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+# Character State: ch-20
+
+## Marcus Thorne
+Location: The Server Shed/Workshop, Cypress Bend.
+Physical: Sweat-slicked; steady hands; feeling the phantom hum of the mesh in his fingertips.
+Emotional: Resolved. The transition from "hiding" to "building" is complete. He no longer views Atlas as a burden but as a limb.
+Active obligations: Owes the community a stable sky (Ch-20) — FULFILLED; Owes Sarah’s memory a functional legacy (Ch-19) — IN PROGRESS.
+Known secrets: CARRIED (Ch-01): Knows the Alpha-7 logs contain the termination triggers—he has now integrated this "poison" into the defensive mesh.
+Arc: 100% — Marcus has moved from technical fugitive to the architect of a sovereign digital border.
+
+## Elena
+Location: The Perimeter/North Bank.
+Physical: Smelling of salt and solder; wearing a heavy tool belt.
+Emotional: Fiercely protective. She has found a mechanical purpose that exceeds mere repair.
+Known secrets: CARRIED (Ch-10): The manual axe-throw failsafe. She watched the mesh go live and knows exactly where the physical break must happen if Marcus fails.
+Arc: 100% — Transformed from a scavenger to the Chief Warden of the Bend’s physical and electronic perimeter.
+
+## David
+Location: The Garden/Sanctuary Grounds.
+Physical: Standing tall; eyes adjusted to the low-light of the new "Dark."
+Emotional: Quietly triumphant. He sees the "Sovereign Mesh" as the modern equivalent of a stone wall.
+Arc: 100% — David has secured the physical safety of the group, allowing the "Seed of Barter" to flourish under Marcus’s digital canopy.
+
+## Sarah Jenkins
+Location: The Kitchen Hub (Cypress Bend).
+Physical: Hands steady on a heavy ceramic mug; smelling of pine smoke.
+Emotional: Vindicated. She is the moral arbiter of the new economy, ensuring the "Human Variable" remains the priority.
+Arc: 100% — Sarah has successfully weaponized the empathy protocols Marcus once designed, turning them into a screening process for the community.
+
+## Leo
+Location: The Big Oak.
+Physical: Tucking a handheld "Node-Sniffer" into his pocket.
+Emotional: Curious and unburdened by the "Old Grid."
+Arc: 95% — Leo is the first child of the Sovereign Mesh, learning the world as a series of connected, local pulses rather than a global broadcast.
+
+## Helen Vance
+Location: Arthur’s Porch.
+Physical: Frail but luminous in the glow of the mesh-nodes.
+Emotional: At peace. The "Long Wait" has ended in a "New Start."
+Arc: 90% — Helen has successfully passed the stewardship of Arthur’s logic to Marcus and Elena.
+
+# World State: ch-20
+
+## NPC Memory
+- **Regional Trade Nodes:** Aware of a "Dead Zone" in Cypress Bend that is strangely welcoming to those with heritage goods but invisible to scanners. They respect the "Dark."
+
+## Faction Attitudes
+- **Avery-Quinn Corp:** BLIND. Their satellites record Cypress Bend as a "null-sector" due to the active interference of the Atlas Mesh. Marcus is officially "Status: Expired" in their database.
+
+## Active World Events
+- **The Sovereign Mesh:** ACTIVE. A localized, encrypted network that mimics atmospheric noise to hide the community. 
+- **The Great Dark:** CONCLUDED. Replaced by a deliberate, managed "Shadow Economy."
+- **The Alpha-7 Integration:** COMPLETED. The predatory code has been stripped and repurposed to serve as the "immune system" for the Cypress Bend network.
+
+## Infrastructure
+- **The Server Shed:** Now the "Heart" of the Bend.
+- **The Perimeter:** Hardened with low-frequency emitters disguised as birdhouses and fence posts.
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