After finally finding a way out of the pumpkin patch where a part of the wall was crumbling a bit, Carver had spent the rest of his night hanging out with Barrel in the lair and generally staying out of Shock's way while she updated her plans. The oldest trickster was still in a glowing mood, and none of her siblings wanted to be the first to bring her down from that. When Lock got home, Carver made sure never to be alone in the same room with him. As far as Barrel knew, the only interaction between the two that day had been when Carver "slipped" Lock a gift while Lillith wasn't looking, and the pumpkin creature wanted to keep it that way.
Around the time Barrel started on dinner, Carver put a cauldron on to simmer. While Barrel was looking for some reasonably intact dishes to use, Carver took a few minutes to throw in some compacted manure flakes and let them soak up the water. He was just finishing up as the bigger boy came back in to retrieve the pepper.
"What, not waiting for me?" he asked his face-stuffed friend as he put his bowl on the table. "Sheesh, no manners at all!"
Carver went to dip his finger-like vines in the bowl by reflex, but stopped himself just before dunking his metal hands into the nutrient muck. Right. New body. Bones. He took a moment to think about it, then decided let his limbs go limp and feed his vines out through the mouth hole.
...Only two fit. He was going to have to soak his vines two at a time.
"Thuckink ngoo ekthothkegetong! Thith thucks!" he complained, looking for all the world like a chameleon with a paralyzed tongue dangling onto the table in front of him.