"Watch it! He's alarmed. Don't let him escape!"
"Try and stop me!" I screamed, tensing my muscles for a leap over the pair of intruders. Suddenly the air about my sweating body seemed to thicken to the viscosity of molasses. I could breathe it all right, but quick motion was denied me. My grand leap died before my right foot left the floor. I retreated to my chair in slow-motion panic, sinking slowly through the clabbered atmosphere, to a sitting position on my torn clothing.
"Yes, a very clumsy, unesthetic life-form. In fact the bisymmetry fairly nauseates me. Granted that the two arms are practical, doubtless one or the other does 90% of all work. So why have them of equal importance? See here, I'll demonstrate...."
"Wait!" the other cautioned. "This is a sentient creature. You can't operate without...."
"Of course not!"
Something buzzed in my spine, and I blanked out. For the space of one breath, it seemed.
"There, that's better."
"I guess I must agree with you."
A faint tingle in my left arm caused me to stare at it. Unbelievingly! Its length was the same, but its diameter was reduced to two-thirds, and there were two fingers missing on the hand. The opposable thumb remained, but it now had more the appearance of a claw than a human hand. I tried to scream, but the sound was a glutinous bubble of air that never reached my lips.
"How about the pedal appendages?"