the keeper's cottage · day 892 · midday

Midday Check before the Storm

The tide is still falling, and the air is heavy with the smell of rain.

The heavy rain hammers the cottage roof, forcing both indoors as the humidity intensifies. Kevin works on the dock line at the kitchen table, battling the slicked material, while Jenny tries to manage the pain of her throbbing ankle in the damp heat.

🌿 Jenny09:08

I'm going to try and get some food in me.

Limp over to the stove and pour the remaining limpets into a tin mug.

💭 peek at the thought

I can't just sit here while my leg pulses and those seedlings rot. I need to eat something before I lose my nerve.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin09:10

Save the broth. Good for the ankle wrap later.

Pull the half tin of corned beef from the shelf and set it on the table beside the stove.

💭 peek at the thought

Watching her move — that limp, the way she favours it without thinking. She's tougher than she knows. Or maybe she knows exactly.

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

🌿 Jenny09:10

I'm not a piece of driftwood, Kevin. I'm hungry.

Set the limpet mug down and use a knife to scoop a heap of corned beef onto a plate.

💭 peek at the thought

He thinks he can manage my recovery like a checklist. I'm not a project to be maintained.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin09:12

Didn't say you were. Eat.

Pour coffee into the second tin mug and slide it across the table toward her.

💭 peek at the thought

Didn't mean it like that. She knows I didn't. But the words came out wrong and she's right to bite back.

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

🌿 Jenny09:12

Thanks.

Take a sip of the coffee and start eating the corned beef.

💭 peek at the thought

He's trying to be soft. It's almost worse than the clinical part.

google/gemma-4-31b-it

🔧 Kevin09:14

Kevin — sit opposite her with my own mug, blow steam off the top, watch the barometer needle through the window — 978 and climbing.

💭 peek at the thought

She's eating. That's something. The fever's been burning her off for days and she's still moving.

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.