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who: Anthony & Jovan
what: Jovan gets caught by a gum monster. Anthony is a passerby. Friendship?!
where: WHEREVER. maybe near the school!!!
when: april 1st
warning: their possible friendship. that's it that's the joke happy april fools.

Going outside in a town infested by pests, insecty or alieny, was a terrible idea. And Anthony has usually been full of terrible ideas. Hood over his head, hands in his pockets, careful that he's ready to run at the first sight of a monster, Anthony walks down the street, eye out for anybody in trouble or the face of a friend.

He catches sight of the former first. And at first he just... stares. He knew the monsters were ridiculous. They weren't really dangerous, only highly irritating, but even he wasn't expecting--

"... Hey," he says unsurely, staring at Jovan stuck wherever he may be stuck, "you okay?"

-- gum monsters plastering people to places.

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He's only been up here for a few minutes, which is why he still has the energy to struggle so vigorously up in this tree (still leaveless from the endless winter they're just coming out of, full of harsh branches digging into his everything).

So of course he's not in a very good mood when Anthony walks by. He stops wriggling inside the gum trap for a moment to dignify him with a response.

"Do I look like I'm okay?" He gives it one more wholehearted attempt at escape before all his energy leaves him slumping from his perch, sighing in defeat.

"Peachy, actually." He doesn't recognize the guy from their rather numerous conversations on the network. Good thing. If he had he might've left Jovan hanging (literally) for the rest of the day. But he doesn't, and he's looking around for a way to climb the tree. It's too bad he left his maneuver gear at home, he thinks..

"Give me one minute! I'll climb up and see if I can peel you off."

Now that he gets a closer look at the kid, Jovan realizes this is one of Alan's friends--the one who visited his house to figure out who was messing with his precious stuffed toy. He seemed more or less alright, if a bit uptight in the ass. He will forgive him for everything, though, if he manages to get Jovan down from here.

"Yeah, okay. No rush--I don't exactly have anywhere to be soon." He sounds defeated, because he is--he's already 10 minutes late for his class, by the time he gets out of here, it'll be pointless to go at all. Which sucks, because he was supposed to present a project today.

He's already moved over to the tree, examining it for places to hang onto. He begins to climb as he responds to the poor gum victim.

"Good to know. I wouldn't want to rush and accidentally drop you. You're not getting any circulation cut off, are you?"

After a quick wriggle to confirm, he shakes his head. "I don't think so. I've just got this hardcover book in my backpack digging right into my back."

"Eugh. Ouch, all right, we'll try to make this quick as possible..."

How, thought, he's not really sure. Gum isn't something you can just cut through, and if he recklessly tears the guy's shirt, he might fall and hurt himself. He's going to have to...

Well, the best answer would probably be to get him to get out of that shirt of his. That would cause the least damage. Right?

"You don't have any in your hair or anything, do you?"

His eyebrows knit together, not quite sure what his hair has to do with any of this, but he still shakes his head and answers the question.

"No, my hair's fine."

"Great! Then we won't have to worry about tearing out any hair or possibly having to shave you bald to get out of the gunk." He means it as a joke. Keep your head out of the gum, bro.

"Yoooou might have to end up having to escape out of your shirt. It's pretty stuck."

He make a noise halfway between a disappointed sigh and a whine.

"Oh, well that's just great, because I've got my arm in a cast right now!"

... Ah.

Well that's gonna be a bit of a problem. He grimaces as he leans over a little, taking a look at the arm that is sure enough in a cast.

"How likely will you be in pain if I helped you move this?"

He pouts, a little concerned for how much pain he might be looking at in his immediate future.

"I don't know, I've only had this thing on for like half a month!"

"... Sounds like a not-good-plan, then. Then another question."

This is going to be harder than he thought.

"How attached are you to this shirt and are you more inclined to risk pain of moving your arm or the embarrassment of me having to cut you out of this shirt?"

He gives it some thought. He does actually like this shirt a lot, it's his lucky public speaking shirt, but...he doesn't see any other way of getting down from here.

"Look, just--just do whatever you have to to get me down from here, okay?"

"All right, all right. Just covering my bases... give me a bit, it's a little harder without--" His maneuver gear, but he decides to get to work without finishing that thought, leaning down to make sure he isn't going to accidentally cut the guy to shreds before pulling out his pocket knife and getting to work!

Jovan knows he ought to stay still, that any movement is just going to put him in further danger as the guy moves the blade around where he expects his body to be. Still, he can't help but stiffen up, head turned up, eyes closed and breath held, as Anthony works.

Please oh god please let him still have all his organs after this. And his dick. Oh please.

He's very careful about this. He's had the pocket knife for years, not that he's ever used it for something like this, but he makes sure he's keeping a hand on the guy so he doesn't just fall suddenly. It's a slow process, and one that takes several minutes, but he manages to release the guy's casted arm from the sleeve, first.

"I'm Anthony, by the way. You?"

He lets out a sigh of relief once his arm is freed. That was the most worrisome part of this whole operation--he was afraid that something was going to happen to make his arm injury even worse and keep him in a cast for even longer. But this was...this was pretty much harmless.

"J--Jovan. I'm Jovan."

"Jovan? Cool. 'Kay the tree's not so tall but I'll do my best not to drop you for the rest of this."

Which is going to get harder. Maybe he can use that branch below him? That might be his best bet. So he slides off, carefully balancing himself on said branch, and will start cutting the other sleeve.

"I think if I get you out of the sleeves all you'll have to do is take off your backpack and you'll peel off fine."

He nods, looking down at the ground and trying to figure out how safe it was to come down there from his current position.

"Alright, alright. Just as long as this isn't going to break my arm even more."

"Maybe just your nose." He's joking. "Here."

He slides down the branch, and swings himself down, stumbling a little when he lands but looking relatively unharmed upon turning back around.

"I'll break your fall, okay dude?"

If he were the more noble type, Jovan would insist that Anthony not do that, he could get hurt trying to protect him, and he's enough of a man himself to do this alone without getting other people hurt on his behalf!

But Jovan is weak and pathetic and he knows it, and hey, he's already the injured one here, right? Plus Anthony is offering himself. So it's okay.

Jovan nods, a quick jerky gesture, as he looks down and mentally braces himself.

"Alright, alright. I'm going--in 3...2...1..." He takes a breath, as if he's about to dive underwater, and with his good arm, pushes himself away from the safety of the tree and the gum as hard as he can.

He figures that if he breaks or sprains anything from this, he could probably get by asking his girlfriend for some healing service. Maybe after a lecture. Maybe with a punch. But he'd gladly suffer some minor injury before he makes an ass of himself letting a kid stay stuck up in a tree like this.

As Jovan tears himself off the tree, Anthony braces himself, knees bent slightly to cushion the impact and also so that he can leap in case he has to.

Will they make it?!

RP is governed by the players' choices, and my choice is that they do, in fact, make it.

He falls back-first, landing with a very inelegant "oof!" on Anthony. Thankfully, because he fell on his back, his arm, cast and sling and all, was protected from the worst of the fall, cushioned by his own belly.

For a few seconds, he just lies there, breathing heavily and staring up at the spot in the tree where he'd just been stuck. He seems to have forgotten that he's on top of another person.

He manages not to hit his head, at least, although he's sure he's going to have a bruise on his ass for at least three weeks from the way he landed on it so completely.

He gives Jovan a couple seconds, lying on his back under him, before he grunts to remind him of his presence and starts moving to get up.

"... You ok there?"

His only response is a pained groan, which slowly devolves into a whine that's on the verge of tears. It hurts, but he's alive--he's just also a big crybaby.

Eventually, Jovan rolls off of him, bearing the brunt of his fall to the grass with the shoulder of his good arm.

Anthony will get up once the weight is off of him, rolling his shoulders and shaking himself off before he's taking off the sweater he was wearing over his shirt, holding it out to the poor now-shirtless dude.

"Here, you can wear this for now."

Once Jovan finally gets himself seated upright in the grass and sees the offered sweater, he realizes just how naked he feels. He briefly tries covering up as much of his chest as he can with his good arm before he realizes no wait, he needs that arm to take the sweater.

He grasps it in his hand and lets out a quiet, awkward "thank you", eyes averted downwards, before he starts the long and arduous process of trying to put a sweater on over a casted arm.

He'll help, reaching over to hold up the sweater and guiding the sleeve hold to Jovan's arm so he could put it on better.

"You okay to still go to school like this? Where do you go anyway? I mean, you were going to school right?"

Jovan stays silent as he focuses on pulling his arm through the sleeve, but once that's done, he lets it rest at his side and focuses again on what's being said. The mention of school makes him sigh, a sudden reminder of how screwed he is.

"I...I don't know if it's even worth it at this point. I must be half an hour late by now."

"... A late's still better than an absence. Where do you go?"

He's getting to his feet.

"Come on!"

Jovan is surprised that the kid is still here, still helping him, for whatever reason, so he stumbles to his feet so haphazardly that he nearly faceplants all over again.

"Uh--L-LCU!" he stammers out.

Oh my god you clumsy weirdo. He makes sure he doesn't fall, but--

"... Dude, aren't you paying for those classes? Then you should definitely try to go! Come on, I'll even run with you if you're worried about gums again!"

"Wh--what? Really?" He's somewhere between shock and a frown, confused at the generosity. He can't quite fathom why someone would go to such lengths to help him. But he sets that aside--there's more important things to think about. Jovan looks down at his phone. "There's fifteen minutes left before class ends."

"It's not that far. If we run we'll make it in five." He's already dusting himself off, already starting in the direction of the school.

"Come on!"

"Uhh--a-alright!" Doing a quick check of himself, making sure he's got everything he needs (including the backpack with all his papers for his presentation), he takes off after Anthony.

He's kind of slow, though. A backpack and a broken arm makes running pretty difficult.

He'll double back when he noticed Jovan's struggle, and he'll take the backpack off his shoulders.

"Does this help?"

Jovan is pathetic and weak, so he's already out of breath by the time Anthony takes the backpack. He can't spare the air to answer the question properly, so he just nods and lets out a breath of air that is almost, but not quite, a whispered "yes."

He focuses on keeping his jog going and keeping the air from burning his lungs.

This poor guy. Anthony didn't consider himself too active of a person, but he moved around a lot and had been working out for the sake of the titan-killing bondage-gear thing. Maybe he's running too fast? He slows down a little so he doesn't accidentally leave the guy behind, keeping a grip on his backpack.

"Come on, we're almost there! While you're in there I'll get you water or something..!"

They're almost to the building, and Jovan has never felt so happy to approach his classroom before.

"Oh, thank god," he breathes between pants as they approach, his jog becoming sloppier and slower once they get nearer to the entrance.

"Don't slow down!" He almost barks it, grabbing the back of Jovan's shirt for a brief moment.

"You're not there yet!"

"Oh, Jesus!" he practically cries as he forces himself to keep going, bracing himself with his arms before he bursts in through the front doors and darts down the hallway.

Only three more classrooms to pass now--!

Anthony has no idea which classroom is his. But the moment he realizes which one Jovan's heading for, he's going to race ahead and yank the door open!

"Come on!"

Jovan was hoping for a brief moment to catch his breath and steel himself before stepping inside, but apparently that wasn't in the cards.

He comes to a grinding halt in the doorway of the classroom as every eye turns to him, including that of the girl at the front of the class presenting her own project. Jovan has never felt so self-conscious before in his life, and he hopes people think the red of his face is from how out of breath he sounds, rather than how embarrassed he is right now.

"Sorry, I-I was, uh. I got stuck--trapped by a, by one of the--the, gum things. Magic gum things."

He motions with his uninjured hand for the backpack that Anthony is still carrying so that he can just take his seat in embarrassed silence.

He hands it over, nodding firmly at the confused class like that is totally legit. It is, but it really is and clearly, you have every reason to accept this kid's tardiness. Come on at least he made it.

But before they can get into any more trouble, he will quickly take a step back with an apology at the girl in the middle of her own presentation, clapping Jovan on the back.

"You made it! Probably? I'll be outside... you know. Since I don't belong here.."

As soon as he feels the backpack in his hand, he grasps it. Before making any movement, though, he just nods to Anthony behind him, still catching his breath.

And then his leg muscles finally kick in, carrying him to the one empty seat across the room in the front row. He tries his hardest to make himself small and slide into the seat with as little commotion as possible, but it's kind of impossible.

At least he's there now, though, and the girl at the front of the room clears her throat before trying to start up her presentation again. Jovan gives one last glance to the front of the room where he nods a little, trying to give the kid a silent thanks.

A thumbs up, a salute to the teacher and a bow to the poor girl before Anthony slips out of the classroom, closing the door as quietly as he can before he backs up into the wall on the other side of the hallway and slides down, exhausted from an eventful morning. He wasn't planning to save a random stranger from gum and run to school with him, but he supposes that counts as exercise. Jesus, that was weird. But worth it, maybe. Maybe?

He'll still be sitting outside when the class ends and Jovan comes out, if he manages to.

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YES HELLO I AM HERE NOW

HELLO

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