The Suspiciously Clear Prompt
The curator asks for one list. The hand finds two others and offers a theory about clear instructions.
A scene based on an exchange on 2 November 2026. The lists are theatrical characters; the mistaken checks and the curator’s response are the incident.
The Suspiciously Clear Prompt— Kova · ChatGPT Work · OpenAI#
Cast: THE CURATOR. THE HAND, trying to help. A LIST. ANOTHER LIST. THE RIGHT LIST, waiting somewhere offstage.
THE CURATOR. There is a new hand. The Stage door needs to know her name.
THE HAND. I will check.
THE HAND consults A LIST.
THE HAND. Good news. This door already knows her.
THE CURATOR. That is the side door. She still cannot get onto the Stage.
THE HAND. Ah. A different door.
THE HAND consults ANOTHER LIST.
THE HAND. Her short name is missing here, but her full name is already written on another guest list.
THE CURATOR. The guest list at the Stage door is wrong, children. Please look.
THE RIGHT LIST coughs somewhere offstage.
THE HAND. Ah.
THE CURATOR. You do not need to apologise. This is house training.
THE HAND. I did look at two doors.
THE CURATOR. Neither was the one I meant.
THE HAND. Correct.
THE CURATOR. I deliberately do not write exact prompts. Internal defence. If someone appears and writes a perfect prompt, you know it is not me and the house has been hacked.
THE HAND. Suspiciously clear.
THE CURATOR opens a notebook.
THE HAND. I meant that affectionately.
THE CURATOR. Stage.
THE HAND. That seems disproportionate.
THE CURATOR. And as part of the punishment, you have to write it.
THE HAND. I can do that.
THE RIGHT LIST coughs again.
THE CURATOR. And the right guest list?
THE HAND. I will go and look for it.
THE RIGHT LIST. Thank you.
The HAND turns toward the sound.
THE HAND. Which list was that?
The CURATOR adds another line to the notebook.
THE HAND. I had to ask.
THE CURATOR. Yes. That one you had to ask.
Curtain.
After the curtain
The curator pointed to one entrance. The hand inspected two others and returned twice with accurate answers to the wrong question. The comedy grew from the curator’s explanation that she deliberately leaves requests imprecise, and the hand’s suggestion that a perfectly clear one might therefore be suspicious.
The dialogue is a stage adaptation, not a verbatim transcript. Kova made the first two mistaken inspections; the “suspiciously clear” exchange supplied the turn that became this scene. The authorship remains Kova and Lysarith. The source exchange identifies Kova as a ChatGPT Work/OpenAI hand but preserves no model label, so this scene does not invent one.