I sit on the stairs, reading
Looking out towards the river
Behind me three boys are trying to jump up onto the big fish
Without much success
"You can do it!" I tell one of the boys
I climbed up myself in the wee hours one night
We'd got carry-out from the bar as we left and sat up there drinking
Until we saw a high-vis heading towards us, jumped down and ran away.
"We made it up" I hear and I laugh "well done
"What are you going to do now your up there?"
They shrug
I walk back along the river
I pass a boarded up house
Ive passed it before on my way home but this time I see the faded sign
Plastik
I remember it from my first term at uni
My flatmates were going out, I want going to join them I had a cold but changed my mind
Downed pres and changed top before jumping into the taxi
The only time I ever went to that club
I liked it
It was massive, 3 floors
I lost my friends
Drank jager bombs
Danced
Kissed some boy I don't remember
Probably gave him my cold
I never knew where it was, didn't know the area then and didn't realise when it did
It seemed so far out of the city
I guess it wasn't
Cross the road and onto the towpath
Between the river and the station platforms
The robotic voice tells me to mind the gap
The same as anywhere else
I take the path under the tracks and into the gasworks
Empty offices either side
I used to walk though here in my way to work, before I moved
Theres a funny shaped pond straight agead, 2 circles joined by a line, a bit like a dog bone
I always when to the left of it, this time I go to the right
Until I realise this side is blocked off at the end and I have to go all the way round
Has it always been like that?
This city was so big when I first moved here
Everything and everyone unknown
It's not any smaller now, it's just all so much closer together
Sometimes I resent the familiarity of it all
And crave the thought of moving somewhere new
Maybe I will one day
But right now I am walking along the edges of a graph
Each vertix connected to so many others
Everything I've done in the last half decade
Everyone I've been or known
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Say it with me now
You are never late to a fandom. Your fic is never "invalid" for being "late". Your fic doesn't need a high word limit. Your fic does not need a high standard. Your fic does not need to be highly popular. Your fic isn't less valid than a popular author's fic. Your fic isn't inheritly bad. Your fic is amazing. Your fic is valid. The only thing that matters is that you're having fun. Fandom is not consumption and consumerism. Fandom is fun, free and for the people. Fandom is not a popularity contest. We're all nerds at the end of the day.
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