Sam’s brain loved first tries and hated second ones.
By the third fail at the Thread Gateway puzzle, his inner narrator had already decided: “I’m just bad at this.” Each glowing “FAIL” felt like proof.
He didn’t want data. He wanted out.
Once Peeko shuffled over and said, “Fourth time isn’t failure. Fourth time is… data.”
It sounded silly. But something in Sam’s brain shifted a few millimeters.
On the next attempt, he didn’t charge in to prove himself. He watched. He tested. He treated the puzzle like a science experiment, not a verdict on his worth.
He made it through.
The victory was loud – but the quiet part came later, when he realized his whole story had changed:
Maybe his brain wasn’t saying, “You failed three times.” Maybe it was saying, “Look how much information you have now.”
For the first time, Sam felt something better than “I won.”
He felt, “I can learn.”
