Josef Kostan (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
loveawkward) wrote2012-03-18 03:37 am
loveawkward) wrote2012-03-18 03:37 am
Entry tags:
Application for Taxonomites
YOUR NAME: Will
PERSONAL JOURNAL: mythotica on either LJ or DW
E-MAIL: british.red@gmail.com
AIM:takesafterhim
CHARACTERS IN TAXON: None currently
CHARACTER NAME: Josef Kostan
CANON: Yes
MEDIA: Television
BIRTHDAY/AGE: Apparent age: Late twenties/early thirties. Actually at least 419 years old.
CANON POINT: Episode 1.10 Sleeping Beauty; taken just as his place explodes. Josef has just dove into that special little safe hidey hole and...
WHY THIS CHARACTER AND CANON POINT?: Josef has been a favoured muse for me since the day I watched episode one. While I adore vampires and vampire media, I have always preferred the amoral vamps over the brooding ones. Josef is the epitome of someone that has found immortality and prospered from it. He embraces all that he is and accepts that, which includes both the monster he is and the humanity he was born with. Josef is a study in dichotomy and definitely one firmly entrenched in the grey areas of the world. Rarely does he let anything stand in his way, yet there's enough heart to keep him from being nothing more than a ruthless and cold monster, destroying everything and everyone in his path. I do feel he has a desire for the friendship he has, and to surround himself with others - even if they're employees. Even before the expansions of one playing him, Josef had a lot to offer in terms of depth and character exploration because he was never presented as a one dimensional killer, though he has absolutely no qualms about killing.
As for why this point in his canon, I feel that it allows for a lot of twists and turns as he arrives in Taxon. Despite diving into the hidey hole, there is the possibility for feeling that maybe he hadn't made it. This would open him up to thoughts of the religious mythologies of his childhood and just where he is now and what it means. It also leaves him mentally stripped of nearly everything as even that last place of safety and protection has been taken from him, even before he was brought to this new city. It is a possibility of wiping the slate clean, and yet leaving him with concerns and worries from losing Sarah and what might become of her to the possible insecurities that he might not be alive and rather caught in some sort of purgatory for his four hundred years of misdeeds. There is also the opening for him to seek to rebuild what he had, find those that he might trust for "companions" as well as learning what life is like when you when one loses the sort of dominion and command that Josef had from years of hard work and cutthroat politics.
I think Taxon could be good for him because it isn't a place where he is necessarily top of the food chain, literally or figuratively. A place where perhaps he might again achieve some level of power and respect but it won't just be laid out there before him, a massive city at his fingertips.
PROGRAMMED POSSESSION: Kept in a small red velvet pouch, the locket is heart shaped and hangs from a finely wrought gold chain. Once a gift to the only woman to hold Josef's heart, the locket's owner is now in a coma of Josef's doing.
HISTORY: http://moonlight.wikia.com/wiki/Josef_Kostan
PSYCHOLOGY/PERSONALITY: Josef works so that the world sees him for what he sees himself as. A man of power and determination that lets nothing stand in the way of getting what he wants, and whom does it with a twisted humour and a more than a bit of sarcasm. It is the sort of iron fist in a thin velvet layer that most who make it successfully in the corporate world have. A bright smile that isn't meant to hide that it is a cut throat world and the one smiling holds the knife, but rather to convey that there is no compunction about being just that sort of man. Josef is one to easily dispose of the bodies of those that stand in his way, and not show regret for having done so.
The public face that Josef shows is that of a man that has worked hard for his place and isn't going to pussyfoot around to keep it. Almost sadistically cold in how he handles the mortality of those that come up against him, Josef uses both carefully couched threats and a well orchestrated public life to maintain this lifestyle he has achieved. That said, the man he is beneath that surface is known to few, but his private face definitely has a marked difference from that cheerfully cold public face that he shows others. It is that public face and ruthless demeanor that has kept him in the seat of power that he holds, and seems determined to keep a tight grip on well into the next century.
That said, he does have a nostalgia for life as it was, not on a personal level but a public one. While utilizing all the best that technology has to offer, he has been known to tsk longing for a day when things were handled in a much more face to face way. That he speaks of such things seems to speak less about a disdain for the modern conveniences and rather about being acutely aware of the changing face of business, something that seems to consume his days and nights.
Beyond the surface of the centuries old businessman, Josef has a softer side that is reserved for those that are close to him. Those he counts in that group are few and far between. He is strict but gentlemanly with the bevy of beauties he surrounds himself with, treats his employees well for the most part, and despite possibly sniffing issues is mostly respectful of those around him.
Yet for all his borderline tendencies that may be the result of four hundred plus years of enduring humanity, Josef embraces the one true friendship he has, accepting good natured ribbing and downright criticism that he likely wouldn't endure from another. It is through this relationship that Josef opens to others, though it is rarely easy nor pretty when he does so. Unlike other relationships, he feels no need to question the two way loyalty of this relationship, even accepting it for what it is in his life. A true friendship and not more sycophants, or worse, those like himself.
Despite the world of business that he immerses himself in, within interpersonal relationships Josef can be social inept; especially when dealing with emotions and not the power and respect he has amassed over the years. Far from naive, he can be trusting when he shouldn't, expecting others to maintain the same "gentleman's standards" that he has throughout the years. That belief in a more old fashioned standard in dealing with certain people does not stop Josef from meting out justice as Josef sees fit. Even if he doesn't always have the desire to watch as such justice is handed out.
Josef is a mixture of old world charm and modern business practices, seeking to overcome his own dark shadows that he works hard to keep hidden from even the most trusted confidantes around him.
POWERS/ABILITIES:
Immortality: Josef is over 400 years old. Sire unknown. Exact age unknown.
Heightened senses: Ability to taste the differences in blood and super sensitive hearing are both canon points shown in the series that the vampires of his kind possess.
Super-human speed: though may tax the person as Josef is seen being a bit "lazy" about using these abilities.
Super-human strength: See above with speed
Ability to digest blood, both from a living source and older saved blood
Can be staked without dying, but will be put into torpor.
Can endure sunlight, the more dilute the better, but does take its toll with time.
Has a sharp, analytical mind with a penchant for numbers and corporate finance.
ARRIVAL POST:
As with so many things in life it was a cliche but that didn't make it any less true. Not one of them had seen it coming. Security at Kostan's building was top notch with his own personal guards, the best in laser and alarm security, not to mention the ability of the guests to usually pick up on any sound or scent out of the ordinary. Bulletproof glass offered a twinkling view of the city below and the Pacific beyond, and none of the players had expected anything more challenging than good natured ribbing, and Josef's occasional threats that they still had to get out of the building with their winnings.
In truth only one of them would have the chance to get out of the room alive.
Two seconds before the grenade hit the floor, Josef heard the clink of metal on metal. Crying out warning, he made the sort of split second executive decisions that had kept him alive all these years. He dove not under the table but across the floor, jerking open the hatch on the tiny chamber he'd had installed without anyone's notice and slid his wiry form into the tight space even as the world around him erupted in flames. Instead of curling into a tight gap that was shielded by lead and fire retardant materials, Josef found himself standing atop a some sort of dais in a much more vast chamber than he should have been in.
"Tom? These aren't the specs I gave you," he said, voice raised a bit. "Code red? Uhmm, blue? Wait, that's a heart attack. Dammit, why did I let you talk me into code words and special..."
The words trailed off as Josef tilted his head back, staring up at the odd metallic device above him, hearing nothing but the sound of his own voice bouncing back to him for a moment. "What the..."
No fall, no moment that he'd thought he'd lost consciousness, but definitely a rabbit hole of some sort. Beneath the chamber he'd had installed was an office space with a low ceiling, just a bit below regulations to allow the space, but nothing like this.
"If this is purgatory, I feel cheated," he muttered, taking the steps with a quick gait to explore the space. "No hellfire. No red-skinned devils. I could have done with a Hurley babe making offers but not even that."
There was a lot of other things there wasn't either. No door. No windows. No button to call his captors. That was if there were captors, though Josef felt very much like a prisoner. The question was: to whom was he imprisoned?
Finding no exit, he turned his attention to table. A sidekick that seemed about three generations away from his own phone that was likely a smoldering mess of circuits and plastic on the table where he'd left it and...
Despite the lack of a beating heart, something in his chest tightened at the sight of the velvet pouch. Snatching it up, he shoved it in his pocket without looking within, feeling the shape of the metal heart he'd hidden away.
"I don't know what kind of game this is but, to sound like a movie villain, someone's going to pay so give it up. Whose head am I putting on a pike?"
ADDITIONAL SAMPLE: (Set just before the intro post)
Despite how far technology advanced, there always seemed to be some things that were never taken from a person. Love for a good vintage - just some tended to be a bit more earthy than others. The ever evolving but always cultural tied musical influences. Then there was games of chance. At some times in his life they had been denied to Josef per his position and place, yet he always sought a way around them. Thankfully he was in a time and place where he need not sacrifice any of those time honored traditions.
Soon enough the others would be there, the game would start. It would be cutthroat in its own way and yet filled with laughter and jokes. Nothing taken too seriously, no matter how much was lost. For now though the sun was just setting over Los Angeles, the thick glass windows of Josef's place high enough that even the smog and brilliance of the City of Angels couldn't entirely blot out the stars as the minuscule pinpricks began to pop up against a darkening sky.
Freshly showered and still bare chested, Josef snapped his fingers. A girl of no more than twenty rushed forward from where she had been nearly hovering just outside the door, silk and sequins skimming the luscious curves of her figure and leaving her bare to the first curve of her breast. Excitement left her eyes bright as she offered her wrist.
Smiling at the girl's eagerness, Josef stroked the back of his fingers along her cheek as his eyes faded to icy blue, devoid of humanity as his canines lengthened. Controlling his body, letting it happen slowly so she could see. Excitement thrummed through her sleek form, whimpering as needle sharp teeth struck, cutting through skin and shredding the delicate membrane of the veins and capillaries beneath. Suckling tenderly against her skin, tasting the tang of lust in her blood. Some sought pain, others fear but after the years that Josef had inspired both it was not what he needed now.
Eyes rolling up to watch her face, he slowly withdrew his fangs, lavishing the two points with his tongue. A shiver ran down her spine.
"Shall I stay close this evening," she asked, hope as clear in her voice as in her eyes.
"Not tonight," he said, feeling the disappointment wash over her. "Tonight's just for the boys, but I expect you back bright and early in the morning. By that I mean before dusk but don't think of bothering me until the sun sets. Understood."
Picking up his shirt and holding it out for him, the girl nodded. "Completely understand," she said, helping him into the shirt. "Anything else?"
For a moment he didn't react, not a word as nimble fingers did up the buttons to one from the top. Affixing the Vacheron Constantin about his wrist, Josef picked up the fold of bills on his desk, held fast by a gold clip and tossed it her way.
"Enjoy your evening," he said, turning for the door. "And if you keep anything from waking me up tomorrow until at least nine, then that's yours," he said, closing the bedroom door behind him.
PERSONAL JOURNAL: mythotica on either LJ or DW
E-MAIL: british.red@gmail.com
AIM:takesafterhim
CHARACTERS IN TAXON: None currently
CHARACTER NAME: Josef Kostan
CANON: Yes
MEDIA: Television
BIRTHDAY/AGE: Apparent age: Late twenties/early thirties. Actually at least 419 years old.
CANON POINT: Episode 1.10 Sleeping Beauty; taken just as his place explodes. Josef has just dove into that special little safe hidey hole and...
WHY THIS CHARACTER AND CANON POINT?: Josef has been a favoured muse for me since the day I watched episode one. While I adore vampires and vampire media, I have always preferred the amoral vamps over the brooding ones. Josef is the epitome of someone that has found immortality and prospered from it. He embraces all that he is and accepts that, which includes both the monster he is and the humanity he was born with. Josef is a study in dichotomy and definitely one firmly entrenched in the grey areas of the world. Rarely does he let anything stand in his way, yet there's enough heart to keep him from being nothing more than a ruthless and cold monster, destroying everything and everyone in his path. I do feel he has a desire for the friendship he has, and to surround himself with others - even if they're employees. Even before the expansions of one playing him, Josef had a lot to offer in terms of depth and character exploration because he was never presented as a one dimensional killer, though he has absolutely no qualms about killing.
As for why this point in his canon, I feel that it allows for a lot of twists and turns as he arrives in Taxon. Despite diving into the hidey hole, there is the possibility for feeling that maybe he hadn't made it. This would open him up to thoughts of the religious mythologies of his childhood and just where he is now and what it means. It also leaves him mentally stripped of nearly everything as even that last place of safety and protection has been taken from him, even before he was brought to this new city. It is a possibility of wiping the slate clean, and yet leaving him with concerns and worries from losing Sarah and what might become of her to the possible insecurities that he might not be alive and rather caught in some sort of purgatory for his four hundred years of misdeeds. There is also the opening for him to seek to rebuild what he had, find those that he might trust for "companions" as well as learning what life is like when you when one loses the sort of dominion and command that Josef had from years of hard work and cutthroat politics.
I think Taxon could be good for him because it isn't a place where he is necessarily top of the food chain, literally or figuratively. A place where perhaps he might again achieve some level of power and respect but it won't just be laid out there before him, a massive city at his fingertips.
PROGRAMMED POSSESSION: Kept in a small red velvet pouch, the locket is heart shaped and hangs from a finely wrought gold chain. Once a gift to the only woman to hold Josef's heart, the locket's owner is now in a coma of Josef's doing.
HISTORY: http://moonlight.wikia.com/wiki/Josef_Kostan
PSYCHOLOGY/PERSONALITY: Josef works so that the world sees him for what he sees himself as. A man of power and determination that lets nothing stand in the way of getting what he wants, and whom does it with a twisted humour and a more than a bit of sarcasm. It is the sort of iron fist in a thin velvet layer that most who make it successfully in the corporate world have. A bright smile that isn't meant to hide that it is a cut throat world and the one smiling holds the knife, but rather to convey that there is no compunction about being just that sort of man. Josef is one to easily dispose of the bodies of those that stand in his way, and not show regret for having done so.
The public face that Josef shows is that of a man that has worked hard for his place and isn't going to pussyfoot around to keep it. Almost sadistically cold in how he handles the mortality of those that come up against him, Josef uses both carefully couched threats and a well orchestrated public life to maintain this lifestyle he has achieved. That said, the man he is beneath that surface is known to few, but his private face definitely has a marked difference from that cheerfully cold public face that he shows others. It is that public face and ruthless demeanor that has kept him in the seat of power that he holds, and seems determined to keep a tight grip on well into the next century.
That said, he does have a nostalgia for life as it was, not on a personal level but a public one. While utilizing all the best that technology has to offer, he has been known to tsk longing for a day when things were handled in a much more face to face way. That he speaks of such things seems to speak less about a disdain for the modern conveniences and rather about being acutely aware of the changing face of business, something that seems to consume his days and nights.
Beyond the surface of the centuries old businessman, Josef has a softer side that is reserved for those that are close to him. Those he counts in that group are few and far between. He is strict but gentlemanly with the bevy of beauties he surrounds himself with, treats his employees well for the most part, and despite possibly sniffing issues is mostly respectful of those around him.
Yet for all his borderline tendencies that may be the result of four hundred plus years of enduring humanity, Josef embraces the one true friendship he has, accepting good natured ribbing and downright criticism that he likely wouldn't endure from another. It is through this relationship that Josef opens to others, though it is rarely easy nor pretty when he does so. Unlike other relationships, he feels no need to question the two way loyalty of this relationship, even accepting it for what it is in his life. A true friendship and not more sycophants, or worse, those like himself.
Despite the world of business that he immerses himself in, within interpersonal relationships Josef can be social inept; especially when dealing with emotions and not the power and respect he has amassed over the years. Far from naive, he can be trusting when he shouldn't, expecting others to maintain the same "gentleman's standards" that he has throughout the years. That belief in a more old fashioned standard in dealing with certain people does not stop Josef from meting out justice as Josef sees fit. Even if he doesn't always have the desire to watch as such justice is handed out.
Josef is a mixture of old world charm and modern business practices, seeking to overcome his own dark shadows that he works hard to keep hidden from even the most trusted confidantes around him.
POWERS/ABILITIES:
Immortality: Josef is over 400 years old. Sire unknown. Exact age unknown.
Heightened senses: Ability to taste the differences in blood and super sensitive hearing are both canon points shown in the series that the vampires of his kind possess.
Super-human speed: though may tax the person as Josef is seen being a bit "lazy" about using these abilities.
Super-human strength: See above with speed
Ability to digest blood, both from a living source and older saved blood
Can be staked without dying, but will be put into torpor.
Can endure sunlight, the more dilute the better, but does take its toll with time.
Has a sharp, analytical mind with a penchant for numbers and corporate finance.
ARRIVAL POST:
As with so many things in life it was a cliche but that didn't make it any less true. Not one of them had seen it coming. Security at Kostan's building was top notch with his own personal guards, the best in laser and alarm security, not to mention the ability of the guests to usually pick up on any sound or scent out of the ordinary. Bulletproof glass offered a twinkling view of the city below and the Pacific beyond, and none of the players had expected anything more challenging than good natured ribbing, and Josef's occasional threats that they still had to get out of the building with their winnings.
In truth only one of them would have the chance to get out of the room alive.
Two seconds before the grenade hit the floor, Josef heard the clink of metal on metal. Crying out warning, he made the sort of split second executive decisions that had kept him alive all these years. He dove not under the table but across the floor, jerking open the hatch on the tiny chamber he'd had installed without anyone's notice and slid his wiry form into the tight space even as the world around him erupted in flames. Instead of curling into a tight gap that was shielded by lead and fire retardant materials, Josef found himself standing atop a some sort of dais in a much more vast chamber than he should have been in.
"Tom? These aren't the specs I gave you," he said, voice raised a bit. "Code red? Uhmm, blue? Wait, that's a heart attack. Dammit, why did I let you talk me into code words and special..."
The words trailed off as Josef tilted his head back, staring up at the odd metallic device above him, hearing nothing but the sound of his own voice bouncing back to him for a moment. "What the..."
No fall, no moment that he'd thought he'd lost consciousness, but definitely a rabbit hole of some sort. Beneath the chamber he'd had installed was an office space with a low ceiling, just a bit below regulations to allow the space, but nothing like this.
"If this is purgatory, I feel cheated," he muttered, taking the steps with a quick gait to explore the space. "No hellfire. No red-skinned devils. I could have done with a Hurley babe making offers but not even that."
There was a lot of other things there wasn't either. No door. No windows. No button to call his captors. That was if there were captors, though Josef felt very much like a prisoner. The question was: to whom was he imprisoned?
Finding no exit, he turned his attention to table. A sidekick that seemed about three generations away from his own phone that was likely a smoldering mess of circuits and plastic on the table where he'd left it and...
Despite the lack of a beating heart, something in his chest tightened at the sight of the velvet pouch. Snatching it up, he shoved it in his pocket without looking within, feeling the shape of the metal heart he'd hidden away.
"I don't know what kind of game this is but, to sound like a movie villain, someone's going to pay so give it up. Whose head am I putting on a pike?"
ADDITIONAL SAMPLE: (Set just before the intro post)
Despite how far technology advanced, there always seemed to be some things that were never taken from a person. Love for a good vintage - just some tended to be a bit more earthy than others. The ever evolving but always cultural tied musical influences. Then there was games of chance. At some times in his life they had been denied to Josef per his position and place, yet he always sought a way around them. Thankfully he was in a time and place where he need not sacrifice any of those time honored traditions.
Soon enough the others would be there, the game would start. It would be cutthroat in its own way and yet filled with laughter and jokes. Nothing taken too seriously, no matter how much was lost. For now though the sun was just setting over Los Angeles, the thick glass windows of Josef's place high enough that even the smog and brilliance of the City of Angels couldn't entirely blot out the stars as the minuscule pinpricks began to pop up against a darkening sky.
Freshly showered and still bare chested, Josef snapped his fingers. A girl of no more than twenty rushed forward from where she had been nearly hovering just outside the door, silk and sequins skimming the luscious curves of her figure and leaving her bare to the first curve of her breast. Excitement left her eyes bright as she offered her wrist.
Smiling at the girl's eagerness, Josef stroked the back of his fingers along her cheek as his eyes faded to icy blue, devoid of humanity as his canines lengthened. Controlling his body, letting it happen slowly so she could see. Excitement thrummed through her sleek form, whimpering as needle sharp teeth struck, cutting through skin and shredding the delicate membrane of the veins and capillaries beneath. Suckling tenderly against her skin, tasting the tang of lust in her blood. Some sought pain, others fear but after the years that Josef had inspired both it was not what he needed now.
Eyes rolling up to watch her face, he slowly withdrew his fangs, lavishing the two points with his tongue. A shiver ran down her spine.
"Shall I stay close this evening," she asked, hope as clear in her voice as in her eyes.
"Not tonight," he said, feeling the disappointment wash over her. "Tonight's just for the boys, but I expect you back bright and early in the morning. By that I mean before dusk but don't think of bothering me until the sun sets. Understood."
Picking up his shirt and holding it out for him, the girl nodded. "Completely understand," she said, helping him into the shirt. "Anything else?"
For a moment he didn't react, not a word as nimble fingers did up the buttons to one from the top. Affixing the Vacheron Constantin about his wrist, Josef picked up the fold of bills on his desk, held fast by a gold clip and tossed it her way.
"Enjoy your evening," he said, turning for the door. "And if you keep anything from waking me up tomorrow until at least nine, then that's yours," he said, closing the bedroom door behind him.