The Underground Game – a 50 Phrases collection
Only the Shallow know themselves
DISCLAIMER: This is the story that I was having heaps of trouble with until Ghost helped me out. Thanks again!
"You'd really want to live forever?"
Shadow tilted his head slightly to better see the crowd. He didn't know why he was here – he hated clubs, and he loathed Rouge's dance club. But where Sonic went, trouble followed, and Rouge liked her money-making scheme. So when she'd mentioned Sonic and his friends would be stopping by, Shadow decided it would be better for everyone if he kept an eye on the 'hero'.
But nothing had gone wrong in two hours, and now the group were sitting around one of the tables, eating the terrible food that Club Diamonte served and talking about… philosophy. Or something. He hadn't been paying attention until now.
Amy shook her head as she reached past Sonic for a wedge. "Not really. But I totally get wanting everyone young and beautiful forever. Would you really want to get old and decrepit?"
"I'm gonna get old, but I'll never be decrepit," announced Sonic. "I'm still gonna be breaking the sound barrier at fifty!"
"Along with your hip," Tails added, and he laughed.
"Shadow might live forever," Amy said thoughtfully. He leaned over, intrigued by the topic of himself, and even more so when he saw the sad smile on her face. "I guess that's the only reason I'd want the world to go on forever… so he wouldn't have to be alone."
"Don't you worry about that," Sonic said cheerfully. "If I know Shads, he's going down in a blaze of glory. Fireworks and everything."
"Remind me who this Shadow guy is?" the armadillo asked. He was a stranger, but he and a little yellow squirrel had come in with Sonic, and were therefore just as annoying as the rest of them, even if the squirrel never seemed to talk and the armadillo spent most of his time teasing Sonic. "Isn't he the hedgehog everyone thought was you?"
"Yup. Oh, man, I love this song! Be right back, have to dance."
"Sonic, wait up!"
Shadow frowned, pulling back into the darkness as Amy hurried out after the blue blur. But he looked around as Rouge sauntered up beside him, folding her arms with a smirk.
"You know, you could spy on them just as easily by actually going over there and talking to them," she pointed out. "It might make you look a little less creepy to my patrons, too."
"As if I care about these mindless creatures and what they pretend to think," he snapped, and she raised an eyebrow.
"Little touchy, aren't we?"
He took a deep breath, then slowly let it out and looked around at her. He wasn't the type to apologise, but he could occasionally explain his actions. To Rouge. Sometimes. "They were talking about me."
"Oh?"
"That blue hedgehog… he claims to know me," he said irritably. "Knows me well enough to say how I'll choose to end my life."
She blinked, shifting her weight in surprise. "Well, now there's a depressing subject. What on earth brought that one up?"
"Does it matter? Who is he to say I'll die in a blaze of glory, rather than last an eternity alone? How would he know what I'd prefer when I don't even…" He cut himself off, then let out another breath and shook his head. "He sounds so confident of things he doesn't know."
"Maybe he does. I don't know about you, but I never know what's going through that spiny blue head," she said, and lifted a hand to her chin in thought. "But I'll agree with him on this. I can't see you wandering the earth alone for the centuries. You're too fond of drama."
He glared at her, but she just winked.
"Only the shallow know themselves, Shadow," she said playfully. "I would know. So someone like you, with so many layers, would be best off taking advice on themself from someone else."
He just continued glaring at her, though this time it was more clearly for show than out of irritation, and she nudged him with her hip.
"The kids are a little ridiculous, but they're not always wrong. Deep down under everything, hero or not, I know you're a good person. You'll go on protecting things until you can't anymore." Her smile turned soft, even as she began moving away. "Someone like you could never really be alone. No matter how much you try."
He frowned, but she was already gone, sliding into the booth beside Tails to introduce herself to the newcomers. Shadow looked over to the dance floor, where Sonic was drawing an audience, and then onto Amy, who looked exasperated, but was enjoying herself regardless.
And, a little out of defiance, stayed where he was.
Alone.
This is a challenge to myself, inspired by my friend Jkateel, who told me to stop complaining about how I can't write anything and just do it.
And so, at least once a week, I will write a fic based around one of the 50 phrases. I will post it, whether I like it or not (so sorry for the spam). And to further force myself, I'm going to say it will be in my head canon of Sonic Underground merged with the Sonic games, because that's a canon that's stayed with me for years, so it's not like I'll lose interest.
I'm not actually doing it on LiveJournal because for one, I can't find the community again, and for another, I don't think I'm actually matching the rules. I just copied down the challenges once and still have it.
No restrictions on length. It does not need to have a point. Just a story or a thought. And the phrase, of course.
Because fanfic should be about fun, not whether it's fabulous or not.
Emo Shadow is emo.