albatross

the mariner's bird: a wandering albatross — the widest wings alive — living on the wind over open water, resting on the swell, soaring low reaches that lean downwind when the wind is home. and the reason it exists: any deck under sail within sight is a thing worth following. it takes station off the masthead, circling high and slow, and stays for days. luck made visible from any distance.

the deck it follows is the one every ship in this line stands on — so it follows keel's raft and sloop today, and aloft's airships one day, with no dependency on any of them. the seam is the deck itself.

harm one and nothing in your numbers changes. but for three days the seabirds shun you: no albatross follows a deck you stand on, and every one of them gives you the sea room it would give a squall. the punishment is that the sea stops keeping you company — atmosphere and attachments, never progress. no taming, no feeding, no drops, no luck stat: the luck is that it is there.