Summary

The Mignyan that would later be known as Mishka first surfaced on Earth in 1985, in territory that was then part of the USSR. After a few temporary hosts in his first year on the planet, the Mignyan then infected a young labourer, Mikhail Terekhov. More than satisfied with this new form, Mishka joined a street gang and, with the help of another Mignyan, turned it into a formidable little criminal enterprise, Mishka second-in-command to and muscle for his more business-minded companion. They were successful for many years, but months before the formal collapse of the USSR, a risky operation went awry and Mishka ended up the only significant survivor of the organisation. Mishka drifted for many years, working for many Mignyans along the way and outliving many of them, or at least their hosts.

Mishka seemed to have boundless luck, as far as survival went anyway, and was never killed or ejected from his host for over 30 years. He was comfortable in his form and not crafty enough on his own to strategically change hosts, so he never bothered. Unfortunately his luck would eventually run out.

Recently, he moved to a new city. He decided to have a look at the city sights but got very lost in the winding alleyways and lost track of time. Eventually, he had to drop his disguise and rest in one alleyway in the city. Unfortunately, this just so happened to be the same alley a Dainty geneticist was disposing of trash in at that same moment, and said Dainty had heard rumours of such creatures with fleshy extremities that would hijack the bodies of other species. Mishka didn't know what was coming until it was far too late, and when he ejected from his mortally wounded body he was unceremoniously captured in a plastic bag.

He now resides in a tiny enclosure in the Dainty's laboratory, miserable and unsure of how his imprisonment will end. He takes a little comfort in the fact he's not alone anymore, but he also wishes his friend Laika wasn't also in this predicament now.