Important state of the WIPs questions!
What is the premise of each of the six unnamed Slow Horses fics?
How many Tracker fics are there? General plots?
How about Deception? Just Consequences and Mirrorverse? Or a few more?
Is there any news on the Rue front?
I have miscounted on the unnamed Slow Horses fics, so...buckle up:
Louisa is awoken in the middle of the night by Catherine. River, who's been missing for an indeterminate amount of time, has shown up at her flat, looking pretty okay if not just tired and exhausted, but he either can't talk, or won't, and it's them trying to piece together what happened. (they don't, and all I have figured out is that River CAN talk, he just doesn't because of whatever happened to him)
In which I channel my inner Stephen King and make a play on Misery by having River get held hostage by an older woman who has decided that he gets himself into too much trouble (after seeing him after incidents like the season 3 finale, season 4 finale, etc) and decides that she needs to keep him safe from himself.
My excuse to have River and Catherine bond even more. There's a lot of back and forth miscommunication between the two of them. River has learned through bitter experience that parental love/affection is something to be afraid of, and after the events of season 4 he's sort of unraveling and Catherine is trying not to overstep Coworker Level of Care but really trying to take care of him at the same time, and River is freaking out because he thinks he's overstepping, and angst ensues.
This one is like a Conspiracy Theory knockoff, except I think I'm changing up the timeline. It was going to be bad guys of non specific origin that had kidnapped River, but I think now maybe it's MI5 itself who're interrogating River about his "involvement" with Frank's machinations post season 4 finale. Whelan is a Bad Guy in this.
A conversation in between season 2 and season 3 when the agents find out that Spider didn't choose not to go to Slough House, Lamb wouldn't take him, so his only option was to quit and go private sector. This leads to fun speculation between Catherine and the gang because Catherine knows damn well why Lamb told Spider to get fucked and the Horses realize there actually are standards for Slough House.
River has to deal with chronic pain after season 3, but he just decides to muscle through it because he doesn't have any better way of dealing with/addressing it. Shirley recommends massage therapy after watching him hobble about/wincing at certain movements but River is Not a Fan of being touched, especially by strangers, so Shirley offers to do it for him. Basically an excuse for me to incorporate real life experiences into fic
Shirley decides to take a more proactive interest in her co-workers lives after Marcus dies, and it becomes a tradition for her to walk the last one out of the office to their car/mode of transport, and it becomes a highlight of the day for the others because Shirley picks the most unhinged conversation topics like "if you HAD to fight a bear, which one would you choose if you thought you had a chance of winning?" One night, when walking River out to the car, they linger longer than usual because River, despite being awkward as fuck, is probably the most emotionally intuitive of the group, and she feels like she can actually talk to him about Marcus and missing him, but - in true Slow Horses Luck fashion - they get mugged, and they go after River thinking he's the threat when we all know Shirley is the one who's killed the most people canonically (AND SHE'LL DO IT AGAIN).
Slow Horses, except set in WWII. They’re not relegated to admin work, but instead are shoved into the field and take missions that will likely result in death as they’re considered expendable. More like X-Company meets The Dirty Dozen
From the Bad Things Happen Bingo Card "Ear Injury". River’s hearing doesn’t recover as well as he would like from the archives, and he, naturally, hides how bad it gets because he thinks it’s just taking its sweet time recovering and doesn’t want to get fired for being mostly deaf. Turns out, no, River, it’s not just tinnitus. That’s just a symptom.
the Horses get stuck on a road trip/ in the field overnight, stuck in a town where there's nothing except a small inn with a whopping total of two rooms. Instead of an argument about who is going to be sleeping on the floor, it is an argument who gets to share the beds because nobody wants to share with Lamb. River is too tired to care and just passes out on one of the beds and wakes up at the bottom of a dog pile and other than a crick in his neck 0 complaints
BTHB "This is for your own good". Not sure the circumstances but River has been having horrific insomnia for weeks, but he refuses to do anything about it because River has 0 self care habits, but he has in fact been prescribed sleep medication and just won't take it. One of the Horses takes matters into their own hands and slip it into his tea or something equally benign, except after it starts taking effect, something happens to make them half to go on the run/hide, and they're struggling with a barely conscious River in addition to Bad Guys. Details TBD
Frank, River, and Lamb are in a standoff (details unknown): Lamb: you've only got one bullet left, and it'll take more than that to stop me Frank: best put it where it'll do the most damage then, hmm? And shoots River
Tracker: Alas, only one, which was started before anybody met Russell on the show. Colter goes missing, and Reenie calls his brother to help find him. Turns out, Colter got a little too close to something Big and Bad and was kidnapped by Big Pharma doc who has been experimenting on patients that family members have committed under false pretenses to assume control over their property/money/affairs
Deception is in fact just Mirrors and Consequences because I refuse to start anymore until these two are done.
As far as Rue - I've established she makes her money in the foodie smuggling business because different planets have different spices and like vanilla and saffron are worth more than their weight in money, and she uses this to supplement her piracy tendencies.
