"...the thingness of something becomes apparent when it is no longer functioning as it did before or it becomes dysfunctional or if it appears in an unexpected place..."
‘they’ call it a reality check when you find out how much it costs, how much time it takes, how many lives were lost, that it’s too heavy to lift, that the key doesn’t work or it’s too big to fit in the hole, that you can’t for the life of you remember what the password was, you wrote it down somewhere, but where?
but this is not like encountering the Real. you just entered a different one of the ten to the power of five hundred universes and the eleven dimensions. in another one you remember exactly what the password is, the key fits and works perfectly and you don’t give it a second thought, no one died or is hurt, you carry what needs to be carried easily, you can do what needs to be done quickly and the price of the item you are about to purchase is more than reasonable.
you may or may not be comforted by the idea