  First-order phase transitions, classical or quantum, subject to randomness
coupled to energy-like variables (bond randomness) can be rounded, resulting in
continuous transitions (emergent criticality). We study perhaps the simplest
such model, quantum three-color Ashkin-Teller model and show that the quantum
critical point in $(1+1)$ dimension is an unusual one, with activated scaling
at the critical point and Griffiths-McCoy phase away from it. The behavior is
similar to the transverse random field Ising model, even though the pure system
has a first-order transition in this case. We believe that this fact must be
attended to when discussing quantum critical points in numerous physical
systems, which may be first-order transitions in disguise.
