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Basebulb is the het ship between Baseball and Lightbulb from the Inanimate Insanity fandom.
Canon[]
Inanimate Insanity[]
During team picking of the season, Baseball is chosen to be on Lightbulb's team. When Lightbulb later comes up with the name Team Epic, Baseball supports the name and calls it perfect.
The two later end up being eliminated in the season and sent to Idiotic Island. Right before the rejoin, Baseball is told to shut up by Lightbulb, Knife, and Paper when he says that everyone has an equal chance of winning. When MePhone tells the eliminated contestants to hold onto something heavy, Lightbulb grabs onto Baseball and says that he is getting chubbier around the edges when Baseball claims to not be heavy.
After an explosion in Idiotic Island, Lightbulb and Baseball are happy when the cage breaks open. The two, along with the rest of the eliminated contestants, ride a tree the next day to get off of the island. Later when the competing contestants are told to retrieve the eliminated ones, Baseball follows Lightbulb as she guides the uncaptured ones away from them, telling them to only look straight. When she inadvertently causes them to fall in a hole, Baseball yells that they should have looked down as well.
Inanimate Insanity II[]
During a party at hotel OJ, Lightbulb snatches a cookie at a buffet table. Baseball tells her to stop and is concerned that she has already eaten 50 cookies. Right as Lightbulb is about to correct him on how many she actually ate, she gets nauseous and vomits on him. Shortly afterwards when Salt wants to get a cookie, Baseball orders her not to. The two are picked to compete in season two and they end up being the last ones remaining in the icebreaker challenge. After the ice literally breaks between them, Lightbulb points out to Baseball how she cannot reach him. However, because of this, the two are made the team captains of the season to Lightbulb's delight. Baseball asks to choose his team members first and Lightbulb is about to stop him from doing so, only to be told by MePhone that their members will be selected based on when they got out during the icebreaker challenge. Lightbulb and Baseball name the teams The Bright Lights and The Grand Slams respectively. In the following dodgeball challenge when Baseball tells his team to stop getting each other out, Lightbulb says that she doesn't mind. Baseball then kicks a dodgeball at her and gets out when Lightbulb catches it.
Before the triathlon, Lightbulb sarcastically complains about the team captains not getting to compete. She pulls out a lawn chair and relaxes next to Baseball.
In the soccer challenge when The Bright Lights are given one last chance to defeat The Grand Slams, Lightbulb motivates her team to score the four shots they need past Baseball. However, Baseball blocks all four of them, making Lightbulb call it anticlimactic.
Later in the season, the two, along with Knife and Suitcase, become the last four remaining competitors. Lightbulb is approached by the other three while looking for a device who all give her support. Lightbulb asks Baseball if he really would put aside what she describes as their intense rivalry as warring team captains, which Baseball responds that he never saw their relationship like that. Lightbulb then asks him why he voted out her friend Test Tube, surprising Baseball that she didn't hesitate to ask. Explaining that it was nothing personal, he points out that there's one thing she can do with her whole team gone. As she thinks that she will be alone without them, Baseball clarifies that she can win it for them, giving her motivation to keep competing. After the challenge, the two both end up being eliminated and missing the final two spots. After Baseball walks into the elimination portal, he sees Lightbulb catching up with her old teammates. Lightbulb finds him and describes their eliminations as both captains going down with their ships. Baseball explains the big difference between them on how Lightbulb missed her teammates while Baseball missed everything about his. Lightbulb gives Baseball advice that he should really be looking out for his crew if he wants to be a good captain.
During the hotel OJ party, MePhone gathers the remaining contestants, Suitcase and Knife, and the former captains, Baseball and Lightbulb, to inform them of Pickle's deletion. After Suitcase and Knife are sent off, MePhone asks Baseball and Lightbulb to protect him and everyone in the hotel while he hides in a closet. Afterwards when Paintbrush is about to leave the hotel, Baseball warns them that it's not safe to leave while Lightbulb instead says the exact opposite. When Paintbrush listens to Lightbulb, she tells Baseball that her words got a better reaction to Baseball's annoyance. Later when Yin and Cherries ask Baseball about what he meant earlier, Lightbulb convinces them that it was just a prank. Baseball is worried and asks her if they really aren't going to tell them anything. As Lightbulb questions if they really know anything either, she advises that they hold onto the little pieces of info to keep the peace. Baseball then figures that there isn't a need to cause unnecessary stress, though Cherries says that the prank did indeed cause some. Lightbulb calls it a no-win situation and blames Baseball for talking her into it. The two then end up witnessing OJ being deleted as well. As Lightbulb calls it an isolated incident, Baseball reminds her of Pickle's fate as well. Lightbulb tries to reassure herself that it couldn't happen again since it already happened twice, making Baseball walk away and turn to Nickel for advice. However, Baseball ends up witnessing Nickel face the same fate and heads back to the lobby traumatized. Lightbulb finds him and wishes there was a way to make the situation more positive, claiming that it is too dark for her. Baseball tells her to let the situation be dark as he finally grabs the attention of everyone else and informs them of what's really going on.
When Baseball finds MePhone, he tells him of their progress on figuring out what's happening to their peers. Him and Lightbulb make a plan to have everyone form a circle around MePhone to protect him and each other. However, Lightbulb realizes that her former Bright Lights are still outside after letting them leave. When she sets out to find them, Baseball wishes her luck and the two give one last salute to one another.
Fanon[]
Basebulb is a rarepair overall in the Inanimate Insanity fandom. The pairing was first idealized because of the two being team captains of the second season, with the two slowly being involved in more situations in the show as the remaining competitors narrowed down. Specifically, when the last four episodes of the season showed the two working together as ex-captains to save the remaining competitors from deletion, the pairing began to gain insight. Scenes of the two accepting their differences as captains and learning from each other because of it had gotten fans of the two to appreciate their dynamic more. Much fan art and written works are often based off of these scenes, with ship art finding the two closer because of it as well. The pairing had gained a following with dedicated users on platforms such as Twitter and Tumblr, though it is often rivaled by ships such as Bickel and Lightbrush.
On AO3, as of January 21, 2025, the ship has 8 works in its platonic tag.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Baseball & Lightbulb tag on AO3
- Basebulb stories on Wattpad
- FAN ART
- Baseball and Lightbulb search results on DeviantArt
