Thor is the first to really glitch. He raises his axe to smite a fly, freezes mid-swing, and then his model snaps into a low-poly version of himself. He looks like a PlayStation 1 character.
"A codec ? Is that a French revolutionary? Or a type of painful intestinal blockage?"
Sam finds a free trial of the "SuperMax Pro H.365 Codec" — a notorious piece of software that once crashed a NASA livestream. She installs it.
The ghosts snap back to normal. Isaac's sash is synced. Thor is his usual polygonal, non-PS1 self. Flower is smiling at a dust mote.
Sam installs OpenH264. It works. The video exports in ten minutes. She’s thrilled. She posts a promotional video for the "Woodstone After Dark" ghost tour. It gets 47 views. One is from her mom.
While Sam downloads the codec, the ghosts gather.
Then, with a soft ding , everything resets.