closed to select individuals: intel obtained

[wolfish]

[ For Yuri, opening Communion has always been like cautiously cracking a door open on a stormy day. He's never wholly prepared for what may come in, but if he doesn't open that door to begin with, they'll get nowhere.

And now that the research they'd worked to hunt down is in his hands, there's the small matter of what to do with it. Coalbrand had cautioned him against attempting to release the information publicly. Sain-Breq had died trying. He'd also suggested leveraging this knowledge against those in power. Against those who have kept them in the dark, used them... And if the dreams are truly memories as the research suggests, they've spent and broken them too.

It begins with opening the door. ]

I've alluded to a certain pursuit with some of you, carried it out with others... Some, I can't reach anymore.

[ Cid, Sentience, Midna... He drifts off for a moment, the lingering question of what became of them giving him pause. Then he spurs himself to proceed. ]

We've got it now: Sain-Breq's research. There's just the one copy, so now that my guest has taken his leave, I'll go over that with you.

[ The others will have to forgive the little extra nudge of Yuri's mind, like a playful elbow to the side, before he shares a first-person view of the documents, page by page. It's a slow process, allowing for differences in reading speeds, before at last they reach the end. ]

So, that's...a lot to take in, I realize. And a little bird tells me Shardbearers stopped being capable of dreams long ago, so those visions we saw after our power-nap? They'd be explained by all this. The cycles that preceded this one... And the content of mine, more than the warning that came with these documents, is why I'm starting with all of you.

[ There's a pause, and the distinct sense of him gathering himself. For his fellow Harbingers, it comes with the air of a shaky sigh. ]

This information was threat enough to those in power to kill. If my dream wasn't a dream at all, they'll bend and break us for less. Shave away what makes us who we are until what remains is so brittle it snaps one day. I have reason to suspect the higher we harmonize, the easier that is to achieve.

[ Hence notable high-harmonization exclusions he does typically trust. It could make things harder or more dangerous for them... In all this time, it's the most he has ever spoken of his terrible dream. ]

We need to play our cards right on this. It can be leveraged against those in power and our people deserve to know. Damned if I know the best way, given our position — so I want to open a discussion. How we use this, how we avoid making anyone a convenient target for them. Between us, I know we're capable.

[ He leaves it at that, another mental nudge suggesting the metaphorical floor is wide open for any takers. ]

[ ooc: This Communion is open to those involved in the Wheel of Fortune questline: Shez, rip Joshua, Byleth, and Gavial as well as Ryouma, Dimitri, Claude, and Jade. Please feel free to assume Yuri failed to reach your character if you want to opt out, the list is just who he tried to reach out to for this initial discussion. Thread hop/jack and respond to one another as desired! ]

Comments

[kinaesthesia]

[Force as a means of problem solving is all she grew up with, so it’s hard for her to look at it any other way. Yeah, they have to be smart about this, but from where she’s sitting it sure feels like the sucker-punch methodology would do them some good while they’ve got the element of surprise.]

I guess that could complicate things. [A little bit of begrudging concession there, because the way harmonization might play into it all does feel like something that’s gotta be handled with a little more consideration.] Feel like it’s gonna be hard to know what the right time might be, though. I just don’t like the idea of sitting on this for too long, y’know?

[wolfish]

Neither do I. None of us deserve...whatever we want to call all this. Being in the dark so long's landed us where we are now.

[ Being used, being actively deceived, all of it is wrong. Many of them had suspected it for a long time now, but not in this form. Not like this. Gavial's right that they shouldn't perpetuate that deceit longer than they have to. In an ideal world, they wouldn't do so at all.

But when he thinks of what happened to that other Yuri and how Hayame is so deeply entrenched in Meridian's harmonization, he can't help but worry. Knowing that Claude shares his concern only solidifies it. ]

The way I see it, it means we can't afford to dawdle in finding the right play. We managed at that casino, so we can do it again.

[kinaesthesia]

[Everything about this really just rankles her—having been kept in the dark like Yuri says, the fact that they don’t know what it means for them going forward, why this all needed to be hidden in the first place…

Gavial’s never been very good at sitting and waiting. Knowing more than they did previously just fills her with the persistent urge to act, to do something to change things, but it’s hard to know the right place to direct that energy at first glance.]

Well, we definitely don’t have time to lose with the way things only seem to be ramping up more and more. You think this requires more digging into things?

[wolfish]

Ryouma was suggesting that, and I see the sense in it.

[ He fully agrees that they can't take too long. The conflict has indeed been ramping up, and after so much time sprinted away from them, they can't even be sure that some other violent change won't come along. ]

At the least, we need to find our angle. How to use this with leaders we don't really know at the helm... And how to get that information to those who need it without making anyone a target once we do.

[ On the note of violent changes, there's all of that to contend with. It leaves them with little to grasp at, but they do have numbers and determination. All of them are fighters. ]

[kinaesthesia]

Ugh. [The annoyance there is less at him and more at the situation; her impatience is likely palpable in a space like this. It’s a bunch of complications she doesn’t like.]

Sniffing things out inconspicuously isn’t exactly my specialty, but I guess if you need someone to poke around on the Zenith side of things, you can ring me in.

[Of the presences she recognizes from those gathered in this communion space, they’re all decidedly Meridian. Which isn’t a bother at all, as far as she’s concerned, but it does mean some effort’s gonna have to be put in if they want to cast a wide net in their searching.]

You all might have a harder time snooping around Highstorm with the way things have been looking lately, so…

[wolfish]

Sorry to leave the heavy lifting on that side to you. I had wanted to let Cid know about my findings as well, but I can't get a hold of him. Rin either, for that matter.

[ Yuri knows this concerns all of them, regardless of camp. They all need to use it, to eke out whatever advantage they can in a system that looks to have been using them for a damned long time. Generations.

Yet he knows few Zenites anymore he could reach out to about something like this. Gavial has always struck him as moderate, not to mention she did her share of the legwork on this and was owed her due on top of that, but who else could he call on now?

Hell, if Dark hadn't been long gone, he'd have loved to pick the man's sorcerous brain. ]

Been concerning, how many people have been unreachable lately.