The freegel lurches and waves its way in a space of not infinite proportions. There are times when it attempts to overflow the natural boundaries. This is when teams of specialists are brought in to mend the seams and caress the freegel back into some sort of meaningful form.
Since sensei is having his problems, due to an accidental ingestion of freegel (don't get too close, boys and girls!), the rest of us are blindly trying to find our way to his perfect solution. It is not easy.
Some of us think that we should "trim the deadwood." In other words, we should not bother the active formation of the gel. We should only look for the hardened portions in the older reaches of the inner caverns, and prune there. This would not disturb the formation of new nodegel.
Others have a more proactive view of the situation. They feel that their cilia should be ever aware of disease which might infect the gel. This means removal of newly formed nodegel; perhaps even before it can be ratified before the committee of the entire hierarchy of gel administrators.
All in all, it's a touchy business. Good eyestalks have gone blind trying to find the perfect path. Some of the specialists have gone mad trying to balance the natural rhythm that came so easily to our sensei.
Some have given up.
The outer edges of the nodegel hums and thrives like a baby in the perfect state before exposure to this awful world. We try our best to make sure the delivery is final and unflawed. We fail sometimes. And for that we apologize.
Either sensei will return or he will not.
We will try to be some flawed semblance of him until he does.