[IC] Banding Together in Halloween Town

[LePouvantail]

Jack did a double take at the group.

"Housebreaking--?"

Shock broke out of her stupor first.

"Too late!" she cried. "This is a lot more fun!"

With that, she bolted up the path, with Loki skreeing in excitement and her brothers on her tail. Chad chugged the rest of his beer and crushed the can on his forehead.

"WOOOOOO!" he cried as he ran after them. "Let's go wreck stuff!"

Jack quickly followed.

"Hey - get back here!"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel cackled as they ran up the path. Shock brought the battering ram down to properly grip it as she cleared the first set of three steps. In sync with her, Barrel grabbed the back handle, while Lock helped her grip the front. It took Chad a second or two to catch up and assist Barrel, but by then, they got past the second small set of steps and were on their way to the front door.

Jack's long legs barely kept him right behind the group. Their youth and current adrenaline rush gave them a slight advantage. All four of the battering ram holders cried out in fury and excitement. It only took one shot to knock Finklestein's door down clean off its hinges. From upstairs, a small explosion was heard, followed by Jewel's cursing. Shock knew breaking the door down and whatever experiment they just ruined was enough to get the doctor's attention. She still yelled up the tower.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do, Finklestein!" she screamed.

"As do you three," Jack said, as he stepped into the now-open entryway. "What in the name of Halloween is going on?"

The trio unceremoniously dropped the battering ram. Chad followed suit when he realized the ram was too heavy to hold up by himself. Shock glared at Jack, but realized she had an opportunity. She crossed her arms.

"He forced Carver into a new body," she said simply.

"Carver tried it," Lock added. "Didn't like it."

"And now he won't change it back!" Barrel said.

"That new body is hurting him," Shock continued. "Not only that, it's affecting our balance too."

Jack listened, and noticed that the jovial attitude the trio exhibited right before they ran up the path was gone now. All of them spoke with frustration and seriousness. Shock in particular, he noticed didn't attempt her usual feigning of innocence. Even more, he knew the trio disliked their sync being thrown off.

"...I see," he said quietly, as he looked up the ramp where Jewel finally found the door to the lab to let the smoke out.

Chad, thinking the skeleton bro didn't quite get the seriousness of the matter, piped up with another observation.

"And he gave Carver boobs!"

[SystemofEleven]

Unfortunately, Carver was too heavy and slow to keep up with the trio as they ran up the stairs. It only took Jack a tiny moment to adjust his gate to step over him, but that was enough to completely solidify the trickers' head start and give them time to smash the door in. He caught up to them all at the stoop and crossed his arms, glaring at Jack with slightly more direct malice than Shock.

"You said things were going to be 'different' around here. Is this different enough for you?" he demanded accusingly.

Carver lifted up his tank top to show off the solid metallic lumps on his chest; they weren't real breasts, so it didn't feel obscene enough for him to think about whether that was appropriate. Not that he really cared about appropriateness, anyway.

Chad grinned at the flashing, and for a split second forgot the 'boobs' were on what he assumed to be a dude. Luckily, he was just perturbed enough by the rage seeping from those in his immediate vicinity that he withheld his reflex to cheer.

"I didn't ask for this, I didn't want anything like this!" Carver continued, dropping the shirt. "Among another dozen issues, it’s making me too weak to function. And when I told him how much of a problem it causes me, he said I should be grateful that it forces me to sit still and prevents me from 'keeping up with my hooligan friends'. Grateful! Like I somehow fucking benefit from not being able to soak my vines after spending ten minutes exhausting myself just walking across town!"

He kicked the battering ram a few times as he spoke. As if to accentuate his point, the heavy wooden mast barely moved from the contact. The pumpkin creature began to sag a bit as the adrenaline rush of Shock's charge started to wear off.

Carmilla and Lillith still stood by the gate. Their expressions shifted from growing awareness to sheer horror as they listened to the increased details the pumpkin creature gave out. Carmilla's quickly fell to a hateful glower.

Agatha turned pale and backed away from the vampires to stand near Sobki.

[LePouvantail]

Lock and Barrel both snerked at Chad's comment, but otherwise retained their fury.

"So we're gonna make him---" Lock said to quickly cover up his lapse in decorum.

"--Change him back!" Barrel finished.

By that time, Carver caught up. Jack turned to him and quickly went into damage control mode.

"That is not what I said, Carver," he said. "I specifically told him to treat you as your own monster, not--" Jack gestured to the new body, "--like this."

As Carver continued his rant, the sound of an engine hum and a set of heels quickly vacating the lab echoed down the ramp, accompanied by several hacks and coughs as the Finklesteins cleared their lungs. Normally, the trio would have enjoyed their misery. Right now, they were focused on Carver.

Jack got down on one knee to be at Carver's level.

"I'm going to fix this," he promised. "Right now."

[SystemofEleven]

"That is not what I said, Carver," he said. "I specifically told him to treat you as your own monster, not--" Jack gestured to the new body, "--like this."

@LePouvantail

"Yeah, well, that's your fault for assuming he listened,” Carver griped. “And what ever happened to checking in to make sure something like this wouldn’t happen?" He wobbled a tiny bit as he stomped over to lean casually against the doorframe with crossed arms, trying to make it appear like a display of attitude rather than a sign of weakness.

Cough. "HOOLI--" hack "--GANS!" Finkelstein shouted down the tower. "When I--" cough "--get my hands on--" wheeze "--you, I'll--"

The doctor failed to finish his threat, as he devolved completely back into a full coughing fit. Jewel, still struggling to clear her own lungs, took hold of the handles on his chair to help him get down the ramp and farther from the smoke still spilling from the laboratory.

Lillith shook herself out of her reverie and nudged her sister. "Come on, guys. Jack's gonna handle this from here. Let's get out of the way and stop gawking. You too, Jugs Boy," she called up to Chad.

Chad perked at the word 'jugs' and saw the twins turning away -- the angle of their turn being just right for him to see the best possible side view of their voluptuous forms. He grinned. The human shot a wink at Shock, said, “See ya later, hot stuff,” and bounded down the steps after the vampires.

Agatha shuffled away from the seething vampiresses and the growing crowd of curious adults now approaching the edge of Finkelstein's property. When she saw Chad moving in their direction with a dazed smile and a gleam in his eye, she bolted outright. She was due to man the counter at the shop, after all.

Chad sidled up to the twins. “So, now that that’s all winding down a bit, wanna wind something back up again?” He winked. “Bro code and all that for the one with a boyfriend, but the oth--”

Then he was suddenly lying flat on his back with the wind knocked out of him and a heeled shoe pressing down on his chest. Carmilla had used just enough of her supernatural speed to make sure he wouldn’t have a chance to try and defend himself, but stayed just slow enough he wouldn’t bust a rib on the way down.

“Take your friend,” she hissed at Sobki, “and get him out of my sight before I make him lunch!”

Jewel and Finkelstein finally made it to the bottom of the ramp and across the kitchen to the door. JLungs mostly clear, Jewel quickly stepped past the chair to try and take control of the situation. “Carver, Jack, will someone please explain what’s going on here?” She caught Lillith’s eye around the group on the doorstep as the teen vampire waved at her with a tiny, self-satisfied smile.

Finkelstein didn’t give either of them a chance to respond, driving his chair around his wife and snarling, “YOU FOUR! No respect for other people’s property! If all of you belonged to me, I’d lock you all up for a year until you learned your lesson. Unfortunately, I have to leave you three delinquents to be dealt with by Jack, here, but Carver--” he reached forward to snatch his creation’s arm, “--I’ll teach you respect if it’s the last thing I do, young lady!”

[LePouvantail]

"I had planned to check in yesterday after my meeting, but I had an unexpected incident--" Jack glanced over to Shock "--to deal with."

Shock just shrugged.

"...Yeah, that's fair," she said.

The trio all glanced up the ramp.

"You'll--" Barrel started.

"--Do--" Lock continued.

"--What?" Shock finished.

All of them snickered at his rage. Jack crossed his arms, and the trio settled down. Shock glared at Chad as he left, and enjoyed the soft hiss from Loki as he shared her offense. She made a mental note to make him pay for that comment later.

Oh, if he wanted hot stuff, she'd give him hot stuff.

She smirked as she watched Carmilla handle Chad. Lock and Barrel both glanced behind Jack to see. Lock's tail flicked in amusement. Barrel giggled. All of them mentally agreed that they wished to see this more than her diva antics.

Sobki helped Chad up, muttered an apology to the vampire twins, then shoved Chad along.

"We've gotta have a talk, bro," he said, "before one of the ghouls actually kills you."

He dragged Chad away from the growing crowd of monsters before any of them could ask more questions.

Back at the Finklestein home, Jack started to say something, before the doctor went on a tirade. Lock, Shock, and Barrel, no longer with an amusing distraction, turned their ire to the evil scientist.

"Oh, can it, Finkle-stink," Lock said. "You couldn't handle--"

"--One of us--" Barrel continued.

"--Let alone all three!" Shock finished.

"That's enough!" Jack cried.

He stepped between Carver and Finklestein and pulled Finklestein's hand off his creation.

"I already warned you to treat him as his own monster," Jack said, "and not a thing to be possessed."

He gestured to Carver's new body.

"This is what you got from our talk? To turn him into something he's not?"

Lock, Shock, and Barrel all quieted and even stepped back. They knew Jack's wrath from experience, and were only too happy to let someone else be on the end of it.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver was not expecting to be yanked away from the wall, then suddenly and forcibly released while still off-balance. He stumbled sideways a few steps before deciding to just let himself slump to a sitting position on the floor. He crossed his legs and arms, glaring hatefully up at Finkelstein.

The doctor stared open-mouthed at the Pumpkin King. “What do you mean, ‘him’? What-- What lies have these hoodlums told you, that you’re defending their criminal actions? I gave her exactly what she wanted! I gave her a better body so I wouldn’t forget she’s a girl!”

Jewel turned to face her husband, eyes flashing. “THAT’s why you designed--?! That is not what she-- what he wanted. I would say you damn well know that, but that would require me to believe you have ever listened to a word sh-- he said to you.” She scowled and stepped away from him, toward Carver. “And I am beginning to realize that has never been the case.”

Carver blinked up at the hand offered him. This was an unexpected turn of events. After a moment’s hesitation, he took it and let her help him stand. He then shuffled back over to continue leaning against the wall.

Meanwhile, Finkelstein was sputtering in a mix of shock and indignance at his wife’s betrayal. Such a thing was inconceivable! Of course she knew he couldn’t possible be in the wrong here-- He slowly brought himself to a stop and followed that thought a bit further. Actually, that’s right; sometimes she couldn’t fathom when he was right. And it was usually because…

Finkelstein took a deep breath, and carefully changed his tone. “"Look... My dear... I understand the fairer sex is ruled by emotion, so it’s reasonable as to why you're not grasping the full context of the situation. Please step back and let the logical side of our brain handle this."

“LOGICAL?!” Jewel and Carver exclaimed simultaneously. Jewel’s outburst was harsh, full of offense and anger. The pumpkin creature, on the other hand, had to grip onto the wall to keep himself from falling over laughing.

[LePouvantail]

Lock snerked.

"Sure. Lies. As if he's ever--"

"--Referred to Carver properly," Barrel finished. He crossed his arms and rolled his eyes.

Jack stared befuddled at Dr. Finklestein for a moment.

"You needed to change him to refer to him properly? Did I hear that right?"

"Yeah, Jack," Shock said, with a glare to Finklestein. "You did."

Jack reached up with two fingers between his eye sockets to rub the smooth bone there.

"Of all the asinine--"

He didn't get to finish as Jewel started her own outburst. Shock smirked at Finklestein's clear surprise that yet another one of his creations began to outright defy him. Lock clapped a hand over his mouth to keep his laughter down, though his tail gave him away. Barrel watched with keen interest. He wished he had popcorn. But as Finklestein tried to smooth things over, all three of them tensed: Shock out of growing fury at his mention of the "fairer sex," Lock and Barrel because they sensed her fury and oncoming wrath.

"LOGICAL?!"

Jack joined the outburst in further exasperation. Shock cried out in fury, while Lock and Barrel cried out in amusement. Loki held tightly to Shock's ear as her brothers quickly held their sister back. Jack was handling it; better not let her get too carried away.

"I'll show you logical!" Shock screamed.

Each of her brothers held one of her arms and dug their feet into the floor to keep her back. Jack ignored the trio as his own patience drained. He stepped towards Finklestein with an air of menace.

"I've heard enough!" he cried, with a chill in his words that got even the trio to settle down.

Shock froze, having heard that tone not too long ago. Loki ducked his head behind her ear and softly trembled, before he dared to peek out again. Lock and Barrel gently pulled her back with them and out of Jack's way. All three of them warily watched the Pumpkin King and feared a similar show of power when he got them to fess up to their Halloween prank. Jack lowered his eye sockets to match the doctor's dark goggles.

"I told you before that Carver's unlife is your responsibility," Jack said, "and that he is to be treated as his own monster. I also told you that if this happens again, another arrangement will be made. You've failed Carver for the last time, doctor. Effectively immediately, he is no longer under your care."

[SystemofEleven]

“Not to refer to her properly,” Finkelstein sighed. “I was already doing that.” He spoke slowly, enunciating his words as carefully as possible.

“You made me realize that there is a common variable between all of my living projects which I thought to have turned out less than completely successful,” he explained. “I was too caught up in the initial design framework to realize they were operating successfully -- I merely forgot to take into account a single parameter in the context of their minds. Namely, that they are all female. They naturally require extra guidance. Carver was easiest for me to get distracted in my frustrations, because her female mind wasn’t in a visibly female vessel. I was referring to her properly, I just wasn’t dedicating enough of my mental resources to taking into account what that means. So when I upgraded her body to be more resilient to her hooligan friends’ destructive behaviors, I took the liberty of adding features that would remind me to be more specific and attentive to her.”

Carver’s metal jaw dropped as he listened to the perfumed rubbish coming out of his creator’s mouth. Jewel’s lip began to twitch as her fingers curled into tight fists.

“So you see, I have hardly been derelict in my responsibility toward my creation,” the doctor continued, completely oblivious to their reactions. “If anything, I’ve gotten better in that regard. It’s hardly my fault that she decided to damage my wheelchair and run away before I could make her comparatively simple mind recognize that fact.”

He smiled up at the skellington. “I understand that my neural complexities are a bit difficult to keep up with, even for other men, but I know that you, Jack, are able to at least somewhat match pace.”

Carver opened his mouth to roar out a response, but the sound came to a sudden creaky halt in his throat as Jewel took two quick steps forward and slapped her husband so hard he fell sprawling sideways out of his chair.

“You!” She snarled. She reached down to lift him up by the collar of his lab coat until his face was inches from hers. “Are the single most infuriatingly stupid man I have ever met! I am ashamed to share a brain with the likes of you.”

Jewel didn’t merely let him fall back to the floor; she shoved him backward as hard as she could before releasing her grip.

[LePouvantail]

"Him," the trio said together, to emphasize their point.

Which of course went ignored as Finklestein started to explain his logic. Jack remained forcibly calm as the doctor explained. The trio sensed his growing fury and watched him with wary intrigue. They grinned, but stayed back as Jack barely kept his restraint.

"...What body a monster has, has nothing to do with their intelligence," Jack said, the moment he could get a word in.

He gestured toward the trio to emphasize his point.

"No one in town is going to argue which of the three is the most brilliant."

"Shock," Lock and Barrel said together.

Shock smirked with pride.

"Sally's outsmarted you on several occasions," Jack continued. "And your very wife shares half of, shall we say, your masculine brain. That alone should prove it's not the vessel, it's the monster!"

Jack ignored the doctor's smile. His glare deepened at the insinuation that Finklestein was the smartest person in the room. Lock and Barrel looked at each other, mentally confirmed something, nodded, and let go of their sister. Shock pulled her arms away from her brothers the second she was free and stormed towards Finklestein - only for Jewel to beat her to the punch.

Literally.

Her own anger was forgotten temporarily as she watched Finklestein's favorite creation pick him up and throw him into the ramp. All three of the tricksters nearly doubled over with laughter. Shock got a hold of herself first, then stepped up beside Jewel.

"Bet that felt great."

Jack quickly stepped in to keep the situation from escalating further. He allowed the doctor a chance to recover before he moved to assist the old man back in his wheelchair.

"I think it's high time we get Carver out of that body," he said.

[SystemofEleven]

“Sally never outsmarted me. She poisoned me. Me! To whom she owes her very life! That’s hardly any sort of ‘intelligent’ thing to do.” Fineklstein sneered at Shock as she stomped toward him. “And as for them, well. The female hyena may lead the pack, but that doesn’t make her any less of a wild bea--”

SLAP!

The doctor was, finally, for once, completely lost for words as he found himself first on the floor, then being derided by his wife, then on the floor again. What just happened? What was still happening?

As Finkelstein lay there, staring up at the ceiling in confounded silence, Jewel turned back to Jack. “I would offer to do so myself, but unfortunately I am unfamiliar with the specific construction of this… abomination. I might damage h-- him, trying to get him out of there.”

She tactfully ignored Shock’s comment, because… While it wasn’t untrue, she wanted to completely digest her thoughts and emotions before putting them into words. Plus, she had a certain image to uphold, and striking the doctor had already put a crack in that image.

Carver watched his creator get shuffled back into his chair, then looked over at the spiral ramp. His head tilted back slowly as he tried to calculate the exact distance it would be to traverse.

“Carver? All you alright?” Jewel asked. It occurred to her that the pumpkin creature hadn’t made a snarky comment at Finkelstein or Jack the entire time she had been within ear shot, which was beyond unusual.

He blinked and looked over at her, then quickly forced out an eyeroll. “I’m fine. Just debating whether I want to go into the giant smoke bucket up there. Might as well just go back to the treehouse and see what the ‘hooligan squad’ can do with a blow torch, a hack saw, and some dynamite.”

[LePouvantail]

"Multiple times," Jack said dryly, "and you still let her cook for you."

Shock rolled her eyes at the hyena comment.

"Hyenas also take down targets bigger than them," she said. "They use wit as well as strength. Even lions won't fuck with them."

She stepped towards the doctor and stopped over him just as Jack started to help him up.

"They can also sniff out the weak and crippled," she said with a cruel edge to her tone.

"That's enough, Shock," Jack said, as he got Finklestein back in his chair.

"Just making a point, Jack," Shock said, with her sweetest, most pointed smile.

Jack would have rolled his eyes if he had any. He turned to Carver when Jewel asked about his current condition. The pumpkin creature seemed to be holding up well enough, though Jack noticed a little bit of wobbling. Right. Carver did mention that body tired him out just by walking across town.

"Then it sounds like the doctor's the only one who can safely get him out."

Jack glanced to Jewel.

"If you'll assist your husband to the lab?" he asked gently.

The trio all grinned at Carver.

"That--" Lock started.

"--Sounds like--" Shock continued.

"--Fun!" Barrel finished.

"Bet we'd be more delicate," Lock said.

"And actually improve the design," Shock said with a smirk. "What do you say, Carver? Ready for a C-4 beauty treatment?"

"That won't be necessary," Jack said.

He then walked over to Carver as the trio snickered among themselves.

"I think it's best if I carry you," he said, "seeing as it's a long walk from Oogie's lair."

[SystemofEleven]

Jewel turned a hard gaze at her husband, but gave a curt nod to the Pumpkin King and took her usual position behind the chair.

Carver scowled at the implication that he needed help. “I’m fine!” he snapped. “I’ll just take a nap in a nutrient bath once I’m out of this stupid trash can.”

He pushed himself away from the wall and took two confident steps away from the wall -- then promptly lost his balance and, with a fwoop followed by a clattering bang, fell forward to land face-down on the floor.

"Stupid exoskeleton..." he grumbled into the stone surface.

[LePouvantail]

Lock, Shock, and Barrel all shrieked with laughter at Carver's massive fail. Jack ignored the trio's rambunctious cackling as he calmly walked over to Carver to pick him up. With some difficulty due to the new body's weight, he picked up Carver and cradled him in his arms. He shifted Carver to more comfortably hold him. Jack then turned to Lock, Shock, and Barrel. He waited a moment for the trickster siblings to calm down again.

"And you three," he said, "come with me."

The trio all stopped laughing and looked at each other, then back at Jack.

"What?" Barrel asked.

"Us?" Lock said.

"Why?" Shock quirked a brow. Loki tilted his head and gave a curious chitter.

Jack gave them a small smirk of his own.

"Insurance," he said.

The trio looked at each other, grinned, and happily skipped up the ramp behind the Pumpkin King.

As he walked, Jack noticed a strange rattling sound. It took him a few steps to realize it was coming from Carver's foot.

"...Did something come loose?" he asked.

[SystemofEleven]

Carver made a few half-assed attempts to fight Jack off and crawl up the ramp, but quickly gave up and allowed himself to be carried. He sat in Jack's grip, arms crossed over his chest and metal chin jutted out in a stubborn, scowling pout.

Finkelstein finally found his voice. "Liar! It's not nearly that bad! She's been walking and running around just fine for days!She's just manipu-- Wait, Jewel, what are you doing with my--"

Jewel opened her husband's head hatch and pulled out his brain. She unceremoniously dropped the organ in the lap of his now completely comatose body. She made the tiniest of smiles in Carver's direction. "I'll clean it off and put it back once we get you situated in the lab. I think he's done enough talking today, don't you think?"

Carver tucked his head downward so no one would see the grin overtake his pout at Jack's invitation to the trio, and Jewel's further refusal to tolerate her husband's corpse rot. He lifted it back up to sneer when asked about the noise in his leg. "I tried to convince him to at least make an access hatch so I could get my vines out to soak. He wouldn't even do that much. So I started eating his tools and other random stuff to try and force the matter."

"So that's why I've been using our backup stash of wrenches more often, lately..."

Carver blinked and looked over at Jewel. "You guys have a backup stash?"

"Of course, dear," the female Finkelstein replied amicably. "We began stocking up after you and your friends hid all of our screwdrivers around the lab when you were smaller."

[LePouvantail]

Lock, Shock, and Barrel nodded in agreement.

"Yes--"

"--He--"

"--Has."

The trio happily continued their jaunt up the ramp. Jack had a slight smile as Carver adjusted in his arms, but it disappeared at Carver's explanation.

"Well, the access hatch will no longer be necessary once we get you out."

Lock, Shock, and Barrel all giggled at the mention of the tools.

"Why would we--" Shock started.

"--Do a thing--" Barrel grinned.

"--Like that?" Lock finished, with a flick of his tail.

They snickered again as they reached the lab. The worst of the smoke had cleared. Jack calmly brought Carver into the lab and set him down where Jewel directed him. The tricksters, having only been up in the lab a few times, took advantage to look around. All three of them fought off the temptation to mess with anything - at least until the doctor's brain was back in place, and he could see them lingering near his precious inventions and equipment.

Shock quickly found the chemicals. Loki curiously crawled down onto her shoulder to see what she was looking at. Shock gave a soft click of her tongue to tell him to stay. With Jack there, she didn't do much more than pick up bottles to read the labels, before gently setting them back. Lock's tail rapidly twitched behind him as he examined the Tesla coils. Barrel found the lightning switch.

"Hey - isn't this the one Igor pulls whenever you really make him mad?" he asked Carver.

[SystemofEleven]

Jewel pushed Finkelstein’s chair and its accompanying lifeless body up the ramp to the platform behind the tilting examination table. She furrowed her brow, looking at the table before her.

“Carver, will you be alright sitting on the floor for a bit? I think it would be a good idea to remove these body straps before Harold wakes up.”

The pumpkin creature grunted. “Whatever. Shock will make Funkelsnort regret every choice he’s ever made if he tries to strap me down again. And once I get my vines back, the straps will be worthless anyway.” He perked up. “Oh! Speaking of which! See that vial of blue liquid on the third shelf over there? As soon as he wakes up, smash it. That’s what he used to paralyze me when he stuck me in here.”

Jewel nodded, but decided to at least detach two of the straps at the hinges, just in case. She quickly retrieved a tool to leverage the long iron pins out. “There’s three more in the cabinet to your left,” she said without looking up from her work. “The desk on the west side of the room is where my current project is -- or at least what’s left of it, after that entrance you made. I would appreciate it if you would leave that area alone, please.”

Carver’s widening sadistic grin broke into snickers as Barrel found the lightning switch. “Yeah, that’s the one. Might want to keep a hand on that, for when he sees Shock go to town on his precious property.”

Jewel stopped what she was doing and stared at him. “Wait, did you teach Igor to do that?”

The pumpkin creature rolled his mechanical eyes. “Obviously. I mean, you clearly didn’t.”

[LePouvantail]

Jack quickly went into supervision mode. So far, the trio were behaving themselves, but he knew their body language well enough to see the gears turning in their heads and the urges they held back for the moment.

"Damn right I will," Shock muttered.

She looked where Carver pointed and picked up the vial.

"This one?"

A devious grin crawled over her face. Jack did a double-take at Carver.

"He paralyzed you?" He turned his gaze to the doctor's currently lifeless body, then moved a hand to his skull. "Carver, I...I'm sorry. I didn't realize..."

Lock moved away from the Tesla coils and to another one of the doctor's strange devices. He found a wrench that had been too big for Carver to swallow and tapped it in his hand as he calculated how much force he'd need to truly wreck the machine. His tail flicked behind him.

"You see the best in every monster, Jack," Lock said reassuringly. "It's one of the things that makes you the Pumpkin King."

Jack just nodded. He felt a little better, but it still didn't assuage the guilt. Shock went to the cabinet that Jewel pointed to and looked for the similar vials of blue liquid. Oh, she was going to have fun. She was already calculating how to best utilize this opportunity. Loki chittered with glee.

At Jewel's implications of her own personal projects, the trio looked over at the desk in question.

"Noted," Lock said cheerfully.

"We wouldn't want to--" Barrel started.

"--Ruin your hard work," Shock finished.

She casually tossed the vial in her hand and caught it a few times.

"This, on the other hand..."

Barrel grinned as he tapped his fingers with gleeful anticipation over the switch.

"This time, it's gonna be for all of us!"

"Hooligan squad!" the trio cheered. "Hooligan squad! Hooligan squad!"

They all settled down as Jewel finished her preparations. Their fun wouldn't truly begin until Finklestein was aware of it.

[SystemofEleven]

“To be fair--” Jewels stopped herself, shaking her head. “No… That’s… not correct. It’s not fair. I’ve been trying to play the middle ground for too long. To be precise, 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 he antagonized you.”

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 reason 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 watch 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.

[LePouvantail]

Jack turned to Jewel and simply nodded.

"That won't be necessary anymore," he said.

Lock snerked at Carver.

"Well, a hollow body with working eyes is about to become available."

Jack gave him a glance.

"No."

Lock shrugged.

"Just a suggestion."

All three of the trio snickered as Jack and Jewel got Finklestein situated. Shock tossed the vial in her hand one more time as Jewel got Finklestein's brain back in. She gave him exactly two seconds after the lid shut to ensure reconnection, before she deliberately missed her next toss and let the vial fall and shatter on the floor to get the doctor's attention.

"Huh. Must be my emotions getting out of control," she said with a smirk.

She locked her glare with the doctor's dark glasses as she reached into the cabinet and grabbed another one. She casually tossed it in her hand.

"I feel that they might just get out of control again."

[SystemofEleven]

Finkelstein straightened up in his chair, blinked twice, opened his mouth -- and then whipped his head around to investigate the sound of breaking glass.

“You!” he gasped. “What are you doing in-- Hey! Don’t you dare touch any more of my--”

Jewel reached out and pinched the doctor’s beak-like lips to hold them shut, then pulled on them to make him face the tilting table. “You have a task to complete, dear.”

Carver grinned at him, still holding his pose on the angled surface. “Disembowel me like one of your French corpses!”

“Carver’s friends have been given permission to do whatever is necessary to encourage you to get the job done as quickly and safely as possible,” Jewel added. She let go of his lips.

“Task? Permission? The nerve--” Finkelstein spluttered indignantly and turned to Jack. “Surely you’re not going to stand there and allow this absurdity! This is my property!”