Seta Souji

APPLICATION

OOC

NAME: Matt.
AGE: 39.
CONTACT: Mattnificence @ Discord.
CHARACTER(S): Souji Seta.

IC

NAME: Souji Seta/Yu Narukami (like most Persona protagonists, his name varies based on the specific canon source; since I mostly draw inspiration from the first manga series (where his name was Souji) and the original game (in which he is player-named, years before the Yu Narukami name was first used), I prefer to call him Souji).
AGE: 17/18 (canon is ambiguous about his birthday; I'm intending to play him as freshly 18, 1 month after Persona 4 ends).
SUITABILITY: n/a
CANON: Persona 4.
CANON POINT: After the end of P4(original game).

ABILITIES:

Persona. A Persona is something in between a facet of your own personality and a spirit from the collective unconsciousness of humankind which can be summoned to defend against supernatural dangers. These Personas resemble various demons, angels, faeries, kami, and other creatures from mythology and folklore. Every Persona also belongs to an Arcana - a Major Arcana tarot archetype which governs its personality type and ability to relate to humankind.

It's unclear in canon whether Personas can be summoned in the real world for the usage of one of their two primary abilities. Personas help you to better understand people who align with that Persona's Tarot Archetype, and b) at least when in certain spaces(in Persona 4, the 'TV World' which is home to the Shadows Personas are primarily used to fight against), grant elemental attacks and defenses and various status effects.

In general, Persona combat abilities grant a mix of elemental strengths and weaknesses, defensively, and offensively, up to eight attacks that either do elemental damage, heal wounds, grant buffs or debuffs to physical attack & speed abilities; absorb or reflect incoming attacks, and charm, frighten, or confuse opponents.

Most people have one Persona; Souji can canonically have up to sixteen at one time. He cannot change out, recombine, retrain, or create new Personas without the help of the Velvet Room Attendants of Persona canon. In Golden Peacock, I'm primarily interested in Personas as a way to interact with other people by helping Souji get a better understanding of their emotions - if the mods rule Personas can't be summoned in the Casino, that's fine, and if they are summonable inside the Casino, I'd choose Personas not based on OP combat abilities but based on the archetypes Souji's close CR lines up with.

VICES:
Constantly busy. Souji has a very low threshold for boredom and a tendency to overwork himself to the point of exhaustion. While the ability to work on many projects and socialize constantly can be a strength, I'd say that Souji's tendency to spread himself too thin and work himself to the bone makes it more of a Vice.

People Pleaser. Souji has a tendency to go along with the flow and indulge, not only his friends, but almost anyone who asks him for any kind of favor, or who he perceives he can help. This malleability of personality is not just a case of Vague Protagonist syndrome - it's very clear that Souji feels it's very important to give people what they want and even to be the kind of person they want him to be, so long as he's around them. This hints at a lower self-worth and a belief that he has to be useful to other people to be worthwhile, which fits with the implication that he's repeatedly moved and been the new kid at school over his life.

Refusal to Lie. Souji won't knowingly tell a lie. This fits in with the truth-seeking themes of Persona 4, and while it's not the same as being honest (Souji knows how to tell people what they want or expect to hear without actively lying, and uses this to his advantage more than once), he also repeatedly gets in trouble with others (including the police) when point-blank asked a question, because he won't give an easy, untrue answer.


VIRTUES:
Friendly and Open. As noted above under people-pleasing, Souji is pleasant, polite, and most importantly nonjudgmental to everyone he meets. He has an uncanny ability to accept people, even rude, prickly, antisocial, or offensive people, where they are, and while he may disagree with them or try to persuade them of specific arguments, he isn't shown having trouble relating to such people or trying to convince them to change their behavior to be more socially acceptable. The only time Souji grows angry with someone in canon, it's a suspected murderer who almost killed his cousin - and further away from that incident, he's calm and collected even with other suspects or the real murderer (although determined to fight and capture them, he reacts minimally to the objectionable facets of the killers' personalities). Souji likes people, even people who are very different from himself, and he doesn't judge them for who they are, only what they do.

Calm and Collected. This is both a virtue and a flaw. As noted above, Souji almost never loses his temper - he's quiet, reserved, watchful, and able to think clearly in a crisis situation. This makes him difficult for other people to read, because many of his facial expressions and the things he says are inexpressive, except when he's indulging a silly sense of humor. It's clear that Souji feels emotions strongly - he just has an exceptional ability to play them close to his chest, and either a lot of practice not showing his feelings, or perhaps some active difficulty expressing his emotions fully and clearly (but I list it under virtues because it often works strongly in his favor).

SURVEY

▶ I REGULARLY MAKE NEW FRIENDS.
▷ 4. Souji may play things cool, but he winds up in the middle of many social situations quickly after arriving in a new town, providing pretty much immediate and unquestioned support to the people around him, which helps him make friends quickly.

▶ SEEING OTHER PEOPLE CRY MAKES ME WANT TO CRY TOO.
▷ 1. While Souji is sympathetic to others and good at comforting them, his own emotional expressions are very reserved.

▶ I OFTEN MAKE A BACKUP PLAN FOR A BACKUP PLAN.
▷ 1. Souji is much more of a listen-and-react type, adapting to a situation - while he may think ahead, he doesn't seem to make elaborate plans, and is very off-the-cuff. He's dedicated and disciplined enough to put a lot of time and effort into a plan or project once made, however.

▶ I USUALLY STAY CALM, EVEN WHEN UNDER A LOT OF PRESSURE.
▷ 5. Souji has an absurdly good poker face, even in life-or-death crisis situations. Even when losing his cool confronting a suspected murderer, he was able to think through the clues showing that the suspicion was based on misleading information.

▶ I AM VERY SENTIMENTAL.
▷ 2-3. Souji is very practical and not prone to large expressions of emotion, but he's very attached to cats, enjoys making or eating home-cooked meals, & has a sense of tradition - he's not devoid of sentiment, just reserved and pretty chill.

▶ EVEN A SMALL MISTAKE CAN CAUSE ME TO DOUBT MY OVERALL ABILITIES AND KNOWLEDGE.
▷ 2. Souji rarely wallows in his mistakes but he's introspective & not immune to self-doubt. He's usually confident without being arrogant.

▶ I AM MORE INCLINED TO FOLLOW MY HEAD THAN MY HEART.
▷ 3. This is very circumstantial. Souji's a quiet thinker type & plays his cards close to his chest, but he's devoted to his friends & his go-with-the-flow streak in social situations seems based more on feelings than logic - including when he indulges in his absurd but deadpan sense of humor.

▶ I AM PRONE TO WORRYING THAT THINGS WILL TAKE A TURN FOR THE WORSE.
▷ 2. Souji's not necessarily a sunny optimist, but he's too practical, confident, & diligent for this description to ring true.

▶ I ENJOY WATCHING PEOPLE ARGUE.
▷ 3. Souji's an inveterate people-watcher who can stay comfortable in social situations others find awkward, but he's also often a mediator & he does try to keep the people around him on-task and content, so I'd put him at 3 - because he's sort of both a 1 and a 5 at the same time.

▶ I TEND TO AVOID DRAWING ATTENTION TO MYSELF.
▷ 4. Souji's quick to take a leading role, but even as a leader, he's very low-key, more focused on supporting his friends' efforts than claiming center stage for himself. And when he's not in a leadership role, he comes off very passive, quiet, and restrained.

▶ I OFTEN DO THINGS AT THE LAST POSSIBLE MOMENT.
▷ 3. Souji's comfortable improvising but tends to manage his time very well - so he may do things at the last minute, but if he does, it's either because of a sudden impulse or because he budgeted his time, and last-minute was the only timeslot available.

▶ I FIND IT EASY TO EMPATHIZE WITH A PERSON WHOSE EXPERIENCES ARE VERY DIFFERENT FROM MINE.
▷ 5 to 6. This is really the core of Souji's character, being able to listen to anyone, even unsympathetic types, and meet them where they're at; especially when using his Personas to gain a deeper understanding of people as he becomes closer to them. He can put up with very off-putting behavior without complaint - including being sexually harassed, being used for his money and his ability to carry heavy loads, and acting as confidante to a rich married woman, a misanthropic cop, and an old woman near the end of her life. Souji likes people, and he likes that they're different and unpredictable.

▶ I BECOME BORED OR LOSE INTEREST WHEN THE DISCUSSION GETS HIGHLY THEORETICAL.
▷ 3. Souji's more action-oriented and is unlikely to get lost in the weeds in theory unless he's mirroring someone else, and he's very busy, but he's near or at the top of his class and displays some off-beat and deeply fiddly interests, so I'd say he's about average here.

▶ I RARELY FEEL INSECURE.
▷ 2. This is hard to state based on canon, given how self-contained he can be. My own assumption is that while Souji has a confident and accurate assessment of his own competence, he does feel as though he's an outsider, that he's disposable and interchangeable, and that in order to be worthwhile he must be of constant service to others. This reflects both of the other characters in canon who are presented as his foils, the people closest to him in theme and personality.

▶ I AM STILL BOTHERED BY MISTAKES I MADE A LONG TIME AGO.
▷ 2. There's no real sign that Souji dwells deeply on the past, being too go-with-the-flow, but it's strongly implied that his friends in Inaba are the closest and deepest friendships he's had, and the desire to make such friends and not stay lonely and alienated is sort of similar to a regret that he hasn't made such ties before.

SUIT REQUESTS: Spades, and if not Spades, Hearts or Clubs. Hearts would be fun because it would be a chance to show Souji in the grip of stronger emotions; Clubs make sense because he's an analytical type and it would be very challenging to have him under the influence of forces compromising his reason; and Spades would be very thematically appropriate for a character who faced off against the Jungian Shadows' of his friends' psyches and give me a chance to play with those themes. Diamond just doesn't have the same sort of resonance with Souji's character and story!
RANK REQUESTS: If he's a Club, the Three of Clubs would be great, because the Three of Wands is a card that I think has a lot of resonance with Souji. In any suit, though, I'd like to start him at 2-4, so he has a chance to climb the ranks & earn more over time, rather than starting out on top of things.
SAMPLES: Here & Here.