diff --git a/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-09.md b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-09.md
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..85a21b6e
--- /dev/null
+++ b/projects/cypress-bend/staging/character-state-ch-09.md
@@ -0,0 +1,41 @@
+# Character State: ch-09
+
+## Lena Duval
+- **Location**: Sector 4 Drainage Junction, Terrebonne Siphon (Lower Gears).
+- **Physical**: Ears bleeding; palm wound crusting with salt; digital fever stabilizing; severe vibratory exhaustion.
+- **Emotional**: Resolute and protective; a sense of grim clarity.
+- **Active obligations**: Owes Jax survival via salt-tithe (Ch-08) -- UNPAID.
+- **Open loops**: Lena and Jax vs. rising salt-water purge (Ch-08) -- RESOLVED; The "Gator's Truth" utility for the elite (Ch-08) -- UNRESOLVED.
+- **Known secrets**: CARRIED (Ch-08--unresolved): The Siphon harvests "Harmonic Bleed" to power elite districts -- Jax Harlan does not know.
+- **Arc**: 85% -- She has mastered the mechanical frequency, turning a hostile machine into an extension of her bayou magic.
+- **Permanent**: YES
+
+## Jax Harlan
+- **Location**: Manual override catwalks, Sector 4 Siphon.
+- **Physical**: Temporary hearing loss from 440Hz vibration; minor forearm laceration; drenched in salt water.
+- **Emotional**: Awstrock and intensely loyal to Lena’s power.
+- **Active obligations**: Guarding the manual override (Ch-08) -- PAID.
+- **Open loops**: Leaking safehouse intel (Ch-08) -- UNRESOLVED.
+- **Known secrets**: None.
+- **Arc**: 60% -- He has fully committed to the supernatural reality of the bayou, setting aside his tactical skepticism.
+- **Permanent**: YES
+
+# World State: ch-09
+
+## NPC Memory
+- **The Drowned Man (Terrebonne Siphon)**: GONE -- Dispersed back into the brine after witnessing the mechanical glitch.
+- **Aunt Maribelle (Duval Manor)**: FRUSTRATED -- Her psychic dampening via the silver locket was bypassed by Lena’s "tuning."
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- **Terrebonne Development Corp**: THWARTED -- The salt-water purge failed to cleanse the Sector 4 junction due to the gear jam.
+- **The Duval Coven**: OBSERVED -- Lena’s success without ancestral aid is changing the coven’s perception of her independence.
+
+## Active World Events
+- **The Great Flush**: STALLED -- The water level has ceased rising as the bypass valves locked.
+- **The Harmonic Bleed**: STABILIZED -- The 440Hz screaming has subsided into a low, magical hum.
+- **The Gear Jam**: ACTIVE -- The Scrambler Box and salt-oath magic have physically locked the Siphon's primary cycle.
+
+## Metadata
+- **Key Item**: The Silver Locket (Silenced; no longer vibrating with Maribelle's influence).
+- **Key Item**: Scrambler Box (FUSED into the central gear assembly).
+- **Environment**: Cooling industrial chamber; smell of ozone and stagnant salt water; receding vibration hazard.
\ No newline at end of file