Candy Boy I’ll pay you Closed

Though Mari thought she was done with whispering people, thoroughly confused but grateful for the strange boy from before who had given her a sticky caramel for George, she was interrupted once more by another voice. When he called her name, she looked quite confused, wondering just what was up with her today. Did everyone know that she had been absent for quite some time? Is that why they were calling her out? It certainly seemed so...

She came, like he requested, and when he asked about if she could buy another candy from that guy, Mari laughed softly. "I already saw him! Did you see me talk to him, or something?"

It was quite peculiar that he wanted the candy so badly, especially when you could buy the same candy from Hogsmeade, or, if your parents were nice enough, they could give you some candy themselves via owl. Her mum had recently sent some, along with a picture from her little sister, Grace. But it seemed that this boy didn't have quite as nice of a family as she. If he wanted it so badly, she supposed she could give George a chocolate frog or something. "Well...I was going to give this to my friend George, but I suppose you could have it..."

She wasn't really sure what she was doing until she did it, but Mari politely handed the tubby boy her newly acquired caramel. "I hope you enjoy it," She finished the conversation, "and maybe next time your mum and dad can mail you some sweets? Doesn't seem to make much sense for you to pay us all this money when you could just have your parents send you some by owl."

Without a further word, she left the boy to his wanderings.

Janet came back to where the boy was still waiting, now armed with a sticky caramel. She was still quite mystefied as to why this boy was paying three extra sickles just for this special candy when he could get it for its normal price at hogsmeade, sure he might not be old enough but if he could get someone else to get it for him and three was also the choice of him getting his family to send him some by owl, that was what Janet's family normally did anyway, well not a ridiculous amount of candy it was true, after all Janet had a very large family who needed sweets too. Janet knew that these sweets were special Valentine's Day ones and were likely spiked with love potion, but this boy was obviously meaning to eat them himself and didn't even want to trick someone else into eating them! It was all very mysterious. Then again maybe he wasn't keeping them for himself but simply pretending to. Oh well. It was hardly Janet's business why he wanted the sweets, she was just doing it for the money. But Janet being a clever and curious girl was always thinking of solutions as to why. She looked around and saw him in a corner conversing with someone else.
"Hello? I'm back with your sticky caramel."

Interacting with @Galton Lansdale
Mentions @Mari Haynes

"Helloooo…" Evelynn had whispered, drawing out the word like a figurative wave of her hand to check his attention. For a while there, it seemed like she had lost him. "Are you even listening…?" She asked, brows creasing with mild frustration as she actually brought her hand up to wave before his eyes.

The arrival of a girl seemed to snap him out of whatever reverie he'd been having and he gave his little spiel again. When she'd gone, she turned her attention back to him, just in time to see it all seem to 'click' and for him to — finally — reply. Evelynn pursed her lips, not entirely satisfied by his answer. Some time to see what he comes up with? Had it not been accompanied by a wink, she might have taken it seriously. As it was, it sounded as though he wasn't taking her seriously.

"Hopefully you get a few bites, then.." She said, not ignorant to the triple punny irony of that statement.

Just as she said that, another girl walked by with dark skin and darker hair. Evelynn couldn't recall ever having seen her before, and it seemed she was more than willing to acquiesce to the candy boy's request. Evelynn frowned slightly, gaze shifting nervously in the direction of the coated Ravenclaw. He was getting quite a bit of business. More than Evelynn might have liked to see. As much as the idea of seeing how these effects would play out amused her, the reality downright terrified her. It seemed very much in the realm of the glove and mask, at least in the sense of denying someone their autonomy. Twisting the senses. Depriving them of self-control. And she was absolutely mortified of any situation where she might be the one to fall victim.

No…she definitely wasn't eating any candy from anyone else at the castle this season.

There was a fiery pit filled with candy that was slowly burning a hole in both Galton’s mind, and chest. He could feel it just resting up against his clothing, the subtle weight all to present. Galton should be better about all of this. This candy business. He had a rough track record with his lust for candy. If he had realized or not, it had caused him to vomit at least two times this year, and made him the center of a ballroom’s attention. There was something just naturally set against the young Lansdale and his sugary mistress’s affair.

But he didn’t know better. He was raised by people who all partook in such activities, it had become second nature. And so, as more and more children brought candy to the him, his excitement grew.

A girl he’d never seen before actually beat the other he had dispatched to him. Handing him a sticky caramel, a wide grin took Galton’s mouth for a ride. It was like she’d read his mind. Or maybe she’d overheard him talking to the other girl. Oh well, he was happy. By the time he reacted to the girl she was gone. “Hey! Wait, your money?!” He shouted after her. But she was gone.

And then @Janet Jackson returned. She followed a more typical decorum. “Oh! That was fast! Okay here, I’ve got your money all ready.” He opened a hand with the 8 coins upon a bed of pillowy flesh. He waited for her to replace the useful metal with and even more useful sugar piece, smiling like he seemed to always be.

There was this queer little boy paying premium prices for candy. She was not hurting for candy, but it was also a welcome diversion for the woes of her heart. Perhaps she was a bit sentimental in this sad state. She had bought candy in the courtyard from some shady Ravenclaw. He fit the description that was being clamored about and the prices were strangely reasonable. After she made her semi-impulsive purchase she would make her way to the 'Candy King' or at least that is what some of the girls called him behind his back and perhaps in front of it as well. 

The 'Candy King' was an idiot, easy to manipulate. But more than that, he was not a particularly bad person. For reasons she would never ask, he had become obsessed with this candy, enough to pay premium prices for something that for less effort he could have gotten a number of other ways. A fake permission slip is not that hard to come by. Easier than this. Perhaps this candy worked, she considered that for another moment. That would be the ultimate cruelty, to finally have the affection you had wanted for so long for but one day. It would be hell if that was the case. At least to her.

"Weird little guy," she did not remember his name. Had he ever even given it? "Uh, here," Erin announced with a frown as she thrust the chocoball into his hands. "No... charge," her eyes darted downward and she frowned. 

She would not wait for a response, even a hello. She would leave as abruptly as she came, rushing past the school nurse as she did so.

Jürgen would go from Candyman to Candyboy. A single sticky caramel in his pocket, a cheap purchase that seemed hardly satisfying. Only one per customer seemed a bit odd but he accepted it at face value. Galton was trying to get people to buy him candy, that candy in particular. For whatever reason there was a well dressed man simply standing near the fire of the Small Hall looking in Galton's direction. It was a bit creepy, the Gryffindor did not care for it. 

"Galton, bro!" Jürgen would call out to his dorm mate. "I got something for you," he announced as he made his way over to the Gryffindor. "I got some candy from the guy in the courtyard, for you. But," there was always a but it would seem. "Before I give you the sticky caramel I bought," a tit for tat "I need to know what makes his candy so special."  

Jürgen would reach into his pocket and reveal a single wrapped sticky caramel. It was incredibly lonesome there in Jürgen's hand, all by its self. 

Whatever Galton answered, shy of the last time I ate this candy I became a delusional cannibal, would result in Jürgen handing Galton the piece of candy. However, if the truth was told. Well a truith that suggested that Galton was about to do something incredibly self-destructive, rather than give Galton the piece of tainted candy Jürgen would hand him a replacement candy. In fact, the one in his hand was a fake. He would draw from his pocket the real one and give Galton both if he was led to believe that the candy was in fact harmless.

Galton was thick. No, not that type of thick, he was merely pudgy in that regard. Despite Galton's best efforts, which many questioned existed at all, he was a bit thick in the skull. It may have been the things he let occupy his thoughts (like all the candy) or it could have been from actions he'd taken in the past (also related to candy), but the young lad was slow from time to time. A bundle of energy with a mind playing catch up. All this accumulated in Galton's actions being a series of random events, rarely planned or thought out.

But today he'd been able to enact a small plan. However sudden it felt, he had set up shop, buying all the candy he could from this long coated man. He had said it was for fear of the cold and a lust for sweets, and it was, but there was something he hadn't quite known at first. Why the candy man seemed like such an old friend. And, it was because the candy man had been his candy man before. Both the bringer of curses and bringer of crowns, Galton realized he'd shown his face again. It just clicked. It was time to have some more fun.

A plethora of candy now beset young Lansdale, and time was hear for it's use. Galton merely held an open hand with the chocoball from his villainous friend, Ms. Towers (or so she'd called herself), had given him as Jürgen spoke. All he would reply was "Well... because it's candy!" As he thought of the the sugary future quickly approaching. If Jürgen gave him more or not, it would just add to the large pile the boy already had.

Galton smiled at his friend, nodding to him, as if signalling he wanted Jürgen to follow. "HEY! MR. VANCLEAF! AUGUST! I wanna give you someeeeethingggggg!" He yelled, pacing around the area, checking around corners for the Auror. He wanted to give him a present, to show Galton's gratitude to his only friend in a time of great strife.

When the auror eventually was found, Galton would take out the caramel from Janet (or was it the other girl?) that lay in his pocket. He'd give it to the large man and say. "I want you to have this, thank you for being such a good friend to me." Then he'd take out a sherbert, caramel, and chocoball. Shove the three together. Smiling and saying "I've found the forest man, and I'm not going to let any others have his candy." Then he'd eat the bundle. Saving the other pieces for later. Then he'd be off for the candy man.

Galton was acting cracked. Like the sort of cracked where the guy that meows at the moon or the girl that licked doorknobs. He had been like this since he came back to Hogwarts. In fact Jürgen saw him at St. Mungos, it was not pretty. It was really really scary. He felt a little bit sick in fact as he recalled the measures they took for his as well as the staff's safety. Galton might not remember it, but Jürgen did. The boy was like a caged animal and had no more sense than a beast belonging in the cage.

"Well... because it's candy!"

He relinquished the candy, Galton did not give much of an explanation but perhaps Jürgen had been a bit too paranoid. he was about to utter an apology for being the weird one when Galton called out for VanCleaf in a sing-song voice.

"HEY! MR. VANCLEAF! AUGUST! I wanna give you someeeeethingggggg!"

"Who?"

Jürgen mouthed as his brow furrowed and he followed Galton's lead. He was peering around corners, looking for this Mr. VanCleaf. "Dude..." Jürgen started to say from behind him. This was the sorta weird he was talking about. 

He, well they would find a man. A serious looking chap leaned against a wall with a toothpick in his mouth that he was chewing on.

"I want you to have this, thank you for being such a good friend to me." 

Galton announced as she shoved the candy together - a chocoball, a sherbet lemon and a sticky caramel. Why was he giving away the candy he just got?  

"I've found the forest man, and I'm not going to let any others have his candy."

He explained before he shoved the candy in... his mouth? His own mouth.

He had been watching Galton since his release. The boy was erratic, but he did not seem particularly dangerous. He quickly returned to his normal life. "Normal" being a strange word for a boy that biweekly shaves his cat and will likely give himself diabetes in the next few years considering the egregious sugar intake he witnessed in the boy.

He had followed the youth for several weeks. Curious about what had happened to the boy and why, in his years as an Auror he had not seen anything quite like whatever influenced the boy. It was most certainly powerful and considering the symptoms exhibited, it was also incredibly dark. Magic changes things. Exchanges things. Augments the reality as we know it, but there are rules and structure that one needs to abide. What is often considered dark or evil is what is meant to harm and subjugate, not a special branch of magic that corrupts and perverts. 

Whatever madness befell this youth, it was far from temporary, the product of a juvenile prank gone wrong. This was something powerful and innocuous or coveted as the boy never revealed the who or the how. He merely continued his maddened rant about being King. The boy had about as much power as a feral cat, he was no threat to the world at large sane or mad, so why waste such a powerful spell, item, potion or artifact on the child in the first place? 

Perhaps it was an act of sadism. 

He sighed. The boy had noticed him. It was not as if he was hiding. He had been keeping his distance as he looked on at the boy and lingered at times to observe the people he met and the places he had gone. 

"HEY! MR. VANCLEAF! AUGUST! I wanna give you someeeeethingggggg!"

He cringed a bit as the boy called his name. There was something about that kid's voice that rested on a nerve. The sugar addict would withdraw a sticky caramel from his pocket and offer it to VanCleaf.

"I want you to have this, thank you for being such a good friend to me."

August had learned as a child to never take candy from strangers and Galton was as strange as they got. Further, the boy's tone and sudden interest. He would accept the candy into a gloved hand. It was never making contact with his skin, potentially a great number of things. "Th--" The Auror started to state a gracious platitude when the boy took out more candy -- a chocoball, a sticky caramel and a sherbert lemon and mashed the three together.

"I've found the forest man, and I'm not going to let any others have his candy."

Back to his candy obsession it would seem. A delusional youth that was focused on confections for whatever reason. That would have been the obvious answer. The preferred answer. However, August was not so lucky. The candy's effect would be near instant, once the candy entered his gullet and with a hard, crunch swallow it entered the boy's body a number of changes would have been observed. 

The boy's flesh would change -- develop a flush.
Then his pupils would dilate into great saucers.  
Then his hands would shake.

But that was only what the external observer could see. What he could not see was what was going on in the boy's head. These candies had been laced with a 'love' potion. But love was not what these candies gave or any potion gave for that matter because it is not love that these people seek. They seek to posses what they covet. In truth, a love potion is a potion of avarice rather than love which comes in many forms. A yearning for proximity that becomes perverse and terrible. A desire for their attention and affection gone too far. A lust that is beyond ones control or reason. 

What happens when one feels all three? They don't feel love because love is something different, something more. Some might call love a spark but a spark is but a chemical reaction in ones head that reaches the loins. A want to be around a person. These things do not happen without a reason. Love is more than a feeling, it is rational, even if we wish to romanticize it as something more. That they are the one or this image perpetuated by the media that if they do nothing less than rush into your arms when you have been apart for so long that it is not love.

It is a want to spend time together.

To miss each other when you are a part.

For wanting the other to be happy, even at the expense of your own happiness.

Love has little to do with kissing, you can kiss someone that you do not love. That is just lust. So what did Galton feel at this very moment, with this false 'love' potion taken thrice. He would feel a grerat many things.

- Lust, as they do feel with conventional love potions (the chocoball)
- Envy, as their affections take a jealous turn (the sticky caramel)
- Gluttony, as they want to be so close to what they want to be with that they ultimately wish to consume it when they can get no closer (the sherbet lemon)

Combining these adds onto it the delusional state that Galton had experienced before. These delusions of grandeur, perhaps again in his candy kingdom. Only this time the candy is there to celebrate his wedding rather than his coronation.  

Mentions @Galton Lansdale and @August Vancleaf

It was almost like watching ants. Student after student seemed to come to the boy's call. He would send them off on a mission, they would scurry off, and then return bearing the desired nectar. He was their Queen — or King as the case happened to be — and they danced to his gluttonous command.

Evelynn had long since given up on her efforts. She had hoped that after he had amassed a sufficient stockpile, he might have been willing to sacrifice but a single morsel to her. It wasn't as though she were suggesting nothing in exchange, either. A chocoball for a chocoball; that had been her offer. But the more she seemed to press it, the more he seemed to reject her, until he had altogether ignored her on her last attempt to gain his attention. Thus, indignant and determined to think of an alternative plan, she had retreated a few steps to lean against a nearby stone archway.

She had not left. No, she had lingered there in the courtyard, as though a bystander at a King's court. Thus, she had most certainly caught the loudly ululated name. For a moment she was stunned speechless, certain she was either hearing things. That or Galton really was mad. The Mad King. Where previously her attention had been primarily fixed to the scurrying students conducting his business, stormy eyes fixed themselves solely upon him. She watched him, then, as he began to wander around the courtyard himself, as though searching for something. Or someone.

The more she watched, the more a nagging sense in the back of her mind countered the notion that she had misheard him. Maybe he had called out that name. But then... Why? It was as though the boy had — or thought he had — some sort of rapport with the man. As though he actually expected a figure to stride forward to his summons. But surely...surely that was not the case. She was sure of it.

She was wrong.

Having never met VanCleaf, his appearance was not one that had ingrained itself in her mind. She had, however, seen the school nurse (whom she knew only as "Nurse" or "Mr. Nurse") a time or two. They had been just fleeting glances during the rare times she had gone to check in with students — like the Ravenclaw boy at the lake — admitted at the hospital. Thus, it hadn't struck her as odd to see the nurse lounging in the courtyard. In fact, a tiny little corner of her brain had speculated that perhaps the rumors of the candies were circulating even to the point of staff overhearing them, and that he'd come to investigate the source of all the isolated incidents of chaos.

Only...it was in front of the nurse that Galton stopped, referring to him as a friend. And then going on about a forest man. Naturally, the nurse hardly seemed to pay him any mind. If he had replied at all, Evelynn had missed it, and she was quite sure this time that she had not. This served to quell some of her incredulity about why an auror would be on Hogwarts grounds, and so casually accessible to students in the courtyard. She could only imagine how confused the nurse must have been for being mistaken for VanCleaf, but she would not be permitted to entertain that idea for long.

No sooner had Galton finished his declaration than did he shove what appeared to be a wad of all three types of candies mashed together into one straight into his maw. The trench-coated boy's warning came rushing back to her, and as she stared on, it appeared the statement held some traction. Before her eyes, Galton seemed to change. A flush, darkening of his eyes, a tremor to his hands. Nothing horribly significant or disturbing, but enough that it held her curiosity. She'd seen what madness the chocoball could muster in an individual, and now she was about to bear witness to the rest.