Soul (variant)

Mother: Has an almost mask-like face with a sunken, unblinking stare constantly digging into him, and despite the lack of lower jaw, "her" voice(s) constantly criticise him in a hushed, sharp tone. Never seems to get louder despite getting increasingly sharper, representing the lack of justification to lash back in spite of feeling hurt.

The midsection is a bunch of arms tucking into the torso, creating an almost vase-like appearance of elbows; always postured properly, never anything to reach for.

The "dress" making up the rest of the body is something like long, thick hairs or strings, elegant yet tense enough to slice skin (inner desire to cling to his mother for comfort as a child). Plays into the area being filled with wire-like strings that constantly trip Soul up as he has to watch his feet (having things hanging over him as well would be hard to balance in gameplay, though).

Father: Almost like a beast of burden, full of large rusty metal pieces jutting out, unapproachable and hard to navigate as "he" continuously wanders in seemingly haphazard directions while talking about things unrelated (adds a dichotomy of regular phrases out of context in a location that isnt comfortable), always busy, busy, busy.

A lot of the area deals with physical movement, and attempting to navigate both the awkward terrain and behavioural patterns while trying not to run out of stamina – wearisome, lack of relateability, and an enduring test of strength.

Brother: Area is uncannily pretty, with "Wes" being a giant statue taking up the center of the main room. Mostly just smiles and watches, and is only noted to speak in a way that is muffled and out of reach during certain triggers of interacting with the environment, making it almost worse that Soul isnt being actively antagonised.

It's almost too beautiful and organised and arranged here, and having to climb up the spiralling setting gets harder as it goes, feeling like he's somehow getting farther away the further he climbs.

Uncomfortably pristine. The constant lighting produces dark shadows.

Grandma: …I can't bring myself to say this is a hostile area. "Grandma" herself appears about as she should, but the face is obscured by shadows (he could never truly look her in the eye), and the discomfort more so comes from being in a familiar place that Soul doesnt belong (it looks just as it did on the day he left, although the piano takes emphasis on the room arrangement).

Non-hostile location, instead "she" is more of a guidance figure to Soul talking out his guilt, etc.

Soul knows he cant stay here and needs to move on, but everything else feels so difficult in comparison… Which leads him to his own personal room where he faces a manifestation of himself as he perceives it.

Other relatives? What other relatives.

I imagine anyone else is either a lesser manifestion (usually aggressive given Soul's state of mind, although some are just neutral or passive in an unhelpful way), due to either not really having known them that well or just not taking up his mind as much, so easier to become mini-bosses background noise.

BIAS TIME – I have a headcanon that Soul often has an uncle on his father's side, usually known as Uncle V due to having a different V-name in every version he exists as.

Uncle V in this can be a somewhat helpful yet still kinda distant figure during this, kind of also being a manifestation of Soul's common sense ("There's no way I'm getting through this…" – "You're not dead yet; you can find a way around. They still leave openings.")

Actually, might not be a bad opportunity to have Uncle V be the thing Soul has to face after facing his own warped perception of himself, where said uncle "peels back" (like dried paint chips shattering down) to reveal a more realistic manifestation of Soul, whether it being a version of the oni or just Soul's weapon form personified (in some AUs, Uncle V is also a weapon, but he stayed silent about it due to his awkward relationship with the rest of the family, and Soul never knew about it).