Information
OOC Information:
Name: Gabe
Age: 18
AIM: Schlafsuchtig
MSN:
E-MAIL: vetinari.for.patrician@gmail.com
IC Information:
Name: Gabriel, but also known as The Trickster and/or Loki.
Fandom: Supernatural.
Timeline: Season 5 Episode 19, just after he’s made his video will and is about to enter the hotel to confront Lucifer.
Age: He's been around since The Beginning. So... as old as the universe, however old that is.
Facility-Specific Info: In Facility he's limited to 25% power, so if you're a Supernatural viewer, I'd say that'd put him approximately around the level of Castiel while he was in the early stages of falling. Here's some details for a better idea...:
-He can teleport, but not out of the Facility. (obviously)
-He can't 'magic up' much. Certainly nothing too big or complicated - trying to conjure up a parody of Grey's Anatomy or CSI: Miami now just wouldn't work. He's pretty much stuck with cakes and cocktails, and probably nothing more than some furniture. As far as his much-loved magic hookers go, it'll be one at a time from now on, and they won't be anywhere near as realistic. Same goes for replicas of himself, which he may miss a bit less.
He's more likely to just create the illusion of things, for that effect, as too much manipulation of reality will tire him out, whereas illusions are a lot easier. For illusions, he still can't do anything on a massive scale (like, for example, turning his eye into the moon (or maybe vice versa) and hypnotising the whole world), but stuff like changing his appearance is simple. He can change others' appearances too, but not for longer than a day or so.
-No more time travel unless he finds a DeLorean lying around.
-In terms of injuring people, he's not going to be as much of a threat. He doesn't usually explode people anyway, but he's not gonna be doing it at all here - it's too much effort. However, he can kill you fairly easily. It won't be instakill, but he can still break your arm with barely an effort, and even if he can't kill you with his mind (and he probably can, though it'll be a longer process than usual) he can kill you pretty quickly with his sword. (This is assuming you're a regular human. Otherwise, effects may vary.)
-Likewise, his healing powers are down. He can manage things at the level of broken bones, 2nd degree burns (maybe 3rd if he really tries), and wounds that aren't instantly fatal - if bleeding out's the issue, he can probably have it fixed before it kills. However, healing at this level will not be instantaneous and will be tiring to him. The same limitations apply to healing himself, though to kill him you need an Antichrist, Godstiel (woops), Death's Scythe, or an archangel's blade. Or presumably, weapons with similar properties from other canons. However, let's say anything he wouldn't be able to fix would work too, for example decapitation (though you'd need to be pretty strong to cut through his neck). If you wanna kill him, the best way is to steal his sword. He got it back after Shadow Week, so it's in the Facility and therefore fair game for stabbing him with |:
-His physical strength is nerfed too. He's still significantly stronger than an average human, but he's not going to be lifting any elephants. He could probably snap your leg by twisting, or throw anyone lighter than around 18 stones (114 kg) across a room, but he wouldn't have the stamina to keep that up for long. If he gets into a serious fight, chances are he'll end it quickly or he'll lose - he hasn't exactly needed to practice building up his stamina before.
-His telekinetic strength... well, that depends. If he's picking on an average human, he can probably throw them across the room, but it'll be a little tiring. Anyone with telekinetic strength or supernatural power would be more difficult - he wouldn't be tossing Lucifer around anymore, or at least, not for long. It also depends on physical size - he won't have much difficulty if you're under 20 stones, but if you're much over that it'll take a considerable effort. It does, however, mean that if you're in the same room as him and he notices that you have something he wants, say, a lollipop... well, you can say goodbye to that lollipop. Too much, as with all other abilities, will tire him out, but for small things like that it'd take a lot.
Doing too much of any of the above, really, will tire him out - except flight/teleportation. While Castiel was falling he went on a hunt for God and pretty much travelled the world, and if the angelic equivalent of a foot-soldier who is also losing his power every day can do it, so can an archangel, even nerfed to 25%.
Appearance: His true form is very bright light, which will burn out the eyes of humans who witness it. This makes things rather difficult for Supernatural's angels, so they tend to possess human vessels. His is, all in all, a pretty average-looking guy, especially for an archangel-turned-Trickster. He's short, around 5'7", and appears to be in his mid to late thirties. His hair and eyes are nondescript - golden brown and hazel, respectively, though they appear to vary depending on the lighting.
Generally, he wears too-long jeans and an olive-green jacket with a (usually clashing) too-big shirt underneath; in this case, it's maroon.
Abilities: Best described as godlike, probably. Like all angels in the Supernatural-verse, he can teleport instantaneously; it's implied that this is by flight. He can also teleport others.
He frequently makes use of his ability to manipulate reality - he can magic up with a snap of his fingers anything from a candy bar to a whole new reality, for example when he zaps the two main characters into 'TV Land', made up of his own versions of various television shows. He often avoids death by creating replicas of himself, which seem to share his powers.
He can manipulate not only reality but also time, for example in 'Mystery Spot', where he first induces a time-loop, and later in the episode rewinds time by around six months.
Judging by the powers of angels of lower rank, such as Zachariah, he can change humans' biology at will - for example, removing lungs or inducing stomach cancer, and of course replacing the lungs and curing the cancer. It is implied by Michael's powers and by his own actions in 'Mystery Spot' that he can bring humans back to life at will.
He can speed up his vessel's healing rate exponentially, as seen when he is stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake but recovers by the next morning at the latest. He doesn't need food, water or sleep to maintain his vessel, though unlike many angels he seems to indulge in them anyway.
He's extremely physically strong, as shown when he shoves a taller, fitter man up against a wall one-handed and lifts him with no apparent effort. He's also telekinetically strong - at a point very shortly after that from which he is taken, he easily throws Lucifer across a room.
His plans, for example when he influences Sam and Dean to argue rather than paying attention to him, or when he only sends a replica of himself to confront them, show that he is fairly intelligent, or at least just cunning.
On the flip side, he does have a few major weaknesses. If he is trapped in a ring of holy fire (made by burning holy oil), he is trapped there and cannot use his powers, except to undo his own work - though the latter may just be a minor plot hole. If he were to step out of the circle, his vessel would be destroyed. If a Molotov cocktail of it were thrown at him, he would be banished, at least temporarily. Certain Enochian sigils can also banish him.
One of the only weapons capable of actually killing an archangel is an archangel's blade, but as it happens there aren't very many of those in circulation - as you may have deduced, each archangel owns one, but that’s it.
Archangels can also be killed by Death's Scythe, or an Antichrist, but they're a bit harder to come by.
Personality: The polite way to put it is 'morally challenged'. Unlike the traditional angels seen in cheesy films and on cards, or even the righteous warrior of Heaven, Gabriel is basically a massive jerk. Though he does, as the Angel of Justice, punish the deserving, he probably shouldn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as he does.
He's constantly snarky, sarcastic and obnoxious, with no respect for anyone, and a good way to describe his personality is with the Seven Deadly Sins:
Pride: He's probably one of the most arrogant people you could ever meet. He's cocky and confident - perhaps not wrongly so, either. As an archangel, a Pagan god, and one of the most powerful beings in existence, he has a right to be.
However, it's his pride that's his downfall - if he can be fooled into believing his plan is working, he'll let his guard down. This has invariably been why each of his failed plans has, well, failed. He can’t stand losing his superiority - in situations where he’s without his powers, he’s clearly strained. He becomes a lot more serious, and is blatantly uneasy.
On the other hand, he doesn't expect any kind of special treatment because of his power - while he doesn't seem to respect anyone, he in turn doesn't expect respect from others. He appreciates a good trick at his own expense, as seen when Dean tricked him in Tall Tales, almost as much as one at anyone else’s.
Gluttony: He's known for his love of wine, women and song, but more notably, he's addicted to sugar. No, really - he's close to never without some kind of glucose, and it's generally how people see through his disguises. Just look for the guy eating pancakes drowned in syrup, and you have your Trickster.
Lust: If he ever gets lonely - and as a lone wolf formerly from a very big not-so-happy heavenly family, you can bet he does - he just magics up some Playboy-lookalikes to keep him company. His Last Will and Testament is left in the form of a porno DVD, Casa Erotica 13.
Wrath: He has quite a temper on him. Though he's usually belligerently good-natured, if one presses his buttons (namely, mentioning his family or calling him out on being a coward), he will snap, and it will not be pretty.
Sloth: Despite Milton's view of him as chief of the angelic guards, Supernatural's Gabriel is pretty lazy. He avoids combat and confrontation whenever possible, preferring to manipulate events from behind the scenes. In his first fight scene, he just sits back with his feet up, eating a candy bar, while using illusions and constructs to fight off his attackers.
Envy: I believe that he is definitely motivated by this in his focus on Sam and Dean. In his first appearance he deliberately tries to drive them apart, though there would be easier ways - for example injuring them or finding them a bigger case - to prevent them from finding him out.
It is my view that he does this because he is envious of their close relationship. It reminds him of the family of angels that he left, and his once-close relationship with them - and especially with Michael and Lucifer.
Of course, to ruin my comparison, he's not really a victim of Avarice - why would he be, when he can have anything he wants with a snap of his fingers? But hey - six out of seven ain't bad.
Mostly unmentioned so far, he's also a coward, though he covers it up well with sarcasm and bravado, and is called on this by Dean. He "skipped out of Heaven" because he couldn't bear to watch his brothers fight, rather than intervening. He then stayed hidden for thousands of years, rather than risk returning, because he was afraid to stand up to his brothers, and perhaps he was also afraid of what they'd think of him, living as a hedonistic Trickster.
Despite this cowardice, he is also very loyal. He left Heaven because he loved both Michael and Lucifer too much to take sides, or to watch them hurt each other. He'll deny caring about either his old angelic family or his new Pagan one - he does outright in 5.19: "I don't... care..." - but if it came to it, he would do anything for them.
This loyalty's pretty hard to shake, too. Even after everything Lucifer's done, he tells him that he still loves him, and tells Dean that he'd be unable to kill him. This also applies to his new Pagan family - even after they have attempted to kill him in cold blood, he still cares about them.
History:
In The Beginning, before the earth and the humans, God created the angels. Gabriel was one of the only four angels to have seen Him, and sees Him as a Father in a more literal sense than it's usually meant, referring to Him as "Dad". Everything was fine and Heaven was one big happy family, until God created the "new baby", that is, the humans. The family fell apart, and God left, and so did Gabriel, disillusioned as he was with Heaven and indeed with God Himself.
He didn't have the guts to actually Fall and become a human, like Anna, or a demon, like the Grigori, so he simply hid in the guise of a Pagan Trickster god - Loki, to be precise. As he was able to fool the Pagan gods into believing he really was Loki, I presume he either took Loki as a vessel - probably during the period when Loki was chained to a rock and having venom dripped on him as punishment for his misdeeds - or invented 'Loki' himself. I'm going with the latter, since canon hasn't decided and being a lazy (not to mention non-confrontational) kind of guy, Gabriel's not likely to take a course of action so likely to result in him being found out when he could just come up with his own new identity rahter than stealing someone else's.
He hung out on Earth for thousands of years, dishing out humorously ironic punishments to those he felt were deserving. These punishments varied in severity depending on the crime: an unnecessarily cruel animal researcher was mauled by an alligator, and a man with serious anger management issues who beat his wife - "you wouldn't like him when he's angry", Dean remarks when he recognises the Trickser's MO - was killed by the Incredible Hulk. However, a frat boy who was simply an egotistic, narrow-minded jerk who revelled in humiliating the new members was kidnapped by aliens, probed and forced to slow dance to ‘Lady in Red’, but mostly unharmed - he’s not excessive in his punishments and believes that they should fit the crime.
As remarked on by icarus_chained, the victims and methods used in ‘Tall Tales’ can be used to support the theory of his identity as Loki: the girl who becomes a corpse before driving an adulterous professor to suicide is reminiscent in her deathly appearance to Loki’s daughter Hel, and the animal researcher’s cruelty holds echoes of the treatment of Loki’s animalistic sons Fenrir, Sleipnir and Jormungandr as subhuman.
Then Sam and Dean Winchester came along, and ruined his 'peaceful' little life away from Heaven and Hell. In 'Mystery Spot' he tried to stop the Apocalypse by teaching Sam a lesson before he could start it. However, his lesson didn't work. It was too subtle, and Gabriel was too vague about the consequences of Sam not letting Dean go. Had he come out and told them the truth about the Apocalypse, and his identity, he could perhaps have stopped it - but he was too scared to do so, because that would mean being dragged back into it all, and having to choose a side.
The next we see of him is in 'Changing Channels' in which he tries to convince them to accept their roles and just get the Apocalypse over with - now that it can't be stopped, he just wants it to end as soon as possible. His angelic siblings are dying, and even though he's abandoned them, it hurts. He's bitter that he could have done something to stop it in ‘Mystery Spot’, but chickened out.
The Winchesters find out his true identity, and Dean accuses him of being simply too scared to stand up to his brothers. Gabriel's expression suggests that this is the unpleasant truth, and even after being freed from the Burning Ring of Fire, he remains standing in the abandoned warehouse, soaked to the bone, lost in thought.
In 'Hammer of the Gods', he shows up again, this time in defense of Sam, Dean and his Pagan family, in the guise of Loki. He reveals that he and Kali "had a thing", and implies that it was only a fling - however, when we see him attempt to talk her out of fighting Lucifer, it's obvious that he genuinely cares about her.
She reveals that she has known his true identity for a while, and uses his blood to bind her to him "now and forever", stopping him from escaping. She takes his sword and appears to kill him with it, and explains to her fellow gods and goddesses that they can use it to kill Lucifer and avert the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse.
However, it soon turns out that Gabriel is still alive and kicking in the backseat of the Winchesters' car. He explains that the sword is a fake and that now would be a good time to run away.
Dean informs him that the gods plan to use the fake against Lucifer - it won't work, as it's a fake, and Lucifer will slaughter them. Gabriel protests that he doesn't care, as "they just stabbed [him] in the friggin' heart!". Dean calls his bluff, saying that Gabriel still cares about them - and while Gabriel doesn't comment on that, it's clear from his expression that it's the truth. As Dean continues trying to persuade him to help them (Dean and Sam) kill Lucifer, he looks suddenly and uncharacteristically serious, and protests that he can't kill his brother.
Dean asks "Can't or won't?" to which Gabriel, tellingly, doesn't reply.
Dean gets out of the car and goes back inside, leaving Gabriel to think this over in the back of the car, visibly conflicted. Gabriel comes to the decision that he can't just let his 'new' family die, and makes a video will. In this, he gives the Winchesters knowledge that might enable them to stop the Apocalypse, and admits to Dean that yes, he was scared to fight his brothers, but that he isn't any more: "This is me, standing up."
He also says "If you're watching this, I'm dead", despite the fact that he has the advantage of surprise, and a better chance against Lucifer than most. This kind of implies that he doesn't intend to survive, though he might well hope that Luci dearest'll cut him some slack. His plan seems to be to allow the Winchesters and surviving gods (only Kali, as it turns out) to escape, and to stall Lucifer for as long as possible, rather than to actually kill his brother.
During the fight he hesitates until Lucifer realises his plan (which is, by Gabriel's standards, ridiculously simple and half-hearted, not to mention one taught to him by Lucifer in the first place), thus allowing Lucifer to kill him. His failure to attack until it is obviously too late suggests that he never intended to kill Lucifer at all; if he'd wanted to, he could have done it earlier, and he would have - he's so well-prepared in most other situations that to be apparently so thoughtless in one that's so much more serious would be absurd.
Overall Info: Rating: G (or maybe PG, for his language) - NC17
Death: Ask first, please, but in pretty much every forseeable situation I'm up for it.
Smut: While he'd disapprove highly of me saying this, I'd rather fade to black in most situations - I can't write smut to save my life.
Yaoi - Het - Yuri: He's up for whatever, really. He prefers women, but anything's good, as far as he's concerned, and he won't reject advances based on sex or gender.
Name: Gabe
Age: 18
AIM: Schlafsuchtig
MSN:
E-MAIL: vetinari.for.patrician@gmail.com
IC Information:
Name: Gabriel, but also known as The Trickster and/or Loki.
Fandom: Supernatural.
Timeline: Season 5 Episode 19, just after he’s made his video will and is about to enter the hotel to confront Lucifer.
Age: He's been around since The Beginning. So... as old as the universe, however old that is.
Facility-Specific Info: In Facility he's limited to 25% power, so if you're a Supernatural viewer, I'd say that'd put him approximately around the level of Castiel while he was in the early stages of falling. Here's some details for a better idea...:
-He can teleport, but not out of the Facility. (obviously)
-He can't 'magic up' much. Certainly nothing too big or complicated - trying to conjure up a parody of Grey's Anatomy or CSI: Miami now just wouldn't work. He's pretty much stuck with cakes and cocktails, and probably nothing more than some furniture. As far as his much-loved magic hookers go, it'll be one at a time from now on, and they won't be anywhere near as realistic. Same goes for replicas of himself, which he may miss a bit less.
He's more likely to just create the illusion of things, for that effect, as too much manipulation of reality will tire him out, whereas illusions are a lot easier. For illusions, he still can't do anything on a massive scale (like, for example, turning his eye into the moon (or maybe vice versa) and hypnotising the whole world), but stuff like changing his appearance is simple. He can change others' appearances too, but not for longer than a day or so.
-No more time travel unless he finds a DeLorean lying around.
-In terms of injuring people, he's not going to be as much of a threat. He doesn't usually explode people anyway, but he's not gonna be doing it at all here - it's too much effort. However, he can kill you fairly easily. It won't be instakill, but he can still break your arm with barely an effort, and even if he can't kill you with his mind (and he probably can, though it'll be a longer process than usual) he can kill you pretty quickly with his sword. (This is assuming you're a regular human. Otherwise, effects may vary.)
-Likewise, his healing powers are down. He can manage things at the level of broken bones, 2nd degree burns (maybe 3rd if he really tries), and wounds that aren't instantly fatal - if bleeding out's the issue, he can probably have it fixed before it kills. However, healing at this level will not be instantaneous and will be tiring to him. The same limitations apply to healing himself, though to kill him you need an Antichrist, Godstiel (woops), Death's Scythe, or an archangel's blade. Or presumably, weapons with similar properties from other canons. However, let's say anything he wouldn't be able to fix would work too, for example decapitation (though you'd need to be pretty strong to cut through his neck). If you wanna kill him, the best way is to steal his sword. He got it back after Shadow Week, so it's in the Facility and therefore fair game for stabbing him with |:
-His physical strength is nerfed too. He's still significantly stronger than an average human, but he's not going to be lifting any elephants. He could probably snap your leg by twisting, or throw anyone lighter than around 18 stones (114 kg) across a room, but he wouldn't have the stamina to keep that up for long. If he gets into a serious fight, chances are he'll end it quickly or he'll lose - he hasn't exactly needed to practice building up his stamina before.
-His telekinetic strength... well, that depends. If he's picking on an average human, he can probably throw them across the room, but it'll be a little tiring. Anyone with telekinetic strength or supernatural power would be more difficult - he wouldn't be tossing Lucifer around anymore, or at least, not for long. It also depends on physical size - he won't have much difficulty if you're under 20 stones, but if you're much over that it'll take a considerable effort. It does, however, mean that if you're in the same room as him and he notices that you have something he wants, say, a lollipop... well, you can say goodbye to that lollipop. Too much, as with all other abilities, will tire him out, but for small things like that it'd take a lot.
Doing too much of any of the above, really, will tire him out - except flight/teleportation. While Castiel was falling he went on a hunt for God and pretty much travelled the world, and if the angelic equivalent of a foot-soldier who is also losing his power every day can do it, so can an archangel, even nerfed to 25%.
Appearance: His true form is very bright light, which will burn out the eyes of humans who witness it. This makes things rather difficult for Supernatural's angels, so they tend to possess human vessels. His is, all in all, a pretty average-looking guy, especially for an archangel-turned-Trickster. He's short, around 5'7", and appears to be in his mid to late thirties. His hair and eyes are nondescript - golden brown and hazel, respectively, though they appear to vary depending on the lighting.
Generally, he wears too-long jeans and an olive-green jacket with a (usually clashing) too-big shirt underneath; in this case, it's maroon.
Abilities: Best described as godlike, probably. Like all angels in the Supernatural-verse, he can teleport instantaneously; it's implied that this is by flight. He can also teleport others.
He frequently makes use of his ability to manipulate reality - he can magic up with a snap of his fingers anything from a candy bar to a whole new reality, for example when he zaps the two main characters into 'TV Land', made up of his own versions of various television shows. He often avoids death by creating replicas of himself, which seem to share his powers.
He can manipulate not only reality but also time, for example in 'Mystery Spot', where he first induces a time-loop, and later in the episode rewinds time by around six months.
Judging by the powers of angels of lower rank, such as Zachariah, he can change humans' biology at will - for example, removing lungs or inducing stomach cancer, and of course replacing the lungs and curing the cancer. It is implied by Michael's powers and by his own actions in 'Mystery Spot' that he can bring humans back to life at will.
He can speed up his vessel's healing rate exponentially, as seen when he is stabbed through the heart with a wooden stake but recovers by the next morning at the latest. He doesn't need food, water or sleep to maintain his vessel, though unlike many angels he seems to indulge in them anyway.
He's extremely physically strong, as shown when he shoves a taller, fitter man up against a wall one-handed and lifts him with no apparent effort. He's also telekinetically strong - at a point very shortly after that from which he is taken, he easily throws Lucifer across a room.
His plans, for example when he influences Sam and Dean to argue rather than paying attention to him, or when he only sends a replica of himself to confront them, show that he is fairly intelligent, or at least just cunning.
On the flip side, he does have a few major weaknesses. If he is trapped in a ring of holy fire (made by burning holy oil), he is trapped there and cannot use his powers, except to undo his own work - though the latter may just be a minor plot hole. If he were to step out of the circle, his vessel would be destroyed. If a Molotov cocktail of it were thrown at him, he would be banished, at least temporarily. Certain Enochian sigils can also banish him.
One of the only weapons capable of actually killing an archangel is an archangel's blade, but as it happens there aren't very many of those in circulation - as you may have deduced, each archangel owns one, but that’s it.
Archangels can also be killed by Death's Scythe, or an Antichrist, but they're a bit harder to come by.
Personality: The polite way to put it is 'morally challenged'. Unlike the traditional angels seen in cheesy films and on cards, or even the righteous warrior of Heaven, Gabriel is basically a massive jerk. Though he does, as the Angel of Justice, punish the deserving, he probably shouldn't enjoy it anywhere near as much as he does.
He's constantly snarky, sarcastic and obnoxious, with no respect for anyone, and a good way to describe his personality is with the Seven Deadly Sins:
Pride: He's probably one of the most arrogant people you could ever meet. He's cocky and confident - perhaps not wrongly so, either. As an archangel, a Pagan god, and one of the most powerful beings in existence, he has a right to be.
However, it's his pride that's his downfall - if he can be fooled into believing his plan is working, he'll let his guard down. This has invariably been why each of his failed plans has, well, failed. He can’t stand losing his superiority - in situations where he’s without his powers, he’s clearly strained. He becomes a lot more serious, and is blatantly uneasy.
On the other hand, he doesn't expect any kind of special treatment because of his power - while he doesn't seem to respect anyone, he in turn doesn't expect respect from others. He appreciates a good trick at his own expense, as seen when Dean tricked him in Tall Tales, almost as much as one at anyone else’s.
Gluttony: He's known for his love of wine, women and song, but more notably, he's addicted to sugar. No, really - he's close to never without some kind of glucose, and it's generally how people see through his disguises. Just look for the guy eating pancakes drowned in syrup, and you have your Trickster.
Lust: If he ever gets lonely - and as a lone wolf formerly from a very big not-so-happy heavenly family, you can bet he does - he just magics up some Playboy-lookalikes to keep him company. His Last Will and Testament is left in the form of a porno DVD, Casa Erotica 13.
Wrath: He has quite a temper on him. Though he's usually belligerently good-natured, if one presses his buttons (namely, mentioning his family or calling him out on being a coward), he will snap, and it will not be pretty.
Sloth: Despite Milton's view of him as chief of the angelic guards, Supernatural's Gabriel is pretty lazy. He avoids combat and confrontation whenever possible, preferring to manipulate events from behind the scenes. In his first fight scene, he just sits back with his feet up, eating a candy bar, while using illusions and constructs to fight off his attackers.
Envy: I believe that he is definitely motivated by this in his focus on Sam and Dean. In his first appearance he deliberately tries to drive them apart, though there would be easier ways - for example injuring them or finding them a bigger case - to prevent them from finding him out.
It is my view that he does this because he is envious of their close relationship. It reminds him of the family of angels that he left, and his once-close relationship with them - and especially with Michael and Lucifer.
Of course, to ruin my comparison, he's not really a victim of Avarice - why would he be, when he can have anything he wants with a snap of his fingers? But hey - six out of seven ain't bad.
Mostly unmentioned so far, he's also a coward, though he covers it up well with sarcasm and bravado, and is called on this by Dean. He "skipped out of Heaven" because he couldn't bear to watch his brothers fight, rather than intervening. He then stayed hidden for thousands of years, rather than risk returning, because he was afraid to stand up to his brothers, and perhaps he was also afraid of what they'd think of him, living as a hedonistic Trickster.
Despite this cowardice, he is also very loyal. He left Heaven because he loved both Michael and Lucifer too much to take sides, or to watch them hurt each other. He'll deny caring about either his old angelic family or his new Pagan one - he does outright in 5.19: "I don't... care..." - but if it came to it, he would do anything for them.
This loyalty's pretty hard to shake, too. Even after everything Lucifer's done, he tells him that he still loves him, and tells Dean that he'd be unable to kill him. This also applies to his new Pagan family - even after they have attempted to kill him in cold blood, he still cares about them.
History:
In The Beginning, before the earth and the humans, God created the angels. Gabriel was one of the only four angels to have seen Him, and sees Him as a Father in a more literal sense than it's usually meant, referring to Him as "Dad". Everything was fine and Heaven was one big happy family, until God created the "new baby", that is, the humans. The family fell apart, and God left, and so did Gabriel, disillusioned as he was with Heaven and indeed with God Himself.
He didn't have the guts to actually Fall and become a human, like Anna, or a demon, like the Grigori, so he simply hid in the guise of a Pagan Trickster god - Loki, to be precise. As he was able to fool the Pagan gods into believing he really was Loki, I presume he either took Loki as a vessel - probably during the period when Loki was chained to a rock and having venom dripped on him as punishment for his misdeeds - or invented 'Loki' himself. I'm going with the latter, since canon hasn't decided and being a lazy (not to mention non-confrontational) kind of guy, Gabriel's not likely to take a course of action so likely to result in him being found out when he could just come up with his own new identity rahter than stealing someone else's.
He hung out on Earth for thousands of years, dishing out humorously ironic punishments to those he felt were deserving. These punishments varied in severity depending on the crime: an unnecessarily cruel animal researcher was mauled by an alligator, and a man with serious anger management issues who beat his wife - "you wouldn't like him when he's angry", Dean remarks when he recognises the Trickser's MO - was killed by the Incredible Hulk. However, a frat boy who was simply an egotistic, narrow-minded jerk who revelled in humiliating the new members was kidnapped by aliens, probed and forced to slow dance to ‘Lady in Red’, but mostly unharmed - he’s not excessive in his punishments and believes that they should fit the crime.
As remarked on by icarus_chained, the victims and methods used in ‘Tall Tales’ can be used to support the theory of his identity as Loki: the girl who becomes a corpse before driving an adulterous professor to suicide is reminiscent in her deathly appearance to Loki’s daughter Hel, and the animal researcher’s cruelty holds echoes of the treatment of Loki’s animalistic sons Fenrir, Sleipnir and Jormungandr as subhuman.
Then Sam and Dean Winchester came along, and ruined his 'peaceful' little life away from Heaven and Hell. In 'Mystery Spot' he tried to stop the Apocalypse by teaching Sam a lesson before he could start it. However, his lesson didn't work. It was too subtle, and Gabriel was too vague about the consequences of Sam not letting Dean go. Had he come out and told them the truth about the Apocalypse, and his identity, he could perhaps have stopped it - but he was too scared to do so, because that would mean being dragged back into it all, and having to choose a side.
The next we see of him is in 'Changing Channels' in which he tries to convince them to accept their roles and just get the Apocalypse over with - now that it can't be stopped, he just wants it to end as soon as possible. His angelic siblings are dying, and even though he's abandoned them, it hurts. He's bitter that he could have done something to stop it in ‘Mystery Spot’, but chickened out.
The Winchesters find out his true identity, and Dean accuses him of being simply too scared to stand up to his brothers. Gabriel's expression suggests that this is the unpleasant truth, and even after being freed from the Burning Ring of Fire, he remains standing in the abandoned warehouse, soaked to the bone, lost in thought.
In 'Hammer of the Gods', he shows up again, this time in defense of Sam, Dean and his Pagan family, in the guise of Loki. He reveals that he and Kali "had a thing", and implies that it was only a fling - however, when we see him attempt to talk her out of fighting Lucifer, it's obvious that he genuinely cares about her.
She reveals that she has known his true identity for a while, and uses his blood to bind her to him "now and forever", stopping him from escaping. She takes his sword and appears to kill him with it, and explains to her fellow gods and goddesses that they can use it to kill Lucifer and avert the Judeo-Christian Apocalypse.
However, it soon turns out that Gabriel is still alive and kicking in the backseat of the Winchesters' car. He explains that the sword is a fake and that now would be a good time to run away.
Dean informs him that the gods plan to use the fake against Lucifer - it won't work, as it's a fake, and Lucifer will slaughter them. Gabriel protests that he doesn't care, as "they just stabbed [him] in the friggin' heart!". Dean calls his bluff, saying that Gabriel still cares about them - and while Gabriel doesn't comment on that, it's clear from his expression that it's the truth. As Dean continues trying to persuade him to help them (Dean and Sam) kill Lucifer, he looks suddenly and uncharacteristically serious, and protests that he can't kill his brother.
Dean asks "Can't or won't?" to which Gabriel, tellingly, doesn't reply.
Dean gets out of the car and goes back inside, leaving Gabriel to think this over in the back of the car, visibly conflicted. Gabriel comes to the decision that he can't just let his 'new' family die, and makes a video will. In this, he gives the Winchesters knowledge that might enable them to stop the Apocalypse, and admits to Dean that yes, he was scared to fight his brothers, but that he isn't any more: "This is me, standing up."
He also says "If you're watching this, I'm dead", despite the fact that he has the advantage of surprise, and a better chance against Lucifer than most. This kind of implies that he doesn't intend to survive, though he might well hope that Luci dearest'll cut him some slack. His plan seems to be to allow the Winchesters and surviving gods (only Kali, as it turns out) to escape, and to stall Lucifer for as long as possible, rather than to actually kill his brother.
During the fight he hesitates until Lucifer realises his plan (which is, by Gabriel's standards, ridiculously simple and half-hearted, not to mention one taught to him by Lucifer in the first place), thus allowing Lucifer to kill him. His failure to attack until it is obviously too late suggests that he never intended to kill Lucifer at all; if he'd wanted to, he could have done it earlier, and he would have - he's so well-prepared in most other situations that to be apparently so thoughtless in one that's so much more serious would be absurd.
Overall Info: Rating: G (or maybe PG, for his language) - NC17
Death: Ask first, please, but in pretty much every forseeable situation I'm up for it.
Smut: While he'd disapprove highly of me saying this, I'd rather fade to black in most situations - I can't write smut to save my life.
Yaoi - Het - Yuri: He's up for whatever, really. He prefers women, but anything's good, as far as he's concerned, and he won't reject advances based on sex or gender.