Boom Chick Chick

Husband: Stands up.

Husband: Sits back down.

After the United States entered World War II at the end of 1941 and Germany subsequently declared war upon it, Great Britain recommended several steps the United States should take in order to safeguard their ships from Nazi u-boats. Recommendations included sailing ships in convoy (preferably with escort, but records proved ships in convoy without escort were still safer than ships sailing alone), if a ship had to sail on its own, it should avoid known navigation routes and markers, and towns and cities along the East Coast should adhere to strict blackouts at night. These recommendations came from the previous two years of experience in which u-boats absolutely ran wild in the North Atlantic and North Sea, obliterating British shipping. This period of time was referred to by Nazi u-boat captains as “The First Happy Time”. 

Despite British warnings, the United States was slow to follow them and impose restrictions. Ships continued to sail along marked navigation routes and run standard navigation lights at night. Boardwalk communities along the coast were only requested they turn off their lights at night and the cities weren’t even asked that because they didn’t want to offend the tourism, recreation, and business sectors. 

Blacking out coastal communities would have made it infinitely harder for Nazi submarines to find and sink targets. A ship running with no lights is still visible against the backdrop of a lit city.

Conversely, a dark ship running against a dark coast is virtually invisible.

But because citizens living on the coast refused to adhere to wartime suggestions for amenity reasons, merchant ships sailing up and down the East Coast became sitting ducks of u-boats. The US government did not begin strictly enforcing blackouts until roughly August 1942. By then, the Nazis had been given 8 months to run rampant along American shores. This time period was referred to by u-boat captains as “The Second Happy Time” or “American Shooting Season”. 

By August, Nazi u-boats had sunk 609 merchant vessels, totaling 3.1 million tons and costing thousands of lives, mostly of merchant mariners performing their essential jobs. 

By comparison, only 22 u-boats were sunk.

 I respond, “Ah, cool. You doing NonCon at all?” remembering that our local convention is this coming weekend.

He looks at me super seriously and replies, “no, my friends and I are going go-karting downstairs and we’re all dressed up as Mario Kart characters.”

but she’s already dressed again, after peeling off the skin that would previously have been under that armor

the only logical conclusion here is that she wanted a picture of herself at her SHINIEST and PRETTIEST and hurried to get dressed once enough of her fresh and shiny new skin was uncovered

I bet her bestie took the picture and has been eagerly waiting with the magical fantasy camera for like, hours

Like, figuring out how long it takes the mortar to dry. Finding the maximum amount of time before knocking down a recently built brick wall. Establishing the best place on a recently bricked wall to topple it and escape.

And then, doing all of that while drunk.

If you only reblog one post from me today, please rb this one.

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DO NOT DONATE TO CHANGE(dot)ORG

this is him, by the way. His name is TK-421, and he is the star of the short story “Of MSE-6 And Men”.  He owns a mouse droid and is in an affair with a superior officer, who turns out to Tarkin.

The actual officer whom the trooper is in a relationship goes unspecified within the book, and isn’t listed as Tarkin specifically

However.

The officer is described as; wearing a grey suit, continuously bragging about the strength of the Death Star, and having the highest level of clearance aboard the Death Star, which is how he is able to send secret messages to TK-421

At one point the officer says he won’t be interrogating Princess Leia because Darth Vader will be doing it, meaning he’s definitely high enough in the chain of command to know that about Vader

At one point the officer jokes he just gave an “explosive” demonstration. The story takes place right around the time Alderaan is blown up. 

According to someone on Reddit, the Audible version of the story uses Tarkin’s voice for the officer in question

That armor has never been on the floor of Tarkin’s bedroom. He is very proud of his carpet and the armor goes on the chair by his bed.

Note: the country hick accent thing is because this is their first in-person meeting and TK-421 thinks Tarkin will be into that.