Man. Despite my reservations about the…
company… yesterday, this place is badass. I mean it is badASS.
The Dauphine is enormous. It doesn't look
it when you're jammed in the tight corridors, but, yeah, there's a lot of space
in this bucket of cogs. Libby designed it for a long-ass trip, and you can
tell. It's built to accommodate a lot of people for a long, long time. I bet
this baby could make three trips around the world without needing an overhaul.
(Though don't quote me on that when it breaks down. 'cause I bet it will. Those
sails up front look awful flimsy in the wind.)
Lemme give you a brief tour, oh diary mine.
Still feels weird talking to you like this… but… yeah. Tour time.
We begin with the bottom deck, known
formally as Engineering. Engineering is where we enter and exit the Dauphine, a
few emergency doors aside. All the machinery that makes this baby run is down
here. There's a constant grind of cogs and wheels and metal shit when the
Dauphine is in motion, leading to a looooot of noise. You feel a bit deafened
whenever you visit Engineering. Libby's workbenches are down here, so I suspect
she'll be perpetually half deaf once she's had the baby and gets back to work.
Up a flight of stairs, somewhere near the
midsection of Engineering, is the middle deck. Edmund called it 'Subsistence',
and I kinda like the ring of that, so it's stuck. Subsistence is where we go to
sleep, to eat, to clean, to do all the stuff we need to do to keep feeling like
human beings. We even have soapy buckets for washing our hair and bodies, which
Libby says she installed to make sure I clean myself. I guess I stink. No news
to me. Subsistence is also now the home of the Neo Beefiary, commanded by Bora,
which will soon have a plaque commemorating my brother. The name was his idea,
after all.
Up another flight of stairs you find the
top deck, also known as Command. This is where we steer the Dauphine, make
plans, and do all sorta official shit. Command is ringed by windows, so you can
see in all directions around the Dauphine, and it leads to a little observation
deck for long-distance viewing. There are cables connected to Command and the
observation deck for raising or lowering the sails.
And the best part? We not only managed to
fit Daena's tree into the Dauphine, but Libby rigged it up so it's on a lift.
It can move from deck to deck, and clamps into place when Daena's ready to
settle in. Libby didn't want Daena to feel like we were using her only for her
powerful pedalling, and, now, we aren't. She's as much a part of the crew as
anybody else.
… 'specially since she moves the thing.
But, you know.
All in all, the Dauphine is, like I said,
badass. There's so much more to it than I even mentioned, and every little
tidbit only adds to its awesomeness. Libby outdid herself in designing this
thing, she really did.
Tomorrow: I get a sense of the mood of the
crew. I know most of 'em are still confused as to WHY we've set out, and I'd
better supply 'em with answers before they go squirrely on me.
Sincerely,
Dragomir the Wanderer
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