#same with like. demigods and angels and other supernatural entities. better to just avoid the fucking headache and humiliate them instead

[talentforlying]

coming in hot out of class to say that while constantine's definitely not about killing, finds nothing appealing about it, and will flatly refuse to kill whenever he has a choice in the matter, he has no compunctions about convincing people to kill others for him (usually demons killing other demons for political motivations) or tricking people into situations where their own patterns of behavior will lead to their deaths.

also, sometimes the options other than killing are! much worse!! he'll cast a living person into hell or leave them stranded in a shit circumstance they have no way out of instead of killing them!! he initially consigned ritchie's consciousness to an eternity trapped in a computer because he couldn't stand to see ritchie die!! my guy That Is Worse!!!

[enemymine2000]

I’m not good at that whole meta thing. I’m more of an “Oh, my intuition tells me”-kinda gal. And sometimes these feelings are just to darn strong.

I can’t get over Gabriel. I mean, this whole supposedly sacrificed himself only to get trapped by Asmodeus to be milked for his grace for years thing only to then get free, get milked for his grace to get TFW into the AU, only to then sacrifice himself thing reeks funny.

Obviously I don’t have any supporting evidence, but from the moment we saw his scorched wing marks (again) I was like “Nah, that totally isn’t what it looks like”. And now with the new episode and Michael’s emphasize that in contrast to Gabriel he is the better one, I just feel that to be true.

(Longer headcanon behind the cut.)

So if Gabe isn’t sleeping in the Empty right now (Although also a nice thing to imagine, especially once he wakes up. If the entity was annoyed with Cas I can’t imagine what it would be like with Mr. Trickster himself.), he is out there somewhere. He pulled that trick already. more than once actually. The first time the boys met him, he created a simulacrum for them to stab. Then he created two simulacra to trick Lucifer into believing he stabbed the real one. Three times is the charm, isn’t it? And we had that whole arc with Gabe going after real Loki and his sons to emphasize his trickster witness protection thing.

So how did he pull it off, if he indeed did pull it off? Well, my best guess is that he did the switcheroo when he was allegedly extracting his grace in the privacy of Dean’s room. He couldn’t have pulled off a switch when already on the other side of the rift or Rowena would have seen him come back through it before anyone else. (And I don’t believe him to actually ever have entered the AU in the first place - Gabe was behaving way to weird there, as if he didn’t know how to react to things, which a simulacrum without the original there to observe and guide might struggle with.) So a switch in the bunker, when he shook off Cas with the hint about privacy.

When Gabe emerged, the amount of extracted grace was pityful. Okay, so Asmodeus had milked Gabe pretty bad just the day when Ketch decided to rescue him, because of course he did. An archangel needs to be “milked” pretty dry to not be dangerous. What the Prince of Hell not injected immediately into his veins, he kept in storage because still he needed to wait for the reserves to build up again for more. One vial went into the spell for the rift, that landed Dean and Ketch in the AU. The second one was consumed by Gabriel upon coming back to his senses. Looked like approximately the amount of grace that was left of Cas’, when he retrieved it from where Metatron had stashed it. So at the time Asmodeus came to the bunker, we are let to believe that Gabriel is about as powerful as Cas. Obviously not counting whatever amount of grace still needed to have been in him to begin with, because as I said Asmodeus had “milked” him bad, but he had not drained him completely. He would only have kept his levels low enough to not be a danger to him when he first caught him. The rest insurance of Gabriel’s compliance he achieved with continued torture. So I guess Gabriel is slightly less than at regular angel strength when he deals the death blow to Asmodeus. That’s admittedly weak for an archangel, who is used to creating whole worlds at the snap of his fingers. But he is not Cas weak, whose strength levels have been all over the place - but who I think isn’t as weak as anyone seems to think he is, he only chooses to use his powers selectively. (Or Dean chooses for him - I mean come on, Cas mind-wiped Donatello without breaking a sweat, he still heals Dean’s more major wounds with barely a tap. It was only Ishim’s healing that winded him in season 12, but Cas told us that that wound was exceptionally deep. And Ishim was an angel to be healed, not a human, so probably a little more demanding on Cas’ grace.)

Anyway Gabriel feels strong enough after smiting Asmodeus to immediately go on a revenge spree against Loki and sons. Who are Norse gods or at least demigods. That’s the same archangel who prior to going up against Lucifer (back in season 5) was all lover not fighter. So he must have thought himself powered up enough and was genuinely surprised about not being able to heal himself after his confrontation with Fenrir. Cue his surprise visit with the Winchesters in the hope of getting more of his stashed grace. Tough luck, it’s all used up. So Gabe takes a nap on the couch, after which he does not seem to suffer from his injury anymore - he can bend down to pick up the case with the wood sword thingies just fine, where before he could barely stand upright. It’s only after the next fight against Sleipnir and Narfi that it seems to smart again. So yeah, self-healing works just fine, it just takes a bit longer. Then Gabe tells his story and off they all go to exact some revenge. Tough to tell time in SPN (that with indoor scenes, time jumps and supernatural beings manipulating the environment to fit their needs and stuff) but if it’s a couple hours tops inbetween events. So I stand with my assumption of at least Cas levels of power for Gabe at this point and constantly growing. Asmodeus last “milking” extracted three vials and was a while ago. Again with not being able to tell the passing of time in the show, but the boys had been on Rowena’s case in Oregon inbetween events, so I hazard a guess that’s it’s been at least a week if not longer since they last saw Gabe. If Gabe was at say approximately one and half vials of grace when he left the bunker, I think it should have been at least at two by them all meeting up again. Also they don’t immediately have him donate grace for the spell. They expressively wait for him to recharge a bit. Again no telling how much time actually passes. Taking into account the rather impatient nature of the Winchesters when it comes to family saving on one side and their understanding of such matters thanks to years with Cas, I’d say they would give him a week before going bonkers. And they appear slightly frantic in the episode when gathering. Cue in Gabriel’s need for privacy and the pityful amount he seems to be able to extract. At most a quarter of a vial, more like a fifth. Yeah, it’s funny because (insert phallic reference here) and it cause the problem of not actually being enough to establish a portal, so they need to hunt down Lucifer. So if it was all a trick by Gabe wouldn’t he have done it better?

Well, Gabe - or the guy that we think is Gabe - says that he is convinced that his special high powered juice should be enough even in such a small dosage. So, if Gabe actually used the privacy to create a simulacrum of himself it still would make sense. He doesn’t know that the dosage needs to be higher and he would need as much of his grace as he could to keep the simulacrum up and running while getting as far away from whatever was going to go down as possible. And he would have been able to leave Dean’s room and even the bunker without anyone being the wiser. The bunker hasn’t been angel proof in a long time and Gabe has his full set of wings. One flap and he would have been gone without anyone realising it. The simulacrum however would appear as much as Gabriel as possible but without his sharp wit about him, because that would require Gabe actually to be there and to guide the thing. That’s why “Gabriel” is barely able to cover himself with a book when caught in a compromising position with Rowena, instead of using his dry wit and some dirty jokes. That’s why “Gabriel” barely spends any time with the group in the AU, always keeping himself separated. That’s why he actually avoids fighting (the vampires and the angels) and to the best of my memories doesn’t use his powers at all after burning out the angel warding of the camp. Probably ate up all the limited powers the real Gabriel infused him with to make the ruse believable. More it didn’t need, because it was meant to die. Just like the one in the motel in season 5.

Meanwhile Gabriel would be free to return to his witness protection program. Apart from the Winchester, Rowena and the few angels left no one alive knows that he is an archangel. He wears the face of Loki, and no one knows that the real Loki is dead. His sons too, so he can take his place without contest. Back to being a trickster, waiting until his grace fully recharges. Eating sweets, creating pornstar fantasies. Until one day something lures him out again. He doesn’t know yet that Heaven is that close to failing - that was something Cas told the simulacrum. Maybe he doesn’t know yet that Michael wears Dean to a new Apocalypse and that Lucifer truly is dead now. And maybe he comes through for TFW and Heaven once he learns about it. Or maybe my feeling is completely wrong and he is dead and in the Empty. Then I hope something wakes him up soon and he annoys the hell out of the entity.