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Izumi Miyamura 「宮村伊澄」 ([personal profile] akatatai) wrote2025-09-01 12:00 am

Songerein application!

Player: Keru
Age: 25+
Contact: reunite @ plurk, PM

Character: Izumi Miyamura
Canon: Horimiya (Chapter 122, post graduation)
Age: 18


Background Information: Despite being raised in an average home with loving parents, Miyamura grew up without any friends, and was looked down upon by his peers for being quiet and gloomy. His classmates in elementary school shunned and bullied him, and as a result of being viewed like an outsider, he became used to being ignored and isolated by everyone around him. By the time he reached middle school, thoughts like "nobody needs me anyway" plagued him on a daily basis, and struggling to feel anything at all in his numbed emotional state, he turned to piercing his own ears with safety pins simply to feel some kind of physical pain. At that time, he truly felt that he wanted everyone around him to just disappear, and as time went on, his thoughts slowly became more and more self-depreciating.

Right when his thoughts were reaching a dangerous point, an energetic and popular classmate named Kouichi Shindou forced his way into Miyamura's life and befriended him, allowing him to slowly open himself up to someone for the first time. But after they parted ways to go to different high schools, Miyamura retreated into his shell once more, this time willingly keeping to himself and trying not to stand out or make friends in school. He grew his hair out to cover his ear piercings (eight, by this point) and keep people from noticing him, and began wearing fake glasses every day. Beneath his clothes, he hid away tattoos he'd gotten as a form of rebellion, and pierced both his lip and his tongue as well. Matching his "gloomy" personality to his appearance led people to make assumptions about him, but it was intentional at that point – his "disguise" was a sort of shield to hide behind during school hours, and he only showed his true appearance in his free time when no one could recognize him.

But by pure happenstance, a series of events led to him becoming close to Kyouko Hori, his beautiful and popular classmate. She and Miyamura both experienced the hidden sides of each other by chance: Hori is actually homely and takes care of her younger brother Souta instead of going out with friends, and Miyamura isn't anywhere near as gloomy as he appears, taking off his fake glasses and dressing more stylishly outside of school. They began to take comfort in knowing each other's secret, a side of the other that nobody else knew about, and over time, Miyamura began visiting Hori's house nearly every day until they simply couldn't be without each other. They began dating in due time, and over the next year, they continued to change for the better through the influence of each other and their dear friend group.

Personality: To those that don't know him terribly well, Izumi Miyamura (usually referred to by only his surname, Miyamura) is probably best described as an easygoing, slightly scatterbrained, and friendly boy fresh out of high school. One to approach things at his own pace, he's wholly kind-hearted and honest, and more than a little dense.

Even before he was able to show his true colours, it was clear that Miyamura is fundamentally gentle and a little thickheaded. He's the type to occasionally make blunt remarks or say unabashedly embarrassing things without thinking, even if he doesn't know the person he's talking to that well. When he met his best friend Ishikawa way back in the beginning of the series, he cheerfully asked "do you have a crush on Hori?" without thinking twice or bothering to be even a little sensitive about it. Even though he can be a little airheaded to the point of being tactless, he always means well. More than that, he's kind to a fault, and is always willing to help out both strangers and friends alike. After Hori was once splashed by a car driving through a puddle in the rain, he began walking on the street side of the sidewalk, and still never lets her walk on the outside even when it isn't raining. He's the type to run after someone and lend them his jacket when it's cold, or try to console a crying child even if he's in a rush to go somewhere.

"You're too nice, and people take advantage of you. So I can't leave you alone."

But Miyamura hasn't always been like this. In spite of ultimately being the same at his core, to those who knew him in the past, Miyamura now seems like an entirely different person both inside and out. Before meeting Hori, he hid behind his long hair and glasses, content with being quiet and unpopular in school in the hopes of not standing out. But he didn't mind being viewed that way – everyone had made assumptions about him for as long as he could remember, and in his mind, they weren't entirely wrong.

From the time he was in grade school all the way up through his second year of high school, the best word to describe Miyamura would be "gloomy". Even as a child, he was ostracized by his classmates for being solitary and quiet, and nobody but his parents made any effort to understand him. In one of his early memories, he recalls being the only student left without a partner for group work, since none of the other children wanted him in their group. The other kids had no reservations about telling him how weird and depressing he was to be around, and being an impressionable child, he grew up taking that to heart and wallowing in self-loathing.

"Come to think of it, there was nothing I liked. Not a single thing. I wished everyone would disappear. I thought it all the time."

That is, until Shindou, energetic and popular, quickly sparked a friendship with Miyamura and gradually brought him out of his shell. To someone who had never had a true friend in any sense of the word, meeting Shindou completely changed the way Miyamura approached every day – for the first time in his life, he had someone who accepted him despite his gloominess and voluntarily stayed by his side regardless of what other people would think. Due to his friendship with Shindou, Miyamura slowly began to realize that he may not be the horrible person he'd always thought he was. In his own words, Shindou singlehandedly saved him, and taught him that there were people out there willing to give him a chance.

Truly though, it's through meeting Hori that Miyamura really began to change. He still finds it hard to believe that someone like her exists in the first place – someone who cares so deeply and genuinely for both the good and bad parts of him, and will laugh, cry, get sad, and be mad all for his sake. Before he realized how drastically his world was changing, Hori became his main pillar of support, and even his classmates realized that he was changing long before he cut his hair and started being more social. It's thanks to Hori that he has a wonderful circle of friends for the first time in his life, and he wishes he could tell his past self that he'd be okay someday. Hori took a gloomy boy like him by the hand and gave him a place to belong, showing him both subtly and overtly that he's just as worthy of love as anyone else. And in so many ways, he wants to give her the same. While he hasn't proposed properly, he's confessed that he wants to marry her when they're older, and he holds her happiness above all else... no matter how many times she gets mad at him for stupid things that aren't his fault.
 
"It might be really hard, but I don't think there's anyone in the world you can't be friends with. If not now, then someday...."

Miyamura has grown from his hardships, and he's well aware of it. When the topic of his middle school yearbook came up, Miyamura thought back to all of the traumatic experiences that made him hate himself and become a self-depreciating person. But even though he used to want those times to disappear more than anything, he tells Hori that his past is now important to him, and he can't bring himself to throw his yearbooks away no matter how he once felt about those hurtful times. He's changing now for the better, and through having Hori pull away the curtains he tried to hide behind for so long and giving him a place to belong, his world has brightened considerably.

His change is reflected physically as well: he cut his hair and stopped wearing his fake glasses at a turning point in his life, and although he still has his piercings, he's let all but the ones in his ears close and usually only wears one or two in each ear at a time.


Abilities & Inventory: As an ordinary (freshly graduated!) high school boy, Miyamura doesn't have any supernatural powers or abilities. On top of that, he doesn't seem to have many talents or skills that particularly stand out (unless being good at tongue twisters counts). Most notably, he's quite good at making cakes and other sweets without consulting a recipe, given that his parents run a cake shop that he helps out at often.

...And he can handle his girlfriend punching him in the stomach a little too often, so that has to count for something.

As far as inventory goes, he'll only have the clothes he's wearing, his phone, and his wallet.

Suitability & Plans: One of the things I love about playing Miyamura is that although we're shown many sides of his character throughout Horimiya, we don't get to see him outside of the confines of his slice of life canon. Outside of his depressing early school years, all of his life-changing events are somewhat mundane (yet sweet in their simplicity), which allows his personality to take center stage over a twisting and turning plot. He has a whole library of reactions and a very fleshed out personality, but absolutely everything outside of the life of a modern high school boy is new to him, which makes him especially fun to bring into game settings where fantasy is a key element!

Perhaps most importantly, knowing that he's only dreaming and isn't actually missing from his world will take away the barrier that would otherwise hold him back from leaning into the setting. The idea that he could be missing from home would deeply cripple him, but since this is a dream world full of endless possibilities, he won't hesitate to try out things he's never seen before. Throughout the series, he's prone to taking even rather serious things in stride, making him much more adaptable than he was early in canon. There are moments when he's a little too laid back, but hey... I'd really like him to have a chance to explore himself here and see how strong of a person he's become.

Compared to how reserved he was early in the series, Miyamura has become far more confident in himself as of his canon point, and has spent ample time reflecting on the ways in which he's changed. Having become more easygoing now that he's opened up and made many friends, he shouldn't have trouble talking to strangers and seeking out opportunities to learn more about both the setting and other characters. It's evident in canon that he enjoys the company of others and has a desire to get to know people better, and being on his own will give him a reason to seek out companionship, since he's no longer used to being alone. I'd love to see him interact with a whole assortment of personalities, since part of his charm is in how wild his reactions and assumptions can be!

Test Drive Sample: Sample 1, sample 2

Questions: N/A! Thank you for creating such a lovely game!