George Washington kept his face stony, blank, on pure force of will, as he organized his thoughts. He had always first and foremost considered himself a pragmatist, and instead of endlessly ruminating the "gay" issue, he would listen to the song and only after it was done ask.
Of course, he had to ask quite thoroughly afterward. This was a matter of utmost importance. He was giving his life for the States. He had to know if his sacrifices were going to be worth it.
A chorus sprang up in the darkness, like soldiers on an ambush, singing of the same theme. He has a feeling what kind of song this will be. He didn't need the reminder of their odds, nor the name of his enemy, Admiral Howe. He listens to the singers engage in an answering harmony, led by a beat of war drums which flows into silence.
A weight he didn't realize had been gone settles once again in his shoulders. With a frown he chastises himself, realizing he had let his guard down before this. Unacceptable.
Alexander's voice rises among a parade of male and female soldiers, declaring his ambition and thirst for war. George internally sighs. Alexander uncomfortably reminds him of himself in his younger years, far before he had learned the virtue of self-control. Every time Alexander said something about "dying on the battlefield in glory" George wanted to shake him by the shoulders until he saw sense.
"But there's only one man who can give us a command so we can rise up!" Alexander's actor sings, and George blinks. At least he now knew his leadership wasn't a complete failure. If he had been replaced, like most people in power intended to do, he would have been naught but a footnote.
Burr begins announcing his entrance, throwing phrases like "the moment you've been waiting for", and "the pride of Mount Vernon" around, while the chorus answers "here comes the general" as a sung fanfare.
The army men sitting in the audience quietly cheer when George's name is announced in the song. George is vaguely surprised they aren't louder, until he remembers the "gay issue" must still be weighing at their minds. George carefully steers his mind away of superfluous thoughts with years worth of practice, just in time for his own actor to be presented.
He has to raise an eyebrow at the irony of his actor being of color, while George's own fortune was built on the backs of negros working at his plantation. He doesn't have time to dwell on it, because his actor immediately starts singing about the horrible situation the American Army is in.
Alexander whistles lowly and says: "Right on character." Laurens nods but stops as soon as he notices George's stare from the corner of his eye.
"Quite so!" responds Lafayette, not bothering with formalities. George intends to remind him he is slandering his general, but stops himself at the last moment. It is not the time, and they are not in a formal setting. He'll let it slide for now.
"What are you talking about?" asks Mulligan in a whisper, that does almost nothing to hide his words. "Is his Excellency truly so pessimistic?"
"He isn't a pessimist, he's firmly rooted in reality," answers Alexander, though there's a tension in his fist that tell George he's embellishing the truth somewhat.
George realizes that the three Schuylers, Burr and Mulligan are people who hadn't had the opportunity of seeing the glimpses of George's true thoughts that he sometimes lets slip around his most trusted aides.
Almost as if on cue, his actor sings "let down my guard and tell the people how I feel a second?". A stab of envy and concern lance through George's heart. He could never be truly honest about his feelings with anyone else but Martha. It was a necessary pain to ensure people saw him as a stalwart and unshakable leader. It was the only way they would follow him.
Nonetheless he is curious as to what historians have retained of his character. From what he sees so far, he shares the same aversion to needless embellishment as his actor. Though they put him up as the "model of a major general" which is an exaggeration. George was never a prodigy when it came to battle. He knew what he had to know to not let his men die, learned through shame and the deaths of others, but his talents lied on running a business and making his way in politics. He doesn't know if he should be grateful for this, since it covers his failures, or bitter, since it makes his legacy a story of somebody who doesn't truly exist. He settles on neither.
Boom!
George whirls around to try on locate the source of the cannonball, only to find there's none at all.
"Do they have a cannon on set!?" exclaims Laurens, his lips set into a tight line.
"They don't!" comes Elliot's voice as the play freezes. "I'll try to explain it later, but for now bear with it. I promise it's harmless."
Lafayette mutters something under his breath that George is sure is some kind of curse word, but since he doesn't understand a lick of French, he can never be sure.
"Any hope of success is fleeting, how can I keep leading when the people I'm leading keep retreating?" sings George's actor, right as the play is resumed.
George refused to remember the anger at his men's cowardice in a time like this. It would only prove useless, in the end. He still struggled with it nonetheless.
"We put a stop to the bleeding as the British take Brooklyn," sings George's actor, and Alexander says: "So, we're at the Battle of Long Island!"
"Don't remind me," grumbles Laurens. "Our first battle after independence, and it turned out to be a loss."
"At least the war didn't end there!" answers back Lafayette, ever the optimist.
"Thank God it didn't," says Eliza, unconsciously putting her hands as if she were in prayer.
A shout of "incoming" instinctively rips their attention back to the play, where this time Alexander sings of the time he stole british cannons.
"What in the devil does "brah" mean?" asks Mulligan, confused as to what his actor is saying.
"Maybe it doesn't mean anything?" suggests Peggy, though she doesn't look too sure of her guess either.
"Shh-boom!" yet another cannon goes in the play, and all of the military men glare at it almost in unison. It is quite the challenge to stay seated and calm when years worth of battle-instincts are screaming to get up, find the canon and shut it up.
"Watch the blood and the shit spray–" George is surprised for a second to hear his actor curse, only for yet another cannon shot to ring out in the theater.
Nevermind that, it wasn't a single cannon shot, but three more damned cannon shots in a quick succession, all accompanied with reminders of their failures. As much as George appreciates the clever wordplay, he hopes to never hear this song again.
At least his actor represents his anger quite well with the way he sings "I scream in the face of this mass mutiny!"
The song takes a more somber sound, winding down, until George calls for assistance and Burr answers. To not much effect, apparently.
Laurens begins giggling, trying to pretend as if he isn't, when it becomes clear the lukewarm reaction the George on-stage has towards Burr. Alexander joins in the giggling, doing a much worse job at hiding it than Laurens.
It is a these times that George becomes painfully aware most of his army is comprised of barely-adults.
"Your Excellency, you wanted to see me?" intrudes Alexander on-stage, and Angelica lets out a bark of laughter, which she immediately tries to disguise as a cough. Her youngest sister does nothing to hide her smirk, however.
The "we keep meeting" draws a few more laughs from the audience, along with a few elbow jabs from Mulligan to Burr, much to his displeasure.
And Peggy doubles over laughing when George the actor declares "close the door on your way out". George has to admit that line proved rather funny.
The song quickly moves on to depict the moment George convinced Alexander to join his staff. He doesn't regret his decision in the slightest. Alexander's mind is far too brilliant for it to be wasted on a gunshot. If only he could understand that military glory was born of destruction, and it was better to be remembered by what you created than what you destroyed.
"Alexander! Don't tell me you didn't want to join his Excellency's staff! How could you ever pass up such an opportunity," chastises Angelica, and Laurens has to clap a hand over Alexander's mouth to stop the tirade.
"Please, for the love of god, Alexander don't start," says Laurens with a long-suffering sigh, and only retires his hand once Alexander starts to pout.
And immediately Alexander opens his mouth to talk.
"Alexander," says Eliza softly, and catches his hand, pressing a kiss onto it. It's enough for him to finally settle down.
George looks back to the play to find Alexander in the middle of a whirlwind of productivity, recommending his friends for different posts, which in reality they had won through merit or through other connections.
A call to "Rise up!" repeats itself, along with the same "Here comes the general!" motif from the beginning, growing in intensity, to end in a thunderous "and his right hand man!"
The light rises.
Elliot appears on the screen with a grin far too wide for the situation.
"Soooo, what did you guys want to know?"
"What– How in the– I mean– Gay!?" stutters Alexander, gesticulating wildly, wide-eyed, and then raises his hands, accidentally knocking his own cravat into his face.
Peggy snorts, but she's the only one.
The background of the window changes to a set of colorful, rainbow-colored stripes. "What you see behind me is the gay flag."
George blinks. He would have never imagined sodomites would make a flag for themselves, and he would have never imagined it would be that… flamboyant. He would have expected something more subtle and discreet as to not attract undue attention.
"This flag, along with the acronym LGBT and the umbrella-term 'queer', represents those that in your time might be called 'deviants'; those who don't conform to the 'standard' gender or sexuality," begins Elliot, their voice gaining a story-teller's affectation.
For a pretty long time, the United States of America upheld laws that criminalized deviant behavior, charging people with crimes such as "solicitation of homosexual behavior" or "non-gender appropriate clothing"
The process that changed this was long and arduous, spanning centuries. But most will agree that one of the most, if not the most, pivotal moment of the LGBT movement was the Stonewall Riots.
On June 28, 1969, police stormed the Stonewall Inn, one of the few establishments that served gay clientele. This was nothing new; it happened regularly. However, what was new was how the gay community reacted. Instead of running away, the patrons of the bar stayed, and others joined. People heard the commotion, the mob grew, and this ultimately led to six days of protests around the area, involving thousands of people."
"Thousands!" exclaimed Laurens. "I'd never thought there'd be so many of– of them!"
"There's always more than you think," says Lafayette with a knowing tone.
"How would you– oh, right. You're french," Mulligan answers, while Lafayette nods sagely.
George could never quite come to terms with the French love. 'Courtly love' especially. God created marriage as an institution to be upheld with honor and faithfulness, and taking lovers outside of it is a mockery of God's will. Still, it would not do to get his anger out of his control because of an old grievance, so George breathes in slowly, and squashes the feeling growing on his chest to finally focus on the matter at hand.
"The Stonewall Riots began a wave of movements and causes in the United States in years to come, championing the removal of anti-sodomite, or "homophobic" policies from legistlation, the declassification of homosexual behaviors as illness and, more recently, the legalization of homosexual marriage in the entirety of the United States, as of [daate]."
Elliot smiles softly, and fades into the background of the window.
"They could marry? That's unheard of!" mutters Burr, accidentally knocking his own wig askew.
"It is a rather foreign concept," concedes Angelica, frowning at the air. "And I'm not fully wrapping my head around it."
"Not so much for us though," begins Lafayette, with a smile a touch impertinent. "Baron von Steuben, remember him?"
"The inspector general?" answers Eliza, straightening in her seat from where she'd sat silently.
"He's a gay. It is more or less–"
Elliot bursts out in laughter, coming to the forefront for a second. "You used the word wrong!"
"He's gay?" tentatively corrects Lafayette, and continues after Elliot nods. "It's an open secret within a few in the military. I am rather sure the pantless party was just an excuse for him to see bare legs."
Eliza looked distinctly green, one hand over her mouth, while Angelica curled her lip in disgust. Peggy simply looked wide-eyed at the new information. George inwardly sighed at their reactions, but he wasn't surprised. He had been expecting that kind of reception among the more distant connections of the military. He could not regret his decision though.
"I should have known," sighs Burr, finally correcting the position of his wig.
"Why would you allow such a thing?" asks Mulligan to George, and George takes a second to craft an adequate response.
"It is a fact that our army is underprepared, understaffed and wholly undisciplined. At least, that was true before Baron von Steuben came to us. He instilled a sense of order and pragmatism in our army that was simply lacking before. He is a miracle for our army, I could not turn away such a skilled ally without offending the will of God that put him in my path.
The pantsless party was a necessary evil. Most underestimate the role morale plays in wars, and such a ridiculous party was exactly what was needed for a boost. If I had to be the accomplice of the Baron's indecent scheme, so be it. I would rather my men lived in infamy than futility die in honor."
Alexander's face turned sour at the last sentence, tightening his mouth into a straight, reproaching line.
"Ever the pragmatist," mumbled Mulligan, satisfied with the answer but evidently not with the situation.
George squared his shoulders further and didn't try to meddle in the situation further. Charismatic he was, eloquent, not so much. There was a very good reason he had Hamilton answer his letters for him, after all.
"May I continue?" asks Elliot, not reacting to Alexander's surprised mumble of "there's more?"
After a moment, Elliot moves to the side of the screen, the background shifting into a mess of color and people and music, gay flags fluttering merrily in the air among strange metal buildings.
"In the anniversary of the Stonewall Riots, a march was held, which slowly shifted into what you see here: the Pride Parade. These marches are a way for the LGBT community to let themselves be seen, to scream to the world "we are here and we are proud of who we are!"
People whoop, some dressed in scandalous outfits, both men and women alike. George spots a pair of women with intertwined hands, one of them with bright blue hair, and the other with a pink shirt that doesn't reach past her belly button. George quickly averts his gaze, and presses his lips in a disapproving line once he sees that both Alexander and Burr have not done the same.
Burr does avert his eyes a second later, but Alexander doesn't. George is about to subtly reprimand him, when he notices that Alexander is not looking at the women, but at a pair of young men, a rainbow painted proudly on their cheeks. They are both cheering and smiling, before engaging in a playful duel with the rainbow flags in their hands.
Alexander's face is a mask of perfect calm, but his eyes shine with the same longing he got when talking about the future country they were creating.
George sighed. He had been suspecting something like that for a rather long time, but having some manner of confirmation would complicate things. At least both of them had been discreet about it. Yet, that didn't lift his worry that they might one day get careless and be discovered. The revolution could not lose two most valuable soldiers to something as unimportant as this.
The mess of people on the portrait freezes, stuck in place, and then suddenly loses its color, except for a few spots here and there. The sheer strangeness of the phenomenon is enough to rip George out of his thoughts and stare mystified at the portrait.
"See these different colors? Well, those are the other flags of the community!" enthuses Elliot, as the colors come to life and organize themselves in rows, more and different colors appearing. Soon, the picture is nothing more than rows upon rows of neatly organized and colorful flags.
"Let's start with this one here!" Elliot points toward a flag that's mostly made of multiple shades of pink. "This one is the lesbian flag! It's the flag for women who love women."
"You never hear much about them," mutters Angelica, a suspicion in her eyes.
"Well, sexism or the discrimination towards the sexes, still exists in the future. Much lessened, but still there. Even in the LGBT community there's some favoritism to white males. This flag was a way for the women of the community to make themselves seen," Elliot finishes, nodding towards Angelica, who returns the nod.
"This one here, is the bisexual flag," says Elliot pointing at a flag made of shades of purple. "For those that love both sexes."
Laurens blinks and subtly pokes Alexander's side, who is doing his best to stifle a little smile. Alexander nods, and Laurens smiles too, a silent conversation passing in between them with a dexterity George has only seen in long-married couples.
"The pansexual flag, for those that love all indiscriminately. And yes, there is a difference between the bisexual and pansexual flag. Bisexual implies there is a slight favoritism to one sex or another. Pansexual implies sex doesn't matter at all."
Alexander continues his silent conversation with Laurens, glances at Eliza, leans his head in her direction. Laurens seems to understand, because he nods, and mutters something like "lean toward the fairer sex?" Alexander nods again, and both of them turn back to look at the picture.
"Transexual, for those that feel they've been born with the wrong body, and asexual, for those who don't feel sexual attraction at all," Elliot continues pointing at two flags, one blue-white-pink, the other black-purple-white, and George has to meditate a second to wrap his head around those two foreign concepts. He can't exactly wrap his head around them, unable to imagine wanting to be the opposite sex or not feeling the call of the flesh at all.
"And now, the last one I wanted to show you," starts Elliot, pointing at a flag with a red, blue and black background, a heart with an infinity symbol superposed onto it. "This is the polyamory flag. And before you say it, yes, I am aware the word itself is not correctly made up."
Alexander's mouth closes with a click.
"Polyamory means that a person has multiple romantic or sexual partners at the same time."
George finds himself frowning. "How is that different from unfaithfulness?"
"Simple: cheating means that trust was broken. Let's say… Laurens is in a relationship with Peggy." Both the alluded people look at each other. Peggy seems amused, while Laurens looks incredulous. "Unfaithfulness happens when Laurens and Peggy trust that the other is going to love them and only them, and one or both decides to break the promise. However, in polyamory the promise is different. If Laurens and Peggy were polyamorous, then they would, for example, promise to love each other, nothing more, nothing less. Loving someone else doesn't break the promise, so it isn't unfaithfulness."
"So, if I were polyamorous, I could have as many husbands as I wanted?" asks Peggy, mostly in jest.
"As many husbands and wives as you wanted, as long as they were ok with it," chirps back Elliot, who glances at Alexander, giggles, and looks turns to look at the background.
"If all of you don't mind, I'd like to continue with the next song. I'm sure I can answer any further questions after we're done with it!"
George finds himself nodding along, mostly so that he can have a moment to think about the information he's gathered, and so lets himself sink into his own mind as the lights dim in the room.
