Pes made a clone, called Junior. He's Family-Oriented, Grumpy, MeanSpirited. A small mystery here: Pes himself is Computer Whiz, Dislikes Children, Genius, Grumpy and Mean Spirited. So I've no idea how Junior could have the Family Oriented trait.
He set him to work immediately collecting bugs and metals. "This is how we make our living. And anyway, I still need that pink diamond and palladium."
They expanded the house a little, to make enough room for the both of them. "You'll have to go to school, but I don't expect you to learn much there; I'll teach you what you need to know."
Finally Pes spotted a small piece of Palladium ore. YES! he now needed to get 10 Life Fruit. Those probably would not be in season now, so either they would have to wait for summer, or go overseas for them. He heard from a forum that Life Fruit could be found in the temple of the Sky in Egypt.
Winter seemed to last forever.
A few new folks in town; this was one of them.
Pes had used up his savings on enlarging the house, but remembered. "I have a Soulstone somewhere, that will pay for our holiday. Egypt will be educational for you. I want to go and visit The Temple of the Sky." Junior busied himself around Base Camp, chatting to people and learning to play chess, while Pes spent most of their holiday in the Temple.
Although he found many treasures (and many traps) in the Temple of the Sky, he only found three Life Fruit plants with no fruit. "It's autumn in China?"
On their return he did some redecorating.
How Pescadoes redecorate.
Junior was already making potions, and Pes expected to be able to sell any surplus. Himself, he was more interested in Alchemy, but needed to complete his Inventing profession first. He actually developed the desire to SELL his Scraptronic Workbench, now that he had finally managed to make a Miner.
"But not yet. And I still have to collect some scrap... I'll see you after school."
The next trip to Egypt, Pes again spent most of their longish holiday in the Temple, and still not solved it, but Junior had gathered minerals. They came back with a Tiberium, several other minerals and a Rainbow Gem, but no Life Fruit.
Pavlov's first litter were born just after they returned. "THESE came out of ME?"
Meet Ivanova, Pavlova and Alexandra.
"Go pester someone else for a while. I'm tired."
Junior's best friend was Giovanni II.
"You think MY Dad is wierd?"
Reggikko Winkle took employment with AP as a gardener, commissioned by the city to make and maintain two community gardens.
She was given a nice little trailer to live in, between the two gardens. As it turned out, she didn't live there long.
Pes met her at the Consignment store.
"You're a gardener? Do you by any chance grow Life Fruit? I've been looking for some of that for MONTHS. You do?"
"You live in that big house out on the edge of town? Near the Gotti Ranch?"
She realised he was very rich, and was quite attracted to him. So she agreed to marry him. Maybe it was a marriage of convenience, but they hit it off very well.
They resurfaced the old brick exterior of the house with nice new greenish bricks, and made a pleasant separate bedroom for themselves. (Up to now Pes and Junior had shared the same large room.)
Junior discussing beetles with Alexandra and her mum.
Pes meanwhile working on his quest to build a new life-form.
After about 15 solid hours in his workroom, he managed to produce PesBot! "And... initialize!"
"How many fingers?"
"Bleep bleep bleep bleep thumb."
"That works."
"Blippen."
"I still have some work to do on your speech circuits. Get back on the bench."