Fanon:Day family

The Day family is a family in SimVille that consists of Cody Day and his five illegitimate sons: Jaden, Christian, Ethan, Bradley, and Taylor.

Original MTS post
The Days -- today's not the day

Before I begin, I'd like to make a note about my play style in this hood.

I'm a huge cheater, so I abuse cheats (sometimes to the point of causing problems, although I'm very careful not to do any VBTs!). I play with aging off because that's how I enjoyed The Sims 1 (I let babies and toddlers age up, because eventually I'll tire of the diaper fillers, but once they're independent I'll only let them age up when I want them to). I play with testingcheatsenabled and the Allmenus cheat, and I enable the former before loading any lots, so I can simply drag a Sim's motives, skills, personality points, etc. up or down. Very cheaty, I know, but I feel quite powerful!

Anyways, with that little blurb out of the way, here comes...

The Day Family

(I am not going in any particular order with the families in this neighborhood; I'll just do whatever whenever I feel like it)

The Days are, from the outside, a seemingly "innocent" family consisting of a single father caring for his five boys.

Except, it isn't.



You will have gotten the "single father" and the "five boys" parts correct, but he's not caring for the boys. The boys are all his, but they're all someone else's at the same time.

Cody Day

This is Cody.




 * Cody was once a womanizer, but an electrocution zapped his memory. Unfortunately, he's now left with all the kids he had with all those women, and he doesn't remember how they came to be!

Cody's a Pleasure Sim, with Romance as his secondary aspiration. Back when he was younger, he was the Don Lothario of his day, juggling tons and tons of relationships and enjoying steamy nights under the covers. Except until one morning, when an electrocution from a failed attempt at repairing his computer zapped his memory. Then five women that he used to have a relationship with (which the electrocution handily zapped his memory of) showed up to deliver the illegitimate sons they had with him. Cody denies that he was the father, but hrm, all the paperwork's been signed, and the women clearly are furious with him... so he took them in. But the opposite of love is not hate; it's indifference.

Now, even though SimNation Police seem incapable of catching anybody other than truants violating curfew, they do raise an eyebrow at domestic abuse and act accordingly when they receive such reports. But abuse through indifference is a different story. Few people can see such signs. Cody isn't necessarily attacking his boys, but at the same time he doesn't seem to care if they're hungry. He's much too busy settling back into his womanizing ways, chatting on the phone with the girl he met at the bar last week. He also enjoys the company of his male friends too, even if they steal his dates sometimes.



Recently, Cody has scored some points with his landlady, and the two even made out in the privacy of his bedroom. Plus, the townie he chatted with just a few hours ago had connections with the landlady, and she's agreed to convince her to lower the rent! Cody's obviously happy with that. Low rent, comfortable apartment, and a new woman to spend his nights with!



But enough about Cody and his silly life. While the people he dates all know him, they do not see his five boys. Cody makes sure they're out of sight and out of mind when he has other people over. But when Cody's at his graveyard shift gas station attendant job, the boys get the apartment to themselves.

The Day brothers

Er, half brothers, I should say. They all have Cody as their father, but their mothers do not want them any longer. It's just their father, their apartment, and... each other.

(From left to right: Ethan, Christian, Jaden, Bradley, and Taylor)

Despite what it seems, it's not all bad, at least. Their apartment is at least better than living on the streets, and their "father" makes enough money for them to be able to afford food (although it's an awful lot of pizza and Chinese food; Cody doesn't cook, and prefers eating out over eating in). And, if you haven't guessed by now, their bonds with each other, while shaky at first, are starting to improve and strengthen as their situation brings them closer to each other. They may all be illegitimate, but that doesn't make them any less of a child.

Jaden Day

Meet Jaden.




 * It's almost Jaden's 13th birthday, but his "dad" doesn't seem to care. Jaden sees himself as the leader of his brothers. He has his heart set on urban exploration.

Jaden's the oldest out of his half brothers, and he's always longed for a good fatherly figure to turn to. But even though Cody wouldn't raise an eyebrow if he caught on fire and burned to ashes, Jaden takes on the responsibility of being an older sibling very seriously, and he does his best to keep his half brothers together and united. Jaden is especially close to Taylor, who I'll talk about in a bit.



Jaden works hard to keep the apartment in as good of a condition as he can manage. While Cody cleans up — sometimes — it's usually not enough to keep the roaches at bay. Jaden wants his brothers to learn good habits from him, so every day after school he cleans up the apartment. The bathroom is usually the worst, and while he's able to rally his brothers to clean the rest of the apartment up, Jaden seems to be the only one willing to roll up their sleeves to clean the bathroom. He scrubs the sink, the shower-tub, and even the toilet. Like I said, Jaden takes his role of being a good role model for his younger siblings very seriously.



Christian Day




 * Christian wants to find his real mom someday. When not thinking about his past, he's thinking about his future as a cave explorer... IF that ever happens.

Christian is the second oldest of his half brothers. He may not be nearly as into caregiving as Jaden is, but he does clean up after himself and doesn't complain about it. When Christian learned about his past, he wanted to find his real mother; he doesn't have any grudges against her, and hopes that she'll take him in again. A child's heart is pure, or so I've heard. Will that change when Christian grows up? Will he start to hate his mother? Will he become bitter and resentful?

On the plus side, Christian's not afraid of adventure, and he wants to explore the belly of the earth when he grows up. While most people will squirm uneasily at the thought of seeing bats, Christian doesn't mind. He likes the thrill of going into the unknown. In the meantime, though, he's stuck catching bugs, which he says isn't that bad. He doesn't have a problem with small, creepy things.



Ethan Day

Ethan is the more serious kid.




 * Ethan's mother gave him a necklace before leaving him with Cody. He wants nothing more than to have two solid parents to care for him.

While Christian can only dream about what his mother looked like, Ethan has physical evidence of her existence around his neck. He's been wearing that necklace for as long as he can remember, and he's never taken it off. Ever.

Ethan gets along with his half brothers fine, but he spends a lot of time on his own. He often looks out the window and ponders about whatever comes to his mind quietly. I don't know what he thinks about either, but I'm sure he thinks about his mother a lot. Poor soul. Is there anyone, aside from his half brothers, that's willing to take him in?

Ethan gets along well with Christian, though, and it's one of the rare times you see Ethan actually playing like a kid. He's opening up to his other siblings as well, which is good.



Bradley Day




 * Bradley's been known as the "Troublemaker" for as long as he can remember, but deep down inside he's not at all like that.

Bradley's notorious amongst his teachers for being the class clown. He's also notorious for getting in trouble for his "antics". Or so they think. If you got to really know Bradley, you would learn that his behaviour at school is not caused by him being a bad person. Perhaps the fact that both of his parents abandoned him leads him to use his current tactics as a relief from the horrible reality he has to live with now. Have you asked these questions? Or are you the "shoot first, ask later" kind of person that so many educators these days seem to be?

While Bradley's not the student that brings teachers joy, he's very passionate about sports. He wants to be a soccer player one day (or football player, depending on where you're from), and he has his heart set on that. I support him. Would you seriously ban him from playing soccer until his grades improved? If you do, you're just sowing the seeds for him to be a gangster. Let him play the sport he wants to play, and you'll help keep another kid away from a life of crime. See, this is how you reduce crime. Not through overly strict policies but by opening doors instead of closing them. Okay, //rant over.



And when I say that Bradley's not a bad kid, I really do mean it. He really isn't a bad kid. He gets along really well with all of his siblings, especially Taylor.



Taylor Day

And last, but not least, young Taylor.



Taylor's the youngest of the five, but it's clear that he's also the most loved. Taylor's also the shiest of his siblings, and he's okay with being alone. He enjoys the company of his half brothers, however, and he's quickly learning to be comfortable around them. He still hangs back when friends from school come over for a visit, though.

Taylor wants to be a teacher when he grows up, and his fondness for books and movies gets him on the right track for that. But being a good student doesn't make you a good teacher, and in order for Taylor to stand up at the front of the classroom, he needs to learn how to break out of his comfortable little bubble. I'm confident that Taylor will do well. But he needs the opportunity to germinate first, and his crappy father isn't helping in that regard. The plus side? His four half brothers are with him, so at the very least he's not alone in his struggle.



A brief glimpse at life inside the Day family

Even though Cody dislikes even the idea of working, his growling stomach still gets him out of bed in the morning to fix himself some cereal for breakfast. And while he's at it, he may as well keep social services at bay by making a bowl for the kids too.

Usually though, he just orders a pizza and lets the pizza place do the talking. Er, baking. Cody never eats with the boys... which suits the five just fine.



Nights are where things get interesting. There's a twin bed, but only Cody allows himself to use it, and the other spot is reserved for the WooHoo partner — when he finds one. The other bedroom is far too small for all five boys to sleep in, even with couches and recliners, so the boys wind up taking turns sleeping. Three of them can sleep at a time, so the two either clean up or hang out with each other. Halfway through the night, two boys switch and the other two get some shut-eye. One boy a night gets a full night of uninterrupted sleep, although couches and recliners don't offer much comfort or energy. The boys rotate, although it's not a particularly even system; Jaden voluntarily stays up almost every night. Nevertheless, though, all five of them are tired throughout the day. Their school grades reflect that.



Tonight it was Jaden and Ethan's turn to stay up for the first half of the night. Jaden uses it as an opportunity to talk to his younger half brother about the importance of schooling and to stay positive. The two know it's easier said than done, but having the right mental attitude is half the battle.



Conclusion

Hopefully this was a pleasure to read. I enjoy writing, and I found writing about my Sims to be an incredible joy. I really do like creating characters and writing about them, answering to no rules and no limits, aside from my imagination. Hopefully you also enjoyed the story behind these Sims as well. I like characters with a rich backstory, and while such a thing takes time (and would take a novel to cover), it's always a joy to see my characters come to life between the lines.

By the way, I'm shamelessly advertising here, but if you'd like to see some more of my writing, feel free to check out my Wattpad. I don't have a lot up right now, but if you like what you read, I encourage you to check it out. If you prefer to read my Sims-related work, I have some fanon up on The Sims Wiki.

Anyways, this took a while to complete! I'm going to bed now. Stay tuned for more! Original post

Outtakes
The following images were cut from the final version of the forum post.