Put Your Quarter Up

**Put Your Quarter Up** is the first chapter in Arcade Spirits. It takes place in the year 20XX and begins with the Protagonist's life before they join The Funplex.

## Story

### Pre-Date

The chapter begins with narration from the Protagonist, like most chapters. They talk about their life and how they've had no input in the futuristic setting in 20XX. It cuts to their apartment, with Juniper Quinn exclaiming her shock for the Protagonist's new unemployed status. Juniper encourages the Protagonist to find their dream job, hoping to boost their spirits after losing their old one. She introduces the Iris app to the player, which she insists that they install. The Protagonist ends up going to bed, but not before installing the app for Juniper's sake.

Waking up, the player is faced with the first big decision of the game: using the app or not. If the player decides to abandon their hopes, then they will receive the "Good Ending", which will end the game abruptly. If they decide to trust in the app, the rest of the game will continue as normal. This is when the Protagonist is introduced to Iris, who (like many apps in the time period) climbs out of the Protagonist's phone to introduce themselves.

She explains that she is the ad-supported free version, and that Iris is sponsored by PizzaYums. She gives her signature "pizza on a bagel" catchphrase before asking the Player whether they want to subscribe to Pizza Facts. Whether they say yes or no will not matter, and she will subscribe them to Pizza Facts anyway.

Iris explains who she is and what she does, and proceeds to introduce the Identity Identifier System. She introduces the five personality types: Quirky, Steady, Kindly, Gutsy and Basically, and suggests that the player should act on how they feel, not on what kind of personality type they want to aim for. They will also give the player the option to hide the indicators to allow more of a challenge for the game.

She also introduces the scorecard and the points system, explaining how she will be keeping track of both the Protagonist's personality and relationships with other people. After she's done explaining, she schedules a job interview for the Protagonist, set to take place in 30 minutes. She encourages them to change clothes and take the bus, something will appears to discombobulate the obviously unmotivated Protagonist, who is given the option to achieve the "Good Ending" once more by deleting the app.

If the player decides to go to the job interview, the Protagonist will eventually make it to the strip mall containing The Funplex, among other stores. They explain their confusion as to why they're working at a small arcade, illustrating how the arcade business is incredibly fierce. They also explain the near miss of the 1983 video game crash, detailing how the popularity of video games may never have been the same if it had happened.

They also explain their love for arcades when they were a child, and wondered why they stopped visiting them. They tell Iris about their so called "family curse", which Iris berates them for, claiming that they just have a tendency to give up.

The protagonist meets Francine who introduces them to The Funplex and gives them insight on its history. The job interview Francine gives is regarded by the Protagonist as strange as she asks very abnormal questions. Her final one is simply "why are you here?". She asks the Protagonist about their dreams, looking for a more philosophical answer than just "for the job interview".

Once the Protagonist obtains the job, they are made to work at the counter as a floor attendant. After sitting there for 2 hours with no customers, they are eventually approached by Gavin Cooper, the business manager. He questions the Protagonist on who they are, to which they respond about their new job at The Funplex.

He explains how The Funplex works, how to handle customers and who the Protagonist's co-workers are. He also introduces himself, claiming that he isn't much of a people person and is only there so that he can wrangle the chaos that follows The Funplex. He also criticises Francine's view on how The Funplex is more than just an arcade, claiming that he doesn't like to dress up words.

The Protagonist meets Naomi Fairchild next, who they help with their fixing of an arcade game. Naomi explains her love for all arcade games alike, and gives the Protagonist a little insight into the regional differences between arcade games. She also explains how she doesn't get along well with Gavin and disagrees with his philosophy that dreams shouldn't be chased.

The Protagonist realises that they forgot to pack lunch, but Naomi offers to give them hers, claiming that she can find lunch elsewhere. The Protagonist expresses their gratitude and goes to eat their lunch. However, in the back room they run into Pinky the Funplex Flamingo, who reveals themselves to just be Ashley Wolf in a mascot costume.

Ashley introduces herself after the Protagonist tells her that they're an employee. Ashley goes off on a tangent of how the player got into the back room, thinking up one of her many fictional scenarios. Once she snaps back into reality, she explains to the Protagonist her love for cosplay and how she made the Pinky costume herself.

After realising that they've talked throughout the entirety of their lunch break, Ashley offers to take the ticket desk while the Protagonist finishes their lunch. The Protagonist finishes and decides to roam the floor, looking for issues. The player is provided with three choices, however each one will be finished in due time so the order of these choices does not matter.

The first choice sees an angry customer over at Mr. Moopy's Magical Maze. He seems to be annoyed at Percy Sinclair, who is racking up a score on the game. Percy seems to be too preoccupied with the game to pay attention to the angered man, so the Protagonist tries to get his attention. He explains how he doesn't want to get off since he is on pace for a world record before the kill screen is reached.

Percy offers to buy the game from the arcade for $3000, to which the Protagonist contacts Gavin. Gavin suggests that they do sell it, however if they do so or not Percy explains how he'd rather keep the game in the arcade than bringing it home. This causes the annoyed customer to leave in a fit of rage, claiming that he's going to Deco's Palace instead.

Percy explains his love for the game and how his life's calling is to break the world record for high score in the game. He also explains why he's so rich, but considers it a burden to be judged on his line of work. He suggests he'd rather be judged based on his passions, which in this instance is Moopy.

The second choice sees QueenBee swearing up a storm while fighting someone on the Fist of Discomfort machine. She proceeds to win in a landslide, boasting her victory to nobody in particular. She snaps at the Protagonist for swearing, who proceeds to explain that they now work their. QueenBee explains her status as an esports FoD player, once again boasting her uprising status.

QueenBee introduces the Protagonist to her streaming setup, explaining how she rigged the machine to allow her to stream it directly to her channel. She realises that her crew has shown up and tells the Protagonist that she has to start streaming. The Protagonist asks her to stop the swearing to which QueenBee reluctantly obliges, although her promise doesn't last long.

The third choice shows the crowd at the Showtime Stage machine blocking the fire exit, made up of Teo Alvarez's crew. The song being played is finished by Dee, who Teo congratulates for getting her first AA on the song. Teo then spots the Protagonist and offers them a chance to dance on the Showtime Stage machine. After getting caught up in the atmosphere, the Protagonist will eventually realise that they need to unblock the fire exit.

Teo catches the attention of his crowd and asks them to clear the left side of the stage, which they do reluctantly, but not before giving the Protagonist multiple dirty looks. Teo offers to let the Protagonist join their group, but they say that they'll think about it later. The Protagonist thanks Teo and leaves.

After they've finished all three choices, Gavin, Naomi and Ashley all approach the Protagonist, asking whether they're going to be staying. Naomi jokes about Gavin's secret pinball sessions before work, and Ashley suggest that they hold a pinball tournament. The screen begins to fade to black, suggesting the end of the chapter, however this is interrupted by Francine who tells the group that she has booked a birthday party for the afternoon.

This causes mass panic amongst the group as they list ever possible bad outcome, which confuses the uninformed Protagonist. Gavin tells everyone to go to their "battle stations" as the five year olds start to roll in. The player is provided with three options, however this time they will only be able to complete two of the options before they run out of time.

The first option is a fight between two young children near Naomi and Ashley. One of the children takes two cupcakes instead of one, which causes the other to start throwing them. Courageously, Ari attempts to shield either one or both of Naomi and Ashley, depending on what the player chooses.

If the player chooses to shield either Naomi or Ashley, the person in question will be saved from the cupcake splatter and will thank the Protagonist graciously while the other gets fully splattered. If the player chooses to try and protect both, they will take the bulk of the attack but Naomi and Ashley will still get caught in the fire.

The two will help the Protagonist up afterwards, giving their sincerest thanks. The Protagonist will change into some new clothes before dealing with the next problems (if needed).

The second option will show a woman with her son who is shouting at another boy at the party. She is accusing the boy of stealing her son's tokens, to which the boy denies it in tears. The player can choose whether to ask QueenBee or Teo what happened, or they can just try and solve it themselves.

When asking QueenBee what happened, she will angrily shout at the woman, claiming that the boy did nothing wrong. The woman is shocked by her behaviour and quickly leaves the arcade with her son. When asked about it afterwards, QueenBee stated that she just couldn't bear to see the kid being treated that way.

When asking Teo, he keeps a level head and tries to explain the mistake that the woman's son made. He shows them all the confusing layout of the coin slots, and how the woman's son must've just put the coin into the wrong slot. However, the woman refuses to believe this and they leave the arcade. Teo admits to the player that he was treated poorly by his teacher when he was young and didn't want to let the boy feel the same way.

When solving the problem themselves, the Protagonist will first try and get the boy's side of the story. He explains that the woman's son ran up to his machine and put their token in before running away, something which the woman denies. The Protagonist offers to fetch the security footage, which proves that the boy in question is correct, and the woman's son just put his tokens in the wrong slot. However, the woman denies these claims and leaves before any more accusations can be made.

The third option involves a little girl crying by the Skeeball machine, claiming that somebody stole her tickets. You can either choose to ask Gavin or Percy for help or just solving the problem on your own.

Asking Gavin for help will give you the answer to who stole the tickets, however Gavin will tell you that it will only cause more problems if you approached the boy, and asks you to drop it. You can convince him otherwise, however, and if you do so the tickets will be properly returned to the girl.

Asking Percy for help will cause him to stop his run on Moopy and show the best way to earn tickets quickly, this time on the Cyclone machine. He manages to press it at the exact right time at get the max amount of tickets for a token, but the girl exclaims that the game is boring and that she'd rather play Skeeball. Percy's spirits are lowered as he explains that he hasn't had the best track record with children, mainly referring to his little sister.

If you decide to help the girl on your own, you show her a trick that you learnt when you spent your younger years playing Skeeball. The trick in question is decided by the player based on the five personality types. The girl will thank you for helping and will happily go back to winning on Skeeball.

Once you've solved two problems, the Protagonist will go to solve the third but will find that it's already resolved. However, the two characters in question will commend them for solving the other two problems. The Protagonist will then leave the party to go to the break room, exhausted.

In there they will find Mikey, hiding from the rest of the party. The Protagonist asks why he's here and he explains that his mom made him come to the party despite having no friends in the city. He also explains how he had just moved to the city because his mom has to move for a job, and that he slightly resents her for it.

The Protagonist recollects their childhood to Mikey, and explained how they tried to go with the flow every time they had to move. The player will be given a choice on how to comfort Mikey based on the five personality types.

Once the Protagonist is done talking with Mikey, they step back into the arcade, where they have a conversation with Iris. Iris calculates that the Protagonist is happy where they are right now, however admits that they were only 47% sure that they liked the job. She explains that she was 99.97% sure that you'd be willing to try it out if she said that she was 99.97% sure.

### Date

Once the party finished, the player is left with a choice of the six romanceable characters at the arcade to hang out with.

#### Gavin

Hanging out with Gavin reveals that the company is fortunately still in the black, however there were a lot of costs thanks to the party that he is unhappy about. The Protagonist notes that they made a lot of people happy, and Gavin agrees that in the entertainment business, happiness is a key to making a profit, ignoring the emotional side of the argument. The player is given the option to agree with Gavin or to educate him on the true meaning of making people happy.

#### Ashley

Talking out with Ashley gives an impromptu fictional scenario from her where she pretends to be a psychic. She explains to the Protagonist that she doesn't mind them thinking it weird that she's out of the costume, as it happens all the time when she cosplays. She jokingly slips in a remark about Gavin saying things about the Protagonist before leaving, planting confusion into the Protagonist's mind.

#### Naomi

Naomi is trying to clear icing out of the Q\*Bert machine depending on whether or not you shielded her from the cupcakes. Naomi says that although she knows that arcade games are going to wear out over time, she doesn't enjoy the prospect. The Protagonist can either choose to agree with her or claim that as long as the kids were having fun, it shouldn't matter. Naomi admits that she doesn't enjoy others using the machines despite it being a public arcade.

#### QueenBee

QueenBee is incredibly frustrated with herself for not playing her best that day, something which the Protagonist can choose to comment on or not. She does admit that she was distracted by the kids running around, however she is still annoyed with herself. She then congratulations the Protagonist for holding their own, claiming that they were quite impressive.

#### Teo

Teo is relaxing with some Fast Cars 5 after the party. He claims that he's danced so much that his legs are now tired. He claims that he's not enjoying the game as he prefers the action and community of Showtime Stage. He explains to the Protagonist why he sticks with the community that he has, and invites them to dance with him on the game one day.

#### Percy

Percy is slightly annoyed with his poor performance that day, claiming that he had to restart twice. However, he is quite pleased with the kids that were running round, saying that it makes him happy to see them happy. Percy tells the Protagonist to hold on to their dreams, and they can ask him why he holds onto his. He gives a little insight into a "personal matter" which drives him toward getting the Moopy high score.

### Post-Date

Gavin approaches the player after the date, congratulating them on their quick thinking. He claims that they're not the perfect employee but his standards are very high so it must amount for something. He consults the Protagonist on each individual problem as well as the selling of Moopy to Percy, where the Protagonist has to explain that he wanted to keep it in the arcade anyway.

Francine overhears Gavin's beratement of Percy's decision, claiming that everyone has a dream that they need to chase. She asks the Protagonist the same question she asked in the interview, "why are you here?". The Protagonist finally finds an answer, which is they're there to chase their own dream. This makes Gavin feel bad, who apologises to the two about his beratement, explaining that he finds it hard to balance dreams and reality with each other.

The Protagonist agrees to continue working at The Funplex, and Gavin hands them the paperwork to hand in the next morning. They return home to Juniper, who asks how the day went. The Protagonist explains the successful day to Juniper, who is delighted.

Juniper notes that the Protagonist is smiling, which she had only known them to do since they were a lifeguard. The Protagonist explains how they think that they're finally happy. Before the chapter ends, Juniper questions as to why the Protagonist ordered a crate's worth of pizza bagels, to which Iris guiltily questions as to whether she forgot to mention that section of the terms and conditions.