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Fanbrush is the non-binary ship between Fan and Paintbrush from the Inanimate Insanity fandom.
Canon[]
Inanimate Insanity II[]
Paintbrush and Fan end up becoming teammates of The Bright Lights because of the order in which they were knocked off the glacier. Later during the second contest when Fan is distracted, Paintbrush tells him to save monologue for the interviews and kicks him into their team's rocket.
After Fan is offended when Lightbulb calls him Paper, Paintbrush points out that he is indeed made of paper, which Lightbulb agrees with.
When Paintbrush takes over as the team leader during the pizza baking contest, Fan asks them what topping they should use after Paintbrush talks about wanting the pizza to be perfect. They respond that they don't want to risk it and asks him to keep the pizza plain, which Fan is slightly worried about.
During the soccer game, Fan saves the ball as his team's goalie. Paintbrush thanks him for it, making Fan consider practicing sports more instead of mainly focusing on computers.
As Paintbrush gathers the team to focus on cleaning OJ's hotel for the challenge, Fan doesn't see the point in needing to put much thought into it. Fan explains his theory that each team will have win twice in a row and that it's their turn to win, making Paintbrush retort that they need to put in the effort and not rely on coincidence. Fan restates that it's out of their control and sits back, offering Paintbrush popcorn. They, however, angrily smack the popcorn out of his hands. During the cleaning montage, Paintbrush sings about how they have to put in the work while the rest of their team sits around. Fan tries once more to make them think that what they do will have no real impact. Later when Paintbrush becomes frustrated that no one is helping them, Fan tells them to let it go to prevent being hurt. After Paintbrush falls from and gets hit by their ladder, Fan quietly counts down expecting Paintbrush to start raging. Paintbrush bursts and yells at Fan for expecting no worries when no one does anything for the team. When he laughs at them for this, Paintbrush then picks up Fan's egg and threatens to drop it on the floor. This startles Fan and he begs Paintbrush not to harm his egg. Right as Paintbrush is about to do so, they recollect themself in hopes of avoiding regretting it later. However, they trip and end up setting the egg flying as Fan watches in horror. After Test Tube catches the egg in time and saves it, Paintbrush genuinely feels bad and tries to apologize. Fan then calls out Paintbrush for this, pointing out the attempted murder being a new low even if they weren't the nicest to begin with. After a coin toss makes their team win anyways, Paintbrush grunts when Fan emphasizes that his theory was right and that they have no control over who wins.
When Fan tries to get Test Tube to use rice to cure a broken MePhone, Paintbrush points out that it only helps for water damage. Later as their team makes the trip to Meeple Headquarters to cure him, Paintbrush is surprised to find Fan and Test Tube engaging in the challenge rather than doing nothing. Paintbrush sarcastically asks if they should just sit around since Fan's theory claims that they'll win anyways, lashing out at him for it. MePad helps calm Paintbrush down before their anger towards Fan gets a hold of them. Later when Steve Cobs tries to persuade Fan into giving up his egg for him despite his hesitancy, Paintbrush defends Fan and tells Cobs to stop acting creepy.
As Paintbrush tries to talk to Marshmallow inside the maze, they are caught off-guard by a piano note repeatedly being played only to find Fan and Lightbulb responsible for it. Fan jokes about their conversation with Marshmallow being one-note, annoying Paintbrush. After trying to confront Marshmallow about her issues with Apple again, they overhear Fan and Lightbulb once more and become further irritated. When Fan continues to make insensitive jokes towards Marshmallow, Paintbrush yells at Fan for what he claims to be analyzing their character interactions. Paintbrush then becomes enraged, questioning Fan if he ever analyzed dirt as they promptly punch him to the ground. As Paintbrush sarcastically asks if he's going to write his observations below him on his blog, Fan is rather amused about their characterization of their anger being represented by a literal flame on their head. Paintbrush then angrily exclaims that they hate him. Later before the Spoiled Lemon concert when Fan defends the band that they simply just don't sound as good on his phone, Paintbrush sarcastically agrees with him and is further disgusted hearing coughing from Fan's recording.
In the bucket brigade challenge when Paintbrush claims that Lightbulb has reached a new level of nonsensicality, Fan yells that anything is possible now. He explains to them that the tie in the maze broke the pattern in every way it could and that order itself can't decide how the show runs. While Test Tube is trying to get Fan to take the bucket for the challenge, Fan apologizes to Paintbrush. Flattered, Paintbrush is happy to have them get back on track as Fan believes that chaos will ensue because of the tie. He admits to being wrong, making Paintbrush accept his apology as he helps them lift their team's platform. Later when Fan gets yelled at by Paintbrush to throw the ball to their target, he does so and Paintbrush cheers when it hits the target.
As Paintbrush suffers through art block during the painting challenge, Fan points out their blank canvas and asks what's going on. Paintbrush claims that they need observation and uses Baseball's dark painting as an example of what they mean. When they grab yellow paint and throw some onto their canvas, Fan calls it a coping mechanism as he walks back to his canvas. Later after Paintbrush is given a low score by MePhone and isn't told why, they become enraged and Fan ducks from the fire coming out from them.
After the two's respective eliminations, they become roommates in Hotel OJ. One night when Fan is talking to Baxter, Paintbrush is woken up by it and asks him if he's sleep talking again. When Baxter convinces Fan that only his mind is separating him from the game's barriers, Paintbrush tries to warn him that there are parameters put in place. Fan leaves anyways, making Paintbrush question if they actually can leave or not.
In the finale, Paintbrush and Test Tube join in when Fan calls for people to help him follow the screeching sound. They are led to Purgatory Mansion and are caught off guard to find Marshmallow there after having disappeared. Later after Test Tube is deleted by MePhoneX, Fan is troubled by this and exclaims that Meeple's taking their revenge. When Paintbrush is confused by this, he elaborates about how one of him and Test Tube's biggest goals were rebelling against Meeple. He ends up going on a tangent about the decreasing quality of the newer MePhones which Paintbrush helps snap out of. When Paintbrush states that they think Test Tube is now gone, Fan is in denial and goes to Bow about how she was able to come back from the dead albeit as a ghost. After Paintbrush receives an emergency signal, they and Fan leave the mansion to go find Lightbulb. As they hope to see her come soon, Fan suggests the possibility that she may have been deleted as well. Paintbrush yells at him to talk about something else, making Fan stutter and pinpoint the nearby mountains. As the mountain's patterns remind him of his egg and the beauty of how they could have something in common, Paintbrush jokes that he has a theory about how they're connected. Fan laughs that he's thought of it before but then suddenly realizes that some of the mountains have disappeared. He then makes the connection of the mountains disappearing on the same day that some of them are disappearing as well, making him realize that there's a reason to why the newer MePhones were getting worse and why Bow's screeches sound like his egg. Paintbrush asks for him to get to the thesis, making him explain that MePhone4 made the mountains which correspond to the contestants that have MeLife icons. Since Bow is no longer part of MeLife, she cannot be deleted and therefore anyone getting deleted will cause her to emit the screech as a sort of glitch in the system. As he realizes that the other egg the Shimmers lost is actually part of MePhone4, he calls for them to do something before Cobs gets the chance to take more eggs when the Shimmers return. Paintbrush is stunned on how Fan was able to get all of that from just simply observing mountains. However, Fan realizes that he knows too much and is promptly deleted by MePhoneX to the shock of Paintbrush. After Lightbulb catches up to them and gets deleted as well, Paintbrush somberly carries her and Fan's corpses back to Purgatory Mansion and urges Bow to tell them where the screeching is coming from. Later when the remaining survivors gather in the mansion to help the finalists Knife and Suitcase, Paintbrush brings up Fan's theory of how Cobs was using Bow's screeching to lure the Shimmers back to the show grounds.
Inanimate Comics[]
In Fan and Paintbrush's room at Hotel OJ, Test Tube finds the two and Fan shows him the trivia page he's making for OJ. Paintbrush suggests that he goes to talk to OJ and figures he would know a lot of trivia about himself. Fan thinks he won't need to and claims to know more trivia about OJ than he does, which OJ manages to hear. Paintbrush challenges Fan and OJ to a trivia competition, hosting the first Unofficial Hotel OJ Trivia Competition. They keep tally of how many questions OJ and Fan get right as Test Tube asks the two. In the end of the game, Paintbrush declares Fan the winner after he beats OJ to answering every question asked about him.
Fanon[]
Fanbrush is a popular ship in the Inanimate Insanity fandom, being one of the most known ships for both characters. Despite their rocky start, their better understanding of each other and developing friendship afterwards led fans to see a stronger bond between the two. Their long time shared together as teammates of The Bright Lights commonly puts the two together in fan works of the show. Art commonly shows Paintbrush tending to Fan's fanatic tendencies, as well as showcasing the two as roommates like they are in the show. Their two biggest rival ships are Fantube and Lightbrush, although it is common to combine the two ships and pair the four all together.
On AO3, as of December 10, 2024, the ship has 89 works under its romantic tag and 71 works in the platonic tag. It is the second most written ship for both Fan and Paintbrush on the site.
Fandom[]
- FAN FICTION
- Fan/Paintbrush (Inanimate Insanity) tag on AO3
- Fan & Paintbrush (Inanimate Insanity) tag on AO3
- Fanbrush stories on Wattpad
- FAN ART
- Fan and Paintbrush search results on DeviantArt
Gallery[]
.gif "Fanbrush - Mazed and Confused(1).gif (4.17 MB)")
.gif "Fanbrush - Mazed and Confused(2).gif (4.44 MB)")
.gif "Fanbrush - Kick the Bucket(1).gif (4.57 MB)")
.gif "Fanbrush - Kick the Bucket(2).gif (3.06 MB)")
.gif "Fanbrush - Kick the Bucket(3).gif (2.62 MB)")
.png "Fanbrush - Through No Choice of Your Own(2).png (1.07 MB)")
.gif "Fanbrush - Through No Choice of Your Own(1).gif (5.07 MB)")
