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+# Character State: ch-20
+
+## Marcus Thorne
+Location: North Bank, Assembly Floor
+Physical: No injuries; cleaning grease from cuticles.
+Emotional: Calculated; transitioning from systemic oversight to granular logistics.
+Active obligations: Owes Arthur a 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 shifted by 0.4 Hz — [The group does NOT know].
+Arc: 38% — Conceded that the community's internal trade-logic cannot be fully automated.
+Permanent: NO.
+
+## Arthur "Art" Penhaligon
+Location: North Bank, Assembly Floor
+Physical: Right knee stiff; using a heavy wrench as a temporary cane.
+Emotional: Grudgingly satisfied; the transition to a barter-weight system validates his "material memory" philosophy.
+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: 45% — Accepted David’s "Clean Value" proposal as a legitimate evolution of the Iron Rule.
+Permanent: NO.
+
+## David Shore
+Location: North Bank, Assembly Floor
+Physical: Severe dehydration; eyes bloodshot from terminal glare.
+Emotional: Resolute; feels he has successfully "de-bugged" the community’s lack of a trade standard.
+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 — [The group does NOT know].
+Arc: 32% — Codified "Mechanical Sovereignty" into a localized trade currency (The Shore-Standard).
+Permanent: YES (Established the first economic protocol of Cypress Bend).
+
+## Elena Vance
+Location: Comms Van (Via Mesh-Link)
+Physical: No injuries.
+Emotional: Suspicious; views the focus on internal barter as "noise" while the external threat scales.
+Active obligations: Owes Marcus a localized JAM-radius for construction noise (Ch16) — PAID.
+Open loops: Elena vs. UBI Sentinel Unit 7 [The Audit Ping is 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% — No change.
+Permanent: NO.
+
+# World State: ch-20
+
+## NPC Memory
+- UBI Sentinel Unit 7 (Ocala Perimeter): AGGRESSIVE — Establishing semi-permanent signal-sink nodes along the creek-line to triangulate the thermal bloom.
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- The City-State: HOSTILE — Ocala Delta designated a "Ghost-Sector"; black-op reclamation protocols are active.
+
+## Active World Events
+- The Shore-Standard: New barter protocol based on "Clean Value" (energy/material/time) is now the community's official trade logic.
+- The Blue-Out: Phase 3; 80% of regional mesh-links are now dark; Cypress Bend is effectively a digital island.
+- The Timber Span: Structural integrity at 88%; require bolt replacement (David) and recalibration (Marcus).
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