Notes: I was surprised when I saw Aunt Taffy was next of the list, because I'd assumed that I'd written about her before. Apparently not, however. But I'm always happy for an excuse to slip the Black Ravens into fics, so here's a look at the usual customers Aunt Taffy expects to see in Misthallery. Set sometime post-PL4, probably after the prequel trilogy entirely.
There was never a quiet moment in Misthallery when you ran a sweet stall. Aunt Taffy's mornings would see her get out of bed early enough to check that the sweets she'd prepared the previous evening had set, before she started on a few other sorts of sweets that needed to be made fresh. Once everything was ready, she'd make her way to her usual spot, lugging the stall behind her. Old age made moving it harder, but her pride never let her admit that to herself.
The stall was always sat just outside of the market and with very purposeful reason. It was Aunt Taffy's duty to sell sweets to all of the children in town without bias. The only people she was biased against were greedy adults who should know better than to steal children's sweets. She stayed in this spot because it was the divide between the classes in Misthallery. The working-class children who lived in the market would venture confidently out here to buy sweets, without the worry of being judged like they would if she moved the cart into the richer parts of town (and admittedly Aunt Taffy herself would get angry if she was judged by the wealthier residents as well...). While the middle-class children would walk a bit further to get there, teaching them a small lesson of the rewards hard work could give. Many of them had been nervous of the market in the olden days, so staying just outside of it was what Aunt Taffy had found to be the best way to keep business from both sides of the fence.
It had gotten better lately, since that Layton fellow had stopped the spectre, with the help of many of the local children. They'd all banded together to save the day and since then at least a few of the richer children had stopped being so scared of the market lot. Aunt Taffy was glad to see this.
Despite the change, however, her mornings would always begin with the same first customer – Gus.
No one in Misthallery loved sweets as much as Gus did. The stout lad would spend all of his apparent pocket-money (though Aunt Taffy had her suspicions that the kids around here were running some kind of business to make so much) on every kind of sweet that he could. He was always the first to try any new sweets and would have nothing but nice words to say about them. After that he'd scoop up some of his old favourites – enough to share with each of his eight friends.
With Gus headed on his way, the second customer of the day would sneak across – Crow.
Also one with a massive sweet tooth. Crow didn't seem to be that much of an early-riser by nature, but he had an image to uphold. It was obvious that he was the boss of the kids around here, at least that was what Aunt Taffy reckoned. And cool, mysterious bosses don't buy large packets of strawberry swirls, apparently. So Crow would quickly take what he wanted and then disappear before anyone saw him.
The next children to come along were usually the siblings – Wren & Socket.
They would spend most of their visit bickering about what sort of sweets to buy and how much money they were allowed to spend on them. The phrase "Mum said" would turn up in their debates a lot, but ultimately they would talk each other into buying whatever they felt like.
After the two of them had gone to argue elsewhere, the grumpiest lad Aunt Taff had ever met would arrive – Roddy.
He was possible the most critical eye of the lot, in contrast to Gus's constant praise. If anyone was going to find fault with a batch of sweets, it would be Roddy. However, he'd rarely voice his concerns, simply grumbling away to himself and complaining that everything was such a pain if Aunt Taffy threatened not to serve him. Usually he'd leave with some strong-tasting aniseed sweets, as well as a small bag of strawberry swirls, still complaining that their annoying leader entrusted him to drop them off in secret.
The next customer was another unusual one – Scraps.
There was a lot of pride for his poor background going on in Scraps's head. He detested the rich and would insist that he only buys Aunt Taffy's home made sweets because he hates the brand-name stuff. It was apparently his duty to support small businesses, lest Misthallery become overrun with chain stores, he'd always say. And despite his quirks, she was never going to complain that he chose to spend his money here instead of elsewhere.
Often a while after everyone else would see the return of one customer, along with someone who looked like he'd just dragged himself out of bed – Gus & Louis.
This time Gus wasn't buying for himself though. He would have exhausted the sweets he'd bought to share with his friends earlier and had come to get some more. Both of them were there on behalf of Marilyn, who couldn't leave her family's fruit stall for frivolous things like sweets. Aunt Taffy felt sorry for her, having to work so hard at such a young age, so she'd always make sure to put extra in the bag, warning the other two that all the pear drops had better all make it back to Marilyn. She'd be promised by Louis that they would get there, since he wouldn't eat some sweets anyway, cautious of their ingredients. After that Louis would ask her if any interesting gossip had turned up and she'd tell him not to be so nosy. Few things happened in the market that escaped Louis's ears.
Marilyn's errand boys on their way, the first of the children from the other end of town would arrive – Arianna & Tony.
The Barde siblings had started coming here together after Tony had come clean about his fabricating stories of the witch. Aunt Taffy was glad both to see that Arianna was getting better and that she didn't have to pretend not to know Seamus was Tony in disguise any more. That had been a tiresome act to keep up. But these days both of them mixed more with all of the other children. She was happy to see that, once Tony had bought his chocolate limes and Arianna had picked up a bag of liquorice allsorts, they'd make their way into the market to play with the kids there.
Another friend would often follow close behind them – Sean.
He was a small, timid lad who was very definitely still scared of the stories he'd heard about the market. But he seemed to be a loyal friend to Tony and would follow him wherever he went. His short visit would see him basically buy one of whatever the Bardes had, then scurry along after them.
A reluctant customer would be dragged along by his friend after that – Badger & Crow.
Poor Badger wasn't best fond of sweets and Aunt Taffy was very understanding of this. He'd always look so apologetically at her as Crow tried to talk him into trying this or that. Often he'd just agree to get anything to keep Crow happy. Which tended to mean another bag of strawberry swirls. Honestly, Aunt Taffy had no idea where Crow put them all.
Just missing the two of them (it was the same every time) was an unfortunate child – Finch.
The cooing boy so dearly wanted to be in with the market kids, talking at length about how much he admired them. But sadly it seemed that he was never brave enough to ask them and never lucky enough to catch them when they were here. So he'd drown his sorrows in some dolly mixtures, before heading back the way he came from. Maybe one day he'd venture into the market, Aunt Taffy hoped.
Sometimes with Finch, but more often on his own, would come the child Aunt Taffy had dubbed as the town's prissiest resident – Charlie.
This boy was a snob of the highest order and very proud of this fact. The would lament the fact that Aunt Taffy kept her stall down here instead of coming to better parts of town. She just gave him a knowing smile and said the exercise would do him good, which would infuriate Charlie no end. Regardless, she admired that he was never afraid to say what was on his mind, even if it meant offending others. It was her only hope that his visit wouldn't clash with that of Socket's, since the two of them would argue without fail every time.
Arriving later and later with each visit, was someone who Aunt Taffy assumed wouldn't be here for much longer – Luke.
He dearly loved having so many friends in the market, but she could tell that his heart lay in London. Whatever adventures he'd had as Layton's apprentice, it was obvious that Luke wanted to see more of the world. She'd heard whispers that the Triton family would soon be moving elsewhere, so young Luke didn't have a lot of time to spend with his friends here. And speaking of spending, Luke was often the one she's earn the most money from. He couldn't stop himself from buying so many sweets without looking at the price tags. Aunt Taffy could only hope that if Layton does take Luke on his travels with him that he has very deep pockets.
The day would pass with several more visits from various children, but the last one was always the same as the first – Gus.
She'd often just give him whatever was leftover from the day that wouldn't keep until tomorrow. In return he'd help her take the cart back to her house. And while she'd never admit that she needs the help, Aunt Taffy was grateful of it all the same. She'd joke about how such a nice, strong lad like Gus was going to do well in life, which would make Gus insist that there are other people much better than he is. He was easily embarrassed.
With the day's selling over, Aunt Taffy would return to her house and start preparing the sweets that needed to set overnight. Her life was a constant cycle with few changes in between, but as long as she could make the children of Misthallery happy, she wouldn't have it any other way.