#caroline capers powers

[666frames]

The Oracle (1985)

[yessadirichards]

What to stream this week: 'Indiana Jones,' 'One Piece,' 'The Menu' and tunes from NCT and Icona Pop

LOS ANGELES

”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny” and the second season debut of the third “Power” spin-off “Power Book IV: Force” are among the new television, movies, music and games headed to a device near you

Among the offerings worth your time as selected by The Associated Press’ entertainment journalists are the new musical game for the Nintendo Switch called Samba de Amigo: Party Central, the fine-dining satire “The Menu” being served on Hulu and a new album from the 20-member K-pop super group NCT.

— ”Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny,” Harrison Ford’s last outing as the adventure-seeking archaeologist, is finally available to watch at home starting on Tuesday via video-on-demand. This fourth installment might not be quite as great as “Raiders” or “The Last Crusade,” but it’s also more fun than many gave it credit for on its bumpy release this summer. Veteran director James Mangold took the helm from Steven Spielberg and does his best to capture all the things we love about Indy, including a possibly too-extended flashback featuring our hero de-aged to 45. It’s really not necessary because Ford, at 80, is firing on all levels — as funny, vibrant and game as he ever was. Plus there’s the added bonus of a great new character played by “Fleabag’s” Phoebe Waller-Bridge.

— It being the beginning of the month, Hulu has a lot of great new offerings coming on Friday, Sept. 1, including the Coen brothers “Hail Caesar!” and “Raising Arizona,” Lars von Trier’s “Melancholia” and the always re-watchable “The Devil Wears Prada.” And on Sunday, Sept. 3, Mark Mylod’s fine-dining satire “The Menu” arrives, too, with its terrific ensemble, including Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy and Nicholas Hoult, and sharp critiques of wealth and privilege. In his review, AP Film Writer Jake Coyle wrote that while it may be aimed at “somewhat low-hanging fruit,” that Mylod brings an icy, stylish flare in another kind of cleverly staged eat-the-rich comedy that — particularly thanks to the elite eye-rolling of Taylor-Joy and Fiennes’ anguished artist — is still a very tasty snack.”

— And if “Gran Turismo” has you feeling the need for more speed in your life, The Criterion Channel has the answer with a '70s Car Movies anthology pulling into your living room starting Friday, Sept. 1. Among the offerings are Steven Spielberg’s 1971 nail-biter “Duel,” Lee H. Katzin’s Steve McQueen racing classic “Le Mans,” Michael Cimino’s Clint Eastwood and Jeff Bridges crime caper “Thunderbolt and Lightfoot” and the original “Gone in 60 Seconds.”

— AP Film Writer Lindsey Bahr

— They came from Sweden by way of outer space and now the explosive electropop duo Icona Pop return with their third full-length album and first in 10 years, “Club Romantech.” Members Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt made sure the wait was worth it. The release is stacked with post-hiatus cosmic pop, earworm hooks as addictive as the one in the Charli XCX -penned hit “I Love It” that put them on the map in 2012. That’s evidenced in their single with Galantis, “I want you” and the playful chorus “I want you/We don’t have to play these games, play theses games/ ’Cause I want you.” It pays to be direct.

— In their lead single and title track from their fourth full-length album, the 20-member K-pop super group NCT announce they’ve entered their “Golden Age.” Who could argue otherwise? The track, which serves as the LP’s closer and its thematic anchor, is an eclecticist’s dream: absurdist trap, glossy vocal harmonies, and an interpolation of some Beethoven — Piano Sonata No. 8 in C minor, Op. 13, “Sonata Pathétique” II. Adagio cantabile — in one. And that’s not even the best part: all 20 members are heard on it, a rarity and feat in itself, which of course includes NCT’s famed subunits, NCT 127, NCT DREAM and WayV. No matter your bias, there’s a lot to love.

— AP Music Writer Maria Sherman

— “One Piece,” a new live-action fantasy series coming to Netflix has been adapted from a beloved Japanese manga and anime series. The graphic novels by Eiichiro Oda have sold more than 516 million copies across 103 volumes in 61 countries, making its success similar to the “Harry Potter” book series. The story follows a protagonist named Monkey D. Luffy who sails the ocean in search of treasure with his band of pirates. “One Piece” debuts Thursday on Netflix.

— The fantasy series “The Wheel of Time” returns to Prime Video for its second season on Friday, Sept. 1. Rosamund Pike stars as Moiraine Damodred, a member of the Aes Sedai, a group of women with magical gifts. We meet Moiraine on a quest to find the Dragon, a long dead leader with the ability to save or destroy the world. “The Wheel of Time” is based on a 14-book series of the same name created by Robert Jordan. A third season has already been ordered.

— The third “Power” spin-off, “Power Book IV: Force,” debuts its second season on Starz on Friday, Sept. 1. It centers around Joseph Sikora’s Tommy Egan character, a convicted drug dealer who leaves New York for Chicago to continue his criminal enterprise.

— Alicia Rancilio

— This summer’s Final Fantasy XVI brought dramatic changes to the storied franchise — and made some of us a little nostalgic for the FFs of the 1990s. Canada’s Sabotage Studio aims to scratch that itch with Sea of Stars, its new retro-inspired adventure. Its pixelated, top-down graphics and turn-by-turn combat are designed to induce flashbacks in fans of old-school role-playing games. And then there’s its story: Two mages, the Children of the Solstice, team up with other do-gooders to stop an evil alchemist, The Fleshmancer, from destroying the world. It even has fishing and cooking minigames! You don’t need to travel back in time 30 years; this epic begins Tuesday on PlayStation 5/4, Xbox X/S/One, Nintendo Switch and PC.

— Speaking of old-school, Sega has decided it’s time to revive a long-dormant character from the ’90s: Amigo, the sombrero-wearing, maracas-shaking Brazilian monkey. He’s back in Samba de Amigo: Party Central, a new musical game for the Nintendo Switch. It turns the Switch’s palm-sized Joy-Con controllers into a pair of maracas, and your challenge is to shake them in rhythm to an assortment of dance hits. The 40-song soundtrack ranges from current stars like Ariana Grande and Carly Rae Jepsen to geezers like Culture Club and Gloria Gaynor, with more downloadable tunes on the way. Amigo is ready to bring the fiesta to your living room on Tuesday.

— Lou Kesten

[contac]

[marypickfords]

Caroline Capers Powers in The Oracle (Roberta Findlay, 1985)

[ladamarossa]

Caroline Capers Powers as the stylish Jennifer in The Oracle (1985)

[highgaarden]

Klaroline Time Travel, please for the inbox game.

send me an au and i’ll write five headcanons about it.

i got this prompt a few days ago and thought - hey, it sort of fits in with one of the prompts in @klaroline-events’ june bingo: curse.

two birds, one stone? is that allowed? anyway, if it’s not allowed it’s okay, i had fun writing this all the same! another one for my drunk writing: a series tag, which as usual was written in one sitting whilst i giggle throughout.

sweetness that i took for, sweetness that she gave me to me;

though my heart has long been given to you summer's turn is nigh swifts and swallows swoop and yearn for you with all that's in the sky but blow the wind and come the rain and come my love again

i. 

she’s on the ground when she comes to. her head’s a mess and her back hurts, and she licks the inside of her dry mouth, suddenly wishing for blood to coat her parched tongue. 

the last thing she remembers is freya, davina, her own twins and bonnie standing in formation around hope; some kind of spell to slow down her age or something. she’s in her twenties and every day klaus grows more and more volatile about it, so it was deduced that something had to be done.

in that salt circle hope didn’t look too happy about it. last night there had been a huge argument between father and daughter - everyone had stayed well enough away, even hayley, who shrugs at her as if to apologize this was how their girls' summer break from the salvatore school was going.

“minutes ut horis et diebus et hebdomades,” bonnie and freya chant. 

hope groans.

 “quantum pugillus capere potest,” lizzie and josie continue, fingers clasped together, their eyes turning white. 

hope snorts.

“ex harenae spatia veluti clepsydris metiuntur,” davina bellows as wind starts whipping the air around them. 

hope rolls her eyes.

“tempus extendit!” they chorus together.

the witches chant and hope checks her wristwatch, and then a storm rolls in, breaking everything. the twins are flung to different ends of the room; freya loses her footing and has to dig her nails into the floor to avoid being dragged out the window that's burst open; bonnie bleeds through her nose and drops to her knees; davina flings herself over hope when the little baby tribrid starts to convulse--when it hits her, when it really hits her, that something has gone terribly wrong--

she's on her back. in a cemetery, her throat is bleeding and tyler - tyler? - is shouting down at her, but she can't hear anything he's saying.

she raises her hand. around her wrist, a charm bracelet glints, and her vision blurs: "no," she gasps, death taking over. she hasn't worn that bracelet since her eighteenth birthday.

ii.

klaus sits on the edge of her bed, his gaze swallowing her. she hears a crooning in her ears that she attributes to the werewolve venom taking space in her veins, smoking out the seams of her. she is burning up; this isn't real - how is this real? this isn't happening - she must be hallucinating, she was a woman in the abbatoir watching as a spell self-destructed, and now - 

she was a girl again, and she was dying.

"what's going on?" she whispers, frustrated even as gravity as she knew it malfunctioned around her, making her weightless yet heavy to the bone all at once. "this doesn't make any freaking sense."

"me persuading you, trying to save your life?" klaus cocks his head to the side. it's funny - he is so hard and unreadable here, so many years ago. he wore his rosaries and beads like they meant to be anything more than an accessory peaking just underneath his collar - he wore them like they armour; a badge of honour, hard worn after a bloody, grisly fight. and yet looked and smelled clean. so clean it cut through the putrid leaking out of her neck. "you do think so low of me, then."

"didn't i just say that?" she coughs, splattering her blanket with a fine red mist. this wasn't how it had gone the first time around. he was sitting there, staring at her, those same old hungry eyes she remembers even years later like a broken dream. she can't help herself. she stares him down, much like the first time, but then - her mouth parts, she licks her dry, parched lips, and says, "i've seen so many things."

klaus, ancient monster klaus who barely knew anything more about her than her name, klaus, the being just short of an omniscient deity,old as blood and weathered as a mountain - he doesn't laugh. he nods, once, hearing and listening. he says, "i don't doubt that, sweetheart."

she almost smiles. she's oddly satisfied. "maybe i am ready to die."

"then you're lucky," klaus says, "not many are."

"because you don't give them the chance," she says, coughing again. man, werewolf bites sucked. this memory got it down so perfectly, she would curse the witches' powers if she weren't so impressed.

"who says i don't?" 

she watches him with interest. "i thought you maimed first, ask questions never?"

"maim isn't kill." klaus grins. "maim is slow, painful, yes, but it gives them just long enough to plead their guilt, swear fealty to me, no? my maiming is my mercy."

"you write poetry or something?"

klaus laughs quietly. "i did some editing work for shakespeare, for a fashion. can't say i've ever written anything, no. my talents lie elsewhere."

she thinks about the wisp of his dress shoes against the hem hre ballgown. klaus leading her into a room with wide, arched ceilings. one of my passions, he said.

"i know," she says, quietly, with so much rueful affirmation in her voice that klaus reels back suddenly. as if realising he was sitting with someone who was far more familiar with him than current logic would suggest.

it felt like strange company to be having on her death bed. he had talked her out of dying last time. would he, again, in this memory?

was this a memory?

she thinks about how powerful the witches were in their own right. she thinks about their combined power. she thinks about how her blanket scratches heavily against her drenched, hyper-sensitive skin. 

she's not sure this is just memory.

and - and if it weren't just a memory, and the spell they'd tried casting had tried to temper with time, and she was here, in the PAST, was she - oh god - was this - ?

"klaus," she gasps, clutching at his hands. klaus' eyes widen.

"i don't know who you think you are, girl," klaus begins in a snarl, but everything flashes bright and hot - 

iii.

"and how am i doing?"

he knows his lines by now. he had been confused, enraged, elated all at once when he'd first landed slap dab in the middle of a patch in time he'd already lived through, but he's seen things in his thousand-and-something years, so he wasn't all that surprised. he'd tried to switch things up at first, say things he'd held back all those years ago, and watches caroline's face change.

it was fascinating, seeing things all over again. it offered him perspective. arguing with caroline but being able to detach himself from the moment and study all the ways that make her tick. knowing her for so many years now, he knew when she was bluffing. it was the way she would refuse to meet his eyes. back then, she never met his eyes.

stubborn little woman.

she turns. her gaze was sharper than the chill of the uncharacteristically cool spring afternoon. and then all at once she softens, and the bloom around her inexplicably gain more colour. the rest of the pageant dulled around her as she grew larger than life. "you look... perfect."

he'd never realised that little breath she had let out - like he had met her expectations yet again. exceeded them, in fact. she held herself carefully  around him, like she was made of thousands of little strings which would at any point unravel, leaving her bare for him.

odd, because he could only ever remember her being determined not to relinquish any control over to him. it had never occurred to him that her grip over it wasn't as unwavering as he'd thought.

iv.

caroline speeds through these scenarios she didn't have a name for, now that she had determined their level of harm - they appeared to only be swaths of time, ripped to shreds, trying to come back together. she wondered about the reality of bonnie, freya, her girls and davina's ministrations.

what had they done to Time?

she couldn't call it memories, these moments she steps into. maybe time was reconstructing. her meetings with klaus weren't in any chronological order. at some point they were in her office, two years ago, him pleading with her to help him save his daughter. experiencing it the first time around hadn't been easy. the second - she could watch him with new eyes and notice all the other, smaller ways he seemed to be falling apart. the things she'd never noticed. 

like the way he could stare at her, and oh how he stared. the way he would level his eyes to hers when it looked like she was ready to break eye contact; he would catch her gaze and hold, pulling her back, tethering her to him, unrelenting.

he's looking at her right now as he shows her his paintings. it's the night of the mikaelson ball all over again, and she is in her gifted dress and klaus is in his relish of the moment. how she had come to him after letting him dress her. now that she's older she knows now, what it must have meant to him. this small claiming, the first of many.

but there is none of the heat in his gaze, because he's not that klaus yet. he's not in love with her, yet. he's not looking at her as if he'd like nothing else than to just press the very tips of the hair that brushed his forehead to hers, just hold her there, and not think for a while.

yet.

she knows how this will go. did klaus know, then?

"you make it sound like it was the easiest decision in the world," she finds herself saying, "choosing me."

klaus looks surprised. she'd interrupted him mid-rant about some kind of debate, michaelangelo vs donatello or whatever. "was i not making myself clear enough when i said i fancy you?"

"liking - despite yourself - that's not choosing." she gives the half-done sketches in her hands a quick glance before putting them back where she'd found them. "we both know i'm not just your fancy of the week."

klaus' face clouds over. "and here i thought courting you would be easy." it sounds like a joke, but it's not. she can hear it in the sudden shift in his voice, how it becomes just that much silkier.

"you didn't really think that," she says knowingly, playing into his charade. enjoying the danger. some things never really change, she wants to laugh.

a small smirk breaks through the hard set of his mouth. "no, i really didn't. you're too smart to be seduced by me."

caroline blinks. her own words, in his mouth, shouldn't startle her so much. how well he knew her, even having just met her. "that's why you like me," she says. only just loud enough for him to catch it.

he doesn't say anything. just lifts her gloved knuckles to his lips and kissed her there.

v.

she makes an excuse to leave. klaus is unwilling to let her go so easily but he's playing at being a gentlemen, because back then he'd thought she'd received him better. it was kind of adorable in a way, if it didn't vex her so much.

what was happening? where the hell was she? why was she stuck in a weird loop of all her interactions with klaus? was hope okay? when was she getting out of here?

she walks on, the trail of her dress getting dirty and muddled in the damp earth. she could smell in the air that it was going to rain, and yet she walks and walks and walks through the lawn of the mikaelson estate until she reaches the edge, and the air around her wrinkles and gleams, as if trying to force a doorway through.

she... takes a step forward. and another. she goes easily through the barrier - she almost wonders if she'd imagined it.

she's still in the mikaelson estate.

so she keeps walking - until she sees a familiar figure ahead. 

it's klaus.

she gulps. had he come look for her after all, shucking the gentleman and bowing to the monster?

she keeps walking. until she's close enough to see that he's looking a little more dishevelled than he did at the ball. his bowtie was lose around his neck. he'd lost his jacket, and his sleeves were rolled to his elbows. 

he looks at her. the way he's always looked at her.

she breathes in. "you're here too," she says on the exhale.

"enjoy the ball?" he asks, in lieu of a confirmation. he eyes her in the dress. "i almost forgot how lovely you looked, that night. i never knew if you kept the dress."

"i did," caroline laughs, shakily. "deep in the back of my closet, hidden from prying eyes - but not well hidden enough."

a corner of klaus' lips quirk. "tell me."

"my girls found it," caroline shrugs. "and hope wore it to her miss mystic falls pageant."

"did she win?" he asks, hungry for this bit of information about his daughter in the years he was dead, lost to time. 

"of course she did," caroline half-smiles. "she was in the care of lizzie's craftful hands. i raised my daughters in my image. not all - just the good bits."

"i love all your bits," klaus says. he smiles at her, softly, cataloguing how she looks now, in the dress he'd given her years and years ago. "you loved me for far longer than i'd thought, caroline."

caroline, to her credit, doesn't blush. no, she's too much a woman now. denial had lead her nowhere for so many years. "gonna gloat about it now?"

"nah," klaus says, putting his hands in his pockets as they fell into step, into the cold night. 

the grass, almost frozen in the morning dew to come, crunch under their feet. they walk until they reach his lake, because of course the mikaelson estate would have a lake. klaus pulls his hands out of his pockets and offers her his arm, which she takes, and leads her to the bench that overlooks the reflection of the night sky on still, dark waters.

"i wish you'd taken me here instead, that night," caroline says, still in that casual offhand voice she'd adopted since meeting him. "way more romantic."

"i thought you would've been averse to romantic, so soon after we'd met." klaus shrugs. "also, the full force of my courtship would have had you on your knees, caroline. a man has to start slow."

"i thought you would've liked me on my knees," she says impishly, and he nearly falls off the bench.

god, klaus had died and come back to life so many times a creature that just refused to go quietly - and yet with her he's this fumbling bashful boy. she nudged him with his knee, through the many delicate layers of her dress. "how was your trip down memory lane?"

"enlightening," he says mysteriously. she doesn't bother to hide her grin.

"so was mine," she says. "all those times you must have wanted to rip my head off. i was a daring idiot."

"not an idiot," klaus argues. "sure, you could have held your tongue at any point - but you were certainly daring. you bore the brunt of my affections for you like armour. any lesser woman would have crumpled."

she doesn't meet his gaze, but he catches her chin before she can look away. "no, love. none of that, please. we've come so far."

he's pleased when she bites her bottom lip, understanding. he never had to explain herself with her. she was always perceptive, always listening, always deciphering. his clever caroline.

"so has hope," caroline says, and klaus groans quietly. "she's the brightest kid at the school, klaus. she knows her power and knows her limits. she can benchpress the boys under the table," she laughs in recollection, and he can't help but join in, "and you can't do anything about her growing, klaus."

klaus sighs. long and wrought out, and in pain. "i have missed so many of her years."

"what are you going to do, stall her even more? let her miss out on the beauty of aging, with lizzie and josie?" caroline catches his eye. "they've become family, our girls. we are family now - let them grow and know loss."

he's a bit dumbfounded by the wisdom she's displaying but has time to clear his throat and say, rather gruffly like when he's trying to mask awkwardness, "we're not a family. not really. you have alaric, and..."

"and alaric is my business partner, the father to the girls," she says sternly. "alaric is not... you."

it's weird, his gaze has been on hers all along, but it's like he's refocusing, seeing her for the first time. "what are you saying?"

"i'm saying that i didn't just come to new orleans because the girls wanted to spend summer break there." she licks her lips nervously. "i'm saying i came for me, too. it was a really nice holiday, klaus."

"before i bungled everything up, i expect," klaus mutters. caroline laughs a bit. the air around them had slowly warmed as their conversation lengthened, and was sizzling now, lighting up klaus' face in sparks of white and gold. "time to go back, sweetheart."

"you should work on your apology to her," caroline says, taking his arm again, and follows him as he stands and steps right into the middle of their ritual earlier.

lizzie and josie were there, and hope was in the middle of the twins sandwich - freya and bonnie were consulting a grimoire and davina was drawing chalk on the floor. they all looked up and stared at them, jaws dropping.

"looking good, dad," hope says, impressed, then her eyes land on caroline in the dress. "oh my gosh - it looks like it was made for you."

"um, it was hers?" lizzie says, snorting. "can't believe you're on honour roll."

"lizzie," josie chides. she tilts her head at klaus and her mother, looking them up and down, the way her mother’s hand was wrapped loosely in the crook of klaus’ arm, where only hours ago they had determinedly not touched this entire break. "so, weird trip?"

"you could say that," caroline says airily as the air re-seals behind them. "think something like a charles dickens novel."

"cool," hope nods. she looks at her father expectantly. "what have we learned about messing with time, dad?"

"to not do it," klaus concedes grumpily. "now off you go before i lose my mind over that gray hair growing down your temple."

"i do not have grey hair!" hope gasps, affronted, and storms the room, the twins giggling in tow.

"bet you wouldn't mind some slow-aging spells for THAT!" klaus calls after her laughingly, and she must have heard, tribrid senses and all, and mutters something about him might being right.

[caroline-min-max]

Until Death do us Part

This was probably one of the worst decisions I have ever made. I would... Honestly appreciate some feedback if you read this. This was so hard on me and yet I couldn’t stop.

A sixty-seven year old Caroline awoke with a start late one night with a feeling of dread and knowing as her eyes shot open. This entire week she’d been feeling like she was running out of batteries and was past the point where they could be recharged.

She looked over her husband that was in front of her. Max, the sweeter and more sensitive of the two twins. The one who doted over her endlessly and did every little thing he could think of to make her happy and comfortable. That had never changed after all these years.

Caroline leaned forward and gave him a soft kiss on his forehead. “I love you,” she whispered.

Max didn’t stir at all. She smiled; sleeping like the angel he really was.

A bit further away, Caroline turned over to face Min, who she was also lucky enough to be married to. He was the one who recognized that Caroline was stronger than she looked. Being with him made her feel like she could do anything. Even now he praised her for the small achievements she made for herself. He knew that even basic tasks were becoming more difficult for her. If she could do them herself, he’d let her. If she needed help, he was there. If she needed him to do it all himself, he didn’t hesitate.

He received the kiss, the same declaration of her love. His more impish expression remained. Two different personalities with the same face that Caroline always loved equally. That was why they’d made it this far. But all good things must come to an end.

Normally the twins would be pressed up close against her, most likely with their arms around her, but in the heat of summer the three tended to drift away from one another’s body heat as they slept. Not even air conditioning could stop the occasionally stuffiness and discomfort. At that moment it dawned on Caroline that she was chilled to the bone. She shivered.

Using the space she’d been granted Caroline struggled to sneak out of bed. She didn’t move even remotely like she used to anymore. It felt like her body was inwardly groaning as she crawled past the twins and slid off the end of the bed.

Cringing for a moment at the pain she felt in her old bones Caroline shuffled over to her dresser that was next to the ones the twins’ shared. She opened a drawer and took out a letter that she’d prepared five years ago and kept hidden. This would explain everything. The secret she’d kept from Min and Max all these years.

These days the twins would sometimes need to push Caroline around in a wheelchair. All the stress she’d put on her legs during her criminal activities came back to bite her hard once she was human again. That abnormal strength and power was all gone and her body couldn’t deal with how she’d used them.

They threatened to give out on her as the old woman made her way down the hallway, leaning against the wall for support. But she was a tough old broad and she’d get there through sheer willpower if nothing else.

Caroline opened the door, turning on the light and then shutting it behind her as she entered a room that had become a place of memories. She sat down on the rocking chair and took a look around her at the walls.

On one side were framed pictures of the newspaper articles highlighting the criminal careers that she, Min, and Max held together. The “Rabbit Gang” they’d be referred to. After a big heist, or when they noticed someone snapping a photo during one of their capers, Min was always went out to buy a paper to save.

There was so much… They’d hit nearly every notable spot in Gotham to rob, their brilliant escapes from Arkham always made the front page, and the White Rabbit became a figure that caused mixed feelings when she started to make spectacles of how she mercilessly killed sex offenders, thus lowering those type of offenses in Gotham. Women and children were never, ever harmed during their capers.

And then she suddenly disappeared.

As her gaze shifted to the other half of the room her husbands’ singing careers became the highlights. Oh how Gotham had loved them! They’d performed to packed houses and sold out shows, their popularity never waning. People couldn’t get enough of those cheerful freckled identical faces and how they’d ham it up on stage with one another.

Sure, she was still there. Somewhere. Show business never became more important than her. Still… It was difficult to see the White Rabbit fade into obscurity while Min and Max become household names.

She’d tried to do something fulfilling with her life. She really did. After her agonizing treatments were finally over Caroline went back to school, graduated at the very top of her class, and got a job almost immediately at a veterinary clinic.

Caroline worked there for nearly five years before she was fired.

One day a woman had come in with a gorgeous Rough Collie, shocking Caroline when she demanded it be euthanized. Apparently it had bitten her young son.

The dog seemed scared, but not vicious, and it kept crying as it scratched at its ear. Caroline took a closer look and that’s when she saw it: A staple.

There had been many a time that Caroline held her tongue until she got home, Min and Max lending sympathetic ears as she ranted about stupid pet owners. Some of the animals brought in were only in need of medical attention due to the foolish actions of the family who’d bought them.

She couldn’t take it anymore. Caroline had absolutely lost it and screamed at the woman in front of a waiting room of people, calling her the worst names that she could think of until she was red in the face and her voice hoarse. She snatched the dog’s leash from her hand, demanded the woman “get the hell out”, and shoved her when the woman was frozen in shock.

No matter how justified Caroline’s anger had been that sort of conduct couldn’t be tolerated. Her employment was terminated on the spot and she went home with what wound up being the best dog she and the twins ever owned.

Min and Max didn’t blame her for a second over what happened; they knew her temper well and were honestly surprised it hadn’t happened sooner. They only wanted Caroline to live her dreams, not caring in the slightest about the money she made. They had that covered.

Caroline never worked again. Instead she did the best she could to busy herself at home if she were alone and the twins always spent time with her outside of performing.

Having the love of the twins was wonderful. It was more than she could have ever hoped for and she was so proud of them for finally putting themselves out there and getting the recognition they deserved for their talent.

But otherwise she’d grown so restless.

Planning their jobs, escapes, the challenges of getting their target, rubbing elbows with Gotham’s top villains… Caroline started to miss it terribly. She longer for the days when she was somebody other than Min and Max’s wife.

As she thought this, her eyes landed on a front page article where Min and Max announced they’d no longer before performing.

Min and Max to Retire! Looking Forward to Spending Free Time with Wife! the headline read. It was the only time she’d be mentioned after reforming and it wasn’t even by name.

Everyone had wanted to it. Everyone said she’d be happier. Everyone claimed a normal life would be best. She’d thought so too. It seemed so promising to lose those awful rabbit impulses that made her feel more like an animal than a human. She’d be able to interact with animals again too!

She wound up never regretting a decision more in her life.

If she hadn’t gotten that treatment she wouldn’t be in so much pain with her body betraying her. If she hadn’t gotten it maybe she and the twins would have gone out in a blaze of glory. Or maybe they’d have managed to keep it up until they were too old and had to bow out gracefully. That she could have accepted.

One thing was certain: If she hadn’t gotten that damned treatment her life wouldn’t have been shortened. She wouldn’t be here all alone scared to die and longing for all that lost time with her husbands. Initially she was excited at the thought of dying before them. Now, after seeing how it had all turned out, she wished she’d lived out her life as a bunny and buried them both before her final curtain call.

It wasn’t too late. She could call for Min and Max; they’d likely hear her. Then she could pass away in the comfort of their arms. Caroline was a stubborn and proud woman, however, pushing the idea out of her mind. Their final moments of seeing her alive would be when they hugged and kissed her goodnight. She wished she’d known that day that she wasn’t going to make it through the night but they still had a good time together.

Caroline placed her hands in her lap, clutching the letter for her husbands to read. This would clear up any confusion but she wondered if that would truly be any comfort at all.

How long had she been sitting here now? Her body felt so numb and she was struggling to keep her eyes open. Maybe, just maybe, if she fought this off she could have a little more time. Min and Max could take her to the doctor and they could use some of that fancy modern medicine to help her.

A sudden movement startled her. At first Caroline thought she had fallen back to sleep and was dreaming, but there was a white rabbit with pink eyes hoping around the room. It was checking out its surroundings, nose twitching as it sniffed.

It walked up to her, standing up on its hind legs and placing its paws on her legs. Caroline reached down to touch it which was when it bolted.

“WAIT!”

The old woman’s eyes slowly closed as she breathed her last. At the same time, a young woman in her twenties emerged through the old husk and chased after the white rabbit, pleading for it to stop.

As she did she failed to notice the familiar surroundings of her home were slowly fading away. It was as if she were in a tunnel now, her only focus on the rabbit that wasn’t seeming to get any closer no matter how fast she ran.

There was a light in the distance the rabbit seemed to be leading her towards. Strangely enough Caroline didn’t feel fatigued at all as she kept her pace. It was getting brighter and brighter as she ran forwards until finally she had to put up her hand to shield her eyes.

When she put it down the white rabbit was nowhere in sight. Instead, there was a person standing in her path. A person whom she hadn’t seen in quite some time.

“Mr. Tetch?” Caroline questioned in astonishment as she approached the man.

When last she saw him he was in such a pitiful state. He hadn’t aged well at all and spent his final days bedridden in a nursing home. Caroline had been his only visitor. If not for her he would have passed away all alone, she at his bedside holding his hand when she got the phone call that he was in his final hours of life.

The man standing before her now couldn’t be a day older than when they’d first met… And he was wearing his Mad Hatter attire. He tipped his hat to her and smiled.

“It is you!” Caroline gasped, running up and nearly jumping into his arms.

Jervis gladly embraced her, twirling her around in a circle before he let her go.

“I don’t believe it…” Caroline was still stunned. “Mr. Tetch you look so good!”

“And you are truly a sight for sore eyes, my dear,” Jervis replied. “Only… I am truly perplex…” He looked her up and down.

“Hm?” Caroline looked down and saw that she was wearing the red outfit with a checkerboard vest that she’d initially used as her costume during her beginning days as the White Rabbit. “Oh! I’ve missed this outfit!” she was delighted.

“Y-yes, but…” Jervis pointed at the side of his head.

Caroline first touched her hair, discovering a long forgotten softness. She ran her fingers through it, drawing a strand in front of her face to see it was pure white. Next she inspected her ears to find they were again a rabbit’s. A look of pure contentment washed over her features. “Everything’s as it should be.”

“Curiouser and curiouser…” Jervis was truly perplexed. However, if this is what made Caroline happy he wasn’t going to question it further. “Shall we be going?” He offered her his arm.

“’Going‘?” Caroline repeated, her brows knitting in confusion.

“Ah… Well…” Was there a way to phrase this delicately? “While I am elated to see you again it was indeed much sooner than I’d hoped. You see, you are-”

Caroline gasped, suddenly realizing this wasn’t a dream. She turned around but there was nothing but clear space all around them; there was no indication of where she’d even come from or how to return. “I have to go back!” She was going to try anyway, but only took one step before Jervis gently placed a hand on her shoulder. “But Min and Max!”

“I know and I’m sorry.” Despite the hard feelings that lingered between him and the twins even up until his final day Jervis was truly sympathetic. He gave Caroline’s shoulder a gentle nudge, urging her to face to him so they could embrace again. “I know, I know…” he said softly as she began crying into his shoulder. “Dear Carol… No matter what we did our lives we so cruel up until the very end but you never left me. You stayed by me and now I’m here to keep you company until the three of you can be reunited again. I won’t let you be lonely.”

“Will… Will that really happen?” Caroline asked as she wiped her tears away. “Can you promise?”

Jervis nodded. “True bonds of love can never be broken; not even death can snatch them away. Whether they be romantic or platonic. I only hope that you will permit me to be a part of your afterlife.”

“Yes, please. I missed you so much, Mr. Tetch.”

“Then lets not dally any longer. There’s others who will be glad to see you as well.”

Caroline accepted Jervis’s arm this time and allowed him to escort her forward. She couldn’t help taking one last, lingering look behind her, Min and Max in her thoughts. Knowing she’d see them again made it easier, but it was still going to be hard and she hoped they be OK without her.

“Wait… Mr. Tetch?” A thought struck Caroline. “Are you taking me up or down?”

Jervis chuckled. “Interesting that there can be forgiveness and mercy for the likes of us ne’er-do-wells, eh?”

These days the trio didn’t bother setting an alarm; they got up when they got up. It really didn’t matter anymore what time. Caroline in particular had become a late riser so it came to quite a surprise when the twins woke up to find that she wasn’t there.

“Do you think those vitamins are working?” Min asked hopefully.

“Maybe!” Max answered. That would be wonderful; poor Caroline hadn’t been able to stop nodding off throughout the day and the doctor thought maybe a little boost would give her the energy she needed.

Optimistic, the twins got out of bed and checked the kitchen, wondering if it would be like old times where Caroline would be making them breakfast. It was empty.

She wasn’t in the living room.

Not the bathroom either.

The twins gave each other identical confused looks. “Caroline?!” they both called.

Silence.

They looked at each other again and nodded. There weren’t many other places she could be. They split up and looked into the remaining rooms… Until Max found her.

“There you are, sweetheart!” Max said happily, a smile lighting up his face. “Why didn’t you answer us?” he asked as he approached. “…Caroline?”

[contac]

[marypickfords]

The Oracle (Roberta Findlay, 1985)

[architectnews]

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Houston

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, Architect, MFAH Texas Photos, USA

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building in Houston

Nov 16, 2020

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building, Museum of Fine Arts Houston

Design: Steven Holl Architects

Museum Of Fine Arts Houston Opens New Steven Holl Building On 21 November

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building from above: photograph © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Museum of Fine Arts Houston’s 22,000-square-metre

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building by Architect Steven Holl

Opens to the Public on Saturday 21 November

The Kinder Building opens with the first comprehensive installation of the

Museum’s collections of modern and contemporary artworks, drawn from the

collections of Latin American and Latino art; photography; prints and drawings;

decorative arts, craft and design; and modern and contemporary art

photograph © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

November 16th, 2020 – The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will open its Nancy and Rich Kinder Building to the public on Saturday, November 21, culminating a week of previews for staff, donors, members, and community partners. To celebrate the public inauguration of Houston’s newest cultural landmark, which completes the decade-long expansion and enhancement of the Museum’s Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, the MFAH will offer free general admission to all of its gallery buildings throughout the weekend and to the Kinder Building through Wednesday, November 25.

photos © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The third gallery building of the MFAH, dedicated for the display of the Museum’s outstanding and fast-growing international collections of modern and contemporary art, the 237,000-square-foot Kinder Building has been designed by Steven Holl, Principal and Lead Designer of Steven Holl Architects, who also designed the master plan for the Sarofim Campus. The landscape architects for the 14-acre Sarofim Campus are Deborah Nevins and Mario Benito of Deborah Nevins & Associates/ Nevins & Benito Landscape Architecture, D.P.C. The Kinder Building is named in honor of Richard D. Kinder, Chairman of the MFAH Board of Trustees, and his wife, Nancy Kinder.

photo © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Gary Tinterow, Director, the Margaret Alkek Williams Chair, MFAH, said, “A century after the Museum’s founding by a group of local art lovers, it is thrilling to place the finishing touches on the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus, the most complete expression of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. None of them could have imagined the scale, scope, and sweep of the museum campus, nor the breadth of its collections.

But thanks to hundreds of generous donors, led by the Sarofims and Nancy and Rich Kinder, we have been able to construct magnificent new facilities for the display of the art of the preceding century and of our time, and to provide new plazas and gardens that will make the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston the cultural hub of the region. I extend my gratitude and congratulations to Steven Holl and Chris McVoy and repeat my heartfelt thanks to the legion of patrons who made this vast undertaking possible.”

Rich Kinder said, “Nancy and I are overjoyed to see this wonderful building open its doors to the public in the heart of a beautifully expanded and landscaped campus. This opening means so much to us because we know what it means for the people of Houston, who make this institution their museum, day after day. We thank everyone who shares our deep belief in Houston and has worked to make this day a reality.”

About the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building

The Kinder Building is opening with the first comprehensive installation of the Museum’s collections of modern and contemporary artworks, drawn from the collections of Latin American and Latino art; photography; prints and drawings; decorative arts, craft, and design; and modern and contemporary art.

A flexible black-box gallery at street level is devoted to immersive installations, including The Hydrospatial City, 1946-1972, by the Argentinean artist Gyula Kosice and Caper, Salmon to White: Wedgework, 2000, a light-filled environment by James Turrell. A windowed gallery facing Main Street features Lezart I, 1989, a monumental installation by the Brazilian artist Tunga, adjacent to a gallery presenting the Museum’s kinetic sculptures by Jean Tinguely, a historic 1965 acquisition. Moon Dust (Apollo 17), 2009, an installation of suspended lights by Spencer Finch, hangs in the café space.

The second-floor galleries are organized by curatorial department. While incorporating all major movements and representing the internal histories of different media, the galleries also challenge familiar narratives by cutting across national borders and in some cases chronological categories. The third-floor galleries feature thematic exhibitions, with artworks from the 1960s onward. These inaugural exhibitions are Collectivity, featuring works that activate a sense of community; Color Into Light, showcasing the dynamic role of color in the work of artists in the United States, Latin America, and Europe; LOL!, with works that use humor as a strategy; Border, Mapping, Witness, which considers maps and borders in geographic, social, and political terms; and Line Into Space, examining how artists have explored line in multiple dimensions and media.

These first installations in the Kinder Building are accompanied by eight major site-specific commissioned works. Commissioned artists are El Anatsui, Byung Hoon Choi, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Ólafur Elíasson, Trenton Doyle Hancock, Cristina Iglesias, Jason Salavon, and Ai Weiwei. These commissions join additional recent acquisitions featured in the Kinder Building, including works by Magdalena Abakanowicz, Glenn Ligon, Martin Puryear, Ursula von Rydingsvard, Doris Salcedo, and Kara Walker.

About the Susan and Fayez S. Sarofim Campus

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building stands in complementary contrast to the Museum’s existing gallery buildings—the Caroline Wiess Law Building (designed in the 1920s by William Ward Watkin, with later extensions by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe) and the Audrey Jones Beck Building (designed by Rafael Moneo, opened in 2000)—and in dialogue with the adjacent 1986 Lillie and Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden, designed by Isamu Noguchi. The trapezoidal concrete Kinder Building is clad in vertical glass tubes that emit a soft glow at night in a pattern across its facades. Five rectangular courtyard pools are inset along the perimeter, emphasizing the building’s openness to its surroundings.

The redevelopment of the Sarofim Campus and off-site art-storage facilities has been the largest cultural project in North America, with some 650,000 square feet of new construction. Steven Holl Architects designed the master plan for the redevelopment, along with the Kinder Building and a new home for the Glassell School of Art. Lake|Flato Architects designed the new Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation Center for Conservation. Both the school and the conservation center opened in 2018. Green spaces by Deborah Nevins & Associates, in collaboration with Mario Benito, help unify the 14-acre campus and make it a walkable urban oasis in Houston’s increasingly dense Museum District.

Installation view of Byung Hoon Choi’s Scholar’s Way, designed 2018. Sited on the west facade of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building: photo © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Support for the Campus Project

Bank of America is the Lead Corporate Sponsor for the Kinder Building inaugural presentations, supporting the five thematic exhibitions on the third floor. “Art has the power to bring communities together – something we need now more than ever,” said Hong Ogle, Houston market president, Bank of America. “At the new MFAH Kinder Building, Bank of America is helping bring modern and contemporary art to light in Houston, including thought-provoking presentations that reflect on ideas of community and bear witness to social injustices and struggles of our time.”

Installation view of Ólafur Elíasson’s Sometimes an underground movement is an illuminated bridge tunnel, 2020, in the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston: photo © Richard Barnes, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Nancy and Rich Kinder Building opening is sponsored in part by a major grant from the Texas Commission on the Arts.

Installation view of Ai Weiwei’s Dragon Reflection, 2019-20: photo : Thomas Dubrock, courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The MFAH initiated its Campaign for the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston in January 2012 with a goal of $450 million, including funds for operating endowment. The campaign has exceeded expectations, raising more than $470 million to date.

Exterior view of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building: photograph : Peter Molick

Steven Holl Architects

Steven Holl

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Nancy and Rich Kinder Building information / photos received 150920

photograph : Peter Molick, Thomas Kirk III

Nancy and Rich Kinder Building

Previously on e-architect:

Feb 2, 2012

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion

New Facilities For Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The Caroline Wiess Law Building, MFAH, by Mies van der Rohe: photograph © MFAH

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion design by Steven Holl Architects, NY, USA

2011 Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion Architects

The Audrey Jones Beck Building, MFAH, by Rafael Moneo: photograph © Robb Williamson

Museum of Fine Arts Houston original gallery building architect : Mies van der Rohe

Museum of Fine Arts Houston – existing gallery building architect : Rafael Moneo

Museum of Fine Arts Houston Expansion information from MFAH

Location: Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas, USA

Houston Architecture

Houston Building Designs

Houston Architecture images © Houston Airport System

Houston Ballet Design: Marshall Strabala, Gensler image : Nic Lehoux Houston Ballet Building

Rice University Dormitories – North College redevelopment Design: Hopkins Architects photo © Robert Benson North College Rice University

Texas Architecture

Perot Museum of Nature & Science, Dallas Morphosis Perot Museum of Nature & Science

Houston Architects

Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland

Comments / photos for the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Houstonpage welcome

Website: USA

The post Nancy and Rich Kinder Building Houston appeared first on e-architect.

[shanedakotamuir]

America needs to hear — under oath — from Pompeo, Perry, Pence, and Bolton

President Trump, flanked by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, announced on October 23, 2019, that the US will lift sanctions on Turkey. | Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Sondland’s bombshell testimony demands answers from top officials.

Rep. Devin Nunes is actually right about something: The key witnesses in the Trump impeachment hearings so far haven’t said that Donald Trump directly told them to get Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden. But while Nunes keeps ranting and raving about his desire to hear directly from the no-longer-relevant whistleblower, the real issue is that we need to hear from people in Trump’s inner circle: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney, Energy Secretary Rick Perry, Vice President Mike Pence, and of course Rudy Giuliani.

Wednesday morning’s testimony from Ambassador Gordon Sondland was full of bombshells, including sworn testimony that he had a conversation with Vice President Mike Pence in Poland about the linkage between the suspension of aid and Trump’s desire for investigations into the former vice president. “Everyone was in the loop,” according to Sondland — a point he insisted on at several points during his opening statement, asserting that all the top officials in the Trump administration understood what was happening.

Pence, via a spokesman, says this isn’t true. He says that Sondland “was never alone with the Vice President” during the trip in question and the “alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador Sondland never happened.”

“The alleged discussion recalled by Ambassador Sondland never happened,” says @marcshort45. pic.twitter.com/eNrpxUEekl

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) November 20, 2019

Someone is mistaken — or lying — here. And given that scrupulous honesty is not exactly a hallmark of the Trump administration, it’s certainly possible that it could be either of them. The difference is that Sondland has testified, in person, before Congress, while Pence is putting out a statement through a spokesperson.

Sondland’s testimony also directly attributes key statements, actions, and knowledge of a quid pro quo between Ukraine and the Trump White House to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry (whose spokesperson also put out a statement contradicting Sondland), and former National Security Adviser John Bolton. But none of those men has testified before Congress. Neither has Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney nor Rudy Giuliani — the man who did most of the actual legwork on the caper that Congress is investigating. Some of these men are defying subpoenas, others haven’t even been called.

The sheer volume of leaks coming out of the Trump White House has consistently created the sense that we have a lot of knowledge of what’s happening on the inside. But in a practical sense, this has been one of the least transparent administrations of all time. Testimony from these players could greatly increase our understanding of relevant events.

The multiple bombshells dropped by Sondland in his testimony are a reminder of the critical value of hearing from political appointees with access to the president, not just career civil servants. But Sondland himself is far from the top of the chain of command. America needs to hear from more people.

Most of the star witnesses don’t know Trump

One valid point congressional Republicans repeatedly raised during earlier days of the hearings is that many of the Democrats’ star witnesses — including George Kent, Bill Taylor, and Marie Yovanovitch — don’t know Trump personally, didn’t work directly with Trump, and to an extent are relying on second-hand information for their understanding of what’s happening.

Trump, similarly, took a time out from a cabinet meeting to observe “I don’t know [Lietenant Colonel Alexander] Vindman at all,” and, “I never heard of him,” while a variety of House Republicans, when not actively smearing Vindman, argued that he was less important in the policy process than he made himself out to be.

None of this changes the fact that their detailed knowledge of Ukraine and US policy toward Ukraine makes them valuable witnesses. But it’s true that to get a full picture of what’s going on, you’d want to hear from more people who had direct access to the principals. It actually makes quite a bit of difference what other people in the presidential line of succession said and did around all of this.

Caroline Brehman/CQ-Roll Call/Getty Images

Gordon Sondland, US ambassador to the European Union, arrives to testify before the House Intelligence Committee on November 20, 2019.

Democrats haven’t forgotten to ask the higher-ups. The White House has asked everyone to refuse to comply with subpoenas, leaving Democrats to rely on testimony from those willing to defy Trump and come forward. That group contains some key witnesses, most critically Sondland himself, but nowhere close to everyone you might want to hear from. That leaves Sondland’s sworn testimony dueling with Pence’s spokesman-written statement, and leaves the American people at least partially in the dark about what was happening.

Democrats have tools to turn up the pressure

The best way to resolve this situation would be for the officials in question to do the right thing and agree to testify. Following that, in an ideal world congressional Republicans would stand up for the institutional prerogatives of Congress and the interests of the American people and vocally call for them to testify.

In the real world, neither of those things is going to happen.

Unfortunately, that leaves the ball in Democrats’ court, but they’re not entirely without tools here. They could, for starters, attempt to use their powers of inherent contempt to raise pressure on non-cooperating officials.

Doug Mills-Pool/AFP/Getty Images

House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (left) (D-CA), and House Intelligence Committee Ranking Member Devin Nunes (R-CA) listen to US Ambassador to the European Union Gordon Sondland’s testimony.

They could also engage in some political combat. Congress is working on government funding bills that give Democrats some leverage over the White House. There are also ongoing negotiations about ratification of the president’s signature USMCA trade deal.

And there’s also simply a question of public messaging. Democrats, as of now, haven’t made a big deal in public about the failure of key officials to testify. That’s in keeping with what seems to be prevailing sentiment that the impeachment inquiry should be fast and narrow rather than broad and quick.

A speedy approach makes sense if Senate Republicans are open-minded about this situation. The facts revealed so far are extremely damning, so it could make sense to just move forward quickly rather than get bogged down in political and legal warfare about additional testimony. But of course that isn’t the situation.

Republicans aren’t going to agree to remove Trump. Everything that’s happening here is political display for the benefit of the voters. And to that end it would be extremely edifying to have extended public discussion of why the White House is stonewalling and why we can’t find out more about exactly who did what when.

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