Saw this post getting a lot of attention so I decided to expand on it.
The fingers are metal so that they can interact with their overseer screens and with pearls and such, allowing better conduction of electricity. However, the coloured parts have a layer of altered chitin that is organic tissue. This chitin has been altered to have sensory receptors, and to more closely resemble cellulose so it may take in water. That is how the iterators drink, by simply sitting in or putting their faces in water and letting their bodies absorb it.
The rarefaction cell generates energy, but it also synthesises proteins to repair and sustain organic tissues, allowing them to survive. The rarefaction cell is basically an all in one organ, generating energy, proteins, etc. Older models such as Moon do not need as much oxygen as they do not have the same amount of biological components, but newer models would not be able to survive the rains the way she can.
They have very claw-like hands, some sharper and some softer, lacking a middle finger. The only one who has a middle finger is NSH, (see my iterator designs,) so he is the only one that can flip people off. This is very important information.
They run solely on water and the minerals/bacteria that reside in lakes and rivers. Filthy water is actually healthier for them than clean, as they are very good at fighting off infection with the electrical current running through their bodies, and they need the minerals and components. However they still should wash themselves and their cloaks in clean water.
The main cable running down the middle stores a liquified version of neuron flies. If an iterator were to try and leave their structure, they would have to collect their neuron flies and strip the memory/personality holding cells from it and suspend it in a plasma-like liquid. There is not enough space in the cable for every neuron fly, so dull memories of working and unnecessary research must be left behind.
The main cable (which can take many shapes and sizes, some iterators even having an extra layer of chitin and tissues around it) is the sturdiest and most important part of the puppet. It has the strongest metal protecting it and that is hard to and must not be damaged, as it acts as the brain and the nervous system would shut down if it started leaking.
There does exist a weak frame of metal underneath the chitin, but that is mostly just a framework for all the machinery and biological tissues to cling to, like vines on a pole. Most of the body is protected and held together by the exoskeleton of chitin.
Finally, the limbs are operated with levitation technology similar to that which causes the low gravity in iterative structures, generated by the compressed rarefaction cell. If the cell were to fail the whole body would fall apart in pieces.
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