Responsibilities

You collapse onto the bed, exhausted. Your bones feel brittle. Your joints grind against each other with every movement. If you flex a muscle, it'll tear. If you spread your wings, they'll flake apart. Your halo's luster has grown, but for every spark you feel your limbs grow weaker. You never caught up to that combat doll. You felt so certain you could, and you've been running yourself ragged for the past month trying, but it never happened. You want to try again, but you're simply too exhausted. You wave the thought away, roll over onto your side, and close your eyes. As soon as they shut you feel a slight… tingle. At the base of your skull. Your eyes open back up, looking around for its source. You don't see anything near you. Nothing on the bed. You get up, legs whining in protest, and go to check in the mirror if there's anything on your neck. As soon as you enter the bathroom, you see it. Your halo, spinning, sparks flashing around it. That's weird. You already know better than to try to touch it, though. Probably nothing you can do about it. And you're so fucking tired. You decide to ignore it for now and get some sleep. As soon as you do, the tingling starts up again. It's irritating, but not enough to keep you awake. After a nice, long rest, you head back out. The tingle is gone.