~JST POV~

I realized the fog figured out what my worst fear was. It was definitely after I happily skipped through a horde of abominations. I stared at the fog enjoying the small stimulus of the swirls. The voices never came, they knew my fear.

How long has it been? Seconds, years?

I was bored. My worst fear.

I sighed and walked around, if anything I can look at how the ground changes. My thoughts took over when my walks got boring. I knew that this illusion wouldn't - shouldn't - last that much longer. Sure, Jones had used all his mana but how long can that fuel something this big? I thought back on my previous encounters. Wait.

Did I kill the magic user? That guy I punched in the face?

Well that makes things easier. I don't know if it was planned but Jones basically disabled the guy in the fog. To three brothers who have traversed worlds? The scenes, the gore, the disfigured, everything, we had seen multiple times and more. I've been desensitized, scarily so.

On Earth, I remember a man that got into an accident. Ommitting the circumstance of the crash, he was caught in such a way that a portion of the metal slashed open his gut, everything was in tact but there was a lot of blood. I knew basic medical aid and I was the only one who moved then. I still remember, everyone says traumatic experienced happen in slow motion, this didn't slow a fraction for me. He crashed, he got gutted, I moved, I helped. The guts didn't faze me I actually helped the dude hold his stomach in, literally. We made it to the emergency room after a woman drove us, unfortunately the dude bled all over her car. When we finally arrived they said it was miracle he lived, wounds like that apparently result in death without immediate treatment and assistance.They said the nature of the wound normally prevents anyone from helping, helping in any actual capacity that is.

They told me I was a life saver.

My brothers are the same. How long have we been playing? We're immensely older than our actual bodies are. It was something to ponder but it was also all we ever knew. How would our lives differ if we were actually our age? How old would we actually be when we're old men?

Before I could get lost in my thoughts, my stomach rumbled. I took a bite of the apple I found earlier, I already finished all my grapes. I bit into the perfectly crisp juiciness that was the apple. I'm pretty sure the grapes were poisonous but I didn't care. Now though, my stomach cramped and I was brought to my knees groaning. I doubled over and curled into a ball on the floor. My body convulsed and I laid there as the pain dissapated.

Against all reason, I took another bite. I was promptly sent to the floor again. The apple was the most tastiest that has ever entered my mouth, that wasn't the reason I took another bite though. I was just bored. I remember watching a video on the effects of boredom. Someone would rather shock themselves painfully than sit in a chair without any stimulation. Right now, I couldn't agree more.

My eyes shut as tasty pain invaded my body through my mouth. The third bite was the worst but the taste made up for it. I was now focused on my body and observing the effects. I made a guess and pulled up the debuff blinking on my right.

Debuff: Poison of the False Fruits

Created by the scientist Calad Ium to cripple a vegetarian population sitting on a metaphorical goldmine. The goal was to free up lands containing valuable resources to claim for his empire. The False Fruits as they were dubbed, were poisonous even to other vegetation, rapidly degrading them and taking their place. To his avail, he loved fruits and got confused. The fruits scattered and have been widely used as last meals for those sentenced to death.

Effects:

+Debilitating pain

+90% decrease to all stats

+Regeneration effects nullified

That seems about right. An errant thought ran through my head, this was a bit extreme for trying to find a simple stimulus. I buried the thought, I was bored. You're not supposed to let the voices know your fears, so you don't think about them. I had encountered many times where protecting your mind was of the upmost importance, to flood your surface thoughts with random thinkings in order to hide the truly important information. That's what I've been doing since I entered the fog.

The fog wouldn't know my true fear.

Cobb could never do it. He was too true to himself. His mind worked at a different level. Every thought he had was something important, each thought connected and spread to the next, that's how I pictured his brain. The notion of thinking random useless thoughts was against his very nature, to waste his mental capacity on something inefficient? Blasphemy. Normally he found another way to hide his thoughts, an amulet, a magic, he got really creative sometimes. The last time he set a trap in his own brain and ended up frying someone elses. That was hilarious.

As for Jones, he was a mystery to me. He was also the earliest one to be exposed to virtual reality, what effects that had on his brain I would never know. Sometimes I regret it but then I wouldn't have spent all this time with all of my brothers. There was nothing to say, I didn't know if Jones followed my example for attacks on the mind or had developed something else. Perhaps he followed the alternative methods? Maybe he thinks in parallel, or structures his thoughts in different ways. He could blank himself too, moving from active thinking to an absolute void of thoughts, I heard it hurts to look into the minds like that. I shrugged my spasming shoulder, rather it shrugged on its own, multiple times.

I tried moving my hand again. It was time for the next apple. My body refused to move as it jerked on its own, cramping in inconvenient spots. I glared at my body and grabbed the next apple. Again the taste was painful and blissful. I wasn't taking pleasure from the pain. I was taking pleasure from the taste. It was the most otherworldy taste and yet still managed to capture the simplicity of an apple - all in a single bite. The taste was minimalistic, humble and yet at the time it was grand and boastful. The pain sucked however, it wracked through my body sending needles into my skin from the inside. There was no release, the stress built up inside of me, but went away when I thought of the alternative, absolute boredom.

NOTICE:

Pat, God of Boredom and Entertainment has taken a keen interest in you. As presider of all things boring as well as entertaining, your situation has piqued his curiousity.

Effects:

+Pat notices you

The first thing I noticed was how Pat was a really boring name for a god. I laughed, then paused. Was I just entertained over how boring his name was? Pat, the God of Boredom and Entertainment you sneaky bastard. I could come to like that name, it was perfectly fitting. Didn't Gyru, God of the Uncharted and Untamed Beasts take interest in Cobb?

There weren't many games where I had taken the interest of a god, when I had it was normally a god focused on war or something like that. Unsurprisingly, it was Cobb who attracted the most attention with his magic. We would meet up occasionally within games, the really big wars were the ones that got us together, we weren't teaming, we just happened to both be at the same place fighting for the same thing.

Events like that forced us together. It was always a competition but we never outright tried to attack each other, we didn't like it, it wasn't fun for anyone. Instead we just dueled each other but that wasn't the point. The really big events that attracted the attention of gods were the times where I could really shine, the problem? Cobb was right beside me flinging magic willy nilly. That was why it was rare for me to get a god's attention the spotlight was on him. Of couse it didn't really matter to me, I didn't like the gods, they can't take a joke.

One time I was joking with one and he tried to destroy the world. Hate that guy. I called him Army, short for Armageddon but who would've guessed that he would try to destroy the world like a child?

I pushed away those thoughts. I was on my fourth apple now, the effects were lessened though, the pain not the taste. The more I ate the more I could ignore the pain and enjoy the taste. Some masochistic side of me missed the convulsing spasms and cramps though, I felt dirty eating something so divine without punishment. I didn't like feeling guilty, it made the apple taste a bit - less.

Some indeterminate time later I finished all my apples, leaving one for later.

New Skill: Poison Resistance - Advanced 9 (56%)

Through exposure to various poisons your body has built a natural resistance. Poisonous effects will have less effect on you. It is said food eccentrics train this skill so that one day they can taste the Forbid Fruits, extremely poisonous and unimaginably tasty. A select few poisons disregard this skill.

Effects:

+87% resistance to poisons

Naturally the first thing I did was check on the poison affecting me. Apparently the effects were lessened dramatically enough that it didn't count as a debuff anymore, the icon vanished. I could still feel a small amount of pain though.

Jesus, how poisonous were those? God that could've been really bad. Huh, should I curse using Pat's name?

I decided not to, the consequences are unknown. I looked around a bit as I regained control of my body, perusing my choices of food.

Next thing I knew I was eating edible flowers. The pleasure that pierced my senses was unimaginable and I was brought to my knees, not in pain, in bliss. I couldn't have enough. I kept eating and eating until I caught sight of my hands. They were purple and brought my thoughts to the magic user I maimed, it was enough to knock me out of my trance. Even now I could feel the urge to eat more flowers, my hand reached for one. My other hand stopped it. I locked my mind down and sorted through my urges, emotions and thoughts. Where did my urge to punch people go?

Debuff: Popyoin Addiction

Your body has been tuned to the magic of the Popyoin flowers. Your mana will crave these flowers and the addiction will only rise with the flowers your system digests.

Effects:

+Mana reliance on Popyoin flowers

+While under the influence magic is amplified by 20%

+INT and WIS increased by 40

Great, a magical drug. Is this magic heroin?

Absently, I took a bite of my remaining apple and savored the taste. I could enjoy the bliss of this apple without a trance, I was in control and that made it all the more tastier. Then the Popyoin Addiction debuff disappeared. I blinked, surprised. The apple in my hand temporarily forgotten. My mind raced.

What just happened? Am I cured? Did I build a resistance to magic flowers? The fuck is going on?

Some part of me registered that the fog was dispersing. When the rest of my awareness caught up I saw Cobb looking down at me. I was sitting in a small field of flowers by one of the bookshelves, next to me was a pile of apple cores and next to that was a pile of grape stems.

His eyes scanned and landed on me. "What the fuck man?"

"What? I was hungry." I said defensively.

"Most Painfully Rewarding Fruits? Magical Addictions of the Glade?" He read through the books open in front of me, one opened to an illustration of an apple and grapes, another to a field of purple flowers. "False Fruits? Addictive flowers?"

"Uh."

"Goddammit dude. There goes two of our books down the drain!" He facepalmed. "Do you even think at all?"

Oh shit I forgot about that.

"Um. I forgot sorry." I ventured. "I was bored! The fog figured out I hate being bored and stopped making things! I was alone and hungry what'd you want me to do?"

"So you fucking poisoned yourself? Ugh." He sighed defeated, reading the pages I opened. "Finish the flowers and eat the rest of your apple after. The apple should kill off the flowers and the addiction."

Oh, so that's what happened.

"Yeah, I was already doing that." I said defensively, lying terribly. He squinted at me.

The fog was now mostly gone. To my right I heard someone yelling frantically in another language. There was a glow and amidst the broken bookshelves I could see the apparition from Contos Spellcraft in perfect clarity - piercing purple eyes. The glow was a mix of all colors and as it reached its peak I could see the picture the hooded man drew. It was a 3d rendering of all the elements swirled into one, script in different colors and fonts surrounded the piece in all patterns. His purple eyes were dulled and erratic, no doubt the effects of the fog. Despite his relative safety he checked behind his back, throwing furtive glances over his shoulder. He finished his magic. He locked eyes with us and moved to break and activate the magic aiming toward us.

"Fuck!" Cobb and I yelled in Hyperfocus, diving opposite from each other. I kept my eyes on the hooded figure as he moved to break his magic.

His head exploded sending a trail of brainmatter across the pristine ornate carpet. His body fell limp, headless.

And then the fashionably late sound of a Barrett 50. Cal pierced the air.