Antique Book Dealer
Motivation
Unwanted Power
Description
When people first see Gabe, their first impression is usually amusement at the tall thin dandy, with the old-fashioned, out-of-fashion blond coiffure and powder blue suit. His expression always appears to be wide-eyed and naive, and surprised by all he sees. His eyes are a light brown, though in a certain light, when they reflect the sky they turn silver or blue.
His manners are studied, elaborate and precise for this age. He is unfailingly polite, incongruously in some circumstances. For example, he will remonstrate during a robbery, about the grammar the street-punk employed during his demands.
"No, no no, young man. One does not say 'gimme yer dosh'; it would be so much more eloquent if you were less hurried 'excuse me madam, please give me your pertinences and valuables'
Personality
Those that get to know Gabe in more depth realize that this is part camouflage and part habit. He is genuinely surprised by the selfishness and greed that he sees around himself and retreats into manners as an escape from the hurt. Modern life is also painful and confusing for Gabe, so his tastes in music and literature, viewed as eccentric, are more a reflection of another way of avoiding a modern fast lifestyle.
Background and history
Gabe is old. Very old. 7000 years ago, in a different dimension, Gabe was an angel (then called Azurephesus) tasked with protecting and guiding the new tribes of man. A small accident in dimensional travel landed him in our continuum where the timeline was not exactly the same, though he gladly continued his mission, reporting back to a higher power at infrequent intervals. Slowly Gabe found the attractions of heaven less appealing than the growing cultural arts of the societies with which he was associated. He has not returned now for several hundred years which accounts a little for his sense of loss.
For Gabe the flowering of culture has been the most exciting thing in his existence. Painting, sculpture, music, opera, ballet, fine wines, fine food, architecture, taiko, totems, and the other myriad of ways that man expresses his intelligence. From tribal times, through the founding of cities to the flourishing of the arts, Gabe has been there sampling, tasting and partaking in all the possibilities available.
The eighteenth century was Gabe's favorite. Sichuan Opera and the Garrick theater. Mozart and Handel. William Blake (who he possibly had too much influence upon) and Gai Qi. Since then the rise of technology has left Gabe more uneasy. Certain instruments of the modern age, the telephone, the gramophone and the electric light, he has embraced, but he is generally not at all comfortable with the evolution of technology. He thinks of the centuries past when man lived in smaller groups, and, frankly, there ability to kill each other was limited to a pointed stick.
Currently Gabe runs an antiquarian bookshop. This is made easy by the fact that he has personally known a lot of the authors and he has to be careful he does not reveal this to the customers, but this has made him internationally renowned among the small group of antique book collectors. He is also rather jealous of his collection, and takes great pains not to sell anything. Even going so far as to only open his shop at strange hours. (Only Tuesdays between 10pm and 1am if there is a full moon that week.)
He still takes his purpose of guiding man seriously, and for this has established himself as a superhero persona; fighting crime for the citizens. As he sees his duty, weeding the bad from so the good and gracious can prosper.
Fighting Crime
Gabe actively tries to promote 'good' and hinder 'evil', both in his guise as a concerned citizen; through social and political groups; and in his guise as an 'Angel', a hero who is frequently seen stopping crimes in peaceful ways. Generally the criminals just 'give up' for inexplicable reasons when Angel appears. This enables the public aspect to help the private one. For example, as a member of the local Greenpeace chapter he hears that a local company is planning to open radioactive storage site; Angel will probably check out the directors of the company to make sure it is really following the guidelines from the Environmental Protection Agency, or they are just going to throw radioactive sludge in the river, take the money and run! Note that Gabe does not have any background advantages of contacts etc.,. so it is a very amateur effort.
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