Gabriel (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
trickntreats) wrote2012-09-04 04:55 pm
trickntreats) wrote2012-09-04 04:55 pm
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distantskies
Gabriel can see peoples’ souls when he looks at them. It’s not an ability he can turn off, but it's not just a straight 'look and see everything' kind of ability either. Basically, souls have layers and some people might have the skill or abilities to block his sight. In addition, the splintering of peoples' souls into daemons might make it hard for him to see things--like a heat-wave on a road.
Please do reply to this again if something significant enough happens to your character to change the tenor of their soul.
Character name: [Nuff said!]
Are you comfortable with Gabriel seeing your character's soul? [Gabriel will actively look at peoples' souls, because that's how he comes to his judgements. However, if you would rather he not have that ability, please let me know and we'll work out either something to do with your character which might block his Sight (eg, warding), or we'll say that the difference in reality-metaphysics has made it too hard for him to look at them.]
What extremely important memories/aspects of personality/powers might he see? [Borrowing from Flah here: The stuff that's buried deepest are things that people would try to hide no matter what, no matter who. Things in the middle might be stuff your character isn't really comfortable sharing with a complete strange, but might share with a friend. Stuff on the surface would be emotions felt presently, powers that are active right now, or memories that are so strong they just immediately pop out.]
Does your character have any powers or devices which might muddy the waters further/prevent Gabriel from seeing much at all? [Things like wards, glamours, magic, or simply having enough strength of will or skill at lying to consciously hide their truths.]
Anything else? [Anything else? Update?]
Please do reply to this again if something significant enough happens to your character to change the tenor of their soul.
Character name: [Nuff said!]
Are you comfortable with Gabriel seeing your character's soul? [Gabriel will actively look at peoples' souls, because that's how he comes to his judgements. However, if you would rather he not have that ability, please let me know and we'll work out either something to do with your character which might block his Sight (eg, warding), or we'll say that the difference in reality-metaphysics has made it too hard for him to look at them.]
What extremely important memories/aspects of personality/powers might he see? [Borrowing from Flah here: The stuff that's buried deepest are things that people would try to hide no matter what, no matter who. Things in the middle might be stuff your character isn't really comfortable sharing with a complete strange, but might share with a friend. Stuff on the surface would be emotions felt presently, powers that are active right now, or memories that are so strong they just immediately pop out.]
Does your character have any powers or devices which might muddy the waters further/prevent Gabriel from seeing much at all? [Things like wards, glamours, magic, or simply having enough strength of will or skill at lying to consciously hide their truths.]
Anything else? [Anything else? Update?]
no subject
Are you comfortable with Gabriel seeing your character's soul? Yup perfectly fine.
What extremely important memories/aspects of personality/powers might he see? Surface: Snippy, Arrogant. Thinking almost always about work. HOWEVER since at that moment thinking about work involves wrapping up any danger left for John, Lestrade and Mrs Hudson from what's left of Moriarty's web, there are some muddled feelings for them in there too. All the current case-related stuff would be here. His apparent 'suicide' would have very shallow reasons at this level - beating Moriarty at his own game, winning, etc. They aren't the real reasons, though.
He tries to pretend he doesn't have feelings, but the reality is he is often completely overwhelmed with his own emotions and doesn't know how to deal with them save lashing out.
In the Middle and down deep: He pretends he doesn't care about people, but there is a wealth of concern and care and worry right under the surface. It's narrowed down to focus on a very small group of people - John, Lestrade, Mrs Hudson, Molly (and yes, even a little, a very little, for Mycroft.) The real reasons for his 'suicide' are here. Because he could have beaten Moriarty without 'dying', could have taken him into the police - but he would have lost the only people in the world that cared about him, and that he cared deeply about. He still didn't want to actually die, but given that he's had to give up everything in order to protect them (not just their friendship, but also his work, his name, his reputation - which to someone as arrogant as he is, is a massive blow), he may as well have.
There is a lot about John at a deep level. John is the closest person to him in the world, whether Sherlock admits it or not, and Sherlock would do (as we've seen) almost anything to protect him - even as he snaps at him and experiments on him and chases away all his girlfriends. There are a lot of happy memories - a lot of smiles and giggling on crime scenes - but there are also a lot of tense ones. Arguments. That moment, as Sherlock had to pretend not to care about Mrs Hudson being shot (she never was, he just needed to get John away from him before he committed 'suicide'), when John called him a 'machine'. A moment, standing on the roof, looking down, watching John reach out for him, beg him not to.
At the very beginning, a moment, when a gunshot suddenly killed a serial killer right in front of him, and then a moment an hour later when he realised it had been John who had saved him.
Deeper, John has saved more of him than simply his life. In soul terms, without John, Sherlock would probably have become something much worse. And at the very deepest, there is a deep, ingrained fear that Sherlock himself could have turned into someone like Moriarty - and that terrifies him.
I HOPE ANY OF THIS MAKES SENSE you can ask me to clarify/expand if you need me to
Does your character have any powers or devices which might muddy the waters further/prevent Gabriel from seeing much at all? Noooope.
Anything else? [Anything else? Update?]
no subject
Are you comfortable with Gabriel seeing your character's soul? Yup!
What extremely important memories/aspects of personality/powers might he see? At the surface, John is almost completely overwhelmed by grief. His best friend's funeral was a week ago, and he was one of three people at it. The papers for a week were covered in 'Fake Genius Commits Suicide' but John knows knows that his best friend wasn't a fake, no matter what anyone tells him. Even Sherlock himself telling him that he was a fake hasn't wavered his faith. Obviously at the surface he is still very obsessed with Sherlock's death, and with the open maw of his life from this point.
Before Sherlock, he had nothing - haunted by a his past as a soldier that he couldn't return to, he had no prospects and no will to find new ones - a grey, bleak existence where he didn't know what he was good for and didn't know how to fit back in to civilian life. That time period is very hazy. A little deeper are his war memories - a place where he really felt alive, where he saved many of his comrades, and lost many of them. The shot to his shoulder that discharged him is a painful memory, but one he's buried under memories of Sherlock.
John loves Sherlock. Love in a way that isn't romantic, that isn't sexual, but that is complete and whole and unwavering. Sherlock gave him a purpose and gave him his life back, and John's loyalty to him is as complete as the concept possibly could be. (He killed a man to save him on the first night they met, after all.) There's a secret, fervent wish that Sherlock will somehow be the one person in the world to cheat death, a wish that he sometimes believes - before he tells himself to face reality and face the fact that Sherlock is dead.
John has a very strong moral principle, but as we've seen isn't shy to act if action is demanded. "You killed a man," Sherlock said. "Yes, well, he wasn't a very nice man," John replied. The understatement of a century. John works hard to defend Sherlock and to keep Sherlock from being a complete ass to everyone.
There is a deep loneliness, in there, both before and after Sherlock, that matches Sherlock's loneliness without John.
Does your character have any powers or devices which might muddy the waters further/prevent Gabriel from seeing much at all? not at all
hope this helps!