paradisa app
NAME: Chris
JOURNAL: kawaiispinel
EMAIL: whatineverhad [at] gmail.com
AIM: KawaiiSpinel42
WIKI NAME: N/A
CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER NAME: Gabriel, aka the Trickster
FANDOM: Supernatural
CANON: 5X19: Hammer of the Gods
WHAT THEY LOST: His Grace. As an angel, it's THE most important thing to him- it's his essence, his spirit. He's more of a little spark in a meatsack than an actual angel without it. He will be, more or less, like Castiel post Point of No Return- he'll retain all his memories of being an angel, but won't have any of the actual powers that goes with it. As it's heavily implied his vessel isn't human, but, in fact, the Norse god Loki, he'll retain a slight strength and speed advantage as well as a slightly more elevated resilience to injury than a normal human, but beyond that will be fundamentally human.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: 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 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.
When we first meet Gabriel in the guise of the janitor in Tall Tales, 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- he has no problems telling Sam and Dean how completely screwed they are numerous times, for example. 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- such as the fact that he stayed perfectly calm in the holy fire trap until it became evident that Sam and Dean might leave him behind.
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. 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.
All of this, however, is part of his public persona, because it’s important that Gabriel keep his true feelings hidden and thus he does everything to avoid looking like he gives a damn until forced into the open. 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. This is how he manages. This is how he deals with the fact that he turned tail and abandoned the people he cared about- by pretending he really doesn’t give a damn.
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.
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), 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, because staying angry or holding obvious grudges implies that something actually got to him. (Note that while he does make a comment about tormenting Sam and Dean during Mystery Spot as being revenge for trying to kill him, it really wasn’t- it was always about Sam. And there’s no animosity towards the boys at all in Hammer of the Gods, other than Gabriel’s usual smarm, despite Dean ripping Gabriel a new one in Changing Channels.)
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.
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, 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."
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.
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, 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.
In a lot of ways, Gabriel is 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. 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.
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?
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Gabriel, for all intents and purposes, could've looked worse, but he'd pretty much goaded Michael and every other angel who drew the short straw and guarded his cell into doing something a little more than just talking at him and nothing had really came out of it. Nothing.... Major, anyway. There was still a looming threat- the fact that Michael had infinite time to break him if he so chose and that in, itself, was a torture. The Sword of Damocles dangling over his head, if you will.
Michael intended to cut everything that was him out and leave him just like all the other angels, which was an insult. He wasn't a drone- he was an archangel. The Left Hand of God.
....Or was, rather. Maybe that was the point. You give up everything and you don't get the whole VIP package when you return. He was stripped of his rank from the moment he parted the curtain.
When did this become the army? Or, God forbid, a fucking corporate office, like Zachariah used to think. When did it stop being about family?
...Speaking of family.
Gabriel's angsty internal monologue was broken up by Anna's voice and after a few seconds of blinking from the corner of the cell, he scrambled to his feet and ran over to the door. Confusion became shock and shock became relief and then relief became... Irritation. It wasn't that he wasn't grateful for the rescue party, but Anna had already gotten stuck up here once. He had faith he could tough this joint out. Anna... Not so much. Not a second time.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Oh, he had to admit, he was glad to see her- really, really glad- but sheer worry outweighed everything else. If she got caught, then they'd both be victims of the angel version of a lobotomy and he was not gonna let that happen to her. As selfish and self-preserving as he'd always been, family came first.
"You need to turn your ass around and get back home," he demanded, hoping maybe the whole archangel thing still gave him some sort of clout when it counted. "I'm fine. See? Couldn't be better? I mean, the room could use a few curtains and try getting a decent latte from some of these people, but it could be a lot worse."
One day he'd realize that his coping mechanisms have all been figured out and that the more he protests how okay he is, the less okay he probably is.
"Besides," he added, as if sensing Anna wouldn't buy that and would just argue, "I've got my own plan."
Yeah, so maybe she's trying to save him, which, for the stupidity it entailed, did mean a lot to him. Not many people would've bothered to come save his ass and he knew that from the jump, just like he knew Lucifer would kill him and Michael would yank his ass back up to Heaven and... Coming out of these plans was never really an option. Deserters don't get second chances... Except he and Anna did.
Still didn't change the fact that as much respect as he'd managed to get for the Host since his death, he still didn't trust Him worth a lick. He only seemed to interfere when it was good for Him. So he didn't have faith anymore. He had faith in humanity- sort of- which was sorta the original point, he figured. Faith in humanity, however... Was part of what got him into this mess.
Faith in Anna, however, provided he could stop trying to act like his dick was bigger, might get him out.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Okaaaay. So sheep go to Heaven, goats go to Hell, annnnd, apparently, angels go to Disneyland. Huh. That's new. I wasn't really aiming for beachfront property in front of the Magic Kingdom, but there you go.
[Golf claps.]
Okay, I get it. Big flash of light, ashes on the pavement, Eric Clapton playing on the stereo system. Grand finale. You can stop being an ass now. What's the message here? Save a human, ride the pony express to Nomojoville? ....Dad? I won't be ignored, Dad.
[LONG, LONG PAUSE. Like there's this dawning realization that there is no God here or something equally awkwardly poetic.]
....Someone's got five seconds to explain this crap. Timer starts now.
INTENT: I've been playing him pretty steadily for going on a year and for a minor character, he's an extremely fun and compelling character to play in varying environments. Despite his angsty canon point, I'm looking more for a chance to develop him in a more positive light, since I tend to put him through Hell in other games. Despite that, my intent with apping him anywhere from this canon point remains the same- he made a choice to stand by humanity instead of his family and died before he could truly act on it (possibly intentionally). The idea is to develop him past that- get him actually practicing what he preached to Lucifer. He's still attached to his family and he does respect humans in some ways, but he has to strike a balance. ....Also, his newfound Loss is going to teach him the value of not being a powermonger. :|
JOURNAL: kawaiispinel
EMAIL: whatineverhad [at] gmail.com
AIM: KawaiiSpinel42
WIKI NAME: N/A
CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER NAME: Gabriel, aka the Trickster
FANDOM: Supernatural
CANON: 5X19: Hammer of the Gods
WHAT THEY LOST: His Grace. As an angel, it's THE most important thing to him- it's his essence, his spirit. He's more of a little spark in a meatsack than an actual angel without it. He will be, more or less, like Castiel post Point of No Return- he'll retain all his memories of being an angel, but won't have any of the actual powers that goes with it. As it's heavily implied his vessel isn't human, but, in fact, the Norse god Loki, he'll retain a slight strength and speed advantage as well as a slightly more elevated resilience to injury than a normal human, but beyond that will be fundamentally human.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: 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 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.
When we first meet Gabriel in the guise of the janitor in Tall Tales, 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- he has no problems telling Sam and Dean how completely screwed they are numerous times, for example. 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- such as the fact that he stayed perfectly calm in the holy fire trap until it became evident that Sam and Dean might leave him behind.
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. 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.
All of this, however, is part of his public persona, because it’s important that Gabriel keep his true feelings hidden and thus he does everything to avoid looking like he gives a damn until forced into the open. 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. This is how he manages. This is how he deals with the fact that he turned tail and abandoned the people he cared about- by pretending he really doesn’t give a damn.
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.
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), 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, because staying angry or holding obvious grudges implies that something actually got to him. (Note that while he does make a comment about tormenting Sam and Dean during Mystery Spot as being revenge for trying to kill him, it really wasn’t- it was always about Sam. And there’s no animosity towards the boys at all in Hammer of the Gods, other than Gabriel’s usual smarm, despite Dean ripping Gabriel a new one in Changing Channels.)
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.
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, 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."
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.
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, 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.
In a lot of ways, Gabriel is 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. 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.
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?
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Gabriel, for all intents and purposes, could've looked worse, but he'd pretty much goaded Michael and every other angel who drew the short straw and guarded his cell into doing something a little more than just talking at him and nothing had really came out of it. Nothing.... Major, anyway. There was still a looming threat- the fact that Michael had infinite time to break him if he so chose and that in, itself, was a torture. The Sword of Damocles dangling over his head, if you will.
Michael intended to cut everything that was him out and leave him just like all the other angels, which was an insult. He wasn't a drone- he was an archangel. The Left Hand of God.
....Or was, rather. Maybe that was the point. You give up everything and you don't get the whole VIP package when you return. He was stripped of his rank from the moment he parted the curtain.
When did this become the army? Or, God forbid, a fucking corporate office, like Zachariah used to think. When did it stop being about family?
...Speaking of family.
Gabriel's angsty internal monologue was broken up by Anna's voice and after a few seconds of blinking from the corner of the cell, he scrambled to his feet and ran over to the door. Confusion became shock and shock became relief and then relief became... Irritation. It wasn't that he wasn't grateful for the rescue party, but Anna had already gotten stuck up here once. He had faith he could tough this joint out. Anna... Not so much. Not a second time.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Oh, he had to admit, he was glad to see her- really, really glad- but sheer worry outweighed everything else. If she got caught, then they'd both be victims of the angel version of a lobotomy and he was not gonna let that happen to her. As selfish and self-preserving as he'd always been, family came first.
"You need to turn your ass around and get back home," he demanded, hoping maybe the whole archangel thing still gave him some sort of clout when it counted. "I'm fine. See? Couldn't be better? I mean, the room could use a few curtains and try getting a decent latte from some of these people, but it could be a lot worse."
One day he'd realize that his coping mechanisms have all been figured out and that the more he protests how okay he is, the less okay he probably is.
"Besides," he added, as if sensing Anna wouldn't buy that and would just argue, "I've got my own plan."
Yeah, so maybe she's trying to save him, which, for the stupidity it entailed, did mean a lot to him. Not many people would've bothered to come save his ass and he knew that from the jump, just like he knew Lucifer would kill him and Michael would yank his ass back up to Heaven and... Coming out of these plans was never really an option. Deserters don't get second chances... Except he and Anna did.
Still didn't change the fact that as much respect as he'd managed to get for the Host since his death, he still didn't trust Him worth a lick. He only seemed to interfere when it was good for Him. So he didn't have faith anymore. He had faith in humanity- sort of- which was sorta the original point, he figured. Faith in humanity, however... Was part of what got him into this mess.
Faith in Anna, however, provided he could stop trying to act like his dick was bigger, might get him out.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: Okaaaay. So sheep go to Heaven, goats go to Hell, annnnd, apparently, angels go to Disneyland. Huh. That's new. I wasn't really aiming for beachfront property in front of the Magic Kingdom, but there you go.
[Golf claps.]
Okay, I get it. Big flash of light, ashes on the pavement, Eric Clapton playing on the stereo system. Grand finale. You can stop being an ass now. What's the message here? Save a human, ride the pony express to Nomojoville? ....Dad? I won't be ignored, Dad.
[LONG, LONG PAUSE. Like there's this dawning realization that there is no God here or something equally awkwardly poetic.]
....Someone's got five seconds to explain this crap. Timer starts now.
INTENT: I've been playing him pretty steadily for going on a year and for a minor character, he's an extremely fun and compelling character to play in varying environments. Despite his angsty canon point, I'm looking more for a chance to develop him in a more positive light, since I tend to put him through Hell in other games. Despite that, my intent with apping him anywhere from this canon point remains the same- he made a choice to stand by humanity instead of his family and died before he could truly act on it (possibly intentionally). The idea is to develop him past that- get him actually practicing what he preached to Lucifer. He's still attached to his family and he does respect humans in some ways, but he has to strike a balance. ....Also, his newfound Loss is going to teach him the value of not being a powermonger. :|