Akemi hesitated as she gazed upon her creation, studying it from all sides in the grey space in which she had been placed to create the character which would act as her identity in the world of Terrasphere. It had taken her a while to get a feeling of what she wanted the character to be like, especially when the added diversity of multiple races had been added in. Looking at the wolf ears that adorned the character's head, and the wolf tail which currently was motionless, Akemi felt uncertain for a bit before shaking her head. At first she had thought that maybe she should just stick with a human, but eventually she had decided that if she was going to use this opportunity to experience a different life she might as well go for broke and experience it from the perspective of a different race, although she was somewhat relieved that at least these Felis still appeared similar enough to humans that it shouldn't be too disconcerting an experience. As for the rest, even after testing out so many possibilities she had ended up with a not very exotic character, which made her hesitate once more. Maybe she should try to make it a bit more extravagant, following the same reasoning as choosing the Felis race... As it was the character was a relatively tall female (matching Akemi's own height: she hadn't really seen the need to change that since she doubted it actually would affect anything) with somewhat curly black hair and impressive curves. Aside from the ears and tail the most remarkable traits were the eyes, one yellow and the other blue. The fact that the eyes were done for familiarity rather than uniqueness made her smile for a moment, finding it somewhat ironic that one of the most distinct traits was not there for the sake of standing out. However she still felt that the character was missing something. The overall appearance wasn't bad: the character looked like the kind of young woman who'd catch the eyes of many, with that figure and that face. It couldn't be considered bad to make your character in a game appear beautiful unless you were going to abuse it, and Akemi wasn't planning to do anything with the appearance other than hope it'd make interactions a bit smoother. No, really. She knew that there were people who'd use VR to try and make themselves as beautiful as they could to hide the shame of their appearance in real life, but she wasn't one of those. Surely. After some more careful consideration she finally decided that she was going to add a little bit more. The overall character was to her liking, but she could think of a little something she could still add. Using the delicate controls (she was impressed just how precise the controls allowed her to alter the shape of the character. She'd expected something like sliders or preset options) she gave the girl some white amongst the black of her hair and fur. The black would still be dominant, but the white would create a nice contrast. Not too obnoxious, but it'd add a nice extra something to the character. Finally satisfied with her creation Akemi added the name. Ueno Mizuki, which depending on how the Americans translate it could mean 'Beautiful Moon Above the Forest'. Very fancy, but what little she knew about games suggested that in the multiplayer games people gave characters fancy names all the time. And if she was wrong, well... She doubted that many Americans would try to translate it. With the character complete and named she pressed the button finishing the customization, then reaffirmed that she was fully done. She wasn't sure if there were ways to change your appearance afterwards, but either way... She hadn't been given much choice about her appearance in real life other than how well she took care of herself, so even if she ended up not finding her appearance completely perfect it shouldn't feel much different from real life (not that she disliked her appearance, mind you, but everyone always had this little something they thought could have been better). Once she had confirmed that she was happy with what she had created the grey room seemed to fade away, Ueno Mizuki disappearing into a thousand motes of light which swirled around Akemi, who realized she couldn't actually see her own form. Everything was a warm white, the motes all gathering around her before disappearing into that same enveloping light. She wondered why it didn't blind her, but then she felt her back hit something soft. Blinking several times the white turned into colours, predominantly green and blue with some white remaining. Some more blinking and the colours took on shapes, until she was looking up at a blue sky with some clouds, and on the edge of her vision some branches with numerous leafs on them. In the corners of her eyes she could see grass, which meant that she had landed on a field right next to a forest. Mizuki sat upright, first looking at her hands. They looked fairly normal, with fingerless gloves, although turning them around she noticed that the nails were sharp and pointed. Probably for the best that the gloves were actually fingerless. And she'd have to be careful not to scratch herself or others too much. Looking down at herself she quickly ascertained that she was no longer in her own body, with this body being considerably more... well... impressive. Together with the black and white tail it was clear that at some point in that white light she had been moved into the body into her character. Which meant that she was now in Terrasphere. Standing up slowly Mizuki had some trouble getting upright, since having an additional limb was throwing off her balance. Once she was completely upright she let out a sigh of relief, then blinked startled as she could feel her tail sway from side to side once while her new ears relaxed. Reaching upwards she carefully inspected her ears which she couldn't see, her cheeks reddening as she realized that these were quite sensitive. On the plus side they also seemed to be a lot better than her own, as she was picking up a lot of sounds from around her even though it looked like a pretty empty grass field with an adjacent forest. Letting go of her ears she grabbed her own tail and pulled it to her front so she could study it, the tip twitching from her own surprise at feeling the sensation as much through her tail as through her hand. It wasn't as sensitive as her ears, thankfully, but she was still having some trouble dealing with all these sensations. It didn't actually feel that much different from a leg or an arm or something, but the fact that there was a fifth one... She let her tail go, then looked around at the world she now was in. Spotting something reflecting water in the distance Mizuki walked over there, moving slowly for now because the tail was still giving her some trouble. It wasn't even that heavy, but it was large enough that she felt like her centre of mass was off. Shaking her head she just kept trying, slowly making her way towards what quickly turned out to be a small river. The glare of the sunlight reflecting off of the stream made her protect her eyes with her hand for a moment, gazing at the water through index and middle finger. Whether her eyes were more sensitive or she just happened to have arrived on a very sunny day she didn't know, but she assumed the latter. They wouldn't give the Felis too many beneficial traits... That'd give little reason to play anything else. Reaching the edge of the stream she found a relatively calm spot where she could see her reflection, blinking when she saw one yellow and one blue eye stare back at her, framed by curly black hair with large portions of white mixed in. Now that she had a makeshift mirror she also paid more attention to her outfit, which looked like a very simple combination of pants and shirt, with two plates of boiled leather protecting the front and back of her upper torso, connected by leather straps. It really looked like the kind of simple straightforward outfit you'd find on someone who'd just set out to become an adventurer, whose only real protection was a makeshift cuirass to at least protect the most vital organs. She'd have to figure out how much work it would take to get some better equipment, at least if she wanted to advance further in this world. None of the masteries she had chosen upon character creation had been for crafting or commerce, so she'd effectively locked herself into being an adventurer for now.
”Nine hundred sixty three hours, forty seven minutes, twelve seconds since initial log in. Total mortal encounters seven hundred eighty four. Game indigenous plants discovered, six hundred three. Game only creatures, four hundred different specimens encountered. Progress to original intended goal, ...Zero point fifty percent.” _____Emotionless and almost robotic words spoken as the Felis reappeared into the folds of existence within Terrasphere. His black cat ears twitching atop his head as he stretched out slowly. The adjustment to his height, the calculation for his tail, the numbing of his sense to adjust fully to his different appearance as he started to walk around once more. _____He rarely had reason to log off, mostly just to do research to conclude if thing discovered within the game existed in reality. It truly was seeming to be another day without much progress to his goal for the game but it was another day and thus another attempt and hopefully not nearly as much stagnation with his research. His red eyes scanning the area, the black lines under his eyes giving him an almost deadly tired appearance and in truth such was not wrong if one could consider the mental activity to tire one on equal levels as physical interaction. _____Morpheus would take the moment to stop as he took witness to a player materializing before him, a small smirk to get the chance to witness such an event as the Felis reached into his bag and began to document the events he witnessed. Watching the female made Morpheus frown however as she seemed to be unsure how to even walk. Had she not bothered to consider the mathematical displace of weight a tail such as the one she picked and crafted would have on her body, or even the chest weight, they would never counteract due to the tails range of motions compared to breast. ”To not bother to consider the mathematical weight and properties of the tail and how it would interact with your weight and height is childish miscalculation. Judging from height of five foot ten inches, chest and frame size, tail density your overall weight is likely two hundred pounds. Due to your tail and how you chose to design it motions should be kept limited to five inch step to two inch tail movement. It’s not rocket science and next time you should consider the math before moving woman.” _____Morpheus would not have started to speak until she finished overlooking herself within the river. He chose to sound cold and mean and honestly fully felt such was the proper tone one should undertake with such events and his personality. It grinded what most would call ‘his gears’ when people rushed into thing without thinking of the math needed for them. His tail would flick violently to display his anger, ears twitching at the sounds of his feather gliding across the scroll’s surface as he began to document the encounter. ”Mortal encounter number seven hundred eighty five, female felis variation. Player character, height five foot ten inches, weight approximately two hundred pounds. Hair color black with white highlights, eye color heterochromatic yellow right eye, blue left eye. Woman did not seem to anticipate the difference between human body and that of felis at creation leading to failure to walk properly. Likely a child or young teen for such a failed anticipation.” _____Morpheus would read his writing aloud as he set it into the scroll before closing it to seal the writing and stashing it away among the other filled scrolls within his bag. Red eyes glaring at the woman with clear displeasure before pointing at her feet. ”One should also consider weight of shoe and foot size if you intend to run as a felis. As much entertainment as it would likely provide to masses to watch you fall and likely bounce due to the elasticity of your breast it is also considered a disgrace to others who play a felis watching you fail in such a manner. If you don’t plan to do the math for that I warn you to avoid any falls where your waist is more than three feet diagonal from the ground in a forward moment fall.” @Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki was busy thinking about what she would do next, weighing her options. Going out to hunt monsters would be stupid if she didn't first go to a town or city to gather information. Of course the game was about having fun, but attacking random animals on sight wouldn't do her much good especially when she was still figuring out how to move properly. If she went to a settlement first she might learn some tricks or at the very least she could see whether the merchants were going to be willing to buy stuff from her. She did have the Hunter mastery, so even if she didn't have the Handicraft mastery she still should be pretty good at making money through hunting once she got the hang of things. That train of thought interrupted by a voice Mizuki quickly looked around, ears up and alert while her tail curled upwards slightly to indicate her surprise, although if asked about it Mizuki herself would have had trouble answering just how she moved her tail instinctively to accurately reflect her state of mind. She frowned as she heard something about childish miscalculation, taking some time to understand what the man was talking about since he was talking a bit oddly, or rather, in a way she hadn't expected. Was he an NPC? But she didn't think that whoever had designed this world would have the NPCs sound so... purposefully robotic. If anything she would have expected them to try and appear normal but missing a certain nuance, while this person just sounded like they weren't bothering with social norms in favour of just getting as much information across in as few words. Kind of like some of the more enthusiastic programmers she had encountered. "Excuse me but... Who are you?" Mizuki was aware that the man had been insulting her, but she tried to push that aside in favour of gathering more useful information. He had been talking about how she should move her tail to keep her balance as a Felis, so despite his behaviour maybe he could help her out... She noticed that his tail was moving about a lot, but she wasn't entirely sure what that meant with cats. She had heard that cats and dogs didn't share their... 'tail language', but she only ever had a dog as a pet so what a cat's tail was supposed to indicate was a mystery for her. Seeing the man write things down while talking out loud wasn't too surprising given his behaviour so far, but hearing the insult about her age made her bare her teeth before she blinked and realized what she was doing. Being a Felis came with some strange habits if seemed... Or maybe her mind just assumed that was the appropriate behaviour for a Felis and it was just her subconscious messing with her. Glaring at the man instead she waited for him to finish talking, her eyebrows going lower and her tail going higher while bristling. Helpful information or not, the man was very quickly getting on her nerves with how quickly he was making all kinds of insulting statements about her when all he had seen her do so far was stumble about a bit after entering the game for the first time. Drawing herself up to her full height (at least that wasn't difficult) she glared at the man, arms folded under her bust. She was a bit shorter than him, but not much so even if he was unlikely to be intimidated at least she could stare him into the eyes without having to look up. "That's an awful lot of unpleasant things to say at a first meeting, and you're jumping to conclusions to boot. Yes I am having trouble adapting to this new body, but there could be a variety of reasons for that instead of the single one you're focusing on." She held up one hand, three fingers extended. "One, maybe I just forgot since I was eager to play the game. Two, maybe I did make the calculations but I found there to be a difference in theory and practice. Three, maybe I did consider doing the math but decided I'd rather try it out for myself since it's a game, not some test that I have to ace on the first try." With each argument she folded one finger, then once the last point was made she planted both of her fists on her hips as she leaned slightly forward. It seemed that as long as she didn't try moving the tail wasn't too much of an issue. "Your theory may use what information is available but you're not taking into account other possibilities in favour of selecting one to your liking, and since you chose the one which would deem me a child instead of one where I simply had a different approach to character creation than you you're either purposefully being insulting or overlooked the differences between yourself and others. If it's the former I can't say much that would convince you but if it's the latter I'd argue that not everyone is going to be the same as you and make the same decisions. Not even people who are as old as you, not even people of the same level of intellect or who had the same education as you." Mizuki did have to deal with this kind of thing before both at university and at work, so she knew that one of her best bets was not to randomly throw insults, get upset or defensive but to point out the flaws in his reasoning, and hope that he was the type who really just wanted to be correct instead of being one who just looked down on others. "That kind of short-sightedness could cause you to miss vital information when it comes to more important matters, so instead of asking for an apology you're probably not going to give anyway I suggest that next time before jumping to conclusions you add an extra step to your logic, where you ask yourself whether you've missed anything which might be important." She took a breath, trying to calm down before continuing, her voice a bit less cold although she still sounded a tad annoyed. "In any case you do seem to know what you're talking about in terms of how to move, so if you'd be willing to give me some more pointers I would be grateful. I'm Ueno Mizuki, but it's Japanese so Ueno is the surname and Mizuki is the first name. I'd like to not get into a big fight with the first person I encounter in this game." She had heard bad things about gamers, but he seemed to be more annoyed than trying to make fun of her she hoped that he wasn't one of those types. Her ears still showed alertness but her tail had gone down a bit, as she was trying to get back on the right track instead of escalating.
_____Morpheus would not attempt any sort of interjections as the girl seemed to throw a tantrum over his words. Even if she was not yelling or making it so clear in her own mind her body told a different story. Red eyes watching her actions and body language with unamused vibe from himself the entire time, at one point choosing to cover his mouth as he yawned, and another cleaning out his right ear with his pinky while he waited for her to seem to finish her rebuttal/ tantrum. What did get a change in his expression was her mention he jumped to conclusions, a slight frown across his face as he decided it was time to talk. ”Ueno Mizuki, moon above the forest. Firstly I do not jump to conclusions, I already ran seventy different possibilities and at the time only the option of child seemed the most befitting choice considering actions taken. If there was someone, anyone who even slightly thought the same as myself I have yet to find them and would seek to either belittle them or find the flaws. If you want help then clearly you have not done any sort of trails in your mind about movement with the tail.” _____Morpheus simply spoke coldly as he tilted his head slightly down to look at the girl, the black under his eyes all the more apparent as he yawned lightly in her face not caring for common respect among people. His hand rising slowly to point at her tail over her shoulder tossing personal space out the window. Even going the degree to touch the tail as he walked around her left side, not yet explaining what he was planning if she even would allow someone to touch her tail. He himself always chose to take that as the most offencive action one could take with him in the game. ”Furthermore most people who picked felis as a race chose to simply allow their mind to subconsciously move the tail without attempting to move it themselves. It can also be done to allow one felis player to hide their emotions by fighting that subconscious action. For example my tail flicking with quick aggression is a sign of frustration towards your lack of knowledge. While sure one could suppose not everyone chose to gather information prior to final choice of character of their character it is hardly something I dare to consider due to the sheer amount of stupidity such would seem in my mind.” _____Morpheus once more choosing to give helpful information amongst his insults and rantings as he would either be letting go of her tail or slowly curling his fingers back from pointing at it if she did not approve of his actions touching the tail. Moving his frame to have his back to @Ueno Mizuki as his tail would move to further point at her tail as it stopped flicking around to prove his point that one could control it easily, least he could and few others. ”One could consider a felis tail simply like a third arm or leg. The mind of the character you play would move it without your guidance, like how one would not attempt to touch something known to be hot. However unlike the NPC felis a player can use the tail far better as to control it freely like an arm, though it is weaker and from my test a cup of tea was the most I could lift with my tail. It was rather annoying, and trying to hold a tool was another task altogether…”
Mizuki couldn't help but feel a flash of anger when the man before her so blatantly showed a lack of interest in her words, even going so far as to yawn and clean out his ears as if what she was saying was not only boring him but was worth less attention than whatever might have gotten in his ear. She was feeling the strong urge to do something more drastic than just talk, but she managed to restrain herself... if only barely. What was important to note was that the man did react to her statement that he was jumping to conclusions. Had she hit a nerve with that? She had shaped her words on the assumption that he would consider being right more important than just senselessly tearing into her with his words, but now she wasn't sure any more. He could be offended at the idea of having made a mistake with his reasoning, or maybe he just didn't like having someone return fire... However it was at that point that the man stated that he would belittle whoever he found who happened to be like him, which made Mizuki blink even in her restrained anger. That... was a clear indication that for this Felis being right wasn't his foremost motivation. While proving others wrong was a way of showing your own intelligence, Mizuki didn't think someone would use the term belittle unless they actually found value in lowering someone else's. Which meant she most likely wasn't dealing with someone who just had limited social skills, but someone who actually didn't want to show others respect. This actually made it a bit easier to control her anger, if only because she was aware that with this kind of person showing your anger only made it easier for them to keep doing their thing. While the man was still talking Mizuki gave a deep sigh, raising a hand to cover her eyes and knead her forehead as she thought about this while grabbing her upper arm with her other hand, inadvertently making her chest a bit more pronounced. While the man was giving some useful information she was starting to earnestly regret giving him the reply she did... Maybe she would be better off ending the conversation as quickly as possible and just making use of what information she had already gained from the man. She would be more concerned about insulting him with the sigh and her current posture if he hadn't done something similar before (and almost certainly completely intending to insult her) and if she thought he actually cared. Her tail was hanging low now to show that she was more relaxed, the wolfwoman's ears still pointing towards Morpheus to listen to him while she wondered on what to do next... When he touched her tail, however, her eyes narrowed and she immediately released a growl, removing the hand covering her eyes to glare at the man while she had to very strongly resist the urge to elbow him in the gut. Her tail went stiff, fur bristling as Mizuki's subconscious was a lot faster on the uptake on how to use that tail than Mizuki herself. Pulling her tail away from his hand she gave him a death glare, not because she thought it would bother him but because she was now genuinely considering hitting him, and hard too if she was going to do it. She was new to this body, but that didn't mean she was going to appreciate this rude man touching her without permission or warning. "Don't do that." It was all she said for now, interrupting the man's speech briefly, but if he wasn't going to listen to it she was going to stop restraining herself and actually hurt the man. It wouldn't be professional or mature of her, but her patience wasn't infinite, and even if she knew that someone who actually sought to belittle others wasn't going to be impressed by anger there were still limits to how long she could remain calm as well. To emphasize, her bristling tail was back up again. Fortunately the man didn't seem inclined to grab her tail after she had pulled it away from his touch, so she could keep her reaction to merely glaring (having stopped growling after giving the single warning) while she listened to what he had to say. Infuriating or not, he still was throwing out useful information amidst the insults, although Mizuki wasn't sure whether to react to the insults or to just do her best to leave them be. Maybe somewhere in the middle of the two options... Even more fortunately near the end of his speech it seemed the Felis man had decided to forego the insults in favour of just giving the information as straight as he could, which made it easier for Mizuki to consider what he was saying which wasn't belittlement in one way or another. Once he was done talking she stayed silent for a couple more seconds before replying. "Moving the tail isn't the issue." She moved her tail from side to indicate that that, at least, wasn't outside of her capabilities. "The trick is in using it to help balancing while moving... Although from what you're saying it seems that taking having a tail for granted does work for some people." Mizuki had to admit that just taking an entire new limb for granted wasn't something she had imagined anyone doing... Except maybe children who were just that more interested in exploring a new world. She also hadn't imagined that being effective. "I set sensory input to Realistic and movement to Free Mode, so I assumed that I'd have to actually learn everything... It didn't occur to me that you could just ignore having an extra limb and have it work out." On the other hand, games weren't designed to be tedious or irritating to get used to, so it might make sense that having a tail shouldn't be too troublesome... But she thought that the Realistic Free Mode setting was supposed to actually be... realistic, in which case maybe having an additional limb just was easy as long as you didn't pay too much attention to it? Maybe overthinking it actually was hindering her. "It's still jumping to conclusions if you just take what you consider the most likely possibility and treating it as almost certain, but at least you know what you're talking about when you've actually done the proper tests." She looked at how the man was moving his tail, cupping her chin as she considered everything he had said so far. "That said I think I'm still going to benefit from more practice, since the issue is less with how to move the tail and more with how to move it correctly... And even with the proper calculations and explanations familiarity is gained through experience." Using her free hand she opened the menu, then opened the map and looked at their surroundings, noticing that the most nearby settlement was one named Honeyhome. "I could explore a bit more before going to that village..." She let out a small hum as she closed the map and menu, looking back up at @Morpheus "Impolite as you are at least you've given me some useful information, which I am grateful for. Unfortunately I neither have anything to give you in return nor do I feel the need considering your behaviour. Add in that I doubt either one has much motivation to enjoy the other's company and we might as well part ways. I assume that despite your apparent desire to look down on others you still have better things to do than trying to bully new players." It wasn't an outright dismissal and Mizuki was no longer outright glaring, but her expression and posture made it clear that she didn't have a high opinion of Morpheus, whether he cared or not. "Got any other useful information you wish to bless the ignorant with or are you going back to writing insults down?" She was looking into the distance now, shielding her eyes with one hand as she scanned the surroundings. Now that she was paying more attention she could see that there were all kinds of small creatures about. Maybe an opportunity to try out combat, although dying to the creatures that spawn in the starting area would be quite the embarrassment, even for a non-gamer like Mizuki.
”I would avoid the south side of Brisshal and Stokbon. Rumors say there is someone far worse than me around those parts and considering how you barely could deal with me they would do a number on you. Add in the fact they are far more dangerous than a farmer dash builder like myself.” _____Morpheus would wave his hand at the air before quickly moving it to his front to catch a bird but sadly not enough to get a full grip as his fingers locked around tail feathers and the bird escaped losing only some of it’s tail to the cat felis who hissed lightly under his breath. Opening his hand with a bit of excitement as he jumped and crossed his legs to fall down sitting as he looked over the feathers holding them by the bottom with a clear interest in them. ”Unknown feather design, the texture and size almost remind me of the blood sparrow from two weeks ago but these are dark blue and have streaks of yellow. Lightning sparrow maybe?” _____Morpheus stuck his tongue out against the tip before a small spark jumped off the feather and caused him to coil his tongue back and growl at the feather. It seemed he was correct but he failed to catch the annoying bird that still evaded his capture and studies. Rising to his feet as he placed the feathers in his coat pocket and flinched as they shocked him again before looking to see of the girl was still around for him to provide one last bit of information. ”I also would advise going too far to the north, Astorea and Brisshal forest borders are hard to notice and the monsters and creatures are far more aggressive there. To the direct east of here there is also a village called stonefall that allows adventures to stay as long as you can help out around the area in some way. It’s the one with the wall of stone and mounted turrets around the gate area. Now that I think about it maybe I should have gave it smaller defense tools considering only goblins and trolls try to attack it…” _____Morpheus would point in the direction he was going, mostly because that was where Stonefall was and his current destination so he could drop off more scrolls he had gathered and add the feathers to his small collection of items that he got while trying to catch the stupid lightning sparrow. The bird gliding past them once again and showing reason it was named such by the Felis. The streaks of yellow, and the speed made it look like a small ball of lightning as it flew around and cleanly escaped Morpheus’ attempt to catch it this time around. A light growl as the Felis walked away, be it if the girl tried to talk to him again or not. ~Morpheus Exit~@Ueno Mizuki
Mizuki nodded as she listened to Morpheus to show that she was at least listening to what he was saying, even though she was still studying their surroundings. Annoying or not he was still giving her useful information, so while honestly she wouldn't have minded if he had just left outright she'd at least hear him out as long as he was willing to talk about useful things. If there was something dangerous to the southern side of this area Morpheus was correct that she'd be better off not going there. It didn't take a genius to realize that someone who couldn't even walk properly because of her tail giving her balance issues wasn't supposed to go into an area which made an experienced player wary. She noticed something in the corner of her eye and looked towards Morpheus in time to see him hiss as the bird he was trying to catch managed to get away. The sight of the cat Felis reacting so agitated towards the bird escaping actually made Mizuki chuckle, as it really did make her think of an actual cat. Either it was just a strange coincidence created by Morpheus wanting to study the bird closer, or she wasn't the only one who had obtained some strange habits from choosing a different race than human upon character creation. Either way it was funny to her, chuckling behind her hand even as she listened to the cat Felis wondering out loud about the nature of the bird. When Morpheus actually tried to lick the feather and got shocked for his troubles she couldn't hide it behind a hand any more as she was actually laughing, although she managed to curb it with some heavy coughing, turning away to look around at the landscape again. "I'll keep that in mind then. No sense in getting killed because of carelessness." She hesitated for a bit before adding. "Thanks for the heads up." She couldn't find the man likeable but she still felt like she had to at least show gratitude when he was helping her avoid getting killed. Although when he started to explain about how apparently he had given a village turrets to defend themselves against attacks she blinked. She wasn't sure if that was a bluff or not. Despite everything else it wasn't like he had been making baseless claims, although she wasn't sure how he'd have managed to create enough turrets to defend an entire village... She decided not to ask, lest he saw it as an opportunity to keep insulting her. He had stopped doing that and she would rather not risk provoking it once more. Once more the bird appeared, and Mizuki found some more amusement in watching the Felis desperately try to catch the thing. Mizuki herself found the bird to look quite pretty, the way it flew around as a flash, so she couldn't find it in herself to feel bad for Morpheus's failed attempts, no matter how annoyed the cat Felis looked at the fact that a creature as simple as a small bird was managing to escape his grasp. When Morpheus walked off to do his own thing she let out a sigh once he was out of earshot, glad that at least it hadn't gotten any worse than it already did. For a moment she considered whether she had been too harsh near the end, since he had been giving her useful information without asking for anything in return, but then she remembered just how impolite he had been, seemingly on purpose, and she shook her head. Helpful or not she wasn't going to feel bad for being impolite towards someone who couldn't be bothered to be polite to her either, especially with no provocation on her part. But now that she was alone again she could return her focus to something more practical. Morpheus had given her some hints on how he thought she should move her tail to prevent it messing with her balance, although Mizuki wondered if he hadn't been too obsessed with the idea of it being mathematical. You didn't think about the math when you used your legs and arms, you just moved them as you wanted them to move. She wouldn't ignore what he said, but she was pretty sure the whole 'move x inches' step was more a way to get used to moving correctly until you could do it without the calculations. Children also had to learn how to move their limbs, and the math was just one of the advantages of being an adult. Once she was sure that Morpheus was indeed gone Mizuki began to move about, slowly following the stream as she tried out walking with the tail once more. Even with Morpheus's advice it still started out rather clumsily, but after some more practice she found that she could at least walk at a slow pace without being in danger of stumbling or falling. Speeding up to the pace she would normally walk at she immediately felt the difficulty go up, but she frowned and redoubled her efforts, her tail moving from side to side behind her as she tried to make it move in accordance with the movements of the rest of her body. For now she'd have to learn how to control the tail manually, but she was convinced that as long as she kept practising eventually she'd be able to do it without thinking. She came to a halt when she remembered that it had actually moved smoothly without her interference during the conversation with Morpheus. She hadn't noticed at the time, but now that she thought back on it... She didn't think she could actually use that information as it was, but it did help confirm that her current predicament was just unfamiliarity, and as soon as she got used to it she would be able to use it as smoothly as any other limb, even when walking or running. And once she had managed that she could get to practising combat.
