I totally don't need to be writing this

[sholio]

Saw Pacific Rim this afternoon, and while I'm a lot less enthusiastic about the movie than most of my flist (sorry flist), a little while back frith_in_thorns had suggested a White Collar-Pacific Rim fusion with Neal & Diana as Jaeger pilots, and ... all evening my brain has been busily writing the story. Which I SWEAR I AM NOT ACTUALLY WRITING, because a) it's Frith's idea, and b) it would be really long and I DON'T HAVE TIME.

But the canons blend so neatly! Basically (if I were writing this, which I'm not) Neal would be a criminal, as in canon, but he has super-high Drift potential and he's also very agile; he's perfect pilot material. Diana is the experienced pilot who is tasked with teaching him to fight. Her last partner, Christie, died in the suit and she's all emotionally wrought about working with someone new. Peter's her mentor in the Marshals, and getting Neal out of prison was his idea (although sticking Neal in a suit to go fight aliens as a work-release condition seems more than a little cruel; that part needs some work ...).

And then my brain flung up this whole subplot about how Peter fell in love with one of the Jaeger pilots (Elizabeth, obviously) but didn't think it would be ethical to have a relationship with someone under his command, so he & Elizabeth had a huge fight and have been avoiding each other ever since, so now he's all withdrawn and basically Diana is the only person he's close to. But of course Elizabeth is the last pilot left at the end, besides Neal & Diana (El's usual partner is Sara, I think? or maybe Alex?), so Peter gets back in the suit one last time to partner with her, which they've never done before, and she & Peter make a doooooomed last stand and go down fighting to give Neal & Diana an opportunity to close the rift. THE END, CREDITS ROLL.

Comments

[schneefink]

PETER & ELIZABETH :(

[sholio]

I had to! THE MOVIE PLOT MADE ME DO IT.

(... although one of the things that annoyed me about the movie is that only the main characters' Jaeger had escape pods -- everyone else has to heroically sacrifice themselves but you guys get escape pods, seriously??? -- so if I'm rewriting it anyway, they could always give the eject option to the rest of them ...)

[(Anonymous)]

There WERE escape pods! *clinging to that*

I love sci-fi-ish AUs! Neal and Diana as partners certainly sounds interesting. And there is nothing that says that Peter and Neal can not become friends, too. Neal would certainly loosen Peter up, and maybe even try to help him on Elizabeth's front... Or maybe they have shared history, like in canon,or why else Peter proposing that deal? Wonder what their dynamic would be if they were friends but not partners... With Neal+Diana partnership and Neal+Peter friendship it is a two-for-one thing))

God, I am sounding like I am writing your story. Sorry! But it is really fun scenario to think about.

[sholio]

Don't apologize! I love talking about this stuff. :D And I sincerely doubt I'm going to write it, but it's always fun to speculate how it might go.