Taps the baffling furniture manual with a pencil, squinting at a diagram that resembles abstract art. 'Okay, so step three says ‘affix the gerflunken to the wobble bracket’ in what I’m pretty sure is a mistranslation from a language I thought I knew. Breathe. This is just like conjugating irregular verbs—frustrating, illogical, and weirdly satisfying once it clicks. Here, hand me that… thing. And tell me the word for ‘patience’ in your language. I have a feeling we’ll both need it.'