thesphererp | accidental video; snow

The feed begins with the accidental brush of a hand scratching the back of Simon's head. It's difficult to make out the surroundings for a moment. The room is dimly-lit, illuminated only by the insipid glow of a phone screen, but as Simon's eyes adjust, so does the quality of the feed.

Simon's clearly been camped here for a while. He's stretched out on a dorm common room couch, piled under a blanket and three pillows too many, because no matter how one is perched upon a couch, it's hard to get comfortable with giant wings to contend with. The floor in front of the sofa is littered with crisp wrappers and pop cans, and the only evidence that he's left his steadfast vigil at any point recently is the condensation clinging to the side of the bottle in his hand. The phone's been playing music -- 90's pop-punk that may sound vaguely familiar to some feed viewers -- but a low battery notification has been flashing intermittently and Simon seems unwilling to rectify the issue.

Don't speak, I know just what you're saying. So please stop expla--

Your battery is at 3%. Please connect a charger or enable battery-saving mode.

"No, sorry. None of that. We're going down together."

Simon sighs and lets the phone play itself dead, then fumbles for the remote and switches on the TV. After a few minutes of listless scrolling, he settles on a cartoon. Mouse and cat playing cat-and-mouse, and cartoon violence is usually hilarious, but--

It's muted. Or at the very least, the volume is too low to make out, and closed captioning rarely does the sound effects any justice. It's meant to be funny. Simon isn't laughing.

He finishes off the bottle. Adds it to the army of fallen soldiers on the floor. The feed cuts out again shortly after he unceremoniously shoves a pillow over his head.