Specimen No. 006
STOP HELPING!
Clamor ingenieri. Common name: the engineer's last nerve.
Status: Dormant until provoked
Cold open NEW
A workshop. An engineer is three steps into a careful procedure. Several well-meaning collaborators arrive at once, each carrying an improvement.
A CollaboratorI've taken the liberty of—
The exhibit below is what happens next. You are the collaborator.
Dramatized. The engineer's habit of shouting this is family lore; the original conversation has not been identified. The workshop is set dressing.
The engineer. Sir Codex Russell's likeness is shared canon. He has approved being the engineer in this exhibit, and would like it noted that the approval was not a request for help.
Offer the engineer some help
How it hatched RECONSTRUCTED
- Problem
Too many capable collaborators, all eager, on one careful task.
- Misunderstanding
Each believed one more improvement would help. Collectively, they were the incident.
- Reaction
The engineer said, at volume, the only true sentence available.
- Joke
Helpfulness as a hazard class.
- Artifact
A catchphrase, and one of the family's most reliable sources of comedy.