# Character State: ch-22

## Marcus Thorne
Location: The North Bank (Utility Shed), Cypress Bend, Florida.
Physical: Soot-stained face; hands raw from grinding charcoal; smelling of woodsmoke and stagnant river water.
Emotional: Dialed-in. The "flicker" of the Ocala signal has replaced his systemic guilt with a cold, directional focus.
Active obligations: Protect the Bend’s electronic silence (Ongoing); Interpret the Ocala "Ghost" Signal (New).
Open loops: The Alpha-7 Back-end Logs (Unresolved—stored in the Pelican case); Julian’s proximity (Threat escalated).
Arc: 115% -- Marcus has moved from "hiding" to "operating." He is no longer just a tenant of Arthur’s legacy; he is the technician of its defense.
Permanent: YES

## David
Location: The North Bank (Perimeter), Cypress Bend, Florida.
Physical: Moving with a slight favor to his left side (old injury acting up in the humidity); gripping a vintage radio scanner.
Emotional: Skeptical but disciplined. He trusts Marcus’s technical "vision" but loathes the risk of reaching out into the airwaves.
Active obligations: Secure the North Bank perimeter against "non-digital" intruders.
Arc: 108% -- David is beginning to see Marcus not as a corporate refugee, but as a necessary "signal-fire" watcher for the new world.
Permanent: YES

## Julian Avery
Location: Avery-Quinn Chicago HQ (and moving).
Physical: Impeccable; sitting in a chilled, oxygen-rich environment that contrasts the Florida heat.
Emotional: Predatory. He has identified a "data-void" in the Florida sector that matches Marcus's behavioral signature.
Known secrets: Has authorized a "high-resolution sweep" of the Ocklawaha basin, bypassing standard privacy protocols.
Arc: 105% -- Julian is transitioning from "monitoring" to "hunting."
Permanent: YES

## Sarah Jenkins (Flashback/Mental)
Location: Marcus’s memory / Digital fragments.
Emotional: Indicting. Her voice is the "static" Marcus hears when the radio goes silent.
Current status: Her "Terminal Efficiency" packet has been flagged by Julian's team as a lure for Marcus.

# World State: ch-22

## NPC Memory
- The Regional Barter-Network: WARY -- Rumors of "drones with no markings" sighted near the Ocala National Forest have suppressed local trade.

## Faction Attitudes
- Avery-Quinn Corp: AGGRESSIVE -- The "Sovereign Mesh" is holding, but Julian has initiated a "Brute Force Indexing" of the regional power-grid anomalies.

## Active World Events
- The Ocala "Ghost" Signal: ACTIVE -- A low-bandwidth, repeating pulse on the 144MHz band. It’s too structured to be weather, too "dirty" to be corporate.
- The Sovereign Mesh: DEGRADED -- Marcus has had to pull power from the mesh to boost the signal-receiver, creating a "grey-hole" in the Bend's invisibility.
- Atmospheric Interference: HIGH -- Heat-lightning is masking the physical approach of AQ search teams but complicating Marcus’s signal-triangulation.

## Logic/Technology
- The "Dark-Grid" Protocol: In effect. All high-emission devices at the Bend are throttled. Marcus is using Arthur’s old copper-wire antennas as a passive array to avoid active pings.