[catch-all] For when then and there, there will be enough.

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Catch-all post; starters within. PM this journal or PP FiremanSam if you wanna plot something out!

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[Arthur] it sees an advantage, dividing and recombining

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Normally, Eames has no problem moving on these things by himself. And he's confident in his plans, in his ability to pull things off without a hitch.

He is, however, not so arrogant as to think he can see everything on his own.

It's why he called Arthur — as much as he frequently finds the guy a pain in the ass, he's one of the smartest people Eames has ever known. And whilst not all of Eames' plans have come to fruition, Arthur has been an incredible asset when it comes to forming the best ideas he can with what he has available.

So he's an asset Eames intends to make the most of until their interests diverge.

He arrives at Arthur's door around the time he said he'd be over, knocking instead of just letting himself in so they can start things without Arthur being annoyed. Productivity is so much easier without it.

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Arthur opens the door looking like he's just come home from a meeting. His shirtsleeves are rolled up to his elbows and the top button has been undone, so it's as "business casual" as one can get. He raises an eyebrow at Eames - knocking is unusual for him - but steps back and gestures for him to come in.

"What's this about?" he asks, curious. He has his suspicions, with the election coming up and all, but he doesn't want to presume.

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"I want to run something past you," Eames says as he steps into Arthur's place, waiting for the door to close behind him before he says anything more. Not that he's paranoid, but you can't be too sure when it comes to disclosing your illegal plans.

He turns to face Arthur after, gesturing broadly, "I'm planning to rig the election."

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Arthur gives him a flat look; he's not surprised by this but he's still very wary of getting involved.

"Sit down," he says, sighing as he gestures toward the couch. He nods toward the kitchen and asks, "beer?" as he heads into the other room to get himself a bottle.

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That's about the reaction he expected, and Eames sits on the couch. "Please," he answers to the beer offer, and waits patiently for Arthur to return.

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Arthur comes back with two bottles of beer, and after he hands one of them to Eames he sits down in the armchair across from him and sighs. "Why come to me?" he asks.

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"I wanted a second opinion, someone to make sure I haven't missed anything. Cover my blind spots as it were." It's pretty annoying, but no one is perfect, Eames included. And with things so tense, Eames has to be doubly careful not to be caught out. He sighs, gesturing to Arthur, "you, unfortunately, happen to be the best at that."

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Arthur nods, looking down at his beer and working his jaw in thought. He's obviously apprehensive, but it's not like he doesn't think it's a good idea - it might be the best option for the fae and for anyone else who doesn't like the way things are going, but it isn't going to be easy.

"As long as none of it can come back to me," he says, and that's about as much of an agreement to participate as Eames will get. "Are you sure this is a good idea?"

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"No, I'm not." He's not even a little bit sure that it's a good idea, but if Eames only ever did things that seemed like good ideas he'd lead an incredibly boring life. "But it would be remiss of me to pass up an opportunity to boot Norrell off his little throne, wouldn't it?"

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"I don't know," Arthur says as he shrugs, raising his eyebrows thoughtfully as he thinks about all the ways this could go wrong. "You have visibility now. If you get caught or linked to something like this, it reflects on the Unseelie Court. They wouldn't just tear you down, they'd use it to discredit any other fae that tries to get involved with the Night Council."

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Eames doesn't seem at all deterred by the potential ramifications, it's hardly as if he hasn't thought about them, and shrugs a shoulder. "Suppose it's important to make sure I don't get caught," he raises an eyebrow and tips his bottle a little toward Arthur, "which is why I'm here."

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Arthur sighs. On one hand, it's kind of flattering that Eames thought of him, but on the other, this seems like a disaster waiting to happen. "Alright," he says, after a pause. "What do you have so far?"

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"Where's your map?" Eames says with a gesture for Arthur to get it, and maybe a couple drywipe markers while he's at it. It's time for some diagrams. "I'll draw it out for you."

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Arthur gets up, putting his beer down on the coffee table so he can open up one of the drawers and pull out the rolled-up map of London. He spreads it out and takes some of the objects on the table to keep it flat, then takes out the bag of markers he uses to delineate the faction borders. It's up to date, seeing as the borders have remained static for the past few months, but the ghosts of old lines in the sand are still visible.

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God bless Arthur's fastidiousness. Eames takes out a marker and gives the map a once over before he leans over it to start drawing things out, explaining as he goes.

"There's eighteen boroughs with a vote for Witches Rep," he says, drawing hasty circles on them, "I can't rig the vote everywhere, for numerous reasons, so I've picked out areas most likely to vote for Norrell—" and so all the others get crossed out, being on the 'probably not a threat' list. Lambeth and Croydon are still on the list of potential places to rig, unsurprisingly, "and I've picked out weak links, people easy to bribe or blackmail in each polling station."

He pauses there, looking at Arthur to make sure he's following and see if there's any questions or comments thusfar.

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Arthur tilts his head at the map thoughtfully, partly thinking about how he's going to have to clean off all these marks, but mostly considering the plan so far. It's pretty straightforward, but that doesn't mean there are a lot of rooms for error.

"The vote will still have to be close," he says, thoughtful and not trying to be patronizing, "and you'll have to let him win a couple. It'll raise alarm bells if he goes from favourable to losing miserably."

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"Of course, that's why I'm specifically targeting boroughs where he's a shoe-in," he wags the pen as he speaks, and swaps it out for another colour, scribbling some lines — routes, from the remaining stations back to the Night Council building — but he doesn't move on to them just yet, "I simply don't have the resources to hand to guarantee his loss, so I can't afford to leave those areas to chance."

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Arthur has some words to say about allocation of resources and where Eames probably should focus, but he leaves that aside for now, gesturing to the lines Eames has drawn.

"Is that how the ballot boxes are getting back?"

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"It is," Eames nods and points to a couple of points along one route, "two hand-offs along each one — hilariously, it's supposed to prevent fraud, but that doesn't account for the second courier being in someone else's pocket. Swapping the ballots should be a relatively simple affair."

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Nothing's ever simple. Arthur's expression continues to be frustratingly neutral as he considers every angle.

"Who are they?"

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Relatively simple, please.

"The couriers? Council employees who have a lot more to lose by disclosing their part in things than I do."

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Arthur raises his eyebrow at Eames. "So why are they doing it?"

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Eames shrugs a shoulder, entirely nonchalant, "because I have centuries worth of experience when it comes to capitalising on peoples' inability to consider things in the long term."

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To Arthur's credit, he does pause to curb the potentially impatient tone about to come from his mouth. He respects Eames' ability to see the big picture, and he is certainly better at the human element, so to speak, but Arthur sees things a different way. He gestures at the map and raises his eyebrows at Eames, speaking calmly and evenly in the hopes that Eames doesn't mistake this as patronizing.

"If you want me to give you any advice on the logistics, I need the details. Are you paying them off, or is it just intimidation? I'm sure you know the best way to motivate them, but if there's a paper trail to cover up..."

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"A couple bribes, a little blackmail. Depends on the person." It does come off a little patronising, but Eames swallows his annoyance in favour of getting through this — as good as he is at this sort of thing, Arthur is better with the technical aspect than he is, and this is too sensitive for them to get into a fight over nothing. "I shouldn't imagine there's much to cover up there, but I can explain that more fully once we've covered this."