#katharine x amelia 1

[myladygrey]

starter for @katharined before banishment // katharine's quarters, hampton court

What Amelia learned of the duties for a wife and mother, was bound and caged within the beating heart of her lady mother. Though but mortal formed, the evidence of their Tudor blood still running rampant with life in every breath Katharine took, in every sharp quip her formidable mind produced, the duchess tread akin to ethereal legend within the confines of her second-born’s mind. Time had taught the newly appointed Seymour that all mighty mortals were, in fact, vulnerably human. But as a child, Amelia - her father’s inherited butter-haired curls brushing against her own tender face as she marvelled at her mother’s portrait, the beauty and prowess of pedigree and character alike - aspired to affect a room the way she did. The young lady Grey grew enamoured by her mother’s passing figure fluttering in and out of courts, desperate to please her. Apprehensive to falter, to drown from favour as the middle-daughter. To be swept up in the wake of attention from the baby, and the eldest.  Stuck on the lessons from studying her mother’s guidance throughout the yeast - wise, meticulous in aim, a seasoned huntress: stay tenacious, stay relentless, and endure. Resolved to marry strong, create her own shattering impact for the good of the family - now, though she would not take even a single step to the past to undo all the glories the Lord had gifted her with John- still felt bittersweet in nerves.

Here, in the low-ringing aftermath of family knowledge that her mother had wed Edmund Percy, another lesson arised. In the tapestry of their ancestral legacy, she could begin to count the stitches where the women defied order. Their hearts, their own determination guiding them to matrimony without the King’s blessing. Her grandmother - the king’s own sister - visited her in dreams following Amelia’s flight to the chapel, to whisper an oath of life and honour to John Seymour. Would Mary Brandon visit her mother, too? Haunt her dreams of an action now repeated within three generations, so deeply inherited within their bones, to fight for their own narrative? 

The weight of this clandestine union, and how it added to the frenzied state of House Grey, felt dizzying, from so many angles. Fear, the overbearing. There was no time for ruminating. Heels clicking in a determined march to greet her mother in the hazy twilight hour, where the sky coaxed lavender against the heavy-lined treetops of Hampton, she greeted her mother’s quarters with winter-cold hued gaze fixated on the woman she’d grown to admire. Not paying mind to the decorum of a woman, but very much the child, as she was assured they were alone, resorting to flinging her arms around Katharine’s shoulders and pulling her tight. “Why?” She whispered, tilting her temple against Katharine’s own. “Why was I not informed sooner… considering all we’ve been through, together, in the wake of my own choice? Tell me, mother, does your soul feel that this is your destiny? I cannot rest, I cannot think -  until you tell me you are happy, you are safe, you are secure.” 

Pulling back to view Katharine’s face, she cups her cheeks with her palms. “You deserve one who offers you the world within his embrace, do you not? A love true, steadfast love? How has Edmund Percy become your suitor, how has he won your heart and the honour of being your husband?” She demanded, searching Katharine’s eyes.

[archivistsammy]

Stackednatural Wrapped

well. 327 episodes and 257 days later, stackednatural has ended. 

let’s recap.

there were 87 days with two or more episodes, for which katharine created 104 comparison gif sets and a video. plus an additional six gif sets and a video connecting either some but not all of the day’s episodes or episodes that aired on different days. all found here. 

combined with six gif sets and two videos made for single episodes, the grand total comes to 120 stackednatural edits. 

not even gonna count our combined non-edit stacks found here. 

a few highlights and observations from katharine under the cut.

many of the parallels drawn were fairly innocuous. others induced major brain worms, such as:

october 1 - 5.4 // 6.2 - dean reckoning with his becoming a version of himself he does not want to be

october 12 - 2.3 // 13.1 - #notallmonsters merry-go-round

october 17 - 8.3 // 15.2 - sam and amara (and, by that token, dean and chuck; see also: january 16)

february 1 - 2.13 // 13.12 - sam hitting his faith limits

april 20 - 1.20 // 7.19 - bobby > john

may 15 - 3.16 // 8.23 - same point, opposite argument

a handful of stacks were so powerful that they became MEGA stacks:

november 1 - 3.5 “bedtime stories” // 14.4 “mint condition”

january 23 - 8.11 “larp and the real girl” // 15.10 “the heroes’ journey”

february 7 - 1.14 “nightmare” // 3.10 “dream a little dream of me” // 14.13 “lebanon”

april 1 - 5.16 “dark side of the moon” // 10.17 “inside man”

may 3 - 2.20 “what is and what should never be” // 13.21 “beat the devil”

non-stacked honorable mentions:

1.4 “phantom traveler” // 8.1 “we need to talk about kevin”

4.4 “metamorphosis” // 8.2 “what’s up, tiger mommy?”

15.16 “drag me away (from you)” // 4.6 “yellow fever” // 3.4 “sin city” // 14.3 “the spear”

9.10 “road trip” // 12.1 “keep calm and carry on”

*looks down* *smiles shyly* if you wanted to tell us YOUR favorite or most brain-worm-inducing post(s), our ask box is open. 

stackednatural also inspired a number of meta reflections, including:

sam believing he needs someone to serve as his moral compass. and how that works both with and against his role as keeper of the faith. believing he can determine an alternate solution while not believing in himself. and how this dynamic plays out between not only sam and dean but also sam and cas. 

sam’s ambivalence about sharing the monsters-are-real secret. with him repeatedly saying it is safer for people to never learn the truth (2.12, 12.15, 14.16). admitting that he wishes he never learned the truth (1.18, 5.6). never telling jess. never telling amelia. shocked that dean told cassie. and yet sam apparently told several people as a kid (4.13, 5.12). resents dean and john for repeatedly keeping him out of the loop. is uncomfortable with doing the same to jack. 

the sheer number of times dean tells someone that they are not themselves or who they say they are or who others perceive them to be. dean is chief of performativity and thus main arbiter of identity, apparently. 

finally, a partial list of episodes we would prefer to never watch again: 6.8, 8.4, 8.15, 9.4, 9.20, 10.15, 11.19, 12.5, 12.9, 13.11, 13.15, 14.16, 15.19, 15.20

if you joined us for any or all of this journey—hey, look at us. if you had no clue what stackednatural was and put up or even engaged with our posting anyway, condolences. and thank you x