The Bright Sessions fic recommendations
I haven’t seen one of these in a while, so we’re partying like it’s 2017 and making a fic rec list!
I wish this could be as comprehensive as I want it to be, but the fic writers in this fandom are on another level, and unless I want this to turn into an AO3 feed, I can’t list all the good ones. But here’s a representative sample:
Shipping
Better Forms of Communication (T, no word count because it’s a text fic formatted as graphics) Caleb and Adam texting each other and their friends as they circle each other and (slowly!) get around to getting together.
Light My Heart and Light My Shadow (M, 2K) An alternate version of Caleb and Adam’s laundry room scene from College Tapes #shameless self promo
Anchored And Flying (T, 3K) Adam’s radio show at Yale — featuring Twitter, medical kink jokes, “What’s New Pussycat”, and helping resolve some adorable gay pining
The Ultimate Double Dare (T, 20K, WIP but only technically, the two chapters that are written stand on their own) Caleb and Adam get secretly married before college for the financial aid. Caleb is The Absolute Worst at keeping secrets. Hijinks ensue.
Chamomile Tea (T, 3K) Some cute post-College Tapes hurt/comfort, and some Caitlin-Adam friendship (I am weak for those two)
Caleb Michaels Has A Lot Of Feelings (About Adam Hayes) And Sex (With Adam Hayes) (E, 10K) Caleb and Adam exploring empathy and sex. This has the distinction of being the first ever explicit Caleb/Adam fic. Vivacious_turpitude walked so that the rest of us could run.
an antisocial pessimist, but usually I don’t mess with this (T, 2K) Caleb’s football team gives Adam a shovel talk and tries to explain what a first down is
Nobody Said It Was Easy (Oh, Take Me Back To The Start) (T, 15K) Jewish Oliver, Mark taking a path that isn’t true to himself and then finding joy anyway, Tier 5, this one’s got it all
I’ve Got The Feeling You’re The Right Thing After All (T, 30K) Sometimes you want a fluffy getting-together fic about two clueless idiots in love, and these two are adorably clueless
Have I Ever Told You How Good It Feels To Hold You? (T, 2K) “Oh my god there was only one bed” is out, “there were two beds but we chose to sleep in one” is in
Barnacle Tales (six-work series, 17K total - the first work is M, the rest are T) Some more fluffy getting-together fic about two clueless idiots in love
perfect for you (G, 1K) A sweet little Brytz proposal
without you, I’ll never be home (T, 4K) Oliver and Mark moving in together in slow motion. In my advanced age of 38, I am a sucker for people taking their time in relationships and deciding which steps of the relationship escalator to take and when.
Something Dumb To Do (T, 7K) Mark and Oliver fake-propose to each other for the free desserts and fall in love. (This is also shameless self-promotion.)
my power was constricted in my heart (M, 137K) A royalty AU where Prince Mark Bryant and his manservant Oliver Ritz get kidnapped, then kidnapped again, then kidnapped a third time, and find home somewhere along the way. Every single TBS character, large and small, makes an appearance at some point. This is one of those fics that grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go until it’s 4 AM, your phone’s battery is at 1%, and you’ve been emotionally destroyed at least three times. (Full disclosure, this is a WIP, but I have it on good authority that it hasn’t been abandoned.)
Vienna Waits For You (G, 14K) Brightgreen coffee shop AU, cute as fuck and the found family that Joan and Owen deserve
Take Anything You Need (M, 4K) Mark/Damien, dealing with an alpha rut during the road trip. I think this might be the only (at the time of this writing) A/B/O TBS fic? And it works. It’s sweet, it’s hot, it’s a version of Damien I wish was canon.
I Like My Body When It’s With Your Body (E, 28K) Mark/Damien nonsexual D/s — also sweet, also hot, also a version of Damien that I wish was canon, one that isn’t consumed by fear of not being in control every second of every day
ain’t gonna run from the wind and the thunder, when we’re dancing under the rain (T, 4K) Mark/Javier. The other Tier 5 survivors are fascinating to me, and I love the chance to explore Javier. And we get to give Mark a cute boyfriend, that’s always fun
I haven’t touched a pretty thing in forty days (T, 5K) Joan and Beck talk about trauma, loneliness, and moving forward. In a strip club. As one does.
and the reason comes on the common tongue of your loving me (E, <1K) Ben and Frankie having some fun, and we love to see it
Gen
the flame is gone (the fire remains) (T, 4K) Alternate ending for College Tapes. The grief is visceral, the narration is nonlinear, and the ending is beautifully tragic
on being raised on fairy tales in which you are the monster (T, 2K) Villain origin stories are fascinating to me, and TBS does tragic villains like no one else
All I’ve Ever Known Is How To Hold My Own (G, 3K) Parallels between Joan/Mark as kids and Joan/Sam as adults; you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll wish you could punch Papa Bryant in his stupid face
A Secret I Never Wanted To Tell (G, 10K) Vanessa Turner sells Mark out to the AM. Joan finds out. Fireworks ensue
I’m somebody desperate, I don’t know what to do (T, 3K) Damien’s bi awakening, which of course becomes delicious angst because Damien is an angsty, touch-starved motherfucker
i want to feel all the ache I can feel (T, 5K) Canon divergence where Adam gets the Pokemon evolution, and an exploration of trauma as it affects atypical ability and expression
A Regular Decorated Emergency (G, 1K) The story of Caleb’s quidditch quadball injury, and all the brotherly Caleb-Mark interaction that we were robbed of in College Tapes
to say that I’m a rainbow and tell me that I’m bright (G, 9K) Sam, Mags, Mark, and Oliver going to Pride. It’s been over a year and the line “These are my flags. That’s me.” makes me cry to this day
You got troubles, I got ‘em too (G, 1K) Sam and Joan taking a moment to breathe and grieve at the AM
I got it all (but I don’t ever wanna grow up) (T, 5K) You know how College Tapes never actually addressed Caleb’s quarter-life crisis? Here’s a fix-it fic for that, along with more Caleb-Mark brotherly friendship
Atypical Revolutions (because if you leave TBS fans alone for five minutes, we come up with ways to make atypicals go public and get justice)
Your Enemy Whispers So You Have To Scream (T, 240K) Mark and other Tier 5 survivors go public after someone leaks evidence of the AM and Tier 5 to the general public. Oliver spends the next year failing spectacularly to avoid being drawn into the growing tension between atypicals, the government, and non-atypicals. This is the last bit of shameless self-promotion.
TPWKY Episode 222: DNA Meth(ylation) And Atypicality (G, 7K) A crossover between This Podcast Will Kill You and TBS, this assumes that atypicals have been forced to go public, and goes deep on the social and scientific ramifications. Mark ends up the public face of atypicality. This fic was a lot of the inspiration for Your Enemy Whispers.
Bryant vs. United States, Decision, Communication No. 947/2027 (M, 2K) Exactly what it sounds like — Mark goes public and sues the AM. The formatting for Your Enemy Whispers owes a lot to Bryant vs. United States (as does a certain UN resolution). I really, really hope it gets finished, because you know how you read a fic, or even just hear it described, and it keeps you up until two in the morning crying because it’s just that good and tragic? That was me when the authors dropped their plan for this fic’s endgame.
gonna do my very best and it ain’t no lie (M, 37K) Oliver accidentally-on-purpose lets his family think that he’s dating Mark, on the same weekend that files go missing from the AM. Come for the fake dating, stay for the atypical revolution. (Fair warning, it is a WIP, but it’s not abandoned)
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