Arthur walked the streets of St. George's Holm, he had a bounce in his step- but not from joy, he avoided that like the plague! No in fact it was the effects of a new "drug", called 'Sunshine'. It allowed Arthur to look as if he had popped a joy, without all the nasty side-effects and withdrawals. As he past by a wellie, he gave a friendly wave. "Lovely day for it!" Arthur chirped.

The wellie looked at him with an unsettling grin spread upon his mask.
"Did you hear about Mrs Sapper? She found a bomb buried in her garden!" the joyful citizen began to chuckle as he continued, "Lucky it didn't blow her up." Arthur stopped for a second. He remembered about this all too well, not because he heard about it, but because he was the reason the bomb didn't blow the lady up in the first place!

Arthur set his broken jimmy bar to the side, he had opened someone's window. He hoisted himself up on top the window sill, climbing inside hesitantly. This was the first time Arthur had gathered the courage to break into anyone's house, in St. George's Holm, at least. He was beginning to run out of sewing kits and other crafting items and didn't have the sovereigns to buy new ones.
Arthur snuck around the first floor, careful when turning corners. He opened the wooden side-table beside a sofa. Nothing. Not wanting to leave empty-handed he warily climbed up the stairs, being as light as possible on his feet. He winced at the slightest creak he heard as he made his way up, however, he was so fixated on not making sound that he didn't notice the Spanker hanging on the ceiling.
"You must take your joy IMMEDIATELY"

It sounded out, quite loudly. This shook Arthur from his thoughts, his head drew upwards toward the source of the sound, complete and utter fear washing over his face.

"You must take your joy IMMEDIATELY" It repeated, this time though, it had begun to charge up a bright laser. Arthur visibly paled at the sight. Just as the beam shot, Arthur reeled back, falling down the stairs. He blinked his eyes open, groaning painfully.
"WHO'S THERE?!" At the sound of the crier on the second floor, Arthur jumped upright and bolted toward the front door. He could hear steps coming down the stairs quickly. Throwing the door open, Arthur dashed outside the house- forgetting about the 'no running' rule. He aimed for the front gate, panicked when-

BOOM

Arthur felt his ears ring, he felt numb at first. Confused as to what had happened, he slowly pulled himself to a sitting position and looked behind him. His eyes grew wide at the sight before him.

"Oh, bloody hell..." he murmured to himself.

There was a huge divot at the front of the lady's house. Arthur must have stepped on a mine or something. Cool sweat fell down his face, he just narrowly avoided being blown up!
He felt feint and the world began to swirl around him, only now did the pain begin to settle into his body. "Ghck- "He cringed from the burning sensation running up his legs.
Slowly, Arthur began to stand up the pain becoming a little more bearable.

"HEY- YOU DOWNER, STOP RIGHT THERE!"

Arthur turned around to the furious bobby running toward him, his baton readied. Arthur immediately twisted his body around in fear as he limped in the opposite direction, a crowd of wellies beginning to form. They all wanted to find out what all the fuss was about.

Arthur found himself dodging the wellies when they came from the front. And boy, was his heart pounding! Frantically glancing at his surroundings, he saw an alleyway a little farther up ahead, he turned his head slightly to look behind him.

"Thank god…" he mumbled breathlessly. There were only a few wellies still following, along with the bobby. However, unlike the bobby, the wellies were beginning to fall behind.

"Jesus Christ- I... I can't keep doing this...". Almost there, just hold on a little longer Arthur... Come on, you're so close, don't give up now legs!

Taking a very sharp turn, he made it into the alleyway. He could barely see, since it was so dark and all that he could feel was the urge to collapse. Not seeing the brick sticking out slightly, Arthur tripped. "Shi- "he bit back a cry of pain.
A set of footsteps echoed in the alleyway, gradually getting closer. Soon enough the mask of a red bobby came into view as the tall figure squatted beside him, tilting his head.

Shit that's creepy..

"Well then lad, you took a bit of a tumble." Arthur didn't reply, shuddering at how ominous the guard's voice was. "You put up a good fight, never seen a downer limp quite as fast." The bobby's tone seemed a little friendlier now, it was odd to Arthur.

The taller man let out a sigh, opening his eyes slowly. "Look, downer. I am not going to hurt you, as long as you don't try any funny business." Arthur hesitantly nodded.
"You see, someone I knew- someone close to me, they couldn't take joy." The bobby sat down. "I don't know- I think it was something to do with the flavour? Thing is, their body rejected it."

"She was titled as 'downer'. Even though she wanted to take joy. Oh, how she begged." Shaking his head, the guard let out a frustrated huff.

"She got outcasted, never seen 'er since…" There was an uncomfortably long pause, the bobby just stared into space with a longing gaze. He finally turned his head around and looked back at Arthur. He stood up and held his hand out.

"Now, I don't know if you're a downer by choice… I don't even know if your reason for avoiding joy is justified. But it doesn't matter, because that is your choice." Arthur looked at the outstretched hand and back at the constable. A faint smile crossed his face, something quite rare for him. He nodded and took the hand, allowing himself to be pulled up.

"There ya' go lad- now don't let me catch you doing this again!" The bobby joked lightly, giving Arthur a pat on the back. He began to escort Arthur toward his shelter, giving him some healing balm. "Don't want that to get worse now, do we?"

The bobby waved toward Arthur, seeing him off, "Have a lovely day, constable!" Arthur waved as he disappeared into the bunker. Finally, I made it back…

"What a day…" Arthur sighed as his tense shoulders began to finally relax.

Arthur grinned at the memory, I wonder how the constable is? Skipping pleasantly, he began on his journey to the butcher's. He felt bad for Edmund, Percy's friend. Being beaten up for god-knows-what! I guess I'm just glad I got there in time to help him..

Arthur had decided on finishing Edmund's job, so that he wouldn't get into trouble for not delivering the packages and quitting his job. He just needed to inform.. What was his name? Ah yes! Mr. Cutty- What an unfortunate name really, you would think he was a psychopath!
Stepping into the butcher's shop, he waved to the man, trying to ignore the constable staring at him.

"I don't suppose you've seen my meat boy, Edmund?" The butcher asked. Arthur was a little hesitant in his response.

"The.. uh, Plough-boys broke his legs.." The butcher let out a sigh "Well, that's a damn shame, he's simple y'know?"

"But, reliable."

"I dropped off his packages.. and uh, the ladies gave me these- "Arthur clarified, handing over the rotten mushrooms. "Oh- Lovely, there's quite a shortage of cows in Hamlyn, I can tell you that!" The butcher chuckled. Arthur felt quite unsettled by this, like there was something… More to it, than just a good all fashioned joke..

"Listen, we've got one smaller.. Uh… Errand, if you're up for it!" Mr Cutty then leaned closer and whispered, "I'll give you what I pay Edmund."

"An errand?"

"Another pick-up, kinda big."

"How big?"

"How tall would you say you are? 6 foot? About.. 6 feet big. My- uh… Source had it on a cart."

"Here, I'll give you a map. It's near- um, near where that statue used to be.. Y- y'know, with the mad hatter and the white rabbit and the- th-the woman. Y'know where they were gonna build a band shell and.. didn't."

"I know the place. I- uh, can't make any promises.." Arthur hesitantly replied, paying no mind to the butcher's stutters.

"Of course not, a nod is as good as a wink- Say no more, say no more!" He sung.

"I'll make sure they'll write on the package where you're supposed to take it." Mr Cutty paused for a bit, "It's a bit.. awkward to bring it directly here.. hehe." He let out another unsettling chuckle, making Arthur visibly shiver.

He stepped back outside, thinking about how odd the man had spoken. This was a heiness package, wasn't it? Arthur thought grimly to himself.

He looked on his map, using his newly found memory to see where the place Mr. Cutty, talked about was. Half his eye on the map and half on the wellies, he made his way to the 'package'. Finally, once he arrived at his destination, he looked up from his map properly, to see two bobbies guarding it.
Arthur gulped, it wasn't often you would see two bobbies guarding a scene. They were poking and prodding at the cart curiously with suspicious eyes. One of the guards spotted Arthur nervously glancing at the cart. He stepped forward, tall and bulky, unlike Arthur, who was tall, but lither than he was, strong.

"Sir, may I ask you to kindly step back." He waved Arthur off a bit. "The constabulary has this all under control, it is just an inspection."

The other bobby guarding the area looked over his shoulder. "Constable Byrne' Jones, we don't want to give too much away to such a wonderful citizen!" He smiled, it had a hint of urgency, like perhaps he was giving to much away.

"Yes, you're quite right, Constable Morland." The constable turned back round toward Arthur. "Sorry, sir. We assure you, it is nothing to worry about." He smiled brightly, mumbling a little "Not that the constabulary is appreciated these days.." under his voice.

However, as quiet as the guard thought he was being, Arthur heard him loud and clear. An idea popping into his head, like a fresh batch of joy. Slowly he pulled out some Scotch and handed it to the bobby, handing another to the second bobby when he became jealous.

"Well, I just want you to know that your work is appreciated!" Arthur glowed.

The constables turned to one another shrugging it off and thanking Arthur, deciding to take a quick break.

By the time Arthur finally got to the package, it was night. Which was both a good and bad thing. The good thing was; there was less people. The bad thing.. Well, there was more bobbies. He let out a silent whimper at the sight of the package. The shape was all too familiar for comfort.

Oh god, Percy. What have I gotten myself into?