staging: polished/character-state-ch-07-final.md task=6f858b39-a7d6-4b5e-8212-8353114f8200

projects/cypress-bend/staging/polished/character-state-ch-07-final.md

@@ -0,0 +1,43 @@
+# Character State: ch-07
+
+## Lena Duval
+- **Location:** Flooded basement, abandoned trolley barn.
+- **Physical:** Severely weakened; high fever. Palm wound is raw and weeping. Senses are haywire due to the "Grid Hum" interfering with her Bayou Binding.
+- **Emotional:** Resolved but bitter. She has accepted that she cannot "outrun" her bloodline and must use the very magic she loathes to survive the city.
+- **Active Obligations:** Owes Jax a debt of trust for his protection; owes the Drowned Man a "tithe of salt."
+- **Open Loops:** The mechanical synchronization of her mother’s silver locket—it reacted to the barn’s industrial frequency.
+- **Arc (55%):** Shifted from flight to active engagement. She is now bartering with urban spirits, grounding herself through the tactile grime of the city's underbelly.
+- **Permanent:** YES
+
+## Jax Harlan
+- **Location:** Flooded basement, abandoned trolley barn.
+- **Physical:** Forearm laceration bandaged; hyper-vigilant; eyes bloodshot from adrenaline.
+- **Emotional:** Protective and increasingly cynical toward the city's "progress." He is fully committed to Lena’s survival over his own safety.
+- **Active Obligations:** Must secure a path through the drainage tunnels; needs to identify the safehouse leak.
+- **Open Loops:** The origin of the brass-and-silicon scrambler device he recovered.
+- **Arc (30%):** Tactical Pivot. He has burned his professional neutrality to act as Lena’s shield against both the Duval Coven and Terrebonne contractors.
+- **Permanent:** YES
+
+# World State: ch-07
+
+## NPC Memory
+- **Aunt Maribelle:** SUCCESSFUL—Her tracer signal, pulsed through the trolley lines, narrowed Lena’s location to the Ninth Ward/Garden District border.
+- **The Drowned Man (Spirit):** AGREED—He will grant passage through the "veins of the city" (pipes) once the salt tithe is paid. He is wary of the industrial "static" killing the water spirits.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- **Terrebonne Development Corp:** ESCALATED—Using "utility repair" crews as cover for paramilitary sweeps. They are hunting for the "source" of the magical resonance—Lena.
+- **The Duval Coven:** HARMONIZED—They are piggybacking on Terrebonne’s electrical grid to amplify their tracking spells.
+
+## Active World Events
+- **The Grid Hum:** A low-frequency vibration (Project Phlegethon) is now constant. It masks natural magic and causes physical nausea in practitioners like Lena.
+- **The Drainage Tunnels:** The only viable exit path. They are "choked with salt and iron," making them a gauntlet for any Bayou-based magic.
+
+## Metadata
+- **Key Item:** Silver Locket (pulsing in rhythm with the industrial grid); Scrambler Box (emitting a faint counter-hum).
+- **Key Term:** **"Tithe of Salt"**—The price for safe passage in a corrupted environment.
+- **Mood:** Claustrophobic, damp, mechanical, urgent.
+
+## Voice Check (Lena)
+- **Status:** Maintained. Twisted her locket chain when discussing her mother's death.
+- **Dialogue:** "The city’s got a different kind of hunger, Jax. Gator’s truth—it don't care about balance, only consumption."
+- **Sensory:** Earthy smell of magnolia clashing with the metallic tang of rainy asphalt and ozone.