Been thinking about the idea of a Cartwebb role reversal AU - as in, Spider does something to cross Taverner, gets screwed over and sent to Slough House. Meanwhile River stays at the Park, remains Taverner’s favourite (/general dogsbody), and had some level of involvement in Spider’s fall from grace.
I’m just fascinated by the thought of Park River - still with a fairly unbroken ego, but still continuing on the path of his promising career, still living in his grandfathers image, still obeying his superiors (blindly?), perhaps still having hope that Slough House is temporary, that Spider just needs to serve his time, and then they’ll be back together again.
Also, related, was thinking about pre disasterous fall from grace (whoever's it is) River and Spider being quietly engaged. And then that being put on hold when they can't really get... quietly married without anyone making a big deal about it.
But in this specific context - if River was involved in fucking him over it wasn’t for personal gain, it was thinking he’s protecting him. But then they just kind of.. slowly start pulling away from each other. Spider out of wounded pride and bitterness that he’s in Slough House while River gets to continue being the golden boy, and River out of the guilt of being the one who sent him there - and increasingly realising how unlikely it seems that he’ll ever come back.
