The Trickster and the Moose (Question and Syllanna)

HEEEAAAAT OF THE MOOOMENT.

Sam opened tired brown eyes. And so began day 84 of this never-ending loop of Dean's death. Day after day after day of watching his brother die had all but broken him and he didn't know what to do about it. Yesterday, Dean had slipped on a kid's spilled soda and broken his neck in the fall. It didn't matter where he took his brother or what they were doing, Dean managed to die. It was as though the gods were laughing at Sam. It hurt more than those head-splitting visions he got or the knowledge that Dean was going to die in a few more months, his soul dragged to hell by a hellhound because he'd been stupid enough to make a deal.

Sam rubbed at his eyes. "Rise and shine Sammy!" He didn't know how much more of this he could take. His heart broke every time he failed his brother, but he couldn't allow himself to give up. There had to be a way. So he stood and watched as his brother gurgled mouthwash as annoyingly as humanly possible. He dressed and walked with Dean to the diner, as they began nearly every day. He lifted the old man's keys and tried not to be angry at Doris the waitress about her archery accident ten Tuesdays ago. He'd long moved past freaked out or angry and he could feel himself sliding into hopelessness.

Even though Dean never believed in God, Sam still did, and he prayed now. God, please.....pleeease help me save my brother. I don't know how much more I can take of this. Whatever worm hole or time loop or black magic we're under....just make it stop.

He was breaking. Slowly but surely, Sam Winchester was losing it. He could see it in his face, in every single movement as he walked into the diner with his brother. He and Sam were the only ones who remembered each passing Tuesday in which Dean died, horrifically and tragically. Sam remembered because Gabriel willed him to while he himself remembered because he was responsible for the entire thing. Because Sammy had to be taught a lesson that he couldn't always save his brother. Dean was his weakness and it was so obvious, so painfully obvious, that Gabriel had taken it upon himself to do something about it. Dean would die every day until Sam learnt his lesson. The question now was how long would it take for little old Sammy to break completely?

Ordering pancakes like he did every Tuesday since the beginning, Gabriel began to think. How would Dean die today? They had already done the car, already done the dog, and the soda spill. He was running out of ideas. Putting on his thinking face, Gabriel frowned and tapped his foot quietly against the ground. Things were starting to get dull. One would think killing humans and watching their family's reactions would never get old but it had gotten boring. It was probably about time he struck the finishing blow and wrapped things up. Wait, that was it! Brilliant!

Ordering the same syrup he did every day and eating his pancakes in the same manner, Gabriel stared across the restaurant at Sam and his brother. Just another few days then he would deliver the... What was it called? Cape de grace? Something like that. It meant blow of mercy and was French but Sam would probably consider it to be the most unmerciful thing in the world. Still, it was for his own good. Until then, Dean was going to choke on his sausage in a few seconds to fast forward to the next Tuesday when something would change. He had been eating his pancakes with the same syrup every single day since this started. So he was going to order different syrup. If Sam noticed, he would be able to move on to Wednesday. If not, he would have to endure more Tuesdays before Gabriel offered up a more obvious clue. After Sam got another good look at his brother 's dying face as Dean gasped for air, of course. Staring at Dean, Gabriel watched as he began to choke on the food. For good measure, his face began to turn blue. Ha! Cartoon-style deaths were hilarious. Not only were they funny for him to watch, it told Sam someone was toying with him. Someone meaning himself, obviously. The one where he got squashed was probably Gabriel's favorite. Or the one where he got hit by the car and went flying.

Dean was onto something with his just desserts deal. Sam stood, ready to take on the world again and then froze. His eyes settled on the plate of the man who always ate at the counter and his... strawberry syrup? Dean looked at him, questioned him. "Guy has maple syrup for a hundred Tuesdays and then suddenly he has strawberry syrup?" Dean frowned. "It's a free country. Man can have whatever kind of syrup he wants." Sam shook his head, an idea forming in his mind. "No, not today. Nothing in this place ever changes. Ever. Except me."

HEEEAT OF THE MOOOOMENT.

Today, Sam would finish it. He rose and all but dragged Dean to the diner. He bode his time, leg shaking under the table with haste. Finally, finally the man got up and left and Sam chased him. He shoved the guy against a fence, held up a stick to his throat. "It took me a while but I finally figured it out. It’s your MO that gave you away. Going after pompous jerks and giving them their just desserts? Your kind loves that, don’t they?" Anger was shaking through his entire body. Righteous anger. He leaned close to the struggling man. "You let us go now." He hissed, tired of all the death. "I don't know why you are doing this but we've killed your kind before." His eyes were hot with all the anger in him. He wouldn't lose to this trickster.

A Tuesday went by after he ordered the Strawberry syrup instead of maple. Nothing. He was running out of ideas for how to kill Dean but Sam had missed his subtle hint something was amis about the pancake-eating man. He had seen it nearly a hundred times but a sudden change from brown to red and been completely ignored. Sam must've been terrible at those images where you have to find the differences. But it was Tuesday again and there he was, eating pancakes with maple syrup. He was really starting to get bored of pancakes. Paying for his food, Gabriel stood up and left the diner quietly, trying to plot how he should kill Dean next. Perhaps something with fire.

Suddenly, he was rammed up a fence and stared up into the eyes of Sam as a stake was pressed to his throat. Oh, so he had noticed after all? At first, Gabriel played up to the part, sprouting nonsense about his wife and children. Stereotypical human behavior when threatened was to spew nonsense about a family. Family was a weakness, not a shield. That was the entire point of this lesson. When Sam declared he had killed a trickster before, Gabriel's face morphed suddenly from that of an old man's to his real face. The face of the trickster they claimed to have killed.
"Actually bucko," He said, tilting his head slightly to the side, "ya didn't," Gabriel replied, his lips twisted into an all-knowing, ever annoying smirk.

Shock hit Sam's system like a bucket of cold water. He'd seen that face before, the one and only trickster they'd killed before was alive and before him. Surprise showed clearly in his eyes. As far as he knew, they'd run him through with the wood last time. It was the only way these things could be killed so how had it lived? Then reason caught up with Sam. What he should be asking is why had the trickster done this?

He all but growled his question. "Why are you doing this to me?" Weird. He'd meant to say 'us'. Yet somehow he felt this was right. Looking into the trickster's eyes, he somehow felt all this was about him. Maybe he was being vain. Maybe he still had the yellow-eyed demon on his mind. Whatever the reason, he somehow knew bone-deep that the trickster had some kind of plan for him, though he couldn't figure it out for the life of him.

Gabriel stared at Sam, his look turning to confusion. "You're joking, right?" He asked, his eyes fixed on Sam. He was the only one relevant at this point. Dean was going to die soon anyway, with or without his help. So who cared about him? This was about Sam. But one look told him Sam was serious with his question. "You chuckleheads tried to kill me last time!" he practically yelled. Even if there hadn't been a lesson tied in with everything, it only made sense. Revenge, they must have heard the word before. People generally didn't forgive after attempts made on their lives. "Why wouldn't I do this?" he countered, trying to get Dean to see it from his point of view.

"It's also fun," he said with a cheeky grin. He chuckled then glanced at the stake held at his neck. It couldn't kill him but acting out the role of the Trickster to the fullest was part of the game. He had to at least pretend to be wary of the stake and of being stabbed by it.

Sam was thinking up some fantastical new curse words for the trickster in his midst and chose not to let any of them out at this time, thinking they'd be just as good later. Instead, he chose the much simpler tactic of threatening the trickster with bodily harm. "No matter what your reasons for all this are, if I kill you, this all ends now." He pressed the stake closer to the creature's throat. He listened to the thing talk about how he couldn't take a joke and then offer him a deal. "Tomorrow, you wake up, it’ll be Wednesday. I swear."

Sam's eyes narrowed and he all but growled at the trickster. He couldn't help but feel helpless. I mean, he was backing an almost immortal creature against a fence with a stick. Not exactly great odds. Yet he and his brother had been through worse. His whole body tensed as he confronted this thing and he looked into the eyes, hoping that human expressions were something the trickster imitated as well. "You're lying." The stake pressed closer as adrenaline flooded Sam's system. He'd been through too many Tuesdays to let Dean die again. Never again.

Gabriel squirmed about as he tried to get his neck away from the stake. "Whoa!" He yelled as the stake was pressed closer to his neck, digging into his skin. He stared up at Sam and gritted his teeth slightly before raising his hands up in the air between them. "If I am, you know where to find me," he replied. He didn't try to move the stake or push Sam away but, instead, placed his middle fingers against his thumbs. He quickly snapped his fingers, causing everything around them to fade and vanish. Sam would wake up and find himself not trapped in Tuesday anymore. But, he would also wake up and have Dean die again. This time, however, everything would play out like it was real instead of Sam ending up in his bed again, listening to Asia. Sam would hold his brother one last time then watch him tragically die. And so would begin the manhunt with Gabriel leaving traces and evidence of where he had been and Sam hunting him down. It would be fun, especially when he finally drove the lesson home into Sam's big, thick skull.

It's not Asia.

Sam's whole existence brightened as he woke and that hated song wasn't playing. It's not Asia. It's...Wednesday! He rolled out of bed and found Dean getting ready to drive out of the town. "It's not Tuesday!" Ignoring the funny look his brother was giving him, he pulled Dean close and hugged him tightly. "Man, how many Tuesdays did you live through?" Sam pulled back and eyed his brother. "You remember?" Smiling, he hugged Dean again and when his brother wiggled away, he was too happy to care. They discussed the time loop while Sam got ready and then Dean called to him that he was heading out. Sam let him go. Then the shot rang out. Sam was out of the room like a shot, running to Dean's side as his brother convulsed on the ground.

"No. Nononononono. Dean. You can't."

Holding his brother as the life faded out of him was the last time Sam remembered being alive. This time, it was Wednesday. There was no trickster to snap Sam awake to that horrible Asia song. There was no waking up at all. It was real. Horribly, excruciatingly real. He rose, his eyes dead as he looked down at what once was the only person who mattered in the world to him. He gripped the necklace he'd given Dean so long ago and moved. He raced to the diner, bursting into the doors as his eyes wildly searched the cafe for that trickster.

Gabriel watched in a new guise as Sam burst into the diner. But he wouldn't find the Trickster there. No, Gabriel had not lied. It was Wednesday and the man eating pancakes with maple syrup wouldn't be found there. He was gone. Gabriel still stuck around to watch in a new form but it was unlikely Sam would notice him. After all, he would have to be pretty desperate to attack an old woman sitting with her husband. Out of the corner of his eye, he watched Sam burst through the doors and look around. Oh, that look on his face. That was the look he wanted. Now, the question was how long would it take Sam to discover him? He had to deliberately plant some evidence to keep Sam on his trail such as photos but he would be waiting. Ironically, in the form of Bobby. How long would it take Sam to notice?

((Want to time skip ahead to when Sam stabs the image of Bobby Gabriel created? Because they don't really meet in between then.))