CHARACTER INFORMATION

[kiseijuu]

Name: Shinichi Izumi
Series: Parasyte: The Maxim
Age: 16-18 (I tend to play him around when he just turned 17.)
Looks: Thick, dark brown hair parted on the left side of his face, bright brown eyes, glasses, average weight, just a bit on the taller side for his age. Usually spotted in his school uniform or jeans and sweaters, vests, coats.. Shinichi likes his layers. Nearly always has his brown backpack on hand.
Voice: [ Shinichi: Nobunaga Shimazaki / Migi: Aya Hirano ] Clip featuring both. (Migi battles and kills another parasite who has taken over a dog. While the effects aren't terribly detailed, throwing out a warning for violence, gore, blood, and body horror/transformation? Just another Tuesday, really. This does include literally..ripping its heart out at the end.) Another clip of Shinichi's voice. (A group of teens are throwing rocks at a cat, but Shinichi steps in to stop them. No horror elements, just random dub step and Shinichi threatening to, you know, eat them.)
Canon point: Just before his parents left for That Trip That Changed Everything.
→ I will play another version of him per-request, since there are basically three "stages" to Shinichi and they are all quite different. I'm also game for throwing out a manga Shinichi at you, if you have some vintage preference!

History:
• Shinichi Izumi is an ordinary high school student just living his life in Tokyo, Japan. He's well-behaved and well-mannered, tending to his grades and family with care. A sensitive young man, he is easily nervous and hosts a rather weak constitution when it comes to things such as violence, confrontation, insects... However, he thinks with his heart, and his strong sense of altruism often leads him to acts of bravery in the form of stepping in to help others without a second thought, even at his own expense. He's mature, kind, and gentle, a bit shy and socially awkward around others, but always willing to lend a hand (haha..) to someone who needs him.
• An unknown alien species falls from the sky one night. The creatures float around in the form of sporelike eggs, then emerge as wormlike parasites that enter the bodies of hosts and take over the brain. Naturally, one of these finds its way to poor Shinichi.
• Unable to get into Shinichi's brain due to his wearing earbuds, the parasite frantically tries burrowing into his arm and crawling up that way. By this point, Shinichi - rightfully freaking out - wraps the earbud cord around his arm to cut off his blood supply and prevent this "snake" (he initially thinks it's a snake, anyway...) from going any further.
• This does stop it from moving upwards, but unfortunately, the parasite has already made a home inside of him - taking over what it was able to, which is everything below Shinichi's right elbow.
• From there, Shinichi's journey with the self-named Migi (translating to "right" hand) begins.
• As of now, he's trying to adjust to life with a sentient alien hand and keep Migi hidden as much as possible. There is also the fact other parasites are emerging who have successfully taken over their human host's brains and see his and Migi's co-existence as an anomaly to be exterminated, inevitably this pair having to team up to take them down instead. Shinichi also faces subtle, darker changes in his own personality and behaviour as a result of Migi (the aforementioned example of him suddenly threatening to eat a group of high school boys who were torturing a cat, which was most likely his and Migi's mindsets fusing temporarily), and is terrified at the thought of losing his humanity and ever developing any sort of appetite for humans.

Migi:

( common forms )


( weaponised forms )

• Note: When around the general public, Migi does typically hide himself and will appear like an ordinary hand.
• Migi is unlike others of his species, in that he has not taken over his host's brain and therefore co-exists with him. Because of this, there are some features to his physiology that differ. Namely... he doesn't have to eat people (his kind eat the species of whatever their host is). Instead, Migi relies on the nutrients from Shinichi's bloodstream.
• He has to rest throughout the day, during which he will become dormant and Shinichi's hand will return to normal and be under his full control.
• Despite being an "incomplete" fusion with his host, Migi is extremely powerful. He has the ability to change his form into basically anything he wants to, to stretch himself out like rubber, to duplicate himself, and to forge Shinichi's arm and hand into whatever is needed. This includes shapeshifting into bladed weaponry, tentacle-like appendages, claws, etc. He is capable of moving inhumanly swiftly, and of pulling Shinichi around with sheer force.
• Possesses the ability to heal Shinichi, to enter other parts of his body, and to actually detach from him. However, he must return to his host soon enough, or else he will die. When he is detached, he is also significantly weaker both physically and mentally.
• He can sense other parasites from great distances, and seems to have the ability to sense other species as well: their distance, strength, and to some extent their emotional state and whether it poses a threat to him - similar to how an animal would.
• He is incredibly weak to fire and it could potentially kill him. He is also very sensitive to extreme shifts in temperature in general, like cold water.
• Has extensive knowledge in anatomy, both learned and as a natural feature of his species.
• Personality-wise, Migi is highly curious and outright inquisitive to the behaviour and life of other species. He will not hesitate to act on his own to satisfy this scientific curiosity, often putting Shinichi in the most awkward of situations. He may seem approachable: being almost childlike in his curiosity, speaking politely and formally, and even hosting a sense of humour that pops up from time to time. Yet underlying this is a rather frightening side to his personality in that he lacks human emotions and sees things from a purely tactical perspective; he is rather like an insect. If Shinichi is the caring and altruistic heart, Migi is the logical and self-preserving head. His purpose is to keep himself alive, and that means keeping Shinichi alive - at any costs, even inhibiting his host should he have to (he once threatened to take away Shinichi's ability to speak, see, or hear, should he try to tell authorities about them..) He possesses intelligence beyond that of human capacity and is capable of acquiring information in an incredibly short amount of time (for example, it took him one day to learn Japanese). He is constantly adjusting to life, learning as much as he possibly can not only about the human world but also his own existence, and spending long nights awake reading books or doing research online. He does begin to form a bond with Shinichi, and they are able to more easily work together, though there is an obvious division between their perspectives that causes a rift quite often.