Fanon:Newson family (SimVille)

The Newson family is a Maxis-created family in SimVille.

Original MTS post
The following was posted to ModTheSims on July 21, 2018. The original post can be found here.

'''The Newsons—not new but they're doing good... or are they?'''

I remember being very turned off by the physical appearances of this family when I first installed Apartment Life. For many years this was enough to deter me from even touching the family, and they sat in the family bin quietly in many of my hoods, unwanted and unplayed. But as time passed, I had a change of heart, and began to admire the Newsons for being a non-nuclear family with a pretty incredible story that EAxis tried to build with them. I allowed Gavin Newson to be hired as a server at Amar's Restaurant, and soon decided to move them into my hood to be played with. And good grief, is this one difficult family to manage, given its size and its two young bouncing inhabitants promising to steal sleep from everyone else in the household! But before I get ahead of myself, let's have a look at how the Newsons are doing in SimVille.



After their parents' untimely death, the adopted Newson clan is faced with the reality of separation and a return to foster care or weathering the unknown future together. With no parents to guide or protect them, can the Newson's continue to provide each other the safety and security their adopted parents provided?

The Sims

Gavin Newson



At his age, Gavin never thought he would be adopted. He is grateful for the chance at a real family and has come to fiercely love his brothers and sisters. In fact, Gavin couldn't imagine life without them. He decided long ago that he would do whatever it took to protect and care for them!

Money was tight after their long, tedious, and costly travels to reach SimVille from their old home. Juggling an overnight cashier job at the Corner Stop with an evening cleaning job at DiscoGambling, plus the additional stress of high school and the boatloads of homework that come with it, sure left Gavin feeling like he's been getting grey hair before he's legally old enough to drink and buy cigarettes. One day, when he had gotten terminated for falling asleep on the job at the Corner Stop, Amar Newbie took notice and decided to offer him a much more manageable job at his restaurant. The hours were long and irregular, but the pay was generous, and Gavin wouldn't have to juggle two jobs simultaneously to keep the food on the table. Gavin accepted... and now Ginger is mad at him for not being home enough.



Ginger Newson



Ginger was a troubled child with a troubled past before flowering under the loving kindness of her adopted mother, Gloria. With Gloria gone, Ginger faces the unknown challenges of being an adult and acting as a mother to her siblings.

Ginger has always wanted a happy family... but not like this! Her four younger siblings take up a lot of space and energy in the apartment they live in, and the cramped quarters only serve to exacerbate the problem. She's okay with Gabriella and Gallagher, but she's not very prepared to take on raising two toddlers at a time. With Gloria around, things were fine, but after Gloria's death and Gavin's constant absence from the home in order to find work, Ginger's being left to bear the load of all of the work that needs to be done around the house alone. She's been getting Gabriella and Gallagher to help out as best as they can, but it's still up to her to make sure the young tots learn all of their toddler skills before they grow up... and by the way things are going right now, they might not make the deadline in time.



Gabriella Newson



Gabriella, a precocious child, has been dubbed the princess of the Newson family. This little wonder enjoys the lavish love and attention of her siblings and has a knack for wrapping people around her little finger.

Gabriella's the attention seeker of the household, and it doesn't matter who in the family is giving her attention, so long as it's positive and not because she's in trouble. With Gavin frequently out at work or school, Ginger's the only person that's above her that she can pick on to get attention from. Of course, young Garrett and Georgia make for a great, albeit illiterate, audience as well; she frequently tries to get their attention through games and goofiness, but usually their need for food and clean diapers wrenches the attention from Gabriella to the toddlers' needs. She likes Garrett and Georgia better than her brother, but all that love and adoration takes a major backseat when they start crying—and all of a sudden they become the world for her older siblings.



Gallagher Newson



Gallagher is one of a kind. He is a happy child who tends to be shy around strangers. He stays to himself more than any of the other children but he is coming out of his shell day by day. Will his siblings continue to bring out the best in him?

Gallagher gets along fine with Gabriella, but he doesn't like it when Gavin and Ginger tell him to play with his younger siblings. All Garrett and Georgia seem capable of doing is chewing on toys and spitting them back out, all covered in baby spit and slime. Gallagher starts out with 0 daily relationship points with both of his younger toddler sibs, and while he doesn't necessarily hate them, he's more of the passive-aggressive type when interacting with them. When Gavin tells him to bring them a baby bottle, he'll bring the bottle but neglect to warm up the milk. When Ginger tells him to empty the trash bin filled with dirty diapers, he'll take out the trash but won't put in a new trash bag until Ginger explicitly tells him to. Gallagher often gets jealous when he sees Gabriella giving her attention to Garrett and Georgia, wishing that he was the one who got all of the tender care and the attention in the family.



Garrett Newson



The bouncing male fraternal twin in the household has quite a knack for helping to keep Ginger awake all night. The Newsons can't afford daycare, so Garrett has never had much exposure to outside Sims... which suits a shy tot like him just fine. He's an unaggressive one, even when Gallagher is being half-hearted to him. He seems to be Ginger's favourite, as she spends more time with him than Georgia. He still, however, hasn't mastered any of his toddler skills yet. Will he be able to make it, or will the Newsons' constant bickering and division keep him from growing up well?

Georgia Newson



Georgia is Gavin's personal favourite, and while Georgia's a lot grouchier than the rest of the household, she seems to enjoy Gavin's presence more than anyone else's. She's less likely to open her mouth to laugh at Gabriella's performances, but she doesn't particularly appreciate Gallagher's snubbing, throwing loud and angry fits when Gallagher steps over or around her. Gavin wants Georgia to grow up well, but work and money all seem to be bigger things on his mind, and he frequently leaves Georgia in the care of Ginger, who's angered by Gavin's seeming half-heartedness towards raising his younger adopted siblings in favour of making money and being away from the apartment. As such, Ginger's having to build that relationship up with Georgia—a difficult task with Garrett and the older kids all competing for her attention. Will she be able to make it, or will everyone else steal much needed attention from her?

The house

The Newsons reside in the Teleprompter Apartments, which we covered in our story about the Jocks. They reside on the north side of the second floor, and their apartment is practically a mirror image of the Jocks' apartment.



A brief glimpse of life in the Newson family

It started at around 3AM when Garrett and Georgia conveniently decided to wake up together at the same time. Garrett sat happily in his crib, but Georgia wanted out. Now.



Still tired and groggy, Ginger got the little tot out of her crib and kept her amused. She still doesn't have a high enough relationship with her to teach her how to walk and talk.





Garrett and Georgia should at least graduate from using diapers, and since they needed to go anyways, Ginger decided to place them on the potty chair and save herself the diaper-changing hassle. Goodness, that was not fun when they were infants!



Ginger needs coffee. Parenthood is a tiring full-time job.



Ginger gets Gavin out of bed at 4 to help teach Georgia how to walk. She's making good progress; she should be able to learn it before she grows up.



When Gallagher and Gabriella wake up, Gavin needs to make them breakfast (such a shame Sim kids aren't allowed to cook). Ginger would eat, but Georgia insists on being fed attention first.



Gavin and Ginger may very well be high school dropouts at this point, given their responsibilities outside of school pushing them into adulthood far sooner than they would've liked. They initially tried working on a "rotating" schedule where Gavin and Ginger would take turns going to school, since babysitting services are much too expensive (and useless, given how the nanny can barely take care of herself) for them. However, it's not a particularly even system, as Ginger finds herself staying at home more often than not. Gavin, being a Fortune Sim, insists that he should go to school in order to get a good education for a better paying job down the road. Ginger, meanwhile, argues that the current system doesn't work if Gavin doesn't honour the rotations properly and that his current job is a dead-end job anyways; no matter how well Gavin delivers food to hungry guests, it's not going to improve his cooking skill and he will never become chef material to land a chef position (a position fellow colleague Angela Kovax is much more qualified for anyways). Plus, Gavin is actually making pretty good money for his job: the tips are pretty nice, and Amar's a fair employer. Shouldn't Ginger be given opportunities too?

Today, Gavin assumed his position as promising young scholar, even if he's not exactly honour roll material. Ginger watches with disapproval.



Very well then, Ginger thinks to herself. If Gavin's not gonna help raise the kids then he's not going to be their father-figure. Then I'll teach the twins to respect me and not you. You were never their father. You know what hurts more? You really weren't their father at all!

Well, nasty thoughts aside, Ginger needs some breakfast first.



The twins have exhausted their reserves of energy and are tired once again. They'll be back up and crying within a few hours. Ginger places them in their cribs, then passes out on the couch.







The solar panels on the roof of the building practically makes the complex self-sustaining! It actually really helps, given how rent here is pretty steep.



At 11AM, the twins wake up. Georgia stirs up a fuss and wakes Ginger up from her dreamy, sleep-deprived slumber.



Ginger can only be in one place at a time, though. Garrett begins screaming for his exit as well.



When Ginger finally gets around to getting him, he had already forgotten about his desire to explore the outside world and has discovered the interesting nature of boogers instead.



Ginger might be able to save her grades... if Gavin would let her go to school!



Ginger's famished. She's gonna have to eat first! Let's just hope the twins get along with each other in her brief absence...





Oh, well, at least their twin bond has held up. ADORBS!



Amidst the dog knocked-over trash can and the sweltering heat of the SimVille sun, Gavin's grades are less than optimal.



Gavin has an hour before he has to work. He's still busy thinking about having enough money in the bank for a nice retirement... and that starts with generous tips at the restaurant.



"Aww, what? Ginger didn't potty train you today? C'mon, she's been sitting at home all day! What does she do anyways?"



With the bathroom currently occupied by two Sims too many, Ginger has to use the public bathroom downstairs by the swimming pool.



"Hey, I was the one who woke up at three in the morning to tend to the kids!! I was flat out tired by the time morning came around, and I had to look after the two while you just went to school!"

"What, you think I had a jolly good day today? I couldn't finish Mr. McCumber's assignment in time and it was due today! How do you think I'm going to graduate at this rate?!"



"Ugh!! You just leave me here with the twins! You don't even help change their diapers or feed them!"

"And you don't even try to find a job or anything, so I have to work to keep the money flowing! I'm the only one who's making money here, you know!"

"What?! How on earth am I supposed to get a job?!?! Who's going to look after the two during the day?!"

"You are!"

"You don't even let me go to school!! How am I supposed to graduate??!! Am I supposed to be a juvenile delinquent for parenting a bunch of kids that aren't even mine?!?! What did I do to deserve all this?! Are you just going to ignore me now?! Huh?!"



Well, now that she's at home, she may as well just go ahead and teach Georgia how to walk. If Gavin doesn't help take care of the kids, then she might as well do so and get the kids attached to her so they'll give him the cold shoulder. First things first: Garrett and Georgia need to be able to walk on their two feet!



At 3PM, the kids come home from school. Gallagher brought home his good friend Isaiah Gavigan, who's at least more interested in him than the twins.



Isn't it nice when you receive positive attention?



Gabriella runs into the apartment, only to be shushed back out by Ginger; the twins are sound asleep. It's gonna be a great afternoon for Gallagher, now that he's no longer competing for attention from his sister.



After a few minutes of playing, Isaiah's rumbling stomach (and the Newsons' lack of food in the fridge for big meals every day) leads him to buy a bag of chips from the vending machine.



Ginger, meanwhile, is much too tired to think straight, let alone get up to play with her siblings. That's fine—they're old enough to take care of themselves. May as well catch up on some more shuteye...



...at least, until the twins wake her up again. This time, they're hungry, and she definitely can't skip out on that. She places them in their high chairs and fetches baby food from the fridge.





If there's one advantage of working at Amar's businesses, it's discounts at every one of Amar's establishments! 50% off cooked food at Fresh Rush Grocery sure saves Ginger a heck of a lot of time when it comes to feeding the rest of the family (well, except Gavin, since he works at a restaurant for crying out loud! Why would getting food ever be of concern for him?). Grilled cheese sandwiches are a favourite in the Newson household.



On the plus side, Garrett has been successfully potty trained! Georgia will be soon to follow. Potty training's the easy bit, though, since they need to go pee anyways. The young tots are still gonna need to learn how to walk and talk if they're to have a great start to life.



Not today, though! Ginger's passed out on the bed, having been operating on-and-off today on barely any sleep.



"Coochy-coochy coo!!" Gabriella really adores her younger siblings.



"Y'know Gallagher, I should be asking you the questions about having younger siblings. I'm an only child, but mom wants to have another baby. What's it like?"

"Well, they wet their pants and cry all night, for starters."

"Is it really that bad, though?"

"Well, you've never had kids before, so how would you know?"

"True, true."



Amar knows Gavin has kids at home to care for, and the restaurant usually quiets down after 9pm, so Amar will typically let Gavin off early. Tonight, Gavin gets home at 10pm. Time to put the tots back into their cribs... where's Ginger?



"What?! You can't have just gone to bed without putting Garrett and Georgia back into their cribs! ... No, you are NOT going to just pull the covers over your head and ignore me! You're going to get out of bed and give me an explanation!"



"Oh, now you're talking?! I barely slept last night and these toddlers have been waking me up like the most inconvenient alarm clocks all day!! YOU, meanwhile, got to go to school today! I'm at a D right now, Gavin!! I'm not about to be expelled from school because of you!!"



Eventually, they reach a resolution: Gavin and Ginger will each take one toddler and place them in their cribs; Ginger gets the bed and the opportunity to go to school tomorrow; and Gavin will sleep on the couch and stay at home until he has to go to work. And for once, the apartment is quiet... for now.





...Until the twins wake Gavin up! Should he apologize to Ginger now?



Conclusion

The Newsons have been through a lot of hard, unfortunate times, but they've also been very lucky to have one very important thing: a family. The situations they've been through are like a blacksmith's forge to metal; the heat seems to destroy it, but in reality it helps refine and reshape the material to produce something stronger and more useful. Unfortunately for the Newsons, they have not yet experienced the fullness of the refining process, and in fact may be too quick to blame it as the reason that their bonds are now beginning to crumble, now that they've settled in.

Thanks for reading. Stay tuned for more!