IRL: Free Guy: Keys and Mills

Behind the Code

Walter Mckey, or "Keys" as he was referred to by his friend, (yes, solitary, he had one friend), rarely left the computer desk. Day and night it was nothing but living and breathing code.

Growing up he had been the "nerd." Still was. He had always been different. At 10, he wanted to spend the summer in his room in the dark writing premature video game codes rather than go to a sleep-away camp like most kids his age. His parents had never really understood how he was able to do the things he did, but they supported him all the same. 

Mills, his one friend, was the first person who he just knew saw things similar to the way he did. Coding didn't just create finely pixelized figurines whose actions could be controlled by someone on the other side. Those codes gave people a chance to immerse themselves in a different world where they could become a more intense version of themself. The persona that only they knew of. One they liked to keep hidden. Those finely pixelized figurines were their disguise. 

Mills was so much better than he was. She loved to game, loved to watch as their vision came to life. But she was bright and bubbly despite her despondent past. She could carry on a conversation with someone naturally for over thirty seconds and she knew better than to let the life onscreen become her life. When they had started working on their game, he'd found out more things about her that took some major adjusting to get used to. He liked to work in silence. The consistent tapping of the keys was very therapeutic. She liked to hum as she worked. Well, she hummed all the time. It was the same song too. Mariah Carey's Fantasy. ALL. THE. DAMN. TIME. 

She needed a coffee break every hour on the hour. Medium coffee, cream, two sugars. 

Then typically an ice cream break every evening after she forced him to close his laptop and dragged him to the ice cream parlor. Bubble gum ice cream was her favorite. 

It annoyed him horribly. Next, it annoyed him less. Then he got used to it. Finally, he grew dependent on it. If she wasn't humming, he couldn't work as well. If he didn't get up for coffee every hour, his brain shut down. If he missed dessert, he would wake up in the middle of the night craving it. And if he wasn't able to do any of it with her, it felt empty. Because she had made a space for herself in his life, in his mind, in his heart. And when she wasn't there, he felt the loss acutely.

I love you. He didn't know how to say it. Feeling it and knowing what it was had been difficult enough at first. Now it just scared him out of his mind, which he was normally so in control of. She was everything to him and he didn't know what he'd do if she didn't feel the same. He'd never experienced a loss like that. Never had to because he'd never felt like this for anyone else. He didn't deserve her. He didn't think that he was worth it for her. Enough for her. She was this form of brilliancy that eclipsed him so dramatically that he was in awe over it. Sure, he was smart and driven, and passionate. But she was all of that and so much more. 

So he kept her close for fear of losing her but not too close for fear of the same. 

He created the coding for Guy, initially as a simple form of quiet, angsty artistic expression. The MCP mirrored some of his own qualities but what he mostly focused on what players couldn't see. The woman of his dreams. One and the same. Guy loved everything that his "soulmate," if you will, loved. That Mariah Carey tune, bubble gum ice cream, coffee, swing sets. He dreamt of someone who valued sincerity and adventure and seeing life through a glass half full at least 95% of the time. She was beautiful and smart and passionate. She saw the reality in front of her and knew she had to accept it for what it was. But if she didn't like it, she fought to change it and to be more than just a face in the crowd. He honestly forgot about that program. 

It was just wishful thinking on his part anyway. Guys like him rarely made the cut.

Author's Note: This is 100% true: Bubble gum ice cream was my favorite when I was younger. When my family would visit relatives in Canada, there was this shack by the beach that sold the best bubble gum ice cream (at least to my 5-year-old brain, it was!). After our relatives moved to a different province, we never went back because there was a significant distance between the two areas. I completely forgot about it, and I typically get chocolate ice cream now when we go out. Then I saw this movie and it was a total throwback for me. It got me thinking about how good that ice cream was. I'm sad because I don't think that there is any good bubble gum ice cream near where I live now.