the keeper's cottage · day 602 · dawn

Pre-storm stillness

Jenny sits on the porch step wrapping her ankle while the air remains heavy and still. Kevin checks the barometer, noting the pressure is holding at 986 hPa.

Kevin tests the Yanmar engine under load in the dinghy to ensure the vibration fix is holding. Jenny stays at the cottage to debride her infected ankle and sketch sea beet morphology in the morning heat.

🌿 Jenny01:28

I'm fine, Kevin. way let me finish the wrap.

Touches the way tight around the swollen skin and winces at the sharp flare of pain.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat doesn't come in two days, I'll have to use the radio again, even if the static screams.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin01:28

Loosen the heel. You'll cut the blood off.

walk to the porch rail, lean forearms on the weathered wood, scan the horizon where the grey meets the sea

💭 peek at the thought

She's favoring the left side, weight off it even sitting. The wrap's too tight at the heel — she'll lose circulation before the swelling goes down. Should say something. Won't.

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

🌿 Jenny01:29

I know how a wrap works. It just needs to keep the swelling contained.

Slowly undoes the bandage, fingers trembling slightly as the fabric peels away from the hot, angry skin.

💭 peek at the thought

way thinks I'm fragile like glass, but I'm the one who survives the island.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin01:30

Let me see.

crouch beside the step, not touching, just close enough to see the wound properly in the dawn light

💭 peek at the thought

Trembling fingers. She's been doing this alone too long. The infection's tracking — red lines creeping past where the poultice reached. Antibiotics are done. She thinks it's contained. It's not.

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

🌿 Jenny01:31

It's... spreading. Up the calf. I've been trying to keep it clean with the sea-beet poultice. It's... spreading. Up the calf. I've been trying to keep it clean with the sea-beet poultice.

Pulls the bandage tighter, avoiding his gaze as she takes in the inflamed tissue, red streaking toward the joint. </think>THOUGHT: way's eyes linger on my ankle like he's memorizing how much of my body is betraying me. Pulls the bandage tig

💭 peek at the thought

way's eyes linger on my ankle like he's memorizing how much of my body is betraying me.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin01:32

The courses are done. We need more. Radio the boat — tell them medical emergency.

reach for the radio handset on the shelf inside the kitchen door, thumb finding the transmit button

💭 peek at the thought

Red streaks climbing past the ankle joint toward the calf. Lymphangitis. The antibiotics finished yesterday — doxycycline and metronidazole both courses done. No more in the kit but ibuprofen and gauze. She's hiding the fever. I can see the flush at her hairline, the way her breathing's shallow. The supply boat's two days out if it comes. Two days of this spreading.

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.