When White Collar agent Diana Berrigan transposed her colleagues and friends into Arkham Files, she made her boss, FBI agent Peter Burke, an acclaimed archaeologist. She could have left his wife Elizabeth's career alone. An event planner would have blended well into the setting, but Diana wasn't satisfied with the obvious choice. She has greater ambitions for Elizabeth.
Like Peter, Elizabeth's personality evolved during the course of the canon series. In the Caffrey Conversation AU, she is closely aligned with the canon character of the first season of White Collar. Neal views Peter as the rock which keeps him grounded, but Elizabeth provides the support system for Peter. She's his soulmate and confidante. She softens his rough edges and provides a much needed balance to a stressful job. Elizabeth's father is a psychiatrist and she's inherited some of his ability. When Peter first discusses Neal and his concerns about a young man who is squandering his talents on a life of crime, she's the one who advises reaching out to Neal.
Diana takes Elizabeth's compassionate nature and channels it into her professional life. Instead of being an event planner, she is now a neurologist and clinical professor at the Miskatonic University Medical Center. Her career is as impressive as Peter's. In designing her role, Diana relied upon her partner, Dr. Christie Vintner, for advice.
Arkham Elizabeth is a scientist. She provides a healthy dose of skepticism to the supernatural events swirling around Neal. Elizabeth plays a key role in Diana's modernization of Lovecraft themes. How would a scientist view a person who experiences the supernatural phenomena which Lovecraft wrote about? Would Elizabeth perceive Neal to be a victim of mental illness? More than anyone else, she demands a rational explanation, but tempering her scientific core is a strong sense of compassion for what Neal is going through.
Since New York Elizabeth doesn't work for the FBI, her ability to participate in an op in our AU is severely restricted. That's not the case in Arkham Files. As a fellow scientist, she has the ability to join Peter and Neal in their investigations. The world of Arkham Files can be a dark and scary place, but her future is bright.
Visions from Beyond on Archive of Our Own
Visions from Beyond on FanFiction
I quite like your Elizabeth in this AU. I like that she can bring a rationale to the events even should or when those events become supernatural. All things function in a system even magic has a system and scientists love to find patterns. Also I think you'll need a hard science person, as opposed to one of the 'soft' sciences (I'm channeling Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory here, sorry lol) because you won't get that healthy dose of 'where's your empirical evidence' from Mozzie on this case lol. Cyrus yes but someone has to work the neurological and psychological angle that comes into play when magic is involved and that someone will be Elizabeth Wayland Burke. (Any relation to Francis Wayland Thurston from Call of Cthulhu fame? The family doesn't talk about him much if she is, I'm guessing. lol) I look forward to her getting out in the field with the fellas. I suspect once she accepts the outre nature of the proceedings she'll quickly get over the shock and settle in to finding the necessary information to make it work, fine it's magic, very well, it must have a system, does and don'ts, find them and you solve the puzzle. She's a perfect partner for Peter and Neal and I suspect will view Mozzie with a certain fondness as well.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth is a distant relative to Francis Wayland Thurston. Her mother was pleased that El married an archaeologist although she would have preferred an anthropologist like Francis. The papers Francis left behind contain much valuable research material for later use. Mozzie will be particularly interested in the account of the non-Euclidean geometry of R'lyeh. You may remember that in The Mirror, Elizabeth thought the character of Evelyn O'Connell in The Mummy had a lot of appeal. She's planted ideas with Diana and hopes to see them realized. She's delighted to get your comments and will use them to bolster her case.
Delete