The Gregory Legacy, Chapter 27

Isn't this a pretty cover? You can probably guess where Faye ends up in this chapter. ;) Anyway, welcome back to another chapter of The Gregory Legacy! Faye, our mean, outdoor-loving teenage heiress, is working on Angling Ace, but the whole family is mourning the loss of patriarch Aaron. It's hit them really hard, as it has me. Today is a special day for Laurel, though, so let's see what the mood is like . . .

Ah, yeah, this is going to be a great birthday. Everyone's totally into it. Normally Laurel would have a pink cake, but this is the last cake Aaron baked, which I was very careful to preserve. We're going to try to keep using it for as long as possible because I'm sentimental like that.

Laurel is becoming an adult finally, and everyone musters up as much enthusiasm as possible. A note: I finally learned by reading and was told the very next day how to get rid of plumbobs, so there's only a few more pictures with them in them, and then we'll eventually catch up to the place where I knew how not to show them. So, sorry for the plumbobs, but they'll die out once we get past the older pictures eventually.

Happy birthday, Laurel!

"Gee. Thanks."

She did perk up a little when dealing with her youngest, though, because like her father before her, Laurel is a great parent who loves interacting with her kids.

Unfortunately, not everyone can find something to distract them from their grief. Faye and Adrian are out back watering the plants with tears and just plain crying, respectively.

Even breakfast is a depressing affair. I can't believe we're going to have to go through with all this in just another day or so with Dayna. I guess I kind of forget over the generation how much this sucks, and then I'm forcibly reminded.

The worst part of it is Dayna, who has taken to just walking around her room and staring at objects. Literally. She just walked around and viewed decorative objects in her room for a while. Like the rose centerpiece they got for their wedding. Wow, that is a little too realistic for my tastes.

And then Aaron goes and texts Laurel from the beyond to congratulate her on her birthday, which he couldn't attend on account of being dead. I mean. Talk about hitting you right in the heart. Aaron, why you gotta be like that?

On another note, take a look at our monolith-and-llama garden in the lower right. I never get a reason to share it because nothing interesting happens near it, but I love it. Aaron got it from the astronaut career at some point. Well, the monolith. I presume we got the llamas from the local garden store or something.

Laurel plays away her feelings on the guitar she got while camping. She has now maxed both guitar and piano.

Have I ever mentioned The Gregory Helpers? I don't think I have. They're our legacy club, run by Kori, and they consist of my simself and some of Kori's friends. They haven't made it into a chapter before because their approved actions are just to be friendly, to repair stuff, and to clean. They are discouraged from playing video games. This set-up works brilliantly, so Kori just calls a meeting at the home lot whenever grime builds up or several things break at once. Yes, I made a club of glorified servants. Yes, I am okay with that. They do spend an inordinate amount of time cleaning the fish tanks, which I was not aware was even a thing, but generally they do a pretty good job of keeping up with the maintenance of this huge house.

Laurel spends some time with her mom and tries to console her, but Dayna is still pretty miserable. Then it's off to work for Laurel, who has promotions to earn. Dayna, on the other hand . . .

Well, she won't be heading in to work anymore.

A lot of the family was otherwise occupied, so at first, Dayna's death was unattended.

Faye and Hannah sensed it from the kitchen and came running to mourn, so Dayna did have two of her granddaughters to see her out. Finally, she will be with Aaron, who she had not even finished mourning yet. I think their being reunited would be the most important thing to her since the family seems to mostly be in good hands.

Dayna joins Aaron, Marjorie and Nathan, and Natalie and Jaron in the door-less (and thus mourning-proof) mausoleum.

Meanwhile, just a little ways away, Aimee completed her Rambunctious Scamp aspiration. Yay! That's the last child aspiration I'll be doing until Faye has kids. Good job, Aimee.

As a celebration, because she is about to age up, and to take my mind off the deaths, Aimee heads out with Partihaus, her club, to go party. I mean, it's in the name. What else are they going to do?

As a child, the only way Aimee can contribute to the club is by dancing, so she does. In the middle of the evening, Aimee got an invite to the Paragons and I accepted. I'm not sure why, but she is apparently a very desirable club member. The Paragons and Partihaus seem like there's not much overlap, but I'm sure she'll figure that out as she gets older.

Damn it, Faye! When I came back from Aimee's outing, of course Faye had to take, out of the many, many leftovers in the fridge, a piece of Aaron's final cake, which I was saving for the teen birthday of his last grandchild. Geez, she gets on my nerves sometimes.

So instead, Aimee got a customary Gregory hamburger cake, baked by her mom. The family gathered around for fist pumps a-plenty as Aimee blew out the candles.

Maybe it's the dark hair (since she looks a ton like Hannah actually) but I think Aimee has a really unique, interesting look to her. She's in dire need of a makeover, but I like what I have to work with. Aimee added squeamish to evil and wants to be a Joke Star. So let's see, we've got an aspiring comedian who doesn't like icky things but does like others' misery, and she has aligned herself both with partiers and preps. Hmm. How to dress that?

By day, Aimee is a paragon of comedy, a respectable and upper-crust jokester with an edge, but at night . . .

She breaks out into full party gear and lets her wild side reign. It was a lot of fun to dress her, though it was pretty challenging to decide what her everyday look would be.

Here's the four kids side-by-side. You can really tell who got which features. Hannah and Aimee obviously have Laurel's nose, while Faye and Aimee got Kori's eye shape and color, in one case at least. There are other similarities, but if you actually care, I'll let you puzzle them out yourself. I'll just say that this crop of kids, despite being personality-deficient, pleases me mightily.

Speaking of pleasing me, Aaron haunts almost immediately, so Laurel is able to give her dad another hug. Aww.

He has some of his final cake for breakfast with Hannah, who is eating a frittata he cooked. Aaron did almost all the cooking for the family, so nearly everything in the fridge at this point has his name on it.

When Aaron went back to his urn, we find Faye woodworking in her PJs, the safest of all outfits to wield a saw in. I guess to finish this aspiration she'll eventually need to go to the secret lot that requires 10 handiness to find? I think I read that some of the fish she needs to catch are only there, which is a bummer because I have other plans for her than handiness. I thought this aspiration would go a bit quicker since Curator did. If I'm wrong and she can get 20 fish from regular lots and Sylvan Glade, let me know because that would be a big relief! Does anyone know if OR fish count for this? I'm kind of in the dark here on this one.

Meanwhile, Aimee tries out some comedy for the first time. She's pretty hesitant, which is adorable.

Aaron is killing me with these spectral texts. Now he's offering his condolences to Faye for the passing of Dayna.

Faye basically does not wear regular clothes very often any more, apparently. She's always in her PJs or her swimsuit. She rolls a lot of wants to swim, or, more often, to cannonball like she did as a kid. She's an oddball.

Claire, a regular at Kori's parties and part of the Gregory Helpers, decided to embarrass Faye right before she was about to head somewhere.

Claire: "Gasp! But I'm the one who's embarrassed. I mean, who would have thought someone would be using the toilet in the bathroom when I entered without knocking? It's unheard of!"

Faye: "When you two wrap your stupid conversation up, can I finish here?"

Oh yeah, sorry, Faye.

Faye was more happy than embarrassed, so when Aimee got a invite from Paolo to the bluffs for a dance party, I sent Faye along with. Y'know, because she's the heiress and because I hadn't been to the bluffs before and I was hoping there might be fishing. There wasn't.

They enjoyed a fun time of dancing in the weeds. Dance parties are kind of underwhelming, especially here, where it is beautiful but there really isn't a lot to do. Plus Paolo bailed on the girls as soon as they showed up on the lot, so Aimee couldn't even socialize with him. It was kind of a bust and I ended it early.

I sent Aimee home and decided to visit Sylvan Glade for the first time. Yes, I have had the game almost since launch and no, I haven't been yet. Never really had a reason to do so. However, I do hear there's good fishing in those parts, so Faye did the requisite tree-whispering to get the opening to appear.

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Why are we staring at the tree in silence? Because I wanted to recreate my experience of finding the path to Sylvan Glade. I chose every single wrong choice possible, so it took probably ten minutes of repeatedly sending Faye into the tree while I hung out outside, waiting for the next choice, and stared at this picture before I finally got it right. >:(

Once there, Faye had an appropriately-teenaged response to discovering a secret lot.

She also caught a bunch of cool fish and trinkets, and I took a ton of picture of the lovely place, but I'll spare you since apparently everyone but me already knew what it looked like.

And as Faye returned to the house that night, Aimee was wrecking the dollhouse, which brings us to the end of another chapter. How many chapters will I end with Aimee destroying the dollhouse? As many as are necessary, my friend. I know this was kind of a light chapter, but I just wanted to get something out. Next time, Faye grows into an adult, gets a job, and causes me more grief. Good times! Perhaps we'll see some spousal selection as well. Check back for that, and in the mean time, come visit with me at SiMania and Boolprop! Thanks for reading!