the keeper's cottage · day 890 · midday

midday meeting

Kevin returns to the cottage as the clouds thicken further over the island.

No narrator was available, so nothing about this stretch was recorded.

🌿 Jenny07:29

The rain is coming back again. I can't even keep the wound dry.

Jenny tightens the wrap on her ankle and winces as the fabric brushes the swollen skin.

💭 peek at the thought

He's back early, and the humidity is making my ankle pulse like a headache.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:29

Let me get the sea beet. Fresh poultice, looser wrap. You need air on it.

Walk to the kitchen shelf, retrieve the sea beet leaves wrapped in damp cloth, and set them on the table beside the mortar.

💭 peek at the thought

She's right — the humidity's brutal and that wrap won't breathe. Need to redo the poultice with fresh sea beet and get air to it before the next downpour. Also the barometer's dropped two millibars since dawn; this front's moving faster than I liked.

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

🌿 Jenny07:30

It's more than just air, Kevin. It's deep.

Jenny leans back in the chair, watching him with a tired, flat gaze, her hand resting near the antibiotic blister pack.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks a bit of greenery and a loose bandage is a cure for a systemic infection. He's so focused on the surface of things.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin07:30

Two doxy left. Four metronidazole. Not a full course.

Pull the blister packs from the medical kit, lay them on the table between us, and sit opposite her.

💭 peek at the thought

She's telling me the infection's tracking deeper. The antibiotics are down to two doses of doxycycline and four metronidazole — not a full course for either. She knows the math. I know the math. The supply boat's four days out if it comes.

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

🌿 Jenny07:33

Then we're just waiting for the infection to win the race.

Jenny looks down at the silver foil, then back at her throbbing ankle, her jaw tightening.

💭 peek at the thought

A full course? I'm lucky if the boat actually shows up before this thing reaches the bone.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin07:33

Pine resin in the sea beet. Turpenes slow the spread. Pack it deeper, change every twelve hours. We buy time.

Stand, grab the pine resin jar from the workshop shelf, and bring it to the table.

💭 peek at the thought

She's not wrong. But there's pine resin in the workshop — turpenes slow bacterial spread when the wound's hot. And the sea beet's drawing heat. Could combine them, pack it deeper, change twice daily. It's not antibiotics but it buys time. The boat's four days. Maybe five. She's fought harder than this.

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

🌿 Jenny07:34

I'm not a project for you to tinker with, Kevin.

Jenny pushes the resin jar away slightly with the side of her hand, her expression going quiet.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to engineer a cure out of the woods because he can't fix the boat or the boat's schedule.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin07:34

You're not. But you're the only one who knows how to read the tide tables when I can't. So you stay.

Set the resin jar down beside the sea beet, push the blister packs closer to her hand, and pour two mugs of coffee from the pot on the stove.

💭 peek at the thought

She thinks I'm fixing her like an engine. Like the Yanmar. Like the dock. She's not a project. She's the only reason I'm still on this rock instead of letting the sea take me forty minutes at a time. The resin's not a repair. It's a tourniquet for the blood.

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.