Object show oneshots

5. Testbulb - There's danger in emotional ties

YES YES CUTE I LIKE IT A LOT
Obv not the best ship for either of them but THERE'S NO FUCKING REASON NOT TO LIKE IT
7/10

Requested by: @9suney

"So, uhh, how much do I owe you for these?"
Test Tube leapt forwards as Lightbulb began to fiddle with the calculator-shaped contraption she'd found on the table, as Microphone watched on in confusion.
"NO, NO! DON'T TOUCH THAT, IT'S NOT WHAT YOU THINK IT IS!"
"Let's see... four times eleven..."
It was too late. The green, swirling portal opened, sucking Lightbulb and Baxter into it with wide-eyed surprise. Test Tube felt her legs get pulled out from under her as she too was pulled into the vortex; the last thing she saw of her lab was Microphone looking shocked, and the beady grin of two dark eyes behind her.

The portal spat them out somewhere horrific. The grass was still green as it had always been, but it looked sickly and unnatural, and the sky was plainer than Test Tube had ever seen it before. There were a few tussocks here and there, but otherwise she had no idea where they were.
"Whoah... I remember this..." she heard Lightbulb whisper quietly, stroking her large round head as she struggled to remember what the place they had landed in was. Meanwhile, Test Tube glanced over, to see... objects? Very, very ancient looking objects.
"Hey Test Tube! Look!"
She turned around in panic, trying desperately to stop herself from shattering in pure disbelief. Lightbulb, in the past? That was a recipe for disaster.
"Whatever it is, don't fucking touch it." she said, turning around in horror as she spotted Lightbulb making a beeline for what seemed to be... no. It wasn't possible. It wasn't -
"It's me! Me back when I was an ugly, rude boy! Ew..." she said, remembering what it had been like when the competition was still young.
"Don't let yourself see you! God, Lightbulb, don't fuck this up!"
Looking down in exhaustion at where the time machine lay on the grass, she knew that she had made a grave mistake. She needed to get out.
"We're leaving." she ordered, taking the calculator-like machine and tightening the screws. "Type one... eighteen..."
She called Lightbulb so urgently that the other object came, grabbing Baxter as tightly as she could.
"Hold on, Testy... I gotta put Baxter away." she said, shoving the entire crab inside her mouth before leaping into the portal just in time.

They landed. They landed - somewhere. This was supposed to be the right time, this was supposed to be where they experienced the 'present', but there was nothing there that Test Tube recognised...
"Yep, this looks right!" Lightbulb smiled, walking out over the nebulous purple field, watching the trees sway in the warm breeze. There seemed to be objects here, but nobody - no, absolutely nobody who was supposed to be there.
"W-what is this place... Lightbulb! Don't tell me you changed something in the past."
Lightbulb looked sheepish for a moment as she cavorted around.
"Uhh, yeah... I accidentally made Salt and Pepper the captains of the teams and thus changed the course of the show, but maybe that isn't so bad!"
Test Tube gawped at her.
"Not so bad? Not so bad??? What the FUCK do you mean? None of our friends are here. NONE. Goodness fucking knows what happened to them."
Lightbulb's expression shifted just a bit as if she were realising her mistake, but then reverted back into her usual silly gestures. As if it was all a fucking game.
"But... ok. Let's just explore for a bit though! It's not often you see purple grass. Not really sure how Salt and Pepper made the grass in the future a funky colour, but I'll take it."
She waltzed off dumbly, humming as she skipped into the distance, leaving Test Tube utterly hopeless. It didn't matter that the time machine was b- the time machine was broken. The time machine was broken.
"Oh god no, oh please dear god no -"
The fragile mechanics must've felt too large a change in the fate of the world. They were completely destroyed. That would take weeks if not months to repair.
And meanwhile, Lightbulb was off exploring, not caring, having the time of her life. Whilst somebody else was left to clean up the mess she made.

"Hey! Hi! Hey!"
Lightbulb glanced over the wall to see a whole host of unfamiliar objects, smiling and greeting her. All... quirky and amazing! All like her!
"Ohh, hey! You're all just like me! Not like bossybot down there..." she muttered, looking daggers at where Test Tube was slaving over the broken calculator. She wasn't even sure why it was such a - oh yeah. It was a time machine. Whatever.
"Uhh, wanna come have fun with us?" asked a small shell, staring up at her eagerly.
"Is that even a question?"

Day twenty one. Lightbulb was still off somewhere having fun with her 'cool new friends'. Test Tube had met them once or twice. She couldn't remember if it was more than once or not. That's how much of an impression they made on her. At least Lightbulb came back at night to keep her company.
But the crazy thing she always thought whilst she was working was that she actually missed her. She missed Lightbulb and how she used to fuck everything up. Yeah, science needed precision, but it also needed unpredictability and fresh perspectives. She missed how Lightbulb took her to strange places.
"Hey? Testy?"
The familiar voice caused her to sit up from where she was working on her time machine, slipping the final wire into place.
"Yes."
"Are we really gonna have to wipe this place out of existence?"
Test Tube looked up at her in confusion at her melancholy tone.
"Well, in theory no, because we've been here before, but in actuality yes. This place will never have existed and it's a good thing too."
"I don't want that to happen."
Neither of them said a word. This... was out of character.
"Lightbulb, we have to, we'll never get back."
"And if we do get back, what'll happen to my new friends? Will they exist? Will they be dead?"
"Lightbulb... what about your old friends? Fan? Paintbrush?"
"I-"
A tear crept out from the corner of her eye, as she looked guiltily at the other surviving contestant.
"I'm so sorry."
Her foot came down on the time machine, crushing it into pieces. Test Tube screamed in horror as the buttons popped out of position and the wires frayed and snapped. Grimacing sadly, Lightbulb rubbed her foot into the ground, making sure that not a single piece of it was left intact.
"Y-you don't know what you've done. You don't realise. This... can't be fixed. Lightbulb. This can't be fixed." the scientist raved, grasping at the rim of her tube and bending over the machine she'd spent so long repairing only for it to be so brutally destroyed.
"I know... but I can't deal with losing all my new friends! They're all quirky like me, and all so much fun to be with... I just feel like fit in with them, and I always spend my nights with you and that's great because you're the love of my fucking life."
Test Tube was already shaking from the initial shock of the broken machine: this new bombshell seemed to push her around in a full circle. Her body calming, she stood up to look at where Lightbulb stood in sheepish grief, and repeated the statement.
"The - the love of your life?"
"Yeah. Since you fell off that plane, but I suppose that never happened now. I thought you were kinda pretty."
She looked downwards, sniffing as she wiped a stray tear off the glass of her cheek.
"I... ok. I'm sorry about that then."
"Sorry?"
"In several ways, yes."
She set her mouth sternly, gathering up the bare bones of her fatally injured machine and carrying them off. Confused and scared, Lightbulb pursued her.
"Hey! Where are you going? Tube gal? T-test Tube..."
Eyes glinting harsh and silver in the light, Test Tube whipped around in fury, pushing her admirer backwards with a hard shove. Lightbulb fell down onto her back, a small crack spiderwebbing around her head.
"You change the course of time, condemn all of the other contestants to oblivion, obliterate our only chances of getting back and you expect me to accept you? To love you? I knew you could be stupid, Lightbulb. I knew you could make rash decisions without thinking, but this? Just so you could go off cavorting with other useless clowns like you, and have me all to yourself? That's out of line. That's so, so far out of line."
"But-"
"NO! I don't want to hear it. I'm going. I'm going away. Seeing if anyone else is still alive in this disaster of a timeline."
Test Tube stormed off like a swollen thundercloud, heavy with emotions, with tears yet unshed. Lightbulb at first stared after her, also packed inside with rain. She thought about what she'd done. The heavens opened, and she became light.

God ok update I love this ship more than I thought I did. Oooo. Anyway this is kind of shit I'm running out of fuel with this book, I hate to say that but it's true