staging: character-state-ch-03-final.md task=6421171c-d52e-4bd8-9631-f0b9da9c49cd

cypres-bend/staging/character-state-ch-03-final.md

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+# Character State: ch-03
+
+## Marcus Thorne
+Location: Arthur Vance’s Cabin, Cypress Bend, Florida.
+Physical: Shaking hands, sensory overload from the swamp’s humidity; nursing a bourbon that tastes like “liquid wood.”
+Emotional: Acute systemic guilt; experiencing a "logic loop" between his corporate past and his physical isolation.
+Active Obligations: Owes Elena a diagnostic on the port’s manifest system (ch-04) — UNPAID; Owes Arthur’s ghost a reason for staying — UNPAID.
+Open Loops: The specific encryption key for the Alpha-7 "Sarah" logs — UNRESOLVED; The physical location of the neighboring Vance parcel — UNRESOLVED.
+Known Secrets: CARRIED: The Alpha-7 "Empathy Mask" was actually a predictive firing algorithm—Julian believes the source code was wiped.
+Arc: 08% — Marcus has moved from "Flight" to "Stagnation," finding the silence of the cabin more terrifying than the noise of the city.
+
+## Elena
+Location: Everglades Outskirts / Port Everglades.
+Physical: Smelling of diesel and salt; calloused palms from manual rigging.
+Emotional: Mercenary but observant; she sees Marcus as a "high-maintenance asset" with potential utility.
+Active Obligations: Owes the Port Authority a "clean" audit on the heavy machinery auction (ch-04) — UNPAID.
+Open Loops: The identity of her "client" seeking heavy earth-movers — UNRESOLVED.
+Known Secrets: Knows that the local "Sanctuary" isn't a charity, but a fortified data-dark zone.
+Arc: 10% — Elena has transitioned from a guide to a recruiter, testing Marcus’s technical limits against physical hardware.
+
+## Julian Avery
+Location: Avery-Quinn HQ (Cloud-Linked).
+Physical: Unseen.
+Emotional: Calcified; viewing the Southeast region as a "dead zone" of efficiency.
+Arc: 05% — Julian has initiated the "Asset Recovery" protocol, moving from corporate HR to private security contracted to find Marcus.
+
+## Arthur Silas Vance — DECEASED
+Status: Ghostly Presence.
+Legacy: His cabin acts as a "dead-drop" for analog survival. His handwritten journals provide the "logic" Marcus is currently failing to parse.
+
+# World State: ch-03
+
+## NPC Memory
+- Local Bait Shop Proprietor: SUSPICIOUS — Noted Marcus’s "city shoes" and clean hands; marked him as a target for price-gouging.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- Avery-Quinn Corp: AGGRESSIVE — They have flagged Marcus’s last known MAC address and are monitoring commercial flight manifests.
+- The Displaced (Local): APATHETIC — They view the "tech migration" into the swamp as a temporary plague of wealthy "digital nomads."
+
+## Active World Events
+- The Great Deletion: ONGOING — AQ Corp is systematically scrubbing all human-centric support roles in the Southeast sector, replacing them with Alpha-7 nodes.
+- The Humidity Spike: SEASONAL — The physical environment is actively degrading any electronics not housed in airtight containers, favoring Arthur’s analog legacy.
+
+## Key Objects
+- The Alpha-7 Black Box: Marcus’s laptop, containing the illicit back-end logs—currently the "hottest" data on the East Coast.
+- Arthur’s Bourbon: The last bottle of 1970s reserve, representing the final "un-indexed" luxury in the cabin.