[IC] Banding Together in Halloween Town

[LePouvantail]

Sally finished the current pass on her sewing machine before turning back to Carver. She gave her little sister a slight frown.

"What happened now?" she asked, gently.

She picked up a needle and thread to start on some of the smaller tears to mend so she could better talk with Carver without having to be heard over the sewing machine.

"I think so," Sally replied.

She glanced at Carver, and her current lack of legs. She had been there when Carver ran off earlier, and saw a different pair of pants around her leg frames, which meant her normal pants were probably at the tree house.

"Once you can acquire them," she said gently.

It would be easy enough to go over herself and ask to retrieve them, but after the prank Carver and her friends pulled, and the fact that Carver was staying with them tonight on Jack's orders, it was probably best to leave them be for the moment.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver grunted. "He has absolutely no ability to read a room or stop himself from saying the worst thing possible. So I stopped him from talking. Or doing anything else..."

[LePouvantail]

Uh-oh, Sally thought.

She tightened a stitch. As Jack sent her here, she sensed something terrible went down.

"Carver, I know he isn't the easiest one to get along with, but there are better ways to handle it."

[SystemofEleven]

"Get along with? It's hell just trying to live with him! He's lucky Clown pulled me off him before I could throw his brain down the sewers." She crossed her arms and grumbled. "Not like he didn't deserve it."

[LePouvantail]

"Mmm-hmm."

Jack was at the shop entrance with his arms crossed and a disappointed look on his face.

"Sally's right," he said. "There are better ways to handle it."

[SystemofEleven]

Carver spun her head to look at Jack and scowled at him. "With all due respect, Pumpkin King," she snapped, "you have no idea what he puts me through, so you have no right to tell me how I should or shouldn't handle it. You don't have to spend every moment of your existence trying to convince him to treat you like a person."

She suddenly slammed her mouth shut. That was... not supposed to actually come out. She felt safe enough venting at Sally, who at least had some experience being in a similar position and didn't have the authority to lock her away for eternity for speaking out of line. Jack was the opposite. She didn't feel comfortable with him, he had no personal experience to give him perspective, and -- as he had pointed out -- he very much could punish her with permanent imprisonment if he felt like it.

...On the other hand, she'd just violently attacked a disabled person and pulled his brain out, in public, so there probably wasn't much worse of trouble she could get in. Might as well say her piece anyway, since she'd already started.

Carver turned and glared into the big standing mirror. "He was taunting me about my punishment work. Pointed out I was just sitting at a table, carving pumpkins and not talking to anyone. Said it was nice to see me 'finally functioning properly'. He's constantly acting like I owe him something for giving me life, but he never lets me forget that he never wanted me to be alive in the first place! He wanted me to be some mindless machine so he could take my carvings and use them to win the jack o'lantern contest himself, and he's perpetually shocked and angry that I didn't turn out like that."

Her voice broke, and a part of her was glad to be incapable of producing tears because she wouldn't have been able to stop herself if she could cry. As it was, she couldn't even stop talking now that she'd started. "When I was little, I thought I was supposed to be a kid just cuz of my size. And I saw Corpse Kid and the two grownups he called parents, and I thought that was what the Finkelsteins were supposed to be for me. Jewel was surprised and confused by it, but she was at least content enough to run with it. But him? Hell no! He was just pissed I had any kind of thoughts to begin with."

She started laughing wryly. "I remember the first time one of my heads broke and fell off. I carried the pieces to them, expecting Mummy and Daddy to fix it. He just... looked at me with disgust, and told me to make a new one. After all, that's what I was for. Jewel tried to get him to at least act like he cared, but he just waved us both off and went back to whatever he was working on. Then she sent me off to get help from Behemoth, because she was too busy to."

She sniffled. It was a trick she'd learned from Barrel when they were kids, though he didn't do it on purpose, and she mostly did it out of habit and reflex now. Like tear ducts, she lacked sinuses to make sniffling necessary or even useful. But after a few decades, it felt natural when she was feeling particularly upset.

But she didn't like doing that in front of other people. Especially adults, and especially authority figures. So she quickly cut it off and switched back to anger and bitterness.

"Jewel tries. He doesn't. Four decades later, and he still won't accept that I didn't come out the way he wanted, still won't even attempt to take my thoughts and feelings seriously. So yeah, I think he deserves to have his brain pulled out and his body used as a prop for a week. It's the least he fucking deserves."

[LePouvantail]

Jack stood dumbfounded for a moment, taken aback by Carver's bluntness. Sally quickly put her sewing down and pushed herself from her seat. She moved to Carver and got down on one knee to better be at her level. Sally gently placed a hand at the back of her cage and took a few vines in her other hand. The parts about being guilted over life given, over not turning out to be the type of creation the doctor wanted, hit home with her.

It took another moment, but Jack slowly approached Carver. He let her speak uninterrupted. In his mind, he saw Lock's face, heard the middle trickster's voice as he tried to plead on his friend's behalf. "It's complicated," he had said.

And he was right. Jack knew Finklestein was particular about his creations and their purpose. But even he hadn't been aware of the depths of these complications. Lock, Shock, and Barrel were hardly upstanding citizens, but hearing this...Jack suddenly better understood why Carver spent so much time with them. They weren't just kids her age. She was one of them, no questions asked.

And close enough to them that she trusted them with these details of her personal life long before he knew.

Jack carefully set a hand over Carver's cage as well, then slowly dropped to one knee too.

"...Then it sounds like maybe he needs to hear it from someone else," he said gently. "Someone he'll listen to."

[SystemofEleven]

Carver wrapped all of her lower vines tightly around her chest. After all that, she was all talked out for the moment. She shrugged again silently, still not willing to look at his face. She was going to receive a pile of blood clots for this later from someone, but right now she didn't have the energy left to deal with anyone. Not even really Sally.

Well, maybe the other tricksters, but that clearly wasn't going to happen any time soon. Maybe a full-body fertilizer soak would be a good idea...

[LePouvantail]

Jack carefully lifted Carver's cage. He let her sulk as he carried her from the shop. Sally set aside her mending. She could finish it in the morning. Right now, her little sister needed her more.

They walked quietly back to Jack's tower. Sally went ahead to get the door for Jack and Carver, then went to the kitchen to start dinner. Jack brought Carver up to the tower. Zero had been resting in his bed, and perked up when he heard footsteps. Jack found a cozy little nook to set Carver down. Zero, sensing her distress, came over to nuzzle her with his nose and lick the side of her pumpkin head.

"Let me know if you need anything," Jack said, gently.

He gave Zero a quick scratch behind the ears, but then turned to give Carver some space. After that rant, and the way she slumped in his arms when he carried her, he was certain she needed some space and time alone.

[SystemofEleven]

Once Jack left the room, Carver looked around, debating what to do next. She really wanted to take a nutrient soak, but she wasn't sure if Sally had enough stocked up, or where to find a tub or bucket she could use. And she didn't really want to talk to either adult, even just to ask. Eventually, she settled on curling up in Zero's bed. He was confused at first by this strange behavior, but quickly decided he was fine with it. The little ghost dog covered her with his blanket body and gave her pumpkin a helpful lick before settling down for a nap.

[LePouvantail]

While Carver was correct in that Sally didn't have enough for a full soak, she did have enough to fill a small pail, and made sure the water was pleasantly warm. By the time she brought it up to the tower, she found Carver and Zero already asleep. Sally set the pail down nearby, gave Zero a pet, and Carver a small kiss on the top of her pumpkin head before heading back downstairs to finish the meal for herself and Jack.

After dinner, she periodically moved the pail near the fire, then back by Zero's dog bed to ensure it would still be warm by the time Carver got up.

~~~

Jack spent the might mulling over Carver's words and frustrations. The more he thought on it, the more it angered him. Back when he and Sally first got together, he was certain it was because Finklestein finally realized she couldn't be contained and let her go. With Carver, things were different. He saw over the years the superficial things: the limb extensions, letting her out to play with her friends, public frustrations Jack initially took as raising a teenager.

But what he saw today...Carver had never acted out like that before, even with influence from her friends. And because it was so odd for her, he believed every word she said.

By morning, he apologized to Carver for unwittingly setting her up with her original mindless function, and while he didn't send her out to help immediately, he changed her assignment from carving pumpkins to tidying Town Hall. After that, it was a brief stroll to the Finklestein's. Jack took the time to ponder how to bring it up, and keep his anger in check.

He would save it for if he absolutely needed it.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver woke up shortly before the other two went to bed. She was in the pail fairly close to the fire the last time Sally came in to check on her, and appeared to be doing markedly better. She did thank Sally for the consideration, but otherwise mostly kept quiet. It was more of a calm quiet, though, which was good. She soaked for a good hour and a half. Once she was done, and well after Sally and Jack had apparently fallen asleep (or at least had stopped creeping about the house), she boiled up some water to scrub the pail out. She kept herself occupied for a few hours reading some of Sally's more... adult literature -- she found them entertainingly stupid, but assumed it was probably less ridiculous to people who actually experience those impulses -- before going back to sleep.

The next morning, she acknowledged Jack's apology with a chill shrug. "Like I said, I don't mind carving pumpkins. I'd probably switch heads way less often if I had a problem with it. I just hate when I don't have a choice, and my dad rubs it in my face. But... Yeah. He can't rub it in if I'm doing something else, so... Thank you."

---

Doctor Finkelstein was still in bed when Jack arrived, as Jewel refused to pick him up and put him in his chair until she had fully examined his head and brain for injuries. Also the chair still wasn't working.

[LePouvantail]

Jack rang the bell when he got there. As Jewel was occupied, Igor got the door.

"Jaaack!" he said, in his drawn-out slur. "Come to see Masssster?"

Jack nodded.

"If you don't mind."

Igor nodded and lead him up to the master bedroom. Jack used the time walking up the long ramp to further clear his mind. He was more than happy to wait for Jewel to finish her examination before making the request for a private conversation.

[SystemofEleven]

"I just need to take it out to check for damage, and then I'll put it right back!" Jewel's exasperated voice echoed down the central space of the lab.

"You already checked it last night! You don't need to keep checking it over and over again, and we both have more important things to be doing!" Doctor Finkelstein argued back.

"I have checked it once, on a surface level, without accessing the underside; not 'over and over again'," Jewel retorted. "And those important things can wait to be done until I'm certain you are fit to do them. Honestly, Harold, you're acting like a child!"

"A child!" he cried indignantly. "Do none of my creations have any respect for me anymore?"

"Unless you split our brain before you made my body, I get half the credit for my own existence," Jewel responded curtly. "I respect you as an equal, dear, and I will respectfully inform you when you're not behaving in a manner befitting my equal."

The doctor grumbled, unable to argue against that. He couldn't resist a making a side remark under his breath, though, and Jack could guess the approximate content of the comment based on Jewel's response:

"Well maybe if you actually talked to her instead of ignoring all of her concerns, she wouldn't DO that, Harold!"

[LePouvantail]

The unhappy couple were interrupted by Igor trying to get their attention.

"Maaasteeer!" he cried. "Brought Jack!"

Jewel had a guest in the back of her mind as she had heard the gong-like doorbell go off. She gave her husband a soft growl, then turned to Jack with something resembling a smile on her naturally-pursed lips.

"Jack!" she said sweetly. "I hope Carver wasn't too much trouble."

"Not at all," Jack replied. "In fact, it seemed she just needed to get a few concerns off her chest. Concerns I would implore you to listen to."

Jewel shot her husband a quick, "I told you so" glare.

[SystemofEleven]

Jewel quickly put on the most pleasant expression she could manage and moved to leave the room. "Well, I'll just go work on fixing the chair, and let you two discuss things." She shot her husband a meaningful look from the door. "After which, I will be performing a complete examination."

The doctor waited until Jewel was gone before he greeted the Pumpkin King. "Nice to see you again, Jack, although I disagree with your assessment of Carver's actions. Attacking me was not the result of 'needing to get things off her chest'. Reasonable monsters don't do such a thing, nor do they use such petty excuses. No, this was the result of those hooligans influencing her toward increasingly bad behavior, and my being far too lenient about her dealings with them to prevent it from reaching a point of physical violence. Rest assured, though, I will be correcting my mistake as soon as I have recuperated from this most egregious offense."

[LePouvantail]

"I wasn't referring to last night," Jack said. "Last night was simply the cauldron finally boiling over after being ignored for so long."

He placed his arms behind his back in a stern, but dignified manner.

"Carver and I had a long talk last night, Doctor," he continued, "and after she went to bed, Sally and I had a long talk. She tries not to speak ill of you, Doctor, but her own experiences revealed that there seems to be a pattern with your creations when they don't turn out how you expect them to. Namely, that with the exception of your lovely wife - who happens to share part of your brain - they tend to want to escape."

Jack started to pace, but he kept his eye sockets on Finklestein. He spoke in a grave manner as his tiny feet softly echoed on the metal floor.

"And it seems the reason why they want to leave is because you try to force them to stick to the purpose you created them for, and ignore their very real needs to be themselves. You don't treat them as their own monsters. You treat them as the things you created them for."

Jack felt his fury working up. He closed his eye sockets for a moment to clear his thoughts.

"Carver told me a story last night," he said, "about the first time she smashed her head. How she brought you the pieces, and how you expected her to know what to do. After all, it was what she was created for. She told me that when she was first created, she saw the Corpse family, and thought her purpose to you was not only as a pumpkin carver, but as a child. And as her creator, she brought the pumpkin pieces to you because she saw you as a father. And instead of guiding her, you cast her off. A reasonable mistake the first time, but every time after? No."

He stopped pacing and narrowed his eyes.

"Whether you intended to give her intelligent life or not, she has it, and as her creator, you're responsible for influencing that intelligence. You don't get to blame Lock, Shock, and Barrel for her development when you didn't nurture it to begin with! Not when you kept trying to make her sit quiet and still and carve pumpkins when she very clearly showed she was capable of much more than that."

Jack's expression softened. He gently crossed his arms, partially to help keep himself in check.

"Lock, Shock, and Barrel are many unpleasant things," he said, "and yes, they've influenced her in some...questionable ways, as their tricks in the last week have shown. But what they've done without question is accept Carver as her own monster where you failed to. She's their friend, and a fourth member of their group. Not a tool to sit in a corner when not in use. And really, you should be thanking at least one of them right now."

Jack's fingertips tightened in his sleeves. He could still see Lock's face, the gears turning in the middle trickster's head as he held Carver and clearly weighed the consequences of just taking her and running.

"...Do you want to know who talked Carver down while Cyclops was getting you back in your chair?" he asked. "Who kept her calm so I could sort out the situation?"

He gave the doctor a stern look.

"It was Lock. Carver had a few, shall I say, choice ideas for what to do with your brainless corpse, and Lock was the one--" Jack knew he was padding the coffin a bit on this, as Lock had some suggestions himself before the doctor came to, "--talking her out of causing any further trouble and letting us help you."

[SystemofEleven]

He gave Jack a curious look, but listened as the Pumpkin King spoke of his creations. Dr. Finkelstein started to ponder what sort of potential flaw in the process caused both Sally and Carver to try to flee -- their structures and methods were wildly different in nearly all aspects -- when Jack got to his clarification:

That the common variable was himself.

The doctor gave a small sneer. Impossible! He was also the common variable between all of his projects that worked exactly as intended. He was particularly proud of Igor; he perhaps wouldn't have even conceived Sally if the hunchback hadn't been such a resounding success. His assistant was also perfectly happy to serve his original purpose. Clearly, that couldn't be the problem.

...Actually there was a common variable. Igor had been specifically created to be male. The other three, hadn't. Carver, of course, hadn't been intended to have a physical sex, and technically she still didn't, but she did use feminine pronouns... That might be the problem.

He had created Jewel for the purpose of being a companion who could understand him on every intellectual level, something Igor never could and he wasn't certain Sally even tried to do. He knew his wife had least close to his intelligence, but there were a significant portion of conversations they had where she somehow couldn't fathom that he was simply right. Perhaps none of them were strictly malfunctioning. Perhaps they were simply operating under parameters he had forgotten to take into account.

"--failed to. She's their friend..." The doctor looked up and realized Jack was still talking. He listened to the rest of Jack's speech, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"He probably recognized that if she got into any more trouble, they wouldn't have access to her to pull their next stunt." Finkelstein commented. "It's been a long time since the hooligans had to put a plan into action that required only three of them. They have been escalating their trouble since she joined their little gang... Hmmmmmmm... I suppose I could think of something to remedy the problem with her, though. Or at least get started on it..."

[LePouvantail]

"Undoubtedly, he considered that," Jack said. "I also know Lock could have very easily taken her and run in the commotion, and he didn't. He didn't even try to bargain for a lesser punishment. He just asked me to listen."

He frowned at the doctor's use of "hooligans". Had he even been listening?

"I know the tricksters better than anyone else in town," Jack said, "and I know that when there's an opportunity to cause trouble or run from it, and they don't take it, more often than not, they're genuine about whatever follows."

Jack uncrossed his arms and gracefully put them behind his back again.

"I would implore you to reconsider trying to keep her locked up for, and I quote, 'the rest of the century'," he said, his tone going dark and gravely serious, "because I imagine the next time she escapes to the tree house, she'll stay there, with those who consider her as her own monster and look after her wellbeing. And I can't help but think that might be the better arrangement."

[SystemofEleven]

Finkelstein nodded, taking the "undoubtedly" response as confirmation that Jack agreed with his assessment of Lock's obvious ulterior intentions. He scratched his skull as Jack kept talking.

"Well, I do suppose trying something different might be in order. The definition of insanity, and all that. But don't worry, Jack, I wouldn't abandon her to a fate living with those three, just to make my life a little easier. As the one who brought her into existence, I do hold a personal responsibility to maintain her. The struggles of managing her are... frustrating," he said diplomatically, "but it comes with the cost of being an architect of life."