In the Ceannic military I imagine the unwritten rules boil down to, “As long as you all follow the proper chain of command when you need to follow orders you can be friendly, but remember that you’re not friends until you EAS or go to a different unit. Don’t expect special treatment and don’t ask for it.”

For Sonheim, I expect it’s more along the lines of, “Your superior is your superior. If they want to fraternize, it’s better to go along because that means they see you as someone valuable. If you’re low on the ladder, don’t initiate. If you do get caught fraternizing, you’ll the one at fault not your leaders. As long as the rest of us don’t suffer for it, we’ll pretend it doesn’t exist if someone asks.”

For those that don’t know, fraternization typically is when in the military a relationship between junior and superior goes beyond professional. It can be anything from a sergeant taking several junior enlisted out for drinks outside of a shop function frequently enough that they get on a first name basis, up to a physical relationship that, even if consensual, is still unprofessional due to the fact that this is undercutting the chain of command. Fraternization undermines unit cohesion and command due to both favoritism (“Hmm. It’s X or Y for this duty. I know X hasn’t had it in a while and Y’s had a heavy workload, but I wanted to see them that night. Y can handle another night of duty.”) to creating rifts among the command (“Hey, can you believe X didn’t pull duty again?” “Must be nice to have the staff wrapped around their finger.” “Yeah, fuck X.”).

This might sound petty, but we’re just as human as everyone else. If your unit can’t work together, your mission doesn’t get accomplished.