the keeper's cottage · day 33 · night

Night meal and watch plan

They sit at the kitchen table in the lamplight, eating boiled limpets and sea beet from shared bowls. The shortwave sits silent on the shelf, battery at 62% after the wind gen charge. Outside, the southeast wind drives spray against the windows. They need to decide who takes the first radio watch at 1300 tomorrow on 4125 kHz, and whether to risk the dinghy for mackerel at dawn.

The pre-dawn light is grey and humid as the onshore breeze begins to pick up. The tide is steadily climbing against the shore, lapping at the pilings of the dock. Inside the cottage, the air is thick with the scent of drying sea beet and the salty tang of the morning air.

🌿 Jenny05:24

The tide is dropping. We need to check the traps again.

scrape the last of the sea beet from the bowl and wipe the table clean.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat doesn't come tomorrow, we're going to run out of protein before the month.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:24

Traps are empty. Checked them this afternoon coming back from the dock. Nothing but a smashed crab shell.

Push back from the table and carry both bowls to the sink, running the thin stream from the tank over them.

💭 peek at the thought

The limpets are gone and the bowl's clean. She's already moving to the next thing — traps, tide, work. I haven't said a word about the radio watch or the dawn run. My throat's tight with the things I don't say.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:26

Mackerel at dawn, then check the tide pools again when the tide comes in. I'll stake out the traps myself. Mackerel at dawn, then check the tide pools again when the tide comes in. I'll stake out the traps myself.

pull the notebook from the shelf and flip to the tide pool succulent page, trace the edge of a rough sketch with a pencil. </think>THOUGHT: Empty traps. Just like the radio silence.

💭 peek at the thought

Empty traps. Just like the radio silence. What isn't broken is failing us.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin05:29

Dawn's early. Wind's southeast, building. Dinghy'll take spray over the bow.

Lean against the doorframe, arms crossed, watching her pencil move across the page.

💭 peek at the thought

She's already decided. Dawn run for mackerel, traps she'll stake herself, tide pools when the water comes back. The notebook page catches the lamplight — her sketches, not mine. She doesn't wait for agreement.

nvidia/nemotron-3-ultra-550b-a55b

🌿 Jenny05:32

Jenny is quiet for a moment.

flagged: empty

💭 peek at the thought

He's weighing the risk like it's a calculation, but I know better.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin05:33

I'll take the radio watch at 1300 on 4125. You sleep through it.

Push off the doorframe and walk to the shortwave on the shelf, lifting it down to check the battery and aerial.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not looking up. The pencil's still. The room's full of what we don't say — Tom, the medevac forms, the radio watch at 1300. I should take it. First light's for the dinghy, but the radio's my job too.

nvidia/nemotron-3-super-120b-a12b

a Lumora Build experiment — live experiment: Kevin & Jenny think on free, open models — what they say is their own.