Welcome back to The Quest Log, the video-game-themed joint legacy between me (Taube/Roxanne), and my friend Meadowthayer/Haleigh! When we left off, second generation heir Rhonin (pictured above heading off to his first day as an astronaut-in-the-making) had found a beautiful and capable fiancée, and they were expecting their first child. Jenny is also a cat lover, and I've promised the addition of a cat to the family if she can produce an heir in three kids or fewer. Meanwhile, our founder, Atari, is working on Nerd Brain and her husband, Wayne, has copied their son and also wants to be a Mansion Baron, so we are working on building up money to work on their house, a spacious coastal estate called Emily's Lighthouse after the sea monster in Windenburg. I think that brings us all up to date, so let's dive right in. Jenny is mostly moping around the house in her queasy first trimester. I didn't have her get her job in culinary until after she gave birth due to a tough pregnancy, but she still works on writing every chance she gets, as her dream is to be a Bestselling Author. She's also working on getting to know her in-laws. You know, it must be really stressful to be a townie and be plucked from obscurity only to move in with your new spouse, their eccentric family, and a whole bundle of expectations and rules. I feel for her. She socializes with Wayne by announcing the big news, and he's really excited to be a grandfather again. Rhonin came home day 1 with a promotion. Atta boy! The next day sees the celebration of Atari's elder birthday. There's no denying she's changed in her appearance, but she's still our fun, geeky, hard-working Atari. All of her kids are there to cheer for her except for Vereesa. She was invited - she's just in the other room playing computer games. After the little get-together, Rhonin sits down with his elderly parents for cake. I'm sure they gave him an earful of new-parent-to-be advice. Later: Jenny: "And that's why I wanted to let you know right away that I'm expecting!" Atari: "Wait, are you serious?" Atari: "That's too much! Girl, you're as big as a house at this point. It's no secret." Atari apparently finds the news to be eye-wipingly hilarious. To be fair, at the end of the second trimester, Jenny is looking *quite* pregnant. She heads off to sell a book while Rhonin works out for his job. For her birthday, Atari got a new stereo. It took most of their money to get the house shell, so their furniture is still just the essentials for the most part. I think she likes the new addition, though. She also got just a teeny tweak to her look - a slightly longer skirt. She heads off that rainy afternoon to visit Vereesa and Juan and their two daughters, Eve and Espella, who were introduced last chapter. Atari is very happy to meet her granddaughters. It was just a short visit, so all too soon it's time for us to leave Vereesa, but things seem to be in order. At home, the teen triplets are just biding time for their birthday. Sylvanas has somehow befriended Dustin Broke, who is some kind of minor celebrity, and he seems pretty impressed by her storytelling skills. Soon it's time for big happenings. Specifically, to get these two hitched before the birth of the baby. They don't know many people, so they just had a ceremony with family in attendance instead of a party. This was when there was a bug that made wedding guests dance, so please enjoy everyone boogying down to the sound of the vows. Everyone, that is, except for Vereesa and Zuni. I'm not sure where Zuni was right at this moment, but now that she's escaped the household, Vereesa is very defiant when it comes to my intentions for her. Anyway, this GF dress is doing some amazing things for Jenny's pregnant shape and she's giving Rhonin some serious bedroom eyes, so I think we better get on with the ceremony. Vows were said, promises made, love declared, dorky looks given. Except for that botched proposal, this has been an almost frighteningly easy relationship, and even that was no real obstacle. I foresee a long life of happiness for this couple. Finally we got to the trading of the rings. And just like that, with a shower of confetti, we officially welcome our generation 2 couple, Rhonin and Jenny Quest. This calls for a dance montage, obviously. Break it down, Sylvanas! Ah, there's Vereesa and Zuni. At the time, before I knew it was a common bug around when I played this, I blamed Zuni for the dancing guests. I thought somehow they were stuck in a "join" with him dancing since this is where I found him when I went looking after the ceremony. Turns out it was just a coincidence, but I'm not going to apologize for sullying his name because he did still ditch explicit commands to watch his older brother's wedding in favor of dancing to the stereo. After the wedding, still in their fancy dresses, our two highly skilled painter girls work on portraits of the founding couple. And here they are! I framed Atari's face a little too high, but otherwise I think they turned out great. I'm using this mod to be able to remove the "paint from reference" filter so I can get good Sims 2-quality portraits. Atari and Rhonin are once again mind-melding in an attempt to pass on heirship knowledge. Not sure this is the best method, guys. Have you tried . . . talking? Rhonin baked three cakes back to back, because it is time for our triplets to finally grow up and vacate the house (soon, after the baby is born, of course). Happy birthday, Sylvanas, Zuni, and Alleria! Wishing you all the best! Sylvanas is now ambitious, Zuni active, and Alleria a genius. Interestingly, Vereesa was the only child who didn't inherit at least one of Atari's traits. Speaking of Vereesa, she was there for the birthday, just not there-there, as usual. Atari and Wayne celebrated all their children being adults by having a quiet moment outside that is giving me major Hues feels. Too bad they can't actually cuddle. Rhonin: "Aww, I can feel the little one kicking! Geez, he or she is really going to town." Jenny: "Uh, Rhonin, actually I kinda feel . . ." Rhonin: "Wow, I think maybe we have a star striker on our hands! GOOOOOOAL!" Jenny: "Rhonin! Could you--" Rhonin: "Just a regular little mosh pit going on in there, heheh." Jenny: "RHONIN! I'M ABOUT TO HAVE YOUR BABY ON YOUR SHOES IF YOU DON'T MOVE!" *Rhonin magically leaps five tiles away* Jenny: "Well, that was unnecessarily dramatic, but thanks for being responsive, babe. Now let's go deliver this baby." Rhonin: "Not yet! I'm having my preparental panic! Even though you're the one in agony and undergoing major physical changes, clearly I am the one who is unable to think clearly." Jenny: "That is the opposite of helpful." Jenny: "Hoo hoo hoo. Deep breath. Yeah, we can do this. Rhonin?" Rhonin: "BABYYYYYYYYYYY!" *sprints down the hall* Jenny: "Hello, my sweet, new daughter. I love your father, even when he's an egregious idiot. Now let's go collect your sister." Sister? Yep, twins. That explains the difficulty and size Jenny dealt with during the pregnancy. I had purchased the vampire crib just because I'm so darn tired of that bassinet, but now it doesn't match (I obviously wasn't expecting twins), so I'm mad. Anyway, meet Emmy (left) and Flora Quest. Remember that the naming theme for this generation is the Professor Layton series of games on the DS and 3DS. Given that the two main characters that appear in every game are male, I was kinda hoping to use those names (or at least one) first, but this is okay. I just hope they don't have a third daughter, because although I like this game a lot, as far as main characters go, there aren't as many good female choices as male, and it would be really strange not to use the titular character's name. The storyline is very guy-heavy for some reason. Anyway, let's meet our little girls' namesakes!
So that's that. The new parents instantly take care of their babies and leave them in peaceful slumber with full bellies. Alleria and Sylvanas finished portraits of Rhonin and Jenny too. Now we have a full set (so far). Wayne likes to go into full parent mode while pampering the babies. He's delighted to have grandchildren in the house! He's also getting up there in years, so he drinks his one youth potion so he can see these girls grow up some. Now that the pregnancy has concluded, we can move out our spare triplets and set up their families. As a reminder, I'm finding spouses for the spares and then using "play with genetics" in CAS to give each couple a child and a toddler so there will be plenty of cousins running around. I didn't want to take the time to fully develop their families. Now with Seasons and holidays, I feel like you can miss a lot being in other houses that I'd prefer to play in the main house, so I tried to minimize my time with the spares while still setting them up. Sylvanas joined Dustin Broke in the minor celebrity life and moved into a house in Willow Creek, where they would raise their daughter, Hanna, and their toddler son, Henry. Dustin isn't the most handsome NPC running around, but I thought it was cool that Sylvanas befriended a celebrity.
While Zuni was casing his new neighborhood (also Willow Creek - I moved the three triplets all next door to each other in the same sub-neighborhood there) to find a wife, he met this lonely stray and made instant friends, so he decided to adopt this handsome Dalmatian into his family, before he had even really formed it. However, he did find a pretty townie (see below - again with the really gorgeous townies in this save!) and got married, and they welcomed two boys into their home along with their dog. The older boy is named Chelmey, and the younger is Barton. Those names are from a nearly-inseparable pair of characters in the later games. The dog is named Descole (pronounced des-co-lay). I've decided to name the animals in this generation after villains.
JEAN DESCOLE
Descole is the main villain of the prequels. His motivations are FULL of spoilers, but suffice to say he's of the "misguided but not evil" villain variety. He's very clever and thinks ten steps ahead, and fancies himself very cultured and intelligent. He manages to pull a lot of strings behind the scenes, and when events conspire in the final story to force the professor and Descole to work together, a whole lifetime of secrets that shake the professor to his core come tumbling out. I actually played Alleria a bit later after returning to the main house for a while because I wanted to reserve two male names for the next main birth, but still make sure to name *someone* these names in case they couldn't be used by Rhonin and Jenny. I ended up coming back to Alleria and using one of these names. She married Akira Kibo and had a son named Luke and a daughter named Aurora. It just so ended up that Sylvanas was the only one of the gen 2. children not to pass on the red hair in at least one child. It's nice to see a bunch of redheaded Quests ruling the schoolyards and nursery schools of Willow Creek and Windenburg.
And that's that for the spares! I'm sure we'll see them around plenty. We got back just in time for Love Day, and Atari and Wayne had a very romantic date that saw them both celebrating a great holiday at the same time. The other couple in the house also had a wonderful Love Day, which is not surprising since they're still newlyweds! It was really tempting to let them try for baby again when they were being so romantic and the option kept popping up over and over, but I ultimately resisted. After all, they have two young daughters to look after and another pregnancy would be a lot to handle! However, Talk Like a Pirate Day followed Love Day and I could not resist clicking on "Try for a New Pirate." Oops. Look, it was funny. What was I supposed to do? Not choose the funny option? Pshaw. Also, speaking of funny, this is RHONIN'S PARENTS' bed that they decided to do the deed in, despite having their own bedroom. For shame. And, of course, their single try is successful. Of course it is. Rhonin: "But we literally have two babies right here!" Jenny: "Hey, bud, you're just as much to blame for the timing as I am!" Luckily it was the girls' birthday, so at least they'll get some toddlerhood under their belt and there shouldn't be much toddler overlap between them and their younger sibling-to-be. Apparently the game likes the girls in hats. Let's take a closer look at their makeovers. Both girls look lovely in braids. It's hard to tell who they take after most in facial features yet. They both have Jenny's dark eyes, but Flora got her daddy's red hair. Their traits absolutely killed me because they are spot-on, eerily, perfectly accurate for their namesakes. They're very cute and I'm excited to get to know them better now that they're out of the cribs. Without a lot of toys or even a thermostat yet, they get started on their skills in the most bare-bones way possible, dressed in their cold weather wear. And it's a bit of a spoiler, but I rolled their personalities all at once, so I know that at least one of them will be eligible for heir, so I am letting Jenny get a kitten. She had the adoption agency bring over these three. I kind of had my heart set on the bobtail just based on appearances. However, it turns out the bobtail has an absolutely awful personality and the wirehair is a doll. I mean, look at this guy. He made friends with Jenny before he had even been adopted. She was quick to scoop him up, though, and so Paolo the American Wirehair joined the Quest family. Paolo is an absolutely adorable kitty with heterochromia, and I think his traits will fit really well in a legacy family. As per my naming scheme, his name is derived from that of the villain of the later three games. DON PAOLO
Don Paolo is the self-styled adversary of Professor Layton, although Layton doesn't feel the same. Don Paolo carries a hefty chip on his shoulder, but he is still a man of principles and makes the right decisions when it really counts. He is a master of disguises and even managed to fool the professor and Luke by posing as Flora somehow for a LONG time in one game! He also is great with machinery and vehicles and can whip up all kinds of helpful contraptions. He feels deeply about an unrequited love and his would-be rivalry with Layton, and being ruled by his feelings leads to a lot of his more questionable actions and schemes. Anyway, OUR Paolo is no villain at all, but just a cute little kitten. Our cat-loving mama here is delighted to play with her new kitten to the exclusion of her own children. That's okay, though, because I finally got around to decorating a nice nursery for them, and they have plenty to keep them busy for now. I'll show it off at a later time. I'm only doing a little bit of decorating at a time as money and my temperament allow. Vereesa is a keyholder, and boy, I sure really don't regret that decision when she constantly kicks over our trashcan when she's done playing games on our computer. Don't you have a family to get back to, Vereesa? I was working on the landscaping for Rhonin's Mansion Baron aspiration, and this is the result so far. The structure on the left is an arbor that will eventually contain the graves of the family. The lot is still pretty sparse, but we're making progress. A visiting Alleria and grandpa Wayne help the girls with their first baths. So cute! And then it's back to the tablets. This was before I learned more efficient ways of raising toddler skills, so they had electronic nannies for a while. While she's still needing to take breaks from her writing, this pregnancy has been much easier on Jenny. Nice to see she can find her own bed when she's not woohooing her husband in other peoples' beds. Rhonin is climbing the ranks of astronaut and getting quite buff from all the working out, but he's not at the point yet where he needs to run missions. He's still a pencil pusher, I'm afraid. After what seemed like just a day (and might actually have been), Paolo grew up. I missed it because I wasn't expecting him to grow up yet and I was on fast speed. He's a pretty kitty. Look at that cutie all curled up. Good boy, Paolo. Jenny: "It's time!" Well, that just flew by. Rhonin is as supportive as ever, including making rude faces behind Jenny's back because he's mad about something from work. Still, in a shower of sparkles (and with Rhonin running out of the room), she delivers their son. Jenny: "We will name you Layton, my boy, because the character's first name is Hershel and that's just not a very cool name." PROFESSOR HERSHEL LAYTON
Professor Layton teaches (on the rare occasions when he's not on investigations!) archaeology at Gressenheller University, where he was made the youngest full professor. He's had a life full of losses (various spoilers abound in the details) but he doesn't let them define him, though they do affect him and one in particular drives a lot of his persona. He strives to be the perfect English gentleman and is particularly careful about protecting those more vulnerable than him. He has a sharp intellect and a mind for puzzles and connections. He makes detailed plans, but acts only once he has gathered enough information. He tries to keep a cool head at all times. Interestingly, he's a very good fencer. He has a deep and abiding love for tea. And that's that for the chapter! At least one of these three children possess the Geek trait, so this will be it for generation three, but they have plenty of learning and growing to do. Rhonin and Jenny have nowhere but up to go in their careers and aspirations, and thus we will see the house's decor grow by leaps and bounds too to satisfy our aspiring Mansion Baron. There's a lot more in store for this generation, so be sure to check back soon, and in the mean time, strike up a conversation with Haleigh and I at Boolprop. Thanks for reading!
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the quest logThe Quest Log is a video game themed joint legacy between MeadowThayer and Taube. fontsThe following fonts were used on the cover photos and the biography photos. They are all free on DaFont.
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