#bitch rly has a shoot first questions later mechanic to her

[munroes]

HC + emily

A LESSON IN MIKEOLOGY: EMILY.

ooh boy,  do i have a lot to unpack re: our favourite stubborn emily davis.   a little preface that this will get long,  and is entirely based on my own ideas   +    headcanons of them,  so although founded on canon evidence,  they can and likely will differ from other interpretations   !

mike and emily as a dynamic are hugely important to me because they’re clearly a very centric relationship in the game.    in many ways,  they’re direct parallels of one another.   i’m pretty sure they’re the only two characters to share two introduction traits,  being intelligent and persuasive.   they’re both morally questionable in more ways than one   (   see: them cheating on their individual partners,  mike being a complete jerk,  emily being a complete bitch,  etc.   )   and both pretty similar in terms of generally being arrogant and self-centred.

i’d also like to quickly note that when they’re initially introduced,  they’re mike’s   /   emily’s ex respectively,  as opposed to matt’s girlfriend and jess’ boyfriend.   there’s a lot of ongoing tension still evident in-game,  and i’ll get to that much later in this response.

however,  they also act as complete foils to one another.   where mike is a little more lenient,  emily is downright stubborn.   when mike wants them to get the fuck off the mountain,  emily wants to hide out until dawn   (   ha   )   and wait for emergency services to arrive.   mike prefers to avoid conflict,  surprisingly taking on the role of mediator on more than one occasion,  while emily is quick to bring out the venom with jess,  seemingly without remorse.   this is most evident in fights with jess and matt respectively,  where emily won’t hesitate to escalate the situation,  while mike initially attempts to diffuse it.

let’s talk about them pre-game.   i’m of the idea that their aforementioned likeness is what brought them together in the first place.   they’re both smart students who care way too much about reputations,  and are both looking for the same thing,  regardless of if love is included in the mix.   i personally don’t think mike was looking for more than a social standing within his relationship,  but whether emily had feelings for mike or was hoping to pursue something is honestly down to other people’s interpretation.

i see them as very much a power couple pre-game,  flaunting one another off at parties,  taking over social media,  arguing a lot mostly due to emily’s stubbornness and mike’s joker personality and flirting.   but i don’t think this was really an issue pre-game,  only adding to a kind of back-and-forth inside joke between the two that only they knew.   they were similar but apart,  and it worked for them,  in a weird   ‘   we’ll stick together and be mean to everyone else around us   ‘   kind of way.

then the prank happens.   and it’s their differences that drive a wedge between them once the twins go missing.   i don’t think the prank’s execution itself was an issue to emily   (   although i do think mike found hannah attractive and possibly cared for her to some extent   )   because she was equally amused as the others until shit went down.   i see afterwards being the issue,  with a variance in coping mechanisms between them.

emily withdraws into herself,  becomes even bitchier,  putting up an icy barrier between herself and those close to her.   mike has the complete opposite response,  and seeks to surround himself with people in an effort to find a distraction   —   his involvement in the prank was major,  and he holds a lot of guilt on the situation from the moment hannah gets upset.

this is where him and jess get close.   i won’t touch on it too in-depth,  since this is re: emily,  but it is important to set straight.   mike and jess share the experience of being shut out by emily,  girlfriend and best friend respectively,  and i see them as sharing similar coping mechanisms.   while jess is ditzy and self-conscious,  she’s a party girl at heart,  and it’s that energy that mike needs to be around.   they hook up,  it’s awful,  emily finds out,  you know the story.

emily gets with matt:  a more or less vindictive rebound on her behalf,  as i see matt and mike being on the same football team.   not super close or anything,  but enough for emily to try and leave a mark.   it doesn’t really work too well,  since,  unlike emily,  mike isn’t exactly one to hold a grudge.   but he does care for her   (   romantically or not   )   and there’s always the possibility of her thawing out a little again,  and jess isn’t really similar to him in many other ways.   so they start getting in touch.

i see mike and emily talking again before the game’s events.   i also interpret emily’s confession of cheating on matt with mike as genuine,  and think that on a standpoint purely based on their personalities and general attitudes towards things,  they’re pretty much made for each other.   they click in a very abnormal way,  and while mildly dysfunctional,  there’s a level of understanding shared between them.

mike knows emily on a personal level   (   you always get like this   )   and despite still being intimate with her,  doesn’t try to sabotage her relationship with matt,  even trying to lighten the mood between them.   emily,  on the other hand,  clearly feels betrayed by jess,   and their fight is what pretty much leads me to believe that emily developed feelings for mike somewhere along the way,  as well as her complete change in demeanour when mike threatens to shoot her.   which brings me to my next point.

i don’t think mike would shoot emily.   he’s intelligent,  for crying out loud.   while circumstances can account for pretty much everyone’s minds to be a little scrambled in the situation   (   and i can see him initially aiming the gun at her   )   i think he’d eventually choose to wait it out and see.   his cheating on emily is by no means a reflection on him being willing to kill her,  and thus the path i follow in-game is the one where he chooses not to shoot her.

post-game, i see them reconciling.   i don’t think romance is something mike is really capable of,  especially post-game,  so nothing like that,  but i do think they’re bonded by something greater than their original connection now,  and dependent on who else dies,  may only really have each other to console.   the most i can really see is them cuddling together at night,  steadying one another’s nightmares,  but it’s not really a romantic or sexual thing anymore,  so much as a comfort that they can provide given their history.

i don’t rly like ending things on an angsty note so   !   cute lil headcanons for them in general:

one day when em’s giving mike an exceptional cold shoulder,  he buys her a lil dog.

em asks mike to look after her earrings one day when she goes swimming with jess at the beach.   mike loses them,  and goes on a frantic search online with jess to replace them before emily can throw a fit.

em watches his football games,  and he puts his helmet on her at the end of the match.

em picks up a lot of dumb sayings from him that stick long after they break up   (   see: holy cannoli   )

their social medias are pretty much consumed by one another:   emily deletes all the pictures when they break up.   mike leaves them up.

mike knows all emily’s little quirks: her fave coffee,  where she gets her nails done, her lipgloss brand,  her phone password,  her class schedule,  her handwriting,  he’s observant re: little things.

mike uses recycled pick-up lines on emily: she notices,  he gets slapped.

mike likes to change the lyrics of the song valerie to emily when she’s ignoring him: his tactic is annoy her until she gives in.   it usually works.

em’s Big on marking her territory: red lipstick on his cheek is pretty much a must-have for parties.

a Mood for them is mike lying on his front reading while em massages his back.

alternatively,  they curl up on the couch to watch movies: she throws popcorn in his mouth,  maybe hits him in the eye.

they stay at mike’s most days.

em likes to hint for stuff she wants mike to buy for her: if he doesn’t catch on,  she gets pissed off.   needless to say,  he learns fast.