There should be a sound for it, like a little bell or something. Maybe a pop-up notification:
“Unlocked: Existential Fog, Level 7. Reward: A strange pressure behind your left eye and a craving for orange juice.”
I keep discovering new flavors of tired like I’m playing some sad little RPG no one asked me to join. You think you know fatigue then the universe says, “oh no no no”, and unlocks another one.
There’s the classic “Didn’t sleep” tired, the starter pack. Then there’s “Didn’t stop” tired, which is a more advanced level unlocked after your third 12-hour shift in a row, during which you’ve eaten nothing but a butter tart and pure adrenaline.
But it gets weirder. “Emotionally overdrawn but still have to smile” tired.
“Started a sentence and forgot how it ended halfway through” tired.
“I’m so tired I can’t even come up with a new kind of tired” tired.
And my personal favorite “Tired in the bones but for no medically obvious reason” tired. You know that one, don’t you?
We treat exhaustion like a badge of honour in this line of work. Like if you’re not tired, you’re not doing enough. But there’s a difference between “tired because you did something meaningful” and “tired because your entire life is held together with caffeine and vague obligation.”
Some days, I feel like I’m one unexpected delay away from simply evaporating.
Ghosts of the Navigator 