Lightbulb wakes up in Hotel OJ to find everything... perfect. Too perfect. Everyone's acting like the best possible versions of themselves - Knife is gentle and soft-spoken, Taco and Pickle are happily together with no tension, and Balloon has completely dropped his desperate people-pleasing act. Even MePhone seems more stable and kind. At first, Lightbulb thinks this is amazing! All the conflict and drama that used to stress her out are gone. But something feels fundamentally wrong. The conversations are too polite, the smiles too consistent, and everyone keeps insisting they've "always been this way." When Lightbulb tries to bring up past arguments or drama, everyone looks at her with genuine confusion. "Lightbulb, why would you think Knife ever threatened anyone?" "Taco would never manipulate people, that's such a mean thing to suggest!" They seem genuinely hurt that she'd imply they were ever anything but perfect. She has to choose: pretend to be the "normal" version of herself that they want, or risk everything to restore her friends' true selves. But the more she fights against the artificial normalcy, the more she questions if maybe being "fixed" wouldn't be so bad after all... Content warning: Contains descriptions of medical content such as needles, surgeries, and existential stress. Also implied Lightbrush and a tad bit of Mephoj. Inspired by Will Wood's "Love Me, Normally", along with other songs. All characters are courtesy of Adamation, song references are courtesy of Will Wood. All cover art is mine. Woaahhh love me normallyyy woahh yeahhh woah yeaahhhh

They were born from what should have stayed dead. With a smile too bright and hands too warm, Poppy walks among them-and something inside everyone begins to rot. WARNING. This fanfic contains themes of: -graphic body horror and gore -psychological trauma and breakdown -implied suicidal ideation + self-harm -character death (temporary) -shipping (poptag because i hate popbot deal with it) -disturbing imagery Reader discretion is advised. Most, if not all chapters are based on various Vocaloid songs, primarily Kikuo and MARETU. All credit goes to those creators. All/any art featured is mine. "The creature doesn't have enough self-awareness to even understand what it is. Poor thing. You deserved better than to be death's messenger."

out·land·ish /ˌoutˈlandiSH/ adjective looking or sounding bizarre or unfamiliar."outlandish, brightly colored clothes" [archaic]foreign or alien."three wise, outlandish kings" For the longest time, wild objects have been misunderstood by civilization. "Wild", "freak", "scary"... but if you put yourself in the shoes of someone like Paintbrush, or perhaps Marshmallow, you'd understand. One day, a civilian befriends a seaside beast. A couple of rowdy forest-dwellers are spotted in Yoyle City. Soon enough, they're allowed to stay. They learn to read and write and learn other things, just like civilian objects. But soon, as chaos finds itself in the heart of our beloved city, could the outlandish prove that they're no different than any other object? man idk im tired