tarotcards | SOUJI SETA APPLICATION ➟ RECOLLE

PLAYER
YOUR NAME: Ichi
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CHARACTER: CANON SECTION
NAME: Souji Seta
AGE: 17
CANON: Persona 4

CANON HISTORY: Shin Megami Tensei: Persona 4 ▪ Protagonist

Note:

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Souji maxes out every social link within the game. Any social links with any possible romantic ties have led to platonic endings. Souji just friendzoned everyone.
Souji tends to choose the more compassionate and understanding answers in regards to the game’s dialogue choices. As a result, he has never reversed a social link before.
Along with the rest of the Investigation Team, he was able to determine the killer as Adachi. The team then followed him into Magatsu Inaba and brought him to the proper authorities.
Because Adachi was apprehended and wrote Souji a letter about the investigation, the Investigation Team was able to discover the true culprit behind the Midnight Channel, Izanami. The team was then able to follow her into Yomotsu Hirasaka, where they were able to defeat her and finally lift the fog from the TV World.

CANON PERSONALITY:

Souji was originally a silent protagonist whose personality was left up for the player to decide. For some, he might be cheerful and outgoing. For others, he might be smooth and cool but based upon canon facts shared about him in the games and manga interpretation, there are things that flesh him out as a character. However, because the later video games give him a standard personality that matches the one in the manga but neglect to provide a detailed background, this interpretation of Souji will be mostly based upon the manga’s (hence the name being Souji Seta instead of Yu Narukami).

It’s difficult to say that Souji isn’t a person shaped by the events in his life. Since a young age, Souji was always moving from city to city, following wherever his parents were assigned to work next. The Setas almost never stayed in one location for long as there was always some place to go, some place to be working, and as a result, they had to drag their son to these areas. It was tough on him at first, but he began to get fairly used to it. He learned to become independent and how to take care of himself when his parents weren’t around. However, it also started to seriously affect his social life and gave him a pessimistic view on making any lasting connections with others as he never stayed in one area for long. As a result, he never tried to make any good friends whenever he arrived at a new school, preferring to distance himself away from them because he knew he'll lose them as soon as the year ended. So, Souji became a loner for most of his school years.

Souji really did want to try and make some close friends, but he knew it was rather pointless to. No one ever kept in contact with someone that moved to the other side of the city, especially someone they only knew for a year. So, instead of trying to think positive, that pessimistic outlook began to overshadow how he started every year: stay friendly but don’t attempt to get attached. Once he moved, he would start all over again.

Then everything changed once he arrived in Inaba and a string of murders started to occur.

Souji soon found himself wrapped up in these murders and discovered new powers on the way, which allowed him to enter into TVs and summon a number of Personas. He was quickly appointed as the leader of the Investigation Team and was trusted to rescue everyone thrown into the TV. At first, he only accepted because he couldn’t have put that on Yosuke or Chie, and he did want to help these murders come to an end, but he soon embraced the role of the leader. Through countless journeys into the other world, he proved himself over and over again that he could lead a team, and that was the start of when he started to open up more and allow his hidden personality traits to finally begin to shine.

During the times when he often went into the TV for rescue missions or just to train, Souji began to display great leadership skills. He knew when enough was enough, what each person's strengths and weaknesses were, what strategy was best, and such on. He always tried to pull the best out of someone and soon began to encourage them to give it their all. He began to connect with his teammates (and, in general, everyone else), listening to their issues and concerns, which was something he never did before arriving in Inaba. He gave them advice when they needed it and learned which of their abilities to hone in battle. He was left in charge to decide which members he wanted to take into the dungeon and how to balance out the team. He was trusted with their lives and in exchange, he gave them his.

The other reason why he continued to prove himself as a leader was that he’s always calm and level headed. During his first encounter with Shadows, he didn’t panic like Yosuke or Teddie, but he was able to call upon his Persona for the first time to defeat them. He then later went on to defeat Yosuke’s Shadow immediately after. Instead of running away and cowering, he stood his ground and protected them, who were grateful for the act. This was the first display of his great courage and drive to protect others, but definitely not his last.

When going out to rescue the other victims, he wasn't afraid to face Shadows that were three times his size and could easily kill him with a single blow. He thought of strategies, knew who to send out, what to do, when to run away, and soon, Souji started to know his friends a lot more and become closer to them. He wasn't afraid to take a mortal blow for his comrades if needed and to lend a helping hand. From there, his pessimistic view slowly turned into an optimistic one. Soon, he became to believe that he could make friends, if he tried to, and that he could encourage others to do the same.

Souji was able to make friends outside of the Investigation Team and join some school clubs. He also even managed to grab a job working at a daycare center, where it showed that he was good with children. He made new friends left and right and the kind nature he had tucked away was finally out on full blast. He was able to empathize with everyone’s problems, but especially with his little cousin, Nanako. He became extremely close with her, going as far as to consider her as his younger sister, but part of the reason why they were able to connect was because he understood what it’s like to be left alone. Nanako’s father had often been at work and she was normally by herself at home, and Souji immediately knew what that felt like. As a result, he spent a great amount of time with her and just like his job at the daycare, he proved how well he gets along with children. He often helped her with her homework, showed her magic tricks, took her out with his friends, and as a result, he soon became the centre of Nanako’s world. So, when she was kidnapped, he stopped at nothing to get her back, proving that when he does make close friends, he will push himself to do everything in his power to save them.

Now, all this doesn't mean that Souji is completely serious without a sense of humour. He is a pretty level headed guy, especially as the leader, but when he doesn’t have to worry about leading a team, he can be pretty laid back and goofy. Some of his remarks can be pretty comedic (“Stand your guard!!” he yells while the team is being pelted by wash basins from the girls) and so can his inner dialogue (“You feel as if a thousand showers will never make you clean…” after standing in the river where a teacher started vomiting upstream), but just overall, he acts like a normal goofy teenager. He attracts an entire group of cats by his uncle’s house, or he takes expired food out of the fridge and eats them. He gets signed up for the cross dressing pageant and he tackles it head on. He sings the Junes theme song with Nanako, and he even says weird, nonsensical stuff in the spin-offs, like “ME EAT YOU WHOLE” in Persona Q as a greeting.

Overall, Souji is definitely a person who was shaped by his environment and circumstances. If he continued to stay in the city and follow his parents around, he might have never stopped being a loner and grown out of being a pessimistic. He might not have had the kind of friends he has now and Inaba helped him grow as a person. Sure, it all sounds like some kind of cheesy story that his parents always used to tell him, but to him, it was all of a dear year in the rural town that he’d never forget. Because of his stay in Inaba, he became a much stronger person than he was before and became the strong and dependant leader that he is now.

SKILLS/ABILITIES:

Physical: Souji uses a two-handed sword as his preferred weapon of choice. Although he is self-taught, he is good enough to hold himself in a fight. With his time spent inside the TV and through multiple rescue missions, Souji is in top physical shape and is able to handle himself in any physical altercations. While he may not be able to bench press 300 lbs or anything like that, he’s certainly fit enough to start.

Wild Card: Souji has a strange and unique power that separates him from the rest of the Investigation Team. Instead of just being able to summon one Persona, he can summon over a hundred different kinds of whatever he wants - of course, only after fusing them in the Velvet Room. He can only “carry” eight at a time, but he is able to switch between any one of them whenever he likes. The following will be the Personas he would have during his canon point:

Izanagi-no-Okami

Mada

Kohryu

Sraosha

Norn

Attis

Neko Shogun

Lucifer

Social Links: While social links are an in-game mechanic to increase the experience points a Persona may earn when fused or to unlock new Personas, they are also an essential part of the protagonist’s journey as the Fool. They allow for Souji to know how close he is with another person and to also allow him to forge meaningful bonds with others. Within Recolle, once he regains this ability, he will experience voices in his head and random flashes whenever he establishes or ranks up a social link, just as he does in the game. Without a Velvet Room in Recolle, however, he will not benefit from any bonuses by fusing Personas.

CHARACTER: AU SECTION
AU NAME: Souji Narukami
AU AGE: 17
PHYSICAL DIFFERENCES: Souji now has black hair and brown eyes now, finally looking like a young man instead of an old geezer with grey hair.

AU HISTORY:

Souji and Yu Narukami were born in Japan to two highly influential diplomats. Despite their arrival, their parents frequently moved the family around the country, taking them wherever their job asked of them. Even as young as the twins were, the boys didn’t mind the constant traveling. As long as they were together, they had nothing to worry about and they were able to grow up relatively happy.
Sometime while they were still young, the family took a business trip to Recolle, where the twins were able to meet Honoka Kousaka, a bright and cheerful girl who was coincidentally the same age as them. The three became fast friends and they spent the entire month with each other, singing and playing together. They all made a promise to keep in contact after the twins left, but eventually, the twins lost touch with Honoka as a result of constantly moving.
When the twins were seven, their parents had a divorce. Instead of choosing to have the children together, their parents took one child each. It was decided that their mother would take Souji and that Yu would stay with their father. While the twins were allowed to stay together for a few more days, their mother eventually took Souji and left the family house to move elsewhere.
With their mother, Souji was subjected to countless transfers all across the country and eventually to the United States. As a result, Souji never stayed in one place for too long to make any lasting relationships and became highly discouraged from even trying. He would keep everyone at an arm’s length and while he was friendly to everyone he met, he never let them close. He wouldn’t confide in anyone and wouldn’t be the first one to offer any sociable events. Because of this, he grew up without any friends and became extremely isolated from everyone.
Souji’s mother didn’t help to ease away the loneliness either. As a woman strongly driven by her career, she constantly left him home alone and let him take care of himself, even before he hit middle school. She placed her job above all else and made countless empty promises as a result. Even if she had every intention of actually coming home for once or to spend the weekend with her son, work came first and she always would choose her job over Souji. She would call a disappointed Souji and reassure him that there’d always be next time. After all, her job’s important to her and he understands, right? And he did, though it didn’t stop him from becoming resentful of his mother and his living situation, even as awful as it made him feel for even blaming her. He tried to bury any negative feelings about his mother and pretended that everything was fine, putting on a strong face whenever she asked, but his resentment never died out and only grew over the years.
Although they never saw each other again after the divorce, the twins kept in constant contact. Email, letters, phone calls, they did anything they could to recreate the feeling of still being together. It helped ease away the intense feelings of loneliness, but it also made it easy for them to hide their real feelings from each other. Souji never once mentioned his disappointment in their mother or how lonely he felt. It was easier to put on a fake face when Yu never had to see his face and Souji made sure that it seemed like nothing was wrong at all.
It wasn’t until Souji was 17 and halfway into his senior year of high school where he could see his brother again. The twins’ mother decided to move him to Recolle, where he quickly found out that Yu would also be moving to. Immediately, the twins picked out a two bedroom dorm to live in and were finally reunited after ten years of being separated. They were completely overjoyed and were able to revert back to their seven-year-old selves, holding hands and touching foreheads. Despite having a suite with two bedrooms, they chose to share a single bedroom and to use the other as a study. They didn’t know how long they’d be able to stay together, so they were going to make the best out of it.
The twins relocation to Recolle didn’t free them of their parents, however. As neither parent would be in Recolle to attend any formal functions, they asked the twins to represent them and to attend these events on their behalf. They only needed to network and act as professional as possible, ensuring that their parents had a good relationship with their many “friends”. While neither twin was thrilled to take on these new responsibilities, it was a small price to pay for the twins to stay together.

Note: Permission to include Honaka and Yu in this AU has been given by their respective players.

AU PERSONALITY:

As a result of the divorce and its aftermaths, Souji developed a habit of bottling up all of his negative emotions and pretending that they don’t bother him. He’d put on a strong face, smile, and pretend that nothing’s wrong at all. He’d deny that he needs help or that they bother him, and he’d refuse to talk about it. While he shares this characteristic in canon, Souji is able to put up a more convincing fake persona in this AU. As a child of a single mother, he felt that he had more of a responsibility to make sure that she was happy and that she didn’t have to worry about him (not when she already had so much work on her plate), so what was better than to swallow all these feelings of resentment and bitter isolation and smile instead? This act wasn’t only for Souji’s mother, however. It was also for Yu and for himself. Yu was also affected by this divorce and Souji knew just how much Yu loved their mother. It must be killing his brother that he can’t see their mother anymore, so instead of expressing his utter disappointment with her, Souji doesn’t have to also disappoint Yu and he can also convince himself that everything is really not as bad as it is. After all, if he keeps telling himself that and by pretending, it’d eventually happen, right? All he had to do was remind himself that if he wasn’t strong for their mother or Yu, then they’d worry, and that if he doesn’t smile and pretend that he’s getting through this, then he’s nothing but a burden. At least that’s what he kept telling himself as a child and by the time he became a teenager, he perfected this act.
Similarly as in canon when he arrives in Inaba, Souji will arrive in Recolle with very little intentions of befriending anyone. He may be in the city with his twin, but he doesn’t know how long he’d be here for. Yu’s his brother and he absolutely knows that Yu wouldn’t abandon him for anything, but everyone else? He’s not too sure. After all, he knows from first-hand experience that no one really keeps in contact with someone who’s constantly moving around, especially when they sometimes move to the other side of the country. Even if you try as hard as you can, you’d eventually fall out of touch with them, just like what happened with Honoka and countless other “friends”. While Souji still has the potential to be highly sociable and outgoing, just like in canon, he needs someone to pull him out of his shell first and to show him that it just might be worth it to try and make friends again. Until that happens, though, he will remain distant and prefer to go with the flow, rather than being the one to initiate anything.
Once he’s encouraged to open up and he feels more comfortable being sociable, Souji will begin to show that he’s actually... quite dorky underneath all the polite and professional impressions that he gives off. While he still maintains the image of being a fine young man, he will let it slip here and there to tell bad jokes, to pull small pranks, do random magic tricks, and to just generally have fun. Souji always had this outgoing side to him, but because of what his mother asked of him and by not having any friends, he was never able to properly show it. Now that he’s in Recolle with his brother, it is definitely easier for him to lay back and have some fun. In addition, while it may start off slow and small, Souji will eventually become an absolute terror with his twin. Once they both open up and learn to enjoy themselves, the twins will embrace their inner monsters and become quite unbearable. They’d pull these elaborate pranks, pretend to be one another, swap places, and pretty much anything they can get away with while they’re twins. While these jokes wouldn’t be malicious or anything of the sort, they’d definitely have fun with others by constantly trying to confuse them. Because of this, whenever the twins are apart, it’s nearly impossible to tell them apart. With Yu mimicking Souji’s mannerisms and Souji exaggerating some of them or vice versa, it takes an extremely keen eye to notice the tiny differences between the two. It’s only when the twins are apart that it becomes apparent that they’re actually two very different people with very different ways of socializing.
While Souji loves his brother, he can’t help but to feel absolutely jealous of him. While both twins had to deal with the divorce and its aftermaths, Yu had a type of stability that Souji didn’t. Yu had a father who made his expectations very clear and never constantly made empty promises. Yu also never had to move around as often and he was able to live in relative comfort, at least compared to the life that Souji had. Souji knows better than anyone that Yu also had a rough childhood and that it’s completely awful of him to even have this kind of thoughts or emotions, so he represses them as much as he can. He hates himself for even being jealous of Yu and feels awful for it, so he denies it and tries to pretend that he’s not. Of course, denying it won’t exactly get rid of it and while Souji does a decent job at forgetting all about it, it sometimes hits him a little too hard and he has to take a moment to put on a smile to reassure his brother that nothing’s wrong at all.

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As a result of the July/August event, Souji will have a completely new AU. In addition, his new AU name will be Souji Seta rather than Souji Narukami.
Souji was born as an unwanted child to a family who simply could not provide to take care of him for unknown reasons. As a result, he was placed into the foster care system shortly after he was born and because of this, Souji has absolutely no recollection of his biological family at all.
For the first few years of his life, he was lucky enough to find a foster home that showed him proper love and support. He grew up like most other children and although he knew that the person raising him wasn't his "real" father, he had no problems with this and was happy with his situation. However, when he became seven, his foster father suddenly passed away and he was then moved between countless foster families and group homes.
While some of these families and homes were good, others weren't so great. Although he didn't have it as bad as some of the horror stories out there, he still faced neglect and emotional/mental abuse. Sometimes, he was the only foster child while other times, he was one of the many in a small home. In all these times though, he had to mainly take care of himself and learn to be completely independent.
Finally, as a stroke of luck, Souji found a woman just before his seventeenth birthday and they struck a bond. Although she was a busy businesswoman who often had long hours at work and left him home alone, she still showed him the love and care that the previous group homes and foster families couldn't provide in the last ten years. Although he was wary about her at first (would she just neglect him like everyone else?), he grew extremely close to her and this was the closest he got to a proper mother figure. Then about a year later, he was properly adopted as her son and Souji finally found a stable living situation in that he was able to live in Recolle and be a "normal" student.
However, due to the difficult past that he had, it came with a lot of negative traits. Firstly, Souji makes a lot of jokes in an attempt to hide his actual feelings and thoughts. He's easy enough to get along with and he never passes a chance to crack a joke but he does it in a way to prevent anyone from actually knowing who he is. It's a self-defence mechanism that he uses in order to push people away as he believes that people will eventually leave him, which is a direct effect from moving from so many different homes and families over a decade.
Although Souji has a tendency to push people away and has an expectation that people will eventually leave him, he also has a fear of being alone. After constantly being taken from home to home, it made him feel like he never truly belonged anywhere and that he will never have true friends. Although he is now in a stable environment after being adopted by his foster mother, he has able fear in the back of his head that tell him that she might change her mind and wouldn't want him anymore. As a result, he still has an issue of distancing himself, even though it only makes his fear of being alone that much more real. It's a self-destructive trait in that he wishes that he could be surrounded with friends but is hesitant on actually letting people in and knowing who he really is. He's fully aware of this problem but has difficulties trying to fix it.
In addition, Souji grew up with the insecurity of wondering why he was not wanted. At times, Souji wondered about his original biological family and even thought about seeking them out before he talked himself out of it. Although he was truly curious to know about his origins, he was always too afraid of the truth. He didn't want to reach out and possibly find out what he was afraid of: that he was truly an unwanted child. This fear of being rejected by his biological parents and any other biological family he might have kept him from ever digging into his own past. However, by never really knowing the truth, he has dug himself into this hole of negative feelings and thoughts that he projects onto himself, only making his feelings of being unwanted that much worse.
Despite all this though, Souji generally shares the same positive traits that his original AU had: being responsible, independent, supportive, and having a sense of humour. He will still act by always cracking a joke or using deadpan humour but with his new AU, there will be new meanings behind this constant jokester persona that Souji portrays.

Edited 2018-08-30 16:24 (UTC)

SOUJI SETA APPLICATION ➟ RECOLLE

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