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+# Character State: ch-16
+
+## Marcus Thorne
+Location: North Bank, Cypress Creek Construction Site
+Physical: Chemical burns on forearms from sealant splash; moderate heat exhaustion.
+Emotional: Defensive; retreating into "Infrastructure Speak" to mask the guilt of the structural near-miss.
+Active obligations: Owes Arthur a manual recalibration of the 3D-printer head (Ch16) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: Marcus vs. Elena [The 'Black Box' vs. 'Open Source' autonomy debate] (Ch16) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows the Sentinel pulse frequency has shifted by 0.4 Hz, indicating a local triangulation sweep — [The group does NOT know].
+Arc: 35% — Admitted the algorithm cannot predict the "yield" of wet Florida limestone.
+Permanent: NO.
+
+## Arthur "Art" Penhaligon
+Location: The Timber Span, Mid-point Suspension
+Physical: Right knee hyper-extended; breathing is shallow and rhythmic.
+Emotional: Vindicated; the physical steel held where the digital maps failed.
+Active obligations: Owes David a replacement for the sheared Grade-8 bolt (Ch16) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: Arthur vs. The Creek [The rising water-table threatening the south footing] (Ch16) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows the recycled rebar in the south pylon is oxidized beyond safe tolerances — [Marcus does NOT know].
+Arc: 40% — Officially passed the "Iron Rule" of material stress to David during the crisis.
+Permanent: YES (Permanent limp from the knee strain during the pylon shift).
+
+## David Shore
+Location: South Footing, Control Terminal
+Physical: Tremor in right hand has moved to the shoulder; severe dehydration.
+Emotional: Shaken; realized his "clean" code cannot account for "dirty" physics.
+Active obligations: Owes Elena a signal-boost relay on the north bank (Ch16) — UNPAID.
+Open loops: David vs. Precision [The 3D-printer skipped six layers of the structural core] (Ch16) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows his father’s de-sync ID was pinged by a nearby relay station during the bridge-up — [The group does NOT know].
+Arc: 28% — Broke his "Perfect Fail-Safe" protocol to manually override the printer for Arthur’s safety.
+Permanent: NO.
+
+## Elena Vance
+Location: North Bank, Comms Van
+Physical: No injuries; fingers stained with soldering flux.
+Emotional: Icy; views the physical near-catastrophe as a distraction from the digital "Blue-Out."
+Active obligations: Owes Marcus a localized JAM-radius for the construction noise (Ch16) — PAID.
+Open loops: Elena vs. UBI Sentinel Unit 7 [The Audit Ping is now within 5km] (Ch12) — UNRESOLVED.
+Known secrets: Knows the city-state has initiated a "Hard-Sector Reset" on the Ocala exchange — [The group does NOT know].
+Arc: 22% — Burned her last "Ghost" spoof-packet to mask the thermal signature of the bridge-welder.
+Permanent: YES (Loss of 'Ghost' spoofing capability).
+
+# World State: ch-16
+
+## NPC Memory
+- UBI Sentinel Unit 7 (Ocala Perimeter): AGGRESSIVE — Detected a 1.2-second unmasked thermal bloom from the bridge welding — Initiating drone-vector toward the creek.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- The City-State: HOSTILE — Designated the Ocala Delta as a "Resource Sink"; authorization for kinetic "Asset Reclamation" is pending.
+
+## Active World Events
+- The Blue-Out: Phase 3 beginning; local mesh-networks are flickering as the "Hard-Sector Reset" begins.
+- The Timber Span: Structural integrity at 88%; bridge is passable but requires manual stabilization.
+- The Great Exit: Data-transfer at 62%; high-latency is causing "ghost packets" in the archive sync.
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