I Have No AnswersThe White Legacy:Generation Three, Spares

Peachtree Valley, the subhood of Riverblossom Hills where my spares live, has seen some significant population growth. In fact, the number of its inhabitants has increased by 1200%, if I’m doing the math right. There used to be just Arie living here, and now Cygnus, Par, Arc, Merry, and their respective families are here, too. Consult the map to see where they’re all living.

What? Where’s Merry, you ask?

Cygnus

Par

ArcArie

Why, she’s all the way over there, of course.

Alright, so this is the spare update post. I’m sorry, but I’m not as interested in my spares as I am in the main bloodline—and I have a feeling the same is true for you. So, this and subsequent spare posts will be a lot more observational in style, and there’ll be a lot more of my summary narration and less of conversation with the sims. But, I care about the spares enough to see them into their lives post-legacy, so… yes. Let’s get to meeting up with the gen three spares one by one, huh?

Merry

CygnusPar

Arc

Arie

Cygnus White

See that lawn chair in the lower left-hand corner? The first thing Cygnus did upon getting out of college was buy this house and set up for his wedding to Elle. We’ll get to that on the next slide. First, let me talk about his house.

This place is designed to be playable and still have enough room for the six kids Cygnus wants. Because his fiancée is the Sports Hobby Master, it’s set up with a basketball hoop and a couple of soccer nets. It’s also stocked with father-child bonding instruments: a swing set, a pond for fishing, a barbecue, an old junker car for when his children are teens, everything a budding Family Sim could wish for. Except for children. It doesn’t come with those. We’ll get to that in a bit. Boy, will we get to that.

The first step to those kids was to marry Elle.

Everyone but Arc and Arie found a seat. They were too busy chomping on chip bags and watching sports on TV to bother to come out to the wedding.

Cygnus is a cake stuffer. I’m not terribly surprised.

They then went upstairs and got a lullaby.

Then, because neither Elle nor I feel like going through six pregnancies, she gets some cheesecake.

Maybe it’ll work this time, game.

Cygnus wants to make sure his family has all the pleasures of family life, and that includes a family dog. Just for him, I placed Pepe’s Pets in Peachtree Valley (because I am too lazy to actually go build a nice-looking pet store—maybe I’ll replace Pepe’s later).

This is Skip, Cygnus’s new dog. Really I see him more as a big dog kind of person, but I have been dying to use this Mini Husky dog breed I downloaded, so Cygnus gets a Mini Husky. Please save the squees and “awwwws” until the show has ended.

Absolutely everything Skip does is adorable.

Elle dreams of a job in oceanography, and she finds an opening in the latter end of her pregnancy. It’ll probably be a while before she can really work on it, though.

Twin girls Celestine and Spinel are born. Both have the green eyes that is Cygnus’s recessive gene, but Celestine is blonde and Spinel is a redhead.

Since I played this house while Dez was still in college, this technically makes these two the first of Generation Four.

Cygnus loves being a father. This was what he was born to do.

The girls didn’t stay babies for long, though.

This is when I got really upset. If it hadn’t been for the fact that Celestine and Spinel ended up with different hair colors, they would have been exactly identical twins. Even their personalities are almost identical; Celestine has one more neat point than Spinel. Dang.

What’s that? Elle looks pregnant again? Well…

That’s because she is. Er, was. This set of twins are both blonde, but the girl, Aquamarine, is green-eyed, and the boy, Sulfur, has dark blue, like Cygnus. He’s the first one to get an eye color that one of his parents has.

Two toddlers and two babies—this is probably the closest I’ll ever come to quads, since I don’t play with Triplets and Quads. Maybe I will someday.

1: Hahahaha no.

2: What kind of Family Sim fears changing a dirty diaper? Seriously.

1

2

You know, I’ve only ever seen this happen once before. Good commentary on how smoothly this household is running, really.

Sorry about that, Elle. This is the last pregnancy, I promise.

Elle: “Soccer team… remember the goal. My own soccer team…”

Celestine and Spinel hit childhood. Bet you can’t tell which is which! -_-

Yes, I’m still a little sore about the whole hair color thing. I could technically change it, but I would know that one or the other had the wrong hair color, and it wouldn’t fix anything.

Aquamarine and Sulfur hit toddlerhood. Joy.

It’s only one. Sorry, Elle. I lied about that being the last pregnancy.

Elle: “Grumble…”

We’ve got another green-eyed redhead; this one is a boy named Calcite. Maybe the cheesecake isn’t working because I left the lot to roll the pacifier after she’d already eaten it? I don’t know enough about how the game works to tell for sure, but that’s my hypothesis. Anyone got any input on that?

This is where I’m going to call Cygnus’s update. Next on the list is Par and Emily.

Pardus White

Well, aren’t you looking spiffy!

Par: “Really?”

Yes indeed. You look great!

Par: “Oh, good! I’m really excited! I’m getting married today!”

Don’t worry Par, we hadn’t forgotten.

But let’s first enjoy a picture of Par’s new house. Look familiar? I hope it does.

I based it off the in-game dollhouse. It’s an idea I’ve had for a couple years, but I never got around to doing it, until I asked my little sister what kind of house she thought Par would want to live in. She said, “A dollhouse!” So, Par gets to live in a dollhouse.

Par: “I’m not sure about this. I mean, it’s a beautiful house Author, and I really, really like it, but I never imagined I would be living in a dollhouse…”

Oh don’t worry, Par. I’ve set up a special present for you inside.

Par: “I… I… I…”

Par: “I LOVE IT!!”

Par and Emily finally got married in a lovely ceremony in the backyard.

It would have been lovelier if:

A) All of the guests had sat down. Mental note: apparently there must be more than one tile between the arch and the chairs. Brie did eventually walk around and sit down in one of the front ones in the middle of the ceremony, though.

B) Morty Roth, Jason Greenman, and Leod McGreggor hadn’t crashed the party and took up the chairs meant for family.

Morty: “I love weddings.” *sniff*

Mental note: Next time, wait until the welcome wagon clears off before starting the wedding.

C) All of the important guests (*cough cough* Arc and Toro) had actually made it to the wedding, rather than getting queue-stomped by the gate crashers. Mental note: wider porches next time.

Toro: *creepy nice point smile*

Don’t mind him. He does… er, did… that a lot.

Toro: “What’s that supposed to mean? ‘Er, did’?”

Oh, don’t bother yourself about it, Toro. You’ll find out.

I meant only to show one wedding arch shot, but then Par and Emily turned and looked at all the clapping guests, and it was too cute not to have a picture of.

Par: “We’re married!!”

Emily: “You are so cute, Par!!”

They don’t change. At all.

Par turned out to be a cake stuffer. I wouldn’t have guessed that. No one else seems interested in the cake cutting.

Well, except for Dez.

As it turns out, both Par and Emily have the same LTW—City Planner. They are so perfect together, aren’t they? Both of them have now reached it.

Par finally reached his gold cosmetology badge, and gave Anne her permanent look, which you saw in the last college chapter. Yeah, I played Cygnus and Par well ahead of time. Sue me.

In light of this, Par and Emily decided to quit their jobs and go into business together running the legacy’s first business. It’s called “Parulous,” because I’m terrible at coming up with community lot names. They sell clothes and makeovers to townies and spares who don’t want to go all the way into Riverblossom Hills. It’s also the first community lot in Peachtree Valley.

Emily also worked up to her gold cosmetology badge, and while she was doing that and reaching her LTW, Par got his gold flower arranging badge to make working the business easier.

I even stopped by a few times—I make it a habit to support the local businesses—and also to check in on Par and Emily. Fortunately there were no accidents with my makeover, or I might have had to seek retribution.

SimMe: “Great job, Par. You’re really doing a good job here. Keep it up. You always were one of my favorites.”

Par: “Um, thank you very much Miss, but, um, I don’t mean to be rude but, who are you?”

SimMe: “Don’t worry about what I just said. Just keep on going like you have.”

Par: “Um… okay…”

This is what Parulous looks like, by the way. During business hours when I’m running it, it’s got snapdragons everywhere and there’s a tent in the back. In this way, they can work until their energy bar is dead red, and then they can close shop, sleep, and come back and work until they’re passing out again. They never even have to leave the lot. It’s very easy to run, especially since both Par and Emily have gold cosmetology badges. Customers get one star for the price of the chair being ridiculously cheap, and another for getting a successful makeover. Perhaps not very lucrative, but it’s not losing money and it’s easy to get up to level ten, and that’s what I was looking for.

And, it has the added satisfaction of letting me make over some of those unfortunate townies.

They got tipped a few times too, mostly by this guy, Alec Jeffress. I didn’t even know that was possible. You learn something new about this game every day. He actually got customer loyalty stars for tipping Par and Emily. Huh.

During all this time, Par and Emily were talking intermittently about children. After getting Parulous to Level 10 and both of them hitting their LTWs, they came to a decision on the matter.

This is Par and Emily’s son, Zircon. Isn’t he a cutie?

And here he is on his birthday. I sense Par’s nose on him, so expect Zircon to look a lot like his dad come his teenage years.

Next stop: Arc and Anne.

Arctos White

So, Arc?

Arc: “What?”

How’s the pick-up truck? I thought you might like one.

Arc: “It’s not a bad choice.”

Here’s Arc’s house. I didn’t think he and Anne would go for something big and lavish, like Emily [and Par] did; small and homey would suit them just fine. It reminds me a little bit of my own home, actually, and I ended up basing the floor plan inside loosely on the real house. That wasn’t what I began intending to do, though.

Arc and Anne share a pleasant lunch before their wedding. Note their stoic expressions despite their inner roiling excitement over their upcoming marriage. This is because they are appalled at me. Here I was, thinking I could put some boxes of cereal on their table and not get in the way of their plates. Silly me.

Even though there is CLEARLY enough room for their plates on that table, cereal boxes or not.

SAME SIZE!!

(I MEASURED!!)

We’ve already seen three weddings this generation, if you include Dez’s, so I don’t think we need a bunch of picture spam for this. Suffice to say, they got married, Dez has terrible formal wear, and as usual, not all the guests decided to take the proffered seating.

Also, both Toro and Brie were holding onto “relative gets married” Wants. D’aww.

The sun started setting just in time for Arc to be the first one out of his siblings to not be a cake stuffer. I’m sure Anne appreciates that.

After the ceremony and socializing with the extended family, Arc and Anne slipped outside to slow dance in the rain.

They threw me a slow dance twirl… and I went and missed the picture. >.<

There’s something you should know: I avoid naked pictures like the plague. This, however, is the exception.

Why is Arc taking a sponge bath in the kitchen sink when the shower is perfectly available? What’s more, why is Anne preparing breakfast on the counter immediately next to him?

I have no answers for these questions.

Apparently, they can eat with flowers in the middle of the table. Seems to me like the vase isn’t that much smaller than the cereal boxes, but what do I know?

I don’t use recliner chairs often enough.

Arc, what’s the scowl for? You just achieved your LTW, and you’re wearing a nummy dance costume. So what gives?

Arc: “We got robbed in college.”

Oh, please. He didn’t even make it to the top floor. Quit your whining and go quit your job. You do not get to stay a ballerina, sorry.

Anne: “Congratulations on being so hot, sweetie!”

You know what? Sometimes the “congratulate” interaction really bugs me. This is not one of those times. I am amused, and after all, Anne’s statement is not false.

Arc and Anne are still talking about children. Anne would like to have one, but Arc is a little wary about the whole losing immortality thing. I’ll keep you posted on this one.

Well, this means that the only spare still left on the list is, of course, Merry.

Latimeria White

What happened to the taxi?

Merry: “What taxi is that?”

Oh, don’t you go playing innocent. You left school in a taxi. You just flew onto your new home lot on a broom. So where’s the taxi?

Merry: “Oh, yes. That taxi. Heh heh heh.”

So, remember way back when, when I first introduced my simself and bragged about my house? Remember how I mentioned I had originally built it for a specific family? No? Well, that’s okay. That family was meant to be the exact opposite of the Goth family. You may remember that there’s a lot of pink and white and happy decorations in there (if you don’t, that’s okay). This house I built for the Goths, and was therefore meant also to hearken back to the original Goth manor, but still be stupidly extravagant and laggy.

At the present day, I opened up Merry’s lot to build her a stupidly extravagant and laggy Victorian-style manor, but then I realized, “Don’t I already have one of those?” So, this place has been relocated for Merry’s use. Maybe it’s not exactly Victorian, but it looks haunted house enough in style to suit her, I think.

Well, since Merry didn’t get married, we don’t get the wedding pictures, and really most of what I did here was just getting her to the top of her career so she can be permaplat. So here’s a picture of her eating breakfast.

Perhaps you’d like to tell us something of what you plan to do next?

Merry: “Why should I tell you? You’ll just step in when you’re not wanted again.”

Have you even thought of what you’re going to do next? Or is it still your goal to claim the heirship from Dez?

Merry: “None of your business. Go away, you bother me.”

And here’s her official recognition of having hit her LTW. Any ideas on your big plot, Merry? Any at all?

Merry: “Even if I did, I wouldn’t tell you.”

Merry: “Not that I don’t have plans. Of course I have plans.”

Uh-huh. Sure. That’s why you kept trying to convince Arc to join you and help you think of something while you were in college together, right?

Merry: “Shut up!”

That catches us up to all the pre-Chapter One happenings. Now—

Merry: “I said to shut up, Author! I’m going upstairs to check my magic mirror now. And don’t you follow me!”

Wouldn’t dream of it.

Oh no, not this picture again…

Merry: “AUTHOR!! You’re ruining my flashback!!”

Is it technically a flashback if it’s actually occurring at this moment in the timeline, but we’ve already seen it in the previous chapter?

Merry: “Bite your tongue or go away, Author!”

I don’t understand why you two changed wardrobe in the Astral Realm. And what’s up with the stripe in the middle of the floor?

Merry: “It’s symbolic. Bite your tongue or I’ll cut it out for you!”

Merry: “Ugh. There’s my thrice-cursed Aunt Aral. Good-for-nothing, lazy, dog gravy-eating—”

Watch it. You’ll ruin your own flashback.

Merry: “SPOTTED PICKLED TOADS!!”

Alright. Feeling caught up?

What’s the matter, Merry? Not hungry? Those pork chops look mighty good.

Merry: “I lost. I can’t seem to catch a break. It’s never been me. Dez has a baby girl, and now it’s all over. He has an heiress to take over for him. I’m left out in the cold.”

Then do you mind if I eat your dinner, since you’re not interested in it?

Pearl: “Well, well. Look who made it out of the Astral Realm.”

Merry: “Oh, great. What do you want?”

Pearl: “Just one thing. Are you going to do something, or are you going to sit here and wallow like the spoiled little monster you are? I did not spend all that time fawning over an angsty teenager, showering her with fake compliments, to see her grow up to be a milk toast!”

Merry: “You brought me into the order because I was special! You need me!”

Pearl: “I brought you into the order because by some cosmic joke, you have the most potent talent I’ve seen in two hundred years! You could have been the second-greatest witch alive! And then you turn out to be a slobbering, whiny legacy brat who can’t live with her brother getting the toy she wanted! What would you have done with the heirship? Huh? Doddle around like a dithering, barefoot mother, patting your children on the head and watching your life meter fill up, that’s what! HA! You would have accomplished nothing! Desmodus has three times the potential for being a great leader of that legacy than you do!”

Merry: “TAKE THAT BACK!!”

Pearl: “Or what? I’ve seen you work, Latimeria! You bluster around and threaten, wave your wand around, but you know what you are? You’re all talk! Your spells are always stopped before they do damage! You’ve never actually hurt anyone in your life! I’ll stake money that you don’t actually want to hurt anybody! Why don’t you cross the street and hang out with Chantelle and her goody-two-shoes minions? That’s where you belong anyway! You know what? You’re not worth my time. I’m going back to headquarters. It’s high time we find someone else to take your place!”

Merry: “Don’t you turn your back on me!!”

Grim Reaper: “Huh… murder… that’s a first in this legacy so far…”

Let’s hope that it doesn’t set a precedent, huh Grimmy?

Grim Reaper: “Eh, I get paid either way.”

I leave you with this charming picture. Come visit us in Chapter Two!

Merry: “If you dare!”