Penny, Olga, Win, Allyn, and Dongsool go to Uni.

1. Hello! Welcome to the Already In Progress college chapter!
Normally in college chapters I tell you about everyone all at once in
chronological order: Freshman year, A did this, B did that, then C
did the other. In the regular story, I tell you all about everyone
individually: A did this, this, and this while at the same time B did
that, that, and that.
I can’t really seem to make either of those styles work for this
chapter, so I am trying an Experiment: a mix of the two styles. Let
me know what you think.

2. Penny is going to the local vo-tech, or vocational-technical college,
also known as a trade school.* She is living in an apartment, since
the vo-tech doesn’t have on-campus housing.**
*Alternatively, she’s on a different lot in the Uni than the rest of the college
crew, with different community lots to frequent.
**Or possibly she’s living in a dorm I’m making over to look like apartments.

3. Penny hasn’t made any profound friendships yet, although she gets
along pretty well with most of her neighbors.
Can you tell that this picture was taken before I remembered to set
the Uni to permafall? Whoops…

4. Penny also hasn’t found a life partner yet, or shown the least
interest. I’d like her to, and Uni is great for that, so I decided to take
matters into my own hands and have her chat up this guy.
Then I realized that he’s a complete clone of Penny’s father and
abandoned the project. Penny can find her own partner on her own
schedule, and if she never finds anyone, then she never finds
anyone.
If I say that often enough, maybe I’ll believe it.

5. Allyn is mostly in college to meet her man, and she wasted no time
in beginning her search.
Unfortunately, the student center seems to be overstocked with
women.

6. There are more men at the dorm, and Allyn ends up eating with this
fine fellow on a semi-regular basis.

7. They have between one and no bolts – he must have a variable turn
on or turn off, like outfit or something – but although they get along
pretty well, Allyn never rolls a Want involving him, not even Tell A
Joke or Chat.

8. I am interpreting this as a complete lack of interest on Allyn’s part,
and so she got to try her luck with the matchmaker. Being a college
student (and more specifically being a student at my college, where
scholarship money goes towards dormie bedrooms and super-
expensive toilets), she didn’t have much to spend, but she spent it
anyway and hoped for the best.

9. Alas, the best was not forthcoming.
Because I use my own “empty template” method, I don’t have the
usual NPCs. Because I am still new to Apartment Life and Free
Time, I don’t recognize all the new NPCs. Consequently, I don’t
know if this fellow is a Hobby Leader, a Uni Coach, or just a Sports
Enthusiast. I don’t suppose the categorization matters, though,
since Allyn didn’t care for him either.

10. Allyn spent lots of time on the phone with her family because I
have decided that she will do a Perfect Mother challenge and that is
one of the requirements. Keep an eye out for the first chapter of that
coming soon to a LiveJournal and Tumblr near you! [/shameless
self-promotion]

11. Winifred is probably a near-stranger to you, since she is from my
story 100 Days of Awesome* and appears onscreen very little. Win
is a business major, and makes very sensible use of her time, even
on community lots.
*Available on my LiveJournal.

12. She uses her time in the dorm to make good contacts for her future
career, whatever that turns out to be.
I’m thinking some sort of business-based challenge, so if you have
any suggestions, please send them my way.

13. Win gets along quite well with Dongsool, but it’s a strictly platonic
relationship. I currently have Other Plans for Dongsool that do not
include Win, and they both seem perfectly fine with that.
Incidentally, this is the one college picture I have of Dongsool. Rest
assured that he had a smooth college career, especially considering
that he knows more than most of his professors.

14. Allyn gave herself over to the practicing of romance. It’s one way
to build Charisma, but at least for Allyn, that was an unimportant
side effect.

15. Allyn went to community lots regularly, checked out darn near
every man on campus, and went on multiple dates. Even men who
registered boltage in her Relationship Panel never inspired more
than a “Meh” and a desire to be friends.

16. Never, that is, until a random matchmaker drop in Junior Year.
Allyn and Ryan Wheeler hit it off immediately, despite his
decidedly bohemian taste in clothing.

17. Winifred turned out to have acquired sophisticatedly conservative
taste in clothing when I wasn’t looking, and finally stopped rolling
up Wants to Buy New Clothes Already after choosing this little
number.* Win also acquired a 4.0 GPA when I wasn’t looking.
*The “little number” that Winifred is wearing is a default replacement for the
horrible double-breasted button-up suit that is worn is some levels of the
business track, and that comes in like nine colors for no good reason. The
default is by Dimentzia, the dress is a 3t2 conversion by Rented-Space, and
there’s an excellent chance that it’s recolored by Mikexx2.

18. But that’s not all! Win also acquired a steady boyfriend by the
name of Aren Reeves when I wasn’t looking, and Win, Allyn, and
their respective beaus went on lots of double dates.
Here they are having lovely interesting conversations in the movie
theater, for example.

19. Penny made friends in her building, but she didn’t have time for
dating. Heck, she barely had enough time to eat!

20. And bathing, of course, was more or less out of the equation.

21. In addition to her classes, Penny got a part-time job with the local
United Minerals gas station and garage. She loved it, and spent
hours working on engines and motors and systems and all those
other automotive things that I know absolutely nothing about.

22. She was especially fond of the refurbishing aspect of the job, and is
now planning to open a garage and body shop of her own after
graduation.
And graduate she did, with a surprising* 3.2 average, even if I
didn’t get a picture of it.
*”Surprising” because I only had Penny skill and/or study when she rolled a
Want for it, and I didn’t expect a Popularity/Pleasure Sim to roll those Wants
so often.

23. Olga got off to a great start her freshman year, with a shiny new
sort-of-goth look, a shiny new gender preference (females), and a
shiny new sort-of-goth-if-you-define-“goth”-as-“wearing-
predominantly-black” girlfriend named Caryl Jung.

24. Olga and Caryl’s relationship developed very nicely, with good
dates, complementary Wants, and hearts of assorted colors flying
right and left.

25. But then things hit a roadblock.
OLGA: So, Caryl, I’ve been thinking…
CARYL: About vhat?
OLGA: About, you know, the future, and how you and I might, um,
fit into it, even together, maybe…?
CARYL (flatly): I vill not marry you.
OLGA: What?! But – Why not?!

26. CARYL (V.O.): Because I remember vhen you kame to kampus.
You vere vearing bright kolors, green und pink. Not very goth at
all.
OLGA (V.O.): But everyone gets horrible transition outfits – it
doesn’t mean anything!
CARYL (V.O.): It is still not very goth.
OLGA (V.O.): Well, how can I prove my goth credentials?
CARYL (V.O.): You could die? (as Olga gasps) Only temporary!
Vampires und zombies und resurrection spells kan be used, ja?

27. So Olga began contemplating how she could manage to fulfill
Caryl’s prerequisite for matrimony with the least amount of pain,
risk, and/or inconvenience.
That was the setup of a Major Plot Point for my (un)Officially
Wacky Boolprop Challenge, by the way. If you don’t follow the
story, it’s not too late to get caught up at my LiveJournal.
[/shameless self-promotion]
Also [/chapter], since that’s the Plot set up and everyone’s activities
up to date.

28. In case you were wondering… No, I don’t know who these fine
gentlemen are, nor why they are in one tiny dorm room in a state of
partial undress. Best not to speculate, really. But the picture came
out very nicely, don’t you think?
Until next time, Happy Simming!