused to accept this, Gabriel threatened to lock them in TV Land forever, but Dean figured out that Gabriel must've been lying about being a Trickster, thanks to Castiel, the boys' angel friend, who suspected that Gabriel was too powerful to be a Trickster. Using the remainder of the holy oil he'd used to trap another archangel, Dean and Sam tricked Gabriel into a holy fire trap (the only thing that can hold an angel) and interrogated him until he revealed who he was. From there, Gabriel revealed that he was tired of the fighting and that nothing could be done to stop it. Dean called him on his cowardice and disagreed that there was no other way, saying that he was "too afraid to stand up to his family" and freed him from the trap, leaving him to consider those words.
Gabriel remains MIA for the rest of the season, but returns again to warn a group of pagan gods that are trying to stop the Apocalypse by using Sam and Dean as bargaining chips, that they're going to get themselves killed. Although, he claims he's there to get the boys out of the fire, Dean calls him on being concerned for his friends and forces him to own up to it. While seducing his ex-girlfriend Kali (yes, that one) as a way to distract her and break her bloodspell over Sam and Dean, Kali figured out what he was doing and blood-bonded him to her, trapping him along with Sam and Dean. During a confrontation with Kali, she stabs him with his own sword, making everyone believe he's dead, although Dean finds out moments later that it was an elaborate con and that Gabriel, while still confined to the area, is trying to hide out. Dean refuses to buckle to Gabriel's plans to run before Lucifer shows up and kills everyone and calls him on his hiding behind a smartass shell to avoid dealing with how much he cares about people and tries to convince him to man up against Lucifer. Gabriel protests that he can't kill his brother and Dean leaves him alone, after, once again, calling him on his cowardice.
However, Gabriel eventually does man up. As every god eventually gets killed by Lucifer, leaving only Kali and the boys alive, he shows up to confront his brother... Only to wind up in the Wood, mere moments before the confrontation can actually occur.
First Person Sample: Oookay, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page here. You’re trapping me here for some reason and... I’m just expected to go along with it, ‘cause the sentient Wood and all its little mystical woodfolk say so? Uh... How about no? Look, guys. Unless you piss holy oil, I’ve got no reason to consider you a threat. But, hey. I’m a reasonable born-again Trickster. I get the whole concept, so I have nothing against your lifestyle choices. Just send me home and we can let bygones be bygones. Have your pantheon call my pantheon. We’ll do lunch. Y’know, if you’re not too busy helping children fly with your pixie dust.
Oh, what? Am I offending you? I’m so sorry I’m not intimidated by things that drop dead when someone says they don’t believe in fairies.
Now get me the hell out of here or this? Gets really bad. Trust me, Tinkerbell.
Prose Sample: Context of this log sample can be found here.
Gabriel was being swarmed by the time Cassie ran by, which normally wouldn't be a problem for a teleporting angel- except when people are grabbing onto you and trying to hold you down, you run the risk of just teleporting them and putting these idiots near Cassie was a Bad Plan.
So best to grimace and start throwing them off as best as he could. He slammed three of them against the wall and backpedaled to slam the one trying to hold him back with a billy club pressed against his chest into the wall. The next one that came up got casually flicked into the wall with a wave of his hand. One of the idiots that actually remembered that they were armed fired a shot at him. He stumbled- more at the shock than anything- and dropped to one knee before turning around, glowering, and snapping him somewhere else. The top of Mt. Everest for all he cared.
Bleeding, but technically uninjured, he bolted in the direction Cassie had entered, ducking down a hall and pressing himself against the wall as a group of people thundered past. He ducked out as the last one passed him and clicked his tongue.
"Lemme guess. You're the calvary?" He tilted his head to the side. The group of guards all turned to face him- specials, the whole lot of them. Well. That was easily dealt with. "Remember the Alamo, boys," he smirked. They all got into fighting stance, ready to face off and all Gabriel had to do was raise his hands and clap twice. "Clap off."
And every mutant in the room suddenly becomes impotent. While they reeled from the shock, Gabriel strolled forwards. "Yeah, I know. I'm amazing. Hold your applause, kids. I'll be here all day."
One of them lunged and tried to grab him and Gabriel whipped out a hand, caught the bastard's wrist and snapped it with ruthless efficiency. "Yes, it's bulletproof, takes your powers, can snap you like a twig, and makes julienne fries. Who else wants to place an order?"
The guards hesitated. Gabriel tossed the man with the broken wrist aside. "Thought so."
He started to move off again and then turned around. "Oh, and... Here's the thing... You guys should probably amscray, 'cause... If I catch you on my way out? This is gonna look like the set of a Tarantino flick." He raised two fingers and mimed 'I'm watching you' before heading off back down the hall.
Special Notes: NONE TO SPEAK OF.