hands together: when to call illegal

[Little Jimmy]

This was discussed somewhere here in the last couple of years. If the pitcher comes on the pitching plate with her hands already together, can she legally remove herself from the pitching plate and negate the hands together illegality that just happened? If not, when and how is this called? For example...

A. Pitcher steps on plate with hands together. Signal delayed dead ball at that moment or when she begins the pitch?

B. Pitcher steps on plate with hands together, but then removes herself legally. Dead ball at that moment or no penalty since hands didn't separate and no pitch was actually begun?