#i genuinely love them as a trio and the v2 gabe dynamic is so good...

[muzzleroars]

In the kind of perfect cosmic coincidences universe that allows both V1 x Gabe AND V2 surviving. Do Gabriel and V2 have any interaction?

WE ARE TALKING BEST FRIENDS (???) V2 AND GABRIEL TONIGHT

YES OMG....i mentioned this in some tags yesterday, but it's so true that v2 and gabriel actually have a lot in common as characters. i just started to really think about it while i've been working on this comic taking a small look at gabe's identity and the fight in 3-2 - both v2 and gabriel are beings based in violence, v2 built from the foundations of a war machine and gabriel made in the mold of the perfect soldier. but their main function is peacekeeping, meant to bring order and harmony through their brutality, one they are given yet meant to keep in check so as to only apply as much force as necessary on those they supposedly serve. however, both of their creators are now dead - v2 was meant to uphold the now moot new peace, gabriel meant to preserve the sanctity of god's now abandoned kingdom. their identities buckle under it, and, at least to me, they solve this by continuing to pursue their objective even though it's now meaningless in the world they inhabit. they are both beings left behind, the pride of their creators and now without them and without direction. neither of the them do well in failure, in aimlessness, and so they march forward with the same programming, the same directives given a long time ago, to such a stubborn extreme even they know it's folly but they can't let it go, can't be nothing.

SO i think they would actually have a decent amount to talk about, although it's such a vulnerable part of both of them that i think they'd be pretty abrasive to one another, especially upon first meeting. they see their own failure in the other, they see how pointless they believe themselves to be reflected back at them and they HATE it. a machine upholding human law in hell? an angel who serves nothing and has no god? what's the point of YOU? they both ask. they both see a zombie, something shambling on and slowly falling apart, and they KNOW that's them, that's what they are. so initially i think they're...icy at best. v2 is a little shit, a lot like v1, and so it does like bugging gabe bc he's so reactive, but otherwise they generally refuse to speak much. because in this scenario i think they would both be coming to terms with the death of who they always were and who they should have been into eternity, but it's not. going well for them. and so they would fight, argue and bicker over almost EVERYTHING, until they're forced to face what they didn't ever want to, forced to find a companion to their grief. v1 isn't like them in this regard, it doesn't care that its purpose has no meaning - its worth hasn't lied with its function or its creators for a long time, it didn't struggle with this breakdown. for v1's part, all it says to them is "you're free, do what you want because nothing matters" but that doesn't compute for them, at least not yet. v2 and gabriel would be harsh with each other i think, but feeling a true understanding from something else, from another entity that can genuinely relate to their specific flavor of ruined identity, would mean WAY more than either would be willing to admit lol