#scribbles.img

born and raised on Aquator (i hc that's like Space Carribean Islands), Gabriel is an ambitious young man who's not particularly keen on staying bound to his home planet so as soon as he's able he hitches a ride to Eden-6 to live with a wealthy aunt of his to attend college

through his college years he keeps seeing recruitment flyers for megacorps, out of all of them Hyperion peaks his interest namely for their R&D department (as an aspiring marine biologist seeing the absolure SIZE of the tanks they have on Helios REALLY spikes his interest)

after sweat, blood and a handful of tears he manages to nail an internship

all is well for a solid 3 years, he gets acquainted with the folks in his department even if he thinks some of them are completely off the hinges deranged (he's not any better, for the record) sets his eyes on a certain doppelganger for a healthy while (they have a short fling, kinda)

so circa age 25 he gets sent out to be stationed on Pandora on the Wildlife Exploitation Preserve and where proverbiably everything goes to shit

the first few weeks working there go fine sure it's a bit musty and the air is dry but thats a mild inconvenience at BEST

SO ABOUT THAT, theres a malfunction on one of the stalker enclosures, setting stalkers injected with eridium loose on the branch he's working at on the Preserve

nearly his whole team gets wiped off the map and Gabriel here ends up with a nasty wound on his abdomen (eventual nasty claw mark scar) and barely makes it out of the preserve

A concoction of health hypos and the remains of his labcoat later he manages to stabilize himself, but he's wandered so far off and the idea of going back doesnt sound appealing in the SLIGHTEST so he books it out to the dust aimlessly

in proceeds to happen 'Gabriel's No Good Very Bad Several Weeks' which plays out exactly how anyone would expect former hyperion to fare around Pandora which is not well at all while simultaneously trying to dodge an infection

he DOES manage to drag himself far enough to reach Ellie's and then promptfuly collapse at her doorstep and from that point on they kind of manage to form a steady friendship after he's awake again and not eating sand

that being said he crashes around her a lot, he's got some knowledge of machinery so it lends itself to him helping her out sometimes or doing a fetch quest here and there by foot

until that becomes a bit of a pain in the ass and he's never really learned how to drive but hey theres a first time for everything, its how he kind of picks up a motorcycle

and it just WORKS for him, after a lot of trial and error he get's pretty good at it, and that's when he starts catching wind of a Death Rally, so he decides to check it out

gets ENAMOURED with watching the races and eventually decides to risk it and try racing for once, and he's pretty runty ( ~5'2") compared to the other racers but he's got an added bonus of agility

it kind of becomes an opportunity for him to let loose, with it being such a rough 'sport' it gets to his head a little, and he's sabotaging other racers by ramming into them or herding them to crash, THAT gets Bossanova's attention, and the fact he keeps showing up race after race to compete

eventually they manage to strike a deal, he gets to rig the rallies for Bossanova and he gets to become a staple member of the rallies

he accepts in a heartbeat

that's how he kind of rises into some form of stardom under the alias 'Ceolacanth' (bc he's still a bio nerd after all those years and even if he's built his whole imagery after sharks rather than ceolacanths but, technicalities)

again all is good for a while until the events of Tales, by then he's the same age as Fiona and his first impression of the Tales crew is initially not a good one bc in his eyes they basically led Zer0 to the rally, and then proceeded to get his boss killed which is to say he's PISSED that was a damn good job thank you very much

despite all of that he's still sympathetic to the whole situation with the girls and Felix and then proceeds to make himself their problem bc welp, he's out of a job he might as well

his involvement in the story is mostly secondary, initially sticking by the girls

his initial annoyance at the group fades over time and he gets really fond of everyone, but particularly Rhys in the 'GOD you're so annoying, keep talking though i like your voice' (the closet is made of glass)

they kind of get on eachother's nerves and while to them its bickering to just about anyone else it looks like a weird sort of flirting, a very weird one too

they probably get some more common ground once they actually sit their asses down and TALK, he's been in the same place as Rhys before, just without the AI of their past CEO currently floating about in his brain, so he kind of gets that its a hard shift to go through, his feelings on Hyperion definitely soured over the years but he knows what its like to be tossed in a completely new envoirement and forced to wing it

probably had some hand helping Vaughn with the Children of Helios, he mostly left the guy to his devices but he was there if he needed someone to talk to (he picked Vaughn off after Vallory held him hostage)

Some extra stuff:

has a scar/dent on his nose from an incident as a kid where he decided to climb a closet that had a picture frame on top; his nose is also slightly crooked to one side bc of another childhood incident

has a back tattoo that kind of wraps around his hip (got it at 18 before going off to college)