ben barnes. thirty-five. cisgender male. he/him. bisexual & scorpio âž *ďž is that gabriel parker behind the mask? whenever i see the bodyguard for the Villanelles and sleeper agent for the Silent Death in pigalle, i think of you should see me in a crown / billie eilish. rumor has it they are patient & observant, but volatility & disloyalty are their fatal flaws. what their neighbors in the remi apartments call them is the quiet one.
Full Name: Gabriel Thomas Parker
Occupation(s): Sleeper Agent for the Silent Death - currently tasked with surveilling and potentially taking out Evren Fawn. He is also the bodyguard for the Villanelles.
A HISTORY (cancer tw, death tw, betrayal tw, drug use tw, potential suicide tw)
Gabriel Parker was born in Connecticut on November 3rd, 1987. He was the eldest of three children, but only he and his sister made it to adulthood. His youngest sibling died of chlidhood cancer and their absence left a hole in their family.
His parents fell into grief and nothing could seem to bull them out of their sorrow. When he was fifteen, Gabriel stepped into the role of caretaker to be sure his sister had everything she needed. Luckily, their family was well off due to their generational business - a gun dealership along the eastern border of the state. He was able to pull himself and his sister through high school, but when college rolled around, he had no clue what he wanted to do with education.
But, having being raised around guns and with guns, he decided the military was the best shot he had. Especially if it paved the way for his college later.Â
Gabriel was a natural. He excelled at hand-to-hand combat, proved himself a strategist while in training, and had a sharp eye with a gun. When he should have been shipped out to be stationed around the world, they held him back for more specialized training. After a few years, he began to train others. While hand-to-hand combat was his favorite, the soldiers he trained always mentioned his marksmanship as his defining quality.
Even though he was meant to be a hardened sergeant, Gabriel was a jolly guy. When he wasnât teaching, he was laughing and smiling. The military was the first place Gabriel truly felt that he belonged and he wasnât going to sulk his way through life. He loved training and was content to stay that way forever.
Until he got his station orders - three years in the Germany to aid with efforts in the Middle East. They ordered that he go alone and tell no one in his family of his whereabouts - as was standard at the time. But, he negotiated that he would be able to bring his sister along as he was her only caretaker and she was barely eighteen at the time. His superiors reluctantly agreed.Â
In June 2010, he and his sister arrived in Germany. They settled down into Berlin where Gabriel was meant to be stationed. Over the next 7 years, the two lived together and built a life in Germany. Gabriel barely had time outside of his work to manage a social life, but he had a few lovers and more friends than he could count. His sister was always throwing events at their shared home and she even managed to fall in love with a German man named Eric Brien.Â
Eric and his sister fell in love quickly in 2017 and were married by 2018. Shortly after, she moved out and for the first time in Gabrielâs adult life, he lived alone. He should have loved it - he should have. But, he missed his family and he needed kinship. In late 2018, he met a young man named Mikael. He was the life of the party and brought out the youth in Gabriel. He didnât know how to call it love, but he was content with following Mikael through life and gleaning some of his happiness.Â
In early 2019, deep in the bliss of the new relationship quickly moving toward living together, Gabriel received a distressing call. His sister told him over the phone that his brother-in-law Eric was in the hospital of a drug overdose. It was the first heâd ever heard of Eric having drug problems - the family rallied around Eric, especially Gabriel. For his sisterâs sake, he needed this man to recover and return to his former self.
He grew very close to Eric in those months. Helping him to regain his life after falling so deep into drugs and alcohol. The two would often spend evenings chatting over the phone or helping to prepare dinners for both Gabrielâs sister and Mikael. It seemed that the family was growing and thriving, but Gabriel didnât see Ericâs behaviors until it was too late. He didnât notice how Gabriel would disappear into the bathroom before meals and come back with sunken eyes. He didnât notice how Gabriel was sneaking cash out of Mikaelâs wallet when they visited. Eric began asking him about his routine, the routes he took on the way to work.Â
A few weeks later, on his way to work, Eric called him crying. Between sobs, Gabriel could scarcely make out the words âIâm sorry.â He panicked thinking that Eric was going to harm himself or his sister, but when he pulled over on the side of the country road, he didnât have time before someone yanked open the driverâs side door. Four armed men dragged Gabrielâs screaming and kicking body away from the phone where Eric sobbed and apologized.
Gabriel learned the truth over the next few days. Eric had sold him out to a fringe laboratory for enough money to pay for his habit. Gabriel begged to be released, saying that his family had money - that he could pay them whatever sum they wanted. But, they didnât want money. They wanted his body, his muscle, his skill, his soldierâs brain. His cries fell on deaf ears.
On June 3rd, 2019, the experiment was completed. It had Gabrielâs face and body, his honed muscles and skills. It had his name, his charming wit, and his innate sense of a soldierâs loyalty, but nothing else. All memory of his family and his partners had been destroyed. He remembered nothing of the man heâd been. When he awoke on the table, he only knew that he was loyal to the man responsible for his life and that he had a larger purpose. That purpose manifested when he was accepted as the bodyguard for the Villanelles and ordered to carry out his duty to them while waiting for Lieseilâs order to take them out.
Over the last three years, he has grown into his role. He is emotionally stunted, like many of his kind, but he has learned how to make people trust him. He knew when and how much to smile, he found ways to make someone comfortable with his words, and how to make people see him as a threat only in service of the Villanelles. It was imperative to his larger mission that he not raise suspicion.Â
In the last six months, he was assigned a second mission - to find Evren Fawn. When her original agent was murdered, it sent shockwaves through the Silent Death. Perhaps she was more dangerous than Lieseil had let on - but, Gabriel took on the challenge. He has been following her from afar from some time, trying to decide on a way to get closer to her. Her previous charge had been a partner, but with her new ties to Cyrek and their children, that proved to be a dead end for him.
PERSONALITY
Gabriel is both intentionally and unintentionally manipulative to those around him. His role is to be trusted and his goal is to be seen as a threat to Villanelleâs enemies, but a friend to those who stay around them. He puts people at ease, slipping into a personality perfectly crafted for them. If they need someone who seems soft and sensitive, he can do that. If they need someone who can offer opinions and think critically, he can do that too. He has a way with making people comfortable, but thatâs only a mask. Underneath it all, Gabriel is a man constantly pulled in two directions. One on hand, he has very real loyalty to Lieseil and waits for the day to carry out his mission. On the other hand, a false sense of loyalty ties him to the Villanelles, but heâs concerned that heâs began to trick himself, too. While the experiment took most of his emotions, a few remain. His anger is quickly lit and incredibly difficult to douse - he has incredible discipline that keeps him at bay, but if given the chance, his volatility has lead to more than a few violent takedowns in the past.Â
HIS DOPPLEGANGER TELL
In the service, Gabriel was always nicknamed âpretty boyâ. As a doppleganger, his tell is subtle but once you see it, you canât unsee it. His face is a little too symmetrical, his beard a little too perfect. His face is the golden ratio, perfectly formed and lacking the human quality of a mistake.Â
