JAKE KOSTROV

JACOB FRIEMAN | JAXTER | JAKEY

Jacob Kostrov, better known by his nickname, Jake, was Maggie's younger brother and an adopted child the Kostrov family took in when he was about nine years old. Jake was an artist, at least when he wasn't busy accidentally setting things on fire and getting himself and his family sent to the ER on a weekly basis. A little fella with a big heart and an even bigger taste for trouble, Jake was the spice Kostrovs never knew they needed, but one that fit in with them like a glove.

OVERVIEW:

Jake was born in Grimport on the 16th of November 1968, to his mother, Alice Frieman. His father was unknown and remained a mystery for the rest of his life, something his mother Alice always blamed Jake for. Having grown up in a very turbulent household, Jake was skittish and introverted, anxious and very sensitive to people's shifts in behavior, even when his true character was much more playful and outgoing.

Jake never really received his mother's love. He always knew she resented him, and Alice wasn't unwilling to show it. To the outside world, however, Jake was expected to hide what his home life was truly like. While he was being ignored, belittled and barely fed, Alice wanted Jake to behave decently so she could reap financial benefits from him and keep her shady business out of the public's eye. He was known to be very sickly as a child, and his mother often used him to steal medication from hospitals and sell them for a profit. This led to him being extremely underweight, which drastically hindered his growth and sadly made him an easy target for other kids to pick on.

His life would quickly change, however, after his unlikely meeting with Maggie gave him a bit of hope he had never been offered before.

During a very turbulent part of Rick's life, Maggie ended up involved in Jake's life and brought his issues up to her father. What was at first just a spare meal Rick would make for Jake soon turned into trust, and Jake began opening up to the Kostrovs about the true conditions of his home life. Rick, having been a victim of childhood abuse himself, couldn't look past it. The efforts he put into trying to better Jake's situation proved fruitless, though, as the Grimport legal system simply wasn't equipped to deal with such cases in a timely manner. Still not fully recovered from his first clash with the authorities and slowly sinking deeper into his paranoid beliefs, Rick decided to take Jake's situation into his own hands.

After a long battle with Alice and the local police, Jake was eventually pulled out of his home after an incredibly dangerous situation endangered his life. He was placed in foster care, an action Rick immediately followed by applying for a license with the help of his entire family. Due to Jake's prior relationship with the Kostrovs and Rick's involvement, he was placed with them under strict supervision of CPS, and began his long journey to recovery.

Due to the efforts of all the Kostrovs, Jake had a wonderful healing journey and finally began living a semi-normal life, or as normal of a life as living with the Kostrovs could offer. He blossomed in many ways and quickly realized his new family was entirely made out of strange misfits, something Jake had little trouble adjusting to. He grew especially attached to Rick, spending many nights talking to him about the issues he was facing and troubles he was going through related to the separation from his mother. Even with therapy, Jake often refused to talk about her, or his past, opting instead to distract himself with movies, comic books, video games and various misdemeanors he found himself committing with his best friends, Kicky, Eddie and Sarah.

Even though Jake got a lot better after being taken out of his mother's care, some scars still remained, and he faced a lot of separation anxiety, especially when it comes to Rick. He was very anxious, although incredibly chaotic and adventurous, and often worried about his home life, terribly scared he would be taken away from them in one way or another. He was also very prone to overthinking and regularly butted in every single family issue, frequently being accidentally involved in a lot more drama than any kid should be involved in.

He was frustrated and grumpy like any other teenager, a blessing he was once not sure if he would ever be able to experience. Typically found in the middle of his family's arguments, Jake spent a lot of time with Rick and was sadly there to see his dwindling mental health and addiction, no matter how much Rick tried to keep his kids out of his troubled life. Trying to juggle his family struggles with regular teenage squabbles and the rough roads of growing up, Jake would face a lot of internal battles he was not entirely equipped to deal with, while also trying to adjust to a life much more peaceful, yet no less convoluted, than the one he grew up knowing.

APPEARANCE:

Jake was a five foot (154 cm) tall man of a lanky body structure. He was always a lot smaller than most of his peers and was a lot weaker than most boys his age, mostly due to his mother's neglect that hindered his growth. He had choppy, ashy blond hair, expressive dark eyebrows and big brown eyes. Most often, he was seen wearing various different hoodies in combination with baseball caps and beanies. His nose was triangular and slightly turned up, and he typically had dark circles around his eyes due to the many nights spent either creating art or watching movies.

PERSONALITY:

Jake was very shy and introverted as a young kid, but he never lacked the feisty courage to fight back when he was forced to. As anxious and physically weakened by his childhood as he was, he was not afraid to talk back out of sheer frustration. He was incredibly awkward around strangers and preferred to stay around his little group of people he felt safe around. With them, he was much more comfortable and talked back much more easily, often trying to parent his parents because his anxiety didn't allow him to keep himself out of their issues. He was sometimes prone to explosive reactions, but typically kept to himself, angrily writing his thoughts inside of his many journals. Jake was also fairly smart for his age. While not academically gifted and far from a perfect student, he was very emotionally mature and intelligent. He was a huge adrenaline junkie, loved outdoor activities like bike riding, researching abandoned buildings and playing with fire and explosive, which consequently gave his father Rick many, many headaches. He was also not doing great in a company of negative people, as he absorbed people's feelings like a sponge.

RELATIONS:

Rick (adoptive father), Maggie (sister), FJ (Rick's partner/adoptive father), Alice (bio mother), Mike (Maggie's boyfriend), Cee (family), Bella (aunt), Nicky (cousin), Ryan (canine buddy), Amelia (grandmother), Sarah, Kicky and Eddie (best friends), Dylan (classmate), Young (principal)

STATUS:

Asexual (aromantic), single

SERIES:

The Kostrov Traces (II, III), The Crisis Logbook (All), The Fiasco Elite (I, II, III)