Fortune & Romance - Chapter 16: Explosion

[sevenskellington]

WARNING: Magical violence and quite a few injuries

The ten minutes Mike had been gone were starting to feel like ten months and Dina was already plummeting from her last sugar/caffeine fix.



“I must say, your reprehensible dietary habits don’t show on you at all, Miss Caliente.”



“Thanks.” She managed, with a chocolate coated tongue.

“I should warn you Michael was not blessed with such a miraculous metabolism. When he was younger he was quite the little —”



"Pudding face, yeah, I've heard." She sighed. “What do you want, Mortimer?”

“I’d like to dance, Miss Caliente.”

So it was back to formalities again between them; she wasn’t sure if that was good or bad sign. “I’m not much of a dancer.”



“Oh, everyone here is well aware of that after your Smustle performance.” He took her hand, chuckling. “But no worries. If you injure me, I’ll just make myself into a cyborg.”



While Mike had been content to just sway and cuddle like middleschoolers, Mortimer did not hold himself back to let her keep up with him. Something about the dance floor scrambled her brain, so every step was on the wrong foot or the wrong way and never on beat. The most she could do was concentrate on not tripping.

“Wearing that mint perfume again? I’m sure Michael liked that," he said, leading/dragging her in the direction of the other dancers. "A little too much, it seems.”



“I’m sorry that I upset your wife. That’s the last thing I’d ever want to do. Ever.”

"I’m 98.7% certain she’ll survive the trauma,” he said, but his eyes were dodging hers.

Bella's screeching kept playing through her mind. She couldn't picture herself reacting that way to anyone, not even if she'd walked in on Nina and Donald. “Does she hate me?”

He scoffed. “Bella doesn’t hate. Hatred’s for the mundane.”

“But she doesn’t think I’m good enough for her brother?”



“It’s nothing personal; it’s just Bella. One has to earn her approval. That's what makes it so vaulable.”

“How? I’ll do anything.”

“Oh...slaying monsters, collecting golden fleece, visitations to the underworld and such. Twelve labors or so should do it.”

“Well, she seems to like Nina just fine. What’d she do that’s so impressive?”

“Ah, yes. She had a head start, you see, Bella always favors the underdog.”

“Underdog? In what, anger management?”

“The clever, introverted sister, always in the shadow of the popular cheerleader? She was on her side from the beginning.”



“Cheerleader?” She broke the dance hold. “Wait, are you talking about me? I can’t even clap in rhythm!”

"Yes, Bella pointed out your lack of coordination as proof of the innate corruption in the jock/cheerleader oligarchy of public high school." He shrugged. "I have no siblings and never went to public school, so it's not for me to say she's wrong on this."

Dina stared at him, speechless.

“But sibling rivalry aside, she most admires your sister as someone who can look past the exterior and see the beauty within.” He glanced over at the veranda.



“You mean Servo? That whole relationship was MY idea! Don’t I get Bella points for that?”

“Possibly. Would you say you’ve always seen Servo as a person rather than a machine?”

“Are you kidding me? I bought him a freakin’ toothbrush! I can see inner beauty like it was on the outside!"





“What about that fox over there?”

“What?” She thought she must have misheard him.

“The fox in the grass. You said you were perceptive, so prove it to me. Can you see its ‘inner beauty’?” His words matched where he was pointing but they still weren't making sense.



“Now you’re just making fun of me.”

“I promise I’m going somewhere with this. Now tell me, truthfully, do you sense anything strange about that fox?”

“Well, it's a woodland creature sitting quietly in the presence of a bunch of humans... and vampires and witches et cetera. Maybe it’s a pet? That wouldn't be the strangest thing here by a mile.” Dina's throat felt dry. And chocolatey. “Look, if this is some sort of trick to confuse the dumb blonde ‘cheerleader’ — ”

“Hair color has no effect on intelligence other than social conditioning," he cut in, his voice low and warm. "And I don’t think you’re unintelligent, Dina. Not anymore. I think you have an extraordinary mind.”

“Really?”



“Gently used. Dare I say, mint condition?” His chuckle was like a taser to the gut. “But it’s foolish to pretend you don’t know what you do. If you really want to earn Bella’s respect, you need to embrace what makes you extraordinary. Not hide it.”





“Titania?”



“How do you figure that?” he asked, eyes twinkling.

“She’s the real deal isn’t she?”

“Define ‘real deal’.”

“A fairy?” she whispered. “I mean, I wouldn't give a pink car to some fake psychic. I knew she was special. Maybe that’s why I shouldn’t have trusted her.”

“How did you know?” He'd never sounded so interested in what she had to say.

“Some people just have a vibe about them. I can't explain it.”



"Like the security guard at the museum?”

“Huh?

“You were able to tell he had an exploitable addiction to grilled cheese just by looking at him.”

“That’s just normal observation; it’s what salespeople do." She shook her head. "I'm not even that good at it. If I was I wouldn’t have let Titania trick me into marrying the biggest douchebag in town."

“I think you’re more exceptional than you realize, Dina. If only you could perceive that.”



He added, “but of course my hypotheses doesn’t mean much until it’s been put the test. Are you familiar with the scientific method?”

"...hmmm?"

“I would like to run a few scientific tests on you, Dina, in my laboratory. To truly verify what makes you extraordinary.”



“I’m not a test subject and there’s nothing about me worth studying.”

"Dina —"

“You heard me. You’d better listen, unless you want to end up like the last guy who was too full of himself to listen to me.”

“Hey, is everything okay here?” It was a relief to hear her sister's voice.



“Yeah, I’m ready to go. Let’s find Mike.” She turned to leave without so much as a goodbye to Mortimer.









“Michael, what did you do? This was working fine until you showed up!”

“I didn’t do anything! Maybe you just don’t know what you’re doing.”

Siblings had a way of regressing eachother back to grade school. No one could bring out the Bachelor in Bella like her big brother, try as she might to choke that part of her down.



“Do you even know what this thing is?”

“Yeah! Mom told us about it. It’s the…uh...sorcerer's stone.”

“PHILOSOPHER’S, you plebian.”



“Isn’t it dangerous? Why do you need to turn something into gold?”

“As I’m sure an ‘alchemical expert’ like you already knows, Michael, it also summons the dead. Or at least it did a minute ago.”

“I thought summoning the dead was one of your taboos?”



“That’s none of your concern!”





“Wow. Remind me to never buy that brand."



Bella put on her most commanding voice. “Don’t touch anything in this cabinet. Tell no one what you’ve seen here tonight.”

“Tell them what? I have no idea what’s going on.”

“It’s none of your business. What are you even doing here?”



“I wanted to talk to you about Dina.”

Bella scoffed. “You really don’t want to hear what I have to say.”

“She’s not like my other girlfriends; she’s not prejudiced towards magic or anyone, and she really looks up to you—"

“So she doesn’t want to burn us at the stake; do you expect me to sing her praises for that? Just because she likes sparkly things and toadies up to powerful people doesn’t mean she respects our heritage. That’s the kind of thinking that turned Magictown into a tourist trap.”



“Do you even listen to yourself, Bella? Do you hear how judgemental you are? You sound just like —”

Bella cut him off on his favorite dig; it had lost most of it's sting from overuse. “I’m sorry, but I can’t bring myself to trust that woman. She’s moved on awfully quickly from her last relationship and she’s moving awfully fast with you.”

“Excuse me?”

Bella sighed. “I have trouble believing her ‘relationship’ with Ocean was about anything other than money.”

“Well, I’m hardly a Landgraab.”

“You have connections, Michael. Connections that a social climber might take interest in.”

“Are you saying she’s using me?”



“I don’t need to. You just did.”



“You don’t know her. You don’t know anything about her. And you’re not going to ruin this one. I won’t let you.”























“Don’t blame me for you failed love life, Michael. It’s not my fault you have bad taste in women!”

“It’s your fault for lighting them on fire.”

“That only happened once!”

Comments

[bellemistoire.livejournal.com]

hmmmmmmmmmm

[deedee-sims.livejournal.com]

Awesome chapter as always!

I love how determined Mortimer is about finding out Dina's heritage :D Mike is so cute when he's defending Dina :3 Bella has some prejudice (as her father had...)
And the ending! Gosh, I can't wait the next chapter!

[zeussims.livejournal.com]

OMG!!!
This chapter has been impressive, especially the end!
I can not wait to see how this story continues, and poor Titania, seems so helpless in her fox form.

[lauriempress.livejournal.com]

Intense!
Is it crazy that Jennicor is how I imagine Katniss looking when she turns grey?

But I do love the interaction between Mike and Bella. Ahh siblings. Although Mike under the bed is not good!

And I have to wonder if the glasses fell into the cauldron or were dropped.

[ivaristal-avtor.livejournal.com]

Wow! Amazing chapter! *___* And so many accidents at last!

[holleyb76.livejournal.com]

I always love interactions between Mortimer and Dina :D You write them so well together. I think it's interesting Mortimer makes her small minty just as much as Michael does ;)
This should be called the Bella is a judgmental ass chapter. You know how I feel about her. Argh! Even Mortimer seems to think Bella is way out of bounds with her assessment of Dina. I am glad Michael is sticking up for Dina and letting Bella know he won't let her ruin their relationship.
Morty! Oh no! Titania! Oh No! Mike! Oh no! Jennicor! Oh no!

All your shots are so good, as normal. I especially liked the one with Jennicor in the tree. Great chapter!

[nineyellow.livejournal.com]

Love the chapter, especially the ending! Also Servo brushing his teeth was cute :3

[shadowfell.livejournal.com]

EXCITEMENT!!! :D

[mdpthatsme.livejournal.com]

Oh noes! Titania! Jennicor! Such an exciting chapter!
I love Mortimer's interest in Dina and how he's too stubborn to give up XD

[annegirl1323.livejournal.com]

Wow, what a chapter! I am officially choosing to believe that Mike is just lying under the bed, not smooshed, and that he will crawl out next chapter and be okay. This is what I have to do to keep myself from screaming for more immediately, instead of telling you politely that I loved the chapter and I'm excited to find out what happens next. I'm going to have to go back (as always) and reread and look for all the little details. It's so wonderful to see this story back at last! :-)

[strange-tomato.livejournal.com]

Fantastic job, as always! :) I'm really admiring a lot of your action/effects shots. I especially like how you've edited several of them to have that motion blur effect. It looks great. There's so much to look at, and I'm often pondering how you did things and how much is dome in-game vs. added afterwards. It's a testament to your graphic skills that it's often not very easy to tell. And there's always lots to admire in your posing and composition.

So much action! It will be interesting to see the reactions to these events. And was that a Chekhov's condom? ;) I'm thinking you didn't put that in there just to make them seem very, very ineffective. (Pro tip: Woohoo brand is better.)

The sorcerer vs. philosopher's stone bit made me laugh. "Pudding face" was good too. :P

[sushigal007.livejournal.com]

“PHILOSOPHER’S, you plebian.”

Oh hey, it's my internal screams when looking at US Harry Potter stuff.

[barbiepinklady.livejournal.com]

Amazing, like each time. I really love your story and excited to read what come next.

[tormenta lys (from livejournal.com)]

Wow! That was amazing! I can't wait to read the rest of it, please don't take too long!

[(Anonymous)]

Intriguing how you never fail to inspire me with your updates Skell. And feels like the aiting has worth, as the story gets more and more depth and mysterious (also, great cliffhanger on those last pictures).

- Tang.

Re: Custom Content

[(Anonymous)]

no matter what i will always hate dina and love bella dina's a evil b*@$* in my story and bella has a halo

Re: Custom Content

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Good for you! Where's a link to your story?

[(Anonymous)]

no i don't have a story like yours I've been thinking about posting it though

[(Anonymous)]

wait what troll

[eringrunt.livejournal.com]

Sorry for commenting late (I've read it the day I saw it), just wanted to tell that the screenshots are awesome, characters behave like real people, story is well-written and the end is really intriguing, so I'm looking forward to the next chapter - hope nobody dies! I wish you inspiration :3

Titania

[(Anonymous)]

I noticed everyone on the comments saying "oh no, poor Titania" and that made me a little confused. Is she stuck in her fox form or something? I saw what happened to Mike/Bella and Jennicor, but didn't see Titania anywhere in the last few pictures. Did something happen to her and I just missed it?

Re: Titania

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Yeah, she's in her fox form and a piece of iron fell on top of her (after Mortimer was electrocuted) so she's gonna be stuck there for a while.

[pixelsims.livejournal.com]

This... ending...o,o
Uuuuhwaaaa i can't wait to read the next one! It's the first time i have to wait for one, haha.

Poor Titiana. :( I hope she's okay even if the fence has buried her. D:

I love the part of Mortimer and Dina the most. In my head she will end up with him. ^^'

I begin to think of Bella of some kind of evil or something. At least not so nice as i always think she was.

I'm so jittery. :D

[drewsims92.livejournal.com]

Wonderful job, Skell!
I'm definitely in love with Dina <3 she's gorgeus!
Love your pic, too; amazing story as usual.

[(Anonymous)]

omg i love it! can't wait for the next!!!

Darkened Heart

[(Anonymous)]

Awesome chapter as always! It totally worth the wait :)
I love how the story is developing, but seeing the direction it is taking I need to ask: Is this story going to end up like it starts in the base game or is it totally parallel?

[sazula.livejournal.com]

I am in LOVE with F&R! I think I've read it about three times now ;) I never really thought about Mike and Dina as a couple until I read F&R and now I love them <3 Looking forward to the next update :)

[freidrew.livejournal.com]

Hello. Sorry for the bad English because this is not my original language. I speak Portuguese.
I discovered this site a short time to download CC and fell in love for his creations and his generosity to inform the address we lower and who were the creators, when you do not use something yours.
Only this week began reading his story and found it spectacular.
They are beautiful pictures. The way you ride scenes is fantastic. Congratulations!
I've tried doing fanfic for myself and gave up because they could not get the desired result. Inspired by you, i will try again and send you the link if you want.
His story of how things happened before we play in Pleasantview is great, because joins several stories and neighborhoods at the same time and, through Bella, you raise the question of what Dina is behind only money while playing this idea on the ground. In a previous review, I said you would not use the ideology of many that Nina was promiscuous and that Dina was a fortune hunter at all costs, which I appreciate because for me, this is not possible, considering the memory of two.
In chapters 11 and 12 you work with the idea that in other universes (stories from other players), Dina and Morty marry, but this is not binding in its history. I LOVED THE IDEA!
Thanks for Mortimer: in my mind he is seductive without realizing (Mortimer always seduced me, and yours is great), and this is what he's doing with Dina (in front Naomi statue, within the photobox, dancing with Dina). For me and my story, Bella would never betray Morty. So if there was a moment of temptation, it is because all marriages go through ups and downs, especially in the early years. And I think that's what happened. For me it is obvious that their relationship is genuine and confidence that one has on the other is wonderful. Even i thought it was great when it helps Don and not get carried away by it sung.

I would like you to develop more Cassandra, for although its focus is Dina / Nina, I get that she may have special interest in history (not because it is the future bride of Don (Donald) but because she has a tendency to witchcraft).

I have some questions about previous chapters, I ask you not afraid:
- How did you get put these dimples on Michael's face? I play with Michael I resurrected the game and it does not have these lovely dimples (your Mike is fascinating).
- I searched the sites you list in "resources", but I found this lamp / crystal ball shaped plumbob. Where to find? Is beautiful!
- Where against Dina's wet shirt in Chapter 10?
- Chapter 10 Ocean was talking to Dina or disguised Reaper? For I saw his soul in Olive Cemetery. So scary!
- Where to find the hologram / flying saucer of Chapter 10?
- I did not think the dress Bella wears in Interlude V, Chapter 13: the same red dress, but with thick socks and red boot.
- The hair of Dina on its icon? I searched but not found.
Because TS4 have great graphics, many are abandoning the fanfics based TS2. Please do not let this happen to her. It is very annoying to see an unfinished idea, especially its history, which has so many revelations, twists, suspense and fun.

Sorry for the long comment. I logged me in the LJ only to leave this review. And I preferred to read everything to talk later.
I can not wait for the next chapter.

[skellington7d.livejournal.com]

Thank you for reading and leaving me such kind words! I have been very busy lately, but I still plan to finish this story. I would love to see your story if you'll send me a link.

I hope to show more of Cassandra soon! She's the opposite of Circe, and the only one who could really "fight" her if it comes to that.

- Mike's dimples are makeup and can be found here: http://simplelife.chagasi.com/facekit1.html
- Dina's shirt was just something I made for that shot and don't have it anymore, sorry!
- That was the ghost of Earl E Demise, Olive's fiance who was VERY similar to Ocean. ;)
- The flying saucer is here, but I should warn you that since it adds an NPC to your game, you should not remove it after it's installed or your game could bork. http://www.affinitysims.com/IPB/files/file/287-remote-control-ufo-requested-free-time-required/ To create the hologram look, I used this mod: http://modthesims.info/d/202081 and the NL lights.
- Dina's hair is here: http://simlish.dreamwidth.org/99389.html I have a pinterest of Dina's hair here in case you need to find any others: https://www.pinterest.com/maxismatchery/wcif-hair-dina-caliente/

Thanks again for reading and commenting!