Scooter 3.1 - OPERATION: Horizons

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Hello and welcome back to the Scooters everybirdy! A new day, a new generation! That's right--Generation 3 is here!!
Let's recap: heiress Randy made plans to move to Oasis Springs to attend La Fiesta Tech. She got accepted into the aerospace engineering and comp sci program Project: Althalan.
This generation will be a bit different in that the first half of this generation will be dedicated almost entirely to a story. More so than the last 2 generations. I hope you'll enjoy it.
We pick up where Randy's journey begins anew, in the hot, dusty desert world...

 

PROJECT: ALTHALAN

Do you have a natural curiosity? Is it something that, if left unchecked, could go to the stars and back? Finish or earn your science degree with Project: Althalan, and gain work experience that will guarantee you a lifetime of staying power in the scienctific fields of your dreams.

In collaboration with La Fiesta Technical College Nevada (LFTC-NV), Project: Althalan provides you with room and board, a scholarship to you get you off the ground, and positions that will both challenge and enrich your minds as scientists. For those looking for an unorthodox approach to post-secondary education, LFT is the place for you.

If this sounds like the right match for you, visit lftc.nv.edu/p-alt today, to go over your options.

(Presented & paid for by the government of Nevada.)

Jorim Tana: "Welcome to Project: Althalan--"

Voiceover: "Miranda. Nalini. Scooter."

Jorim: "I am Dr. Jorim Tana. You have been accepted into the initiative. Congratulations. This is a privilege offered to precious few: only minds of the highest calibre may find their future with our initiative. If you are watching this, you are either en route or have arrived at one of our housing co-ops in Oasis Springs. Included with this email are brochures to help orient you to the program; mainly, what position you have been accepted to, where you will be working, and when you start. Since you have been accepted to the--"

Voiceover: "Winter. Semester."

Jorim: "You will begin on--"

Voiceover: "January. 8th."

Jorim: "Between now and then, you should become acquainted with your roommates, if applicable, and your lab director. We look forward to working with you."

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．
 

Bedrock Strait, Oasis Springs...

 

Not long at all after writing back to the coordinator of the project, Randy relocated to Oasis Springs: a suburb in the much bigger Del Sol tri-state area. Here, things were drier, hotter, and nothing like she had ever lived in before. She was immediately homesick for her little town of Brindleton Bay, but knew her nostalgia needed to wait.

 

Everything here was different. For one, she was living in a dorm. In a shoebox of a room that was quite frankly, a far cry from her room at home. She had roommates. She had to share a bathroom. With a boy. Yikes.

She had to get up at some ungodly hour every morning to go to work, because she disliked the idea of blowing scholarship money on random things. And she didn't want to ask her parents for help. But she had already made her plans, and there was no way she was crawling back home now. She could deal.

It was unnatural celebrating Winterfest where it was hot and didn't snow, and without her family. But with her dreams of discovering the unknowable unknown on the line, it meant little in the end.

Besides, her new roommates were pretty cool.

They were cute, too. Randy was having a crisis.

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．

Goals? Yeah, goals!

Miranda Nalini Scooter
Renaissance Sim ~ Self-Assured, Clumsy, Vegetarian, Quick Learner (+ Mentally Gifted)

Randy's goal: Complete one career based on skills from aspiration

Collin Jane Pix
Nerd Brain ~ Jealous, Genius, Perfectionist, Quick Learner

Collin's brain: Master 1 mental skill & complete elemental collection (must be assembled on a table)

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．

Let's take a closer look at this generation's very special guest--Ripp Grunt, from the Sims 2 Strangetown, remade for TS4 by Maxis. aka, BEST BOY. This generation had aliens in a world where aliens aren't meant to be out and about. Who else could be better?

Collin: Ripp...you pulled an all-nighter again, didn't you?

Ripp: Yeah, sure did. How can you tell?

Collin: How can you not?

During the day, this house is all work, so naturally at night they gotta be all play. Y'know, to balance things out.

Collin got a sick VR gaming rig from Father Winter. We stan.

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．

Who is Collin Pix? If you recall way back in Gen. 1 I mentioned how every spouse to be married into the Scooters is a previously established character. Collin is actually an heiress of a round-robin legacy I took part in on Tumblr with some friends that were active at the time. I took over halfway through Gen. 2 and completed Gen. 3 (and then it died lol). I actually had a cool plot that I more or less recycled the idea of for this save, and you can actually still go read this at pixlegacy. This Collin is not an alien though. I didn't want to play with occults directly for this save.

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．
 

Remember when I said one of Randy's skills was Dancing? Yeah. Uhhhh.

You keep working on that, babe.

Ripp: Canada, huh? I've never even heard of Brindleton Bay. What's that like?

Randy: Way colder, way wetter, and way more scenic than here, honestly. I'm not vibing with this whole, desert feel kind of location. It's so...alien.

Ripp: Haha. It takes a certain kind of aptitude for it. Me, I grew up in a town just like this. Strangetown.

Randy: "Strangetown"? What kind of three dollar B-movie kind of name for a town?

Ripp: (chuckles) That's exactly what it is! Tiny little gulch of a place, barely a freeway large. (sigh) Got a lot waiting for me there. And at the same time, nothing at all. That's the kinda place Strangetown is.

Randy: I think...I know what you mean, dude.

One part of Randy's aspiration involves getting to level 3 in a bunch of careers so...burgers it is.

Randy: I don't even have my degree yet and it's already useless to me.

Collin: ...ugh, and get this: I have to start at A-labs tomorrow! That place sucks.

Ripp: Not A-labs. That place smells permanently like soup.

Collin: Like soup! Exactly! I hate being treated like a first-year student, ugh. This project has gone to shit under Tana.

Ripp: I hear you, dude. Her admin style is fucking weird. I wish we still had Dr. Parker. She was competent.

Collin: Yeah, if I had a choice between Tana or literal rats, I'd chance it with the rats, man. She gets under my skin.

Ripp: Don't let her hear you saying that, Collin. She's a straight-up tyrant if you asked anyone at A-labs.

Collin: Pfff. I might just, you watch me.

The very next day, Collin's transfer was complete and she was sent to one of LFT's older labs at the very outskirts of town. It was where a lot of first-time technicians for the project were assigned to.

Collin: (sigh) Grin and bear it, Collin. You've got a lot more integrity than to throw your job away over some annoying managerial suit.

Collin: At least they keep the equipment updated. INCON unit, power up.

INCON: Swipe badge. ... Welcome back, user 300088391: Collin Pix.

Collin: Arm for schematic project. Prepare to receive blueprint for orbital soft prototype, SU: 00-1-998. Enter.

INCON: Affirmative. It seems you last accessed this protoype: 67 minutes ago.

Collin: What! How's that possible? Shit, did I forget to log out at C-lab?! No way I forgot about something that trivial....

Collin: (sniff, sniff) Oh man. That's a new smell. Is that...pizza...? Or microwaved struggle meal gone seriously wrong?

Randy might've signed on as a code monkey so she sits behind a computer all day, but she's a tough mudder. She'll kick anyone's ass. She'll kick your ass. She'll kick your dog's ass. She'll kick her own ass.

She has a clear idea of where she's going, but she never forgot where she came from.

She kept one of the toys Josie gave to her as a baby, and the rocket diorama she made in high school. For sentiment's sake.

To help Randy acclimate a little bit, Collin took her to her favourite restaurant in town. It was a strictly off-the-record thing, a friendly gesture to help out the newest member of their team.

Collin: ...so, programming? How's that so far?

Randy: It's the most like being in class, honestly. I just sit at a computer all day and...

Collin/Randy: Parse code.

Randy: ...yeah. Did you do programming too?

Collin: Yeah, we always start there if you want to move into the aerospace faculty. Give it a year. You can end up in Programming 2 or Comp-dev like me. That's Compound Development; making all the parts and stuff.

Randy: Like, all the parts for space vessels?

Collin: More like, the parts for the parts. Althalan's not the poor man's NASA, Randy, unfortunately. There's a lot more to go before you get anywhere in the field.

Randy: (sigh) I guess I always knew that but I didn't want to admit it to myself. Life is always going to be hard work, no matter how shiny the spaceship school brochure looks.

Collin: Yeah. It's good you learn that now, though. But really, you could do a lot worse than LFT. They really are a top science school.

Randy: (chuckles) Collin...let's talk about something that isn't school and work for a sec. Can we? I'm a little burnt out on it already.

Collin: Sorry, Randy! You're right, ugh, let's not let this crap take over our literal waking life.

So it may or may not have been New Years' Eve in game when I shot this despite me a whole page ago saying this was early January. Whatever don't worry about it.

Either way, enjoy Collin fully embracing her public wino evolution.

They finished off dinner and drinks at the breakwater by the lake.

Collin: ...so, "Randy", huh? That's really not the first nickname I'd think of out of "Miranda".

Randy: Yeah, but my parents liked it, and honestly, I do too. Not to be annoying, but it's...different.

Collin: No, different is good! I mean, my name is literally someone's last name. We can be in weird name gang together.

Randy: (chuckles) I'd like that. You, me...and a guy named Ripp holy crap what's up with that.

Okay sure Randy, I guess you can be a public wino too.

Vendor: Come get your snacks here! Chase your 5 in the afternoon in-public wine with our delicious baked favourites here!

Randy is still working on her comedy gold delivery.

Randy: So, what did the fish say when it swam into a wall?

Dam.

Yes, I'll be here all week everybody.

 

Don't tell the others but uhh...Collin has the nicest bedroom in the dorm.

Collin: I also have the nicest, non-shared bathroom. But that's neither here nor there, henny.
 

Ripp took Randy to the library in town to get a headstart on some homework. The house is a little too full of distractions.

Ripp: ...as you can see, LFT spares no expense in building the nicest library possible for its students to literally never use. Because they are all hermits that stay home.

Randy: I guess they're catching up on their homework or whatever.

Ripp: (chuckles) You assume the very best, Scooter. The very, very...unrealistic best.

Randy: What, like it's hard to balance school, work and a social life? That's baby steps.

Ripp: (winces) Just wait and see. Wait and see.

Randy: Don't think I'm some kinda noob or anything--really, I know I'm new to the whole, college thing--but I'm serious. I've been juggling like eight different things at once since I was like, thirteen.

Ripp: Never said you couldn't, Randy. Just...Althalan is...it's different. I'll give it that. It's different, and if you're not careful, it can take a lot out of you.

Randy: What do you mean by that?

Ripp: ...nothing. Just a big work load. That's all. Really.

lol Mat came into the library followed by a kid who pulled out his laptop and started talking to him like he was lecturing him about something. Good to know he's taken up tutoring.

On top of the terrace roof was a telescope, so of COURSE I had Randy have a go at that. In the name of science, duh!

Randy: Wow! I can see the edge of the map from here!

And she came home with this really awesome print of the sky, which serves as a bitter reminder that the sky in-game doesn't look a DAMN THING LIKE THAT.

No I'm not bitter you are.

.・゜-: ✧ :-　[◩_◪]　-: ✧ :-゜・．

Well, there's the first chapter of gen. 3 squared away! I hope you enjoyed, and I hope I can find a better way to balance this weird story-leaning gameplay hybrid a bit better. I'll see you next time with a new development in the Project: Althalan saga. Byyeeeeeeeee