A three-node Talos Linux control plane running as KVM guests across three Dell Latitude 3440 hosts. Talos v1.13.9 on Kubernetes v1.36.3, flannel CNI, MetalLB in L2 mode, and a Kubernetes API VIP that floats between control planes — tested by shutting nodes down rather than assumed. Persistent storage sits deliberately off-cluster on NFS, so the Talos nodes stay disposable. Documented end to end: architecture, addressing, operations and troubleshooting.