#lusciniaes

[herpsandbirds]

Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), family Muscicapidae, order Passeriformes, Nome, Alaska, USA

photograph by David Slikkers (@davidslikkersphoto)

[eleonorpiteira]

Warframe - The Duviri Paradox

Hello Tenno! (am I doing this right?) I'm so happy to finally being able to show the work I did for Warframe - The Duviri Paradox! I had the pleasure of doing 3 illustrations featuring the one and only child-king and his ‘friends’! 😁

I had never played Warframe before (currently fixing this!) but I loved working on this project! Honestly one of my favourite jobs so far. I’m also very very happy that I finally got to do a little something for a videogame since it's something that I've always wanted to do :)

You can find these paintings in-game, usually inside open houses/buildings (like the Citadel, for example), and the Orowyrm one is on a cinematic near the end of the main quest!

[sugiichi]

Luscinia cyane [コルリ,Siberian blue robin]

コルリ若、走る！！

[lumintaru]

the  life  of  the  traveler  is  NEVER  void  of  conflict,  whether  it  be  presented  as  physical  or  some  other  manner,  she  was  always  toe  to  toe  with  the  problems  of  this  world.  keeping  her  guard  up  isn't  a  CHOICE  anymore  with  how  BIG  of  a  target  people  see  her  as,  she  learned  this  after  a  few  darts  managed  to  HIT  the  throwing  board.  and  as  such,  it  can  be  hard  to  find  comfort  in  silence  or  darkness,  the  quiet  that  HIDES  eyes  TAINTED  with  rapacious  glazes.  the  feeling  fails  to  be  easily  shaken,  until  she  hears  layla's  VOICE.

❝ oh,  it's  you! ❞  the  scholar's  tone  is  NEARLY  replicated.  she  doesn't  need  to  MOVE  when  lumine  is  making  her  way  up  to  be  alongside  her.  ❝  i've  never  been  one  for  stargazing,  ❞  the  BITTERNESS  that  seeps  in  her  words  is  hidden  as  best  as  she  can.  she  has  seeked  their  illuminating  guidance  before  and  they  NEVER  answered  her  pleas.  ❝  still,  do  you  mind  if  i  join  you?  ❞  yet,  her  smile  doesn't  hide  her  INCLINATION  for  learning  more  about  that  which  piques  her  curiosity.

❝  and  this?  i  was  practicing  with  dendro ...  ❞  the  sword  dematerializes  into  a  bundle  of  sparks  as  if  on  CUE.  with  her  hands  now  free,  she  was  able  to  clasp  them  together  and  the  cracks  between  her  hands  spilt  with  the  GLOW  of  green  coming  from  within.  after  a  pause,  she  unveils  a  capitulum  of  a  small  daisy  flower  in  her  palm.  she  offers  it  to  layla,  albeit  shyly  due  to  the  sudden  feeling  of  INEXPERTISE  ❝  it's  a  very  soothing  element.  ❞  it's  likely  the  monsters  she  encountered  today  would  beg  to  differ.

& @lumintaru .

the familiar & soothing ambience of avidya forest threatens to lull her to sleep before long – the chirping of birds and soft rustle of a warm breeze carried through the grass has been the accompanying soundtrack to many an evening spent in the field. she's most at home in the library, truth be told, but the solitude of the forest is comforting .. not taking into account the suspicious scuttling noises of larger creatures moving through the thicket.

layla is too preoccupied waiting for the stars to spill through day – time cloud cover to pay much attention to the surroundings, and so too does a familiar character nearly pass unnoticed – if not for the rustle and clink of a sword returned to its sheath. she doesn't move from her cushioned seat atop the slope, merely cranes her neck around with lips parted in a silent o – ever the vigilant type, this intrepid young scholar.

" oh, lumine! " equal parts delighted exclamation and sigh of relief. anyone would have been preferable to another student, or god forbid – member of faculty, from her darshan, but the fair – haired traveler is particularly welcome company. " have you also come to stargaze? " expecting that she probably hasn't, but who can ever be sure about this one ... " or, uh – your sword .. you weren't in any trouble, were you? "

[eve-be-sleep-deprived]

The Courtiers of Duviri:

Sythel: The Fearful Conspirator

Luscinia: The Sorrowful Soprano

Lodun: The Prince of Fire

Mathila: The Harbinger of Joy

Bombastine: The Covetous Courtier

[snototter]

A common nightingale (Luscinia megarhynchos) in Sussex, England

by Gary Faulkner

[tauforged]

revisiting that ‘unmasked courtiers’ concept i was playing with a few months back with some tweaks and finally giving luscinia and sythel the attention they deserve. i liek them :D

[birdblues]

Bluethroat

[ritasanderson]

Luscinia wept for those she was hurting. She tried to dismiss it as weakness, but her heart rebelled.

[nemo-in-wonderland]

The Bliss of the Fall

Well, your love is worse Worse than cigarettes Even if I had twenty in my hands Oh, babe, your touch, it hurts More than hangovers No, that bottle don't hold the same regret

And my mother says that you're bad for me Guess she never felt the high we're on right now And my father says I should run away But he don't know that I just don't know how

Well, if it's unhealthy then I don't give a damn 'Cause even if it kills me, I'll always take your hand It's unhealthy, they just don't understand And when they try to stop me, just know nobody can You're still gon' be my man

"Unhealthy" - Anne-Marie ft Shania Twain

It had been a twisted game of hide and seek, between them that night.

Ardyn had seen the change in his wife.

She was hunting him down, and the thought caused a smile of satisfaction that grew wider with each passing moment.

Even now, as he enjoyed his glass of champagne - the first of many little transgressions for that night, he hoped- his eyes were following his wife.

Luscinia would move discretely, pleasantly entertaining her fellow colleagues with her silver tongue, a social butterfly as she always was during diplomatic events. Ever charming and filled with zestful vivacity, she was busy chatting and entertaining friends of old that she hadn’t seen since their wedding day, her cheeks flaming.

But Ardyn knew that her burning skin was his doing.

He could see it in the way her fingertips constantly reached for a spot on her neck, exactly below the sensual curve of her jaw. Just a single, daring brush of his lips in that sweet spot, moments before they were to meet the other delegates of Lucis; it had been enough to provoke a reaction in her that he was not expecting at all.

He had felt her shivering, the soft gasp that she had tried to strangle in her throat.

But it was her eyes that had given away that, this time, the shivering wasn’t out of uncomfortableness, but out of pure craving. Those eyes - the same colour of the sky at sunset- shining with desire, almost feverish

He knew, because he had felt the same warmth flare up in his loins at that sight, a blazing inferno in his stomach at the possibility that finally she might want him with the same voracity he wanted her.

Ardyn narrowed his golden gaze, smirking when he saw her excusing herself from the group of diplomats, trying to maintain her composure, but betrayed by the way her eyes and the way they flickered around ever so slightly, scrutinizing the room, scanning every single face, looking for him.

“I won’t have you, until you come to me willingly,” he remembered whispering on their wedding night, his lips merely a breath away from hers. “I won’t take you until you want me, until I hear the plea leaving your lips. I won’t have you until you will beg me to.”

He could see the scene even now, clear as if it had happened the day before: Luscinia laid against the cozy pillows and soft blankets, bare on their bed, ready to undergo her wifely duties, determined as she was to fulfill her part of that Accord that was meant to keep Lucis - to keep her brother - safe from the Empire. The Accord that had been her brainchild.

And she was willing to do whatever she needed to fulfill her part.

But despite the voluptuous way her body curved and the more than revealing lingerie she had worn , Ardyn had seen an emptiness behind her eyes - an impenetrable wall- that had made him uneasy. A starless night where no light burned. A gelid void that seemed to extend to all her being. And Ardyn had hated that sight, more than he had cared to admit. He had thought himself a monster often, but not the kind of monster that would take a woman against her will. And most certainly, not to take his wife against her will.

Two years had passed since that day.

And finally, the tide had changed. And tonight he knew, as he put his hat back on and left his hidden spot , starting to whistle a tune that he knew Luscinia would hear even among the crowd, that her cold wall had finally melted away. And that the moment he had anticipated for - that he he had started to wish for - was about to come to him, straight into his own open arms, and of her own volition.

bloody hell, ARTWORK AND STORY, ALL AT THE SAME TIME???

I have no idea what possessed me to do this, BUT ALL I CAN SAY IS THAT I DID IT, FML.

I MANAGED TO FINISH AN ARTWORK AND WRITE FOR THESE TWO GREMLINS THAT ARE *CONSTANTLY* IN MY BRAIN- (but gods, I am rust AF with writing. I need to write more).

SO. A LITTLE BIT OF CONTEXT.

You know Kingsglaive? The scene of the night BEFORE the signing of the Treaty, when they are all celebrating on the rooftop??

Well, if you remember, there is some sort of Aquarium thingy on top of a staircase, and beneath it, a huge door that I headcanon would bring to the lower level of the acquarium thingy.

WELL.

That's PRECISELY where Luscinia and Ardyn decided to *finally* give in to the freaking lust and craving that had been building up in the past couple of years since their wedding.

Also, I like to imagine that, after getting married, Ardyn would start to borrow his wife neckscarf and wear it around his wrist, especially when they are separated and he cannot be with her.

Like, the man cares about her, but he knows she is a freaking black cat that won't give in that easily.

AND THAT SONG. THAT SONG IS JUST *PERFECT* FOR THEM. Bless my husband for suggesting it to me for them, because omg, it is so perfect.

AND OMG I CANNOT EVEN START TO SAY HOW HAPPY I AM WITH HOW THE ARTWORK TURNED OUT.

I know I am still learning, but I have to be honest, I am truly truly happy with how it turned out! All those little details, the way I managed to draw the boobieeeeeees!! AND THE SHADING OF THAT LEG. I peaked at that. I will never be able to colour anything this well.

Honestly, my poor eyes are burning for how long I worked on this, I need to truly rest a bit!

BUT IN THE MEANTIME, I HOPE YOU WILL LIKE THIS!

--Nemo

[agoddamn]

Tales of Duviri is a storybook written by Euleria Entrati for the purpose of teaching children how to handle the manic flood of emotion that comes with Void exposure.

I pose a question: why does Euleria feel so strongly about this?

Her interactions with her own children are... let's call them wanting, and dialog implies that the negative aspects of their relationship--her denigrating, controlling nature, the distrust, etc--did not begin only after the Infestation brainrot set in.

We also know that she holds her father in extremely high esteem, but Albrecht did not think much of Tales of Duviri (see: him talking about his previous disdain for it in his own Duviri notes). Euleria put resources into writing Tales of Duviri instead of more traditional science, and Albrecht did not think much of it.

So why did Euleria write Tales of Duviri?

Let's rewind a step. Void exposure-induced mania, the whole thing Tales of Duviri is written to help manage.

How was that discovered and studied? It clearly was studied, enough to be a recognized condition and for the Orokin to build the iso vaults and for Euleria to write Tales of Duviri. But who would they have observed this mania in if Void research was an abandoned dead-end line of study?

Perhaps...the man obsessed with the Void who'd survived an unshielded Void dive?

Euleria had patient zero of Void mania sitting at her dinner table. Albrecht is the character who's undoubtedly had the most Void exposure.

Albrecht himself must have exhibited the Void mania and mood swings that Tales of Duviri exists to teach caution of.

And that's why Euleria wrote it; she had this gyroscope of a mood swing at home. She admired Albrecht too much to consciously deride his lack of control as irresponsible and so she channeled her energy into writing Tales of Duviri instead.

The emotion spirals of Duviri are loosely based off of what Euleria witnessed in the Entrati household and particularly Albrecht himself.

I don't believe that any courtier is a 1:1 translation of a member of the Entrati household, but more that their toxic interactions and dramatic heights reflected things that Euleria herself saw--or lived.

This reading of the Duviri characters and story--that they mean things to Euleria specifically--gives us a fun new lens to look at all of the chapters with.

For example, Mathila.

"Two children, and no memory of her husband. Poor Mathila."

Two children like Euleria herself, eh?

Mathila loved her husband. He also textually does not exist. He's not on the screen or in the text. He is a memory, and one that Mathila herself cannot even remember. There is no portrayal of their love.

Pivot to a writer's perspective. You need to write a loving relationship. You look to real life for inspiration, right? If you're a married woman needing to write a married woman in love, you naturally look to your own relationship.

And if you can't find anything to base that love off of? Well...move that character offscreen. Just tell about the loving relationship, don't show. Actually, do you even have anything to tell about? Well. Move the entire loving relationship offscreen, then. She's got amnesia. Nobody needs to talk about the love to sell it or make it feel real now. The narrator can simply mention it as a fact and it need not be challenged. Euleria doesn't have to imagine a loving family life between a husband and wife and their two children and question why that's hard for her. There. Problem fucking solved.

Another parallel that fairly started screaming at me once I started considering that the Duviri courtiers had meaning to Euleria specifically: Luscinia.

"I was created to be Sorrow, written into being, to serve as a lesson... can that change?"

Luscinia knows that she is a tool. As much as she dreams of being more, she knows very well that she is a tool--both a literal narrative element to teach a lesson and within the story itself Thrax's servant (his personal songbird).

Is there anyone in Euleria's life who might have some angst over their position as a tool? A servant who wants to escape the limited definitions of their role?

And so... here I am, back to my old role. The diligent servant. Albrecht would have smiled at that, I think.

Loid. It's Loid.

Luscinia: "This structure and I share much. Both of us once useful, both of us discarded, both of us now derelict. Both forgotten." Loid: "How might this relic make himself useful today?"

Both Luscinia and Loid are also capable of surprising amounts of ruthless violence. Luscinia has no hesitation telling you to kill the Dax or otherwise wreak vengeance on her jailers. Loid's Necramech lines feature him ranging from being excited for ensuing violence to coldly promising the Murmur regret.

The Duviri Tales were a subconscious form of therapy for Euleria herself as well, allowing her to write a story where emotional explosions were a problem that must be addressed rather than a social struggle to be suffered through at the whims of the more powerful.

[herpsandbirds]

Bluethroat (Luscinia svecica), male, family Muscicapidae, India

This bird was formerly considered part of the Thrush family, Turdidae, but is now part of the Old World Flycatcher family.

photograph by Pankaj Kumar

[alteredsilicone]

The courtiers reacting to Tamms is my favorite bit of Duviri bounties so I compiled all of them.

[sugiichi]

Luscinia cyane [コルリ,Siberian blue robin]

2羽で追っかけっこをしていたコルリ君。

そのうちの1羽が目の前に飛び出し、距離2mに着地‼️

その後少し下がったところでこちらの様子を窺うコルリ君。

近すぎて脚が入りきりませんでした。

[hierlekin-a]

With a prophecy hanging over her head like a guillotine, she cannot afford to leave any avenue unexplored. The truth of her visit is hidden beneath layers of misdirection - a Fontaine researcher interested in applied astrology, a Harbinger in search of more tools for her beloved Tsaritsa ( a father, growing ever more desperate to save her children and their home ).

❛ Of course. We wouldn't want to draw the attention of the matra over a hypothetical, would we? ❜

She rested her chin on her hand as she smiled over at this strange little astrologist. Beneath the exhaustion, the stuttering nervousness, intelligence gleams like the stars she knew so much about. It was a shame that she was not more confident in her knowledge, but the Knave could work with it all the same.

❛ Well, let's steer away from that course for the moment. Astrology can be used to divine the fate of people, yes? What about something... bigger? A group, an organization... even a nation, perhaps? ❜

@hierlekin said ... it's significantly more impressive than hitting them with a sharp piece of metal. / open.

" eh? who's getting hit? " it's entirely possible layla was a little too dazed to notice the conversation taking a turn – this foreign ' researcher ' is really quite different from the akademiya types or curious laypersons who occasionally seek her academic expertise. uncharted territory, one might call it. " oh, right – i meant that the results from applying theoretical astrology could used to influence people's minds for better or worse ... which could help to deter them from certain courses of action. " theoretically speaking, of course.

" but there are many less time – consuming ways to approach our day – to – day problems ... not to mention the fact that it could be considered an academic taboo. " there's no fault with an outlander being unfamiliar with the guidelines and philosophy of the akademiya, even if layla herself remains unconvinced of the dogmatic approach taken by certain sages. " but hitting hitting someone is also frowned upon, i suppose ... " layla sighs, hanging her head in sheepish resignation for a moment. she generally prefers not to reflect on the sorry state of her own swordplay, or conflict in general. now seeing the spark of mischief in the other's eyes and that equally carefree tone makes her slightly worried how divided they might stand on that particular subject ... " hang on, what was your question again? "

[amarmeme]

Lusc promises to help with Thaniel's little shit of another half, but only as long as the bear keeps coming with her

and then Halsin looks at her like 😍