#things venus said

[venus-is-in-bloom]

not sure if anyone's posted this here but i haven't been seeing it around—twitter has refused to pay for its google cloud contract, which ran out on june 30th, and has been "rushing to move as many services off of Google's infrastructure [as possible]".

from the wording of the article it's not totally clear if twitter just isn't renewing its contract or if it's defaulting on a payment for services already rendered or whatnot, but the fact that the services associated with the contract ran out yesterday may have something to do with tweet reading being suddenly rate-limited.

[hum--hallelujah]

man I mean just. the SMFS album lettering is made of clay. the cover art is an actual physical painting. there's a lot less fx on the album as a whole than Mania (which is NOT a knock on my bbg Mania btw, just pointing out the different approach) or even SRAR and ABAP. the songs sound basically the same live as they do on the record because the production is so minimal. they have a huge vinyl dog head onstage with them, that they touch and interact with and talk to (and, in Pete's case, get eaten by). the attic scene is made by lowering a piece of rigging to literally make the stage smaller. there's actually a LOT of sets especially comparatively to their previous tours, the rigging around the stage is done up almost as a physical frame for it. they only have one screen onstage and it's small, its purpose is to be the 8-ball and to add a little bit of texture to the wider design. the backdrops, even the new desert scene for 2ourdust, are physical backdrops — one of which was made by one of Pete's kids — not LED or projections. the album title is made of clay. it's about existing in the world, making things so you feel alive, making the world a little more fuckin weird! do you get it yet?

[finexbright]

.

[thinkin-bout-milgram]

Purge March: Initial Thoughts

Hello everybody! Sorry this took so long to get out, I got more distracted by real-life stuff than I expected since the drop. I made the decision back on the night of the Amane drop to wait for the audio drama and give myself time to think, and I'm glad I did, because in my opinion, Amane's case is really complicated.

I used the audio drama translation done by @/muu_kusunoki on twitter, which I'll link here, I'll also be doing a lot of referencing both the Purge March (PM) MV and the Magic MV. This is still going in as my Initial Thoughts rather than a synthesis theory, but it'll definitely be closer to synthesis than normal.

As usual, I'll be making bolded claims and then discussing them. Let's get started!

TW: Many kinds of abuse, indoctrination, murder, animal death suicide

The person Amane healed WAS actually a cat.

Truly insane. I'd assumed the whole time that the orange cat was symbolic for a human, but it's actually genuinely just a cat. That sort of throws out the whole theory from Magic that Riyone didn't have a role listed because their role related to the falling stage light, meaning that the injury on the cat was staged.

...Wait.

I think it still makes sense that the cat's injury was staged. Rather than being staged because the cat did something inherently wrong, though, I think it's more likely that the cat was staged to test Amane's belief of cult doctrine. She knows she's not supposed to heal using medicine, but here's an injured cat, just waiting for you. Amane takes the bait and heals the cat (the good thing to do), and as a result, she gets punished. Tased, it seems.

Riyone is the one responsible for electric torture. Because of that, I'm going to make the claim that Riyone was the one with the taser in the MV.

I've seen a couple different posts floating around say that they believe this is Amane's mother. The most convincing piece of evidence I've seen is from this alleged picture of the storyboards, but I have no idea how this was procured or if it's legit.

I think Riyone being Amane's mother makes a lot of sense, though. I mentioned earlier how Riyone doesn't have a listed role at intro like everyone else; that's probably because, to Amane, the role is just "mom." We know Amane's dad is frequently gone, so this probably isn't him. Additionally, it seems like Amane may live in this house we see in the MV, and as soon as she gets home, this other person is there. It would make the most sense if this person was her mother.

So, based on that, Amane's mother (Riyone) would have placed an injured cat right outside of their house to see what Amane would do. Amane heals the cat, and that results in Amane being punished for it. Punished, in this case, for interfering with divine will by using medicine to counteract fate.

Being the flag associated with destiny, it makes sense if Riyone is the one upholding the torture related to the cat. The cat seems to be dead and gone later, too, so it's likely that Riyone "fixed" destiny by killing it. But, in that case, who's that other guy?

Gozake is responsible for the water torture.

Safe enough claim. It's right there.

Anyways, the important thing is that means the hand you can see here is Gozake's.

This seems like it's in the same house as before, which I've theorized as Amane's house. If I'm right, that means that either Gozake is her dad, Gozake has access to her house despite not living there (the most plausible imo), or that all the cult leaders actually live here and it's more of a shared housing situation. In any case, what's important is that Gozake was in Amane's living space and tortured her there.

For what, though?

If I'm right that Riyone was the one handling torture related to the cat, that means Gozake was focused on something else. Let's check out those flags.

"Discard vulgarity" just kinda sounds like not swearing at first glance. However, vulgarity is defined as a more general lack of sophistication. I take this one to mean something like, "Behave in a way that is befitting of the cult."

Gozake seems to be in control of the cult's image and what they say to the public or something like that. So, to me, I think this means that Gozake punished Amane for outwardly doing something that the cult didn't approve of. Could also be the cat, could be something else. From Gachata flicking Amane at the beginning, it seems like the torture wasn't limited to "big mistakes" in the cult's eyes. Anything she did wrong could result in intense punishment.

Gozake is the one she killed.

If it's one, anyways. I'm still not fully convinced that she only killed one cult leader, but that's doesn't matter at the moment. Right now, my job is to convince you that Gozake is extremely dead.

The biggest point against him is the fact that Amane's prisoner card in UNDERCOVER shows that her murder took place in the shower.

It's kind of hard to see, but that's a bathroom. Based on the other prisoners' cards, it seems like the location on the cards is the location that their murder/related death incident occurred. Because Gozake was the one who tortured Amane in the shower specifically, that's a pretty bad look for him.

There's also plenty of reason to believe that at least one of the cult leaders is the one who died. All of Amane's lyrics about how she was sorry, but now the roles are reversed, makes total sense if a previous abuser of hers was begging for her mercy against being killed. Plus, there's the scene towards the end of Purge March where she's twirling her baton. It goes from clean to bloody at around 2:17.

Notably, this shot is taken from between times it shows the four cult leaders up on the cloud. We never see them again after this. (That's part of why I believe all four could possibly be dead, but I honestly don't consider it very relevant.)

We already know that Amane's murder weapon is a pole of some kind based on her kill shot of Es in UNDERCOVER.

She also uses her magic wand in Magic similarly. The point is, we know that Amane killed someone via whacking them with a pole. That's what we see in the end shot of Purge March.

That person? That's Amane's victim. Or, one of them, anyways.

Amane may have had multiple victims.

Again, I don't know how much it really matters, but it's definitely possible. That person looks like they're killed in the bedroom or something, right? And there's the light on in the bathroom.

I've seen some people say that they just think the person (Gozake) crawled from the bathroom to the bedroom before Amane finished them off. However... why?

What situation would that help in? I'm under the impression that the door out of the house is the other way, so if the victim crawled to escape, they'd likely head the other way. Additionally, Amane is still a twelve year old girl. If there were a prolonged fight, it seems like it would favor the grown ass man. So, this would have to mean that Amane would partially damage him before he crawled, out of the bathroom but AWAY from the front door. That doesn't make sense to me.

There's also the question of what Amane's murder weapon is. Let's look at that shower scene again.

A clothes washer (I think), a sink, some sort of pole thing (is that part of the clothes washer? Or is it more of a vacuum or something?), and some conspicuous bleach.

A big question for me is what that pole thing is. Could that be Amane's murder weapon? Is it detachable enough to bring to the bedroom? That's really relevant.

Basically, I think there's two options based on this.

The pole is detachable. Amane hits the guy's face with bleach and he tries to crawl away, but can't see where he's going. She then carries the pole over to the bedroom and finishes him off there.

Amane uses the bleach to kill him in the bathroom, leaving him there with the light on. Then, Amane uses either that pole or a different one and heads to the bedroom, killing whoever else is there (probably Riyone, if I had to guess).

I'm honestly kind of partial to 1 now that I've written it out. However, there is also this:

This is Amane's associated image from UNDERCOVER. We don't know what it relates to, exactly; we just know that it's something to do with her.

I would... assume that this is someone in the shower, based on the water torture. However, when I first saw it (and I know this is true for others, too), I thought it was rain. The way the water drops fall looks more like rain to me. And, based on what we saw, Amane was kneeling on the shower floor. That means that it should be Gozake in the shower, thus invalidating the theory that Gozake crawled out of the shower before getting finished off in the bedroom.

Except, what if it is rain?

If it is rain, that makes this matter a hell of a lot more. Because, if that isn't in the shower, that means that someone ended up on the ground like that outside of that house. Possibly someone who never entered the house, possibly someone who never entered the cult. Who knows!

...Possibly the little girl with the balloon?

Obviously if that's the case, it's someone related to the cult. Still, the sky is clearly the same sky, at least. There's the same rainbow despite the same clouds. Plus, we see the little girl's balloon wander off later in the MV. Maybe something happened to her?

I don't know what her involvement is otherwise. I don't know why she's important enough to be depicted. Interestingly, I believe Amane is the only one who hasn't gotten the reveal of someone important's actual face in the second round. We've seen a LOT of people with impact on her life, but none of them have been singled out with actual facial detail. Unless you count the swarm of Amanes, I guess.

Amane has or expects to take over a cult leader role.

She sees herself leading the Purge March. She seems to place herself in a position of authority. This, I'm sure, also relates to a very complex self image she likely possesses, but the fact of the matter is, she's the one leading it.

If she killed at least one cult leader (likely, Gozake is so dead), she might believe that she'd be the one to replace them. We don't know if this is true or not; Mu doesn't know what happened to her surrounding any legal punishments or authorities or anything, so it's possible that Amane doesn't actually know what the aftermath of her murder would end up being.

Still, it's something to consider. If Amane, unchanged, returned to the world, she could very believably recruit others into the cult and continue the cycle.

Amane wants to be innocent, but she has changed the meaning of what an innocent verdict is.

Amane is pulling a Trial 1 Kotoko. She's offered Es a deal surrounding verdicts. That makes it much harder for us to communicate with Amane, because she changed what the verdict means.

Much like Kotoko in Trial 1, Amane's Trial 2 audio drama is her guiding Es through the discussion she wants to happen. She tells Es that she wants Milgram's forgiveness so she can turn it into the ideal world for her cult.

That means that, if we vote Amane innocent, she likely will take it as Es approving Milgram for her cult. That's obviously bad, but the other prisoners (other than maybe like Haruka) are hopefully not impressionable enough for it to be a problem?

However, I still do believe Amane wants to be innocent. She asks Es to remember her pleas for forgiveness at the end of the Purge March MV. We all forgive Amane; the question is how to tell Amane that we forgive her disobedience and we're sorry for the situation she grew up in without approving the cult's beliefs.

It's wrong to torture a child in order to get them to conform to your beliefs.

This is what Amane's story is about. The cult leaders tortured Amane until she was brainwashed into their beliefs. Amane insists that, just because her beliefs aren't the norm, that doesn't make them wrong.

Arguably, a guilty verdict could be seen as doing the exact same thing. We'd be subjecting Amane to audio torture, at least, given that we know guilty prisoners are bombarded nonstop with the reasons why people voted them guilty. She would also be restrained, and due to Kotoko's attacks, we know it's at least hypothetically possible she could get physically injured from it to.

That's obviously not cool. Don't like that part.

Amane wants to kill Shidou.

Amane warned us that Shidou's actions (saving Mahiru's life and healing up Futa) disobey with her beliefs, and if we don't do something about it, she'll have to take action. It's not entirely clear whether that means she'll punish Shidou as she was punished, or if she'll attack Mahiru to kill her as God intended.

Either way, it's bad news for Mahiru if that happens. It's been directly stated that Mahiru is in a critical condition, and it's possible that the removal of Shidou as her doctor could kill her even if she doesn't get hurt again. If Amane killed Shidou, it could mean both of them could die.

However, Kazui has also promised that, if he gets an innocent verdict, he'll protect anyone he can from harm. Kazui could take Amane in a fight (I forget where but somewhere it's established that Kazui is the strongest in a fight, plus he beat Kotoko who I assume could easily beat Amane), so hopefully Kazui will be able to protect Shidou.

That also opens up the door for a weird possibility, though, which is the case of Haruka. Given that, in this case, Kazui would be focused on protecting Shidou and/or Mahiru from Amane, that means that Kazui would likely not have time to look after other prisoners, such as Haruka, who's threatened suicide if we voted Mu guilty. Which we did.

So, basically, the whole thing's a mess and voting Amane innocent makes it much more likely that someone dies, whether that someone is Shidou, Mahiru, Haruka or some combination.

VERDICT: ???

If you couldn't tell, the last four sections are me deliberating on which verdict to give her. In my opinion, there are a lot of arguments in both directions, which makes it difficult to decide. If I was ignoring meta voting, I'd obviously vote innocent, given that Amane is a highly traumatized child and she killed her abuser(s). That's forgivable. However, given other circumstances surrounding the dynamics of her vote, I have doubts on if it's really the "right" move.

I think that with Amane, there's no good option. To be clear, I don't regret the Trial 1 guilty verdict. I've seen a lot of people saying that this state of no good options is a result of stupid people thinking guilty was right last trial. I think that an innocent verdict would just mean that she'd be like Kotoko is right now, believing that she's right without a shadow of a doubt. Milgram is mean, intentionally. They weren't going to give us good options either way.

As a result, given that I can tell a lot of people have WAY stronger opinions on this one than I do, I'm currently not actually voting. If the margin gets close enough, I'll probably commit to a direction, but for now, I'm letting the rest of the fanbase steer the verdict. I was fully team guilty when I was worried about Kazui getting a guilty verdict. With Kazui innocent, I'm much more open to the possibility of forgiving Amane, because that verdict hopefully won't cost Shidou and/or Mahiru's lives.

If you have a convincing theory or argument in either the innocent or guilty direction, please let me know! If I'm ever convinced enough, I'll probably start voting, but for right now, I'm honestly neutral on the verdict.

NOTE: don't yell at anyone. Do not insult anyone else or get aggressive when pushing for a verdict. This is a fan blog for a fictional series that exists to have fun solving mysteries and calmly discussing ethics. Please, have fun and don't take this too seriously.

[hey-scully-itsme]

according to my notes it is one year to the day since i started reading the aubrey-maturin books

[maddieandangel]

Had a weird Hollow Knight-related dream a couple days ago, so I decided to draw a major scene I remembered from it dgsgshf

More context will be in the tags, for those interested!

[capricores]

trying to wake up someone that has strong pisces and taurus placements is IMPOSSIBLE. when they're sleeping they are ASLEEP and there's nothing anyone can do about it!!

[divine-jupiter]

The Power of Scorpio Venus

9 Things You Should Know About Us From an Actual Venus in Scorpio:

We love our freedom and we are not as suffocating or clingy as most astrologers proclaim; all we want is RESPECT and an UNDERSTANDING that a romantic connection holds deep meaning to you. We want to be understood for how we showcase our love language, that our emotions and sexual expression is as much a sacred ritual as it is a pleasurable act. We are seeking to find true love through letting go. When we can trust someone like that, can be SEEN by someone like that... it's all we've ever wanted.

Just bc we are highly sexual does not mean we waste our sexual energy. Though our Venus is in detriment, there is an immense concentration of power for Venus in Scorpio. We look to reach into the deeper realms of being through sexual connection to CREATE energy, not deplete us or our partner. Venus rules over abundance and sex itself is an art of power, yet not power in the human sense. Scorpio here is an ultimate death of egoic self and transformation through sex. The trick is relinquishing power and trusting in the expansive energy of the Soul. This is true Power, not dominion over another.

We are not for the uninitiated or the faint of heart. We seek true multidimensional expression. This can be difficult to the human ego for most on this planet bc it is linear. Scorpio Venus natives have a way of sniffing out the truth and the PAIN behind it in a person, which can make us hated. Like Scorpio Moons, we act as a mirror reflecting back the wound to the individual for healing. But a Scorpio Venus must ALWAYS remember that it is not our job to save someone from themselves. We are only the mirror.

Don't be surprised when you find a Scorpio Venus native knowing Sex Magick. It comes natural to us. ;) We can use this channeling magick even without a partner to manifest abundance of all kinds. Remember that Venus is the Goddess of luxury and all pleasures. Even if this native hasn't practiced Sex Magick, they've looked into the more hidden aspects of sex, especially occult practices. Taboo, dirty sex in the woods or in dark places where the true energy comes out. This is what Scorpio Venus thrives on. She likes the side of her lover that is rejected by society. That's where a lot of the toxicity comes from when discussing this placement. We stand in the face of the beast and do not flinch.

We need separation from our romantic partners more than you'd think. Scorpio energy is immersive, but even natives like us need our space to remember we are a separate entity to the relationship, that we have our own dreams and aspirations. We can switch off completely from our partner or sex and go on our own solitary journey when we need to. We thrive on deep soul exploration and we can't do that with a lover distracting us.

We love water. We dream about it. We want to live near the ocean and we always imagine the early hours on the beach before dawn or hours after sunset with those beautifully cold and glittering stars. Some of us can even have a fear of the water, yet be so inevitably drawn to it bc we know deep down that it will help us remember ourselves and heal whatever is hidden beneath.

People obsess over us and we hate it. No, we actually fucking hate it. A lot. Stop being so obsessed with us and thinking you need to save us or own us or that we are broken somehow. We are not broken. We are REAL. There is a difference.

Some of us with social placements know how to verbalize what someone has wanted to say all of their lives and just never had the ability or awareness of how to say it. We put the words together out of nowhere and say it so quickly that the person is stunned. I don't know how many times I've had someone reply back to me, "Say that again bc that was perfect" or "I wish I had a recorder and then I could play that back at anyone who ever questions why I do what I do." Yeah, you're welcome but I'm not saying it again. Scorpio placements don't like repeating themselves.

We enjoy things with a perfect balance of dark, rich, bitter and sweet. We don't like gaudy sweets or excessive sugar. No thank you.

[ashmp3]

i know i said i would snork mimimi but i just took a shower and realized something okay story goes:boni pleaded me to sit with her on the floor this whole week and you guys my tailbone is bruised. Properly tender. like i don’t have enough ass for this it’s funny but painful like GIRL get urself together i was known for my volleyball player ass now i’m just a shadow this is tragic. TRAGIC.

[ayyponine]

Same venue. Same-ish crowd. Opposing seasons. Contrasting vibes.

[taterdraws]

Hiii you’re actually not that far away from reality with morning star = sun, bc in Rome where Luciferus was an incarnation of Venus it was “the first star” on the horizon, right before the sun outshines it. Lucifer is our beautiful darling ☀️

Your art is so good thank you for the food ❤️🌹🫡

hiii! bfdkjbg ugh i know there were reasons why it is Venus and i would not be miffed about it if not for the fact that the sun is right there. i will be deranged in the tags.

and aaaaah thank you kindly!!!!! ❤️🥹i love drawing these fuckers so i'm so glad you like the art <3

[venus-is-in-bloom]

there's a lot of discourse all the time about art and what makes art art and i do appreciate and support the messages about "your art is worth making even if it isn't the mona lisa", and so on. but i do wanna say i don't necessarily think art has inherent value. the corollary to "anyone can make art" and "anything can be art" and "art does not require skill or training" is "art does not acquire moral value or preciousness simply from existing", imo. this applies to "high art" and expensive capitalist creations like films, and it also applies to things you or i create. it has only the value we assign to it. it's merely utterance, merely creation. some art is not very important, some art is important only in the eyes of some people, and some art is just bad.

to say "everything you make is art, and therefore it's beautiful and precious" still attaches a moral value to the category of art that elevates it over "not art". we need to fully reject this divide or else we'll keep on getting into asinine arguments about what "counts" as art in the future, and coming up with the same flimsy reasonings for rejecting things we think don't "deserve" to be in our protected category.

[finexbright]

gonna take a minute to rant about just how much i love louis and his care for fans and how he's always trying to do things in the most affordable, convenient way possible. getting his tickets was one of the most smooth, seamless experiences i ever had. love how his first tour was a bit smaller and now that he's doing larger arenas, the pricing hasn't changed a bit. he's taken so much care and consideration into curating his brand and making it accessible and you can see the genuine thought process that goes into it because louis isn't just putting music and tours out and calling it a day. he's examining every little aspect of it and making sure that at the end of the day everything is as fair as possible. i know we can say it's the bare minimum, but to me at least it isn't. because it takes a lot of planning and organising to be able to pull this off, but it also takes a lot of investment time and money wise. and i honestly commend him for being one of the only artists in the industry who's not only to bring change but also who's putting a damn good fight and being a very good example of what an artist could be and how relaxing and beneficial an artist - fan relationship can be

[urlocalsadkid-l]

i got called autistic again tonight

[dinosaurcharcuterie]

I just realized I don't want gender neutral bathrooms and changing rooms just for gender reasons. I don't even want them just for practicality reasons, or just for economic reasons.

I want gender neutral hygiene spaces because, in my experience*, women who are bursting to get out of a sports bra and/or pee are wont to say unkind things and excuse it as "between us girls", and men do not wash properly if they think the bro code protects them.

[goldennika]

was animatedly explaining to my parents how there is a common practice of trading and giving away (usually fanmade) freebies during kpop concerts and how i think a similar practice is being done for the taylor swift eras tour around friendship bracelets

after recounting my experience in giving and receiving freebies during the A:SM con in Osaka last year, my mom turns to me to say that maybe i should get into that line of work since it makes me happy 🥺