The Quest for More Hearts

I recently created a new story for my Creative Writing class, the objective given was to observe someone in a public setting and write a fictional story on something that happened to them based on what I saw.

I saw a skinny, pale man asking any and all questions to a girl controlling the front counter. It was pretty obvious to me that he was nervously trying to find excuses to talk to this girl, and he was enamored with what she represented to him. Since I see this type of thing all the time, when people try “flirting” with people, this presented more of an opportunity for a story. For the sake of this story I’ll call him Fox, since he was wearing a Starfox shirt (for those of you who don’t know Starfox is a videogame character.)

The Quest for More Hearts

By Dustin Anderson

Fox sat outside of Gamestop in his 1995 Honda Accord, and looked in the window at the girl who filled his nightly dreams. She wore a black polo representing her company’s logo, a lanyard with her name on it, and a pair of khaki’s. Her short purple hair perfectly sculpted the shape of her face and ended at her jawline, making her pale white skin become more vibrant in the soft florescent light. He looked at himself in the rearview mirror, and sighed as his confidence for asking her out slowly diminished. His pale cheeks were covered in acne or acne scars, and his long hair did little to distract people from this extremely irritating condition. He blew his breath into his hand and took a big sniff, trying to see if it would offend her. A putrid stench of Mountain dew and Taco Bell hit him, but since he was used to this smell he didn’t think anything of it. He looked at his clothing to see if it was up to his usually standards, the purple Starfox shirt and grey shorts were par for the course as far as his usual affairs go. He exhaled sharply as his nerves mounted a revolt against the actions his mind was concocting. Today was the day, today was the day he finally asked her out, but how should he go about it. “I am just some hopeless nerd, one of hundreds she sees every day” he said to himself, highly overestimating the Gamestop foot traffic. “How do I do this?” his brain answered for him as a videogame inspired Heads Up Display (or HUD) came up in his imagination. The HUD pointed him towards the door of Gamestop, he took the directive and got out of his car.

            As he passed the threshold of the door and heard the ding-dong welcome of the store, a tiny chime went off on his head as his first objective was completed. He smiled to himself when the next objective was displayed for him and read, “casually go up to the front desk, in front of the female store clerk.” He walked briskly to the front counter and an alarm went off in his HUD. The objective text he looked at bolded the word CASUALLY, and he quickly diverted his path to the POP figures on his left. He looked at the figures trying to make it seem like he wasn’t trying to not look at the female clerk.  He put the figure down and strolled towards the Nintendo section picking up a copy of the new Starfox game. Even though he hadn’t had the money to get the new Nintendo system it was released on, his HUD blipped with a suggestion box saying “CONVERSATION PIECE” in bold letters. He took the game up to the front counter, making sure to stand in front of the girl instead of her male counterpart who was scanning items into their computer. The male counterpart looked at Fox as he waited for the girl to take notice of him, and warning bells went off from his HUD. Fox quickly averted his eyes back to his objective. The male clerk was about to say something until the girl clerk spoke up.
“Checking out?”
Conversation prompts came up in Fox’s HUD for him to choose from, they read:

1)    “Yes, please!”

2)    “Oh yeah I am” with a command prompt to wink at the end

3)    “Yes, do you have any information on any new Starfox games?”

Fox chose the 3^rd prompt.
“Oh, let me check that for you.” She said and smiled as her fingers raced across the keyboard.
While she checks, more conversation prompts appear for him to choose from.

1)    “So do you like Starfox?”

2)    “How’s your day going?”

3)    “Have you gotten the new Starfox game?”

Being a bit nervous, even with his subconscious trying to help, he choose option 2, and she responds, “Oh, it’s fine. Just a lazy Sunday afternoon. You”

1)    “Pretty good.”

2)    “Better now that I’ve seen you.” Another prompt to wink at the end.

3)    “Good, now that I finally got that game.”

He chooses option 3, and she responds “You’re a big Starfox nut I take it,” eyeing his shirt.
This time he doesn’t need a prompt, he answers for himself. “Oh yeah, you like Starfox?”
She responds, “it never really took with me, but my boyfriend loves it.”

His imagination shuts down the simulation trying to aid him, and the transaction is completed with minimal conversation. She wishes him a good day, but he can’t comprehend how that would be possible since she just unknowingly broke his heart.