Chapter Text
"I think you've finally lost it." Marilyn said, looking at her dad with her hands on her hips and sass in her eyes as she shook her head slowly. It was difficult to read, but it seemed like she was a mix of worried and exasperated with this whole situation. Her father in specific.
"I haven't bloody lost it! I know what I'm talkin' about 'ere!" Murdoc said, frustratedly crossing his arms, mocking her sassy position as he usually did in their spats. "I'm telling you I've got the truth to it all!"
"What you've got is more brain damage than Stu'." Marilyn replied, rolling her dark red eyes again with a sigh. Cults? The truth? What was he going on about this time? Marilyn was used to her dad's wacky and insane ideas that usually stemmed from a bottle, sure, but he was completely sober telling her this, making it all the more worrying to the teen.
"Oh sod off you little brat." Murdoc said, mocking her once again, making her struggle to not crack a smile. If there was anyone in this world to make the word 'brat' sound like words of brod admiration it was Murdoc Niccals.
"No I'm serious!" She said, biting back the laugh from earlier before turning to the others who were watching whatever this was take place from the kitchen. "Does any of this blasted cult talk make sense to any of you?" Marilyn asked, gesturing to her dad with her left hand.
"Not in the slightest." Russel said, not looking up from some kind of newspaper he was reading. "But if anyone was gonna go looney here first I was banking on Mudz." He added with a chuckle.
"Very funny Russ." Murdoc said, rolling his eyes with a sigh.
"I wasn't joking." Russel said, looking up from the paper with a smirk before down again, chuckling to himself. Russel seemed to have a bit more spunk as of recent, and it annoyed Murdoc a lot.
"I'm telling you guys I know what I'm talking about if you'd only hear me out-" Murdoc said before getting cut off by Noodle.
"Isn't this all because you're stalking the neighbor woman?" Noodle asked, looking up from her phone at Murdoc with a genuine look of curiosity. Sure, she thought he was crazy too, but she didn't want to throw stones just yet.
"Yeh, and didn't she came over here to ask you to stop staring at her while she was in her backyard?" 2D asked as well, watching the green man flush in embarrassment.
"I wasn't watching her I was lookin' at her garden..." Murdoc said, his voice a mix of embarrassment and anger. "And no this isn't some gesture to impress some girl. This is somethin' I've had for months!" Murdoc said. Truthfully, deep down, it was a scheme to get some girl, but Murdoc and the others didn't know that yet.
"Aww, Dad has a crush. How cute!" Marilyn said, exaggeratedly clasping her hands together, making the man grumble something and shove her away from him and Noodle giggle.
"No need to act stupid about it." He muttered. Murdoc wasn't sure what color his blush was since he changed colors like a polly pocket color change surprise doll, but whatever it was he was practically glowing with it.
"Eh, just some payback for when I was 9 and had a crush on Rouge the Bat and you made a big deal over it." Marilyn shrugged, grinning herself now. Annoying her dad had always been one of her favorite passtimes.
"Rouge should be anyone's crush at any age." Noodle said, chuckling and fist bumping her her sister with a grin. "If you find her attractive then the world is already healing."
"I wouldn't say 'healing' exactly. You used to like Rouge too after Dee bought ya a Dreamcast. After we bought you a plush of her and Shadow you tried to throw Shadow off the roof of Kong because you thought he was gonna take her away from you." Russel shrugged, chuckling to himself at the memory of a small Noodle yelling in Japanese at plushie of a black hedgehog. Screw Sonic, Noodle should've been Shadow's real enemy.
"It's called being a good wife, Russ." Noodle said, dramatically flipping her black hair. "In this world a woman's gotta take her precautions."
"Murder is a precaution?" 2D asked, raising an eyebrow at this conversation. He knew his sister was joking, but at the same time he didn't know anymore. She was just as predictable as a hurricane.
"Yes." Noodle and Murdoc said at the same time, making Russel shake his head. Even if he raised Noodle mostly, she still could be a carbon copy of Murdoc at certain times or when she wanted to be.
"This conversation got weird. I'm out." Murdoc said, walking out, Marilyn behind him in protest.
"So when you make the conversation weird it's okay but we do it's a problem?"
"Bang-on. Glad you could understand."
________
Only a few days had passed and the cult business was, surprisingly, in full swing. With Noodle and Russel on board, and 2D there to basically be the errand boy, Murdoc's vision of The Last Cult was quickly becoming a reality and sight to behold.
The only problem? Someone was opposed.
"Come on love! Tell me one good reason why you won't join!" Murdoc said, practically begging the girl at this point.
"M'kay, I'll giva ya a counter point. Gimme one good cult that's ever ended well." Marilyn said, one hand on her hip and the other at her side. "Listen, I'm not sayin' I don't trust you or Dee, Noodle, or Russ, okay? It's the cult in of itself. I have issues with it, not you."
"But this isn't some dangerous thing that I'm gonna be sacrificing people to! It's just like a church, just without the rubbish." Murdoc said, attempting anything to reason with his daughter, but quickly learning it wasn't going to work. "Bad choice of words, eh? Okay, uh, motivational group?" Nothing. He sighed.
"Fine." Murdoc said eventually with a heavy sigh. "You don't have to join if you don't want to, but you're always welcome if you change yer mind. Got a thing picked out for you and everythin'." Murdoc said, giving her a small smile. Even if he was still kinda hurt over it, he couldn't force her to join. He didn't want to be like those blasted preachers.
"Thanks." The teen said, smiling back at him. She was glad he wasn't the forceful type. She had enough of that when she had to stay with her mother after he got arrested after Plastic Beach.
"Actually before we got on this topic I came in here ask if you payed 2D for that rock he had to paint yet."
"No, but don't worry, he'll forget about it."
"I don't think he will."
"He will."
He didn't.