Marley is a successful businessman who was cursed with an obsession with money. He was married to the love of his life, Maggie, but even that love wasn't enough to prioritize over money, and that obsession consumed his life. Their divorce allowed Marley to focus solely on his obsession. He searched for supernatural means to obtain generational wealth with little to no work needed.
He sat at his desk in his study for hours, surrounded by papers covered with complicated calculations. During one of his late nights searching for ways to make money fast, he discovered an ancient text promising unimaginable wealth and did not hesitate to read the incantation nor care for any consequences that came with it. The room became silent, and darkness enveloped the once lit office. Red eyes that burned like embers materialized in the darkness.
"I can see the greed in you. You seek riches, don't you?"
Marley responds, "I'll do anything. Money rules the world, and the power it brings can make me a king." You can see the demon smile through the darkness as it presented a cruel curve of its mouth that bared sharp white teeth.
"I can give you all the riches you desire, but you know they say money is the root of all evil. The price to pay is…."
Blinded by greed, Marley interrupted the demon's speech before he could finish. "I don't care about the price. Make me rich." The demon's eyes vanished, but his presence lingered. Marley's spine crunched, his hands shrank, and something unnatural stirred in his blood: the urge to count, to collect, to keep. Once Marley's body stopped morphing, he found himself in a ruffled shirt, knee breeches, and buckled shoes.
"A Leprechaun's wealth awaits you forever."
The demon laughed as his voice faded into darkness. The lamp on his desk lit up again, and the darkness that once covered the room, cleared up. A tarnished pot covered in grime sat in the corner of his study that wasn't there earlier. Compelled, he picked up the pot and left his home to chase the world's wealth. His life became a mission of scouring the land and collecting riches for his pot. Each form of currency he collected subtly changed the tarnished pot from grime to shine. Every coin dropped inside the pot created a shimmer, revealing hints of gold. It brought Marley a brief moment of fleeting satisfaction that he would continue to chase after.
At the point of overflowing, all of the grime was gone, and the gold glistened with brilliance. The glistening turned into a radiant rainbow, a beacon of the relentless pursuit of greed. The hues marked the location of his hoard and his success was short-lived, as he was bombarded by a random stranger who seized it. With his gold stolen, he was bound to start over again and doomed to repeat this strenuous cycle. The pot returned to its tarnished look, and a black cloud followed him. Years turned to centuries, and the pot became his only companion as they were stuck in this vicious cycle together.
The grime from the pot permanently stained his shirt, leaving a constant reminder of the tribulations they faced together. That chase to the rainbow became the new obsession as he felt like that was when the pot felt its best. Another rainbow meant another eternal disappointment that continued to freeze his heart. After another stranger stole his collected riches, Marley hunched over his emptied pot of gold and whispered to himself that their rainbow is gone. His insatiable greed left him forever punished. Forever searching for something that never really belongs to us. It's all borrowed, and eventually, our money goes to someone else. He clutched the pot to his chest and listened to the footsteps fading with his fortune, but for a moment, he was able to be lost in the rainbow.
"In this shirt, I can be you. To be near you, for a while."