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Adeya · **01-28-2015, 02:03 PM**

Iâ€™ve actually been trying to do more with Adeyaâ€™s ears and tail lately, though mostly Iâ€™ve focused on her ears. Since she normally tries to appear somewhat cool and unflappable (admittedly, with varying degrees of success), having her flatten them when she's angry or perk up when interested can serve as nice, somewhat subtle clues to how she really feels about something. Honestly Iâ€™ve found including her tail to be a bit harder, partly due to not being sure how much to do with it when sheâ€™s sitting and partly because at the time I didnâ€™t think about it. Iâ€™m trying to work on that last bit.

When it comes to senses, she does have good night vision being a Keeper and all, but that hasnâ€™t really come up much since most of her friends and colleagues are hyur, elezen, and Seekers, and as such sheâ€™s stuck running around in daytime more than sheâ€™d honestly like. I know Iâ€™ve definitely forgotten about the smell thing a few times, but since Adeya isnâ€™t particularly perceptive by miqoâ€™te standards I donâ€™t feel too bad about it.

I donâ€™t think Iâ€™ve ever had her actually purr and probably wonâ€™t, as it seems like the kind of thing sheâ€™d see as uncouth at best.

K'nahli · **01-28-2015, 02:17 PM**

Haha, maybe I should give people more credit then. When I see miqo'te do it I can't help but think they mean a genuine purring noise and for me it's just like...

"N-No... don't do that!"

Gegenji · **01-28-2015, 02:24 PM**

(01-28-2015, 02:17 PM)K'nahli Wrote: "N-No... don't do that!"

Alternately:

[Image: CAT-PUN.jpg]

Blue · **01-28-2015, 02:32 PM**

Personally I just mimic cats' body language when it comes to tail and ears (and strictly those. I'm not a fan of RPing cat behavior as a humanoid, like purring, hissing and stuff). So my tail will swing when I'm irritated or conflicted, my ears will tilt in direction of sounds, or when I'm afraid. That general stuff.

I notice some people emote using the tail to grab things, but personally I don't do that. As far as I'm aware, only primates have some degree of voluntary muscles in their tails (ie, they can decide what to do with their tails). Felines have only unvoluntary tail muscles, so their tails only move to adjust their balance, or affected by their emotions. In both cases, it's not movements the voluntary part of our brain would control. Feline humanoid with monkey tail sounds too much for me XD

Kinono · **01-28-2015, 02:34 PM**

(01-28-2015, 02:17 PM)K'nahli Wrote: Haha, maybe I should give people more credit then. When I see miqo'te do it I can't help but think they mean a genuine purring noise and for me it's just like...

"N-No... don't do that!"

It's totally natural to be defensive of your main race, especially if you feel others in particular are contributing to some sort of bad stereotype. I get really weirdly irked when I see people use lalafell to play children of other races. I know it's a common thing across MMOs (gnomes were used for the same thing in WoW) and that there really aren't many other options, but still...

[Image: ADULT.gif]

In short: It's okay to find things silly/annoying so long as you're willing to not completely write people off and admit that maybe you're the one being silly sometimes!

SessionZero · **01-28-2015, 02:40 PM**

My Miqo'te's mannerisms are more linked to her thought processes than anything. She's a relatively emotionally stable Miqo'te under normal circumstances, her most oft-used facial expression is deadpan, so when ears or her tail are brought into the mix, those who RP with her often know something is up. Most often, it'll be her ear twitching when she's thinking really hard. Other than that, the rare times when she does have emotional outbursts are accompanied by thrashing tails, shifting ear positions, the typical Miqo norm.
My Elezen, conversely, is very animated with his body language. Being an Ishgardian and having a flair for the dramatic, his flowery speech is often accompanied by twirling hand gestures, head dips, extreme facial expressions, etc. Animated body language need not be relegated solely to our cat-friends!

Du'lance Fiourtune · **01-28-2015, 04:38 PM**

I have to admit, being new to role-play, Final Fantasy and Miqo'te all together, I never really put 2 and 2 together when it would come to ears/tails/claws etc.

Opens up new avenue to role-play properly, so I assume I will be doing that more often.

Just not to the point where its like "OMG okay we get it, you have a tail....."

Bahati · **01-29-2015, 12:08 PM**

I try to focus on the body language I feel would happen naturally with Lyrik since she wasn't raised around other Miqo'te. Certain learned signals like hissing or purring are not something she would have learned. More so, small motor movements like ear rotation, tail twitching or fur standing up that are reflexes are included in her emotes.

I chose to play a Miqo'te because I work with animals and have a very clear understanding of cat body language. It's fun for me to bring that knowledge to a character that is not very in touch with her "feline" side.

Mikh'a Elakha · **01-29-2015, 12:44 PM**

Snipped from my post in the other thread:

Ears: I do not emote my ears at all times. Sometimes I forget, others times I feel it isn't required. We have hominid features which are expressive enough on their own. Ears do however add extra flavour and so I always use them when an emotion is particularly strong. Often an ear will flicker or tick when his name or something interesting sounds within earshot.

Tail: Mikh'a is careful of his tail when sitting. He uses it more when he is physically engaged (leaping, sparring etc, they are part of the balance thing for the race, or so I believe). Again with strong emotions it might bristle or fall still rather than maintain an absent swish.

Both together: When entirely at ease, these things happen more frequently. Another thing I try to remember is that everyone has a tell. Minor body movements or ticks that others who know them would spot, and so there times when Mikh'a will appear outwardly calm for example, though his tail will fall flat or bristle ever so slightly.

To elaborate more in this thread however-

Mikh'a has sensitive ears. He will go berserk if people try to touch them, unless the person is special enough. They are most reflective of his emotions when he is at ease. He is less sensitive regarding his tail, though takes precautions (sweeping it aside when he sits etc) and again, this is more active when he's at ease.

When I, as a player, are comfortable enough with the people I'm roleplaying with to experiment a little more, I sometimes emote them as vile betrayers that seem to have a life of their own and giving him away when he's trying to hide things. This however is very occasional since I imagine Miqo'te would have natural control (minus the tells I mentioned).

I was also once involved in a debate regarding purring. Simply put .. humans have the ability to purr, even if it is simply a mimic of a true purr, and so Mikh'a has (and may well do so again) purred when very content.

For the most part however, my miqo'te does body language much like we would expect a human to do, with the rest behaving as accents or flavour.

I have had the great fortune (or perhaps misfortune?) of never having experienced cat-like races until FFXIV, and so I looked at felines for inspiration and only as a way to add a little diversity.

"Mikh'a frowns then, tail faltering to a still as his arms fold across his chest."

"The male laughed, ears flapping gleefully along with the sound."

Zhavi · **01-29-2015, 01:01 PM**

Unless it is an unusual reaction, or I am illustrating something she is doing (rather than 'Zhi turned her attention to the couple talking behind her' I might write 'Zhi's ears swiveled towards the couple behind her as she casually rolled the dice between her fingers' -- it's a little more subtle (show, not tell) while still indicating what she's doing), I tend to just go with one thing at a time. She might scrunch her nose, narrow her eyes, grimace, shift, slump, look at her nails, roll her eyes, or any number of other things. At most I'll go with two, and depending on what I feel is the most relevant, I'll use ears/tail/baring fangs or I won't.

As Mikh'a said, miqo'te have primarily hominid features, and those are just as expressive as ears and tail.

That said, I tend to use ears and tail as a cat would, but have used her tail before as if she has fairly fine control over it. However, after a discussion with Enteris about cat biology and whether or not that would be possible, I've toned that down a fair bit (though I still have her wrapping her tail around her hips and tucking it under a sash when she wants to play at being a small hyur boy for those not looking closely).

I believe less is more, so I use ears/tail/fangs as embellishment rather than including them frequently. THAT SAID, sometimes I am a bad rper and forget about them during intense scenes or when I am excited about the rp. Zhavi is my first time rping as an anthropomorphic anything, so that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!

Gegenji · **01-29-2015, 01:15 PM**

(01-29-2015, 01:01 PM)Zhavi Wrote: THAT SAID, sometimes I am a bad rper and forget about them during intense scenes or when I am excited about the rp.

I think that's just a common thing in general. When you're really into a conversation or interaction, some of the finer details just go by the wayside. I can easily recall at least two situations where Chachan was supposed to be eating or drinking something and completely blanked on it until much later. Which leads to him enjoying his "now room temperature juice" and whatnot rather often.

SessionZero · **01-29-2015, 01:20 PM**

(01-29-2015, 01:15 PM)Gegenji Wrote:
(01-29-2015, 01:01 PM)Zhavi Wrote: THAT SAID, sometimes I am a bad rper and forget about them during intense scenes or when I am excited about the rp.

I think that's just a common thing in general. When you're really into a conversation or interaction, some of the finer details just go by the wayside. I can easily recall at least two situations where Chachan was supposed to be eating or drinking something and completely blanked on it until much later. Which leads to him enjoying his "now room temperature juice" and whatnot rather often.

When that happens to me I just go with my character having been drinking/eating the whole time, so without emoting actually drinking any alcohol, they just progressively get more drunk. Ghost-drinking~

Xenedra · **01-29-2015, 01:30 PM**

(01-28-2015, 01:03 PM)Knahli Wrote: (Also I cannot take anyone who "purrs" as a miqo'te seriously. Someone did that recently in the Quicksand and I looked around for them hoping that it was just a manner of speaking and not an actual purr, nor a miqo'te using a pun of sorts, haha.... and it wasn't!)

THIS.

I know it's a personal preference thing, so I don't get my panties in a twist when I see someone do it, but it always gives me paws (see what I did there :3?). As a Miqo'te I'm even loathe to use it as a descriptive verb for fear people will take it the wrong way : P.

As for personal ear/tail emotes, I keep them limited, but this is because my character likes to be somewhat difficult to read. She's trained herself to keep them as still as possible when she wishes. Sometimes I'll throw in a vague ear flick so people will know there's been a muted reaction, but maybe not what precisely the action was.

Amongst her closer friends I emote a bit more with the ears. Her ears will perk when she's particularly interested in something, or they'll droop if she's sad, though really only 3 people tops have seen that reaction. In the company of friends, the ear flick is usually a sign of hiding her embarrassment.

Tail emotes are rare in all cases because, as a bit of a non-tribal snoot, she finds it uncouth. She also dislikes being referred to as "cat" or "kitten," taking the "I am NOT an animal!" stance.

Also I like this separate thread. I kind of wanted to post this junk in the other one, but it felt off-topic for a discussion thread just to say "this is what I do Big Grin

" and no one would care, lul. This is a nice place to blurt out personal habits and see what others do Smile

.

Tiergan · **01-29-2015, 01:31 PM**

I tend to insert reference to ears and tail when trying to highlight Tierganâ€™s emotional state. If his annoyed, he might just narrow his eyes at you, but if he is REALLY testy his tail might lash back and forth in anger. If he is displeased with something, his ears might flatten out or fold back. I have made him bare fangs at people he is absolutely furious with, but not as often.

I tend not to RP sniffing the air or enhanced scent or hearing (outside of Tiergan swiveling his ears to pick up on certain sounds), but that is honestly only because I totally forget to and not because I don't want to. Its also sometimes hard to find a good place for scent when it comes to interactions with other players, but much easier when it comes to things like tracking down an NPC. No idea if Sun Seeker cats can see better than hyur, so I don't incorporate it.

I sometimes, when feeling cheeky and goofy, have Tiergan's pupil widen and round out when he is feeling a mix of extreme delight, excitement, and awe (aka this: http://i.imgur.com/hpwU7.png ) because that is exactly the actual facial expression my pet cat makes when I wave around his favorite toy in front of his face.

When it comes to sounds - Tiergan snarls, growls, and hisses a lot - but I almost always mean it in the context that a human person would be snarling, growling, or hissing out an angry word at someone or making an angry sound and not literal snarling the way an animal would. I don't really mind if people purr, though when Tiergan does it (which is not often at all) I usually just describe it as a low, contented rumbling noise that could be taken either as a purr or just a happy person noise depending on how people like their particular flavor of miqo'te RP. Lurial on the other hand never ever purrs. I guess I just see it as a personality quirk.

Ermine · **01-29-2015, 08:34 PM**

I hadn't seen a whole lot of folks include tail movement in their commentary but it's absolutely something that stands out - in some emotes (I'm probably misremembering - one of the anger ones) the lady miqo'te's tail stands stiff and puffs out slightly - so that might be something to keep in mind as well.

If we're talking about one of the purring sex kittens, the tail could be brushed against their partner softly to be part of their seductive ways or what have you. Could play up frustration by smacking their tail against the ground as they pat back and forth, seething and softly hissing.

It's kind of cheating to watch cat body language videos, but it's also a good idea!

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Miqo'te RP: How do you do bodylanguage etc?

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