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Your name: Chris
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Other characters played at Passing:
Character name: Gabriel, aka the Trickster
Character fandom: Supernatural
Version: V2
Canon point: Right after 6X01.
Importing development from old game? Gabriel hasn't changed much. He's pretty wholly on humanity's side thanks to being tortured by Michael, but still gets up and arms about his siblings. He's also arguably closer to the Winchesters, but he still annoys the shit out of them.
Background: The youngest of the four 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. He eventually goes in and stands up to Lucifer, claiming that he's on humanity's side, not his, and for this audacity, Lucifer stabs him to death.
Changes from canon, if AU: In this version of events, Gabriel didn't fall off the grid after Changing Channels. He rejoined Sam and Dean right after the confrontation with the Whore of Babylon as Dean and his Scooby Gang (in this universe, Dean and Sam have been joined by a collection of Heroes characters, including Sylar and, due to a weird schism in the universe, two Claires (Zebra and Dolphin)) continue to stop the apocalypse. Gabriel's first act as village troll was to send Sylar on a goose chase to Alberquerque to find Dean, who had vanished without a trace. From there, he learned from Dolphin that he'd apparently caused some trouble in previous months at Walt Disney World- an event Gabriel had no clue about and chalked up to there being a crazy version of himself running amock- basically, his version of Dolphin. From here, Gabriel insinuated himself into the group, being generally useless and so forth. He met Cassie Holmes during this time, a teenage girl with the power of foresight, and quickly befriended her. She became the mascot of Dean and Sam's group and spent her time between the creepy Soho apartment Gabriel got for himself and the backseat of the Impala.
When Hammer of the Gods occurred, Gabriel was killed, but was brought back to life by, supposedly, God. Despite his vow to Lucifer before his death, he still figured he didn't owe Sam and Dean much of anything, since he gave them the info they needed to stop the apocalypse. He reinstated himself among the gods, after realizing Kali hadn't blabbed his identity, which was where he heard of Zeus planning to make an angel's blade to kill Michael or Lucifer. Zeus held a tournament of champions, which Gabriel spied on and when a hero was chosen, he went straight to Michael, hoping to warn him before he was killed. Michael, however, chose to abduct his brother back to Heaven, where Gabriel was tortured in the hopes of forcing him to submit to Heaven's will. Anna (who also survived Michael's assault on her earlier and was saved from being a terminangel) busted into Heaven and rescued him. When they returned, they found New York had been stricken mute by monsters known as The Gentlemen, and when Gabriel insisted he couldn't fix it, Sylar managed to piss him off enough to send the entirety of the Scooby Gang into a Silent Movie until the Gentlemen were defeated.
After finding out the Horsemen's rings had been pawned off to the highest bidders, which was why the apocalypse was still going strong, Gabriel and Dean went to Death to find out what to do about their problem. It was basically the most awkward pizza date ever.
Eventually, a plan to stop the apocalypse came together- Michael and Lucifer ended up in the hole, and everything went back to normal... Well, okay, not really. Dean cut all ties to his gang and took Cassie to live with his girlfriend Brooke where he could shack up and live his apple pie life like he promised Sam. Gabriel cut ties with everyone and went to stay in Tibet. And everything was fine, until things got weird again. Gabriel turned up on Dean's doorstep with a warning that things were getting heavy and he was repaid for this kindness by Cassie beating him up for abandoning her. He has yet managed to fully patch this relationship up.
Personality: If you were to compare Gabriel to any animal in the world, it would be a cat- flippant, self-centered, fickle, arrogant, proud, and the kind of creature that would defend you in the same breath that it mocks you and, at the same time, will love you for the rest of its life if you happen to be someone it approves of. He breezes by, uninhibited, and does whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants to do it. He doesn’t answer to anyone, anymore, and he doesn’t care.
In fact, flippancy is Gabriel's chief weapon, because everything he does requires that element of I don't care to it. Of course, he doesn't care about anything. Why would he have to? What reason does he have to care about anything? You're crazy if you think otherwise. He's a vicious monster, anyway, so clearly caring is beneath him. He's in it for himself and only himself and he'll do a remarkable job of convincing people of that fact- and the worst part of it is that it's mostly true. Gabriel does look out for himself over all, although not in the way that people expect. He wouldn't hesitate to defend his family if he had to and he doesn't run out of a fear of being killed or hurt- rather, he tends to look out for his own emotional well-being. Whatever will keep him happy and content and devoid of negativity, whatever will keep him living the life he chooses- that’s what he tries to preserve by being cowardly. Things he doesn't want to deal with, he simply doesn't deal with. They're pushed under the rug and avoided. He'd rather run that be confronted with the harsh realities and he'd rather have other people fight the hard battles for him. If he doesn’t care, then it means people won’t examine things about him too closely. If he doesn't care, then it means he won't have to deal with being hurt.
He tries not to take anything too seriously- even in dire situations, he keeps on making smarmy comments or cracking jokes. It's as much a defense mechanism as it is anything- if he's being nonchalant and snarky, then obviously he's okay and the situation isn't bothering him, even when it is. Despite that, he won’t sugarcoat anything for anyone and will openly tell you with a smile on his face how boned you are when it comes down to it. He understands how the world works- life isn’t a bowl of cherries, the heroes don’t always win, brothers kill each other, and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, because the alternative is worse- and if he has to accept that, then everyone does. He just accepts it with sarcasm and a sense of humor that veers between vitriolic and good-natured, and maybe everyone else should too- never mind that when he does it, it’s an act. He’s capable of being serious when the situation calls for it, but he doesn’t hold it for very long- just long enough to get the point across. The more desperate a situation, the more he’s likely to remain serious, but he’ll flip-flop back and forth between the two, nevertheless.
His moods are fickle and he treats people roughly the same, no matter what his feelings are- he mentions having a fondness for the Winchesters almost instantly after meeting them, but wastes no time in making them miserable when they refuse to stand down. Later on, Dean questions the fact that he’s trying to save the two boys, when just two months previously he’d wanted them to submit and become Michael and Lucifer’s vessels, and Gabriel just brushes the question off. He doesn’t need to explain himself. He is what he is and if you have to question it, you’ll never know. He defaults to a belligerently cheerful state, always with lighthearted and occasionally vindictive sarcasm, and tends to stay there, unless provoked out of it. And it’s easy to provoke him out of it, but it’s also easy to have him immediately go back to cheerful teasing and playful banter- or, if the situation is more serious, a dark, almost wicked, sense of humor.
In atypical angel fashion, Gabriel is hedonistic to the core. He likes decadence (sweets, especially), human entertainment (in fact, he seems to be a walking pop culture encyclopedia), and has a libido the size of a small third world country. He abuses his abilities as an angel to live the lifestyle of a god and it's not just for show- he genuinely enjoys his lifestyle and has found it to be a comfortable hiding place. He's been in “witness protection” for so long, that this is his life now- not the halo and the Father's messages- but his messages and lessons. And yet, he can drop the act on a dime and pick up being an angel again with no amount of awkwardness- there's no change in his personality, just his presence. There's no way to say where Loki begins and Gabriel ends, but he has no trouble being both. They're both him and there's no illusion or act anymore- if there ever was one. He's likely convinced himself that despite his status as an archangel, that he's as much a god as any of the other pagans. The parts of him that are truly Gabriel, however, have been buried under layers of snark and self-delusion, because dealing with those aspects of himself, means confronting a lot of things he's tried to bury. The Messenger is a long distant memory- there’s just this amalgamation now of god and archangel.
Gabriel has an overwhelming amount of patience, and is relentless and stubborn to a fault to go with it- whatever he wants, he will do anything he can to get, and he won't give up until he knows it’s a hopeless case, and losing irks him to no end, when it comes to that. He kept Sam going for a hundred Tuesdays in a time loop to get him to realize that he couldn't save his brother, even going as far as to force him to live several months without Dean to show him how it would feel. He also kept Sam and Dean imprisoned in TV Land "for days" as Castiel put it to get them to realize that they had no choice but to submit to being Lucifer and Michael's vessels. He might be a showman, prone to histrionics and big elaborate pranks with short-term payoff, but he also knows that good drama takes time- start small and build- and that some lessons are harder to drill in. Despite the fact that he claims that his tricks are all fun and games, there's still a business aspect to it. He tells Sam that "this all stopped being fun months ago," when Sam begs him to bring Dean back during the Mystery Spot ordeal, proving that he could've stopped the game at any time if he was tired of it, but chose not to, because he still had a point to make. His lessons might look funny or eccentric (although often cruelly so), but he custom tailors every one to the person- it's important that these people either get their just desserts or learn something from him. He gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not all about the fun- there's nuance to it. The Winchesters hunt monsters- well, so does Gabriel. His monsters just happen to be humans, and he won't let anyone tell him that the people he kills and otherwise fucks with don't deserve the fates he bestows on them.
As an archangel, Gabriel is naturally inclined towards dominance without even realizing he is- it’s the one thing about his status he’s never lost. When he walks into a room, he knows he's the most powerful creature in it and people will take heed of 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- because the only thing higher than him are his two older brothers. He doesn't often 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, although one could argue that his showmanship and his grandiose way of taking victims is flaunting. Gabriel just thinks it's a necessary part of his enjoyment of his job.
Respect isn't something that comes naturally to Gabriel, despite how much he seems to love. 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- 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 or presume things about him, but he doesn't give a damn about respect. It's atypical of an archangel, but most everything Gabriel does is. Note that it's only after Dean implies that he's "someone's bitch" 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 wasn’t about the respect, it was about a mere human having the gall to think anything about him, an archangel. Presumptions upset him, especially coming from people who don't understand anything about him or his actions and why he takes them.
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. When talking to Dean later, he acted like it didn't, although the fact that he was even asking Dean for help in getting his blood back showed his hand and how desperate he'd gotten- he just tries to cover his desperation up with nonchalance, in the hopes that Dean wouldn’t catch wise. He also doesn't like being bossed around by people below his station- as evidenced by his annoyance whenever Dean tries to order him around on multiple occasions.
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 going wind up on the losing end. Sometimes even when he knows there’s more than a likely chance that he’ll win, he’ll try to weasel his way out of a conflict- take his first appearance in Tall Tales, when he attempted to bribe Dean to let him go, so they didn’t have to fight. Even when he confronts Lucifer, he goes out of his way to avoid starting an actual physical altercation with him, beyond throwing him into the wall to get him away from Kali. It's possible that he's actually just not that good at combat and does everything he can to avoid fighting fairly.
With all his layers and conflicting parts, Gabriel is something of a contradiction. Despite his nature as a class-A jerk, 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 loves intensely, but that makes him afraid of being left behind or not loved as much, which cases him to run, himself. 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.
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.
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 when people get too close to finding out the truth- 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 because he knows that if he doesn’t care, then he can’t be hurt). 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 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.
In a lot of ways, Gabriel is broken so deeply that he can become temperamental 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, but will always have a smartass remark to anything you say to him. Put him in a situation that he can’t win, and he starts to fall apart in subtle, little ways. 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. Rather than confronting Lucifer from the jump to protect his pagan god family, he tried to sneakily abduct Dean and Sam to keep Lucifer from ever needing to come and get them. 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 on and hated by the people he loves more than anything. He even tried to convince Kali to run away with him, as a way of avoiding the apocalypse, although he knew it wouldn’t really work. 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 later- 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, pigheaded attitude that has him repeating mistakes, BECAUSE WHAT ARE THE CHANCES ANYONE'S GONNA PULL THAT AGAIN? REALLY?
His other fatal flaw is his love. Gabriel loves as intensely as Lucifer, and is completely driven by it. He Fell, because he couldn't watch his brothers killing each other, he would've manipulated two boys into destroying their lives and ending the world to end a war so he didn't have to deal with that pain anymore. He doesn't have the hatred or disdain that Lucifer has- just the love and the fear of rejection for not being capable of choosing one brother over the other and not being able to handle the constant infighting. Family is important to Gabriel and he needs one to function, although he acts like a lone wolf and is often seen on his own. His surrogate pagan family may have been just as bad about infighting and bickering as his real family, but they still provided him with the comfort he needed in a time of great upheaval. He's loyal, but his loyalty doesn't permanently choose sides. He furiously defends Lucifer and Michael and the rest of his family when Dean and Sam insult them and then defends humans and the gods to Lucifer later. He defends whoever needs to be defended in the moment. He's protective and defensive of the people he cares about- hurting or insulting them or anything of the sort is a surefire way to make him angry. 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, knowing that she’d end up dead. Even the fact that came out of hiding to protect the gods at all was a show of his compassion. He might try to take a cowardly way out to protect people, but he'll still protect them.
To an extent, he's started to see humans as an extension of his family, although it took him a long time to get to the point where he could outwardly admit it. They, like his brothers, were his Father's children and even though he, too, saw the same flaws that made Lucifer despise them and even punished them for those flaws, he embraced their good qualities, as well. He spent a great deal of time treating them like playthings, but when it counted, he eventually realized that there was so much good in them- so much that he didn't find in his brothers anymore. Humans had become, in his eyes, the ideals that he'd longed to see in his siblings again. That capacity for forgiveness, for undying love, even in the face of unspeakable betrayal- things he wasn't getting from his own family. Choosing humanity over his brothers couldn't feel like a betrayal, because, in a way, they were part of his family- even referring to them as "the new baby" to Lucifer.
Despite his need to defend whoever needs it at the time, Gabriel's not capable of actually killing his brothers, although he has no problem killing humans who deserve it. He could have easily killed Castiel to avoid having him expose him, but didn't. He would have probably let him go on his own, and his snide Oh am I? at Dean's demand that he release him was just him being annoyed that Dean was bossing him around. He may have threatened to shiv Michael and acted like he planned on doing the same to Lucifer if his older brother didn't back down (and this may have been all part of the game he was playing, another sad I don't care lie), but if he had any intentions of doing it, he wouldn't have made his attempt so obvious or would've taken Lucifer out when he had him down. He knows Lucifer- knows that Lucifer knows him. He likely chose the tactic he confronted Lucifer with, because it was the only way to get out without killing his brother- he would rather die, himself, or test the limits of Lucifer's mercy than stoop that low. In some ways it was a test to see if Lucifer was even capable of that much forgiveness- the same that Gabriel had found in humans- or if he would simply continue to fester under his own hatred. He chose to kill his own brother- a choice Gabriel would never have made were their roles reversed, but he likely felt that Lucifer deserved the chance to make the right choice. This is how Gabriel holds himself to a higher standard than the rest of his family. Yes, he's lower than dirt, because he slums it up and acts like a heathen, but he doesn't kill his family. He doesn't engage in apocalyptic hissy fits whenever he disagrees with something. He may be lower than a dog in their eyes, but he's better than that and he expects them to be too. More than anything, he wants them to look at themselves and see that they're all being idiots about everything. However, up until that moment with Lucifer, he was too scared to do so. As much of a cynic he is, as much as he knows that everything will never be the way it was before, he still has some hope that his family will get the fuck over themselves and actually try to make themselves better.
In the same vein, however, Gabriel is permitted to insult, threaten, or otherwise (non-fatally) harm any one of his siblings (or anyone he considers part of his family), but does not extend that right to anyone else. Doing so pisses him off- he gets annoyed at Dean for calling Michael and Lucifer “heavenly douchenozzles,” but later refers to his family to Kali as “winged assmonkeys” and calls Lucifer “a great big bag of dicks” to his face. They’re his family- he can do what he wants to with them, but no one else can. That’s his right and his alone as a brother. Gabriel doesn’t have the same archangel biases that Michael and Lucifer have- all the angels are his family- but while he might play the irritating older brother to lesser angels, it’s Michael and Lucifer he’s closest to- Lucifer, especially. It’s for that reason that Lucifer is the brother he’s the most afraid of and the one he probably loves most, although he’d never say as much. He was Lucifer’s protégé, everything he knows, he learned from him, even if he put his own spin on things. A knife through the heart, a choice that Lucifer never would’ve agreed with, and having to look in the eyes of his own brother as he twisted the knife into his chest can’t change the fact that he owes so much of himself to his older brother and that nothing will ever make him stop loving him. In fact, he spends his last moments clinging to his brother for dear life, even through the utter betrayal and devastation in his eyes. Despite the fact that Gabriel would never stop loving Lucifer after the fact, that doesn’t mean he isn’t upset that it ended like that- knowing it would happen and feeling it happen are two different things. He’s furious about it, but he’s furious about a lot of things his family does- they’re all idiots and he’s the only sane one, but he still loves them. He picked up unconditional love from his Daddy, but, as he’d put it, he actually practices it.
Abilities: Telekinesis, or, at least, some form of it, is likely the most noticeable of his abilities, although certainly not the one he’s famous for. He’s capable of throwing even angels, including Lucifer, across a room, throwing open doors, calling objects straight to his hand- all with the power of his brain. In the same vein, he can banish people with the exact same amount of effort- specifically no effort at all- sending them anywhere from the next room to an alternate dimension. He can also bring them back at will, if it suits him to. All it takes is a flick of his wrist or a snap of his fingers. In fact, pretty much anything Gabriel does is accompanied by one of the two gestures in true showman fashion.
Taking it to a more terrifying angle, Gabriel can likely break necks, choke people from across rooms, and blow even other angels into chunky bits with just the power of his mind, given what we’ve seen from his fellow archangels. He likely wouldn’t, unless extremely provoked, but he could.
Like all angels, he can fly, although his flight speed is so quick that to the average person, it resembles teleporting, and he can be in one place one minute and then in another in mere seconds. Unlike his brother angels, who tend to appear with the sound of wings flapping or claps of thunder, Gabriel’s wings make no sound at all. The only sound at all is usually a fingersnap as he leaves. Similar to simply banishing them, he can also carry people with him when he goes. The process is said to be slightly uncomfortable for humans when other angels do it, although Gabriel seems to live no ill effects, suggesting he’s more accustomed to doing it.
His most prominent talent is his ability to bend reality, however. He can create pocket dimensions that are tailored to his own whim and are indistinguishable from the real world, aside from the fact that he’s God of them and can do whatever the hell he wants with them. He’s powerful enough to hold people, including angels, in these dimensions and the only thing that seems capable of destroying them is killing him. He can manifest anything he chooses even outside of his pocket dimensions, from women to monsters to food to wormholes and everything he manifests is just as real as anything, except that he can make them vanish at will- all of his creations usually vanish in a wash of bluish light. On top of manifesting anything he can think up at the time, he can also create perfect copies of himself that can act as proxies and enter dangerous situations for him, so he doesn’t have to- however, they come with a downside. For example, Kali was able to bloodspell Gabriel by taking blood from a copy and while killing the copy didn’t kill Gabriel, the spell was still in effect, as Kali still had Gabriel’s blood, suggesting the copies are completely perfect down to the last detail. In the game, Gabriel's ability will work similar to an architect in Inception and as such, the dreamer's mind can easily rebel against his attempts at modifying it.
As well as warping reality, Gabriel can affect the physiology of living things- he’s only shown taking Sam and Dean’s voices away onscreen, but as Zachariah as taken away a human’s lungs, given them stomach cancer, and caused internal bleeding, it’s likely that Gabriel can do much the same, but chooses not to, as he has a great deal more style than that.
He can shapeshift his vessel into any shape he chooses (human, although he could possibly choose other forms if he wanted), taking the form of a businessman, TV’s Dr. Sexy, and a cop at various points. He can also “hack” into various electronic devices and send “psychic” messages(as most angels can) and can even change his voice to make the messages seem legit- such as the scene where he pretends to be a cop on a scanner to lure Sam and Dean into a trap.
He can also manipulate time, such as creating time loops and slowing time down- for example, when Sam and Dean were locked in TV Land, he promised them 24 hours before he would speak to them, but when Castiel finds them, he claims they’ve been missing “for days,” suggesting that what was only an hour or so for Sam and Dean was actually a few days in the real world. In addition, Gabriel has an angel’s quasi-omniscience, including a keen awareness of potential future events- mentioning to Sam in Mystery Spot with utmost certainty that if he doesn’t let Dean go, bad things will happen and saying several times that he “knows how this story ends” and that he “skipped ahead.” Going even further, he claims that he and his brothers always knew that Sam and Dean would be the ones that would end everything, prompting Gabriel’s interest in them.
He has preternatural senses. He can see things such as Enochian sigils, Reapers, and potentially Hellhounds, all of which are invisible to the human eye, and can see demons as their true selves. Along with this, he seems to have an uncanny ability to know things he shouldn’t- in Changing Channels, the questions asked by the game show host are specific to Sam and Dean’s pasts (he also manages to take victims and tailor their punishments to their crimes- suggesting he can tell what their crimes are just by looking), and in both Tall Tales and Hammer of the Gods, he makes references to conversations he wasn’t present to overhear. In fact, he seems to make reference to a lot of events that he wasn’t present for, which suggests that Gabriel knows everything somehow. This includes, due to his knowledge of the Horseman’s rings (and the fact that he claimed no one else had that info) and being able to recognize Kali’s bloodspells on sight, as well as being able to recreate the typical style of a haunting-based murder, that he’s keenly aware of almost anything supernatural-related, from curses to sigils to spells. He’s likely never had much use for the info and, thus, doesn’t put it to use unless he has to.
Like all angels, he has angel radio and can sense his brothers and, in turn, they can sense him- Castiel recognized immediately what Gabriel was once he was in the same room with him, causing the latter to duct tape his mouth shut and send him away. He can also, like other angels, communicate with or summon them over long distances using it. Conversely, he can also communicate with humans through their dreams.
His physical strength is nothing to be trifled with, as proven when he casually lifts Dean up by his collar, despite being a great deal smaller, and pins him to a wall with one hand with such force that he was actively crushing Dean’s chest and shows not even the slightest bit of strain in doing so. He’s fast- capable of moving at lightning speeds when need be, although he’s not nearly as fast as Lucifer (although he was likely not trying to be). However, he doesn’t seem to be much of a physical fighter- his major weakness- so it’s likely he could easily be taken by another angel or a god in a fair fight, but that would imply that Gabriel chooses to fight fair.
He’s invulnerable to anything but an archangel’s blade or the powers of another archangel (or a Cambion) and, thus, can recover quickly from any wound sustained. However, he is capable of being bound by bloodspells, can be trapped by a ring of holy fire, sent away by angel banishing sigils, or kept at bay by Enochian runes. He seems to feel pain, where most angels seem to shake even the most major of injuries off- but that might be because he’s a baby in the same style as Lucifer and not because it actually hurt.
Unlike other angels, Gabriel is not occupying a human vessel- as the gods have been on earth long before angels, according to Kali, it’s unlikely that Gabriel was always Loki- more than likely, he took Loki’s body as his own and took over the gods identity. As such, the powers he should’ve lost by being apart from Heaven- as Castiel did- he managed to augment and support with a more powerful vessel. This also prevented him from burning through the vessel as he would a human one and allowed him to live safely amongst the pagan gods and giving him a much more resilient vessel. Like demons, an angel changes the properties of the blood of its vessel, although it’s not clear whether or not drinking angel blood has similar effects as drinking demon blood.
Gabriel has the ability to resurrect people, as evidenced by his repeated murdering and resurrecting of Dean during Mystery Spot, but this is a power he likely doesn’t use often. One can argue that since the ordeal took place in an alternate universe that Gabriel was merely acting in the parameters of his own world, but the way he says “that don’t mean I should” suggests that he has the power and chooses not to use it, because some things should be left alone- given the stir that raising people from Hell seems to have, it’s also likely that he would’ve drawn too much attention to himself. He may or may not be capable of healing anymore, given that seems to be one of the first things to go when cut off from Heaven, but the fact that he doesn’t use it may be indicative of the fact that he just doesn’t feel like doing it or never had a reason to.
Gabriel also doesn’t require sleep or food to survive, although he does eat his weight in sweets when he can. Also, he possesses an angel’s blade, which seems to be capable of killing anything. (It is, however, incapable of killing things not from his universe that have skin resistant to blades.)
An angel’s blade or holy fire is the only thing that can actually kill him, neither of which will be in heavy supply in the game. However, while his vessel can heal and sustain heavy damage, completely destroying it will leave him without a vessel and exposed- which is as much of a problem for everyone else as it is for him- an angel in true form can blind and even kill people if they lay eyes on them, and he’d have to take a surrogate vessel and angels can only take HIGHLY specific vessels and the vessel has to agree- there wouldn’t be anyone who would fit that bill in game. However, it’s been shown that an angel’s Grace can be trapped inside of objects- in one case, it was a simple vial. It’s not clear if the object has to be specific to hold it, but it can happen.
He’s not immune to powerful spells- the goddess Kali was able to bind him with a blood spell and the Whore of Babylon was able to incapacitate Castiel with a spell (although Cas is a minor angel- we’ll ignore that). Enochian wards can keep him in and out of places and he can be banished with a very specific banishing sigil drawn in blood. A ring of holy oil lit on fire can also effectively trap him. As archangels are extremely powerful, they’re extremely hard to beat. However, I’m willing to talk out with anyone what sort of abilities can and can’t work on him or what effects they might have, given I’m more fond of knocking Gabriel down a few pegs than I am having him pwn everything ever.
He's also absolute CRAP at physical fighting, so anyone on his level strength-wise would be able to take him down if, for whatever reason, he wouldn't be able to cheat using his powers. I'm always willing to negotiate and make fights fair and end in a way that's fair for everyone.
Writing sample: Gabriel was at the crucifixion- a lot of angels were, actually. Heck, it was a lot like angel Woodstock, except it wasn't much of a party. That was after he left, so he spent the entire time standing in a corner like that awkward girl who got dragged to a dance she never wanted to go to, hoping no one notices her and she can pass out of the party in peace. The last thing the crucifixion needed was a disobedient archangel turning into Carrie at the prom on the whole family. For the most part, he succeeded. Anafiel, of course, could find him across the universe and back if she wanted to and wouldn't be bothered to stay away if he asked her to.
Everyone and their brother claims to have a splinter from the cross that Jesus was crucified on, but fewer people claim they have the splintered remains of the Lance of Longinus, although Gabriel has, in fact, shoved it in the face of a few dickhead historians who tried to pass off their little sticks as pieces of one of the holiest items in the whole of history. The location of the true Lance is a secret kept by the highest order of angels and Gabriel just happens to be one of them, through a series of circumstances that he wouldn't explain no matter how many times he was asked.
He keeps his secrets well.
Outside the bar, Gabriel paces in furious circles, while Castiel stands unmoving and unblinking, although his eyes follow every step Gabriel takes. It's unnerving and, eventually, Gabriel pivots on his heels to face his younger brother. "You're distracting me."
Castiel looks befuddled, which isn't much of a change. His head tilts slightly to the side. "From what?"
Gabriel's answer isn't much of one. He flails a hand in broad circles. "You're staring. Do you ever blink? You've been in that vessel for... What? Two years now. You don't even know how the eyelids work."
"We don't have time-"
Gabriel makes a pfft sound to cut Castiel off before he can finish that sentence. Time is relative and whatever Blues Brothers- inspired mission his kid brother's on doesn't exactly make him want to bounce up and down like a kid on Christmas morning. He's in no hurry, except to get it all over with, and no one wants to listen to his plan, even if it's the only plan that'll diminish casualties on all sides. But noo, everyone's gotta get a stick up their asses, because Mike and Lucy's prom dresses are, apparently, popular members of society.
Whatever.
"I thought you were tryin' to find Daddy? Or did all that hope you had go Dante's Peak all over thick skull of yours?" He twirls his finger, drawing circles in midair around Castiel's head.
"They're related."
One of Gabriel's eyebrows vanishes somewhere in the vicinity of his hairline. "....How is finding the world's holiest pointy object even slightly related to your snipe hunt?"
For a moment, Castiel looks uncomfortable in a way that actually makes it look like he's emoting, which is a shock to Gabriel. "...There's a way to summon our Father. It's... Dangerous and potentially fatal. It's also impossible without the Lance."
"And you think I know where it is?" Gabriel's trying hard not to laugh at that plan- really, he is. There's something so adorable about Castiel's faith, even when everyone can see his Grace is slipping away from him. Then again, saying as much would make him out to be a hypocrite, considering he's barely holding onto his Grace with both hands, even if it doesn't look like it.
"I know you do."
Gabriel rolls his eyes. "That don't mean I'm gonna tell you."
"Not even if it means the end of the Apocalypse?" Castiel's voice lilts at the end, like the words are a mocking accusation and the hairs at the back of Gabriel's neck stand on end and his fingers itch to come together and bring forth some grandiose display of power. He resists the temptation by shoving them into his pocket- sometimes he likes the drama of bringing everything down with just a snap that he forgets that it's not necessary.
"You don't know that," he points out, narrowing hazel eyes and staring up at the intense, neutral expression of his younger brother. He'd resent that Castiel's taller than him, but he chose this form, specifically. He likes it- short or not. "I show up in the Holy Land and I'm gonna end up behind six hundred seals."
There's a long silence from Castiel, before he says, "They likely wouldn't need that many to contain you."
Voice sample: HERE.
Your journal: kawaiispinel
Contact: AIM: KawaiiSpinel42. Plurk: quasigina.
Other characters played at Passing:
Character name: Gabriel, aka the Trickster
Character fandom: Supernatural
Version: V2
Canon point: Right after 6X01.
Importing development from old game? Gabriel hasn't changed much. He's pretty wholly on humanity's side thanks to being tortured by Michael, but still gets up and arms about his siblings. He's also arguably closer to the Winchesters, but he still annoys the shit out of them.
Background: The youngest of the four 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. He eventually goes in and stands up to Lucifer, claiming that he's on humanity's side, not his, and for this audacity, Lucifer stabs him to death.
Changes from canon, if AU: In this version of events, Gabriel didn't fall off the grid after Changing Channels. He rejoined Sam and Dean right after the confrontation with the Whore of Babylon as Dean and his Scooby Gang (in this universe, Dean and Sam have been joined by a collection of Heroes characters, including Sylar and, due to a weird schism in the universe, two Claires (Zebra and Dolphin)) continue to stop the apocalypse. Gabriel's first act as village troll was to send Sylar on a goose chase to Alberquerque to find Dean, who had vanished without a trace. From there, he learned from Dolphin that he'd apparently caused some trouble in previous months at Walt Disney World- an event Gabriel had no clue about and chalked up to there being a crazy version of himself running amock- basically, his version of Dolphin. From here, Gabriel insinuated himself into the group, being generally useless and so forth. He met Cassie Holmes during this time, a teenage girl with the power of foresight, and quickly befriended her. She became the mascot of Dean and Sam's group and spent her time between the creepy Soho apartment Gabriel got for himself and the backseat of the Impala.
When Hammer of the Gods occurred, Gabriel was killed, but was brought back to life by, supposedly, God. Despite his vow to Lucifer before his death, he still figured he didn't owe Sam and Dean much of anything, since he gave them the info they needed to stop the apocalypse. He reinstated himself among the gods, after realizing Kali hadn't blabbed his identity, which was where he heard of Zeus planning to make an angel's blade to kill Michael or Lucifer. Zeus held a tournament of champions, which Gabriel spied on and when a hero was chosen, he went straight to Michael, hoping to warn him before he was killed. Michael, however, chose to abduct his brother back to Heaven, where Gabriel was tortured in the hopes of forcing him to submit to Heaven's will. Anna (who also survived Michael's assault on her earlier and was saved from being a terminangel) busted into Heaven and rescued him. When they returned, they found New York had been stricken mute by monsters known as The Gentlemen, and when Gabriel insisted he couldn't fix it, Sylar managed to piss him off enough to send the entirety of the Scooby Gang into a Silent Movie until the Gentlemen were defeated.
After finding out the Horsemen's rings had been pawned off to the highest bidders, which was why the apocalypse was still going strong, Gabriel and Dean went to Death to find out what to do about their problem. It was basically the most awkward pizza date ever.
Eventually, a plan to stop the apocalypse came together- Michael and Lucifer ended up in the hole, and everything went back to normal... Well, okay, not really. Dean cut all ties to his gang and took Cassie to live with his girlfriend Brooke where he could shack up and live his apple pie life like he promised Sam. Gabriel cut ties with everyone and went to stay in Tibet. And everything was fine, until things got weird again. Gabriel turned up on Dean's doorstep with a warning that things were getting heavy and he was repaid for this kindness by Cassie beating him up for abandoning her. He has yet managed to fully patch this relationship up.
Personality: If you were to compare Gabriel to any animal in the world, it would be a cat- flippant, self-centered, fickle, arrogant, proud, and the kind of creature that would defend you in the same breath that it mocks you and, at the same time, will love you for the rest of its life if you happen to be someone it approves of. He breezes by, uninhibited, and does whatever the hell he wants, whenever he wants to do it. He doesn’t answer to anyone, anymore, and he doesn’t care.
In fact, flippancy is Gabriel's chief weapon, because everything he does requires that element of I don't care to it. Of course, he doesn't care about anything. Why would he have to? What reason does he have to care about anything? You're crazy if you think otherwise. He's a vicious monster, anyway, so clearly caring is beneath him. He's in it for himself and only himself and he'll do a remarkable job of convincing people of that fact- and the worst part of it is that it's mostly true. Gabriel does look out for himself over all, although not in the way that people expect. He wouldn't hesitate to defend his family if he had to and he doesn't run out of a fear of being killed or hurt- rather, he tends to look out for his own emotional well-being. Whatever will keep him happy and content and devoid of negativity, whatever will keep him living the life he chooses- that’s what he tries to preserve by being cowardly. Things he doesn't want to deal with, he simply doesn't deal with. They're pushed under the rug and avoided. He'd rather run that be confronted with the harsh realities and he'd rather have other people fight the hard battles for him. If he doesn’t care, then it means people won’t examine things about him too closely. If he doesn't care, then it means he won't have to deal with being hurt.
He tries not to take anything too seriously- even in dire situations, he keeps on making smarmy comments or cracking jokes. It's as much a defense mechanism as it is anything- if he's being nonchalant and snarky, then obviously he's okay and the situation isn't bothering him, even when it is. Despite that, he won’t sugarcoat anything for anyone and will openly tell you with a smile on his face how boned you are when it comes down to it. He understands how the world works- life isn’t a bowl of cherries, the heroes don’t always win, brothers kill each other, and sometimes you have to do things you don’t want to do, because the alternative is worse- and if he has to accept that, then everyone does. He just accepts it with sarcasm and a sense of humor that veers between vitriolic and good-natured, and maybe everyone else should too- never mind that when he does it, it’s an act. He’s capable of being serious when the situation calls for it, but he doesn’t hold it for very long- just long enough to get the point across. The more desperate a situation, the more he’s likely to remain serious, but he’ll flip-flop back and forth between the two, nevertheless.
His moods are fickle and he treats people roughly the same, no matter what his feelings are- he mentions having a fondness for the Winchesters almost instantly after meeting them, but wastes no time in making them miserable when they refuse to stand down. Later on, Dean questions the fact that he’s trying to save the two boys, when just two months previously he’d wanted them to submit and become Michael and Lucifer’s vessels, and Gabriel just brushes the question off. He doesn’t need to explain himself. He is what he is and if you have to question it, you’ll never know. He defaults to a belligerently cheerful state, always with lighthearted and occasionally vindictive sarcasm, and tends to stay there, unless provoked out of it. And it’s easy to provoke him out of it, but it’s also easy to have him immediately go back to cheerful teasing and playful banter- or, if the situation is more serious, a dark, almost wicked, sense of humor.
In atypical angel fashion, Gabriel is hedonistic to the core. He likes decadence (sweets, especially), human entertainment (in fact, he seems to be a walking pop culture encyclopedia), and has a libido the size of a small third world country. He abuses his abilities as an angel to live the lifestyle of a god and it's not just for show- he genuinely enjoys his lifestyle and has found it to be a comfortable hiding place. He's been in “witness protection” for so long, that this is his life now- not the halo and the Father's messages- but his messages and lessons. And yet, he can drop the act on a dime and pick up being an angel again with no amount of awkwardness- there's no change in his personality, just his presence. There's no way to say where Loki begins and Gabriel ends, but he has no trouble being both. They're both him and there's no illusion or act anymore- if there ever was one. He's likely convinced himself that despite his status as an archangel, that he's as much a god as any of the other pagans. The parts of him that are truly Gabriel, however, have been buried under layers of snark and self-delusion, because dealing with those aspects of himself, means confronting a lot of things he's tried to bury. The Messenger is a long distant memory- there’s just this amalgamation now of god and archangel.
Gabriel has an overwhelming amount of patience, and is relentless and stubborn to a fault to go with it- whatever he wants, he will do anything he can to get, and he won't give up until he knows it’s a hopeless case, and losing irks him to no end, when it comes to that. He kept Sam going for a hundred Tuesdays in a time loop to get him to realize that he couldn't save his brother, even going as far as to force him to live several months without Dean to show him how it would feel. He also kept Sam and Dean imprisoned in TV Land "for days" as Castiel put it to get them to realize that they had no choice but to submit to being Lucifer and Michael's vessels. He might be a showman, prone to histrionics and big elaborate pranks with short-term payoff, but he also knows that good drama takes time- start small and build- and that some lessons are harder to drill in. Despite the fact that he claims that his tricks are all fun and games, there's still a business aspect to it. He tells Sam that "this all stopped being fun months ago," when Sam begs him to bring Dean back during the Mystery Spot ordeal, proving that he could've stopped the game at any time if he was tired of it, but chose not to, because he still had a point to make. His lessons might look funny or eccentric (although often cruelly so), but he custom tailors every one to the person- it's important that these people either get their just desserts or learn something from him. He gets a lot of pleasure out of it, but it doesn't change the fact that it's not all about the fun- there's nuance to it. The Winchesters hunt monsters- well, so does Gabriel. His monsters just happen to be humans, and he won't let anyone tell him that the people he kills and otherwise fucks with don't deserve the fates he bestows on them.
As an archangel, Gabriel is naturally inclined towards dominance without even realizing he is- it’s the one thing about his status he’s never lost. When he walks into a room, he knows he's the most powerful creature in it and people will take heed of 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- because the only thing higher than him are his two older brothers. He doesn't often 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, although one could argue that his showmanship and his grandiose way of taking victims is flaunting. Gabriel just thinks it's a necessary part of his enjoyment of his job.
Respect isn't something that comes naturally to Gabriel, despite how much he seems to love. 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- 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 or presume things about him, but he doesn't give a damn about respect. It's atypical of an archangel, but most everything Gabriel does is. Note that it's only after Dean implies that he's "someone's bitch" 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 wasn’t about the respect, it was about a mere human having the gall to think anything about him, an archangel. Presumptions upset him, especially coming from people who don't understand anything about him or his actions and why he takes them.
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. When talking to Dean later, he acted like it didn't, although the fact that he was even asking Dean for help in getting his blood back showed his hand and how desperate he'd gotten- he just tries to cover his desperation up with nonchalance, in the hopes that Dean wouldn’t catch wise. He also doesn't like being bossed around by people below his station- as evidenced by his annoyance whenever Dean tries to order him around on multiple occasions.
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 going wind up on the losing end. Sometimes even when he knows there’s more than a likely chance that he’ll win, he’ll try to weasel his way out of a conflict- take his first appearance in Tall Tales, when he attempted to bribe Dean to let him go, so they didn’t have to fight. Even when he confronts Lucifer, he goes out of his way to avoid starting an actual physical altercation with him, beyond throwing him into the wall to get him away from Kali. It's possible that he's actually just not that good at combat and does everything he can to avoid fighting fairly.
With all his layers and conflicting parts, Gabriel is something of a contradiction. Despite his nature as a class-A jerk, 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 loves intensely, but that makes him afraid of being left behind or not loved as much, which cases him to run, himself. 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.
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.
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 when people get too close to finding out the truth- 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 because he knows that if he doesn’t care, then he can’t be hurt). 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 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.
In a lot of ways, Gabriel is broken so deeply that he can become temperamental 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, but will always have a smartass remark to anything you say to him. Put him in a situation that he can’t win, and he starts to fall apart in subtle, little ways. 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. Rather than confronting Lucifer from the jump to protect his pagan god family, he tried to sneakily abduct Dean and Sam to keep Lucifer from ever needing to come and get them. 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 on and hated by the people he loves more than anything. He even tried to convince Kali to run away with him, as a way of avoiding the apocalypse, although he knew it wouldn’t really work. 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 later- 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, pigheaded attitude that has him repeating mistakes, BECAUSE WHAT ARE THE CHANCES ANYONE'S GONNA PULL THAT AGAIN? REALLY?
His other fatal flaw is his love. Gabriel loves as intensely as Lucifer, and is completely driven by it. He Fell, because he couldn't watch his brothers killing each other, he would've manipulated two boys into destroying their lives and ending the world to end a war so he didn't have to deal with that pain anymore. He doesn't have the hatred or disdain that Lucifer has- just the love and the fear of rejection for not being capable of choosing one brother over the other and not being able to handle the constant infighting. Family is important to Gabriel and he needs one to function, although he acts like a lone wolf and is often seen on his own. His surrogate pagan family may have been just as bad about infighting and bickering as his real family, but they still provided him with the comfort he needed in a time of great upheaval. He's loyal, but his loyalty doesn't permanently choose sides. He furiously defends Lucifer and Michael and the rest of his family when Dean and Sam insult them and then defends humans and the gods to Lucifer later. He defends whoever needs to be defended in the moment. He's protective and defensive of the people he cares about- hurting or insulting them or anything of the sort is a surefire way to make him angry. 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, knowing that she’d end up dead. Even the fact that came out of hiding to protect the gods at all was a show of his compassion. He might try to take a cowardly way out to protect people, but he'll still protect them.
To an extent, he's started to see humans as an extension of his family, although it took him a long time to get to the point where he could outwardly admit it. They, like his brothers, were his Father's children and even though he, too, saw the same flaws that made Lucifer despise them and even punished them for those flaws, he embraced their good qualities, as well. He spent a great deal of time treating them like playthings, but when it counted, he eventually realized that there was so much good in them- so much that he didn't find in his brothers anymore. Humans had become, in his eyes, the ideals that he'd longed to see in his siblings again. That capacity for forgiveness, for undying love, even in the face of unspeakable betrayal- things he wasn't getting from his own family. Choosing humanity over his brothers couldn't feel like a betrayal, because, in a way, they were part of his family- even referring to them as "the new baby" to Lucifer.
Despite his need to defend whoever needs it at the time, Gabriel's not capable of actually killing his brothers, although he has no problem killing humans who deserve it. He could have easily killed Castiel to avoid having him expose him, but didn't. He would have probably let him go on his own, and his snide Oh am I? at Dean's demand that he release him was just him being annoyed that Dean was bossing him around. He may have threatened to shiv Michael and acted like he planned on doing the same to Lucifer if his older brother didn't back down (and this may have been all part of the game he was playing, another sad I don't care lie), but if he had any intentions of doing it, he wouldn't have made his attempt so obvious or would've taken Lucifer out when he had him down. He knows Lucifer- knows that Lucifer knows him. He likely chose the tactic he confronted Lucifer with, because it was the only way to get out without killing his brother- he would rather die, himself, or test the limits of Lucifer's mercy than stoop that low. In some ways it was a test to see if Lucifer was even capable of that much forgiveness- the same that Gabriel had found in humans- or if he would simply continue to fester under his own hatred. He chose to kill his own brother- a choice Gabriel would never have made were their roles reversed, but he likely felt that Lucifer deserved the chance to make the right choice. This is how Gabriel holds himself to a higher standard than the rest of his family. Yes, he's lower than dirt, because he slums it up and acts like a heathen, but he doesn't kill his family. He doesn't engage in apocalyptic hissy fits whenever he disagrees with something. He may be lower than a dog in their eyes, but he's better than that and he expects them to be too. More than anything, he wants them to look at themselves and see that they're all being idiots about everything. However, up until that moment with Lucifer, he was too scared to do so. As much of a cynic he is, as much as he knows that everything will never be the way it was before, he still has some hope that his family will get the fuck over themselves and actually try to make themselves better.
In the same vein, however, Gabriel is permitted to insult, threaten, or otherwise (non-fatally) harm any one of his siblings (or anyone he considers part of his family), but does not extend that right to anyone else. Doing so pisses him off- he gets annoyed at Dean for calling Michael and Lucifer “heavenly douchenozzles,” but later refers to his family to Kali as “winged assmonkeys” and calls Lucifer “a great big bag of dicks” to his face. They’re his family- he can do what he wants to with them, but no one else can. That’s his right and his alone as a brother. Gabriel doesn’t have the same archangel biases that Michael and Lucifer have- all the angels are his family- but while he might play the irritating older brother to lesser angels, it’s Michael and Lucifer he’s closest to- Lucifer, especially. It’s for that reason that Lucifer is the brother he’s the most afraid of and the one he probably loves most, although he’d never say as much. He was Lucifer’s protégé, everything he knows, he learned from him, even if he put his own spin on things. A knife through the heart, a choice that Lucifer never would’ve agreed with, and having to look in the eyes of his own brother as he twisted the knife into his chest can’t change the fact that he owes so much of himself to his older brother and that nothing will ever make him stop loving him. In fact, he spends his last moments clinging to his brother for dear life, even through the utter betrayal and devastation in his eyes. Despite the fact that Gabriel would never stop loving Lucifer after the fact, that doesn’t mean he isn’t upset that it ended like that- knowing it would happen and feeling it happen are two different things. He’s furious about it, but he’s furious about a lot of things his family does- they’re all idiots and he’s the only sane one, but he still loves them. He picked up unconditional love from his Daddy, but, as he’d put it, he actually practices it.
Abilities: Telekinesis, or, at least, some form of it, is likely the most noticeable of his abilities, although certainly not the one he’s famous for. He’s capable of throwing even angels, including Lucifer, across a room, throwing open doors, calling objects straight to his hand- all with the power of his brain. In the same vein, he can banish people with the exact same amount of effort- specifically no effort at all- sending them anywhere from the next room to an alternate dimension. He can also bring them back at will, if it suits him to. All it takes is a flick of his wrist or a snap of his fingers. In fact, pretty much anything Gabriel does is accompanied by one of the two gestures in true showman fashion.
Taking it to a more terrifying angle, Gabriel can likely break necks, choke people from across rooms, and blow even other angels into chunky bits with just the power of his mind, given what we’ve seen from his fellow archangels. He likely wouldn’t, unless extremely provoked, but he could.
Like all angels, he can fly, although his flight speed is so quick that to the average person, it resembles teleporting, and he can be in one place one minute and then in another in mere seconds. Unlike his brother angels, who tend to appear with the sound of wings flapping or claps of thunder, Gabriel’s wings make no sound at all. The only sound at all is usually a fingersnap as he leaves. Similar to simply banishing them, he can also carry people with him when he goes. The process is said to be slightly uncomfortable for humans when other angels do it, although Gabriel seems to live no ill effects, suggesting he’s more accustomed to doing it.
His most prominent talent is his ability to bend reality, however. He can create pocket dimensions that are tailored to his own whim and are indistinguishable from the real world, aside from the fact that he’s God of them and can do whatever the hell he wants with them. He’s powerful enough to hold people, including angels, in these dimensions and the only thing that seems capable of destroying them is killing him. He can manifest anything he chooses even outside of his pocket dimensions, from women to monsters to food to wormholes and everything he manifests is just as real as anything, except that he can make them vanish at will- all of his creations usually vanish in a wash of bluish light. On top of manifesting anything he can think up at the time, he can also create perfect copies of himself that can act as proxies and enter dangerous situations for him, so he doesn’t have to- however, they come with a downside. For example, Kali was able to bloodspell Gabriel by taking blood from a copy and while killing the copy didn’t kill Gabriel, the spell was still in effect, as Kali still had Gabriel’s blood, suggesting the copies are completely perfect down to the last detail. In the game, Gabriel's ability will work similar to an architect in Inception and as such, the dreamer's mind can easily rebel against his attempts at modifying it.
As well as warping reality, Gabriel can affect the physiology of living things- he’s only shown taking Sam and Dean’s voices away onscreen, but as Zachariah as taken away a human’s lungs, given them stomach cancer, and caused internal bleeding, it’s likely that Gabriel can do much the same, but chooses not to, as he has a great deal more style than that.
He can shapeshift his vessel into any shape he chooses (human, although he could possibly choose other forms if he wanted), taking the form of a businessman, TV’s Dr. Sexy, and a cop at various points. He can also “hack” into various electronic devices and send “psychic” messages(as most angels can) and can even change his voice to make the messages seem legit- such as the scene where he pretends to be a cop on a scanner to lure Sam and Dean into a trap.
He can also manipulate time, such as creating time loops and slowing time down- for example, when Sam and Dean were locked in TV Land, he promised them 24 hours before he would speak to them, but when Castiel finds them, he claims they’ve been missing “for days,” suggesting that what was only an hour or so for Sam and Dean was actually a few days in the real world. In addition, Gabriel has an angel’s quasi-omniscience, including a keen awareness of potential future events- mentioning to Sam in Mystery Spot with utmost certainty that if he doesn’t let Dean go, bad things will happen and saying several times that he “knows how this story ends” and that he “skipped ahead.” Going even further, he claims that he and his brothers always knew that Sam and Dean would be the ones that would end everything, prompting Gabriel’s interest in them.
He has preternatural senses. He can see things such as Enochian sigils, Reapers, and potentially Hellhounds, all of which are invisible to the human eye, and can see demons as their true selves. Along with this, he seems to have an uncanny ability to know things he shouldn’t- in Changing Channels, the questions asked by the game show host are specific to Sam and Dean’s pasts (he also manages to take victims and tailor their punishments to their crimes- suggesting he can tell what their crimes are just by looking), and in both Tall Tales and Hammer of the Gods, he makes references to conversations he wasn’t present to overhear. In fact, he seems to make reference to a lot of events that he wasn’t present for, which suggests that Gabriel knows everything somehow. This includes, due to his knowledge of the Horseman’s rings (and the fact that he claimed no one else had that info) and being able to recognize Kali’s bloodspells on sight, as well as being able to recreate the typical style of a haunting-based murder, that he’s keenly aware of almost anything supernatural-related, from curses to sigils to spells. He’s likely never had much use for the info and, thus, doesn’t put it to use unless he has to.
Like all angels, he has angel radio and can sense his brothers and, in turn, they can sense him- Castiel recognized immediately what Gabriel was once he was in the same room with him, causing the latter to duct tape his mouth shut and send him away. He can also, like other angels, communicate with or summon them over long distances using it. Conversely, he can also communicate with humans through their dreams.
His physical strength is nothing to be trifled with, as proven when he casually lifts Dean up by his collar, despite being a great deal smaller, and pins him to a wall with one hand with such force that he was actively crushing Dean’s chest and shows not even the slightest bit of strain in doing so. He’s fast- capable of moving at lightning speeds when need be, although he’s not nearly as fast as Lucifer (although he was likely not trying to be). However, he doesn’t seem to be much of a physical fighter- his major weakness- so it’s likely he could easily be taken by another angel or a god in a fair fight, but that would imply that Gabriel chooses to fight fair.
He’s invulnerable to anything but an archangel’s blade or the powers of another archangel (or a Cambion) and, thus, can recover quickly from any wound sustained. However, he is capable of being bound by bloodspells, can be trapped by a ring of holy fire, sent away by angel banishing sigils, or kept at bay by Enochian runes. He seems to feel pain, where most angels seem to shake even the most major of injuries off- but that might be because he’s a baby in the same style as Lucifer and not because it actually hurt.
Unlike other angels, Gabriel is not occupying a human vessel- as the gods have been on earth long before angels, according to Kali, it’s unlikely that Gabriel was always Loki- more than likely, he took Loki’s body as his own and took over the gods identity. As such, the powers he should’ve lost by being apart from Heaven- as Castiel did- he managed to augment and support with a more powerful vessel. This also prevented him from burning through the vessel as he would a human one and allowed him to live safely amongst the pagan gods and giving him a much more resilient vessel. Like demons, an angel changes the properties of the blood of its vessel, although it’s not clear whether or not drinking angel blood has similar effects as drinking demon blood.
Gabriel has the ability to resurrect people, as evidenced by his repeated murdering and resurrecting of Dean during Mystery Spot, but this is a power he likely doesn’t use often. One can argue that since the ordeal took place in an alternate universe that Gabriel was merely acting in the parameters of his own world, but the way he says “that don’t mean I should” suggests that he has the power and chooses not to use it, because some things should be left alone- given the stir that raising people from Hell seems to have, it’s also likely that he would’ve drawn too much attention to himself. He may or may not be capable of healing anymore, given that seems to be one of the first things to go when cut off from Heaven, but the fact that he doesn’t use it may be indicative of the fact that he just doesn’t feel like doing it or never had a reason to.
Gabriel also doesn’t require sleep or food to survive, although he does eat his weight in sweets when he can. Also, he possesses an angel’s blade, which seems to be capable of killing anything. (It is, however, incapable of killing things not from his universe that have skin resistant to blades.)
An angel’s blade or holy fire is the only thing that can actually kill him, neither of which will be in heavy supply in the game. However, while his vessel can heal and sustain heavy damage, completely destroying it will leave him without a vessel and exposed- which is as much of a problem for everyone else as it is for him- an angel in true form can blind and even kill people if they lay eyes on them, and he’d have to take a surrogate vessel and angels can only take HIGHLY specific vessels and the vessel has to agree- there wouldn’t be anyone who would fit that bill in game. However, it’s been shown that an angel’s Grace can be trapped inside of objects- in one case, it was a simple vial. It’s not clear if the object has to be specific to hold it, but it can happen.
He’s not immune to powerful spells- the goddess Kali was able to bind him with a blood spell and the Whore of Babylon was able to incapacitate Castiel with a spell (although Cas is a minor angel- we’ll ignore that). Enochian wards can keep him in and out of places and he can be banished with a very specific banishing sigil drawn in blood. A ring of holy oil lit on fire can also effectively trap him. As archangels are extremely powerful, they’re extremely hard to beat. However, I’m willing to talk out with anyone what sort of abilities can and can’t work on him or what effects they might have, given I’m more fond of knocking Gabriel down a few pegs than I am having him pwn everything ever.
He's also absolute CRAP at physical fighting, so anyone on his level strength-wise would be able to take him down if, for whatever reason, he wouldn't be able to cheat using his powers. I'm always willing to negotiate and make fights fair and end in a way that's fair for everyone.
Writing sample: Gabriel was at the crucifixion- a lot of angels were, actually. Heck, it was a lot like angel Woodstock, except it wasn't much of a party. That was after he left, so he spent the entire time standing in a corner like that awkward girl who got dragged to a dance she never wanted to go to, hoping no one notices her and she can pass out of the party in peace. The last thing the crucifixion needed was a disobedient archangel turning into Carrie at the prom on the whole family. For the most part, he succeeded. Anafiel, of course, could find him across the universe and back if she wanted to and wouldn't be bothered to stay away if he asked her to.
Everyone and their brother claims to have a splinter from the cross that Jesus was crucified on, but fewer people claim they have the splintered remains of the Lance of Longinus, although Gabriel has, in fact, shoved it in the face of a few dickhead historians who tried to pass off their little sticks as pieces of one of the holiest items in the whole of history. The location of the true Lance is a secret kept by the highest order of angels and Gabriel just happens to be one of them, through a series of circumstances that he wouldn't explain no matter how many times he was asked.
He keeps his secrets well.
Outside the bar, Gabriel paces in furious circles, while Castiel stands unmoving and unblinking, although his eyes follow every step Gabriel takes. It's unnerving and, eventually, Gabriel pivots on his heels to face his younger brother. "You're distracting me."
Castiel looks befuddled, which isn't much of a change. His head tilts slightly to the side. "From what?"
Gabriel's answer isn't much of one. He flails a hand in broad circles. "You're staring. Do you ever blink? You've been in that vessel for... What? Two years now. You don't even know how the eyelids work."
"We don't have time-"
Gabriel makes a pfft sound to cut Castiel off before he can finish that sentence. Time is relative and whatever Blues Brothers- inspired mission his kid brother's on doesn't exactly make him want to bounce up and down like a kid on Christmas morning. He's in no hurry, except to get it all over with, and no one wants to listen to his plan, even if it's the only plan that'll diminish casualties on all sides. But noo, everyone's gotta get a stick up their asses, because Mike and Lucy's prom dresses are, apparently, popular members of society.
Whatever.
"I thought you were tryin' to find Daddy? Or did all that hope you had go Dante's Peak all over thick skull of yours?" He twirls his finger, drawing circles in midair around Castiel's head.
"They're related."
One of Gabriel's eyebrows vanishes somewhere in the vicinity of his hairline. "....How is finding the world's holiest pointy object even slightly related to your snipe hunt?"
For a moment, Castiel looks uncomfortable in a way that actually makes it look like he's emoting, which is a shock to Gabriel. "...There's a way to summon our Father. It's... Dangerous and potentially fatal. It's also impossible without the Lance."
"And you think I know where it is?" Gabriel's trying hard not to laugh at that plan- really, he is. There's something so adorable about Castiel's faith, even when everyone can see his Grace is slipping away from him. Then again, saying as much would make him out to be a hypocrite, considering he's barely holding onto his Grace with both hands, even if it doesn't look like it.
"I know you do."
Gabriel rolls his eyes. "That don't mean I'm gonna tell you."
"Not even if it means the end of the Apocalypse?" Castiel's voice lilts at the end, like the words are a mocking accusation and the hairs at the back of Gabriel's neck stand on end and his fingers itch to come together and bring forth some grandiose display of power. He resists the temptation by shoving them into his pocket- sometimes he likes the drama of bringing everything down with just a snap that he forgets that it's not necessary.
"You don't know that," he points out, narrowing hazel eyes and staring up at the intense, neutral expression of his younger brother. He'd resent that Castiel's taller than him, but he chose this form, specifically. He likes it- short or not. "I show up in the Holy Land and I'm gonna end up behind six hundred seals."
There's a long silence from Castiel, before he says, "They likely wouldn't need that many to contain you."
Voice sample: HERE.