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Aug. 3rd, 2014 10:08 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
spes_phthisicaOOC INFORMATION
Name: Emi
Contact:![[plurk.com profile]](https://plurk.com/favicon.ico)
sweetjerry
Other Characters: Nope
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Souji Okita
Age: At this canon point, he should be around 23 years old, though historical ages and manga ages definitely do not always match, and nothing is stated outright in the manga.
Canon: Peacemaker Kurogane
Canon Point: Volume 5, Chapter 4, page 20, after Susumu tranquilizes him
Character Information: Peacemaker Kurogane being a historical manga, Souji is a character (loosely, very loosely) based on a historical person and member of the Shinsengumi. Therefore the setting in which he has grown up is that of Japan in the 19th century.
When he's nine years old his sister, who has previously been caring for him since the death of their parents, hands him over to the care of Isami Kondou, future commander of the Shinsengumi, to be raised at the dojo he stands to inherit. It is implied that this has a lot to do with the fact that Souji is an unnaturally talented fighter even at that age, and a distant and quite frankly creepy child on top of that.
An incident involving a cursed sword and kidnapping by bandits leaves Souji trapped together with Kondou's teenage friend Toshizō Hijikata, facing down some kind of supernatural creature. Hijikata is already wounded and in no position to fight back, and so he orders the terrified child trapped with him to take up the sword and fight, impressing on him that this is the only way they'll both be able to survive. Souji eventually does what he's told, killing the creature, and then proceeds to understandably have a huge meltdown over the fact that he just killed a sentient being (even if it wasn't strictly human) and expressing disgust and fear for a talent at hurting people which he views as "not of use to anyone". To calm him down, Hijikata tells him that if he grows up strong and promises never to cry in front of him again, he is always going to need him.
From then until the actual start of the manga, when he is already a Shinsengumi captain, not that much is shown. He appears to constantly have been at Kondou's and Hijikata's side, and together with Hijikata, Kondou and Yamanami Keisuke he partakes in the assassination of Serizawa Kamo, a previous commander of the Shinsengumi.
At his first appearance in the manga, he takes an interest in Tetsunosuke Ichimura, the protagonist of the series. The fifteen-year-old boy is determined to join the Shinsengumi, and Souji ends up playing a large part in his finally getting accepted as Hijikata's page. Souji then continues to take on the role as a guardian and protector to Tetsu, and is at first in favor of Tetsu being given his swords and being allowed to fight alongside the rest of the Shinsengumi as a full-fledged warrior, instead of only being assigned page duties. However, he ends up being the one to kill Toshimaro Yoshida, the man who killed Tetsu's parents, to spare the young boy of having to kill him in self defense during his very first battle.
This happens during the Ikedaya Affair, where the Shinsengumi attack the inn with the same name, targeting a group of isolationist ronin planning to set fire to Kyoto. The operation ends up as a great success for the Shinsengumi, reinforcing the Shougunate's hold on Kyoto, though it also sets in motion a series of events which will contribute to the fall of the Shinsengumi. (The manga hasn't actually gotten to that point yet, but while it does take severe liberties with history, Word Of God suggests that events are indeed moving towards a tragedy at least somewhat similar to what history in fact had in store for the men involved.)
At the canon point I am taking Souji from, he has been formally diagnosed with tuberculosis not very long ago, though it has been made evident that at least Souji and Hijikata have been aware of/suspecting his disease for quite some time. He is now under the care of Susumu Yamazaki, former shinobi who now works as the Shinsengumi doctor, and his health seems to be rapidly deteriorating. Through a plot involving deceit from within, the Shinsengumi are being attacked by imperial loyalists, and despite his evident sickness, Souji still fights off a group of attackers targeting the hospital, and also seems intent on joining the battle by his comrades' side. Deeming that his patient is far too sick to survive such an endeavor, Yamazaki ends up tranquilizing Souji for his own safety.
Personality:
It's important to point out, especially in the context of a game such as Ryslig, that Souji already considers himself a monster. He outright refers to himself as such, and while talking to Tetsu about his resolve to join the Shinsengumi he makes it very clear that if this truly is what he wants, he needs to forsake his humanity. To drive this point home, he even arranges for Tetsu to witness a failed attempt at assassinating Hijikata and the subsequent execution of his would-be killers - one of whom is an unarmed woman. Or, to put it another way, he exposes a young man with severe PTSD to a gruesome bloodbath. It's a rather harsh lesson he is trying to teach: You must become a monster to be able to do the things we do, to be able to kill without mercy or hesitation.
So is Souji then an unfeeling creature incapable of compassion or mercy? The answer is most definitely no, although his abilities when it comes to the latter varies depending on the situation.
In truth, Souji is nothing if not loving and kind. He treats the people close to him as something akin to family, freely lavishing attention and devotion upon them to the point where it occasionally borders on overbearing. And not just people, either, since his boundless affection also manages to encompass his pet Saizou, the no doubt grumpiest pig in known history.
Souji is a good-natured being, very seldom being seen without a smile on his face, and often takes an optimistic view on events - or pretends to do so to gloss over his own worries. He's playful, seeming to spend a lot of his time playing with the kids living close to the Shinsengumi compound, and his popularity among them is probably cemented by a combination of being outright childish at times, but gentle all the time. This disposition also means that he has no qualms about teasing people and playing pranks on them, and his reaction to absurd situations is often unabashed laughter - even when the reaction really isn't appropriate at all. In fact, he often appears to be completely unaware of unimportant little things such as social norms, people's personal space, and what might be considered acceptable behavior in any given situation.
His relationship with Tetsu in particular shows a caring personality which might not have gotten too many outlets during a life lead as a professional warrior, but which is there nonetheless. Just overhearing his conversations with the gate guards, he apparently finds some reason to follow the boy and his brother and stage a 'chance' meeting, and once he understands Tetsu's motivations for wanting to become a warrior, seems to make a decision to try to help him in his endeavors. Not just by getting him in, either, but by continuously training with Tetsu and by having conversations with his older brother Tatsunosuke in an attempt to make him understand his younger brother better. He has no real reason to do either of these things, other than that he feels for Tetsu and genuinely wishes to help him.
It does however become evident with time that Souji doesn't understand Tetsu as well as he thinks either - in general he seems to have a hard time understanding people who exist outside his own context. In Tetsu's desperate wish to be allowed to fight he sees someone like himself, someone whose whole identity is based on being a killer, a monster. He tries to do for Tetsu what was done for himself at age nine, by giving him a place in the world where this will make him needed and appreciated. Once he realizes that this is not the kind of person that Tetsu is, and that forcing him to try to be like him is only going to hurt him, he immediately rushes to his defense in the only way he can: By being the monster that Tetsu can't be.
Because while Souji is neither a cruel or malicious person, he is nonetheless a warrior, and one of the very best sword fighters among the Shinsengumi at that. There is a side of him which will kill without mercy or second thought - or even a first thought, at times. Not because he enjoys it or because he thinks it's right, but simply because it's the thing he has to do to protect his comrades.
Saying that it is a different side of him is in fact very accurate, since he is a completely different person when he fights seriously compared to at any other time, as if a switch is simply flipped inside him. The first time he spars with Tetsu he's laughing and jumping out of the way, at most giving him an admonishing rap while trying to teach him a lesson. The moment Tetsu does something he doesn't expect, however, and actually gets in a hit, Souji reacts instinctively and hits an inexperienced teenage boy with full force. And that this behavior is an instinctive reaction is especially clear when first vice commander Yamanami commits suicide by attacking Hijikata in front of Souji. Yamanami is at the time only holding a bamboo sword, and couldn't hurt anyone even if he wanted to. But just the mere suggestion that someone is trying to hurt Hijikata is enough to bring forth the monster, and Souji cuts Yamanami down before he can realize that there was no need to do so.
That is not to say that Souji often regrets anything he does while fighting, or that he has no control over his actions while he's in that state. On the contrary, he is usually very much in control. It is just that during that time, he is driven by one imperative which overrules everything else, and that is to neutralize - that is, almost always, to kill - any obstacle in his way. This is a part of Souji which he is very well aware of, and which he even seems to embrace in a strange way. It is not separate from his normal psyche just because it is completely different; it's very much a conscious state, and one which he seems quite able to call forward at will, although as previously mentioned it will also be his immediate response to any threatening situation no matter if he wills it or not. There are of course different degrees to how severe the reaction is too, depending on where exactly the threat lies, as Yamanami no doubt is aware as he goes directly for Hijikata.
Because it is plain to see that Souji's entire world more or less revolves around Hijikata - the person who turned Souji's talent for hurting people into something that would always be needed - to the point of downright obsession. He is never far away from the older man unless duty requires it, and he is easily the one person that Souji seems to have the closest relationship to. Hijikata also appears to be just about the only one who can rein Souji in when he is being the warrior rather than the person, as seen by him intervening when Souji is sparring with Tetsu the first time, while everyone else appears to simply stare in horror. And in turn, Souji seems to understand Hijikata better than most. He is the one who understands that Hijikata's seemingly cold and harsh reaction after Ayumi Yamazaki's death comes from blaming himself, and he understands that Hijikata's insistence that Tetsu is his page rather than a warrior doesn't come from disliking the boy; he is trying to protect him, trying to not make the same mistake he once made with Souji. Souji outright asks him if this is the case, and Hijikata's lack of answer speaks volumes by itself. Because while Hijikata might have given Souji something to live for back then, he also more or less surgically removed his ability to live for something else.
The fact that Souji identifies so strongly as a warrior appears to have quite a lot to do with his otherwise seemingly strange attitude to his disease. It is unclear exactly when he realized what was wrong with him, but since it's shown that both Hijikata's mother and sister died in tuberculosis as well, and since he used to work as a medicine peddler earlier in life, it was most likely he who started to suspect it. When he shows concern at Souji coughing early in the manga, Souji is very quick to laugh it off or change the subject. He clearly doesn't want any concern, and more importantly, most likely doesn't want to give the impression that he can't do his duty as a fighter anymore. When he coughs up blood during his fight with Yoshida, he downright lies when directly asked about if afterwards, saying that it's someone else's blood.
Even after he's diagnosed, Souji still keeps making light of his condition, saying that it's not so bad and trying to shrug off any concern directed to him, sneaking out of bed to join the others because being stuck in one room, in one bed, is obviously very upsetting to him. When the hospital is attacked, although Souji can barely stand, he still fights off a group of attackers, and insists to Yamazaki that he needs to be allowed to join the battle. When Yamazaki refuses, he keeps begging him to let him fight over and over, more and more desperately until Yamazaki finally is forced to tranquilize him.
Because if he can't fight anymore, then what good is he? If he can't protect people in battle, who has any use of him? Souji would rather die spending himself utterly in battle rather than stay in a hospital and know that he is helpless. He is going to die anyway, after all, and that only makes him believe even firmer that fighting is the only thing he can do for the people he cares about. And on the flip side of this, Souji is a deeply social creature, one who cares instinctively about others and thrives on their company. To waste away alone in a hospital bed rather than side by side with his comrades in battle no doubt seems to him to be the worst possible fate.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
+Devoted
-Amoral
+Playful
+Protective
-Ruthless
+Compassionate
-Obsessed
+Loving
+/-Pragmatic
-Simplistic worldview
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits.
Opt-Outs: Vampire, Werewolf, Arachne, Slime, Shade, Simulacrum
Roleplay Sample:
[Souji is a strange sight as he walks down the street, and some people are stopping and staring after him, though he barely appears to notice. As bedraggled as most of the strange new arrivals to the city have been, there are some things about this man that will catch the eye in particular. He's dressed very simply in the yukata he'd worn at the hospital, and while that in itself might not be too strange, he is also wearing no shoes. And not even getting soaking wet has washed the large number of blood stains away from the front of his clothes, only spread them wider still.]
[Every once in a while he stops and appears to be trying to get help, but that doesn't appear to be going all that well for him.]
Ah, excuse me, could you tell me- No? I'm sorry to have bothered you then.
[His smile barely falters at all; he just turns to the next person.]
Miss? Could you please perhaps tell me where-
[The young woman does indeed stop when addressed and is listening politely and with some concern, but this time it's not the person he's talking to that cuts Souji short. No, this time he covers his own mouth, eyes widening as he tries to fight back the inevitable, and then he has to lean heavily against the wall as a fit of coughing shakes him. As blood starts trickling from between his fingers, the young woman gives him a frightened look, apologizes and hurries on with her eyes averted, looking ashamed.]
[For a moment Souji's shoulders slump slightly, and as the coughing finally subsides it nonetheless takes him a little while to straighten up and continue walking, cleaning the blood from his face with a shaking hand. But after a few hesitant steps, he determinedly moves on to the next likely person on the street, a somewhat tired but pleasant smile back on his lips.]
Excuse me? If it's not too much of a bother... I am afraid I'm rather new in this town, and I don't have that much money at all. Maybe you know somewhere I could go until I get my bearings somewhat?
[At least he manages to properly get out the whole question, which is promising. Too bad that the person he's talking to might just be about as confused about the matter as he is.]
Name: Emi
Contact:
Other Characters: Nope
CHARACTER INFORMATION
Character Name: Souji Okita
Age: At this canon point, he should be around 23 years old, though historical ages and manga ages definitely do not always match, and nothing is stated outright in the manga.
Canon: Peacemaker Kurogane
Canon Point: Volume 5, Chapter 4, page 20, after Susumu tranquilizes him
Character Information: Peacemaker Kurogane being a historical manga, Souji is a character (loosely, very loosely) based on a historical person and member of the Shinsengumi. Therefore the setting in which he has grown up is that of Japan in the 19th century.
When he's nine years old his sister, who has previously been caring for him since the death of their parents, hands him over to the care of Isami Kondou, future commander of the Shinsengumi, to be raised at the dojo he stands to inherit. It is implied that this has a lot to do with the fact that Souji is an unnaturally talented fighter even at that age, and a distant and quite frankly creepy child on top of that.
An incident involving a cursed sword and kidnapping by bandits leaves Souji trapped together with Kondou's teenage friend Toshizō Hijikata, facing down some kind of supernatural creature. Hijikata is already wounded and in no position to fight back, and so he orders the terrified child trapped with him to take up the sword and fight, impressing on him that this is the only way they'll both be able to survive. Souji eventually does what he's told, killing the creature, and then proceeds to understandably have a huge meltdown over the fact that he just killed a sentient being (even if it wasn't strictly human) and expressing disgust and fear for a talent at hurting people which he views as "not of use to anyone". To calm him down, Hijikata tells him that if he grows up strong and promises never to cry in front of him again, he is always going to need him.
From then until the actual start of the manga, when he is already a Shinsengumi captain, not that much is shown. He appears to constantly have been at Kondou's and Hijikata's side, and together with Hijikata, Kondou and Yamanami Keisuke he partakes in the assassination of Serizawa Kamo, a previous commander of the Shinsengumi.
At his first appearance in the manga, he takes an interest in Tetsunosuke Ichimura, the protagonist of the series. The fifteen-year-old boy is determined to join the Shinsengumi, and Souji ends up playing a large part in his finally getting accepted as Hijikata's page. Souji then continues to take on the role as a guardian and protector to Tetsu, and is at first in favor of Tetsu being given his swords and being allowed to fight alongside the rest of the Shinsengumi as a full-fledged warrior, instead of only being assigned page duties. However, he ends up being the one to kill Toshimaro Yoshida, the man who killed Tetsu's parents, to spare the young boy of having to kill him in self defense during his very first battle.
This happens during the Ikedaya Affair, where the Shinsengumi attack the inn with the same name, targeting a group of isolationist ronin planning to set fire to Kyoto. The operation ends up as a great success for the Shinsengumi, reinforcing the Shougunate's hold on Kyoto, though it also sets in motion a series of events which will contribute to the fall of the Shinsengumi. (The manga hasn't actually gotten to that point yet, but while it does take severe liberties with history, Word Of God suggests that events are indeed moving towards a tragedy at least somewhat similar to what history in fact had in store for the men involved.)
At the canon point I am taking Souji from, he has been formally diagnosed with tuberculosis not very long ago, though it has been made evident that at least Souji and Hijikata have been aware of/suspecting his disease for quite some time. He is now under the care of Susumu Yamazaki, former shinobi who now works as the Shinsengumi doctor, and his health seems to be rapidly deteriorating. Through a plot involving deceit from within, the Shinsengumi are being attacked by imperial loyalists, and despite his evident sickness, Souji still fights off a group of attackers targeting the hospital, and also seems intent on joining the battle by his comrades' side. Deeming that his patient is far too sick to survive such an endeavor, Yamazaki ends up tranquilizing Souji for his own safety.
Personality:
It's important to point out, especially in the context of a game such as Ryslig, that Souji already considers himself a monster. He outright refers to himself as such, and while talking to Tetsu about his resolve to join the Shinsengumi he makes it very clear that if this truly is what he wants, he needs to forsake his humanity. To drive this point home, he even arranges for Tetsu to witness a failed attempt at assassinating Hijikata and the subsequent execution of his would-be killers - one of whom is an unarmed woman. Or, to put it another way, he exposes a young man with severe PTSD to a gruesome bloodbath. It's a rather harsh lesson he is trying to teach: You must become a monster to be able to do the things we do, to be able to kill without mercy or hesitation.
So is Souji then an unfeeling creature incapable of compassion or mercy? The answer is most definitely no, although his abilities when it comes to the latter varies depending on the situation.
In truth, Souji is nothing if not loving and kind. He treats the people close to him as something akin to family, freely lavishing attention and devotion upon them to the point where it occasionally borders on overbearing. And not just people, either, since his boundless affection also manages to encompass his pet Saizou, the no doubt grumpiest pig in known history.
Souji is a good-natured being, very seldom being seen without a smile on his face, and often takes an optimistic view on events - or pretends to do so to gloss over his own worries. He's playful, seeming to spend a lot of his time playing with the kids living close to the Shinsengumi compound, and his popularity among them is probably cemented by a combination of being outright childish at times, but gentle all the time. This disposition also means that he has no qualms about teasing people and playing pranks on them, and his reaction to absurd situations is often unabashed laughter - even when the reaction really isn't appropriate at all. In fact, he often appears to be completely unaware of unimportant little things such as social norms, people's personal space, and what might be considered acceptable behavior in any given situation.
His relationship with Tetsu in particular shows a caring personality which might not have gotten too many outlets during a life lead as a professional warrior, but which is there nonetheless. Just overhearing his conversations with the gate guards, he apparently finds some reason to follow the boy and his brother and stage a 'chance' meeting, and once he understands Tetsu's motivations for wanting to become a warrior, seems to make a decision to try to help him in his endeavors. Not just by getting him in, either, but by continuously training with Tetsu and by having conversations with his older brother Tatsunosuke in an attempt to make him understand his younger brother better. He has no real reason to do either of these things, other than that he feels for Tetsu and genuinely wishes to help him.
It does however become evident with time that Souji doesn't understand Tetsu as well as he thinks either - in general he seems to have a hard time understanding people who exist outside his own context. In Tetsu's desperate wish to be allowed to fight he sees someone like himself, someone whose whole identity is based on being a killer, a monster. He tries to do for Tetsu what was done for himself at age nine, by giving him a place in the world where this will make him needed and appreciated. Once he realizes that this is not the kind of person that Tetsu is, and that forcing him to try to be like him is only going to hurt him, he immediately rushes to his defense in the only way he can: By being the monster that Tetsu can't be.
Because while Souji is neither a cruel or malicious person, he is nonetheless a warrior, and one of the very best sword fighters among the Shinsengumi at that. There is a side of him which will kill without mercy or second thought - or even a first thought, at times. Not because he enjoys it or because he thinks it's right, but simply because it's the thing he has to do to protect his comrades.
Saying that it is a different side of him is in fact very accurate, since he is a completely different person when he fights seriously compared to at any other time, as if a switch is simply flipped inside him. The first time he spars with Tetsu he's laughing and jumping out of the way, at most giving him an admonishing rap while trying to teach him a lesson. The moment Tetsu does something he doesn't expect, however, and actually gets in a hit, Souji reacts instinctively and hits an inexperienced teenage boy with full force. And that this behavior is an instinctive reaction is especially clear when first vice commander Yamanami commits suicide by attacking Hijikata in front of Souji. Yamanami is at the time only holding a bamboo sword, and couldn't hurt anyone even if he wanted to. But just the mere suggestion that someone is trying to hurt Hijikata is enough to bring forth the monster, and Souji cuts Yamanami down before he can realize that there was no need to do so.
That is not to say that Souji often regrets anything he does while fighting, or that he has no control over his actions while he's in that state. On the contrary, he is usually very much in control. It is just that during that time, he is driven by one imperative which overrules everything else, and that is to neutralize - that is, almost always, to kill - any obstacle in his way. This is a part of Souji which he is very well aware of, and which he even seems to embrace in a strange way. It is not separate from his normal psyche just because it is completely different; it's very much a conscious state, and one which he seems quite able to call forward at will, although as previously mentioned it will also be his immediate response to any threatening situation no matter if he wills it or not. There are of course different degrees to how severe the reaction is too, depending on where exactly the threat lies, as Yamanami no doubt is aware as he goes directly for Hijikata.
Because it is plain to see that Souji's entire world more or less revolves around Hijikata - the person who turned Souji's talent for hurting people into something that would always be needed - to the point of downright obsession. He is never far away from the older man unless duty requires it, and he is easily the one person that Souji seems to have the closest relationship to. Hijikata also appears to be just about the only one who can rein Souji in when he is being the warrior rather than the person, as seen by him intervening when Souji is sparring with Tetsu the first time, while everyone else appears to simply stare in horror. And in turn, Souji seems to understand Hijikata better than most. He is the one who understands that Hijikata's seemingly cold and harsh reaction after Ayumi Yamazaki's death comes from blaming himself, and he understands that Hijikata's insistence that Tetsu is his page rather than a warrior doesn't come from disliking the boy; he is trying to protect him, trying to not make the same mistake he once made with Souji. Souji outright asks him if this is the case, and Hijikata's lack of answer speaks volumes by itself. Because while Hijikata might have given Souji something to live for back then, he also more or less surgically removed his ability to live for something else.
The fact that Souji identifies so strongly as a warrior appears to have quite a lot to do with his otherwise seemingly strange attitude to his disease. It is unclear exactly when he realized what was wrong with him, but since it's shown that both Hijikata's mother and sister died in tuberculosis as well, and since he used to work as a medicine peddler earlier in life, it was most likely he who started to suspect it. When he shows concern at Souji coughing early in the manga, Souji is very quick to laugh it off or change the subject. He clearly doesn't want any concern, and more importantly, most likely doesn't want to give the impression that he can't do his duty as a fighter anymore. When he coughs up blood during his fight with Yoshida, he downright lies when directly asked about if afterwards, saying that it's someone else's blood.
Even after he's diagnosed, Souji still keeps making light of his condition, saying that it's not so bad and trying to shrug off any concern directed to him, sneaking out of bed to join the others because being stuck in one room, in one bed, is obviously very upsetting to him. When the hospital is attacked, although Souji can barely stand, he still fights off a group of attackers, and insists to Yamazaki that he needs to be allowed to join the battle. When Yamazaki refuses, he keeps begging him to let him fight over and over, more and more desperately until Yamazaki finally is forced to tranquilize him.
Because if he can't fight anymore, then what good is he? If he can't protect people in battle, who has any use of him? Souji would rather die spending himself utterly in battle rather than stay in a hospital and know that he is helpless. He is going to die anyway, after all, and that only makes him believe even firmer that fighting is the only thing he can do for the people he cares about. And on the flip side of this, Souji is a deeply social creature, one who cares instinctively about others and thrives on their company. To waste away alone in a hospital bed rather than side by side with his comrades in battle no doubt seems to him to be the worst possible fate.
5-10 Key Character Traits:
+Devoted
-Amoral
+Playful
+Protective
-Ruthless
+Compassionate
-Obsessed
+Loving
+/-Pragmatic
-Simplistic worldview
Would you prefer a monster that FITS your character’s personality, CONFLICTS with it, or EITHER? Fits.
Opt-Outs: Vampire, Werewolf, Arachne, Slime, Shade, Simulacrum
Roleplay Sample:
[Souji is a strange sight as he walks down the street, and some people are stopping and staring after him, though he barely appears to notice. As bedraggled as most of the strange new arrivals to the city have been, there are some things about this man that will catch the eye in particular. He's dressed very simply in the yukata he'd worn at the hospital, and while that in itself might not be too strange, he is also wearing no shoes. And not even getting soaking wet has washed the large number of blood stains away from the front of his clothes, only spread them wider still.]
[Every once in a while he stops and appears to be trying to get help, but that doesn't appear to be going all that well for him.]
Ah, excuse me, could you tell me- No? I'm sorry to have bothered you then.
[His smile barely falters at all; he just turns to the next person.]
Miss? Could you please perhaps tell me where-
[The young woman does indeed stop when addressed and is listening politely and with some concern, but this time it's not the person he's talking to that cuts Souji short. No, this time he covers his own mouth, eyes widening as he tries to fight back the inevitable, and then he has to lean heavily against the wall as a fit of coughing shakes him. As blood starts trickling from between his fingers, the young woman gives him a frightened look, apologizes and hurries on with her eyes averted, looking ashamed.]
[For a moment Souji's shoulders slump slightly, and as the coughing finally subsides it nonetheless takes him a little while to straighten up and continue walking, cleaning the blood from his face with a shaking hand. But after a few hesitant steps, he determinedly moves on to the next likely person on the street, a somewhat tired but pleasant smile back on his lips.]
Excuse me? If it's not too much of a bother... I am afraid I'm rather new in this town, and I don't have that much money at all. Maybe you know somewhere I could go until I get my bearings somewhat?
[At least he manages to properly get out the whole question, which is promising. Too bad that the person he's talking to might just be about as confused about the matter as he is.]
