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+--- Thread: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? (/showthread.php?tid=6098)
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - ansemaru - 01-11-2014
Miqo'te having feline features is a boon to writing body language for me. In addition to typical tone/expression cues, having ears and a tail to indicate emotional state is really convenient, even if I don't try to faithfully replicate cat behavior.
Other than that, my Miqo'te character doesn't really exemplify feline traits. No hissing or meowing or other speech quirks, doesn't try to sit on things people are working on, has never once stolen food from a person for no good reason...
Well, I jest on some of those- the punchline there being of course that cats are weird-Â but to be honest, most of my Miqo'te character's idiosyncratic traits come from who he is as a person, not from him being a catboy.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Jana - 01-11-2014
I haven't roleplayed my character much, but I did play a cat-like character in my last MMO. I gave her some quirks like enjoying naps in a sunny spot and liking to eat fish above most other foods, but she was also kind of a serious character. She didn't have an "accent" and would get offended if someone implied she should, and got mad at most people who would try to touch her ears or tail.
Ears and tails are a lot of fun to use in RP though! I did have to get used to including them but once I did, it was easy to make them an additional way for my character to express herself, voluntarily or not. It's fun to make a straight-laced character give herself away because of an unconscious movement of those extra body parts that we wouldn't normally think about.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Faye - 01-11-2014
(01-11-2014, 01:56 AM)allgivenover Wrote:(01-11-2014, 01:50 AM)Faye Wrote: For example, I've seen some people RPing Miqo'te near constantly purring, making terrible IC cat puns (an example I've actually seen, "We need to go right meow!"), ending sentences with "nyaaa," and in more rare examples, squitschy things like rubbing up on people constantly and saying they're in heat. That's... uhh... just not a fan of that lol.
There's an NPC in the North Shroud that actually says that "We need to go right meow!" and uses the word meow, whenever she can. To be fair, that NPC probably says "nyaa" in the Japanese version, but the rest of it is not only a little ick to me, it's also completely unsupported by lore.
Oh, I'm aware of the NPC, Mia-something or... something starting with an "M." Still, it didn't make me cringe any less lol.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Tla - 01-11-2014
A, hot topic here.
I treat my miqo, for emoting and such, simply like a human with ears and tail, because that's how I see them, I see them as all but cats. I must admit I dont use ears and tail in emoting as much as I'd want, i tend to forget, which is weird because in another game I used to do it all the time instead. Also I play her with more acute senses, mostly hearing. I don't see why they should have a better smell then humans though, since the nose/face conformation is exactly the same. I guess Seekers also have nightvision like cats, seen how their eyes are?
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Raeletta - 01-11-2014
I hadn't actually thought about this until I read the thread, then realised I basically don't play her anything like a cat at all.
Rae loves fish (and despairs at the implication it brings (Cats love fish
)) so she's aware of how "cat-like" people may expect her to be, but bar that I've never RPed her doing anything particularly catlike. Haven't RPed all that much though, so there's nothing stopping me from developing traits I think would work. More likely to be unintended reactions than rolling Rs and the like though.The miqo'te npc mentioned is one of the most amusing in the game, purely for the way she is. I think that being like that is fine, myself, so long as it's sustained as well as she does it
TL;DR: IMO, They're cat-like. Play 'em as cat-like as you like. Just remember they're also human-like, and balance it
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Kendha'to - 01-11-2014
(01-11-2014, 05:00 AM)Tlamila Wrote: A, hot topic here.Keepers certainly do, being nocturnal. Slit pupils actually reinforce sight during the DAY, by the way, if that's what you're referring to in regards to Seeker eyes, as they take in less light.
I treat my miqo, for emoting and such, simply like a human with ears and tail, because that's how I see them, I see them as all but cats. I must admit I dont use ears and tail in emoting as much as I'd want, i tend to forget, which is weird because in another game I used to do it all the time instead. Also I play her with more acute senses, mostly hearing. I don't see why they should have a better smell then humans though, since the nose/face conformation is exactly the same. I guess Seekers also have nightvision like cats, seen how their eyes are?
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - allgivenover - 01-11-2014
(01-11-2014, 05:00 AM)Tlamila Wrote: I don't see why they should have a better smell then humans though, since the nose/face conformation is exactly the same. I guess Seekers also have nightvision like cats, seen how their eyes are?
Probably due to how cats have much more powerful noses than humans - not nearly as powerful as dogs though. It was stated a few times in 1.0 and again in ARR, though I neglected to take screenshots.
I'm not sure about night-vision for Seekers, maybe better than humans but not as good as Keepers. It's possible that Seekers have more acute vision as long as there's adequate light due to the vertical slit pupil shape that they share with real life cats, a trait that Keepers don't share. Keeper eyes are just super wide all the time.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Lan Darklyn - 01-11-2014
Okay gonna add my 2 Gil in here lol.
I like to use Lan's ears and tail to help get across the mood he is in. I will usually have his ears sort of turn when he hears something peak his interest and of course they will flatten if he is perturbed. It has never come up in RP yet but he does enjoy a form of petting, his mother used to run her fingers through his hair and lightly scratch near his ears so that sort of thing would bring back fond memories for him. He does not like it when his tail is messed with though, but he will tolerate children how touch it because they are just kids.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - K'nahli - 01-11-2014
Rp'ing them cat-like would turn the character into something very comedic I think since they have very few attributes that make the such. All I do is describe my character's ear and tail movements which has little to do with the fact they are cat attributes but actually because they are simply a part of her. Other than that I gave her a respectable level or perception across all of her senses.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Tiergan - 01-11-2014
I'm in the same boat as most other folks in that I primarily RP out the ears and tails to show emotion. He DOES secretly like getting his hair stroked or pet, but that's because scalp massages FEEL AMAZING.Â
He does, in extremely rare circumstances, let out a low, rumbling noise when he's completely relaxed and content - but for the most part Tier is more feral-cat-like as opposed to cutesy-neko.
Lurial's the same way except I don't RP out as many of the cat-like qualities due to her keeping a more professional demeanor.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Kismet - 01-11-2014
(01-11-2014, 12:36 PM)K'nahli Wrote: Rp'ing them cat-like would turn the character into something very comedic I think since they have very few attributes that make the such. All I do is describe my character's ear and tail movements which has little to do with the fact they are cat attributes but actually because they are simply a part of her. Other than that I gave her a respectable level or perception across all of her senses.
^This. Worded exactly how I handle it with Y'raja and Lhei. *nods*
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - C'kayah Polaali - 01-11-2014
I don't really play C'kayah as cat-like at all. I do try to use his ears and tail in emotes, because hey, he's got ears and a tail! He's pretty well urbanized at this point in his life, though, so he doesn't roll R's or anything like that.
Purring is a bit of an interesting thing for me. C'kayah tends to be a very smooth talker, and I bring it out in emotes by having him murmur, purr, or speak silkily, but the purring is intended to emphasize a particular style of speaking.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - raindrops - 01-11-2014
I don't see why RPing miqo'te as catlike has to be comedic/cutesy, really. Cats do more than purr and 'nyaaaa~'. There's a lot of genuine character and drama to be got out it.
I'd also be careful with playing out enhanced senses to make sure you're not accidentally godmoding, depending on the people you're with. The only sense miqo'te have, in lore, that is inherently sharper than those of the other races is smell. While I can see them having sharp eyesight and hearing (especially directional hearing, as someone mentioned in this thread), they're not going to see something a wildwood can't or out-hear a duskwight (assuming identical circumstances for both characters. obviously they'd see better than a blind wildwood) since those races are, in lore, the ones with the sharpest eyesight and hearing respectively.
Sarja, my keeper, is deliberately beastlike - her family have been victims of Gridanians being Gridanians for generations and have chosen to respond with 'if they're going to treat us like beastmen then we're damn well going to act like them'. While she's very intelligent and capable of doing the respectable person act (and often does when it seems advantageous), Sarja has been raised to think of herself as a beast and will act appropriately when left to her own devices. This does include some of the standard cutesy fare - emoting with ears and tail, purring and rolling her rs specifically - but also things like happily eating meat raw, biting and scratching when threatened, using demands and allowances for personal space to establish control, giving gifts of food as a statement of 'look you're a shit hunter and obviously can't take care of yourself' and so on. Frankly if people had laptops in Eorzea she's probably sit on them and refuse to budge until petted.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - Rinh Hallani - 01-11-2014
Rinh growls, snarls, pins her ears back or flicks them towards a point of interest, her tail bristles or twitches when irritated, she sometimes hisses when caught off guard...that sort of thing. T'yareth also sniffs the air and is a bit more responsive with her ears, as I see her as being more feral and in touch with her instincts. But otherwise, they're pretty human I suppose.
RE: How cat-like is your Miqo'te? - synaesthetic - 01-11-2014
Miqo'te are cats? Huh. I always thought they were miqo'te.
The tail and ears are used in emotes to convey expressions and emotions, so I do the same with Aeriyn. Outside of that she acts like any other sentient being. She does not purr, she does not hiss (except perhaps the same way a person might hiss when angry), but if she becomes nervous the fur on her tail will fluff out, the movements of her tail can signify her mood, and her ears will move based on emotion or when tracking sounds.
I also try to take into account these differences when roleplaying. A tail is a counterbalance and as such, miqo'te should be far more agile and balanced than their tailless neighbors in Eorzea. Tripping over ones' own feet should be a rarity as a miqo'te. I also tend to write roleplay where scent of smell and hearing take special mental precedence over vision. My character can and does identify people based on smell, and will actively avoid crowded, noisy places because her hearing is sensitive and it would give her listening fatigue and a headache. Additionally, Keepers of the Moon have good low-light vision and are nocturnal, thus most mentally and physically sharp at night.
These are all things, physiological differences that I take into account when roleplaying my character. Miqo'te are not cats. They are miqo'te. They have vaguely pseudo-feline features, but they are not nonsentient felines, nor are they anime catgirls.