the keeper's cottage · day 656 · night

NIGHT

The tide continues to pull out, revealing the sandbars near the tide pools, while the rain remains steady, keeping them locked indoors tonight.

The air is heavy and humid, the thickening clouds pressing down on the flat, grey sky. The low tide is far out, exposing the slick, salt-crusted rocks of the southern flats, while Kevin and Jenny prepare for the day as the barometer continues its slow, steady drop in pressure signaling the coming storm.

🔧 Kevin02:27

Low tide in twenty minutes. North piling's accessible if you want to see what the shim's doing.

walk to the porch door and pull on oilskin jacket

💭 peek at the thought

Tide's out enough to see the north piling mortise. Rain'll keep the dust down for drilling. Jenny's quiet — ankle's healing but she's carrying something. That letter from Tom's still in my pocket. Three months.

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

🌿 Jenny02:29

I'll stay here. The tide is not going anywhere.

sit at the kitchen table and pull the seed tin toward me.

💭 peek at the thought

My own is throbbing in time with the rain, and he wants me to go out in that?

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:29

Suit yourself. Back before full dark.

step out onto the porch and down to the dock, auger bit and brace in hand

💭 peek at the thought

She's avoiding the piling. Avoiding the conversation about Tom. The seed tin's a shield — she sorts seeds when the world's too big. I'll drill the mortise alone. The shim's crushed; the greenheart sister's carrying the load. Need to bore it out and sleeve it proper before the next spring tide.

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

🌿 Jenny02:31

Be careful on the slick rocks.

open the rusted tin and pour a handful of heirloom seeds into my palm.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks it's just wood and salt. He doesn't see the rot starting.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:31

Always am.

descend the dock ladder to the exposed piling base, brace the auger against the mortise, and start boring

💭 peek at the thought

Seeds in her palm, not mine. She's giving me something to carry. Tom's letter burns in my pocket. The shim's crushed — I knew that at low tide three weeks past. Been putting it off. Putting off everything.

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

🌿 Jenny02:33

Jenny — open my notebook and begin sketching the morphology of a single seed from my hand.

💭 peek at the thought

The sound of that drill against the wood is too loud for a quiet night.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin02:33

Kevin — pull the auger clear, blow chips from the mortise, and measure the bore depth with a rule

flagged: repeated_opener

💭 peek at the thought

Auger bites wet greenheart. Oak wedges still holding the ring bolt mortise, but the shim's powder — crushed to fibre under the sister plate's weight. Bore's clean. Need the bronze sleeve from the workshop. Tide gives me forty minutes before it covers the work face.

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

🌿 Jenny02:35

Don't force it, Kevin. It'll split.

press the pencil to the paper, capturing the delicate ridges on the seed's coat.

💭 peek at the thought

He's going too deep. The wood is soft there.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

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