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2D didn't understand why Murdoc kept him in his underwater room. He didn't understand why they had grown so distant. He just didn't understand the man he thought he knew so well anymore.
And so, he found himself in front of Murdoc's bedroom door after a successful escape via the vents. It wasn't easy, but he got there. He didn't know if he should knock or just barge in, because if he knocked Murdoc would have time to prepare something and throw it at him, but if he barged in... He could be face-to-face with an even more pissed Murdoc.
Well, the best option would be to pack his things and some food, then leg it as fast as he could. Or boat it, considering he had to go home via boat. But that didn't matter.
He decided just to peek inside and see if the beast was still sleeping, the beast being Murdoc. Or maybe the man could be compared to a bomb, a time bomb. A nuclear time bomb. Yeah, pretty accurate. Murdoc could be fine, then destroy everything in a matter of seconds.
Once the door was open just slightly, 2D looked inside. Everything was dark thanks to Murdoc's expensive blackout curtains. But, 2D thought he could see the outline of something snake-like in the little bit of light there was. It wasn't scaly or anything, just oddly cobra-shaped. Probably one of Murdoc's weird creations or something.
Hoping that the thing wouldn't jump up and spook him, 2D opened the door further, letting a ray of sunlight from the hall hit the snakey thing. It was fleshy and oddly red-ish, with no hair on it at all. The skin looked dried out, too. It was weird...
Then, 2D saw something moving in the darkness. He could hear frantic sniffling too. It was as if the animal was frightened.
2D opened the door all the way, and suddenly the snakey thing slithered away. He managed to get a glimpse of the weirdly shaped tip of what now appeared to be a tail. It was like an arrow, but pointier and fleshier. The tip... of a stereotypical demon's tail. At least, how humans thought they looked.
Murdoc hadn't summoned another bloody demon, had he?
No, this probably wasn't was 2D thought it was at all. It had to be something else. But still... It was a bit unsettling now. He still wanted to run away and scream, too. A long, pointy, fleshy demon tail wasn't exactly comforting to see in your Satanist bandmate's dark room.
Then, the sniffling got louder, and a little bit of a snout came into view. It was more red than the tail. And, surprisingly, the forked tongue of the creature poked out of its mouth, like it had forgotten that it even had one. It was cute, really, but still frightening.
Soon more of its body came into view, and there was no more doubt that this was, in fact, a demon. The curled goat horns on its head and the overall goat-like appearance left no room for 2D to question what the creature was. Murdoc must have summoned it... which meant it was better not to get too close.
It looked scrawny, really underweight, much like both 2D and Murdoc themselves nowadays. While Murdoc did have it a lot better than 2D did, food was still a limited resource on the plastic island, and both of their bodies showed it. 2D's body showed it more than Murdoc's, of course. He was only being fed jellyfish and plastic slop, while Murdoc sometimes had the luxury of salmon or even salt and pepper that he managed to get from pirates.
Another thing that the island didn't provide was social interaction with other living beings besides the two of them, so maybe Murdoc kept this creature out of loneliness.
2D could understand that.
The beast didn't seem to be skittish, and crawled out of the shadows towards 2D. It didn't show any sign of being aggressive either. Maybe it wanted friends too?
Shit, no- 'This is a demon, 2D. Get your bloody stuff together. Demons aren't friend material, no matter how harmless or friendly they seem.' But still... he wanted to reach out and let the creature sniff him, as one would do when trying to befriend a cat. Some folks called cats tiny little demons, after all.
Surprisingly, the demon did sniff him like a cat, then crawled more towards him. It looked like it was about to lay down in front of his feet, then-
It bumped its head against 2D's ankles rather roughly, causing the boy to trip.
The beast watched as 2D fell, the corners of its mouth tipping upwards slightly as if it was enjoying 2D's suffering. It wasn't a smirk, but... It held an uncanny resemblance to the way Murdoc would smirk after pulling a stunt like this. That made 2D falter.
Now that he took better look at the beast, he could see that its whole body had something distinctly like Murdoc, from the way it sat to the amount of times it blinked. It really was uncanny, but... familiar, too. It was like the Murdoc 2D knew. Not the monster he'd been lately.
Before he could stop it 2D found himself muttering:
"Mudz..?"
The creature's kind-of-sort-of smirk disappeared, and its rectangular pupils looked at the floor. Then it sat straighter, legs spread and front hooves between them. The creature was massive, but this position would've fit something much tinier, like a child. Or... well, Murdoc. Murdoc sat like that sometimes when he was in a childish mood.
'Didn't think you'd figure it out.' Murdoc's voice echoed in 2D's head, the eyes of the strange creature locked on him. 'I'm not being that obvious, am I? I even sniffed your hand for a second there. I wouldn't do that normally.'
The words left 2D dizzy, because the voice wasn't coming from anywhere, it was just... inside his head. The creature's- no, Murdoc's mouth wasn't even moving. It was all so strange. There was no actual sound for his ears to pick up on, nothing besides both of their breathing and 2D's racing heartbeat.
"How are you doing that? And what happened?" 2D breathed out, voice shaky but no stutter... yet. He wasn't that scared, Murdoc had put him in weirder situations than this. He'd seen most of the world's horrors by that point, and he could thank Murdoc for that too.
'Nothing to worry your head about.' Murdoc's voice answered, as he moved to curl up on the floor like a cat. But then he shot up again; 'Hang on, weren't you supposed to be down in the dungeon..?' He questioned, looking at 2D with curious, red eyes. 2D felt frozen.
'This is it,' 2D thought, 'I'm never going to see the light of day again.'
But Murdoc didn't attack, or even try to shoo 2D away, he just laid back down and let a puff of smoke curl from his nose in the form of a sigh. He seemed strangely docile like this. How long had the bassist been like this, anyway? 2D hadn't seen him in weeks, only the cyborg as it brought him food about two times a day.
'I could do with some company right now, it's alright.' Murdoc's voice came, yet again, from nowhere. 'I'm not in the best of states as you can see, mmh...' He seemed pretty sad about it. Well, 2D could understand that, Murdoc was stuck in his room now too, albeit because he was too large to fit through the doorway, and not because he was being held captive. Same difference.
But 2D would've thought that Murdoc would be happy about being a demon. He was always proud of selling his soul and worshiping Satan and all that. Could never shut up about it, either.
That seemed to have changed, then. The melancholic beast in front of 2D didn't even look like he could lie about being enthusiastic.
Maybe this happened out of Murdoc's control? He always did like having power over things, whether that be his bandmates or his own body. Hell, even the world around himself. Something he didn't have control over, he was scared of. And something he was scared of, he obviously loathed.
2D could remember the many outbursts Murdoc had over losing control of something. He threw things, smashed things, and caused general mayhem in any way he could. And afterwards, he would cry. He would cry ugly tears, tears that showed the broken man beneath the facade. The broken man that couldn't handle it when things didn't go his way.
But Murdoc wasn't throwing a tantrum now, he was just... sad. Like he'd accepted it. Like there wasn't anything left to fight for. And that hit 2D hard.
'2D? Ya still with me, mate?' Murdoc asked, cocking his demonic head to the side.
"Yeah, yeah... I am. I'm here. It's just..." 2D hesitated, swallowing down a clump of bile that had built up in his throat. "Tell me what happened." He suddenly demanded, looking up into Murdoc's eyes. He didn't know why he even wanted to know, but he did, and now he wouldn't be satisfied until he had his answer. "Tell me how you got like this."
Murdoc huffed, a small cloud of smoke escaping his nostrils and drifting upwards.
'You'd rather not know, Dents. Trust me on this one.'
2D pouted, staring straight into Murdoc's eyes. He didn't like it when Murdoc treated him like a child, not worthy of knowing things.
"But I do. I want to know. You don't know how frustratin' it is to be treated like a bloody kid half the time! If I did that to you, you'd go mad in less than a minute," 2D protested, stubbornly trying not to blink to win the nonexistent staring contest he had with Murdoc.
'You're the only one out of us both with brain damage. And you'd better start acting grown if you want me to treat you like you are, because I'll be damned if I have to discuss politics and whatnot with someone who's mentally stuck at age four.'
Murdoc then laid down sideways on the floor, resting the front of his snout on the back of his heavy front hooves. It was clear that he considered the conversation to be over.
"I can still understand things, even though I sometimes don't act like it. You should tell me more, Mudz..."
2D was answered only with silence.
He sighed.
"Can you at least tell me if all this is permanent?"
Another few seconds of silence. Then-
"It isn't."
2D nodded in response, slouching his back a little more.
"Alright, that's good."
Now, they had nothing more to say. Murdoc closed his eyes, hoping to get a little more sleep. 2D just sat there. Back aching. Head throbbing. Stomach growling. But he was used to all of that. He just stayed, watching Murdoc's deep ribcage expand and contract with each heavy breath. The low sound of it was soothing. It was like watching a big dog sleep.
Murdoc had been a lot nicer like this, actually talking again instead of trying to worm his way out of a conversation with violence. 2D just hoped Murdoc would tell him why he was like this later on... Though he knew he'd have to work for the information too, and he'd have to ask at exactly the right moment. It was always tricky with Murdoc.
Nonetheless, he was happy with how things played out. It was nice to just talk again. Just them two, privately, no forced smiles and nice words for the public.
Maybe, deep down, 2D wished Murdoc could always be like this. A calm giant.
Just... nice. Pleasant.