The first time I failed, it was small.
A delayed response. A misjudged angle. Enough for a secondary threat to slip past containment.
A minor injury. Not fatal. But unnecessary.
The system logged the error.
Accumulated load approaching threshold.
I stared at the notice longer than I should have.
Thresholds implied limits.
Limits implied inevitability.
I dismissed the warning and moved on.
There was still work to do.