Atari: "Well, babe, we've risen from the depths of unintentional hiatus yet again, and I have completed my Nerd Brain aspiration." Wayne: "Ooh, competence is so sexy. Watcha gonna do with all that dexterity?" Atari: "Oh, I've got a few ideas . . ." Atari: "And this was precisely none of them." >:( Hey, can't let those instant upgrades and level 10 handiness go to waste! Welcome back to The Quest Log, a video-game-themed joint legacy between myself and my good friend Haleigh/meadowthayer. We're in the reign of gen. 2 heir Rhonin (named for a WoW character), who is raising his three kids named after the Professor Layton DS series. Rhonin aspires to be a Mansion Baron, but the enormous house is still mostly empty, though he and his novelist wife are doing their best to earn for it. I also have A LOT of decorating ahead of me. But in actuality, as of this writing, I've done that and finished my turn, so now it is time to play catch up so we can get to a place for Haleigh to play. :) I'm getting messages about Wayne's time almost being up, so he makes sure to say his goodbyes, just in case, while he still can. He has been an absolutely wonderful founder's spouse, and he and Atari are still so in love. He's running around mostly on free will these days since I don't want to bother with licensing songs (his main marketable skill), so at least he's enjoying his old age. For instance, Exhibit A. I felt like getting a ping pong table. Why? Uh . . . reasons, I'm sure. Rhonin's wife, Jenny, a former bartender, is now taking turns working her way up the culinary career, writing very profitable novels, and working on the painting aspiration (in case I didn't already say, she finished Bestselling Author). She keeps very busy, more so than anyone else in the house. She still makes time when her father-in-law wants to know the plot of her latest novel. Although, based on that face, maybe it's best if we leave that plot between them! Besides Atari, Wayne's two great loves in the world are attempting to kill himself on the treadmill and Floaty McFloatface here. Never mind that it's autumn and cold as heck: he often ends up out here when I'm not looking. The kids are Emmy (brunette), her twin Flora (redhead), and their little brother Layton, who is currently a toddler stuck up in the nursery. Emmy completes her Artistic Prodigy aspiration, and the next day, Flora completes Whiz Kid. Flora went to Artistic Prodigy and Emmy changed over to Rambunctious Scamp. Meanwhile, although Atari is doing a lot of upgrades of the fixtures as I add them, I also have Rhonin work alongside her, because she won't be around forever, and someday this huge house will be full of plumbing, electronics, and appliances on Haleigh's computer with all the upgrades reset. Therefore, it's prudent to have another skilled handiness sim. Layton's birthday is today and he is just shy of getting five in thinking, which will earn him the Top Notch Toddler trait that both of his older sisters got for themselves. With a valiant effort of repeated flash cards and a generous helping of "ask why," we got it just in time. Then the whole family (well, minus Emmy) is paying attention for his birthday. I let Wayne age him up since I don't think he'll be around too much longer. Happy birthday, Layton! Aw, he's so cute. Like I said when he last aged up, this is basically Rhonin 2.0 with a slightly different color of green eyes. Those Quest genetics are strong! Like his dad, Layton is good (which fits very well with his namesake) and he wants to be a Rambunctious Scamp (which does not, but oh well). His next birthday will be the end of my turn, so we have the rest of his childhood to go to get these kids grown up to teens in fine form and the house all decorated. Now that she's got the reward trait for Bestselling Author, Jenny writes Books of Life for Rhonin and all three kids. The elders aren't doing all that much that they need them, plus I think they deserve to sleep every night after a long life of hard work. But they will come in very handy for managing needs for the rest of them. Unfortunately, Books of Life apparently do not work as an autobiography, so Jenny is at the mercy of her base biological needs and/or moodlet solvers. With a little help from Wayne the Sea Monster, Emmy crushed Rambunctious Scamp, and she moved on to Whiz Kid. Around this time, all three kids joined scouts too. The girls pick up badges pretty quickly, but Layton is lagging behind a bit since he's only newly a kid and doesn't have much in the way of skills or spare time to do things with. And then it's time for Harvestfest in the recently-decorated dining room. Jenny cooked an absolutely beautiful turkey, and the whole family sits down in their dressy best to enjoy a meal of good food and better company. The kids are so cute all dressed up. Please excuse the massive laundry explosion behind Emmy in the hallway. We hadn't done laundry for a while, so I was emptying people's inventories of dirty clothes, and I didn't realize they were visible in this picture. How embarrassing. Our kitty, Paolo, is looking a little shifty at dinner, as though he didn't just get some turkey under the table. I also realized at this point that, for some reason, he has my CC default eye for his blue eye, but his yellow eye is the default texture. Weird. Anyway, it was a very successful dinner, which Jenny seems gratified about, and Emmy is earning a badge here as we speak, as you can see by the icon superimposed on the table. The adults all finished up their holiday tasks, but the kids still have one more. Once the gnomes are appeased, we're free to move on with our day knowing that everyone had a great holiday. As the kids get back to work, it's up to the grownups to clean up. Some of them are more successful than others. Atari: "You're telling me laundry doesn't go on the floor? I've seen the downstairs. Could've fooled me." Less talking, more cleaning. Ahahaha, Paolo sleeps in his hammock with his face pressed into it. What an odd pose. It doesn't look entirely comfortable, but that's kind of a thing with cats, isn't it? Once the house is clean, Atari is back to upgrading and Wayne spends some time outside, still in his fancy duds, trying to tackle our insurmountable leaf problem. When I did the landscaping for his and Rhonin's Mansion Baron aspirations, I didn't think ahead to how very many leaves all those trees would drop. The lot was positively littered with them! Inside, Emmy is plugging away at Whiz Kid, including with the help of her dad reading stories to her. Vereesa happens to be visiting too. All the other gen. 2 kids are keyholders, so they drop by here and there, but by far our most frequent visitor is Rhonin's twin, which seems appropriate. Late that night, when everyone is working or in bed, I happen to remember Wayne. Oh geez, you haven't been raking all this time, have you? Where was your propensity for relaxing when it could have saved you? Wayne: "So. Many. Leaves. Will. Die." Yeah, buddy, go have a moodlet solver. Your needs are abysmal. I really thought he would have broken off before he got in such a state, but I do have to say his dedication is admirable, if misplaced. Paolo is a free spirit, so he goes on adventures pretty frequently. Today he brought us a gift! By the end of my turn, we ended up getting three feathers and a handful of other random things. At one point we ended up with a money tree seed, which either came in the mail or from Paolo. It just appeared in the family inventory one day. Who knows? Anyway, Jenny makes sure to thank Paolo for his generosity. Jenny is a cat lover, so she is happiest spending time with her kitty. As the season turns colder, the kids come home from another day at school with a variety of emotions. School is such a rollercoaster for sim kids. Emmy is a picky eater now too. Also at the spawn point, Rhonin has finally got a promotion that allows him to wear a spacesuit, and Jenny is upgraded to a chef's coat (is there a name for that?). Their career progress has been painfully slow, but they are both working on it steadily. With commentary from Paolo, a friendly game between Rhonin and Emmy sees her nearing completing Whiz Kid. The founding couple also come home in their work clothes, which apparently really does it for them. Get a room, you crazy kids. While creating potions and drawing, Emmy and Flora both complete their respective aspirations. Flora went to Rambunctious Scamp while Emmy just has Social Butterfly left to complete. That evening, Layton completes Rambunctious Scamp and also goes to Social Butterfly. Rhonin and Wayne were at the column stage. Has anyone in the history of Sims 4 ever added the columns to their house at this point? I feel like "random, temporary forest of columns" is just a tradition. Also, that tree by the house is our money tree. I know it's not technically permitted, but we didn't purchase it with points. We just acquired it somehow, and we could really use the help with the house. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Wayne: "Hello, boss? Yes, I need to put in my retirement notice, effectively immediately. You see, I have a loved one that really needs me. Yes, I'm here with him now. Okay, I'll let him know. Thanks!" Wayne has retired to spend more time with the float and maybe also his family. I think he isn't long for this world, and it didn't seem right to work him until the day of his death. He breaks in retirement with a nice nap, so that's a good start. Um, Emmy? I know you're a cat lover like your mother, and I haven't had a cat since I was a little girl, but I am nearly certain that's not how you hold them. Emmy: "Aw, he likes it!" Paolo: *traumatized* Alleria is very unimpressed with Layton's school project, but if having a literal rocket scientist help with your science project isn't good enough, I don't know what is. Oh, I guess this was where Emmy finished Whiz Kid. Okay, nonetheless, next: Social Butterfly. It's a weekend so all our little scouts head off to their meeting. They look so cute in their uniforms. Then, afterwards, I sent our two Social Butterfly wannabes to the cat hangout bar in Brindleton Bay to go meet adults to befriend later and raise their skill. It was a successful outing for both of them in that regard, and they also had a great conversation between the two of them that saw each gain a few skill levels. Because of this newfound bond, they decide to become best friends with each other and simultaneously complete that stage of the aspiration. Back home, Wayne is trying to kill himself via exercise yet again. C'mon man, we've had this talk. Leave the treadmill alone. You're too old. The next day, it's another outing. This time, Jenny needs to look at some paintings at the museum, and Emmy tags along to see if she can do some nature-y stuff in the neighborhood for the last badge she needs to complete (she's light years ahead of her siblings in scouts). Unfortunately, it is too cold for fishing and thus all the plants are useless too. With nothing constructive to do, Emmy proceeds to go skating and totally show up all of the clumsy adults. Once Jenny was done, I sent her home and grabbed Layton for a trip to the park to befriend kids. There, they saw Luke (Alleria's son), and both kids befriended him rather easily. They both completed Social Butterfly. Emmy is done with all her child aspirations, and Layton moved onto Whiz Kid. Layton: "There's something about that Luke kid. We just get each other. I feel like I could go on adventures and solve mysteries and maybe mentor him or something. How odd." (In the Professor Layton games, Luke is Layton's self-styled apprentice and they work together in all the games, so it seemed appropriate that they would be good friends here.) Back home, I came thisclose to missing Rhonin's adult birthday, but we pulled out the pink cake from the twins' birthday and caught him just in time. Unfortunately, Jenny was at work and couldn't celebrate with her husband. Welcome to maturity, Rhonin! And then we're in Sulani, just like that. I really want to finish Emmy's nature badge, but since it's winter I just couldn't find places to do that, so we went to the warmest place we had access to for her to fish. There were certainly enough fish there, but she had no skill to begin with, so she didn't catch all that much. Despite this being Sulani, it was still very cold and when she caught a chill, Emmy changed into her winter wear. That might be negated by her kneeling in the water, but what do I know? When she went back to fishing, this time with the one fish she caught (a minnow, lol) as bait, she stayed in her warm clothes and she was a lot happier. Emmy just wasn't good enough at fishing to make much progress, so we went back home. Jenny has been up to her usual activities, it appears. I put the cat wand in her inventory a while ago and she makes frequent use of it. I also bought her a bar so she could work on mixology since that's the career path I'll have her follow when she reaches the fork. Since she was a bartender to begin with and came with eight mixology points, that makes the most sense. In the mean time, she's just working hard nearly every night, grinding away at her job, to the detriment of her mental health. It's tough being a legacy sim. Here is about where I started to gradually start decorating the rest of the house, since we had built up a good nest egg. The kids got upgraded desks, but I later improved this area even more. And then it was Winterfest Eve. The three siblings decorated the tree together and lit it, basking in the results of their teamwork. Everything seemed to be going well and the kids were abuzz with excitement over the next day's presents. So, of course, tragedy struck. You can see the kids are still in the background by the tree there. The game had been threatening this for a while, so I wasn't surprised, but I still found it rather unfortunate to have it right before Winterfest. Poor Wayne. The whole family - minus one - was there to mourn. Even Paolo made it, although he was adorably scared of the Grim Reaper. Also, for some reason, both of his eyes are my defaults now? Anyway . . . Farewell, Wayne Quest, beloved husband of Atari, father of Vereesa, Rhonin, Sylvanas, Alleria, and Zuni, grandfather of many sims, founding father of The Quest Log. You were a truly joyful sim who knew how to work hard and take it easy. You will be missed. He was laid to rest in the arbor out back we constructed for our graves, and Rhonin said his goodbyes again. And Atari, the one sim who was not present for Wayne's death, had to come home a widow, not having the chance to say goodbye to her husband in the moment. She has all the right in the world to be sad. I had gotten a notice about her age and she was so sad, so I thought it was time for her to retire too, so she ends her long career of professional gaming on a good note. Congrats, Atari, you earned it. She then celebrates her retirement by making a microwave pastry that is cold in the middle. I mean, whatever floats your boat...? She didn't seem very happy about it, though. Also, for some reason, all this time, I assumed that "microwave pastry" was like a microwave version of a Pop-Tart or Toaster Strudel or something since I don't usually give my sims microwaves. But no, apparently it's like, I don't know, a little lava cake or something. Well no wonder it didn't cook all the way. That is way too complex a dessert to be microwaving. Jenny got a chance to check in with her kiddos over dinner. She's been doing so much cooking for her job, all of which is excellent quality, that all four of these sims had a different exceptional meal. Rhonin is also helping the kids cope, as he got the compassionate trait when he became a young adult and has some extra interactions for that. And now we're fairly recent, and Nifty Knitting had just come out. I created an (in my opinion) absolutely adorable little craft room for the family. I'm really pleased with this pack - is this what it feels like to be pandered to? Because the aesthetic, the gameplay, the CAS assets? *chef's kiss* My kind of stuff. I know it's pretty niche and not all the reviews have been positive, but I love that there are touches like frogging and the sweater curse that show an actual knitter or two were involved in the pack's creation. Some people know this about me, but I am an avid knitter (and crocheter, and other artsy things) and I actually even taught knitting and crocheting at a craft store for several years, so this is definitely right up my alley. While I was working on the house, Haleigh requested a garden so I built a little greenhouse. I later changed the windows and the roof - the windows because they look stupid and the roof because I couldn't see it through all the snow while building. There's the main greenhouse and a cute little nook back behind the ivy-covered gateway. Please pardon the roof down in the second pic. The next morning, it's time for Winterfest. Everyone is feeling kind of blue, but they still gather around for presents (Rhonin was on his way). I also put out three special presents for the kids. Flora: "I will throw the biggest fit if that violin doesn't have my name on it!" Each kid got a nice gift of forgettable stuff that was sold from the tree's presents. Flora got her violin, Layton received a special toy robot (the kid has amassed a half dozen toys in his inventory at this point, so with that and his nerdy demeanor, I thought it'd be well-received), and Emmy got the knitting basket she'll need in her inventory to start taking this latest pack for a spin. She settles in to a rocking chair to teach herself to knit. I love that they actually cast on. That's another bit of attention to detail that I really appreciate. Soon, she's completed a beanie. Unfortunately, that first attempt wasn't successful, but her next beanie is (a cute tiger!), and she added it to several of her outfits. While I was in CAS, I noticed that all that working out for the astronaut career has maximized Rhonin's muscles/thinness (take note, Haleigh - he would be a breeze to do Bodybuilder with!), and I am deeply uncomfortable with this. Between his baby face, big Quest eyes, and the beanpole figure he came to me in, he just looks wrong to me this buff. Oh well. If this is what makes him happy, who am I to judge? Actually, you know what? Imma judge anyway.
So, with this cursed buff baby-man image burned into your retinas, it is now time to conclude this chapter. Next chapter will see the conclusion of my turn, with all three kids becoming teens, and the reveal of the next heir to the Quest legacy. I may also do an optional chapter tour of the house, but I'm undecided on that currently. Definitely, we have one more story chapter to go for my turn, since I already organized the pics. Thanks so much for reading and stop by soon to see this turn wrap up! In the mean time, drop by Boolprop to chat with Haleigh and me. Thanks!
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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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