SEES
"Would you believe me if I told you the day consisted of more than twenty-four hours?"
- --Shuji Ikutsuki, Chairman of Gekkoukan High School
While the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad, also known as S.E.E.S., is technically classified as a school club by Gekkoukan High School, with Shuji Ikutsuki as the faculty advisor and Mitsuru Kirijo as the club captain, little could be further from the truth.
The reality is that SEES is a gathering of high school students by the Kirijo Group with the potential for a Persona in order to explore Tartarus, combat shadows and ultimately erase The Dark Hour.
Outlook and Culture of SEES
Members of the Specialized Extracurricular Execution Squad are not all close to each other or even necessarily like each other. In fact, most aren't at the start of the game! They're bound together by a goal and the special powers they have that allow them to strive for that goal together. That creates unity, but it doesn't have to create friendship.
The Kirijo Group claims responsibility and a desire for atonement for the events of Ten Years Ago, but otherwise often speaks in obvious half-truths and omissions that causes healthy skepticism and often conflict among SEES due to distrust of their benefactors. After all, the majority of SEES are grieving teens who have lost someone in their life within Tatsumi Port Island or Iwatodai City, and often, it is the result of the Kirijo Group's actions, whether directly from Ten Years Ago or from Shadow incidents during the Dark Hour in the years that followed.
SEES members are encouraged by the Kirijo Group to live as normal lives as they can as teens and to balance that with their activities as Persona Users who fight the supernatural by moonlight.
Exploring Tartarus and defeating Shadows is their primary goal as of the start of the MUSH, but that doesn't mean they don't have interest in supernatural activity elsewhere. Since one of their goals is to protect people from Shadows, they'd have interest in supernatural activity elsewhere. This includes people who use their special powers to harm others.
Given the Kirijo Group foreseeing the need for expansion, the Iwatodai Dorm was rebuilt to be double the size, with two gender-segregated second and third floors on either side. The common rooms and rooftop are shared by both, as are the kitchens.
SEES, unlike many Persona Users, enjoys institutional support from the Kirijo Group granting them access to technology for their mission. Much of this technology functions within supernatural spaces, thanks to the Kirijo Group's research on Plumes of Dusk.
Major Figures of SEES
- Shuji Ikutsuki - The chairman of Gekkoukan High and faculty advisor of SEES. He also serves as the RA for the girl's side of the dorm and liaison to the Kirijo Group. Despite being an all-around responsible adult, he is currently wanted for pun crimes in three prefectures.
- Kei Nanjo - The heir to the Nanjo Group and RA for the boy's dorm. A standoffish young adult man who's had a silver spoon in his mouth for his whole life, he claims to be here to 'keep an eye on' the Kirijo Group on behalf of the Nanjo Group, but little else. While he accompanies SEES on missions, he seems to have little interest in assisting them in battle, demanding they learn to stand on their own two feet.
- Takeharu Kirijo - The current chairman of the Kirijo Group, he rarely travels to Tatsumi Port Island because he's busy with his duties. He believes it is the Kirijo Group's responsibility to atone for their past mistakes and is wracked with guilt for forcing the youth to be the ones who take responsibility for him.
- Officer Kurosawa - A cop that sells real weapons and armor under the table to SEES. He doesn't know anything of what they're doing and very little of what's going on; he simply believes that helping them is in the best interest of the public. While Officer Korosawa does offer SEES some protection by encouraging law enforcement in the area to turn a blind eye, his influence can only go so far, and only in Tatsumi Port Island.
OOC Notes and Hooks
- SEES members largely go to Gekkoukan High, and live in the Iwatodai Dormitory. That does not mean it is absolutely necessary for all concepts that wish to apply to SEES to app there; transfers are possible, as are other arrangements.
- SEES is largely more proactive about Strega than in canon. They're aware of the Revenge Request Website and believe they need to be stopped from murdering people during the Dark Hour.
- SEES is more uncertain about the Phantom Thieves at this time, as they haven't made contact and their methods are unknown. The Mental Shutdowns and Psychotic Breakdowns are likewise a concern as they're uncertain if it's a different manifestation of Apathy Syndrome or something else entirely.
- SEES has only recently discovered the way into Mementos using Evokers. They do not yet quite understand the differences between it and Tartarus. The trains in supernatural spaces still make Junpei nervous.
- The Kirijo Group offers prospective members a trust fund to join SEES, set up in their names for college tuition and thereafter, but that is not the reason why most people join. Typical concepts for characters in SEES include people who have trauma due to the grief of losing someone in their life, usually but not always from the supernatural, and how they deal with that trauma as kids.
- Not all SEES characters need to be Evoker users from Persona 3! Playing the Persona Game is a perfectly valid way to gain a Persona; it is simply recommended that death be a theme in your character's backstory and how they're dealing with that grief by being there.
- Characters with the Will of Rebellion can join SEES, though they may have more difficulty there. The Will of Rebellion at its baseline typically indicates a distrust of authority figures and corrupt institutions, and the Kirijo Group certainly looks like both on its face. That doesn't mean all characters are precluded; it just may require some work to make certain it's an appropriate concept.