Fortune & Romance

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.