Please enjoy this 10,500 word monstrosity, comissioned by @yamadara87. Sometimes, when I get a prompt, it strikes in a painful and great way, where I know it’s going to be a massive undertaking. “We know the Devil” Mina and Michiru, is one of those prompts. There are parts of this I don’t love, but there are other parts I think are pretty fucking great. Please note: I have not played the game (and in fact will be playing it on my Patreon today, Jan 23rd, if anyone wanted to join in) so I have no idea what the game is about–I just said something in chat about the title being really really evocative and she jumped on it. If you like this, PLEASE leave me a comment. I worked so, so hard on this. if you REALLY REALLY like it, you can contribute to me and Jet’s road trip at this ko-fi, and if you want to sponsor us for something specific and get sweet rewards, the list is here.
WIthout further ado: Doc Holligay’s We Know The Devil.
The forest held things, dark things, things that Mina would never mention as the Senshi chattered around the warm campfire, embers crackling against the black of the sky in reds and oranges, miniature pyres burning out tiny sinners with nothing but a popping cry and the grey ash of their momentary lives floating on the wind.
She hadn’t expected this, when she suggested they come out here. Who would? The green and wet of the forest had seemed a place to connect, a place to be, a place to make the team one again, after–
Maybe it was nothing at all. Rei certainly didn’t seem to feel anything. And if Rei didn’t feel it, could it even be real? Maybe it was just in Mina’s mind, lurking and slithering around the trees, calling her name tinged in the accents of the old gods. She looked back at the senshi, all still gathered around the fire, lighting their faces in flashes and shadows.
The shadow never seemed to fall on Usagi. That was the way of it, wasn’t it? No matter what, she never felt the cold of the night. The shadow flitted to the rest of the girls, throwing a sharp hatchet of light and dark across Mako, a dotted patchwork of light and dark spotting Rei. Haruka leaned into the darkness of the night, but the light pursued her, as a grey veil of smoke draped over Hotaru.
Michiru sat in the darkness, only an occasional pop of flame catching the bright teal and blue and green of her eye, and even then it seemed to Mina that it was a mirror and not a vessel, reflecting the light back into the flame, absorbing none of it.