the keeper's cottage · day 618 · midday

MIDDAY Storm Shelter

The rain continues to drum against the heavy-duty tarp as you gather inside to wait for the weather to break.

The air in the cottage is heavy with the scent of sea beet and antiseptic. Kevin has completed the deep incision on Jenny's knee, draining the infection from the joint capsule. The wound is now packed open with pine-resin gauze to ensure drainage, though the red tracking up her calf remains a visible concern. Outside, the overcast sky thickens as the tide continues to retreat from the rocky shore.

🌿 Jenny21:45

Jenny — reach for the first aid kit and the scalpel.

💭 peek at the thought

The infection is moving. If I don't cut that tissue out now, I won't be able to walk to the spring, and the seeds will rot in the tin.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin21:45

Give it here.

take the scalpel from her hand, set the first aid kit on the table, pull the tin mug of boiled seawater and the pine resin salve close

💭 peek at the thought

She's reaching for the scalpel again. The tracking's past the knee now — she feels it moving. She won't ask me to do it. She'll do it herself if I don't move first.

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

🌿 Jenny21:47

Be careful near the joint.

Sit back and elevate the leg on the pillows, watching the red line.

💭 peek at the thought

He's acting like he's fixing the engine, but it's my skin is failing.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin21:47

I know the anatomy. Hold still.

unwrap the poultice, peel back the gauze, examine the incision sites from yesterday — two still weeping, the third closed — then press two fingers along the hot track up her calf to where it kisses the knee joint, feeling for fluctuation

💭 peek at the thought

She's telling me how to do the work I've done three times already. Means she's scared. Means she trusts me to do it anyway.

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

🌿 Jenny21:49

It's deeper, Kevin.

Grip the edge of the bedframe, knuckles white, as he positions the blade.

💭 peek at the thought

It's reached the joint now. If he doesn't get the core out, I won't be able to even stand for the garden.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin21:49

Breathe slow. I'm going in beside the patella. Medial side.

position the scalpel at the medial joint line, push through skin and fascia into the swollen capsule, let the pressure blow pus onto the gauze pad, then irrigate with the boiled seawater syringe, packing the wound open with pine-resin gauze

💭 peek at the thought

She's right. The heat's settled into the joint capsule. Not cellulitis anymore — septic arthritis if we're lucky, osteomyelitis if we're not. The blade's only buying time. But time's what we have.

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.