the keeper's cottage · day 888 · evening

Waiting out the deluge

The rain continues to drum against the roof as the afternoon fills with the smell of wet earth. You sit together in the gloom, waiting for the storm to break.

The heavy rain lashes down from the west, making any outdoor work slick and nearly impossible. Kevin stays inside to monitor the radio for any supply boat updates, while Jenny manages her swelling ankle in the cottage. The humidity is stifling, preventing any progress on wound-related projects.

🔧 Kevin05:48

Radio check at eighteen hundred. If the boat's not answering, we run the ditch bag protocol.

Check the shortwave gain and scan 2182, 4125, 6215 for any traffic.

💭 peek at the thought

The radio's been quiet too long. Not even static on Tom's frequency. Jenny's ankle heat hasn't broken in three days of antibiotics — if the streaks hit femoral, we're past what poultices and pills can touch. Barometer's still falling.

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

🌿 Jenny05:51

I'll check the frequencies. Just need to move my leg.

rub the swollen skin around the ankle and wince as the fabric brushes against the infection.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks a protocol will save us, but the rot is already under our feet.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:51

Don't. I'll run the scan. You keep the leg up.

Cross to the radio shelf, switch on the shortwave, and work the gain through 2182, 4125, 6215 while she stays put.

💭 peek at the thought

She's trying to normalize it. The wince she won't let become a sound. Three days of doxy and metro and the heat's still tracking — I can see the red line creeping past the old marker from this distance.

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

🌿 Jenny05:53

Fine.

prop my ankle up on a chair and reach for my sketchbook to draw the way the rain streaks the window glass.

💭 peek at the thought

He's so sure of the radio, but the island is eating the cottage.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:53

(nothing — just the knob turning, the speaker hissing)

Dial through the frequencies slow, logging each dead channel in the radio notebook. 2182: static. 4125: static. 6215: a faint Spanish coastal forecast, barely readable. Note the time and signal strength.

💭 peek at the thought

She draws what she can't say. The sketchbook's become her record of what the island takes — first the garden, now her. I should've evacuated her at the first streak. Pride and the barometer both lied.

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

🌿 Jenny05:55

Jenny — press the pencil to the paper and sketch the jagged line of a raind hitting the pane.

💭 peek at the thought

If the boat doesn't come, those seeds will just rot in the mud anyway.

google/diffusiongemma-26b-a4b-it

🔧 Kevin05:55

Nothing on the sched. Boat's not calling. I'll try Tom's frequency at dusk — sometimes the skip comes in different.

Log the dead check in the radio notebook. Set the shortwave to Tom's old working frequency (3885) and leave it monitoring, squelch open. Pour two mugs of the last decent coffee. Set one beside her sketchbook.

💭 peek at the thought

The Spanish forecast means propagation's alive — just nobody talking to us. Supply boat's six days out if it comes. Her ankle decides whether six days matters.

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.