#also i picture them here showing up at Arthur's front doorstep

[jesytr]

you're a much better liar than i expected you to be .

she observed his response with as much thought as she would count her own willingness to want to share what little she could. thinking it better to lie about what has really happened to get her where she was that night. pulling away from the child sized girl that hid behind her. matching blonde hair. green eyes popping up to look at arthur between tears that streamed down her face. it was hard enough to bring herself to mention why her daughter was there with her only that she bounced the thought between where to bring her. her eyes staring at the front door step that she brought Lucille Quinzel to. keeping up habitual dilemmas of where else she could bring them too. having never properly introduced the two.

" she's - " harley started in. her words cutting off at the sounds of her youngest shaking her hands back and forth with a small sheepish start, " I wouldn't lie about this , but - "

" mommy ! " Lucille started after sometime. pulling up on her parent's sleeve and staring with bulbous eyes that looked a little less sad, but still shaken up. peeling off her hands to stuff then into her pockets and empty a small wrapped chocolate one that she passed over to her daughter.

" we aint got nothin' , but trouble . . . " blue hues went back to looking over at @jokethur . her voice hushed in the night. people that preferred the dark walked along the streets even as it was half past midnight. Gotham had a way of pulling out all kinds of inhabitants out at all hours , " falcone is after us. my place ain't safe tonight. " not sure where else to turn to when all she had was hitman on her back , but with a kid in tow it made living out much more harder. her apartment has already been tracked.

" more chocolate ! " Lucille persisted. wiping her face with her long pink sleeves , scooting a little closer to peer more at arthur , though very shyly.

". sure thing , lucy. " mother reaching to pry through a rather large bag. riffling through it's containments. lipstick, candies, and a revolver. smiling as she found her candy stash. handing the sweets over to her , ". she's my daughter. I couldn't just let them find us , ya know ? " lucy gasped as she examined the bag of treasured chocolates.

[punsandfuturekingsmen]

The package on his doorstep is wrapped in blue and gold striped paper, and atop it is a card. The front picture shows a cartoony, zeerust-style robot playing a keytar, with a small birthday hat pasted atop its head as a custom addition. Inside is written: "Happy Birthday, Artie! I had wanted to give this to you in person, but I've come down with a bad headcold and I figured that would be a pretty shitty present to give you. I hope our little friend here makes you smile anyway! He's fallen on some hard times lately as you can see, but I figured you'd enjoy a Project built-in to your gift! I'm sure you can restore his glory days to him! With love -- Vivi"

Inside the box is an antique windup toy. An armored knight sits atop a horse, which is attached to a wheeled base. Though the windup mechanism doesn't work currently, it seems that if it's repaired, not only will the wheels send the toy forward, but the horse's front legs also look to be articulated-- they'll probably move a bit to create the illusion of a trot. It looks like the knight's sword arm might move up and down at the shoulder, too. It's definitely seen better days, even aside from not working, but it should be possible to restore.

He always opens the cards first, but he can't help but nod to himself as he sees it. This was way more Vivi style, with bright blue and nerdy imagery. And this nerdy imagery going for retro futuristic and also jamming out goofily on a keytar? That he was a sucker for, which probably meant one particular Vivi, who was just as much a nerd as he was. Especially with a little birthday hat so carefully added. It was the little things, the little, careful details, because that's what she loved to make perfect in a way that often was perfectly him. His face warmed up as he opened the card.

Arthur frowns at hearing she's not feeling well-- he'd have to get her something to help with that, even if she'd probably have everything she'd need on hand. She would feel bad if she caught it, but that wouldn't stop him from at least leaving her a nice crock of soup or something to nibble on so she didn't have to brave the outside world to restock. Though...she did have her own Arthur. He might do that for her.

He shook his head. That didn't matter as long as she was taken care of, and would Vivi really complain about extra soup?

Instead of thinking further, he filed away the note to send her something, and focused on tearing away the paper. There was something exciting about seeing what it was, especially knowing it might be something he could mess with and tinker on. The box was somewhat heavy, so it made him think metal, and he was proven right on opening it.

Arthur's eyes sparkled as he took in the details. There were little engravings on the sheets of metal that'd been welded to make his armor. They were caked in dirt or dust so they were a garish brown, but they were there, and he could only imagine how pretty they'd look, freshly cleaned and painted with a colorful wash to make them pop. The plates were layered pretty realistically too, and honestly, it was one of the coolest toys he'd seen in years. The helmet had a tiny dent that gave the toy character, and the horse had one of the reins snapped where it should have connected to the knight's free hand. One of the legs felt a little loose at the joint, the pin keeping it in worked out enough that he could see the point coming out the one side.

All of it was fixable, and the innards would probably be fascinating to tinker with, too. Maybe he could make it into a kinetic sculpture, too. Upgrade it to move on its own, like that one inspiring swan sculpture he liked. Maybe he'd strip the paint down and leave it wholly metal. He could incorporate some music if he wanted. There were honestly a thousand things he could do if he was so inclined.

Ooooohhhh..... Vivi was very very good at gifts. He'd have to get her some soup, and find a way to say thank you for something so fucking rad.