Wohooo, it’s the official release date of Lies Sleeping! So to celebrate I sketched a Peter – without whom London would be well and truly fucked. And you out there – have a lot of fun reading!!!
I cannot think this is a coincidence; Aaronovitch is too much of a history and architecture geek and has watched too many episodes of history documentaries not to have known this going in.
Those boat-shaped bulwarks around the piers of a bridge (seen above in the context of London Bridge itself): Are called “Starlings.”
“… a starling …is a defensive bulwark … surrounding the supports of a bridge.. Starlings are shaped to ease the flow of the water around the bridge, reducing the damage caused by erosion or collisions with flood-borne debris, and may also form an important part of the structure of the bridge, spreading the weight of the piers.
SO:
The bridge itself does not rest on the starlings… but the starlings protect the fundamental structure of the bridge from being worn away, or from being hit by debris from floods.
Peter is not only the “herald of the dawn,” but can we say that as “Nightingale’s Starling” he also came in just in time to keep the foundation of the Folly from being worn away by time, or damaged by the flood of new magical dangers?
Congratulations, I’m CACKLING at this. Omg, the only way this could be better is if a ghost pops up and Nightingale has to deal with it and tour-guide!Peter is VERY suspicious/intrigued.
I’ll go you one better: it turns out that Nightingale is in fact the embodiment of that post about immortals who weren’t really paying attention to major historical events and the fact he corrected Peter on is the one thing he knows that Peter doesn’t.
Peter spends the next few months trying to interrogate him on various things and being told that Nightingale a) was in Sri Lanka b) remembers things but not the thing Peter wants to know and/or c) just wasn’t paying attention. Peter is only slightly mollified by being introduced to some of the older Rivers, because half of them weren’t paying attention either, especially to things that didn’t affect local hydrology.
(I am 90% sure this is true in actual canon but it’s even funnier if knowing historical facts about London is Peter’s job and not just his hobby)
Congratulations, I’m CACKLING at this. Omg, the only way this could be better is if a ghost pops up and Nightingale has to deal with it and tour-guide!Peter is VERY suspicious/intrigued.
I’ll go you one better: it turns out that Nightingale is in fact the embodiment of that post about immortals who weren’t really paying attention to major historical events and the fact he corrected Peter on is the one thing he knows that Peter doesn’t.
Peter spends the next few months trying to interrogate him on various things and being told that Nightingale a) was in Sri Lanka b) remembers things but not the thing Peter wants to know and/or c) just wasn’t paying attention. Peter is only slightly mollified by being introduced to some of the older Rivers, because half of them weren’t paying attention either, especially to things that didn’t affect local hydrology.
(I am 90% sure this is true in actual canon but it’s even funnier if knowing historical facts about London is Peter’s job and not just his hobby)
Thomas Nightingale: ‘100 year old nuclear weapon in a 3 piece suit’ (quoth @thebaconsandwichofregret)
Beverley Brook: Literal Goddess
Tyburn and all the other Rivers: also literal gods and goddesses, but older and scarier
Molly: exiled Queen of the Fairies
Martin Chorley: actual real live supervillain
Lesley May: supervillain-in-training, magic face-changing powers, possessed by the ghost of a god????
Varvara Tamonina: professional henchwoman and immortal Russian witch
Peter Grant: goes toe-to-toe with all of the above as friends/colleagues/mortal enemies mostly by virtue of his intelligence, detective skills, and inventive use of technology, has acquired/semi-adopted a teenage sidekick, absolutely hates guns, would rather talk people down than get into fights with them
QED, thank you for coming to my TED talk.
*But, like, approximately a million times less angsty. And rich. And we’re definitely talking 90s TV show Batman here not any of the Frank-Miller-esque versions.
tora42's nonsensne 