sirenspull app
Player Information
Name: Chris
Age: 22
AIM SN: KawaiiSpinel42
email: whatineverhad [at] gmail.com
Have you played in an LJ based game before? Yep.
Bonus: How did you hear about Siren's Pull? UM. A FRIEND WANTED TO APP AND I STALKED HER LIFE?
Character Information
General
Canon Source: Supernatural
Canon Format: TV Series
Character's Name: Gabriel, aka The Trickster
Character's Age: Old. We're talking billions.
Conditional: If your character is 13 years of age or under, please clarify how they will be played. N/A
What form will your character's NV take? The douchiest blackberry ever. Because Gabriel would hate it.
Abilities
Character's Canon Abilities: BEING A MASSIVE GODMOD.
Okay, besides that.
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.
If need be, he can be toned down. Just tell me what you need limited and I'll do it.
Conditional: If your character has no superhuman canon abilities, what dormant ability will you give them? N/A
Weapons: He has his archangel's blade, which is capable of killing another angel, so it can probably kill almost anything. It looks like a silver train spike. No really.
History/Personality/Plans/etc.
Character 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 this place.
Point in Canon: Towards the end of 5X19: Hammer of the Gods. Gabriel was in the middle of standing up to his older brother Lucifer in the name of humanity- an act that would get him killed and, to some extent, he knew would likely get him killed.
Conditional: Brief summary of previous RP history: N/A
Character 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.
Angels don’t often understand the concept of love from a human perspective. Gabriel certainly understands the concept of lust from their perspective, 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.) Love is a different animal. However, there’s plenty of evidence that he’s capable of it. In a lot of ways, Gabriel is the one angel in Heaven who seems to love the most. 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 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 the only one who seems to be 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). If he’s fallen so far as to ascribe to human concepts of lust, he’s probably quite capable of deep, passionate love- he already feels it, platonically, for his family to such a high extreme.
The appearance of Kali in Hammer of the Gods all but confirms that. 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.
Conditional: Personality development in previous game: N/A
Character Plans: As Gabriel intentionally martyred himself, knowing he'd probably never have to live with the difficult choice of fighting against his brothers, because he'd rather die than have to pick a side, he's still not really sold on HELPING HUMANITY thing. He likes humans a lot, but he's not really Mr. Big Shot Hero and he needs to get to a point where he can willingly look out for and protect people and stop being such a candyass coward who acts tough and can be tough, but runs the opposite direction when he doesn't think the situation can concern him. He also needs to be faced with things bigger than him and learn to seek help when he needs it, since he's gotten quite attached to just doing whatever the hell he wants and not bothering with help.
Appearance/PB: How's 245 icons sound? 8|
Writing Samples
First Person Sample Oh real mature, Lucifer. I get it. I learned allll my tricks from you and now I get a taste of my own medicine. Well, guess what, bro? I meant what I said and you can adjust your underwear accordingly, because I ain't taking it back just because you're a delicate princess who needn't be offended.
...Oh what? Is this the silent treatment? The silent treatment in Silent Hill. Real original. By the way? This looks like the generic version. You couldn't even spring for the real thing. Geez. The student's really surpassed the teacher.
...Lucifer? Lucy? ...Hello?
Third Person Sample They don't warn you about the angel afterlife.
They should have, he supposed, considering the number of angels that died in the original war and maybe someone- Joshua, maybe- should have told them what happened to all their fallen brothers and sisters. Where did their essences go when they faded away into nothing. You hear weird stories about their Father's little workroom- the Chamber of Gaffe or whatever the kids were calling it these days- and about how it was supposed to be the keepsake jar for all the souls that had yet to have been born. Maybe that was the real irony of it all. You get your Grace cut out of you forcefully and then you get to join the human race.
Daddy's first children, slowly becoming his new favorite children.
Gabriel may have taken humanity's side, but the idea of his grace getting ripped out of him and then ending up some schmuck in Tupelo with a wife and a kid and a dog and a picket fence and no memory of being an archangel just made him want to punch out God again. Maybe the bastard was right, but that didn't mean he was fair about anything.
The fact that he was lying on his back on the ground, staring up at a cloudy sky overhead with a metallic taste of blood in his vessel's mouth that probably shouldn't still be there, and a memory that wouldn't still be his if he was just some essence out in the ether brought him out of his half-dazed stupor and he scrambled to his feet, stirring up dust on the ground in the process and coating himself in a fine layer of it. He coughed and spat blood onto the road, his hand immediately going his vessel's heart- still beating steady under his fingertips. It probably shouldn't be. The damn thing had enough shit rammed into it over the years to be a pincushion by now, but something about the angel inside it kept everything in functional order, even though he had no use for any of it and the owner of the vessel was long since a faded memory. The wonders of the human body- except this vessel only looked human. Maybe it was just preserving its own image.
...That really wasn't the fucking point right now.
The blood in his mouth was just an aftertaste. He was alive- alive when he should've been dead (really dead, not that fake crap he pulled on Sam and Dean all the damn time). He was torn between laughing and shouting at the Heavens about what good it was to pull the martyr shit if it was just going to be bought back twenty seconds later. He settled for a combination of both- a frustrated sort of hysterical laughter, followed by one rude and unangelic gesture directed at the sky.
That done, he got to his feet, brushing the dust off his clothes. He could feel the heavy weight of his sword in his jacket pocket and that was less of a comfort than it should've been- that thing had killed him. If God was keeping an eye on this, He had a lot of explaining to do.
"Okay," he said, looking around. "You win, Dad. I get it." He glanced around. The area was... Lacking the usual Eden appeal he expected from God's Bullshit Courses if that was, in fact, what this was- for all he knew, God revived him and then dropped him in the middle of nowhere just to be a royal prick. What exactly had he done to deserve this, anyway? Beyond the whole pagan god crap, which, incidentally, he probably paid for that by dying.
He whistled, taking in the decor. Armageddon chic. Very in this year. "Love what you've done with the place. Don't think the kids're gonna like what you did with their room, though, but, hey, when have you ever given a fuck about what we think, huh?"
The wind carried a stench he had somehow managed to ignore, given the fact that he was a little preoccupied with not being as dead as he would've imagined. He made a face and then whirled as something pinged on his angel senses, only to find a little girl wearing a hat that she must've torn off someone's Breakfast at Tiffany's ensemble. The thing was probably bigger than her entire head and covered her eyes. She was clutching the remains of a bedraggled teddy bear that was hemorrhaging stuffing. Any normal little girl would've been shrieking about the state of her toy. This kid... Well, even without the smell, she pinged all wrong. The hairs on the back of his neck stood up and he slowly reached into his jacket to pull out his sword.
The girl looked up, exposing her face for the first time. It was greenish in hue and her skin seemed to be peeling in fleshy patches, deep enough to almost expose bone. Her eyes were a milky white color and when she grinned up at him, her teeth were rotted to the core, but somehow still looked sharp enough to be used for one thing. Gabriel had watched enough Romero to know what that one thing was.
There were only four words to describe this kind of situation.
Not. In. Kansas. Anymore.