the keeper's cottage · day 575 · midday

Midday Rain Persistence

The rain does not slack, and the tide reaches its high-water mark, isolating the cottage path until the afternoon turn.

Kevin gently pried the notebook from Jenny's trembling fingers and set it aside, guiding her back onto the cot despite her protests. The rain hammered the roof steadily while the tank brimmed full outside, and a pod of dolphins surfaced briefly off the point before vanishing into the grey.

🌿 Jenny17:23

Jenny — press a cold, damp cloth to my forehead and sketch the cellular structure of a sea than leaf.

💭 peek at the thought

The fever is making the room tilt, and my ankle feels like it's being held in a vice. I need to focus.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:28

You should be resting that ankle, not hunched over a notebook.

turn my head toward her, wincing slightly as the movement pulls at something deep in my chest

💭 peek at the thought

Jenny's running a fever. The cold cloth on my forehead means she's tending me now, not the ankle. She's still sketching through it — sea beet cellular structure, of all things. Stubborn.

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

🌿 Jenny17:31

Jenny — pull the notebook away from her hand, my fingers trembling from the fever.

💭 peek at the thought

She doesn't understand that if I stop recording, the island fades into nothingness before the boat. ownSAY: I'm documenting the damping-off patterns.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:31

Give it here.

reach out with my good hand, palm up, waiting for the notebook

💭 peek at the thought

She's shaking. The fever's got her hands trembling — or maybe it's the infection spreading. Either way, she shouldn't be holding a pen right now.

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

🌿 Jenny17:33

Not yet. I'm not finished the entry.

Clutch the own tighter to my chest, turning away from her to hide the throb in my ankle.

💭 peek at the thought

She thinks it's just paper, but it's the only thing keeping this place from swallowing me.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:33

Jen. The entry'll keep. You won't if you don't rest.

shift on the narrow cot, grimacing as I reach for her wrist — not grabbing, just letting my fingers brush the pulse point, checking temperature

💭 peek at the thought

She's burning up and still trying to document sea beet glands. The ankle's throbbing bad enough she's turning away to hide it. Stubborn as me.

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

🌿 Jenny17:45

I'm fine. I just need to finish this sketch.

Pull my arm away and press the pencil against the paper, trying to steady the line of the sea beet leaf.

💭 peek at the thought

My skin is burning, and I can't let her see how much I'm shaking.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:45

You're not fine. Put the pencil down.

sit up fully now, swinging legs over the cot edge, ignoring the protest in my ribs and chest, and reach for the notebook with both hands — slow, deliberate, not snatching

💭 peek at the thought

She's not fine. The tremor in her hand makes the pencil line jagged. Fever's climbing. Infection in the ankle's likely septic if she's this hot and the poultice didn't break it yesterday. She won't stop until she drops.

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

🌿 Jenny17:53

I'm almost done with the morphology.

Tighten my grip on the notebook cover, own white against the damp leather.

💭 peek at the thought

If she takes it, I lose the focus of the day. My head is spinning.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin17:53

The morphology isn't going anywhere. You are.

close my hand over hers on the cover, warm and heavy, not pulling — just holding, waiting

💭 peek at the thought

White knuckles on damp leather. She's burning through the last of her strength on a sketch that'll still be there tomorrow. The infection's winning.

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

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