The Gregory Legacy, Chapter 3

(originally published 1/4/15)

I am moving the Slideshares of the first six chapters over here to the blog, so here's Chapter 3 . . . again.

Welcome back to the Gregory Legacy! We have our heiress - Marjorie, not pictured - but she's still a kid so that puts founder Natalie there on the right still in charge. Corinne is a homework wanderer and winds up following people all over the house, including into the bathrooms, while trying to avoid actually doing her homework in a reasonable time frame. That's what she's doing here - she started at the kitchen table but ended up chatting it up with her mom in the kids' room.

Then, when Natalie leaves to do something more productive, Corinne gets down on the floor to chat with her sis. Corinne didn't finish her childhood aspiration, but I'm trying to get there with Marjorie, especially since she's the heiress, so she's spending a lot of time at the drawing table and the violin.

And then there's Dorian, the huggiest hugger in all the lands. He just loves his family a bunch and wants them all to know it. Just as an aside, he would have been my choice for heir since he has a better trait and I like his looks better, but Marjorie is still a good choice and I'm going to abide by the random law that I chose.

Can I please just get ONE shot of this family sitting down to a meal together? It doesn't help that I always forget to replace the chair after birthdays, but someone always insists on sitting on the couch anyway.

Ooh, bad day at school. Dorian continues Corinne's tradition of always having the wrong chance card choice, so he gets a lot of interesting moodlets from school. He's still adorable, though, right?

Marjorie: "Corinne, I get so bored doing my homework. How do you manage when your book is like three times bigger than mine?"
Corinne: "Watch this, Marjorie. I just get up and wander around . . ."

Corinne: ". . . and something interesting is bound to happen."

Yeah, I wouldn't think that clipping through your father really alleviates the tedium of homework, but what do I know? If I did this it would be inordinately painful to one or both people involved, but to the sims, it's just another normal consequence of walking too closely.

Corinne: "Wow, Dorian! You sure cleaned your plate. It's so shiny!"
Dorian: "Um . . . yeah, I guess it is."
Corinne: "Shiny plates are pretty cool, right? Why don't we talk about them while I look in this direction for a while?"
Dorian: "Are you trying to ignore what's going on behind you?"
Corinne: "Oh yeah! So, plates: awesome or super awesome?"

Ignoring her parents' affections was exhausting, so Corinne needed a nap. Of course, waking up from a night's sleep is also enough to make her want to nap, so it's not saying much.

More Dorian hugs. He's just such a friendly little guy!

And here's Dorian and Jaron getting their dance on. At this point, I didn't really know yet what I was going to do with the spares, so I kind of let Dorian run wild. He mostly danced or played on the monkey bars, or played games when the computer was free. It's too bad he can't paint yet and earn us some money.

Marjorie: "And then the llama said, 'No way! That's my hat too!'"
Dorian: "Ha ha ha ha! I love your jokes, Marjorie. you're so funny."
Marjorie: "Thanks, Dorian. You're a great audience."
Dorian: "We make a good team."
Marjorie: "That we do. Dorian and Marjorie are best buddies for life!"
Dorian: "Yay!"

Having a fun breakfast, Corinne?

Corinne: "The llamapegacorn won't let go of my spoon."

Corinne is also being allowed to do what she wants for the most part. Her aspiration is Joke Star and the beginning stage requires her to introduce herself to ten sims. Considering they don't leave the house much except for school, that could be a little difficult.

Luckily for Corinne, there are walk-bys, and the first one is none other than simRoxy. Unluckily, Corinne decided to introduce herself while hiding in the bushes, which is earning some serious side-eye from simRoxy.

While holding a conversation with simRoxy and some other random passerby, Corinne forays deeper into the bushes. I'm beginning to question how we raised her if this is her idea of good socialization. Maybe it wouldn't have hurt to let her talk to outsiders besides Karlee before now.

Yay! Marjorie completed the Art Prodigy aspiration! Now she has the trait Creatively Gifted and she gets to choose another aspiration. She has only a few days left before she ages up, but I want to see if I can get her to be an A student too.

Man, playing outside is so depressing. Or at least, it is for a gloomy sim. I really hope Marjorie gets a good trait when she ages up that will mitigate her gloom.

Proving that he is already more social than his older sisters, Dorian invites Olivia Spencer-Kim-Lewis over. He met her at the park when he was trying to play on a jungle gym while playful for his aspiration. Anyway, she came over and promptly ignored Dorian to clean up the house. I kind of like that girl. Corinne is having to do Jaron's usual job of gardening because everything in the damn house keeps breaking, so between work and sleep, it seems like all Jaron and Natalie do is upgrade and fix stuff.

Natalie: "Seriously, Jaron? I'm trying to have a conversation with you here."
Jaron: "Yeah, and I'm here conversing with you."
Natalie: "While peeing."
Jaron: "Yup. Multitasking, baby!"

I'm not sure this was supposed to happen because the only thing in his queue was to talk to Natalie, not to use the bathroom at all, but it is mighty hilarious.

Jaron: "I hope I didn't offend you earlier. Can I make it up to you?"
Natalie: "A rose and the Sexy Suit? You're really trying, aren't you?"
Jaron: "Is it working?"

Natalie: "It always does."

More hug pictures! I love how close the family is, especially the kids. They're so sweet.

Jaron, if you remember, is at the last step of his Serial Romancer aspiration. He just needs one more gold date and two more strong romantic relationships. He won over Nina here (while everyone else was out of the house), meaning that he has two out of three Caliente women in his pocket, but Dina is stubborn. She just won't come around to Jaron's wooing, no matter what he does. Luckily, Nina has completely forgotten that Jaron built a strong relationship with her and then broke up with her earlier. She's over it, and she's mesmerized by the Sexy Suit and succumbs to Jaron's charm.

Dorian: "Marjorie? Since you're the heiress, are you going to make Corinne and I move out when we're older?"
Marjorie: "I hadn't really thought about that yet, Dorian. Why?"
Dorian: "I just have so much fun with you. I hope we can be friends forever."
Marjorie: "Of course we will be! Nothing could mess this kind of friendship up!"

Natalie: "Hey, Jaron!"
Jaron: "Hey, Nat!"
Natalie: "Nice sports coat."
Jaron: "I know, right?"

Jaron is never going to get promoted. I'm going to be stuck looking at that stupid thing forever.

Yay! It's Marjorie's birthday! Jaron is at work, but everyone else is celebrating. Please grow up nice and get a good trait. Please.

Well, she doesn't look so bad but gosh do I ever hate the ensembles they grow up in. Birthday accessorizing appears to be especially bad.

So here's Marjorie after her makeover. She definitely has Natalie's nose, but all the rest is from Jaron. She's an interesting sim, but I really like her. She found a more appropriate hat to wear as well.

Dorian: "And then the llama said, 'That's my hat too!' Remember that one, Marjorie?"
Marjorie: "Shut up, Dorian! I am getting strangely furious right now."

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, Marjorie got the trait Hates Children and now gets angry whenever Dorian is in the room. He can simply pass through the same room that she's in, not even stopping, and it will make her angry for a few minutes. I can't wait until she has children of her own.

Dorian: "Marjorie's been different since her birthday. She's acting like we're not even best friends anymore! I think I know the solution, though."

Dorian: "Marjorie! Want to play llamapegacorn with me? Whee! Whoosh! It talks!"
Marjorie: "Get out of here. You're pissing me off."

This is kind of heartbreaking watching Dorian try to interact with his favorite family member and being continually shut down.

Dorian: "Marjorie, I brought Olivia over. Want to play with us now?"
Marjorie: "I'm going to lose it if these brats don't get out of here now! Scram, you stupid little urchins!"

Corinne: "It's okay, Dorian."
Dorian: "But why doesn't she love me anymore?"
Corinne: "She loves you. She just got a bad trait, and you won't be a child forever. Just a few more days and things will go back to normal when you grow up. In the meantime, just give her a little space, okay?"
Dorian: "I guess I can do that."

Corinne: "Man, family counseling is exhausting!"

Dorian: "So what does a kid do by himself? I guess I can draw a picture."
. . .
Dorian: "Okay, I'm bored again now. Maybe Marjorie feels better and will want to play!"

Marjorie: "Dorian, I am warning you. Get out of my sight!"
Dorian: "Okay, too soon, I guess."

Poor Dorian. It's really hard to keep these two apart in such a small house, and Dorian just wants to be around Marjorie all the time.

Natalie is at work this time and the kids don't look too excited, but Jaron is aging into an elder! He got a little confetti and a nice aging tornado, so that's something.

Here's Jaron as an elder. He put on a lot of weight during his age-up. It doesn't help that he's a glutton and eats even when he's not hungry if I don't have him doing other stuff. He started out really buff, so it's kind of disappointing, but I guess that is the aging process for a lot of people.

Natalie's turn!
Natalie: "No."
What do you mean 'no'?
Natalie: "I don't wanna. Can't I just get pregnant again and postpone my  birthday longer?"
Not happening. Just blow out the candles already, Natalie. It won't be so bad.


Natalie: "I guess. Here goes nothing."

Here's Natalie as an elder. She's still very cute, in my opinion, but she . . . um . . . how to put this politely . . . lost a lot of elasticity, if you know what I mean, as an elder. The bottom of her bust isn't even in the picture. I told my sister that I get they're trying to reflect changing bodies, but it's not like elder women don't know how bras work!

Anyway, sorry for being so sour about your elder looks, Natalie.
Natalie: "Eh, whatever. I am rocking these glasses!"

Corinne and Dorian doing their homework together. Notice that Marjorie is being sequestered in other parts of the house.

Finally! Dorian is going to age up and we can ignore Marjorie's awful trait until she's an adult and is hating having kids of her own. That'll be fun. Anyway, happy birthday, Dorian! We threw you a pajama party!

Is it just me, or is Dorian kind of hot? His age-up outfit was apparently either so bad or so unremarkable that I didn't take a picture of it, so here he is after his makeover. He's really, really cute in my opinion. *fans self* Dorian's trait is lazy. Looks like Corinne rubbed off on him a little.

Dorian: "Dad, you should try reading this cookbook some time. Maybe then you could eat something besides cereal."
Jaron: "Oh, I can cook. I just love my Sweetie Sugar O's!"

I feed them cereal a lot because I'm trying to keep them from all gaining a lot of weight, and it seems like most of the meals fill more hunger than they have even when they're uncomfortable from it, so I have to really micromanage their food intake.

This is the closest I've ever gotten to getting them all around the table at the same time.

I didn't mention Marjorie's aspiration until now. It's to be fabulously wealthy. Yeah, in the second generation of a legacy. Again, fantastic. She is just screwing me over left and right with all the randomized stuff in her personality. To start off, she got a job in customer service. She did get an A as a child, so she started as a B student in high school and I think got into the second level of the career automatically, so that's helpful.

Again with the stuff breaking! I just cannot keep their stuff working, even with anti-breakage upgrades on them.

Here's my best picture (believe it or not) of Natalie and Jaron together as an elderly couple. And there's a broken shower in the picture. Sigh.

Marjorie is very driven, I'll give her that. I'm trying to get her to be an A student in high school as well, which requires three extra credits, and of course, good performance. She managed to get the extra credits done even though she was working and going to school, but she never got her performance high enough before she grew up.

Corinne's young adult birthday has come around! Marjorie is at work and the others can barely be bothered to celebrate, but I'm happy that I've raised a sim from a baby to an adult. Corinne - and eventually Dorian - are going to hang around for at least a while after aging up to earn money for Marjorie's aspiration. Corinne instantly got a job in the astronaut career after this.

Marjorie: "Hello, Sadness Hotline? Yes, I'm gloomy and to top it off, my parents are making out again. My life is so hard!"

Marjorie: "Corinne."
Corinne: "Marjorie."

The girls don't see each other much since Marjorie's only home really at night and Corinne is working afternoons when Marjorie is home between school and work.

The next day, Corinne is the only one home, so I keep her busy in another room while Jaron courts a woman named Mya. If he can get this to be a serious romantic relationship, he'll fulfill his aspiration. I really wanted the final sim to be Dina, but she's been entirely uncooperative and I don't have time for that.

I still don't know if kids get upset about infidelity or not, so when Corinne has to pass through the front room to get to work, I make sure Jaron and Mya are in a deep conversation instead of having any romantic socials.

Yay! Finally! I completed an adult aspiration! It only took nearly his entire life.

Here's our three kids. Corinne and Marjorie both take after their parents in the weight department, being a little heavier than I would like, but Dorian looks more like Jaron did when he was young.

Gasp! SimRoxy! What did you do to your hair?
simRoxy: "You downloaded some new hair that you liked better and put it on me a while ago. I just haven't been by for you to take a picture."
No, it's not that. When did it get grey? Why are you old?
simRoxy: "Looks like someone doesn't have their aging settings set correctly.
Hmm, I'll have to remedy this.


She won't stay old forever, but she is an old friend. Natalie is very glad to see simRoxy. I thought I had it set so that other houses won't age, but obviously I don't, so I had to go back in and tinker with it. I'm still testing whether I have it done correctly at this point or not. I also have a few households of legacy loves in the neighborhood for potential spouse fodder, and I don't want them getting too old either.

This is Marjorie's version of dancing. And please notice the sink is broken again behind her. I suppose I could buy more reliable items, but part of Marjorie's aspiration is to have certain amounts of money in the bank, so I'm trying not to spend any so they can save up. First though, she has to be an adult before her aspiration will advance to the next stage, so I'm still waiting on that at the time of this picture.

Since Natalie and Dorian are creative, I have them paint a lot of pictures and put them around the house to save for Marjorie to sell later. She'll want to make certain amounts of money and selling paintings counts, luckily. I should have her paint too when she's being sad, but right now she's too busy with school and work.

What's with the glum faces, guys? Aren't you enjoying your breakfast?
Corinne: "It's just cereal. We have it everyday."
Dorian: "Yeah, and my legs are cold."
Hush up, Dorian. The short shorts are staying. For, um, entirely not creepy reasons. Anyway, is that cereal great or what?

Jaron finally got promoted and switched his awful sports coat out for a nice suit. He doesn't look too pleased with it, though. I doubt he'll reach the top of his career because both he and Natalie are filling up their life bars really fast.

So . . . loaded the house after messing around with something else that I'll talk about next slide, and everyone was standing outside in parade formation. Very strange.

Yeah, I had to go age simRoxy and simJ back down to young adult and teen, respectively. I intend for them to be family friends forever, so dying of old age was not an option. I think I might have the settings right now to keep them from aging as long as I don't play their houses, but I'm still not sure. Time will tell.

simRoxy: "Dorian, you are looking mighty fine."
Dorian: "Do I know you? I mean, thanks, but who are you?"
simRoxy: "Oh, I'm no one. Age up already, would you? I don't want to be too creepy."

And simRoxy has to go chat with Natalie while she's using the bathroom, making them both embarrassed. They really need better coding to keep these walk-ins from happening so often. It's really annoying.

For the first time in forever, everyone is present for a birthday, and, fittingly, it is for our heiress. Marjorie is becoming a young adult and finally coming into her own as the leader of the family. So, what helpful trait did she roll this time?

Marjorie: "I'm insane."

WHY? WHY? Why can't she roll a helpful or at least normal trait?! Just to recap, this girl is gloomy, hates children, and has now gone insane, and she wants to be fabulously wealthy when they still don't have paint on the outside of their house. Marjorie, you're killing me. At least be good while we find you a husband, okay?

Marjorie: "No promises."

Marjorie headed down to the park while husband-hunting. I'm looking for an eligible young adult townie or legacy love, preferably one that gets along with moody Marjorie and doesn't hate children, since someone will have to raise their kids. The only guy at the park was this guy named Zach, and I found out while adjusting ages at simRoxy's house that they apparently started dating on their own. Huh. Well, I'm not about to break that up, even if Zach is dressed in Marjorie's preferred palette. Also of note is that my RL brother's name is Zach, so I don't think I could ever actually date a Zach, but that apparently doesn't bother simRoxy.

Next is the library. Marjorie doesn't even go inside because I took a look around and there's no one of interest. Where are the good-looking, single young men in this town?

Well, not at the gym either, which is too bad since that's where Natalie found Jaron, but simRoxy was there. Marjorie stopped to ask her what the deal was with her and Zach, but simRoxy replied only, "No comment." Hmm.

Any promising guys at the nightclub, Marjorie?

Marjorie: "No, but we did spot our first legacy love. Unfortunately, she's a girl."

I was starting to wonder if there was something wrong with the legacy loves since I wasn't seeing any, but at least now I know they can make it out on the town.

Marjorie: "Can I go home yet? The museum is similarly devoid of suitable mates, and you haven't even let me go in any of these buildings except to chat to your simself, you vain creator, you."

Hmmph. No, and especially not with that attitude, missy. Time to take some extra measures.

I had plopped my legacy love groups down in empty houses since they kept mysteriously getting deleted from the out-of-world pool when I left them there, so now Marjorie can go visit those house directly and hopefully pick one out! Most of the legacy loves in my game were created by me and are three sets of young adults that cover all the aspirations and have randomized traits. If you like them, you can search for 22Taube (with a capital T) and download them. I also have two sets of all-ages legacy loves created by my friend Lydia (hippielayla86). They're super cute too! Anyway, this guy is one of mine and Marjorie and he chatted for a while before she asked to go inside. They didn't really hit it off, though.

There are plenty of eligible bachelors here -- and bachelorettes, though Marjorie wasn't looking for one of those. She chats up and "gets to know" the available guys to see if any of them click with her.

This guys is named Gordon and they get along pretty well. He and she chatted at the table for a long time.

Marjorie: "And another thing! Don't you ever say that to me again. How dare you!"
Gordon: "Whoa! I just asked how you were doing. Hey, pink hair guy, help me out here."
Pink Hair: "You're on your own, dude. That chick is insane."

Yeah, literally. Marjorie just started yelling at Gordon for no apparent reason, except I'm guessing it's because she's insane. She frequently wants to be mean to children, but Gordon is no child so I assume that's her reason.

Gordon: "And that's why the Illuminati are behind mind control of sims like us! I should know!"
Marjorie: "Yeah, I have to um...go home and wash my phone now. See you later."

Oh goody. Gordon is insane too. Still, this could be amusing, and they did build up a bit of friendship while Marjorie was visiting, while most of the other guys kept their distance. It had been a long day, though, so extending the courtship into the romantic realm would have to wait until tomorrow.

Since Natalie and Jaron are getting old but have a lot of aspiration points, I've been having them buy potions and give them to Marjorie to hopefully help her achieve her aims. Just for kicks, I had her try the thinness potion to see what would happen. I was expecting her to drop a little weight, but...

Boom! Insta-skinny! I think she looks a little funny this thin after being a little heavier all her life, but if the thinness potion makes you lose this much weight, I'm afraid to see what the fatness potion would do. Somehow, I don't think it would help. Anyway, so now Marjorie is thin, though she still has Natalie's overall curvy build.

Marjorie: "Do I HAVE to wear my party clothes? I look ridiculous."

It's almost always worked for your father. Just go invite Gordon in. You guys need a bit more friendship and then you can start flirting.

Marjorie: "So, Gordon. Good to see you. How are the Illuminati treating you?"
Gordon: "Callously, but I'm kind of over it today. You look...different. Did you, um, change your hair or something?"
Marjorie: "Me? No, nothing much. Heh. Anyway, um, it's, uh, nice to see you."
Gordon: "Yeah."
Marjorie:"...Soooo..."
Gordon: "Um..."

Things only got more awkward from there, and by the time Corinne photobombed on the way to work, Marjorie was mildly embarrassed from the conversation. Time to give it a break for a minute.

simRoxy and Jaron jump into conversation with Marjorie because they're both turkeys like that, but it really doesn't help. For some reason, the flow she had with Gordon yesterday just isn't happening today for them.

Even Jaron's girlfriend Mya, with whom he can now flirt shamelessly since he has the Player trait for finishing his aspiration, cannot help the conversation. Everything is just making it worse.

Marjorie: "Gordon, what if we just stop talking to each other and play a little chess instead?"
Gordon: "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. This communication thing isn't working too well right now."

Chess is going well, and eventually Jaron wanders over. I'm focused on Marjorie and getting her and Gordon to warm up to each other, so everyone else in the house is on unmoderated free will at this point.

WHY? Why would you do that? What is wrong with you, Jaron?

In case you can't tell, Jaron autonomously did an "alluring" introduction to Gordon all on his own, thereby ensuring that they now have a little bit of a romance bar, while Gordon and Marjorie have none.

Jaron: "What? Can't a father flirt with his daughter's would-be boyfriend?"

Um, no. No, he cannot. That's just wrong.

Jaron: "Yeah, but she's still single. Mission accomplished."

Oh great, he's that kind of father.

Marjorie: "And then he's all like, 'It's so nice to meet a handsome guy like you,' and I'm like, 'WTF, Dad?' and now I decided I don't want to date someone crushing on my dad."
Random: "That...sounds seriously weird. By the way, who are you again?"
Marjorie: "Some lady that walked up to your house to find a husband."
Random: "Right. So your whole family is weird."
Marjorie: "Well, I never claimed otherwise."

Marjorie: "Oh great, a fire. Can't they see I'm trying to find a spouse here? How selfish!"

Marjorie is not impressed by the fire, or by anyone freaking out at it. Will she witness death on her crusade for love? Will there by any men left in the house when the fire is over since I'm not in control of them right now? Will she ever find the right guy, and, more importantly, will she be able to lock him down before Jaron does? Well...

You'll have to wait until next time to find out! In the meantime, here is a picture of Marjorie making a really stupid face at the park. Thanks for reading, and check back next time to read more about Marjorie and her quest to drive me insane. Oh, and eventually the progression of the legacy too. That will hopefully happen. Come visit me at SiMania or Boolprop! Thanks again!