Random: Love is like a game of pinball...and I'm the Plunger Ass

I'm helping a friend feel comfortable talking to a girl he's really been into. So I told him to call her. I used a pinball machine to setup the metaphor of what I was doing...so I sent him an email and started off with the "you're the ball."
And see, as the ball, your goal is to get into the lights and be bouncing all around earning the points. And so I said, "that makes me the shooter"--you know, the thing that you actually shoot with. Well, I thought that it was called a shooter. But it turns out, that part on a pinball machine is called the plunger ass. You think I'm joking? That's what google told me to call it. So I guess if I was really pushy with him, it's only natural that as the plunger ass I actually act like an ass.

So, what would the flipper thingies be in this metaphor?