Lovers: Boarding School

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I'm not giving you guys any breathing space aren't I? Enjoy ;)

The thing about Love Gauges (LG) is that they simplify and numerate the most complex, incalculable human emotion known to mankind--and gamify it. For as complicated as that messy cocktail of brain chemistry was in RL, "love" in games was an end goal achievable through strategy and cold-hard logic. "Love" in games was easily accessible and never far from comprehension. 

"Love" in games was a programmable, manipulable, determinable thing. 

And because of that, it is never truly real. 

What frustrated Violet to no end was how LBS's "simplistic" LG operated. It provided her little to no hints of her progression and offered very little insight into her status within the game's plot line. 

Since the very first day, floating neon pink hearts were as elusive to her as unicorns prancing around a downtown alleyway. Spending time together, conversing, flirting, going on dates, kissing--none of that did much to muster a heart from any of the CPs she'd interacted with with careful forethought. 

Violet determined that a dramatic episode of sorts might wheedle a heart out, but that meant a greater risk to her safety and an even greater possibility of her losing one of her three lives. 

What can I do to make you love me? 

As she stood by a wall to watch Jack dig out coins from a coin dispenser, Violet wondered what were the stakes of winning over a character in this game. Should she do something mildly dangerous? Get into a fight with one of them? Confess her "feelings" and initiate a relationship with one of her favourites?

"Do you want to start playing?" Jack asked as he approached Violet with a plastic cup filled with gold doubloons.  

She smiled. "Of course."

XOXO

Games set in school rarely involved anything remotely related to school; studying, going to class, grades, teacher-parent interviews, essays. Most, if not all those things, get entirely omitted, something which Violet expected the second her eyes grazed over the game's title screen. 

Even now, as Violet stood on a DDR platform in the middle of a jungle of blinking lights, the school aspect was merely an afterthought to her as it always had been. The "Boarding School" of LBS was an excuse to relive the electric excitement of first loves, first times, and first heartbreaks. It was never about learning from textbooks or lectures.

"Are you prepared to get annihilated Princess?" 

Violet studied her opponent who stood on the adjacent platform next to hers. He bore a face that could provoke wars or petty tiffs.  

"Prepared to lose Caveman?"

Shaking his legs and arms, Jack welcomed her challenge with a wink. "Just don't cry when you do."

XOXO

Jack brought Violet to the arcade to make up for that disaster of a date at the carnival. He propositioned the trip the same way he did for the carnival--during one of their early morning rituals. Violet accepted the invitation without hesitation.  

"You need to go more left," Violet said, her eyes glued to the slackened claw that was hanging loosely over an orgy of plush toys.

"I'm trying. Crap. Should I just give up and lower it?" The claw hung above the round posterior of a bunny toy, refusing to move in any direction other than down. 

"Should we pray to Jesus, Buddha, or the Spaghetti Monster?" 

With eyes blinking, Jack turned to Violet. "You don't think I can get this bunny's ass?"