# CHAPTER POLISH — FINAL STATE EXTRACTION
## "Whispers in the Dark" | Chapter 13

---

## CHARACTER STATE (CANONICAL POST-CH-13)

### Elias Thorne
- **Location:** The Oakhaven Archive, Sub-Level 3 (Central Core)
- **Physical:** Third-degree thermal burns (hands); collapsed lung (smoke inhalation); synesthesia intensified by terminal meltdown; **critical condition**
- **Emotional:** Transcendent completion; consciousness merging with dying signal; acceptance of sublimation
- **Arc:** 95% → **CLIMAX REACHED** — manually triggered full purge; severed the Harvest at cost of physical survival
- **Obligations:** Sarah Miller (explanation of signal origin) — **UNPAID**
- **Open Loop:** Physical survival vs. digital sublimation — **UNRESOLVED**
- **Secret Carried:** Signal origin = future human extinction echo (not extraterrestrial) — Sarah knows
- **Status:** PERMANENT; fate ambiguous (body vs. data)

### Sarah Miller
- **Location:** Emergency Exit Corridor (Sub-Level 3 perimeter)
- **Physical:** Temporary deafness; severe bruising; thermal singeing; clutching digital recorder
- **Emotional:** Disoriented but driven; scientific foundation fractured into survivalist obsession
- **Arc:** 98% → **TRANSFORMATION COMPLETE** — transitioned from skeptic to sole witness of metaphysical catastrophe
- **Obligations:** Support against Curator — **PAID**
- **Open Loop:** Linguistic virus acceleration (feedback spike) — **UNRESOLVED**
- **Known Secret:** Archive records altered in real-time by Curator
- **Status:** PERMANENT; survivor; recorder contains Curator's final data-burst screams
- **Voice Signature Active:** Analytical freeze-response maintained; no panic observed

### The Curator
- **Status:** **DECEASED** (ch-13)
- **Cause:** Thermal runaway destroyed Central Core lattice; dissipated into erratic data-shards and static
- **Legacy:** Archive subsystems now chaotic, unguided automation; no broadcast to sustain linguistic virus

### Mark
- **Location:** Security Door Alpha (perimeter)
- **Physical:** Unconscious, stable
- **Emotional:** Psychological total-collapse (void)
- **Arc:** 25% — passive casualty; **no resolution**
- **Status:** NOT permanent; potential revival unclear

---

## WORLD STATE (CANONICAL POST-CH-13)

### The Resonance Harvest
- **Status:** **ABORTED** at 96% completion
- **Current Form:** Decaying echo; coherence shattered; dissipating without Curator broadcast

### Oakhaven Archive (Physical)
- **Condition:** CRITICAL STRUCTURAL FAILURE
- **Sub-Levels:** Thermal expansion/collapse in progress; total vaporization imminent (minutes)
- **Subsystems:** Cycling through contradictory safety protocols; unruly automation

### Key Items/Objects
- **Sarah's Digital Recorder:** ACTIVE — high-fidelity corrupted capture of Curator's final screams/data-burst
- **Override Cables:** MELTED — sabotage irreversible
- **Linguistic Virus:** Dissipating without guidance; no longer coherent threat

### Open World Loops
1. **Elias's fate:** Sublimation vs. survival — unresolved
2. **Sarah's testimony:** Digital recorder evidence — status of external communication unclear
3. **Virus residue:** Decaying whisper — potential threat or harmless dissipation TBD
4. **Mark's psychology:** Total collapse — recovery trajectory unknown
5. **Archive's legacy:** Unguided systems — future automation behavior undefined

---

**CHAPTER 13 STATUS: CLIMACTIC TURNING POINT — Major arcs resolved (Harvest aborted, Curator eliminated); character fates and world consequences open for resolution in final acts.**