Application for entranceway
Name: Kristen
LJ: mouthofbrass
E-Mail: kristen[at]spectrumvoid.net
IM: MadMadPhineas
Character Name: Souji Seta (protagonist)
Series: Persona 4
Timeline: Post true ending
Canon Resource Link: Bam
Character Background: Like other protagonists in the Persona series, Souji is a silent protagonist and his personality is decided in part by the in-game actions and decisions of the player. Therefore, his background and personality are both somewhat subjective. I'll start with what is concretely known about him and his experiences in-game and then explain the way I played him and how that will affect his protrayal in this game.
Not a whole lot is known about Souji prior to game canon. His parents are often busy with work, so he's used to being on his own, and he was raised in a big city (the manga specifies that he's from Tokyo, but the video game doesn't). At the start of his second year of high school (making him presumably 17 by the end of the game), his parents went overseas to work and he was sent to stay with his uncle Dojima in the small town of Inaba.
Soon after his arrival, people start turning up dead and disappearing. It's quickly discovered by Souji and his friends that this is connected to the mysterious Midnight Channel and a world inside the TV. The Midnight Channel comes on at midnight (predictably) whenever it's raining, and shows an image of a person. A few days later, that person disappears, and then, when the fog comes after the rain ends, that person turns up dead. After two murders, Souji figures out how to enter the TV and he and his friends (who quickly make him their leader) spend the rest of the game trying to find the culprit and put a stop to all of these shenanigans.
Along the way, they have to face their Shadows: a part of themselves that they strive to hide. Rejecting a Shadow only gives it power and it turns into a monster, but after defeating and then acknowledging that the Shadow is a part of them, the negative emotions of the Shadow are transmuted into an individualized Persona whose power they can summon to put to productive use. Interestingly, Souji never had a Shadow--he apparently has nothing to hide from himself or other people. Besides, he was given the power of Persona by the game's final boss, in order to set up the events of the game, so he never had to battle himself to get it. Lucky him.
Every time the characters think they've found the murderer, it turns out they're wrong and they have to gather more information and fight more enemies. The first person they catch is actually a copy cat murderer, while the second person thought he was saving people by throwing them into the TV world, unaware that this action would have killed them if they hadn't been rescued by the main characters. They finally find the man who was responsible for the deaths at the beginning of the game, but after defeating him, they find that he was actually being manipulated by some kind of god-spirit-thing who planned to envelop the entire world in a fog that turned human beings into shadows in order to create a perfectly peaceful world.
Yeah.
I know.
So they beat him too. And everyone's happy, except Souji, who waits until the DAY BEFORE HE LEAVES INABA in the spring to decide that something's not right. He gathers his friends up and they discuss the questions that are still unanswered, such as where the heck Souji got his power in the first place.
Ultimately, he realizes it was from a gas station attendant, the first person he met in Inaba. When he confronts her, she reveals that she is the goddess Izanami and that she had granted Souji, Namatame, and Adachi all the same power to set things in action in Inaba in order to release the fog on the world. Human hearts naturally turn away from the truth, she explains, she she'll hide the truth with fog, turn everyone into entities that act entirely on selfish, ignorant instinct, and everyone will be happy.
Souji thinks that's bullshit. So he tells the others what's up and everyone bands together and after the hardest boss fight ever, they manage to beat Izanami. She admits that they've shown her the power of human hearts bluh bluh bluh fine, she'll leave earth alone. The next day, Souji gets on a train and leaves Inaba and all of his awesome friends behind.
Throughout all of this, Souji meets a lot of people and forms a lot of special and unbreakable bonds with them. Among them are his classmates Yousuke Hanamura, Chie Satonaka, and Yukiko Amagi; underclassmen Rise Kujikawa, Kanji Tatsumi, and Naoto Shirogane, and a number of others, including his uncle Dojima, cousin Nanako, schoolmates Daisuke Namatame, Kou Ichijo, Naoki Konishi, Ai Ebihara, and Ayane Matsunaga (or Yumi Ozawa, but I had him join the band instead); the shrine fox, Teddie from the TV world, Margaret from the Velvet Room, and people from his part time jobs (Eri, Sayoko, Hisano, and Shu).
As he establishes relationships with all of these characters, they come to trust and confide in him, and he (rather passively and mostly just by being there for them) helps them to figure out who they are and what they really want.
Personality-wise, Souji is a pretty laid back guy. He doesn't speak much, though when he does, people tend to listen. It's in part through the speech options given to the player that Souji's personality is formed. However, he only speaks when given speech options. This means that on several occasions, he just stands by and allows his friends to argue, such as on the camping trip, with Kanji and Yousuke in his tent. In general, this can be interpreted as respect for his friends and their right to express their opinions. When it's really important though, he does step in and disagree or tell people to cut that shit out, such as when Yousuke, Kanji, and Naoto want to get rid of Namatame by stranding him inside the TV world.
Souji's reliable, calm, and straightforward. He doesn't mince words, he tells people what he's thinking when asked, and he's always there to help each of them, even when the others have gotten distracted and wandered off. When forced to cross dress for the school culture festival, he doesn't like the idea, but knowing that the girls were also forced into the beauty contest (gdi Yousuke), he goes along with it and does his best. He generally takes things in stride, recovering from surprise or anger easily and quickly. This helps him to balance out his teammates and friends in their interactions and keep them from killing each other at times.
He's still a normal teenage boy though, who doesn't necessarily know what to do about important things like GIRLS. UGH. He ends up in a river during the camping trip, along with Yousuke and Kanji, because of a comment he made about how Chie and Yukiko looked in their bathing suits. He's also a little weirded out by Sayoko's flirting (she's ten years older than him, okay, he is just there to make money and raise his courage). Despite him not always knowing what to do or responding to their flirting, all of the girls in the game seem to be drawn to him.
Although generally stoic, Souji does have a dry, somewhat off-color sense of humor, and a number of odd quirks. One of those is an affinity for animals; he's been known to spend entire afternoons playing with a cat near the Dojima residence, trying to communicate with it, and once when chasing down a lost dog on a quest for the fox, he sings to it. Souji also eats whatever he finds lying around, such as expired or leftover food in the fridge. Once he ate his cousin Nanako's science experiment, which was basically just a bowl of grass (he didn't touch his uncle's beer though, so go him).
Souji also eavesdrops on anyone talking loud enough for him to hear them and gains a lot of information this way. He will also talk to anyone he comes across, sometimes ending up in intimate conversations with near strangers. He seems to exude some kind of "I am trustworthy, so tell me all of your troubles and secrets" wavelength, because people do so constantly.
Abilites/Special Powers: Aside from the apparently natural ability to fight using a two-handed sword (or a golf club or a baseball bat, apparently), Souji's got the ability to summon Persona. And not just one Persona, like most people, but pretty much any Persona ever. This is called the Wild Card ability. For the sake of not being ridiculous, though, I'm limiting him to three.
The first is Izanagi-no-Okami, Souji's ultimate Persona, which he uses to defeat Izanami. This Persona's powers include attacks in all four elements (fire, ice, electricity, and wind), as well as almighty, and amplifies magical attacks. It raises his evasion from magical attacks and allows him to regain energy and health if he's successful in a battle, fully healing him of the effects of summoning and using his Persona, and any wounds sustained from his enemy. (I'm leaving off the Fire/Ice/Elec/Wind amp abilities, since most Personae can only carry eight abilities at a time.)
The second is Ishtar, the ultimate Persona of the Lovers arcana. Her abilities allow her to heal allies of injuries and status ailments, as well as requiring less energy to cast spells. From the list provided at that link, I'm really only keeping Mediarahan, Amrita, and Spell Master. Because of Entranceway's setting, Samarecarm wouldn't work, and her other spells are redundant. I'm also leaving off Maziodyne, because Izanagi-no-Okami will have electrical power.
The third is Sraosha, the ultimate Persona of the Justice arcana. Sraosha's powers include a 40% chance of an instant KO from Light damage, spells to increase the power or effectiveness of Light and phsyical attacks, heightened evasion from magical attacks, and one powerful physical attack. I'm leaving off Ziodyne and Megidolaon because Izanagi-no-Okami has both of those attacks.
It should be noted that using a Persona takes a toll on Souji's health and energy. While some powers are "passive", others require a drain on him that will leave him increasingly worn out after every summoning. It's possible in this setting that he could become sick if he drains himself too much or too often.
Third-Person Sample: Getting on the train wasn't as hard as he expected it to be. It wasn't even hard watching his friends run down the platform after him, yelling things that were muffled but still comprehensible through the glass.
Souji paused as he put secured his back in the overhead rack and watched the last of Inaba disapear on the other side of the window. It really was a tiny place. It took no time at all to leave it.
A year hadn't been enough. Not really. He settled into his seat and stared out at the fields flashing past, his chin resting on his hand. It was hard to regret the brevity of his stay in Inaba, all things considered. He'd come in time to help with the murder case, and stayed long enough to see that carried through to its conclusion. But that was the only thing that had ended, other than the school year.
He probably could have said more to them before he'd boarded, but there hadn't been any reason to; this wasn't goodbye. Besides, his friends might have worried if he'd said too much. He would be back again, and he'd say everything that was left to say then.
First-Person Sample: [The video shows a young man asleep in a chair in one of the tea rooms. Enjoy a really boring feed for a couple of minutes until he wakes up.
Once Souji does wake up, he sits up straighter, glancing around the room. Although he looks a bit surprised, he doesn't seem too alarmed or even bothered by where he finds himself.]
The other world...? Is this a new--?
[He starts to get up, but is distracted by a half eaten cookie on the table that for whatever reason hasn't been cleared away since the room's previous occupant left.
...
......
He eats the cookie.]