Are We Nearly There Yet? (cont'd)With three challenges completed and another half-done, he turned his attention to the chess tournament. Maybe he'd better get in some solo practice first.
Early the following morning, he called his first opponent and invited her over. He waited anxiously at the end of the drive. And waited. And waited some more. After two or three hours, he called again.
"I'm sorry. I'm at work right now and don't know when I'll be free."
Not 'call again in x hours'? Where was she? I sent RR back to his chessboard and looked for her around town. I eventually found her behind the counter at the consignment store. What now? She wouldn't be free for hours, even if he could get her to visit after work. Then I remembered
@Alex talking about playing the tournament in Champs les Sims to avoid this kind of hassle with opponents. Even though I'd not been intending the Carrs to travel any more, it seemed worth a try. RR and Austin packed up some dried food and the family's fancy tent and set off.
When they arrived, RR, who'd had a whole series of positive moodlets at home, was suddenly stressed. I suppose it's logical, given that freshly Oh-My-Ghosted ghosts are always in that state, but I don't remember it happening before when travelling with playable ghosts. Fortunately, they'd also packed a moodlet manager and Rolls was soon in a fit state to call his first French opponent.
The tournament went brilliantly (apart from the usual Ew! reaction from each new opponent) and he became a Grand Master early on the fourth day, without suffering a single defeat.
But then disaster struck. He was unable to get home. The bar went most of the way across on the loading screen but then got stuck (I assume permanently – I lost patience after a couple of hours). A second try produced exactly the same result.
I got permission to go back to an earlier save (thanks,
@Trip!) and returned to just before Austin and RR had left home. By now it had occurred to me that it might be possible to play the tournament in Lucky Palms, by RR buying the Legendary Host reward, inviting the consignment store clerk to a party and hoping she didn't leave again before they'd finished a match. Alternatively, I could add a chess table to the consignment store, since the Carrs owned it, and see whether she could play a match during work time.
On the other hand, I'd rather change as little as possible from the first time through. I decided to give France another go before trying alternative options. The only real difference this time around, apart from doing a thorough job of cleaning up inventories and the house before they left, was that Austin would stay in Champs les Sims for the whole time and they'd (try to) travel back together, because I suspected that sending him back early might have added to the game's problems.
As before, Rolls flipped from very happy to stressed on arrival and needed to use the moodlet manager before he did anything else. He didn't have the ideal start to the tournament, either: his first two opponents turned out to be cowards and had to walk off to a quiet corner and faint before settling down to their matches.
Then there was his third opponent, an old grump by the name of Pierre Bonaparle. (I thought it was Bonaparte to start with, but apparently not.) He kept standing up as soon as they started playing, interrupting the match. No idea why. Then he'd sit down again to practise by himself and refuse to move from the table. Talking to him didn't help. I tried getting RR to teach him logic, then cancelling the action, to get him to stand up. That worked a few times, but RR ended up having to zap him with the moodlet manager, then cure him. To add insult to injury, when they finally did settle down to a game, he beat Rolls. Twice.
By the time RR had defeated him, it was the middle of the second day. At this rate, he'd need more than one trip to get through the whole tournament. Fortunately, things improved from that point onwards, with a series of easy victories.
Austin sticking around turned out to be a real benefit. He cooked meals that were far better than any dried rations (he reached level 10 of cooking during the holiday) and fixed broken plumbing. He shared the tent so that random passers-by couldn't take the second bed and stop the tent being put back into inventory, which had happened several times in the first run-through. Best of all, he kept opponents chatting after matches, which often meant they were still on the lot when their names popped up again.
Once it became clear that six days ought to be plenty after all, Rolls took some time out for leisurely meals…
…and socialising with locals and other tourists.
He even fell in love for the first time…
…and had his first kiss.
Oops! It seemed that Brittney Catania, the object of his affections, was married – and her husband was also at base camp. He didn't quite catch them kissing, fortunately. He walked in just afterwards and presented Brittney with a bouquet, much to her delight.
Maybe RR should have gone for a more romantic approach instead of the heat of the moment kiss. Oh well, back to the chess matches…
Late in the afternoon of the fifth day, Rolls Royce faced his fifteenth and final opponent.
He'd beaten her easily in their previous match and, again, she conceded after a few moves.
But where was the 'completed challenge' music? I checked his skill journal, which said he'd won 15 matches but still gave his tournament rank as 4. So he called yet another opponent, who turned out to be the person he'd played first of all, Mathilde Pivert. At least she was used to him by now and didn't faint. In fact, she was so relaxed that she was in her underwear and slippers
.
It was getting late and I began to worry that she'd stop playing and go home for the night. Not that much of a problem, since the Carrs had one more day left on their visa, but how many more matches would Rolls need to play before the challenge registered? But then Mathilde sat back, applauding, and the music played. RR was officially a chess grand master (again).
And this time, they got safely back to Lucky Palms. That's
definitely the last foreign trip of the dynasty.
