Higher Education Part One
cw: If you're not caught up to the latest installment of Sims In Bloom: "What Happened to Charlie" and want to be before reading, there will be spoilers
The weather in Britechester was warm and welcoming when Ash and Nyon arrived at Foxbury Institute. Sleek white buildings glistened as fountains danced in the centre of the modern campus, and the two newest students at the renowned university took in their surroundings.
The stylish centre of learning would be their home for the next twelve credits, and they hoped to make the most of their time here. But first, they hoped for good roommates.
The guys moved in to Tidal Tower at the south end of campus, with views that looked over three-quarters of the university town. Their roommates were Dean, who was slightly older than his housemates and looking to change careers, Dax, who loved fiddling with the plumbing and appliances, Rowan, the in-house baker, Shingo, who loved listening to loud music and cleaning up after everyone else, Kyler, who loved reading and playing violin with Meagan, their only female housemate.
You might think Meagan had her pick of the guys in the dorm (save for Ash, who was hopelessly devoted to his girlfriend, Pearl), but Meagan wasn't even into guys, and she thought the university's roommate randomization system had punked her!
Ash and Nyon managed to snag a room with just two beds, which made them both feel a little bit more at ease in a dorm full of strangers. But their roommates were easy to get along with, and Rowan always brought food back from his culinary courses across the quad.
Ash even splurged on a microwave and mini-fridge for the dorm so they'd have a lot less rotten food to deal with.
Their first week on campus, the guys soaked in the atmosphere before the grind of coursework caught up to them both. The Bot Squad hosted an event on the quad with all kinds of robots - Ash even made acquaintances with one that walked and talked named Grumbly!
These first days on campus were new and exciting. All of it was almost enough to get Ash's mind off the fact that Pearl's ex-fiance, Charlie, was now a vampire hellbent on stalking them!
Totally normal problems any university student could relate to, right?
At least gothic Nyon thought nothing of his friend's strange life. In spooky Ravenwood, everyone had probably been stalked by a vampire once or twice.
Nyon suggested Ash tell his stepfather, Conrad, Brindleton Bay's Chief of Police, but Ash feared that would just put more people in danger. "Cops don't go around arresting vampires. Vampire bites disappear from corpses and they can never prove it," he pointed out.
"So what are you going to do? I'm okay with it if you want to hang garlic in our dorm, but I don't know what everyone else will think. Maybe garlic will help protect me from the black cloud Grim said he saw over my future, too."
"I just have to hope if he comes for one of us, he comes for me first. But don't worry - Charlie makes it personal and he doesn't even know you. He won't come after you."
Ash spoke more confidently than he felt, but he could only think one day at a time regarding the looming threat of Charlie.
He knew Pearl was scared as she soldiered on in the city, working hard with the San Myshuno Ballet Company on their next production. Ash would give just about anything to be able to comfort her in person, but Britechester was at least three hours away from the city by train, and he had to remain committed to his schoolwork.
Both Ash and Nyon took on a full courseload of four credits for their first term, hoping to finish with distinguished degrees before the end of winter. Ash was enrolled in Computer Science courses that would help his plans to work for his family at Landgraab Engineering, while Nyon hoped a degree in biology would lead to a job in medicine or mortuary services. He was still undecided, but he could figure out his future while he studied.
And the guys studied a lot! Some courses required presentations, others term papers, and all of them came with endless homework. Ash and Nyon had their noses in their books almost as soon as they'd made themselves at home in Tidal Tower.
When they really needed a break they hung out at the Foxbury Commons building, challenging one another to games of ping pong and dining on cafeteria-grade lobster thermidor.
They often found strangers in the dorms, visiting one roommate or another, but they felt good knowing that while they were here, they'd have each other.
Whether chased by black clouds or vengeful vampires, they were determined to not just survive, but thrive, in university. ->
<- Last Sims In Bloom Installment
NOTE: I don't expect to get deep into storyline with any of the roommates. Since it's my first university playthrough ever, I didn't want to sweat the NPCs and I'm just letting them exist. Their looks are completely random and I dislike so many things about all of their looks (mainly that I have to root out some height/body presets causing invisible limbs), but I'm more interested in getting the guy's through uni than sitting in CAS for roommates who might disappear every term.
NOTE 2: I also started a whole new save file for this series, just to try to keep their entire time at university confined to one 28-day winter season and make sure I don't waste vital time with Lavender, the legacy heir. I did bring over Nyon's mother Olive, the entire Gordon household, Pearl of course, and Charlie and Sonia (because I can't exactly pretend he's a threat if he's not even in the save!).
I'll be cheating the degrees they achieve in the main save and lining up storylines, earned skills or traits, etc, but this was the best way I could just experience uni gameplay for the first time, so next time I can maybe figure out which mods might help or enhance my usual style of play. Timing-wise, I'm trying to get through 12 credits in three terms, and if each term is 3-4 months each with no breaks, then conceivably they could complete their degrees in one sim year of my main timeline, which for storytelling isn't so bad even if it's unrealistic.
WCIF: You might be thinking "Ash looks pretty good in the banner!" and that's because he's posed with one of @deardiaryts4's festive gift poses, the Calm Frame posepack! Thank you for the pose, Zen, it is spectacular just like all the cc you share! 🔥🙌 (Note that you'll want to use it on a tall sim; the rig made Ash taller than the top of Nyon's mohawk and that's why he's tucked behind a little.) But the banner was made from this photo, which shows off more of the pose:
