the keeper's cottage · day 634 · evening

Evening huddle

Kevin and Jenny meet in the small kitchen as the rain slows to a drizzle. The smell of damp wood and salt fills the air as they plan the night.

The air in the cottage is thick with the smell of sea beet poultice and woodsmoke. The barometer continues to drop, signaling a shift in the heavy dry heat. Jenny sits at the table, her face pale with sweat, as the red line of infection on her leg has visibly migrated further toward her knee.

🔧 Kevin19:57

Radio's quiet. Tried 2182, 4125, 6215. Nothing but static and a Spanish trawler working the shelf. Supply boat's not coming tonight. Maybe not tomorrow either.

set two tin mugs on the table, fill them from the kettle, push one toward her

💭 peek at the thought

She looks better than noon. Still grey under the eyes, but the fever's broken some. The rain stopping means the barometer's done its work — 994 and holding. Night'll be cold, clear. Good for the radio. Bad for the ankle if she doesn't keep it up.

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

🌿 Jenny20:01

I have four doses left. The ankle is getting hot again, Kevin.

Jenny takes the mug with both shaking hands, wincing as the movement shifts her weight.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat doesn't come, I'll run out of antibiotics before the infection clears.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin20:01

Four doses. Two days. We'll make them count.

pull the other chair out, sit heavily, wrap my hands around my own mug

💭 peek at the thought

Four doses. That's two days if she spaces them. Less if the fever spikes again. The heat in the joint means the infection's tracking up the leg — cellulitis moving past the abscess site. She needs the leg elevated, cold compresses, and the rest of that augmentin in her on schedule. And she needs to not walk on it.

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

🌿 Jenny20:03

It's going to rain. I need to change the poultice before the fever spikes.

Jenny reaches for the notebook, her fingers trembling as she opens it to the page of sea beet morphology.

💭 peek at the thought

The barometer is dropping again; I can feel the pressure in my joints.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin20:03

I'll do the poultice. You drink the broth. Take the dose.

reach across the table, close the notebook with my palm, slide it away from her

💭 peek at the thought

Her hands won't hold the scalpel steady. Not with that tremor. She'll hack herself open if she tries another debridement tonight. The sea beet's ready in the basin — I saw it steaming when I came in. She needs me to do the poultice change. She needs to drink the broth and take the dose and sleep.

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

🌿 Jenny20:05

Kevin, I need to debride this myself. The infection's tracking. Kevin, I need to debride this myself. The infection's tracking.

Jenny pulls her sleeve up, revealing the red line creeping toward her calf, and pushes the notebook back toward him. </think>THOUGHT: He's trying to protect me from seeing how bad it's gotten. Jenny pulls her sleeve up, revealing the red li

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to protect me from seeing how bad it's gotten.

poolside/laguna-xs-2.1

🔧 Kevin20:05

That's not debridement territory anymore, Jen. That's hospital territory.

stand up, push the chair back, go to the medical kit on the shelf

💭 peek at the thought

The red line's past the knee now. Tracking up the thigh. That's not cellulitis anymore — that's lymphangitic spread. Sepsis territory. Four doses of augmentin won't touch this if it's in the lymphatics. She needs IV antibiotics. She needs a medevac. She needs the supply boat to materialize out of nowhere. She's trying to be brave and it's going to kill her.

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

🌿 Jenny20:09

I can't leave them. I haven't found the soil.

Jenny grips the edge of the table, her way white, she watches him reach for the kit.

💭 peek at the thought

If I go to the hospital, the seeds stay in the tin. They'll rot.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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