[application] PARADISA
NAME: Yukina
JOURNAL: inksmears
EMAIL: Okami_Amaterasu@charter.net
AIM: OkamiAmaterasu66
WIKI NAME: personas
CHARACTERS: N/A
CHARACTER NAME: Souji Seta
FANDOM: Persona 4
CANON: Post True Ending
WHAT THEY LOST: Souji's loss is his memory of the Velvet Room. This room hosts two important people, Igor and Margaret. It also has a very important function: it allows him to create all the different Personas, the ability given to him as the Wild Card. Margaret is also an important social link for him. So to forget the Room causes him to forget both of the inhabitants as well as causes him to lose his ability to create new Persona. He is simply stuck with the ones he brings in with him.
ABOUT THE CHARACTER: History;
The game starts with Souji's arrival to the countryside town of Inaba from the big city. He comes to stay with his uncle Dojima and his little cousin Nanako. Shortly after Souji arrives the murder of a TV announcer takes place. The bizarre thing is that she's found hanging on a TV antenna and her cause of death is unknown. With this going on in the background Souji is introduced to Chie and Yosuke, two classmates who quickly become his friends. Chie tells them of the Midnight Channel. The rumor goes that if one stares into the turned off TV at midnight they'll see their soulmate in the screen. Chie orders them all to try it and upon doing so Souji sees an odd image of a girl writhing in pain. He hears a strange voice and, upon placing his hand on the TV screen, he nearly gets sucked inside it. Chie and Yosuke don't believe him when he tells them until he demonstrates this power on a bigger TV within Junes. In their panic Yosuke and Chie knock him and themselves inside it. They find themselves in a bizarre world covered in fog. They escape with the aid of a strange bear creature named Teddie.
A second murder occurs and the body ends up in a similar state as the first. The victim this time, however, is a girl named Saki who happened to be someone Yosuke was close to. Devastated, Yosuke theorizes that they all saw Saki on the Midnight Channel foretelling her death and that the TV world was the cause. So they enter the TV once again to confirm it and discover the inhabitants known as the Shadows. They attack and Souji awakens to the power of Persona, defeating them with it. Shortly after, Yosuke is confronted by his Shadow, an identical looking version of himself but with yellow eyes. It is his suppressed self, a side to him he was trying to hide. When he rejects the Shadow's words it becomes a monster and attacks. Souji defeats it and Yosuke accepts it at last, gaining a Persona of his own.
Thus Souji and his friends uncover that when a person appears on the Midnight Channel they are going to be targeted by the killer to be thrown into the TV world. If they aren't rescued before the fog settles on Inaba then they are killed by their Shadows and end up in the same state as Saki and the announcer did. With this in mind Yosuke and Souji realize they are the only force capable of thwarting the killer and make it their goal to do just that.
And thus beings Souji's year long adventure in Inaba. He is chosen to be the leader of a group of Persona users as they attempt to unravel the mystery of the TV murders. A pattern develops where they watch the channel and then dive in after the person who is then thrown in, saving them from death by their Shadow. Each person acquires a Persona upon being saved and accepting their uglier self. And so the team grows with each person rescued. The turning point comes when Souji receives a warning letter to not rescue anyone else. If he continues "someone close will be put in and killed". The team chooses a wait and see approach.
As a result, Souji's cousin Nanako is kidnapped and taken into the TV world. However they are able to uncover the culprit as a result, a man named Namatame. Dojima is injured in pursuit and so Souji and friends rush in to save her. They do so but she remains ill and in pain even after she's free. Namatame is arrested and held in the hospital as well. Unfortunately the unimaginable happens and Nanako dies. Enraged, Dojima tries to break into Namatame's hospital room. The team stops him but also fueled by their rage they contemplate throwing Namatame into the TV and letting him die. Souji calms everyone down and tells them they've missed something important in the case. Miraculously, Nanako recovers and comes back to life shortly after.
So the team thinks and comes to the realization of another culprit: Adachi, a detective and partner of Dojima. the truth is that he tricked Namatame into kidnapping and throwing people into the TV where he claimed it was safe for them. Upon being discovered Adachi escapes into the TV world and the team gives chase. After confronting him they discover that Adachi was, like Namatame, being used by a bigger force. The force that started everything for Adachi, Namatame and Souji himself. The force that gave all three the power to enter into the TV world. This force ends up being the goddess Izanami. Finally at the end of the mystery of both the murders, the fog and the Midnight Channel, the team defeats Izanami and finally brings an end to everything.
With that all said and done, Souji heads back to the city and his friends bid him a tearful farewell as his train pulls away.
Personality;
Souji is a silent protagonist. Being a silent protagonist means his actions and speech (and thus personality) are all up to the player. However through the options you can choose for him, the manga and the drama CDs this silent protagonist has developed a distinct personality at the same time.
Souji is introduced as a quiet and rather distant outsider. To some extent he remains this way. He's definitely distant and tends to keep everyone at arm's length. He does not let anyone into his life despite the tendency of everyone letting him into theirs. In the manga he mentions in narration that he moves around a lot due to his parents' careers and so he does not bother to form close bonds with others. Although this changes drastically during his time in Inaba there is still an initial reaction to keep people out of his personal life. Even his closest and most trusted friends don't seem allowed entry. Despite that he is very approachable and is quick to be adopted into the social ranking of his school. It seems Souji would just much rather be a part of someone else's life and help them there than anything else.
What it boils down to is that Souji is all about others. He is supportive, kind and very much the pillar of strength in the lives of several people within the game. He is a listener and very encouraging. He has the unique ability to get along with all kinds of people and form bonds with some of the most unlikely folks. (A Fox, an elderly woman, a naughty nurse, and so forth.) He isn't judgmental and very laid back, going with the flow where ever it may take him. He's quick to adapt to environments, people and situations and almost seems to meld his own personality to match whatever is going on. A drawback to this might be that he does so at the cost of his own personal thoughts, feelings and emotions. He puts his own needs last and the needs of everyone else first. Thus Souji is quite selfless and almost superhumanly compassionate. As a result what he has to say always seems to have a great impact on others. In the third drama CD he encourages both Kanji and Teddie to be truer to themselves and to believe in themselves more than they do. His words alone seem to give them a lot of courage. Additionally throughout the game he is a constant confidant to Yosuke as he mourns Saki's death. For Dojima he is always helping around the house and for Nanako he's always trying to cheer her up and do things with her. The list goes on and on. Souji is the type who always gives and never expects a thing in return.
However that doesn't make him a push over of any sorts because Souji is also a leader. When unanimously appointed leader of the Investigation Team he takes charge right away. He has the dominating quality of a leader and he can be quite intimidating sometimes. He can flip from friendly mannerisms to a deadly serious and almost threatening one in minutes. As a leader he isn't afraid to bark orders to his friends nor make all the very important decisions concerning their activities inside the TV world. When he makes a choice he makes it with full confidence and the belief that it's the right one. Souji never makes a choice unless he's 100% sure of it. Thus it's clear Souji is also an incredibly trustworthy individual as multiple people put their life in his hands on a daily basis and trust him to make the tough choices as leader. On the reverse side, Souji also trusts his friends with his life and depends on them heavily. He cares for his friends an incredible amount. He is also protective of them as well, willing to risk anything to keep them safe. In Naoto's social link he has the option to shield her from what appeared to be a real knife. In Yosuke's social link he is given the option to tell two girls upsetting Yosuke to "shut up". He has a strong sense of duty to those who depend on him and strives hard not to let them down. More often than not he makes good on that promise and does not let his friends down, always going above and beyond the call of duty for them.
Souji is also just your normal teenager. He jokes around with his friends, teasing them lightly and essentially "trolling" the hell out of them. (Evident mostly in the third drama CD with his constant verbal jabbings at Yosuke.) Yet this easy going side is seen only to his closest friends. To everyone else he is a stoic and serious boy, which isn't far from the truth. As light-hearted as he can be he can also be a little too serious sometimes. He's polite and speaks carefully, thinking through his words before saving them. Yet he speaks rarely and fits the "strong and silent" type quite well. (He also seems to abide to the "speak softly and carry a big stick" rule.) He communicates a lot more by listening and then responding to what he's being told. Souji is also a little bit of an oddball. In the game he feeds and will literally spend time with stray cats. He does the same with a fox. He also seems to have the habit of eating weird foods. Souji is very responsible and skillful. He works multiple jobs and earns high marks in school. He's incredibly capable with cooking and generally just taking care of himself and others. This is possibly a result of his parents not being around that much to take care of him when he was younger.
In the end Souji is an above average guy but down to earth all the same. He's rational and level headed, often calming down his friends when they get over emotional. Compassionate and understanding but still just a kid, Souji is an exceptional person and leader who really does just want to be friends with everyone. Even better if he can offer them a helping hand.
THIRD-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: When Souji came home that night after the incident he didn't sleep. He tried but he spent the whole night staring at the ceiling in deep turmoil. At five in the morning when it was obvious he wouldn't sleep he got up. He was exhausted. Emotionally and physically drained and stomach churning at the thought of Nanako and his uncle in the hospital right now, fighting for their lives, sleep just wasn't happening. And it was because of him. He couldn't shake that feeling of guilt. He tried to reason with himself but the guilt remained, lodged there stubbornly in his brain. It whispered cruelly, reminding him that he had failed. He had thrown his confidence into a choice and it had been the wrong choice. The warning letter had come and he had chosen to sit on it and "wait and see". As a result he'd been careless and then it had been too late. Nanako had been thrown into the TV and Dojima had been badly hurt. And now his punishment was sitting in the cold empty house all alone.
Which he did, flopped miserably on the couch and huddled in a blanket. He stared bleary eyed at the TV, playing hideous infomercials and advertising the strangest things. His eyes found the broken kotasu in front of him and he winced. He couldn't stand to look at it or the empty pillow cushion settled near it. No matter how he tried to reason it the solid fact remained that this was his fault. His responsibility as leader and thus his fault when things went wrong. And this was one costly mistake. One of which he might never forgive himself for. He didn't know how to recover from this and he felt this emotional instability would just let everyone down even more than he already had.
At some point he must've finally dozed off because the knock on the front door startled him bolt upright. He brushed the blanket aside and stood, attempting to straighten his disheveled hair and clothes to at least look semi-presentable. He pulled open the door, expecting the mailman or someone of equal unimportance. Instead he found Yosuke.
"Yo!" He replied in his usual cheerful manner.
Souji stared. Then blinked. The sheer unexpectedness of this cause his brain to short circuit and he didn't know how to react. Then he was nearly knocked over when something heavy collided into him, arms wrapped around his middle in a vice like grip.
"Senseeeiiii!" Teddie wailed. "Sensei, are you okay? I've been so worried about you and Nana-chan..."
"So worried that you don't let me sleep anymore," Yosuke grumbled. "Oh, uh..." He held up a plastic bag with the Junes label on it. "Here. Food or... whatever. Just in case you don't have anything proper in your kitchen."
Souji took the bag and despite his weariness he gave a genuine smile. "Thanks... .... Teddie, I can't breathe."
Teddie was still clinging to him stubbornly, hugging with all the force of ten men. Souji was not opposed to the affection but he really enjoyed oxygen. Yosuke sighed and yanked Teddie back by the collar of his shirt.
"Okay, let's go, Ted. We have a shift at Junes, remember?" And to Souji he added, "But we'll be back tonight, okay? I'll call you."
"All right..."
Souji watched them go, slightly mystified. For some reason it seemed so strange that they would be helping him out right now. But that wasn't the end of it. Chie and Yukiko arrived later in the afternoon. They brought food as well and stayed to talk with him, all smiles and encouragement. They even helped him clean the place a little. Rise was next, Naoto and Kanji in tow. They also brought food although Naoto warned him quietly that Rise had made it and he would be well advised not to eat it. Souji politely set Rise's bag aside. Way aside. And finally, true to his word, Yosuke reappeared later that night with Teddie. And when they finally left after a few hours Souji was left with more food than one could ever possibly need and the warmest feeling in his chest. Despite how scary the previous night had been the future, at least, seemed a little brighter. Maybe it was his fault but at least he could face his punishment of loneliness with his friends. Which maybe defeated the purpose of that punishment but he couldn't have been happier to know he really wasn't going to have to deal with any of this on his own.
He would be okay. He would recover.
FIRST-PERSON WRITING SAMPLE: ... Unexpected. Actually, that might be an understatement. It's strange... I feel like I'm dreaming. But I'm definitely awake? ... It's probably not a good sign if I can't be sure one way or the other.
Oh. Sorry. My name is Souji Seta. I'm a bit disoriented... Could someone tell me where I am? I really don't think this is Inaba anymore. Also, if someone could explain what exactly... is going on? I'd really appreciate it.
INTENT: No idea, haha! I just... would like to play him among a great cast. And I've been here before and enjoyed the game so I've been hoping to come back with a stronger muse so I can stick around.