# Character State: ch-14 (FINAL)

## Elias Thorne
- **Location:** Oakhaven Archive, Sub-Level 3 (Central Core)
- **Physical:** Suffers third-degree burns on hands; collapsed lung; body in systemic shock; shallow, labored breathing.
- **Emotional:** Achieving a state of "transcendent terminal clarity"; peaceful acceptance of his mortality.
- **Active Obligations:** Owes Sarah Miller a full explanation of the signal's origin (Ch-13) -- UNPAID.
- **Open Loops:** Elias's biological survival vs. post-human digital sublimation (Ch-14) -- UNRESOLVED.
- **Known Secrets:** CARRIED (Ch-13--unresolved): Knows the Whisper Signal is an echo of future human extinction, not extraterrestrial -- Public/The Archive Board does not know.
- **Arc:** 99% -- Transitioned from a physical investigator to a living signal conduit; has fully surrendered his ego for the message.
- **Permanent:** YES

## Sarah Miller
- **Location:** Oakhaven Archive, Sub-Level 3 (Escaping toward the surface)
- **Physical:** Experiencing temporary deafness; severe respiratory distress from smoke inhalation; physical exhaustion.
- **Emotional:** Controlled professional focus masking profound existential terror and grief.
- **Active Obligations:** Support Elias Thorne against the Curator’s interference (Ch-14) -- PAID.
- **Open Loops:** Acceleration of the linguistic virus within her own psyche (Ch-12) -- UNRESOLVED.
- **Known Secrets:** CARRIED (Ch-11--unresolved): Knows Archive records are being altered in real-time by the Curator -- Public/Elias (initially) did not know.
- **Arc:** 100% -- Finalized her transition from a rational skeptic to the sole curator and witness of an impossible, supernatural reality.
- **Permanent:** YES

## Mark
- **Location:** Security Door Alpha (External Perimeter)
- **Physical:** Unconscious; stable respiration; no visible external trauma.
- **Emotional:** Catatonic/Null state.
- **Active Obligations:** None.
- **Open Loops:** Psychological recovery and the potential for future interrogation regarding the breach (Ch-14) -- UNRESOLVED.
- **Known Secrets:** None.
- **Arc:** 25% -- A passive casualty of the Archive's collapse; utility remains purely as a plot device for future investigation.
- **Permanent:** NO

## The Curator -- DECEASED (Ch-14)
- **Established:** Dissipated into erratic data-shards and static during the Central Core’s thermal runaway and the resonant feedback loop created by Elias.
- **Legacy:** His death leaves the Archive’s automated systems in a state of self-destructive chaos, facilitating the facility's total destruction.

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# World State: ch-14 (FINAL)

## NPC Memory
- **The Archives Automated Systems (Oakhaven):** HOSTILE -- Without the Curator, the security protocols have defaulted to scorched-earth containment, actively attempting to incinerate all inhabitants.

## Faction Attitudes
- **The Survivors (Sarah/Elias):** Resigned yet determined -- Sarah is focused on preservation of the record, while Elias is focused on the signal's delivery.

## Active World Events
- **The Great Dissipation:** The Resonance Harvest has collapsed; the carrier wave of the Linguistic Virus is failing as the physical infrastructure burns.
- **The Oakhaven Collapse:** Total structural failure of the Archive is imminent; timeline for total destruction is less than 5 minutes.
- **The Sarah Record:** Sarah’s digital recorder now holds the only extant copy of the decoded future echo and the Curator’s final moments.