“To be fair--” Jewels stopped herself, shaking her head. “No… That’s… not correct. It’s [i]not[/i] fair. I’ve been trying to play the middle ground for too long. To be [i]precise[/i], Carver was not paralyzed only for the sake of this body; it likely just made it easier to force he--him into it. The paralysis has been standard procedure for several years, whenever Harold was upgrading or doing maintenance on Carver’s frame. It was supposed to make it easier for them both to get the process done without antagonizing each other, but…” she sighed and turned to the pumpkin creature. “I suppose, looking back, all it did was prevent you from retaliating when [i]he[/i] antagonized [i]you[/i].”

Carver shrugged. “I was still capable of mocking him, at least. He never got smart and pulled my head off to shut me up. I’m more pissed that I got so used to being paralyzed for maintenance work that I didn’t see the danger coming when he finally figured out I was basically helpless. But yeah, there’s a [i]reason[/i] I want to stick his brain in a jar and somehow give him the ability to see from there, so all he can do is [i]watch[/i] while I prop up his body in various positions.”

Jewel finished detaching the two upper straps, locked down the bottom one, and then motioned for Jack to retrieve Carver. “I left one band in place, so you can stand on it, in a fashion, and not have to worry as much about that heavy body sliding downward.”

Carver was too busy joining his friends in their chanting to acknowledge what she’d said. Jewel shook her head and pulled out a bucket of formaldehyde to dunk the Doctor’s brain in until the skellington got him situated. Once everything was ready, and Carver was quite satisfied with his pose on the table -- mostly on his side, with his head propped up on his fist and a knee casuaully bent upward -- she replaced it back in his brainpan and stepped back.