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.
Gabriel/The Trickster | Supernatural | Not reserved 2/3
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.