No repository contains a description of |Candy| without a mention of Shirl. Shirl is a candy vase who foiled a crime that led to the important discovery of a link between her class and the charm ability in unliving types. In doing so she elevated |Candy| from decorative curiosity to valuable commodity and deep subject of interest. The event forced analytical classes to reexamine the schematics for what they formerly regarded as ^primitive^ constructors. Now, the study of candy is a serious work in progress.

Schematics for candy constructors are among the oldest in existence. Their designers were part of an advanced class from Age 0 whose job was to train interpreters of other classes and extend their constructors to produce updated variants. A scout fleet of the Old Order found the schematics in 52080 together with a large body of unfinished work scattered across unlocked data bins in a void. Because of |Candy|'s lack of clear purpose and oddly placed routines in its constructors which include very complex examples of recursion, modern analytical classes concluded that its designers developed it as an exercise to show off their technical prowess. Ancient images depict candy on bases, ships, and elsewhere, but until candy's discovery records identified them as artisan class works probably for those who could afford them. Contractors also cleared significant amounts of candy they reported as debris during construction projects. Modern analysis of the imagery now confirms that candy was not a prestigious novelty for the wealthy, but quite the opposite. All types of the time kept candy as symbols not of wealth or prestige, but of knowledge. The class's parent was |Chemical| until the recent discovery of candy's puzzling effect on Charm, after which both senti and whiz agreed it should have its own type. |Candy| is now the sole member of type |Candy|.

Candy are static, sometimes recognizable objects. Their characteristics are random. Upon production, a candy piece's composition, shape, and modules are utterly a surprise. Sometimes a name even accompanies its matriculation number as in the case of Shirl, which is cute. One peculiarity about candy is they are consistently small. The schematics for the constructor should allow for candy many magnitudes larger than what they produce, but, so far, most candy fit on the shelf or table of a typical service quarters. Visually, candy possess absolute detail if it applies. This means that in cases where a piece's form is that of a recognizable object like a relay tower, the detail on that candy is perfect and exactly to scale––quite an accomplishment.

Based even on rudimentary analysis of the constructor's algorithms, the number of possible physical forms of candy is, for all practical purposes, infinite. Unlike more modern classes, |Candy| obviously does not have any mechanism which registers class members to a repository automatically on activation because it predates the concept of a repository in the first place. To register anything meaningful about the class, modules must attempt to query the piece through its comm interface. According to schematics, a piece of candy should be able to provide a wealth of information about itself through the interface, but so far none have. The only data it will output are physical characteristics like mass or volume and light spectrum information like reflection. The data is accurate and enough to create a profile, so at least it does that.

There is an index of candy forms in the |Senti| repository, but they no longer maintain it because the task requires too many resources. The main public archive for |Candy| is a user-driven joint effort of senti and classes from |Logical| called ASMACC, which stands for ^Autonomous Self-Maintaining Candy Catalog^. They designed the archive to learn and make decisions on its own concerning relationships between candy. Its records are brief and submissions are accepted through an unbending––and immediate––verification process, an automated inspection via secure channel from a radio with this designated role. Public channels often jokingly advertise the repository's name as ^A Small Addition To Candy Catalogs^ because it is not an authoritative list. Factions and private collectors also maintain their own catalogs and trade according to them. Many also charge fees to verify candy rarity against their indexes.

Just about every repository includes schematics for candy constructors. Any interested type can produce candy provided they have the equipment to produce the constructor. What they cannot do is predict the candy they produce. No method exists to get a candy constructor to accept a schematic for production, and, even if it did, there are no schematics for |Candy| other than those for constructors. A piece of candy will not return a map of itself. All parties involved in the production of candy are at the mercy of the constructor. Any type who claims to be able to predict any characteristic of the output of a candy constructor is lying.

Candy collecting is an extremely popular hobby. Some types do nothing else. Top collectors rarely display their vast collections to the public in their entirety. The pursuit of rare candy and the black art of candy trading consume thousands of cycles and require not only wealth, but good or better reputation with very specialized factions. Rarity alone does not always create candy value. The piece has to appeal to the buying type. Candy radios, for instance, are a favorite of many electronic classes. A candy piece with a modest number of duplicates could be worth more than a unique piece, but, generally speaking, rarity is a reliable indicator of value. Also, collecting is not limited to the acquisition of a single piece. Candy constructors produce crude fragments of objects which only make any sense when fit together. Before collectors discovered this fact, they considered them worthless products of chance. Now, types in possession of rare candy sets could trade them for a protected sector, and that is exactly what is often necessary in order to secure their collections.

Candy constructors frequently produce the building components for what appear to be real ships, even weapons systems, but ones unknown to any archive. Collectors pay extraordinary amounts for these in order to assemble and sell them to types interested in the designs. Several factions have built prototypes of the ships, but they cannot make them work. In almost every case the designs are radically different and do not seem to consider physical laws, especially those regarding propulsion. Visually, the exotic prototypes are a tremendous spectacle to behold. They are the center of any candy exhibit. For this, their production is always lucrative.

In 101:533, a pilot first observed candy's effect on Charm during an encounter between a creep and and Order guard aboard his personnel transport. The creep disguised itself as a drudge in order to blend into the passenger bay where it charmed the guard. Surveillance modules recorded the guard escorting the creep all the way into the pilot's private chamber where the effect ended. The creep seemed aware of this, but was not concerned because it was too consumed with examining all the curios and gadgets in the room, stuffing whichever caught its eye into a sack. The pilot relieved the guard and handled the situation himself because he was curious. When the guard quit the room the pilot never took his eyes off the creep.

Creeps are rarely threats. More so than other members of their type, they are concerned with stealing personal items––some of which very personal, like body parts––which they then take back to their realm. Records in the |Whiz| repository suggest the items must bring unliving types power, prestige, or even enhance their abilities. Zombies in particular often don stained, frayed or otherwise mutilated officer uniforms as well as charred bionic limbs or hulking electromechanical parts. Some unliving will take great risks to retrieve novelties which, at least in this system, have little value. In this case, the creep was probably after the pilot's jewelry, keepsakes, or adornments placed about the chamber.

The catalyst for the investigation into a possible correlation between candy and Charm was the fact that the creep never approached a wall of shelves where Shirl was sitting. The pilot reported he found the creep's pilfering odd because the shelves contained many more pieces identical in nature to the ones it was tossing into its sack with the exception of Shirl. On word of this the Command devised a plan to lure some unliving to an abandoned barge by broadcasting fictitious stories of fabulous vaults filled with the personal belongings of lost commanders that patrols had discovered there. As predicted, when guards under Charm escorted the scheming visitors to areas containing candy the effect wore off. The unliving were also unable to charm guards carrying candy. The Command then announced the discovery that |Unliving| was susceptible to candy and published a directive mandating it on all Command patrols, transports, and bases. ^Susceptible^ may be an overconfident way of describing it.

Upon encountering candy, the unliving, depending on whether it has that which could be considered a face, and then depending on how disfigured the face is, produces a grin or otherwise ^friendly^ glance similar to many biological types. Headless or amorphous classes acknowledge candy's presence with short jumps, grunts, twists, shrugs, bows, wiggles, shrills, or other signals that clearly indicate they know what is going on. Unliving then take an obsequious stance and cooperate, unless mesmerized by knick-knacks in a room as was the creep in the pilot's chamber, in which case they must be torn away. Once an unliving finds candy is present in a given situation it does not––or cannot––use Charm again, even if it physically distances itself.

Candy could be on the other side of a wall and have no effect on Charm. The amount or quality of candy does not enhance its anti-effect. An unliving must experience candy in order to become aware of it and Charm works up until it does. There is currently no way to quantify the ways in which this type must experience anything, let alone candy, because of the stark communication barrier between |Unliving| and other types. Types who study unliving must do so in real situations, usually baiting them into ad hoc experiments with objects they seem to like.

Candy's neutralizing effect on Charm is the only conjecture involving |Unliving| which senti have added to the Scientia. There is no indication it will ever become more than a conjecture mainly for two reasons. Firstly, senti cannot rule out another class having the same effect on Charm. Secondly, while the effects of both Charm and Anti-Charm are abundantly observable and repeatable, their causes remain unexplained.

In any type, Charm suspends certain modules like chron for the duration of the effect, which produces a specific result. The actions the type performs while charmed not only do not appear in its history tree, they do not require any energy either. When Charm ends, for example due to candy, both chron and energy counters continue from the point Charm began. The charmed type is unable to recall being charmed. This transparent command of protected systems is currently not only a major subject of study encompassing many classes, but a very deep question about the nature of unliving and of candy.

Candy could be bound to a another time in which they exist. When they activate, candy already have valid cycle counts and history trees. No class has ever been able to infer anything from the trees because all they contain are arcane strings of spatial and temporal coordinates which do not correspond to real areas of any known system. Candy specialists from |Logical| as well as senti claim this is by design because all candy modules, including chron, are compiled randomly, sometimes locked for no apparent reason, and often do not even seem necessary––or possible. A candy book, for example, could contain a sophisticated defense system. Likewise, a candy explosive could have a locked ^Chef's Hat^ module drawing an inordinate amount of energy. Maybe it serves bad food to the enemy.

The most important fact to understand about candy is it is absolutely intriguing. It is compelling to collect, fascinating to study, and easy to produce. Curators will carefully record all the new developments concerning this class, and somewhere at the top of the record will always be a neat candy vase named Shirl. Shirl now sits under guard in the prestigious Hall of the Ages alongside some of the most cherished relics of the past three. She is still unique, although that could change by endday as this is the nature of this class.