# CHAPTER POLISH — STATE EXTRACTION (FINAL/CANONICAL)

**Project:** Whispers in the Dark  
**Chapter:** 14 (Polished)

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## Character State: ch-14 (FINAL)

### Elias Thorne
- **Location:** Oakhaven Archive, Sub-Level 3 (Central Core)
- **Physical:** Third-degree burns (hands); collapsed lung; shallow breathing; body in shock
- **Emotional:** Transcendent terminal clarity; bridge-building acceptance
- **Arc:** 99% — Transitioned from physical agent to signal conduit; surrendered personal survival
- **Active Obligations:** Owes Sarah explanation of signal origin (UNPAID)
- **Open Loops:** Physical survival vs. digital sublimation (UNRESOLVED)
- **Secrets Carried:** Signal origin = future human extinction echo, not extraterrestrial (Sarah knows)
- **Status:** Permanent character; at threshold of transformation

### Sarah Miller
- **Location:** Oakhaven Archive, Sub-Level 3 (near Central Core)
- **Physical:** Temporary deafness; respiratory distress mid-evacuation; exhaustion
- **Emotional:** Compulsive professional focus masking grief and existential terror
- **Arc:** 100% — Finalized transition from skeptic to sole curator of impossible reality
- **Active Obligations:** Support Elias against Curator (PAID)
- **Open Loops:** Linguistic virus acceleration (UNRESOLVED)
- **Secrets Carried:** Archive records altered in real-time by Curator (public unaware)
- **Inventory:** Digital recorder (ACTIVE) — contains Curator's final corruption + decoded future echo
- **Status:** Permanent character; burden of recording now hers alone

### Mark
- **Location:** Security Door Alpha (perimeter)
- **Physical:** Unconscious; stable respiration
- **Emotional:** Catatonic/Null
- **Arc:** 25% — Passive casualty of Archive collapse
- **Open Loops:** Psychological recovery (UNRESOLVED)
- **Status:** Non-permanent; minimal development; awaiting revival/interrogation

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## World State: ch-14 (FINAL)

### The Archive (Oakhaven)
- **Structural Status:** TOTAL COLLAPSE IN PROGRESS — thermal expansion/destruction; <5 min to completion
- **Automated Systems:** CHAOTIC — Curator absent; defense protocols contradictory and self-destructive; hostile to survivors
- **The Curator:** DECEASED — Dissipated into erratic data-shards and static during Central Core thermal runaway

### Active Phenomena
- **The Great Dissipation:** Resonance Harvest collapsed into non-coherent echo; Linguistic Virus losing carrier wave as Archive burns
- **The Whisper Signal:** FADING — Returns to passive background radiation of future; no longer active contagion
- **Critical Item:** Sarah's Digital Recorder (ACTIVE) — sole record of Curator's death and future echo

### Faction Attitudes
- **Archive Automated Systems:** Chaotic, containment-through-destruction priority
- **Survivor Status:** Elias/Sarah evacuating; Mark catatonic; time-critical escape window closing

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**EXTRACTION COMPLETE — Chapter 14 canonical state locked.**