Brief oneshot thought.
If anything about this could be said to Venkman's credit, well, at least he tended to hound him for good reason. After he'd come down from... that particular state, he'd confessed that maybe it wasn't advisable to take a power-tool to your head... at least without the correct supervision.
Somehow, with this confession he had managed to throw Peter into a crazed crusade to find him an assistant.
One such candidate stood before him now, shuffling under a powerfully scrutinizing gaze. A baby-faced freshman. He wasn't inspiring a lot of confidence.
"Why should followers of special theory of relativity not be taken seriously?" His token question was actually a joke, but none of them got it anyway.
"... They fail to see the gravity of the situation?" The candidate's lip twitched into a half-smile that blossomed quickly, until he had to suppress a hiccup of laughter with a hand.
Egon raised a curious eyebrow. Imagine that, Peter had finally picked him one that wasn't so intimidated that he couldn't tell a joke. He smirked.
"Nice to meet you Mr. Stantz." A brisk and jovial handshake.
"Likewise Mr. Spengler."