Carver slowed down his gestures just enough so that the adults would be able to see him mime with five long vines and the tip of one more, to create a noodly stick figure to walk through the air with a disproportionately long “extra limb” dangling between its legs. Meanwhile, he tapped out, [i]I don’t know what it actually looks like; that’s just how some of Sally’s books describe it. Man-hood.[/i] With that, he went back to madly flailing and giving another set of instructions, which Lock was elected to carry out.

Jewel let out a tiny sigh at the visible part of Carver’s explanation of his doodles. She silently watched as Lock climbed atop the electrical sphere, but quickly stepped over to pull the emergency shutdown switch before the machine could get properly warmed up and cause a dangerous amount of damage.

The female Finkelstein finally spoke up, quite firmly. “Let’s not bring the ceiling down on top of everyone in here, shall we? Thank you.” 

She gave each of the trio a sharp look to make sure they understood not to press the limits she was setting, then turned back to watch her husband.

Who was quite furiously snarling through his nose and pointing at the box of spare parts where Carver’s old mechanical limbs had been disposed of. 

A quick examination alerted Jewel to a problem: One of the legs had already been partially dismantled, and an arm was still mangled beyond easy repair, after the pumpkin creature had jammed it in the Doctor’s wheelchair.

“Apologies, but it appears these limbs are simply non-usable. Would you be alright going without until I can make you some proper upgrades? With your input on the design, of course.”

Carver lifted up his vines to make the vague shape of a pair of eyes and a mouth, then ran another along the outline of those features. He tapped out a quiet message for the trio to translate, as well: He couldn't make a head to see or talk with, as his carving knives were part of his arms.