#s/i shipboard

[secretspiritmoodboards]

Shipboard for Ren Hana (BTD) and S/I emo/dark web themes ^^ For an anon~ Hope you like this!

We're closed for now, thank you so much!

[blue-and-gilt]

17th Century Shell Guard Broadsword

There's something unique about holding a piece of history that dates back four hundred years. They have a presence, a gravitas that, more recent swords lack.

So, what is this sword? The Royal Armouries simply describes the examples in their collection as an early 17th-century broadsword with shell guard (Object IX.172). While Ewart Oakeshott in his book "European Weapons and Armour - From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution" describes two types of swords with related characteristics: the German sabre, circa 1540s, with forward and rear quillons, a knuckle bow, and a distinctive shell guard covering the outside of the hand. Plus, the second type of Sinclair hilt, with its one-piece S-shaped crossguard forming the rear quillon and knuckle guard.

At the same time, the Dutch sword historian J.P. Puype describes these as a Solingen horseman's sword of the classical type: "The problem with this type of sword is that so far there has never been written a proper monography on them and that opinions on them are practically always unsubstantiated by evidence. The other problem is that they are often seen as naval but there is more evidence to tell us that they were army swords.

I think that I may be the first arms historian who identified these swords as cavalry swords, but I have to admit that in publications prior to 1998 I (too) identified them exclusively as shipboard cutlasses.

In the 1990s I became increasingly involved in writing publications and doing museum exhibitions on Prince Maurice and the new Dutch so-called  States Army of the 1590s. In the course of this involvement I analysed the pictures by Jacob de Gheyn made during the 1590s of the infantry drill and cavalry drills. These infantry pictures were published in a book in 1607, although we know that its manuscript was already in existence c. 1595-c.1597, but was withheld by Prince Maurice for reasons of security.

Simultaneously, a book on the cavalry exercise was conceived, but its publication was permanently withheld by Maurice, partly for security reasons, partly also because Prince Maurice in 1597 or 1598 abolished the lancers.

Among the cavalry prints the heavy cavalry has as its chief weapon the lance (it was abolished in 1597 or 1598 in favor of the wheel-lock pistol, and the lancers became 'pistoliers'). However, the light cavalry is armed with swords with shell-guard hilts.

So we can only prove that the seashell-hilted sword apparently originated in the cavalry. The earliest proof that I have of its maritime use is after 1700. I do not know how to explain the picture of the French privateer Lolonois of 1684 (the year of appearance of the original Dutch edition) who is armed with a seashell-hilted cutlass with a curved blade with clipped point.

One other of the very few other 17th C pictures I know in which appear  what seem to be shell-hilted cutlasses is on the title-page of a book published in 1673 (see the attachment). There is a heap of apparently seashell-hilted cutlasses in the foreground but it is clear that the hilts are rendered in a wrong version. The blades, however, are curved and with clipped point.

In or before 1978 the wreck of a flatboat was found in the lake what once was the Zuyderzee. This boat was full of arms and military equipment, destined for what were army outposts on islands against a possible French invasion in 1672. Among the cargo were four swords with seashell guards and straight blades. In the attachment are two archaeological drawings.

All this does not bring us definitive answers to the problem when we view the portrait of the French privateer l'Olonnais (spelled as Lolonois) in which he is holding a seashell-hilted cutlass with curved blade with clipped point. I do not know of the actual existence of such a sword - nowhere in the world. I dare not go so far as to suggest that swords of this type may be artists' impressions only but somehow it does feel that way!"

Jan Piet Puype.

In short, these are another variation of military broadsword that would have been common amongst the military armies of the first half of the 17th-century. While it is appealing to look at the portrait of the French privateer Lolonois as evidence that these swords have a naval connection, the unfortunate reality is that the artist likely never met his subject. Furthermore, he made a notable error in the sword's detailing; with the quillon and knucklebow reversed, the sword becomes impractical to wield. In conclusion, we see an artist's impression, not a historical representation.

In German and Dutch references, these swords are called houdegen or houwdegen, which translates to 'hewing sword'. Although short, their weight and broad, double-edged lenticular blades give these swords a no-nonsense functionality. A single fuller runs for the first 20% starting at the guard. The ricasso is a square block with two smaller side fullers running along its length. On both sides of the ricasso is a maker mark of a crown above an O and T. According to the Royal Armouries, this is the mark of a Spanish smith. However, I have seen one text attribute this to a Solingen swordsmith. Given that the blade has ME FECIT and SOLINGEN (Solingen Made Me) stamped into the fuller, it seems more likely that the stamp is either a copy of the Spanish maker mark or one unique to a Solingen blade maker.

The grip retains its' original wire and Turks head knots at each end. It has a pear-shaped pommel with a tang button on the top for the peen. Although I can't be sure, I expect the pommel is hollow, like we see on the Amsterdam Walloon swords.

The S-shaped crossguard and shell guard are two separate pieces that appear to have been forge-welded together. While the hilt and pommel on my sword are solid, the guard is loose. There probably used to be a fabric or leather washer between the blade shoulder and guard to hold them tight. On the inside of the guard, it continues to cover the thumb, curling around on itself to form a thumb ring. This combination of knuckle bow and shell guard offers the wielder a lot of hand protection.

Stats: Overall Length - 870 mm Blade Length - 725 mm Point of Balance - 90 mm Grip Length - 140 mm Inside Grip Length - 80 mm Weight - 900 grams

[skepwith]

Revenge Master Post

Here’s all my info, research, and speculation about OFMD’s Revenge.

Parts of the Revenge: an illustrated guide to what to call the various decks, masts, pointy bits, etc.

More Parts of the Revenge: includes season 2’s Hidden Room for People Who Are Not Well.

Yet More Parts of the Revenge: sails and rigging, plus whatever I couldn’t fit anywhere else.

Shipboard Timekeeping: the glass, the bell, and the various watches

Diagrams

Diagrams of the full ship (most up-to-date)

Diagram of the gun deck

Diagram of the great cabin

My conclusions explained, with supporting screencaps, illustrations, and occasional historical tidbits

Why you wouldn’t want to make love in the crow’s nest, or It’s the maintop, dammit!

Where everybody goes to the bathroom

The gun deck, Jim’s room, and the staircase to the great cabin

The great cabin, the mizzenmast, and deck prisms

The main hatches and the ladder

The futility of it all

Proof that it’s bigger on the inside, or Where are the corner windows???

A behind-the-scenes look at the stern, with the author of all our troubles

[12-cluh]

Masterlist

Clayton Mood Board

Multiverse Tales Shipboard

Clayton AU Backstory

Dresden hates swimming lol

Clayton Voicecast

Dresden Voicecast

My biggest post lmao

Dresden gets no b*tches

Dresden and Harold talk about Sterling

Clayton would not beat women >:(

Dresden is built different

My beautiful boy :D

Clayton yap session

Dresden simps

12's Multiverse

O5 Council Lore

Councilman! Dresden AU Lore

Northside PMCs

Operation Hellblitz

Calvin Lucien

William Afton Jr.

Foundation's Timeline List

O5-14 and O5-10

UA682

O5-14 doesn't understand copyright law

"I'm sorry my dear..."

If the heavens may break...

"ALL I NEEDS A LITTLE LOVE IN MY LIFE-"

Just a guy and his grandfather

Mobile Task Force Alpha-1 (Red Right Hand) Photoshoot, 05 14 24

RIP

B&S

Charts

Writing/Morality

Violence/If Deserved

Suffering

Personal Opinion Tier List

Strength Tier List

Top 10 Gaming Characters

Top 10 Spider-People

SCP Collections

Narrative Trio

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

[far-from-fran]

Hey! I'm Far from Fran, and welcome to my blog.

You can call me Fran, but Far is fine too. Ok, we've got the name out of the way. Onto the boring stuff:

Age: 25+

Pronouns: She/her

Queer. If that matters.🤷🏾‍♀️

NSFW, 18+ only.

Ship and let ship

Your kink is not my kink and that's ok

Mind your business and I'll mind mine.

Antis/Minors: DNI

I write, I talk about movies and junk, fandom experiences, tons of headcanons.

I'm multifandom, multiship, polyship, and a selfshipper.

If you wanna know more, like my fandoms, ships, and general tags, check out my tag lists: General Tags, Fandom Tags, Ship Tags, Selfship Tags, NSFW Tags, Tags You Might Wanna Block.

Ok, now onto the fun part:

I make stuff!😁

I make mood boards/shipboards/style boards, playlists, and edits.

I'm happy to take requests for the fandoms I'm in.

Request rules:

-> One request at a time, per person.

-> I only make content for fandoms I'm in. If you're not sure if we share a certain fandom, just ask.

-> I don't do content of real people. Characters from live action media are fine, but I won't do content for actors, singers, YouTubers, etc.

-> Include the character(s), ship(s), type of content you want, and what elements you want included. (Colors, aesthetic, specific songs, pictures, etc.)

-> Please be patient. I'll @ you with the finished request as soon as I can, but this blog is my personal fandom blog. Not just a request blog.

-> I don't take requests for full fics, but I do for small stuff.

-> I can and will refuse a request for whatever reason.

That's all the basics. Enjoy my blog!

~Love,

Fran💌

[gemscales-and-tea]

~ Take you on a date I'll pick you up tonight at 8 It's Halloween, let's dance through the cemetery ~ ~D&S~

Another shipboard for Drak x Scott Howard cause I felt like it

[doctor-fancy-pants]

Finding pieces of yourself that you thought you'd lost

I have no idea why, but after several years of not doing so, somehow this year I started writing songs again. After shipboard karaoke reminded me that it’s not just Broadway While Driving, I can actually sing and people like it, I’ve been thinking about recording something.

That being said, I never developed the “ah this song is in this key and should have these chords” skill, as that was Shayne’s job as our lead guitar, and he was VERY good at finding the bones of a song if I sang him a melody line.

He’s a metal guitarist and has the requisite chops for that — mostly what I’m after is a folk/rock vibe, so we parted ways musically many years ago.

Meanwhile: I played bass and sang. I was… okay?

(I am much better now, vocally - but from memory this gig at the Old Bar in 2009 went pretty well. That's Grace the Bass, by the way. Easy action Ibanez that didn't brutalise my hands to keep the strings down. And yes, that is my hair colour under stage lighting. Rach has pretty much nailed it in my Sea Witch profile pic.)

I played bass because no one else wanted to and I figured if I was going to pick up a stringed instrument, low end and four strings seemed easier. Also bass riffs are super fun ("Baby, I got you on my mind...").

I set all that aside when the band disbanded and the PhD got painfully intense.

I never developed the skillset of figuring out the root-note-harmonic bones of a song - so I figured I was probably not a good songwriter. Like. At all.

But the songs have just come at me this year, and old songs I wrote that I’d forgotten about, and those I always remembered…

And this is the space between Xmas and New Year. This is the time between finishing the voyage and finding the threads of my terrestrial existence.

This is the perfect time to drag out my acoustic and my bass guitar, dig out my tuners, and tune them both.

A perfect time to pick up “what is a song I know that is easy to play” so I can learn enough basic guitar to help with songwriting.

(the easiest option for me would involve the piano, which I can actually play. Again, not a virtuoso, but I muddle through. However, my great grandmother’s piano is still up on the mountain.)

A perfect time to grab some bass tabs for songs I know because that will give me a jumpstart since at one point I could, in fact, play bass.

(side note: Adele is extremely fun to sing, but there are two songs on the first album that seem to be carried by bass lines, and that has my attention.)

A perfect time to do all this and not feel self-conscious because normally there’s a voice in my head that tells me not to do this.

That voice can fuck right the fuck off. I don’t expect anything amazing to come out of my songs. I just want to have a record of them. I want to be able to play it for someone and say “I made this, and I am happy with what I’ve made.”

That voice that tells me I’m not a musician and never have been…?Jesus fkn christ I can’t actually play guitar and haven’t tried in years and my fingers still found the frets for the chords I do know without even fucking trying. There’s something there.

And in terms of practice and physical skills, I think about playing Beat Saber, and how I’m fucking good at a rhythm dance game, because I’ve played hundreds of hours.

That reminds me I can acquire physical skills.

At least, I can when the voice in my head - the one that says I look ridiculous- shuts the fuck up. Because who the fuck cares if I look ridiculous? I might as well just lean all the way in and get somewhere.

I haven't done any Beat Saber bragging in a while, but I managed to get through BTS Not Today on Expert+ and score an S on the first try, which is not too shabby.

And I’m going for achievable goals: not aiming to be a virtuoso. I just want to be able to find the structure. I want to piece together the parts of the song I don’t have, and build it up the way it deserves.

Breaking that down further: I know I need interim goals to learn new skills. It’s why I had trouble trying to teach myself coding — I need an immediate use-case, and I didn’t have one.

So: I’ll learn a song I know.

Magpie (Mountain Goats) is a set of chords I already know - bam.

More immediately: Need a capo and some picks, because I have no idea where mine ended up. Fortunately those are very cheap items, and there’s a music shop in Upwey, very close at hand.

One step (fret? Semitone?) at a time.

-Doc out

[notasapleasure]

I wanted to rec The Cruel Ship's Carpenter as another murder ballad where the woman does get her vengeance, and it turns out to be related to the above-mentioned Pretty Polly!

From Mainly Norfolk (emphasis added by me):

Paddy McCluskey of Clough Mills, Co Antrim, North Ireland, sang Young Willie to Peter Kennedy and Sean O’Boyle on 5 August 1953. This BBC recording 20032 was included without verses 1, 3 and 4 on the anthology Fair Game and Foul (The Folk Songs of Britain Volume 7; Caedmon 1961; Topic 1970). The album’s booklet noted: "No British broadside ballad has been more important in American tradition than The Cruel Ship’s Carpenter or The Gosport Tragedy. It tells of a young lady lured from her home by her sailor-lover and murdered. Later, on shipboard, her ghost appears and tears him in three parts before the eyes of the superstitious crew. This latter part of the story did not survive in the common American variants, but the theme, the murder of the innocent and pregnant girl by her lover gave rise to many indigenous American ballads—Pretty Polly, The Knoxville Girl, Hattie Stout, Down in the Lone Green Valley to mention only a few. This was certainly the most popular domestic folk ballad subject in middle America during the 19th century. Theodore Drieser chose it as the theme of his greatest novel, The American Tragedy."

So if you feel you're missing out on the satisfying ending, try Jackie Oates's version:

Also to follow up @rapidashrider 's recs, there's a fantastic French version of The Outlandish Knight (a Bluebeard story kind of!) that I think I read inspired Nic Jones's classic version

And if you ever ever get a chance to see the stage play 'The Ballad of Maria Martin' about the Red Barn murder then you'll get a properly feminist take on the tabloid frenzy around it, with an all female cast and beautiful songs. The script is available here.

the appalachian murder ballad <3 one of the most interesting elements of americana and american folk, imo!

my wife recently gave me A Look when i had one playing in the car and she was like, "why do all of these old folk songs talk about killing people lmao" and i realized i wanted to Talk About It at length.

nerd shit under the cut, and it's long. y'all been warned

so, as y'all probably know, a lot of appalachian folk music grew its roots in scottish folk (and then was heavily influenced by Black folks once it arrived here, but that's a post for another time).

they existed, as most folk music does, to deliver a narrative--to pass on a story orally, especially in communities where literacy was not widespread. their whole purpose was to get the news out there about current events, and everyone loves a good murder mystery!

as an aside, i saw someone liken the murder ballad to a ye olde true crime podcast and tbh, yeah lol.

the "original" murder ballads started back across the pond as news stories printed on broadsheets and penned in such a way that it was easy to put to melody.

they were meant to be passed on and keep the people informed about the goings-on in town. i imagine that because these songs were left up to their original orators to get them going, this would be why we have sooo many variations of old folk songs.

naturally then, almost always, they were based on real events, either sung from an outside perspective, from the killer's perspective and in some cases, from the victim's. of course, like most things from days of yore, they reek of social dogshit. the particular flavor of dogshit of the OG murder ballad was misogyny.

so, the murder ballad came over when the english and scots-irish settlers did. in fact, a lot of the current murder ballads are still telling stories from centuries ago, and, as is the way of folk, getting rewritten and given new names and melodies and evolving into the modern recordings we hear today.

305 such scottish and english ballads were noted and collected into what is famously known as the Child Ballads collected by a professor named francis james child in the 19th century. they have been reshaped and covered and recorded a million and one times, as is the folk way.

while newer ones continued to largely fit the formula of retelling real events and murder trials (such as one of my favorite ones, little sadie, about a murderer getting chased through the carolinas to have justice handed down), they also evolved into sometimes fictional, (often unfortunately misogynistic) cautionary tales.

perhaps the most famous examples of these are omie wise and pretty polly where the woman's death almost feels justified as if it's her fault (big shocker).

but i digress. in this way, the evolution of the murder ballad came to serve a similar purpose as the spooky legends of appalachia did/do now.

(why do we have those urban legends and oral traditions warning yall out of the woods? to keep babies from gettin lost n dying in them. i know it's a fun tiktok trend rn to tell tale of spooky scary woods like there's really more haints out here than there are anywhere else, but that's a rant for another time too ain't it)

so, the aforementioned little sadie (also known as "bad lee brown" in some cases) was first recorded in the 1920s. i'm also plugging my favorite female-vocaist cover of it there because it's superior when a woman does it, sorry.

it is a pretty straightforward murder ballad in its content--in the original version, the guy kills a woman, a stranger or his girlfriend sometimes depending on who is covering it.

but instead of it being a cautionary 'be careful and don't get pregnant or it's your fault' tale like omie wise and pretty polly, the guy doesn't get away with it, and he's not portrayed as sympathetic like the murderer is in so many ballads.

a few decades after, women started saying fuck you and writing their own murder ballads.

in the 40s, the femme fatale trope was in full swing with women flipping the script and killing their male lovers for slights against them instead.

men began to enter the "find out" phase in these songs and paid up for being abusive partners. women regained their agency and humanity by actually giving themselves an active voice instead of just being essentially 'fridged in the ballads of old.

her majesty dolly parton even covered plenty of old ballads herself but then went on to write the bridge, telling the pregnant-woman-in-the-murder-ballad's side of things for once. love her.

as a listener, i realized that i personally prefer these modern covers of appalachian murder ballads sung by women-led acts like dolly and gillian welch and even the super-recent crooked still especially, because there is a sense of reclamation, subverting its roots by giving it a woman's voice instead.

meaning that, like a lot else from the problematic past, the appalachian murder ballad is something to be enjoyed with critical ears. violence against women is an evergreen issue, of course, and you're going to encounter a lot of that in this branch of historical music.

but with folk songs, and especially the murder ballad, being such a foundational element of appalachian history and culture and fitting squarely into the appalachian gothic, i still find them important and so, so interesting

i do feel it's worth mentioning that there are "tamer" ones. with traditional and modern murder ballads alike, some of them are just for "fun," like a murder mystery novel is enjoyable to read; not all have a message or retell a historical trial.

(for instance, i'd even argue ultra-modern, popular americana songs like hell's comin' with me is a contemporary americana murder ballad--being sung by a male vocalist and having evolved from being at the expense of a woman to instead being directed at a harmful and corrupt church. that kind of thing)

in short: it continues to evolve, and i continue to eat that shit up.

anyway, to leave off, lemme share with yall my personal favorite murder ballad which fits squarely into murder mystery/horror novel territory imo.

it's the 10th child ballad and was originally known as "the twa sisters." it's been covered to hell n back and named and renamed.

but! if you listen to any flavor of americana, chances are high you already know it; popular names are "the dreadful wind and rain" and sometimes just "wind and rain."

in it, a jealous older sister pushes her other sister into a river (or stream, or sea, depending on who's covering it) over a dumbass man. the little sister's body floats away and a fiddle maker come upon her and took parts of her body to make a fiddle of his own. the only song the new fiddle plays is the tale about how it came to be, and it is the same song you have been listening to until then.

how's that for genuinely spooky-scary appalachia, y'all?

[chrisframeofficial]

Cunard Celebrates 100 Years of World Cruising

This week Cunard launched a special photographic exhibition to celebrate a centenary of photography taken aboard their ships. The occasion acknowledges the introduction of onboard photographers, who have been sailing with Cunard’s ships since 1923. 

Throughout a century of shipboard photography, many unique moments have been captured aboard Cunard ships. 

From images of one of the modern Queens visiting a new port of call, to interior shots of the transatlantic liners, to dramatic photographs taken of troops during World War II, photography has captured both joy and danger from the decks of these ships. 

The launch of Cunard’s photographic exhibit coincides with the 100th anniversary of their first ever world cruise. Undertaken aboard the Laconia, the voyage departed in late 1922 and sailed through the early months of 1923. 

Run in partnership with American Express, the first Cunard world cruise sailed completely in the northern hemisphere – venturing only as far south as Panama and Singapore. However, it did encircle the world, and included transits of both the Panama Canal and Suez Canal. 

That first world cruise proved so popular that another Cunard world cruise aboard Samaria set sail in 1923. 

In the 1970s, Cunard’s world cruise presence was bolstered when their then-flagship QE2 commenced regular world cruises. She was joined on the world cruise circuit by other Cunarders including Sagafjord and later Royal Viking Sun. 

Today all three Cunard Queens undertake long duration global voyages. I was lucky enough to sail recently aboard all three Queens as a guest lecturer, speaking about Cunard’s long and illustrious history. Given the centenary of world cruising as well as the centenary of photography aboard Cunard ships, I thought it would be fun to share with you a few of my best snaps from the three Queens. 

Queen Elizabeth – we sailed from Sydney on a cruise around New Zealand in January. I particularly liked seeing the ship docked at Lyttleton, near Christchurch. I actually called in here on my first ever cruise aboard QE2 back in the 90s, so the visit was full of nostalgia for me. Queen Elizabeth also looked impressive in Tauranga. While we sailed back to Australia, we were followed by a water spout, which was pretty exciting! 

Queen Victoria – on this short cruise, we sailed from the Bay of Islands to Sydney. Queen Victoria looked particularly impressive at anchor in the Bay of Islands. When we arrived into Sydney, we witnessed a special drone light show before berthing at Circular Quay. It was great to see Queen Victoria near the Sydney Harbour Bridge. 

Queen Mary 2 – one of my all time favourite ships, it was fantastic to be back aboard Queen Mary 2 after a three year hiatus. As many of you will know, I was aboard QM2 when the global cruise shutdown commenced, so it was great to be back and see things running so well aboard the ship. 

There are so many wonderful things to see aboard this ship, and I loved taking photos of QM2’s bridge and bow, as well as watching the remarkable sunset that I captured while we were at anchor off Busselton. 

If you want to check out the full Cunard anniversary photographic exhibition, I’ve linked it here: https://www.cunard.com/en-au/inspirat... It’s worth checking out. 

[bennettbestboi]

"Jelous much, yeah?"

» genere : fluff

» gender / pronouns : gn! reader , no pronouns mentioned

» character(s) : jelous! Xiao x reader + Kazuha, Beido

» tw : mention of alcohol

» note: you go out to meet your friends just to get to know them better, but your boyfriends doesn't seem to like them too much...

"Pretty boy!" you shout at Xiao, putting on your favourite outfit as you're planning on going out. Xiao looks up with a tiny bit of a blush, used to your nicknames for him, but not really at the same time. "Yeah?" he asks back with curiousity plastered on his face, totally interested in what you're about to say (he's so in love( ღ'ᴗ'ღ )).

"I'm meeting my friends and i would like you to come with me." you smile at him, letting him know it's okay if he declines, but looking at how he's head-over-heels in love with you, he does everything and all just for you. "If you want me to go, then i'll go."

It wasn't hard to convince him and now both of you are sitting at a table at a pubs terrace, waiting for your short-time friends; Kazuha and Beidou.

You recently got to make friends with them. You met Beidou after they arrived back to Liyue from a long trip and the extroverted she was, she got to start a conversation with you. You find her very appealing with that easy-going personality, and how easy it was to like her. She then introduced you to Kazuha who also seemed interesting and intellectual. You definitely wanted to meet up with them again as you all spent the night together, drinking and having fun. None of you got wasted, just a bit tipsy to have slightly more fun than you already had.

Soon you saw Beidou already waving at you from quiet a distance with a huge smile on her face, excited to get to know you more. Kazuha also put up his palms, but not as noticeable as the taller woman beside him.

You looked next to you, waiting for a reaction from Xiao, but you couldn't read anything off of his poker-faced expression. The two sat down in front of you, Beido taking the seat that was facing you. "I'm kinda thirsty so let's order now that you've arrived." you smiled at them and called the waiter to take your drink orders. The captain Beidou is, she ordered beer for herself, Kazuha did the same. You ordered your favourite while Xiao wanted nothing.

You three started chating, Xiao not even bothering to join. He answered the questions directed to him, but did not ask back. You were quiet upset with him, but immediately shrugged it off when you felt your hand beeing grabbed by none other than your rather shy boyfriend. You looked at him shocked, but you recieved nothing. He didn't even looked at you. So cool... Just as you thought that without you noticing he blushed.

You went back on talking and joking with your friends. Your drinks have arrived, the atmosphere lighting up more as you feel the alcohols effect. Suddenly your busy hand was squeezed. Xiao intertwined your fingers together still not looking into your eyes. He wsnts attention...

"And what are you guys eating on the ship? What is your favourite?" the food topic came up, even if none of you wanted to eat, especially after drinking. "Well, fishing is rather a great option after quiet a while after being on shipboard. We often eat different type of fish." answered Kazuha, being interested in the food topic. "Mackerel is one of my favourite. I love the flavour of it. You should try it when i cook one." he sat back thinking about his favourite meal. "Ooh, you can cook?" you smirked. "It's really amazing!" said Beidou seductively. You both looked at each other, knowing what to say. "Husband material!" shouted the both of you then laughing.

Obviously you couldn't care less when you have your non-chef, perfect boyfriend beside you, gripping your hand. All of you knew that. You thought...

Xiao knew what's going on. He thought he did. He knew you just said that the man next to him was attractive in a way he couldn't be. He felt this weird feeling in his chest. Stupid mortal feeling have been filling him up since he met you. He hated every part of it, just the loving you part.

He glared at the man in front of him getting a rather confused look from him. Kazuha tried to avoid it, but it was too intense it was uncomfortable.

"I have a lot if work tonight, i should already start. Bye." Xiao stood, letting go of your hand and walking away. You looked after him confused how could he already go when it wasn't even dawn. Could he have gotten hurt by your little comment in Kazuha..?

"What does your boyfriend do?" asked Beidou not being too bothered by Xiaos leave. "He's kinda like a demon slayer." you said cockily. "A samurai is better tho-" "Shut up Kazuha." "Sorry..." you laughed at his apologetic tone, as he not figured it out what have had just happen. You also apologised and took your leave getting after your jelous boyfriend.

"Xiao!" you called out his name, but recieving a response. He's ignoring you! You smirked to yourself and started calling out his name multiple times. "Xiao! Xiao! Xiao! Xia-" you wanted to continue but you felt a hand on your mouth. "You're annoying me, mortal." he glared at you, but you just kept on smiling at him. "Jelous much?" you smirked at him. "I don't feel stupid mortal feelings." he scoffed. You took him in a tight hug. You put your mouth close to his ear. "I'm sorry if i've upset you." you whispered in his ears then placed a kiss on the side of his neck.

He blushed that right second you hugged him, now you're driving him crazy. He hummed, not being able to say anything due to his flustered state. "Seriously. I really was just joking around, not meaning any of what i said. I hope you can accept my apology, because i mean it." you gave him a peck on his lips. "I'll stop anything that is even a tiny bit close to flirting, okay? I'll do anything just to make you feel better." you smiled at him cupping his chubby cheeks in your hands. "Can you not meet him anymore..?" you hugged him letting out a chuckle. "We'll see about that." you pulled away looking into his eyes deeply. He blushed by your intense look, but he did not break the contact. He glanced down at your lips signaling he really wants to feel them, so as a good partner, you let him.

"I love you, Xiao."

"I-I love you too."

[thelostgirl21]

For those of you still arguing that Kaidan does not outrank Shepard as an Alliance Officer during the Citadel Coup...

...he does.

Actually, being a Staff Commander in ME2, Kaidan Alenko was already outranking Shepard when they met on Horizon.

First, it is important to understand that, while inspired by it, the Human Systems Alliance does not use the exact same ranking system as the U.S. Navy / Marines. [Edit: I've fixed some (hopefully, most!) of the "he/him/himself" pronouns I'd missed the first time around... And that was... like... 90% of the time I was referring to Shepard. *Facepalms* Sorry about that! I'm so used to writing for M!Shep, that I instinctively say "he/him/himself" when referring to them (and my brain does the weird French thing of including the feminine into the masculine while proofreading, apparently!). If you still spot a non gender-neutral pronoun in there, please feel free to let me know.]

Therefore, according to the System’s Alliance’s own ranking system (that can be found in the game’s codex entries; I’ve also added that information at the bottom of this post, with in-game examples) the rank of Major (and, in ME2, Staff Commander) is above that of a Lieutenant Commander (Shepard’s own Alliance military rank) within the Alliance.

It is the rank of an Alliance Captain (Navy), not that of an Alliance [Lieutenant] Commander (Navy & Marines), that is considered as being the equivalent of that of an Alliance Major (Marines).

Meaning that, by the beginning of ME3, Major Alenko has now risen through the ranks to the point where he holds a similar level of responsibility within the Systems Alliance as Captain Anderson used to hold in ME1. At the very beginning of ME1, Captain Anderson was a Navy Captain, and the Commanding Officer (C.O.) of the SSV Normandy.

Lieutenant Commander Shepard was his Executive Officer (X.O.).

And Staff Lieutenant Alenko was head of the ship's Marine detail*

By the beginning of ME3, Major Alenko is now a Marine Major, and the Commanding Officer (C.O.) of the 1st Special Operations Biotic Company, a covert operations unit of the Systems Alliance.

*Note: I just discovered yesterday what “Marine detail” means, and I just have to say Kaidan’s position on the Normandy is ridiculously cool! 

Basically, it’s Kaidan’s job to determine which personnel position, assignment, or duty station each Marine should have on the Normandy.  While basing his decisions on the person’s professional milestones, taking into consideration the Marine’s personal aspirations and stated preferences, considering their marital status / family lives and responsibilities outside of the military, evaluating whether they have the proper qualifications for the job or require further training, looking at performance reviews...

They are described as the Marine’s “advocate”, trying to make sure that not only are they the “best Marine” for what their actual job requires, but that it’s the job that will bring said Marine the greater level of work satisfaction / align with their needs and personal ambitions.

So basically, after Jenkins was KIA at the beginning of ME1, it was Kaidan’s job to find a suitable replacement to take over his duties on the ship.

So, after Shepard wakes up in the medbay, and expresses that they’re glad that Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams was still on the Normandy, because she’s a good soldier that deserves it, and Captain Anderson answers them: “Lieutenant Alenko agrees with you.  THAT’S WHY I added her to our crew.”

He literally means “After seeing her in action, Lieutenant Alenko reviewed her file, checked her qualifications, past performance reviews, family status, her documented professional aspirations and stated preferences, numerous past (denied) applications for a transfer to a shipboard posting, and based on his very own assessment of Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams, determined that she was the single best Marine in the System’s Alliance for the open position we now had on the ship.”

I’d always assumed that Kaidan had more or less informally gone “Gunnery Chief Williams was really impressive down there!  Maybe we could use her!”

And Captain Anderson had essentially gone: “Sure!  Why not?  We’ve got an open position.  Let’s keep her!”

But I’d all but forgotten that, with Nihlus dead, there was absolutely no Spectre on board that ship at that point in the story, and they were thus likely bound by the System’s Alliance rules and protocols when it came to handing out assignments to fill the vacant positions available on the Normandy.

It’s therefore highly likely that whoever was in charge of the ship’s Marine detail (in this case, Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko), would have had access to a list of applications of suitable candidates that had expressed an interest in serving on that ship.

And that, whenever there was a position vacancy, or a need to add a new position on the Normandy, then the head of the ship’s detail would have the responsibility of taking a good look at those candidatures, and selecting the very best suited Marine for the job.

As a Spectre, Commander Shepard might have had the level of authority required to spontaneously go: “they followed me home, I’m keeping them!”

But Captain Anderson most certainly did not. And, while he was the Normandy’s C.O. (meaning that he’d likely have the final say on whether or not Ashley got the position)...

Well, the person  officially in charge of finding someone to fill the position left vacant after Jenkin’s passing - after having carefully reviewed Gunnery Chief Ashley Williams candidature against those of other potentially qualified System’s Alliance soldiers - was literally Staff Lieutenant Kaidan Alenko.

And one would assume that the reason why Kaidan got his own position as head of the ship’s Marine detail, would be because he’d be considered as being very proficient at determining whether or not a given soldier is going to be the right fit for their job, and the best asset for their team.

So, when Captain Anderson tells Shepard that the reason he added her to the crew was because Lieutenant Alenko believed she was a good soldier that deserved a position on the Alliance’s most advanced starship, that was because it was Kaidan’s job to make such decisions.

He had to choose which Marine in the System’s Alliance would take over Jenkin’s duties, and he chose Ash.  Kaidan’s the reason Ashley was assigned to Captain Anderson (and later, Commander Shepard)’s ship.  He’s the one that made it happen and allowed her to advance in her career.

Should Commander Shepard have tried to do the same (i.e. be the one to request Gunnery Chief Williams assignation to the Normandy, in a context where Ashley wouldn’t already have been added to the team while they were out cold); then Captain Anderson’s most likely answer would have needed to be: “I’ll let Lieutenant Alenko know about your commendation, but he’s not done reviewing candidatures and making his choice among them yet.“

I don’t understand how anyone can call Kaidan “boring”. He's such a layered, fascinating character...

As he once told Shepard:

“I’m an enigma. I’ve got skills.”

Yes, yes you do... and, over 10 years later, I’m still discovering some skill-sets that you have that I’d never even suspected before!

And boy, am I pissed we'll never get to know about your run in with the vorcha mafia, five thousand credits, and a bottle of whiskey!

Still, no wonder Anderson was so adamant on Major Alenko being the one offered the Command of the 1st Special Operations Biotic Company.

Besides his very own unique history as a L2 and ability to relate to those kids, he apparently has an eye for military talents, and he likely trusted him to be a very good judge of character when it came to assessing whether those young biotics would be a good addition to the Company, and able to handle working with the rest of a team while on high risk missions without needlessly further endangering their teammates.

However, as a Spectre, when operating under Council authority, both Commander Shepard and Major Alenko are no longer bound by the Alliance military’s chain of command.

And it seems that most players do not realize it, but when Captain Anderson stepped down as the SSV Normandy’s C.O., Shepard did not receive a promotion within the Alliance military in terms of overall rank; but exclusively one regarding their position in regards to their assignment.

They went from being the ship’s Executive Officer (X.O.) to the ship’s Commanding Officer (C.O.), but they still remained an Alliance Lieutenant Commander, regardless of the position they held on the SSV Normandy itself.

I’m thus guessing that Shepard dying so shortly after the Battle of the Citadel, had prevented them from being promoted to the rank of Staff Commander (or even Captain / Major).

And then, in all of the investigations surrounding their claims of having been dead for 2 years, brought back to life through Cerberus technology, the time they spend working with them to hunt down the Collectors, Shepard destroying a batarian system (Arrival), the time they spent in detention between ME2 and ME3 after having been stripped of their rank, etc.  Well, I’m guessing the Systems Alliance never thought to offer them a promotion, either.

At the beginning of ME3, the Normandy SR-2 has been recovered by the Alliance, and is intended to be used by Admiral Anderson (who would have become the SR-2′s Commanding Officer).

With Earth and the Alliance Headquarters under Reapers attack, Admiral Anderson chooses to reinstate Commander Shepard’s rank as a Lieutenant Commander within the Systems Alliance instead, and puts them in charge of his ship (thus, stepping down, once more, as the Normandy’s C.O. in favor of Commander Shepard).

Therefore yes, Commander Shepard is not as highly ranked an Alliance Officer as Major Kaidan Alenko is. However, they were given an assignment as the Commanding Officer of the Normandy SR-2 by Admiral Anderson.

Meaning that, after the Citadel Coup, when Commander Shepard offers Major Alenko a position among the Normandy SR-2′s crew, accepting that position means agreeing to recognize, and respect, Shepard’s authority as the ship’s C.O. as well.

Regardless of Kaidan technically becoming the highest ranking Systems Alliance Officer on board the Normandy SR-2, the position as the Normandy’s C.O. was given to Commander Shepard by Admiral Anderson.

So, if Major Alenko has a problem working under the authority of a lesser ranked officer as part of a Lieutenant Commander’s crew, then it is his responsibility to either refuse the offer and request another assignment (something that Kaidan can do in the game, actually - he can be the one to turn down Shepard’s offer), or take it up with Admiral Anderson, to try to request a change in leardership.

What I also find particularly interesting, with how those scenes play out, is that in both versions where Kaidan doesn’t join the Normandy’s crew, he shakes Shepard’s hand, but does not salute them.

Otherwise, after the handshake, when Shepard tells him “Welcome aboard, Major”, Kaidan straightens up and tells them “Aye aye, sir / ma’am” with a military salute, therefore acknowledging Shepard’s position as his new C.O.

Essentially, Major Kaidan Alenko is not bound by rank to obey Commander Shepard’s orders or accept to serve on their ship...

It is only once he CHOOSES to join the Normandy’s crew and take that offered position that there is this obligation for him to respect that Commander Shepard is the acting C.O. of the Normandy, and that they report directly to Admirals Anderson and Hackett.

As a Spectre, they report directly to the Citadel Council.

And so does Kaidan.  I’m guessing that, should he ever wish to leave the Normandy, he’s got the required authority to do so, and would simply need to ask Admiral Anderson or Admiral Hackett for a new assignment.

He may discuss his decision with Commander Shepard first, out of respect.  But I doubt that Commander Shepard could try to force him to stay and continue to work under the Command of a lesser ranked Alliance officer if he wished to leave the ship.

The only known people that could deny his request for a transfer within the Alliance would be either Anderson or Hackett.

And, as a Spectre, he could very well go “yeah, screw this!  I’m out!”

So yeah, his being willing to take orders from Commander Shepard, and join the Normandy as a member of his crew regardless of him being a higher ranked officer in the Systems Alliance, only highlight the amount of trust and respect he has in Commander Shepard’s abilities and leadership.

Knowing Kaidan, he likely values Commander Shepard as his C.O. based on the man’s actual military, leadership, combat qualifications and training, rather than rank.  Not to mention his ability to recognize their more personal, human qualities, how much they care for their crew, and Kaidan’s own willingness to help them share the burden that’s been put on their shoulders.

I think that, in order to gain Kaidan’s respect and have him gladly follow you, you need to use the power you’ve been given by whatever position or status you hold for the benefit of those serving under you, and/or those under your responsibility, rather than try to dominate and overpower others with it.

Kaidan won’t hesitate to call Udina “a bastard” for what he perceives as him “selling them out”, express dissent when a superior officer is out of line, question the motives of those in charge, and often flirt with insubordination.

He’s one of the most NEUTRAL good characters of the series - letting his integrity dictate his actions first and foremost, rather than being strictly and rigidly bound by ranks, rules, or protocols.

His main source of worry, when it comes to Shepard potentially cutting corners, appears to be the price that THEY may have to pay in the aftermath.

He seems more concerned about the Council or the Alliance openly using Shepard as a scapegoat if things go south, and/or disavowing their actions and leaving them without support, rather than over Shepard themselves breaking the law in such a way that they would make innocent people suffer.

I've always seen him as trying to make Shepard understand that they won't let them go down alone with the ship, figuratively (and perhaps event literally speaking... He sure tried in ME2 until Shepard reminded him that the rest of the crew were also in need of his assistance and counting on them to keep them safe) and share the responsibility of the decisions Shepard makes as long as he also supports them.

And yeah, Kaidan did put his own happiness first when it came to breaking the rules of fraternization.

He even says that the galaxy will just keep going and the only thing that will never happen again is them. And that they are what's most important in that moment.

If it wasn't for how very lucidly attached to the Alliance he is (he sees the flaws, but still considers that the Alliance does more good than harm overall, and is proud of being an Alliance soldier / officer), I'd almost have been tempted to put him into chaotic good territory.

He's dedicated to "doing what's right" (the principle of goodness itself) and acting with integrity, but not so much to "honoring human / citadel laws" or even moral codes per say.

His moral code is very much about remaining true to your own ideals and who you are in a way that promotes the greater good, and allows you to be at peace with your actions. And he's seen constantly questioning his perspective of good and wrong in the world, and adapting what acting with integrity truly means to him (for example, when he was trying to come to terms with the fact that Cerberus scientists could also be good people).

So, I very much consider him someone that is more Neutral (chaotic leaning) good, than Neutral (lawful leaning) good.

Rules and institutions need to make sense and serve a useful purpose to him, and avoid getting in the way of him doing what he believes to be right according to his own personal moral compass that no one dictates him but himself. Otherwise, screw the rules!

It may also be good to remember that Spectres have absolutely no command structure.  To prove themselves to the Council, they have to demonstrate both exceptional abilities and self-reliance.  If they thought that Major Kaidan Alenko would be the type to defer to Commander Shepard’s judgment based on seniority and rank alone, I’m guessing the Council never would have agreed to grant him Spectre status in the first place.

Yeah, Councillor Udina was the one that submitted his candidature, but he couldn’t have actually granted him Spectre status without the Asari, Turian, and Salarian Councillors’ approval.

Meaning that they all saw something in his service history that made them go “Yeah, this is a guy that can totally go rogue, disrespect orders, and do whatever must be done for the sake of the greater good of the galactic community if need be.”

People that see him as some sort of “whiny, Alliance lapdog” seem to forget that  we are talking about a 17-year-old kid that continuously got in trouble with Vyrnnus for talking back (to the point where he started punishing the other kids to get to him), found a way to hack communications on the station to secretly contact his parents on Earth, after having been explicitly forbidden to do so, and angrily stood up to Vyrnnus after Vyrnnus crossed a line while bullying more vulnerable than himself.

Commander Vyrnnus taught Kaidan that some would-be leaders only cared about holding power over others, and were not worthy of being respected nor followed.

Major Alenko simply is not someone that can easily be intimidated into obeying orders, and/or be impressed by power or rank.  What will make him “fall in line”, is the belief that the one giving the orders is the very best suited person for the job.

So, when it all come down to it, I’m pretty convinced that he could care less about Shepard “only being a Lieutenant Commander”.

He cares about Shepard doing the right thing, and about being able to trust their leadership and intents more than anything.

And, while Kaidan Alenko may have all the required qualifications and abilities to handle his own command, too...

...this is not what makes him the happiest.

He’s a soldier.  He likes getting his hands dirty.  He likes being right in the center of the action, and making a tangible difference.

My own partner, whose personality often reminds me of Kaidan (or, actually, Kaidan’s personality often reminds me of him!), has been offered countless of times the job of a team supervisor or coordinator in his work as a computer programmer (systems architect).

Sure, it would come with a salary increase and some advantages...

And sure, he’s a rather assertive guy, with a talent for seeing the greater picture, quickly noticing people’s own individual strengths and resources in a team, finding ways to take full advantage of said strengths and resources while organizing the work to complement every skill-sets they have, and thinking about creative solutions to a problem that others might be missing...

But what he loves most about his work is the coding itself.

He’ll gladly offer his input (actually, nothing you do or say will stop him from voicing his opinions, suggestions, and solutions to an issue...  especially if he thinks you’re being inefficient in the way you’re approaching it, and/or overlooking some variables), but the thought of actually being in charge of the whole working team all the frakking time, and having to manage complaints, conflicts, etc. - when his time would better be used in front of the computer, figuring out why something isn’t working properly - is enough to drive him insane.

He has everything it takes to be a good, efficient, more than qualified supervisor and coordinator...

...except the interest and motivation.

The things that make him happiest at the work he does, lie within the programming itself.

Similarly, I very much perceive Kaidan Alenko as being someone that has every required qualifications, skills, and abilities to be in Command of his own ship or his own squad...

...but typically prefers being a soldier, getting out there in the field and doing his work without having to handle what everyone else has to be doing on top of it.

He made an exception for Admiral Anderson by indulging him, and eventually agreeing to assume Command of the 1st Special Operations Biotic Company.  And, from the way he speaks about his students, it seems that the nature of his job, and his ability to connect with what they are going through and nurture their potential as soldiers, fellow “freaks”, and human beings, ended up making that command worthwhile and an overall positive and stimulating experience for him.

This is one of the many reasons why I lament the lack of interaction between Kaidan and Jack.  They are both powerful biotics that were abused in the hopes of getting results and making their powers stronger.  They both share a deep seated hatred of Cerberus.  And they both ended up becoming teachers and mentors to younger generations of human biotics.

Beyond the potential for humor and entertainment, I think it would have been interesting to see how they might have related to each other, talked about their students, shared a few tips, etc.

But otherwise, Kaidan seems to be happiest while doing his own thing (ex: being sent to investigate certain situations for the Alliance / Council), or serving on a ship while using his skills to offer his support to his Commander, rather than being the one in charge of everybody else.

Given how he tends to be more task than ego oriented, I therefore really don’t think that he has any issues following the leadership of a Lieutenant Commander regardless of his own rank.

As long as he can trust Shepard to be a good leader and get things done, he’ll gladly let them assume command.

But during the attack on the Citadel, Commander Shepard is not Major Alenko’s C.O., as Admiral Anderson never officially assigned him to the Normandy, and after they left Earth in a hurry and headed for Mars to retrieve data, he ended up in the hospital.

If we want to argue that Major Kaidan Alenko was showing any kind of disrespect towards Commander Shepard by refusing to stand down in front of a superior officer during the Citadel coup (an argument that’s occasionally been brought up by those that highly disapprove of the confrontation)...

Well, I hate to break this to you, but per Systems Alliance military protocol, Shepard should have been the one to salute Kaidan, not the other way around.

But it simply doesn’t matter either way.

Because that confrontation was not an “Alliance Lieutenant Commander vs Alliance Major” issue.

This was very much “Spectre vs Spectre” issue.

You simply had two highly trained, experienced, and dangerous Spectre operatives that were interacting on absolutely equal footing, outside of the Alliance’s chain of command.

And they both had the exact same objective: Protect the council from Cerberus.

In the end, it all boils down to trust.  And to whether or not Commander Shepard has the required empathy to understand that Kaidan Alenko has every right to be human, to have doubts, to question people’s motives - regardless of how much he loves them - and to be scared to make mistakes based on his personal feelings towards them.

Kaidan (and Ashley) have the most realistic, healthy, and human reactions that one could possibly have to someone being brought back from the dead by a terrorist organization.

On Mars, he wasn’t trying to attack or hurt Shepard.

What he clearly told them was “I’m confused, I’m scared, I do want to trust you, but I don’t know how.  I’ve seen some of the abject horrors of what Cerberus is capable of doing, and the thought that they might have been using you, or are still planning to use you, against the rest of the Galaxy terrifies me.  I need to know it’s really you - that you haven’t been cloned, brainwashed, or they didn’t plant a chip in your head or something -  and I’m at a loss at where to even start.”

(I’m thinking that should they have discovered that Shepard had been altered in some way and/or was being manipulated by Cerberus, but was still in there somewhere, then Kaidan would have wanted to do anything he could to help free them from Cerberus’ grasp, too.)

And he has every right to feel that way, to be afraid, to be concerned, and to express it.

Actually no one owes any of their friends their “blind trust”.

If someone I strongly care about is doing something stupid or I disagree with, I fully reserve the right to oppose their actions and let them know I’m not on board with it.

I can trust that they are a good person and believe in them.  But I can also occasionally distrust their judgment and whether the decisions they are making are the right ones.

So by openly verbalizing his fears and doubts, what Kaidan is actually doing is letting Shepard in.  He’s reaching out for that connection they share, not shutting them down.

He’s almost desperate to try to explain to them how he feels, so they can open the dialogue and start figuring these things out together, rather than remaining alone in their little corner while allowing those fears and doubts to fester and take root.

If Shepard is able to understand that.  If they can reach back towards Kaidan, show interest in getting to know each other again, rebuild trust, and work through those issues, then as I’ve already demonstrated a little while ago, getting Kaidan to stand down is so ridiculously easy it’s almost laughable.

If they do cut themselves off from Kaidan following Mars, and never reach back towards him, then they are allowing all those doubts and fears to keep on growing...  thus leading to tragedy during the coup.

But yeah, anyone reasonably expecting Kaidan to just step aside the moment those doors opened (when he was fully expecting to see Cerberus operatives come out of the elevator shaft) - especially based on supposed “higher ranked offircer superiority” - is having utterly unrealistic expectations regarding Major Alenko’s personality and behavior.

Either they were too quick to dismiss him as whiny and boring, and thus kept him out out of every mission, skipped conversations, and/or quickly rushed through them without really listening and seeking to understand the character...

They are unable to perceive videogame characters as well-rounded people, but are rather exclusively seeking to immerse themselves in some fantasy world where every single person they encounter either automatically adores them or fears their superior power and influence; and those characters are something that should solely exist for their own entertainment (unlike reality, where they can more easily recognize that each of their friends have personal aspirations, opinions, thoughts, careers and dreams that exist entirely outside of themselves; and they never would realistically expect one of said friends to “drop everything” they are doing on the fly in order to blindly follow them into a private jet that’s being borrowed from a well-known right-wing terrorists organization instead).

Or, they literally have a God complex.

----------

Systems Alliance: Military Ranks (Mass Effect)

The Alliance uses a modified version of the ranking system that has been used for hundreds of years. Soldiers are classified into rank-and-file enlisted personal, experienced non-commissioned officers (NCOs), and specially trained officers.

The divide between naval personnel and ground forces (“marines”) is small. Ground units are a specialized branch of the fleet, just as fighter squadrons are. This unity of command is imposed by the futility of fighting without control of orbit; without the navy, any army is pointless. The marines, as a matter of pride, maintain some of their traditional rank titles; for example, marines have Privates and Corporals instead of Servicemen.

In ascending order of responsibility, the ranks of the Alliance are:

ENLISTED

Serviceman 3rd Class/Private 2nd Class

Serviceman 2nd Class/Private 1st Class

Serviceman 1st Class/Corporal

NCOs

Service Chief

Gunnery Chief [ex: Gunnery Chief Williams (ME1)]

Operations Chief [ex: Operations Chief Williams (ME2)]

OFFICERS

2nd Lieutenant

1st Lieutenant

Staff Lieutenant [ex: Lieutenant Alenko (ME1)]

Lieutenant Commander [ex: Commander Shepard (ME1, ME2, ME3),  Commander Williams (ME3)]

Staff Commander [ex: Commander Alenko (ME2)]

Captain/Major [ex: Major Alenko (ME3); Captain Anderson (ME1)]

Rear Admiral/General [ex: Admiral Hackett (ME1)]

Admiral [ex: Admiral Hacket (ME2), Admiral Anderson (ME3)]

Fleet Admiral [ex: Admiral Hackett (ME3)]

[sasskarian]

2, 6, 19, 24 and 30 from fifty (more) 👀 I loved reading about Io!!!

2. Your Shepard is making a sandwich. What’s going in it?

Io has dined in some of the finest places in the known galaxy—including a very unfortunate sushi place on the Citadel, as if anyone will let her live that down—and run down diners alike. But her favorite sandwich is made in her father Kahele’s kitchen, with crispy fried spam and a slice of tamagoyaki.

If ever another apocalypse falls to them and there's no spam in the house, leftover huli huli chicken with fried ginger crisps would probably make an appearance. And unless the Reapers personally hated her and burned down her favorite shops, malasadas would make an appearance somewhere.

(But probably not in the sammich.)

(...probably)

6. What would they be doing, if Shepard never joined the alliance?

Io’s bloodline, on her father’s side, can be traced by to wayfinders. Her family’s inn is named after the Hokule’a, a canoe that voyages from Hawaii to Tahiti using the traditional methods of star navigation. She’s always wanted to pay tribute to that, grew up loving the stars and all the spaces between them. If she hadn’t joined the Alliance, Io would probably be working on the frontier, exploring space navigation, establishing routes, etc. But she enlisted first, and then Elysium happened a few years later, and she became Commander Shepard instead of just Iolana.

Spending most of her childhood, island summers aside, on Alliance ships left Shepard with a deep love of stars and all the secrets of space. That Shepard, that long ago, lost child, had found it full of promise, mysteries waiting to be solved. She’d wanted to see things no human eyes had ever seen, go where no human had gone, voyaging out into the unknown like her wayfaring ancestors had sailed the seas.

[S&S ask]

19. What was Shepard’s first interaction with an alien?

Hm. I haven’t thought this one out that much. I feel like she’s seen at least a few, those who can brave visiting Earth. She's probably made out with at least one or two during her younger years; shore leave can get pretty wild at times. I don’t think she worked with many before Elysium, and she tries so hard and sometimes fails to not let that haunt her, so aside from a few seen on shore leave, her first real working relationship with them might have… actually been Nihilus. (Who she completely did not have any crush on whatsoever.)

I’d have to think about that one more. And consult my timeline notes lmao

24. How does Shepard handle house arrest? How do they fill their time?

She hates it. There’s a part of her that wishes, however unlikely, that Garrus would come up with some obscure married law that would let her go free—maybe there’s some old treaty that would allow a shipboard hasty marriage to give her some political asylum or something. But that’s unlikely, and she knows it.

Still. For an explorer’s heart and a soldier’s restlessness, house arrest is awful but she tries to stay busy— the nightmares of Aratoht aside, she keeps her mind sharp, her manners intact, and works out the night sweats and restlessness as much as she’s allowed to.

30. What did Shepard think of the thorian? How did they feel about killing it? What did they decide for Shiala?

Io found the Thorian equal parts horrifying and fascinating. She regretted killing it; it’s age, the last known of its species, the sheer knowledge it must have had. But keeping it out of the hands of ExoGeni and freeing the dozens of people it had enslaved took precedence.

Shepard spared Shiala, and they’ve kept in semi-regular contact since. (Shepard, like her mother and her father both, have a habit of adopting any stray person in need of family or home)

By the time the Reapers invade the Sol system, Shiala and the colonists are fighting as an elite unit against them, and find themselves in the side battles around London, assisting Operation Hammer as backup.

[emcads]

I’m curious how do you headcanon Jack became a pirate lord? In tLoTBC it appears that Teague gave the piece of eight to him but I still want to know your thoughts. (and i really hate when people say Esme died so Jack could take her place. just NO!)

well nonnie ...  the short answer is i think esmeralda dying is most likely what happened, sorry to disappoint u <3 most of what we see about inheriting the title comes through their predecessor's death (elizabeth & sao feng, esmeralda & don rafael, and I suppose ragetti and barbossa, briefly!) and esmeralda had it fairly close up to cotbp, so it stands to reason that she was the last one to die before jack got it.

for me personally tpof canon > tlotbc canon so I'm more interested in jack getting the lordship from her ( and also because jack's story mirrors esme's story in interesting ways after he becomes a pirate lord, such as the quest for revenge against the man who betrayed you, functioning as the older mentor figure/love interest to elizabeth as she was to jack, etc etc )  becoming a pirate lord at a relatively young age, inheriting her "nobility" just as she did with the death of don rafael continues that parallel, and it makes the lordship something that's bittersweet: clearly jack wants no part of shipwreck politics, but being a pirate lord would lend him the political capital to return to piracy after setting christophe free, and to be regarded as an equal to the lords. and of course it would always be associated with her, in a way. notably, he keeps the piece of eight resting on the bandana she gave him, which I think supports the idea that it came from her ( as much as any film detail can that existed well before esmeralda's invention )

at the end of the book it's implied that jack and esme go on to form a professional (with benefits) partnership, so what I think probably happened is she went down in a blaze of glory during one of their shipboard frays. I've written up a post somewhere musing about the possibility that she died in the mutiny (given her association with the aztec gold and the foreshadowing that she was involved in the search, and being marooned / killed during this could be a reason why barbossa has a late 1600's dress aboard the pearl), but as I'm typing this up i'm thinking about the sequel ann had planned and the way she brought certain film moments together with the backstory and i'm starting to wonder if venganza being a former navy vessel could tie in to the "I'd rather see her at the bottom of the ocean than in the hands of a pirate" and she died as a result either of James or Lawrence Norrington's efforts.  food for thought ! 

the other most likely scenario is that she either died in childbirth or has jack's kid off somewhere, which I personally hate much more than the idea of her dying in battle lol. but it could be supported / foreshadowed by esmeralda and jack always having conversations about childbearing / marie's pregnancy / etc. together, and esmeralda as a character representing family lineage & blood bonds and a more nurturing kind of  womanhood.  if she did have a child, she would give up her position as lord and quit piracy ("shipwreck cove is no place to raise a child") but I find it unlikely that she would give it to jack if she was still alive and they were raising a kid semi-together. luis would be her first choice, unless jack absolutely needed it for political immunity. I suppose I don’t think of esme happily retiring at such a young age, given her own fierceness and fondness for piracy as well the precedent of don rafael’s age on the account, so something would have to force her out of it, be it death or extenuating circumstance.

I don't really think of it in terms of her dying just so that he can take her place, though? for one, jack is always going to have the burden of guilt that he lives while she's gone, and esme always had a more innate connection to politics / aristocracy / etc that comes with being a member of the court than he does, so he’s always going to struggle with that imo. it’s as much a burden as it is a privilege for him. I also think that after jack killed christophe and she wasn't able to finish off her own quest for revenge and get that vindication, the title would feel very hollow to her and she would feel extremely guilty for not justly serving her grandfather's memory, so passing it on is a way for her to move forward. Jack functions as her legacy in a way (if she didn't have children), as he's formed in her image as much as he is in Teague's imo.

[skyfire85]

-USMC MV-22 Ospreys on the deck of USS Bataan. | Photo: Staff Sgt. Wayne Campbell, USMC

Flightline: 62 - Bell/Boeing V-22 Osprey

After the disastrous failure at Desert One during the 1980 Iran hostage rescue mission, the US DOD recognized that there existed a requirement for a transport that could take off and land vertically, but also travel long distance at speed. The Joint-service Vertical take-off/landing Experimental (JVX) program was begun in 1981 to obtain and combine requirements from the Army, Navy, Marines and USAF. In late 1982 a request for proposals was released, attracting interest from Aérospatiale, Bell Helicopter, Boeing Vertol, Grumman, Lockheed, and Westland. Bell later teamed with Boeing Vertol, submitting a design based on the former’s XV-15 tiltrotor.

-Early concept image of V-22 Osprey, probably from mid to late-1980s. | Photo: US Navy

Bell/Boeing submitted the only design, and were awarded a preliminary design contract was awarded on 26 April 1983. In 1985 the Bell/Boeing JVX design was named the Osprey, and given the designation V-22, with USMC Osprey known as MV-22 and USAF CV-22, in part to avoid confusion with USN carrier designation (CV). By March of that year, the first half-dozen prototypes were under construction, with work split between Bell and Boeing. The first V-22 was rolled out in 1988, but the program also suffered major issues that year. Costs ballooned, from $2.5 billion in 1986 to a projected $30 billion in 1988. Citing a need to focus on other programs, the US Army dropped out of the program. The following year, the US Senate voted twice to cancel the Osprey, though the program survived. The DOD then ordered the Navy to not spend more money on the V-22, and SecDef Cheney tried several times from 1989 to 1992 to defund the program, though each time he was overruled by Congress.

-Bell-Boeing’s first V-22 prototype transitions to forward flight. | Photo: Bell/Boeing

The first of six prototypes first flew on 19 March 1989 in the helicopter mode, and on 14 September 1989 in fixed-wing mode. Sea trials were completed on USS Wasp in December 1990, though the program was marred by crashes of the fourth and fifth prototypes in 1991 and 1992. The V-22 was grounded until June of 1993 to make needed changes. From October 1992 – April 1993, the V-22 was redesigned to reduce empty weight, simplify manufacture, and reduce build costs; resulting in the V-22B variant. The existing prototypes were upgraded to the new standard, and in 1997 flight testing of the first four full-scale development V-22s began at Pax River. Testing soon fell behind schedule, though a second round of sea trials on USS Saipan was accomplished in 1999.

On 8 April 2000, a night training exercise of four MV-22 in Arizona resulted in one aircraft crashing, killing the 19 Marines on board, and another suffered a hard landing, though no one aboard were killed. The V-22 was grounded again while the crash investigation was conducted, during which issues with the V-22's design, as well as with crew training, were determined to be the causes of the crash. As the V-22 descended to land it was dropping at 2,000 feet a minute, well above the prescribed 800 feet a minute. The speed caused the aircraft to enter an aerodynamic condition known as vortex ring state. In this condition, a vortex envelops the rotor, causing an aircraft to lose lift, in essence descending in its own downwash. Flight testing resumed after the board rendered its conclusions, but another MV-22 crashed in December 2000, killing four Marines. Despite the accidents, by June 2005 the V-22 had completed its final operational evaluation, including long-range deployments, high altitude, desert and shipboard operations. In September of 2005, the Pentagon approved full-rate production of the V-22, ordering 458 aircraft (360 for the USMC, 50 for the USAF, and 48 for the Navy). The USAF officially accepted the CV-22 in 2006, and the MV-22 reaching IOC the following year. Despite being in the 2005 contract, the Navy did not acquire any of the 48 HV-22 mentioned, for reasons unknown (though likely budgetary). Ospreys have since seen deployment to both Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as other hotspots around the world.

-Marines push boxes out the back of a V-22 Osprey aircraft in Zaranj, Afghanistan, on Dec. 14, 2009. | Photo: USMC

-V-22s are fitted with LEDs in the rotors, which create a glowing ring when spinning, allowing the crew, ground personnel and passengers a clear indication of the rotor disc. | Photo: USMC

In 2015, the Navy signed an MOU to buy 44 redesigned CMV-22B Osprey for COD (carrier on-board delivery) beginning in 2018, with initial delivery expected in 2020. The CMV-22 has larger sponsons, which carry additional fuel, as well as a high-frequency radio. The type will also include a hoist on the ramp, allowing it to deliver cargo to other Navy ships, replacing some helicopters.

-A CMV-22B landing at Pax River after being ferried from the Bell Assembly Center in Texas. | Photo: USN

In 2014, the Japanese Self-Defence Force decided to acquire 17 MV-22Bs, with the first delivery occurring in August of 2017. The JSDF Osprey are based at Kisarazu Air Field, with plans to station some on the Izumo-class helicopter destroyers (*cough*aircraftcarriers*cough*).

India, Indonesia, Israel, South Korea and the UAE have expressed varying degrees of interest in acquiring V-22 of their own, though as of 2020 none have formally acted.

In addition to the transport versions currently in service, other variants were studied during development:

An AEW&C version known as the EV-22, which would replace the E-2 in US Navy service as well as the Sea King ASaC.7 in Royal Navy service

SV-22 Anti-submarine warfare variant, to replace the S-3 and SH-2.

Neither was pursued, though Bell/Boeing continue to pursue variants.

-Rendering of an EV-22 AEW variant, showing the new triangular radar pylon. | Image: Jeff Head

-Model of the SV-22. The ASW variant would have been armed with four torpedoes and carried a dipping sonar. | Photo: Justin Gibb

-Model of the SV-22. The proposal didn’t include a MAD boom, but I added one. | Photo: Justin Gibb

In 2017, HMX-1, the Marine helicopter squadron responsible for transporting the President, Vice President and other senior leadership, recieved 12 MV-22B, replacing its fleet of CH-46 helicopters for support operations.

-HMX-1's first MV-22B, in the squadron’s traditional gloss olive drab paint scheme. | Photo: Sgt. Rebekka S. Heite

[didanawisgi]

This article was published online on February 10, 2021.

“Massachusetts abolished enslavement before the Treaty of Paris brought an end to the American Revolution, in 1783. The state constitution, adopted in 1780 and drafted by John Adams, follows the Declaration of Independence in proclaiming that all “men are born free and equal.” In this statement Adams followed not only the Declaration but also a 1764 pamphlet by the Boston lawyer James Otis, who theorized about and popularized the familiar idea of “no taxation without representation” and also unequivocally asserted human equality. “The Colonists,” he wrote, “are by the law of nature free born, as indeed all men are, white or black.” In 1783, on the basis of the “free and equal” clause in the 1780 Massachusetts Constitution, the state’s chief justice, William Cushing, ruled enslavement unconstitutional in a case that one Quock Walker had brought against his enslaver, Nathaniel Jennison.

Many of us who live in Massachusetts know the basic outlines of this story and the early role the state played in standing against enslavement. But told in this traditional way, the story leaves out another transformative figure: Prince Hall, a free African American and a contemporary of John Adams. From his formal acquisition of freedom, in 1770, until his death, in 1807, Hall helped forge an activist Black community in Boston while elevating the cause of abolition to new prominence. Hall was the first American to publicly use the language of the Declaration of Independence for a political purpose other than justifying war against Britain. In January 1777, just six months after the promulgation of the Declaration and nearly three years before Adams drafted the state constitution, Hall submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature (or General Court, as it is styled) requesting emancipation, invoking the resonant phrases and founding truths of the Declaration itself.

Here is what he wrote (I’ve put the echoes of the Declaration of Independence in italics):

The petition of A Great Number of Blackes detained in a State of Slavery in the Bowels of a free & christian Country Humbly shuwith that your Petitioners Apprehend that Thay have in Common with all other men a Natural and Unaliable Right to that freedom which the Grat — Parent of the Unavese hath Bestowed equalley on all menkind and which they have Never forfuted by Any Compact or Agreement whatever — but thay wher Unjustly Dragged by the hand of cruel Power from their Derest frinds and sum of them Even torn from the Embraces of their tender Parents — from A popolous Plasant And plentiful cuntry And in Violation of Laws of Nature and off NationsAnd in defiance of all the tender feelings of humanity Brough hear Either to Be sold Like Beast of Burthen & Like them Condemnd to Slavery for Life.

In this passage, Hall invokes the core concepts of social-contract theory, which grounded the American Revolution, to argue for an extension of the claim to equal rights to those who were enslaved. He acknowledged and adopted the intellectual framework of the new political arrangements, but also pointedly called out the original sin of enslavement itself.

Hall’s memory was vigorously kept alive by members and archivists of the Masonic lodge he founded, and his name can be found in historical references. But his life has attracted fresh attention in recent years from scholars and community leaders, both because he deserves to be widely known and celebrated and because inserting his story into the tale of the country’s founding exemplifies the promise of an integrated way of studying and teaching history. It’s hard enough to shine new light on an African American figure who has been long in the shadows, one who in important ways should be considered an American Founder. It can prove far more difficult to trace an individual’s “relationship tree” and come to understand that person, in a granular and even cinematic way, in the full context of his or her own society: family, school, church, civic organizations, commerce, government. Doing so—especially for figures and communities that have been overlooked—gives us a chance to tell a whole story, to weave together multiple perspectives on the events of our political founding into a single, joined tale. It also provides an opportunity to draw out and emphasize the agency of people who experienced oppression and domination. In the case of Prince Hall, the process of historical reconstruction is still under way.

When I was a girl, I used to ask what there was to know about the experience of being enslaved—and was told by kind and well-meaning teachers that, sadly, the lack of records made the question impossible to answer. In fact, the records were there; we just hadn’t found them yet. Historical evidence often turns up only when one starts to look for it. And history won’t answer questions until one thinks to ask them.

John Adams and Prince Hall would have passed each other on the streets of Boston. They almost certainly were aware of each other. Hall was no minor figure, though his early days and family life are shrouded in some mystery. Probably he was born in Boston in 1735 (not in England or Barbados, as some have suggested). It is possible that he lived for a period as a freeman before he was formally emancipated. He may have been one of the thousands of African Americans who fought in the Continental Army; his son, Primus, certainly was. As a freeman, Hall became for a time a leatherworker, passed through a period of poverty, and then ultimately ran a shop, from which he sold, among other things, his own writings advocating for African American causes. Probably he was not married to every one of the five women in Boston who were married to someone named Prince Hall in the years between 1763 and 1804, but he may have been. Whether he was married to Primus’s mother, a woman named Delia, is also unclear. Between 1780 and 1801, the city’s tax collectors found their way to some 1,184 different Black taxpayers. Prince Hall and his son appear in those tax records for 15 of those 21 years, giving them the longest period of recorded residence in the city of any Black person we know about in that era. The DePaul University historian Chernoh M. Sesay Jr.’s excellent dissertation, completed in 2006, provides the most thorough and rigorously analyzed academic review of Hall’s biography that is currently available. (The dissertation, which I have drawn on here, has not yet been published in full, but I hope it will be.)

Hall was a relentless petitioner, undaunted by setbacks. When Hall submitted his 1777 petition, co-signed by seven other free Black men, to the Massachusetts legislature, he was building on the efforts of other African Americans in the state to abolish enslavement. In 1773 and 1774, African Americans from Bristol and Worcester Counties as well as Boston and its neighboring towns put forward six known petitions and likely more to this end. Hall led the formation of the first Black Masonic lodge in the Americas, and possibly in the world. The purpose of forming the lodge was to provide mutual aid and support and to create an infrastructure for advocacy. Fourteen men joined Hall’s lodge almost surely in 1775, and in the years from then until 1784, records reveal that 51 Black men participated in the lodge. Through the lodge’s history, one can trace a fascinating story of the life of Boston’s free Black community in the final decades of the 18th century.

Why did Hall choose Freemasonry as one of his life’s passions? Alonza Tehuti Evans, a former historian and archivist of the Most Worshipful Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the District of Columbia, took up that question in a 2017 lecture. Hall and his fellow lodge members, he explained, recognized that many of the influential people in Boston—and throughout the colonies—were deeply involved in Freemasonry. George Washington is a prominent example, and symbolism that resonates with Masonic meaning adorns the $1 bill to this day. Hall saw entrance into Freemasonry as a pathway to securing influence and a network of supporters.

Hall submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature requesting emancipation, invoking the resonant phrases and founding truths of the Declaration of Independence.

In a world without stable passports or identification documents, participation in the order could provide proof of status as a free person. It offered both leverage and legitimacy—as when Prince Hall and members of his lodge, in 1786, offered to raise troops to support the commonwealth in putting down Shays’s Rebellion.

In the winter and spring of 1788, Hall was leading a charge in Boston against enslavers who made a practice of using deception or other means to kidnap free Black people, take them shipboard, and remove them to distant locations, where they would be sold into enslavement. He submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature seeking aid—asking legislators to “do us that justice that our present condition requires”—and publicized his petition in newspapers in Virginia, New York, Pennsylvania, and Vermont.

In the summer of that year, a newspaper circulated an extract of a letter from a prominent white Bostonian who had assisted Hall on this very matter. The unnamed author of the letter reports that he had been visited by a group of free Black men who had been kidnapped in Boston and had recently been emancipated and returned to the city. They were escorted to his house by Hall, and they told the story of their emancipation. One of the men who had been kidnapped was a member of Hall’s Masonic lodge. Carried off to the Caribbean and put on the auction block, the kidnapped men found that the merchant to whom they were being offered was himself a Mason. Mutual recognition of a shared participation in Freemasonry put an end to the transaction and gave them the chance to recover their freedom.

Prince Hall’s work on abolition and its enforcement was just the beginning of a lifetime of advocacy. Disillusioned by how hard it was to secure equal rights for free Black men and women in Boston, he submitted a petition to the Massachusetts legislature seeking funds to assist him and other free Blacks in emigrating to Africa. That same year, he also turned his energies to advocating for resources for public education. Through it all, his Masonic membership proved both instrumental and spiritually valuable.

Founding the lodge had not been easy. Although Hall and his fellows were most likely inducted into Freemasonry in 1775, they were never able to secure a formal charter for their lodge from the other lodges in Massachusetts: Prejudice ran strong. Hall and his fellows had in fact probably been inducted by members of an Irish military lodge, planted in Boston with the British army, who had proved willing to introduce them to the mysteries of the order. Hall’s lodge functioned as an unofficial Masonic society—African Lodge No. 1—but received a formal charter only after a request was sent to England for a warrant. The granting of a charter by the Grand Lodge of England finally arrived in 1787.

In seeking this charter, Hall had written to Masons in England, lamenting that lodges in Boston had not permitted him and his fellows a full charter but had granted a permit only to “walk on St John’s Day and Bury our dead in form which we now enjoy.” Hall wanted full privileges, not momentary sufferance. In this small detail, though, we gain a window into just how important even the first steps toward Masonic privileges were. In the years before 1783 and full abolition of enslavement in Massachusetts, Black people in the state were subjected to intensive surveillance and policing, as enslavers sought to keep their human property from slipping away into the world of free Blacks. Membership in the Masons was like a hall pass—an opportunity to have a parade as a community, to come out and step high, without harassment. That’s what it meant to walk on Saint John’s Day—June 24—and to hold funeral parades for the dead.

Whether that stepping-out day remained June 24 is unclear. As Sesay writes, “Boston blacks, including Prince Hall, first applied to use Faneuil Hall in 1789 to hear an ‘African preacher.’ On February 25, 1789, the Selectmen accepted the application of blacks to use Faneuil Hall for ‘public worship.’ ” By 1820, the walk on Saint John’s Day appears to have become African Independence Day and was celebrated on July 14, Bastille Day, much to the displeasure of at least one newspaper. An unattributed column in the New-England Galaxy and Masonic Magazine complained about the annual parade in recognizably racist tones (the mention of “Wilberforce” at the end is a reference to William Wilberforce, the British campaigner against enslavement):

This is the day on which, for unaccountable reasons or for no reasons at all, the Selectmen of Boston, permit the town to be annually disturbed by a mob of negroes … The streets through which this sable procession passes are a scene of noise and confusion, and always will be as long as the thing is tolerated. Quietness and order can hardly be expected, when five or six hundred negroes, with a band of music, pikes, swords, epaulettes, sashes, cocked hats, and standards, are marching through the principal streets. To crown this scene of farce and mummery, a clergyman is mounted in their pulpit to harangue them on the blessings of independence, and to hold up for their admiration the characters of “Masser Wilberforce and Prince Hall.”

Well after Hall’s death, the days for stepping out continued in Boston—an expression of freedom and the claiming of a rightful place in the polity. The lodge that Hall founded continued too. It is the oldest continuously active African American association in the U.S., with chapters now spread around the country. Its work in support of public education has endured. In the 20th century the Prince Hall Freemasons made significant contributions to the NAACP, in many places hosting the first branches of the organization. In the 1950s alone, the group donated more than $400,000 to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (equivalent to millions of dollars today). Thurgood Marshall was a member.

for all of what we now know to be Prince Hall’s importance, I learned of him only recently. In 2015 the National Archives held a conference about the Declaration of Independence, inspired by my own research on the document. At the conference, another colleague presented a paper on how abolitionists had been the first people to make use of the Declaration for political projects other than the Revolution itself. A few months earlier I had come across the passage from Hall’s 1777 petition that I shared above, and that so beautifully resonates with the Declaration; at that conference, I suddenly learned the important political context in which it fit. I had published a book on the Declaration of Independence—Our Declaration—in 2014, but until the spring of 2015, I had never heard of Hall.

Yet I have been studying African American history since childhood. When I was in high school, my school didn’t do anything to celebrate Black History Month. My father encouraged me to take matters into my own hands and propose to the school that I might curate a weekly exhibit on one of the school’s bulletin boards. The school was obliging. It offered me the one available bulletin board—in a dark corner in the farthest remove of the school’s quads. This was not the result of malice, just of a lack of attention to the stakes. But I was glad to have access to that bulletin board, and I dutifully filled it with pictures of people like Carter G. Woodson and Mary McLeod Bethune and Thurgood Marshall, and with excerpts from their writings.

I am deeply aware of how much historical treasure about Black America is hidden, and have been actively trying to seek it out. While I was on the faculty of the University of Chicago, I helped found the Black Metropolis Research Consortium, a network of archival organizations in Chicago dedicated to connecting “all who seek to document, share, understand and preserve Black experiences.” And while I was at Chicago—somewhat in the spirit of that old bulletin board—I curated an exhibit for the special-collections department of the campus library on the 45 African Americans who’d earned a doctorate at the university prior to 1940—the largest number of doctorates awarded to African Americans up to that time by any institution in the world. Even so, I had not known about Prince Hall.

Having discovered Hall at the ridiculous age of 43, I have since made it a mission to teach others about him. At Harvard’s Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, we have undertaken a major initiative to develop civic-education curricula and resources. Among the largest projects is a year-long eighth-grade course called “Civic Engagement in Our Democracy.” One of the units in that course is centered on Hall’s life. Through him and his exploration of the meaning of social contracts and natural rights, and of opportunity and equality, we teach the philosophical foundations of democracy, reaching through Hall to texts that he also drew on, and whose authors are required reading for eighth graders in Massachusetts—for instance, Aristotle, Locke, and Montesquieu. These writers and thinkers were important figures to Freemasons in Hall’s time.

Too much treasure remains buried, living mainly in oral histories, not yet integrated into our full shared history of record. That history can strike home in unexpected ways. Not long ago, I was talking with my father about Prince Hall and the curriculum we were developing. His ears pricked up. Only then did I learn that my grandfather, too, had been a member of the Prince Hall Freemasons.”

This article appears in the March 2021 print edition with the headline “A Forgotten Founder.”

DANIELLE ALLEN is a political philosopher and the James Bryant Conant University Professor at Harvard. She is the author of Talking to Strangers, Our Declaration, and Cuz.

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