//------------------------------------------ 0 --------------------------------------------
In worlds racked by economic hardship, people turn to hedonistic stupors, perhaps to alleviate their pain, perhaps to try to live life to the fullest before the inevitable apocalypse renders all happiness unattainable. In this world, they turned to sweets as the luxury of choice.
The increased interest in sweets prompted massive economic booms in the candy industry, as consumer spending on sugary treats eclipsed that spent on all other luxuries.
Corporations would pour their profit margins into the research and development of new explosions of hyperactive flavor. Small business owners found they could provide more personalized ways to satisfy a sugar craving and get children bouncing off the walls, and as global supply lines shut down as transportation infrastructure decay, the paradigm of the candy economy shifted to local, 2-3 person candy stores, selling homemade sweets.
As communication between areas would break down, trends of globalization reversed as more and more knowledge became lost. Regions separated by rivers and mountains became whole separate cultures. And as a side effect of the fall of global society, more and more people turned to sweets.
As more and more people turn to sweets, more and more people turn to making sweets, and more and more varieties of sweets arise, while their overall quality goes down. Making new candies was taking priority over refining existing varieties into tastier sweets, until one could find any kind of candy within (and, sometimes, even beyond) imagination, with the caveat that no particular candy would be very good. Thus the economy would become a metaphor for life.
And the world would reach the point of no return; where the only economically viable business would be the almighty Candy Store, and society would collapse as all non-candy infrastructure would fall into disrepair. If you could only make money selling candy, who would make the sacrifice to keep the world afloat?
In some places in this world, this had already happened. Some humans even decided to evolve into cats or dogs, so that they literally couldn’t eat any of this chocolate nonsense. In other places, the ruined wastelands of sentient candy creations rebuilt like phoenixes into new peaceful, tasty kingdoms, promising not to make the same mistakes as their forerunners. Communication lines were already breaking down, so who knows what's occurring on even the next continent over?
But, in the part of the world which this story takes place, society still has a semblance of adequacy. There were animal-people and candy people walking around, but still unaltered humans too. There was enough time for stores to open and rivalries to fester and recipes to be perfected and maybe even love, to, i don't know, explode? A little more violent than 'blossom'. It's something like that, though, probably. Here's one such example.
//------------------------------------------ 1 --------------------------------------------
Butterscotch the Candy Witch (oh, by the way, magic exists in the world, now. Maybe it re surged after technology declined, or maybe its resurgence caused technology to decline. Or maybe it was always real, but it hadn't shown its face until the world needed it.) sat at the register to her shop. Sometimes a raggedy denizen would walk past the painted windows, and Butterscotch would stick her head up and smile. And sometimes that denizen would look into the window and eye the elaborate set up of custom magic candies kept out on the display shelf.
But nobody walked in.
Nobody wanted to buy her candies.
Toffee had since vanished to go do familiar things. Or maybe cat-person things. Whatever. Maybe watching her fail wasn't as interesting as they thought it might be. Toffee might say otherwise, though, what did they know?
Butterscotch laughed. Her best friend had originally walked into her life to watch her slow death spiral. Toffee eventually warmed up to her, and they were loyal , even if they were obnoxiously recalcitrant at some junctures. Like when it came to run the goddamn store.
Another potential customer became a definitely-not customer.
Butterscotch sighed.
Oh, sod it; it's true; her candy was so terrible, the only one willing to eat her candy was herself. And if that’s what had to happen, then, who was she to argue?
Butterscotch grabbed one of her candys out of its bucket. Not any of the display ones; there was a bucket of the older ones on sale, to try to recoup some of the losses.
Isn't that the true tragedy, the candy that never gets to fulfill its purpose? The wrappers left pristine, the sweets unsavored? Surely eating her goods was the best course of action, for the candy.
This wasn't Butterscotch losing self control again. So she grabbed a bag of her least popular lollipops and tried to fill the emptyness inside her with candy.
At some point, a soft ting of a bell meant that someone entered the store. Butterscotch jumped up from the counter.
"Ohohoho! What can the magnific- Oh, it's you guys."
The Chocolate Brothers walked into the store, arm in arm and smile with smile.
Both of them were well dressed, in the kind of old-timey clothes one would expect of successful candy makers. Both of them wore dapper suit tops and matching tiny top hats, but Dark wore pants and Milk wore a skirt and crinoline, because one of the first things to fall apart in the economic candy apocalypse was the binary stratification of gender expression. (Though, to be honest, that had been in the process of breaking down for years beforehand.)
"What do you want?" Butterscotch said. She sat back down.
"We like to check in on all the local business owners from time to time, you know," said Milk.
"Make sure everything's going okay. See if you need anything," said Dark.
More like 'make sure Butterscotch wasn't jinxing townsfolk to shop here'. You curse some passersby one time because it's the only way people would ever want your sweets, and suddenly the candyshop owners association gets all over your butt about it.
"Maybe a new choice of career," Butterscotch sighed, "My candies are terrible. I'm terrible."
The brothers glanced at each other.
"Well, your namesake candy is decent," said Milk.
Butterscotch rested her head on her arms. "You're just saying that."
"Well, sure," said Dark, "if you want to be that way, they're not literally the best we've ever tasted, but
"See?" Butterscotch said. "That's why business has been so terrible."
"Don't be so hard on yourself," said Milk, "Business is terrible everywhere."
"The whole world even!" said Dark, ""Well, I hear there's a place on the other side of the world that's so irradiated the candy's come to life, and established a hereditary monarchy."
"Well, except one place," said Milk. "Some alchemist is opening a store today. 'Atelier Sweets', was it?"
Butterscotch stood up. "Wait, what?"
//------------------------------------------ 2 --------------------------------------------
There was new candy in town, whose claim to fame was the complete absence of magic at every part of the candy making process, from processing to congealing to wrapping to storage.
Syrup's shop didn't even look like a candy shop. Where were the gingerbread walls? The chocolate piece doors? The little frills and careful detailing that let everyone know that this, this was a store where the candymaker pours their soul into ? There wasn't even a picture of the generations of ancestors through whom which the recopies were passed down.
And there was Syrup herself. She didn't look like a candymaker, but that was less of a blasphemy, Butterscotch decided. Tall and dark skinned, one third of her lime green hair shaved to a buzz cut. (That was, what was it called, an undercut?) She wore her labcoat and alchemist's goggles, and she always had a lollipop in the corner of her mouth. She looked so cool, though that might also have been from the way she lounged at the corner of her shop, looking aloof and not making eye contact with anyone when she was approached. Apparently, she was here just to make an appearance at the grand opening of Atelier Sweets, and she delegated the actual shop-keeping to her assistant.
Her assistant was a young pinked-haired - intern? that's what nonmagical folks called their unpaid laborers, right? The equivalent to what magical-types did with familiars? Anyway, the Intern helped Butterscotch decide on which piece of a remarkable selection of non-magical candy she should buy. Some sort of gummy thing wrapped in plain, unassuming plastic.
Butterscotch hastily unwrapped the candy, a dark part of her oping that it would be absolutely terrible, that it might boost her self esteem that not even she made candies better than some nonmagical baker.
But instead, tears sprang, unbidden, from her eyes. Not just because it was delicious, but because it was much, much better than any candy she managed to make. And this was without magic?
Shed only admit to the former, though, when the intern asked what was wrong. "This is," Butterscotch said, between the tears "This is too delicious."
The intern smiled and waved down the candy's creator. "Hey, Sy; you got a fan!"
Butterscotch gulped. She was terrible at talking to hot, talented people, but you didn't get better at anything if you didn't try, right?
Syrup turned to the wall and rubbed the back of her head. If Butterscotch didn't know better, she'd think the alchemist was blushing. "Oh," Syrup said, "Cool. Glad you like it."
"You have to teach me how to make these!" Butterscotch blurted out, reflexively.
"What?" Syrup shot her a disgusted look and stepped back, "No way! No gross witch will ever be my appreciate my candy."
After the initial pain of rejection, Butterscotch puffed up and pouted, angrily. "Well, fine! I doubt a lowly alchemist like you would even be able to teach a great witch like me anything at all."
"Psh. I could teach you some manners."
"As if, you jerk!"
The ensuing interaction was not one that Butterscotch was particularly proud of.
And Butterscotch left the shop that day, decrying Syrups name and vowing to surpass the alchemist's sweets, without any dumb alchemy. Why, consider this the start of the most epic rivalry ever to grace the face of - whatever the world was called! Butterscotch would rise to the occasion and the business duel would forge them both to greater candy-making heights.
Of course, it never happened that way. Butterscotch never got good enough to challenge Syrup's sweet shop.
//------------------------------------------ 3 --------------------------------------------
And one day, after years of petty rivalry and hurled insults and connections that almost but not quite occurred, the most unexpected thing happened.
"Hey Master," Toffee purred, "Your old pal the Candy Alchemist is here with something sweet, nya."
Butterscotch froze. "What?! Don't lie to me, Toffee. She'd never bring me anything."
Toffee's smirk intensified. As a cat, they were always smirking, but now it looked even more so. "Honest, nya. Come see for yourself."
Butterscotch blinked, she saw that her assistant wasn't lying. There was Syrup herself, and her intern Pastille, and some sort of life-sized translucent pink humanoid.
"Well well well!" Butterscotch puffed her chest out. "I never thought I'd see the day where the great Candy Alchemist Syrup personally brings me candy!
"Butterscotch," Syrup said. She crossed her arms and closed her eyes.
Butterscotch decided she wasn't disappointing by the cold reception. "Let's see..." Butterscotch eyed the third arrival, "A life-size, girl-shaped candy! It looks delicious!!"
"I am relieved to hear that!" said the candy golem. "I was worried I didn't look tasty, since Syrup refused to eat me..."
Butterscotch flinched. "It's alive?!" She coughed, and remembered that candy golems were a thing. "Where'd you get your hands on a golem like this?"
Syrup pulled the lollipop out of her mouth and shot Butterscotch a glare. "Quit playing dumb. I know you made her to torment and/or spy on me."
Butterscotch blinked. "You think... that I..."
Butterscotch coughed again, and brought her hand to her collarbone. "O-ohohohoho, yes, well done, Candy Alchemist! You're exactly right!" It looked like the guests were buying it, so she continued. "I made this golem myself, with my incredibly powerful magic!"
Syrup and Pastille seemed to buy that. And so they returned the golem, and they left. Butterscotch looked over the gift.
Was- this a symbol of something? Was this her way of saying something-
Did this mean, like... that she wanted to be friends or something dumb like that?
Well, maybe Butterscotch would allow it.
"Hello," said he golem. "I guess you are my master now."
Butterscotch didn't respond to the piece of candy. She licked a piece of the golem.
“How do I taste?” said the golem. They didn't' feel pain.
Delicious. Just like everything Syrup made. Why did she think Butterscotch made this thing? This sort of magic was way beyond her.
Butterscotch licked another piece of the golem.
She should really pace herself. She shouldn't' be squandering this gift-
She held the golems hand- licked it up and down, tried to wrap her lips around its wrist, at the thinnest part. She put one of the fingers in her mouth and bit down, a shattered-lollipop crunch resounding between her teeth.
"You're delicious," Butterscotch said to the candy.
The golem smiled, nervously. "T-thank you. The purpose of candy is to be eaten-"
Butterscotch bit another piece off the golem. "Candy this good," She moaned involuntarily, "Should be a sin-"
She was such a glutton. She knew she should stop. But all she could do was continue eating.
//------------------------------------------ 4 --------------------------------------------
After Butterscotch managed to stop- after one arm, a half meter of hair, - Butterscotch found the nerve to stop. She tried to avoid eye contact with the golem, and her reflection, as she made her way down to wash up.
Toffee was down in the shop proper. Singing. Damn it.
"Candy Cannibal,~
Masticating mandibles,
Oh! That candy meat~
Nothings quite so succulent as a squeaming, sapient sweet~.
Taste so tangible,
Crunching to a cantabile,
Mashing from your teeth~
Life is much more scrumpt~i~ous than the bland, unliving treats~
om nom eat that candy golem, give in to glutton~y
don't you waste that lovely taste from her pawtisserie~ie~ie-”
"Shut up, Toffee!" Butterscotch yelled.
Toffee jumped on a shelf.. "My my. Someone's feeling catty today, hmmm?"
"Can you talk about anything else?"
"Hmmmmrm," said Toffee. They licked their paw. "Not really."
"Gah! Why are we even friends?"
Toffee smirked, insufferably. "You feed me, and I stop you from making bad decisions. Not so much recently, though, I'm afraid..."
"I know I shouldn't be eating it!" Butterscotch said, "But what am I supposed to do, huh? Abnegate my desires? Suddenly learn some sort of self control?"
"I was actually talking more of the former." Toffee patted their stomach and pouted. "I'm hungry."
Butterscotch deflated.
So they had dinner, for real. The golem wasn't invited.
//--------------------------------------------- 5 -----------------------------------------------
And, of course, it was too good to last. Not that Butterscotch ate the candy golem too quickly – no, but she probably would have. She'd worked through the golem's left arm completely by the first night-
No, it ended too soon because, the very next day, Syrup showed up asking for the golem back.
"H-ey," the alchemist said, bursting into the shot, while Butterscotch was still asleep in her bed, surrounded by empty candy wrappers.
"How rude!" replied Toffee. "you didn't even wipe your feet before barging in here!"
The witch got out of bed. She rubbed her face and was acutely ware that she had crumbling of candy around her mouth and that her chin was sticky. Not the most dignified look, she lamented.
Luckily Toffee distracted Syrup long enough for Butterscotch to have time to be able to cast her cosmetic spell before she stepped into the storefront and Syrup got a good look at her-
"Stuff it, cat," Syrup said, "I'm taking back my golem."
Butterscotch's heart stopped for a beat.
“What?" Butterscotch yelled. "This thing was a gift! No take backs!”
“Yeah, well,” Surp eyed the masticated sweets golem, “I'm not happy with how you've been treating her. So I'm taking her back."
Butterscotch looked back at the golem, half eaten, looking miserable. She definitely wasn't taking care of it as good as she should.
So Butterscotch made more of an appearance of protest, but she let Syrup take her gift back. Mostly, she was embarrassed that Syrup saw exactly how badly she'd treated her gift.
"Why'd she give me such a thing if she was just going to take it back the next day?" Butterscotch lamented.
"Maybe she only wanted a taste of that golem after your lips were on it." Toffee leaned forward and smirked. "Indirect kisses, nya."
"Ack-" Butterscotch's heart jumped against her rib-cage. She pulled her hat down over her head. "D-don't be gross, Toffee!"
//------------------------------------------ 6 --------------------------------------------
Syrup chanced upon Butterscotch a few more times, after that. Butterscotch told herself it was to try to get that golem back, but honestly, she was trying to figure out if Syrup's gift had meant anything- if Syrup was maybe also bad at words. There was probably not anyone as bad at words as Butterscotch was, she lamented.
//------------------------------------------ 7 --------------------------------------------
And, to Butterscotch's surprise, a few days later, Syrup showed up at her cottage. She wanted to go on a quest with her.
Well, Butterscotch wasn't quite the adventuring kind of witch, but she wouldn't- she'd never say no to such a sad, lowly, pathetic worm who needed her generosity-
Oh, sod it. Butterscotch knew she was only invited along because she could do magic, and Syrup didn't know any other magic-users. The witch agreed, though, but she made a big show of her reluctance, and she managed to be suave and flippant for the first part of the trip.
They managed to rescue Gumdrop, leaving her with a shy wolf-person to thaw while the two of them tried to find some rare candy reagent, but the rest of the trek was not as..... well, Butterscotch did't know what she expected it to be like, but whatever vague, somewhat optimistic emotion she was hoping it to be, it certainly failed to live up to expectations.
She meant, it wasn't like she was exactly expecting the trek to be a romantic hike up a silent winter mountain, gazing at the stars away from any sources of light portion, away from any distracting sounds. It certainly wasn't, except for when Syrup gave the witch her coat when Butterscotch's warmth spell failed. It certainly didn't become a little trek where they could be honest with their feelings, out in nature. Certainly not a little overnight trek where they'd have to camp together, huddled for warmth-
And whatever Butterscotch expected, she most definitely, most certainly did not expect the quest to end with the two of them trapped in an ice cave after being chased by hungry wolves. Not like, cute animal-people wolves; actual, vicious, literal wild canines.
They had escaped into a cave, and Butterscotch threw up an ice wall, just in time, but her cosmetic spell was taking up too much of her power for her to be able to melt the wall. They were trapped.
Alone, together. So maybe this wouldn't be so bad?
They shared a bit of a moment; butterscotch gave Syrup back her coat, and they insulted and belittled each other a bit more.
And then Butterscotch couldn't hide any longer the fact that she couldn't free them from the cave. She had to sit down. She pulled her hat down over her eyes in case she started crying. The only reason they were alone together was because Butterscotch wasn't a good enough witch to control her magic now and they'd spent so much of the time arguing and-
"Hey," Syrup said, eventually, "You alright?"
"No!" Butterscotch yelled, "I- I can't-
"Don't look at me!" Butterscotch pulled her hat all the way down over her face
Syrup said nothing.
"T-this body is just an illusion." Butterscotch tried to say again-
"That's what you were wasting your magic on?" Syrup yelled.
"You don't understand! I-I need it- I can't let anyone but Toffee see me this way. Please don't tell anyone... "
Syrup was maddeningly silent.
So Butterscotch had to explain again. "Everything about me is fake, alright! I'm always lying to everyone, I'm barely any good with magic, and I can't even bear to let anyone see what I really look like!"
"And now we're going to die because i'm a big, fat coward who couldn't tell you the truth. Are you happy!?"
"Butterscotch," Syrup said. She sounded conciliatory. "Was that it?"
"What?"
"That's why you couldn’t cast actual spells? Your body was- is- just so horrible in your eyes?"
Butterscotch took a moment before she could answer. "“I don’t think I could stand it. If - if you of all people-" she took a breath. “I hear your voice, in my nightmares, calling me everything they called me on the playground- laughing evilly, taunting me-"
Syrup actually looked a little sympathetic.
"I guess," Butterscotch trailed off. "I just didn't want you having one more way to dismiss me- a way that I couldn't deny...."
Butterscotch stopped. Tears were beginning to pool in the corner of her eyes.
“Butterscotch,” Syrup said, her voice soft and- caring? Maybe? “I’d never do that. I'd never hold your appearance against you. Never ever."
Butterscotch sniffed once, and she turned to the taller woman. Syrup's face was just as caring as her voice sounded. She smiled slightly and her eyes were turned upwards in what looked like reassurance.
The eye contact lasted only a few seconds, before Syrup must have realized what she was doing. The alchemist immediately turned away and folded her arms and blushed, profusely. “B-because I’d have to be a complete idiot not to insult you for your completely legitimate flaws. I mean, there's no possibly way I could ignore that you're a screeching gremlin who drools and creeps around my store all the time-"
Butterscotch’s relief turned to rage. “WHAT?"
Syrup crossed her arms and closed her eyes, as if she'd dealt the killing blow. "You heard me-"
“I HATE YOU!” Butterscotch lunged. The scuffled.
"Well I- oof! -hate you right back-"
And they fought, messily, bodily.
Butterscotch didn't know who won. they ended up lying on the ground, on their backs, next to each other, panting heavily, nursing bruises.
"I'm sorry." Butterscotch said, eventually.
"What? You're actually apologizing?"
Butterscotch didn't take the bait. "I don't want to spend my last moment fighting with someone I- I admired."
Syrup bit her lip. "I guess- " She coughed. "I can accept your apology."
"You're really an amazing confectionarian, you know?
"I-" Syrup blushed. "I know."
"I mean it. You're candies are literally the best."
Syrup bit her lip. "I guess it's nice to have a witch say that," Syrup said, to the ceiling. "All the other magic users looked down on a little alchemist like me."
"What?" Butterscotch said," That's ridiculous! You shouldn't care what some dumb mages think, if you're obviously good."
Syrup turned to Butterscotch and raised an eyebrow. "You're telling me not to care what other people think. That's a little ironic."
Butterscotch had to let out at least a forlorn chuckle at the irony. ""I guess it takes one to know one."
"Maybe we can both work on it," Syrup said.
They were silent for a little bit.
"For what it's worth," Syrup said. She turned her head to face the witch. "I don't hate you."
Butterscotch blinked. "You don't?"
"I mean, sometimes you're really annoying," Syrup said. Butterscotch puffed out her cheek. "But- I think we could be friends or something, if we survive this."
Butterscotch's heart thumped against her rib cage. "Or something?"
Syrup turned to look back to the ice ceiling. "I mean- I could tell you had a crush on me. You weren't very subtle about any of it."
Butterscotch's mouth turned into a combination frown and smile. "I wasn't?" she said, meekly.
"And for what it's worth, I'm not, uh," Syrup said, "Entirely opposed to a somewhat adversarial relationship. Something you gotta work for."
Syrup placed her hand on top of Butterscotch's.
Butterscotch's heart had made it's way into her ears, hammering away almost loud enough to drown out her thoughts-
And Butterscotch put her hand on Syrup's hand. It felt warm.
"Oh." Butterscotch said.
"What?"
"I think I can do magic again."
Syrup blinked. "Sweet." She said, almost too nonchalantly. "So we get to live."
Butterscotch chuckled. "Yeah."
//------------------------------------------ 8 --------------------------------------------
And they finished their quest, mostly in silence. There was an awkward farewell, and Butterscotch spent the night consoling Toffee, who was very distraught over almost losing their best friend. Butterscotch was happy to have reassurance that her best friend cared about her.
And the next day, there was a knock at the door to her cottage.
Syrup was there, looking off into the distance, her cheeks tinted a darker shade of brown.
"I was wondering," she said, "If you'd like to go into business together?"
Butterscotch had the latent urge to gloat, or be dismissive, but she wanted to be better, so she tried on a smile and just said, "Yeah.".
And together they invented a new flavor of candy.