Fortune & Romance

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Fortune & Romance is a Machinomic made with The Sims 2. It is a prequel to the game's storyline, focusing on the lives of the premade Maxis sisters Dina and Nina Caliente.

The story can be found here.

Tropes used in Fortune & Romance include:
  • Ambiguously Evil: There are many hints to Olive's reputation, but it's never outright confirmed and Dina and Nina are completely unaware, viewing her as a maternal mentor figure.
  • Author Appeal: The author admits that the story makes her come off as a robot fetishist.
  • The Cassandra: Cassandra Goth herself.
  • Chekhov's Gag: Servo staring at Nina's butt in Chapter 3.
  • Chekhov's Gun: Remember Bella's secret cowplant from Chapter 5? As of chapter 10, it becomes a possible murder weapon.
  • Cute Bruiser: Nina
  • Darkskinned Blonde: Dina
  • Dark-Skinned Redhead: Nina
  • Dead Guy, Junior: Kaylynn Langerak
  • Different As Night and Day: Nina [redhead] and Dina [blonde] are fraternal twin sisters and complete opposites. Nina is shy, energetic, neat and serious, while Dina is outgoing, lazy, sloppy and playful.
  • Disposable Fiance: Ocean is vain, condescending, insensitive, and inappropriate, but he averts expectations by being neither jealous or unfaithful. The method of disposal in this case ends up being quite a spectacle.
  • Doomed by Canon: We all know what happens to Bella several years later, not to mention the Tricou family and Rainelle.
  • Entertainingly Wrong: Mortimer picks up on all the clues to Dina's alien background to the point of figuring out she's a green supernatural creature who accidentally caused Mr. Big's disappearance, yet he still comes up with an entirely wrong conclusion.
  • Fantastic Racism: Dina and Nina get a lot of grief for their alien heritage. Brigit is shown to hate anyone even remotely non-human.
  • Foils:
    • Nina and Dina
    • Michael and Mr. Big
    • Michael and Mortimer
    • Don and Servo
  • Foreshadowing:
    • Michael and Dina's first conversation involves him pointing out that the heroine in a romantic comedy usually chooses love over money in the end.
    • In Chapter 3, Bella jokes about someone "dropping dead on the dance floor" and a "banshee foreshadowing someone's death". Guess how the chapter ends?
  • Fiery Redhead: To some extent Nina, although she is shy rather than outspoken. She makes up for it with her right hook.
  • Funny Background Event: Often.
  • Glurge Addict: Circe Salamis
  • Gold Digger: Dina, though she's a nice one.
  • Hidden Depths: Don, who is set up in canon as a typical Casanova, is shown to be very bright with a secret nerdy side.
  • Ho Yay: Mike and Mortimer's contentiousness could be read this way. Dina actually assumes they're a couple when she first meets them. And for that matter, Mortimer calling Servo "beautiful".
  • A Lady on Each Arm: The journal header features Servo like this.
  • Les Yay: Dina's admiration for Bella Goth could definitely be seen as this (she even has a notice board full of Bella's photos in her room!) Bella, however, seems to be more interested in Nina. There's a bit between Dina and Brigit as well, with Foe Yay mixed in.
  • Loveable Rogue: Dina is manipulative and prone to stretching the truth and skirting the law, but she makes up for it by being compassionate and free of malice.
  • Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane: There are moments in the story that are clearly a result of magic, however there are also times where it is left ambigious as to whether or not something has a supernatural explanation.
  • Mysterious Past: Servo
  • Nice Guy: Both Michael and Servo.
  • Politically-Incorrect Villain: Brigit the maid
  • Robosexual: Nina seduces Servo, and it later becomes apparent that was not his first time. The mechanics are not explained, but it's implied they had a very good time.
  • Running Gag: Brigit repeatedly running away from things is quite literally this.
  • Shout-Out: tons to The Sims 1.
  • Single Woman Seeks Good Man: Michael and Servo are kind and attentive, especially in comparison to some of the other guys.
  • Sibling Yin-Yang: See the "Different As Night And Day" entry.
  • Spicy Latina: Discussed. Dina is decidedly not spicy.
  • Title Drop: Chapter 3 - "And after that we headed to Sim City in search of fortune and romance...”
  • Wacky Marriage Proposal: Ocean proposes during a funeral, right next to the open coffin.
  • Woman in White: The Mysterious Woman from Servo's past, the first Kaylynn Langerak.
  • Your Cheating Heart: Averted with Ocean.