The Lobby

TW: more mentions of death/murder, violence, fighting, blood

Scott will not stop talking to me.

He's still going. He doesn't seem to care that it's a one-sided conversation, he's still going.

"What books did Grian give you?" he asked.

"Nether Civilizations and Spyglasses," I answered, not looking up from my journal.

"Oh, that's cool. He said mine were on botany and poetry. But I can't read them."

I nodded absentmindedly. If he could shut up, that would be nice.

Grian and Pearl are in the Library, I think. I didn't see them go in there, but there's only two places they could be, and they're not in the main room with Scott and I. Maybe if they were Scott wouldn't still be talking to me.

"Here's an idea," I snapped. I think he was mid-sentence, but to tell you the truth, I was not listening. "How about you shut up?"

Scott blinked, taken aback. "Oh." He obliged, though, pulling out his journal and writing instead of jabbering. Finally.

I don't know how long it was, but after at least ten minutes of blessed silence, Grian and Pearl came back from the Library. Pearl had her Tower book with her, and sat at the foot of her bed on the floor and began to read. Grian sat on his bed, messing idly with his desert poncho.

"What's the deal with that, anyways?" I asked, gesturing to the poncho.

"Huh?" Grian asked, looking up. He noticed me pointing the pen to the poncho and nodded once. "Oh. It's the poncho I wore in the desert."

"I can see that. Why don't you wear it?"

His face clouded over for a moment. "I don't like the reminder."

"Why not hide it, then?"

"Can't."

"What."

"I can't get rid of it. None of us can. The outfit you win in, you're stuck with. You can take it off during the day, but it'll respawn on you in the morning. So I'm stuck with the poncho."

Pearl nodded. "Can't get rid of this hood," she said, gesturing to the red cloak around her shoulders. "I don't mind that much, though."

"I got pretty lucky," Scott mumbled. "Nothing really out of the ordinary with my outfit." He looked up and gave me a once over, then looked back to his journal. "You've got a lot of coral, though."

I looked at my vest, which had pieces of colored coral tucked in, and nodded. My eye also caught on the Dogwarts flag tied around my waist. I'd forgotten that was there. It almost made me smile. But then I saw the coral again, and I remembered how the coral on Scott had charred under the brunt of the lava, and any joy I felt from the reminder of Dogwarts faded.

"Coral burns pretty easily," I said offhandedly.

"Yeah, I'd guess you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?" Scott muttered.

I looked up, and he was staring at me. I glared back, but his gaze didn't falter. How was he so calm, yet so annoying at the same time?

"Do you want an apology or something? 'Cause you're not gonna get one," I snapped.

"Some appreciation would be nice. I gave you a home, kept you alive, and that's how you repay me?"

"It was you or me. I had no choice."

"No, you had a choice, and you chose yourself."

Rage flared up again and I stood up, though I didn't really know why. "If I killed you, maybe you'd finally shut up."

Scott stood up in turn, and he straightened to his full height, allowing him to look down on me just a little. "You've already killed me once. You can't make it hurt as much the second time."

I froze a little. It was the first time Scott had blatantly said that I'd killed him. Maybe I would've said something else, but then Grian laughed. The man laughed. "All this over a silly game?" he asked with a grin.

I snapped my head to the left to look at him. His bed was only a couple feet away. "What did you just say?" I growled.

He smirked. "I said, 'All this over a silly game?'"

I couldn't help it. I strode over to where he was sitting, grabbed the scruff of his sweater, yanked him to a standing position, and punched him as hard as I could in the face.

Scott gasped in shock and Grian recoiled, left hand to his left cheek. He nodded once. "Good punch," he said hoarsely.

I punched him again, just for that comment. And then again. And I didn't stop at punching, either. I kicked, clawed, scratched, slapped, the whole nine yards. And he just laid there and took it, which made me even angrier.

I think I was yelling at him, but honestly, I don't remember. It was probably something like "That game was not silly!"

Eventually my knuckles were hurting, I think some were even bleeding, and I was on top of Grian; he was curled into a ball, but not fighting back.

I think Scott had been calling my name for a while, but I hadn't heard him. Eventually I felt someone's hand on my shoulder.

"Martyn," Pearl whispered. I heard that one whisper clearer than any of Scott's yells. I froze, fist inches from Grian's face.

"I know you're mad. Trust me, I know. I get it, at least as much as I can. And I know Grian said something that set you off, but I can guarantee you he was teasing, albeit at a bad time, otherwise he's the world's biggest hypocrite. So are you really mad at Grian? Your friend? Your brother?" She paused, giving the words time to reach through the haze of anger.

"I'll bet it's not really Grian. And I'll bet you're mad at the same people we're all mad at. And I'll bet you know who I'm talking about." She paused again. The Watchers, I supplied mentally, not trusting my voice out loud yet.

"So how about you stop hitting Grian. Just take a step back, and breathe. Then when you're calmer, you can hit whatever you want! But not Grian. I think he's had enough. Does that sound like a deal?"

My fist unclenched a little and I let my arm slowly fall to my side. Slowly, robotically, I stood up and off of Grian. Pearl took her hand off my shoulder but didn't leave my side as I stood above Grian, panting. Grian's hands were over his face, but I could see the blood beneath them. I'd definitely broken his nose. Scott squatted down to help him.

I should've probably said something like sorry, but to be honest, at that moment, to say I was sorry would've been a complete lie. So I just walked over to my bed, laid down with my back facing the three of them, and tried to pretend I was literally anywhere else.

[Word Count: 1153 words]

Summary: Scott is still talking to Martyn, and Martyn just wants to be left alone. He snaps at Scott and Scott is hurt, but stops talking to him. Grian and Pearl come back into the main room from the Library and Grian starts messing with his desert poncho. Martyn asks about it, and Grian explains that the outfit the winner won in is the outfit they're stuck in for all time. Grian doesn't like his poncho, Pearl is indifferent about her Scarlet Pearl cloak, and Scott feels lucky that his winning outfit isn't too different from his usual. Scott mentions that Martyn's outfit has a lot of coral, and Martyn gets snappish. They start arguing, and Grian attempts to lighten the mood with a joke. This fails. Martyn beats Grian up. Pearl calms Martyn down enough to get him off of Grian, and Martyn wants to be anywhere else.

See y'all in the future!

~ Matteo