For the Sake of Brevity

"For the Sake of Brevity" is a [SEASON NUMBER] thread written on [IRL DATE].
==Summary==
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==Full Text==
Dario swung the front door to their home open, feeling the weight of the days past falling from his shoulders as he crossed the threshold. Milae in tow, the two displayed typical signs of exhaustion. The stag turned his attention to his partner, worn from current events; worse for wear. As tired as the pair were, he couldn’t allow himself to sleep without broaching the uncomfortable truths at hand.
“Hey… Milae?” He felts his fingers begin to tap. “I think we need to talk.”
The goat sat heavily down at the table and started untying his cloak, which was one of the few things he could remove that was soaked in red. The smell was starting to make him nauseous. He laid it across the chair and then began working on stoking a fire to combat the cold storm outside. “If you don’t wish to wait, then speak your mind. I will listen.”
“Alright.” He watched the goat work on building the fire before them, and took a seat in a vacant chair across from him. “I know a lot happened today, and I don’t really understand why things went the way they did… I mean, I know what the end result was, but there are still pieces I’m confused about.”
He tapped against his leg, trying to carefully craft his words to be respectfully inquisitive and not accusatory. “When you were bringing me back here, from… whatever that place was, you had to make that-” Dario took a deep breath. The trembling in his hands was noticeable. “You had to make that sacrifice. Can I assume the same had to be done when we left?”
Milae approached their water barrel over from the side of the house where it sat beside the spigot, which was slowly draining red. He pushed a bucket underneath it to stop it from staining the floor, and took an iron pot and scooped out a large amount of rainwater, hanging it over the slowly-growing fire to warm. He fumbled with a clean cloth from his bag while he knelt in front of the coals, staring at them. Mincing words would get them nowhere.
“Yes. I took a life before we traveled.”
Dario expected to be more surprised at the response, but his thoughts had run awry far before this conversation. He had an idea that this was the case.
“…I had a feeling.” The thought made his stomach turn, but he knew this had to be discussed. “When we left, and I heard the yelling… that’s what it was, right?”
He didn’t wait for an answer to a question he already solved himself.
“I know you had good intentions, and you did what you believed to be right in the moment. I can understand that… I may not agree with it, but I can’t fault you.” He wouldn’t look at Milae; the fear of upsetting him wore greatly on his mind. His focus remained solely on the ground beneath his hooves. “But I did want to talk about what… what you said, when I wanted to come back here with you.”
He was treading in dangerous territory. The stag knew this; his bouncing leg and active fingers spoke volumes.
“You asked if I wanted to come back with you, to face Rhenco, so I could feel like I was helping. You said you didn’t want to have to ‘save me from myself’. I just want believe that you didn’t… mean that.”
Milae’s heart clenched. He carefully dipped his rag in the warm water and turned to kneel in front of Dario, gently taking his wrist and starting to wash his hand clean of Red Card. He used the distraction of his hooves to go over what he had been thinking in the heat of the moment.
“I believed,” he started slowly, “that Rhenco was completely infallible, because I had not found a way to stop him yet. And when I assumed he had taken a demon’s form for himself, I thought to myself…how could I ever solve that problem without heavy casualty and an incomprehensible amount of time? Myself, of all people, who should have infinite resources, and still failed everyone.” He dipped the rag back in the water and continued to clean. “Between that, and knowing that his hatred of you ran deep, I felt in the moment that my only option–no, that my responsibility–was to take you somewhere he couldn’t hurt you, no matter what the extreme measures might have been to do so. And when you expressed the desire to make your own choice, I became…exasperated. I got upset that you weren’t seeing what I saw–and that is a mistake I often make with you, at no fault of your own.”
A few tears joined the moisture on Dario’s hands, but Milae persisted. “I tried, in that moment, to force you to see how hopeless the situation was, using words that were far too harsh for you. Being in the position where I could let someone I love choose to put themselves in a position of torment or death, simply because it was right to let them have their agency, for the hundredth time since I received my powers…I reacted poorly. And it was wrong.” He looked up at Dario with misty hazel eyes. “Just because I lose my hope shouldn’t mean that you have to lose yours, too. You are not Duri. And I shouldn’t treat you like you are.”
The weight of the goat’s words buried Dario in a chasm between hurt and healing; the sincerity spoke to his soul as he watched Milae tend to his hands. This was a raw acceptance of faults, and he couldn’t feel more grateful for it. Dario let his head fall against Milae’s, using his free arm to caress the back of the goat’s head.
“I… I get it now. Thank you, Milae.” He gave a quick kiss on the forehead before leaning back against his chair, letting a deep sigh escape his lungs. “I just want you to see the worth I am building in myself. Things haven’t really ever worked out in my favor, and since the moment I met you, I… I feel like it’s challenged me, in a way. My time with Akkey made me feel as if there’s a greater purpose to my time here, and regardless of how long that may be…” 
He had to keep his mind from wandering. Thinking of his current situation wouldn’t help things.
“…I know that I can get better. I’m sorry for putting you in an impossible situation – that wasn’t fair to you. I got caught up in the idea of those I care about being in danger, and not being able to provide anything to the fight. There has to be some acknowledgement on my part that I could have done more harm than good, and looking back, I am so thankful I didn’t.”
Milae got to his feet and carefully sponged at Dario’s face before looking at him tenderly, kissing the bridge of his nose. “You are getting so much stronger. I’m so proud of you. And I’m sorry for hedging your way in the process.”
Dario couldn’t wipe the smile from his face. I’m so proud of you.
He grabbed the rag from Milae and began whipping it at the goat, ensuring his reach kept enough distance to stop him from trying anything quick. Though the two of them were operating on the last of their energy, the deer needed to release some of the tension built up. 
“Oh, you have no idea about my strength. You wouldn’t last a minute against me.”
Vaguely manic from the night’s events, Milae laughed weakly and grabbed the corner of the rag with shocking speed and dexterity, pulling it so that Dario was closer to his height. “Oh, don’t try me. You’re filthy, and we’re not sleeping until we’re clean,” he said, his tone joking, but still being quite firm.
The two held each end of the rag, with tension building as neither would release their grip. It was almost too perfect.
“Oh, you think so, huh?”
He released the rag, watching Milae slightly shift to maintain balance. As he did so, Dario swooped down and wrapped his arms around the goat’s midriff, lifting him off the ground. He held on as tightly as he could, turning swiftly and heading towards their bedroom. The struggling goat made this a difficult endeavor, but Dario was persistent. He maneuvered himself, as balanced as possible, and threw Milae safely onto the bed in front of him.
“It would just be so awful if you had to sleep next to me while I was so gross and ugly, wouldn’t it?” He threw his weight on top of Milae in an attempt to keep him pinned below. “Sounds like such a baaaaaaaaad time.” He tried his best to emulate goat bleating as he spoke.
Milae’s legs paddled underneath Dario, and made fake shocked noises of offense.
“I’ve never heard that one. All my dignity is gone.” He relaxed for the moment, grinning up at Dario. He’d never felt so stupid in love before. “Surely Dario has some kind of similar weakness I can exploit…” His hands snuck under Dario’s belly and tickled him up and off his pinned position.
The sudden offensive from Milae forced Dario to surrender his optimal position, though he didn’t realize the lack of bed behind him as he quickly leaned backwards. He managed to lose his balance, and slammed his back against the wall adjacent to the bed. He felt the stinging of scar tissue, but the adrenaline and laughter of the moment overrode any discomfort he felt.
“Alright, alright. You win this one. I am pretty gross, actually… we both look like death.” 
“You still look fine. I look like I came straight out of Hel.” He pulled Dario upright and fussed over his back briefly before helping him stand. “Come on, get changed and I will help clean you the rest of the way. I may just need to take a swim myself.”
“You know I couldn’t refuse an offer like that.”
He noticed Milae’s intensity in checking his back after the fall, and couldn’t help but chuckle at his partner’s need to provide comfort at every turn. He pulled the shirt over his head to ease access to the now irritated scar tissue adorning his back, and as the excitement winded down, he felt the pain creep slowly down the length of his spine.
“Just… can you be careful? Things have been hurting quite a bit lately.”
“I try to be.” Milae gently kissed the nape of Dario’s back and went to wiping it free of any scarlet, including both of the unfortunate bloodstains on the back of his neck. He turned him to the front and let him have the rag for himself, taking off his own shirt and wringing it out as best he could. The liquid had caught in the wells of his intricate scarring and he made a face as he inspected himself. “The clothes won’t dry today, not with the rain, but…it’s a start.” He started to gather up anything soaked with Red Card, and peered at Dario over the lump of clothes. 
“I will likely be over to the baths, this…this will take a lot to wash out,” he said, nodding at his own fur. “Will you be alright for a few minutes?”
Dario felt himself grow tired as the seconds passed – he didn’t have the stamina to support himself much longer. He moved his body to press against the goat’s, causing the two to sway slowly to a tune in his head, hand in hand.
“I’ll wait for you forever.”
They stayed entwined together for longer than Milae had intended to wait, and he eventually extricated himself and took their clothes outside the bedroom, and then walked outside the house and began his way down the street, where the baths were only a short distance away. Several rebels had the same idea as him, while others had washrooms of their own, and he was able to find a small one for himself.
The entire time, he couldn’t stop going over what had happened in the timeline he had traveled to. Milae was a passively callous individual–seeing Darien dying in front of him had not phased him. But seeing it happen at his own hand–without his conscious action–was making him quake both inside and out. It was a fear he did not often experience, and now it crowded his mind as he undressed and slowly lowered himself into the water, watching the Red Card dissolve away from him in several curls and streaks. He rubbed his hooves over his scars, which hadn’t stopped itching the entire night. His blessing and his curse–he had always thought of it as such, leaning on the former more than the latter in order to justify it to himself.
Why? he thought in frustration, tapping his hooves on the stone bottom of the bath. It had nearly ruined his relationship. The stress of everything he’d been through for the past several centuries was close to breaking him as a person. What was wrong with him?
He knew the name that plagued him, and he knew the puzzle that was attached to it, along with its looming threat. The thought of sinking so much time and life force and energy into this, only to just…
But it was what Rhenco did. All his eggs in one basket. All of his cards up his sleeve, only for them all to be the same ace. A one-trick.
Your dangerous thoughts, little goat…
Milae splashed the water in alarm as he saw the reflection of a black-haired Norn on the surface of the bath, and he scooted into the corner with a scowl, looking up to see her standing above him. “What thoughts?” he said in annoyance. “I’ve always been allowed to have my say in things before. Is it not so now?”
Urðr gave him an odd tilt of the head, as though she was unsure of the answer to his question. Milae looked around behind her suspiciously.
“Where are the others?”
We are alone. My sisters are communing after their separation.
“Hmph.” He continued to glare at her, and she returned with the ever-present blank-eyed stare that graced her face. “Forgive me for not believing you. I have a feeling there are many things you can do that you haven’t told me about.” Her stare was measured as she was silent. He got more upset, splashing the water again as he got out of the bath and pulled his trousers back on to be decent in front of her. “Like forcing sacrifices to yourselves. That is an interesting trick. You had not told me of that one.”
Yun Milae.
He slashed a hoof through the air. “I hope you enjoyed the power you gave yourselves. That is two lives I will not be able to retrieve, two things I cannot pay for. What more would you have of me? How much further can you use me?” He jabbed a hoof at his own chest. “You have your third. I am a garnish on the feast you ought to have before you right now. Am I wrong?”
Her eyes finally broke from his. Milae continued, spurred on by the reaction. “Between the three of you, getting Duri back should be easy.” 
More silence.
“Can you do it?” he pressed. He began going through his things that he had removed to bathe. “Or do you lack the power to follow through with our original promise?”
Our jurisdictions–
Milae whirled around. In his hooves were two very small knives, used for cutting thread and fabric. Her solid black eyes found them instantly, and her wings flared. The water rippled from their movement. “Get me Duri back,” he said softly, “and keep Frigga from coming to find me.”
You will not break your lifeforce’s curse by doing this, she said warningly, ignoring his words, but not his thoughts. That is not mine to remove. It never has been.
The silver tips of the blades rested at his elbows on the outer part of his arm, his wrists crossed as he clenched his hooves around the small handles. “You were kind to me,” he stated. “But that’s not enough any more. I want…” His hands shook. “I want my life. I want my agency. I want Dario. Our agreement isn’t worth this. Especially if you are powerless over Frigga. If I can’t fix this problem with you…” The tips bit into his skin. “Then you have no other use to me. And I would rather fix this any other way. Your beck and call will never keep the peace between me and him.”
He paused, waiting for her response. She pressed her lips together and bowed her head, folding her wings close to her body. For the first time, he saw something possibly resembling a tear in Urðr’s eye.
We have our sister. We are stable once more. If this is what you choose, then… She outstretched a palm. I will put what you have to good use. I swear it.
“Swear it, and may neither of us ever make such foolish mistakes again.”
In one swift, painful motion, Milae pulled the blades across his forearms, splitting the scars on his arms in half. The world temporarily stopped as it seemed to implode for Milae, blinded by both teal radiance and velvet blackness, and when it cleared, he was kneeling on the floor of the bathhouse, his own blood dripping gently on the stones below him. The two parts of the web of wyrd, the seal that bound him to Urðr, was broken. When he looked up, she was gone.
He grunted and got to his hooves, sloppily making sure the rest of him was free of Red Card before gathering his clothes and making the cold walk back to the house. Milae wearily pushed open the door and dumped his belongings beside the threshold, both proudly satisfied and quite tired.
The stag had all but fallen asleep in the same chair he occupied earlier, before his tactical take-down of the worthy opponent found in Milae. His bones ached in a manner that felt new to him, even with the barrage of damage he’d faced over the years. A lifetime of blood spilled, and hopeful that it wouldn’t continue anytime soon, for himself or his counterpart.
Hearing the door creak open, his eyes slowly parsed, though still weighted from a resounding lack of motivation. He saw the dull, faded outline of a rather handsome caprinae sway through his line of sight, and as the focus became more clear, he noticed a sense of accomplishment gracing the goat’s face. Dario cracked a small grin.
“Someone must have enjoyed their swim a little more than usual. What’s going on with you?”
He turned around, cradling his forearms, and offered a weary smile. 
“’Enjoyed’ is too strong of a term, perhaps, but…” He took a deep breath. “We…we won’t have to worry about this again, Dario.”
Dario’s delusional state mashed the words from the goat and didn’t quite fire off correctly in his head, but he assumed the latter half of the statement was positive.
“I… *yawn*… am so glad, Milae.” He stood, swaying slightly and directing his weight to carry towards his partner. He grabbed his arms and pulled them apart to wrap them around his own torso, sliding his hands down the length of his arms…
…he stopped. The fresh wounds were impossible to miss.
“…Milae, what happened?”
“I’m okay.” He hugged Dario tightly. “We had…I had a spat with Urðr. Or…more of a discussion. I’m…I’m no longer tied to her, or the Norns.” He looked up at Dario, his eyes bright in the fire. “No more timelines, no more sacrifices. I’m just going to be me now.”
He wouldn’t pretend to understand the situation – the words all felt foreign, but the end result resonated all the same. Milae wasn’t leaving again anytime soon. He returned the goat’s embrace with an even tighter hug, cradling him against his chest and kissing the top of his head.
“…okay, okay. I think this is something we can really talk out tomorrow. I don’t think I’m… *yawn*… awake enough to wrap my head around it.”
“Yes, good idea. We’ve had a long night. Come on, now.”
Category:BOTGD 2
Category:Events
Category:Act I
Category:Yun Milae
Category:Dario Hjort
Category:Urðr