Our Angst and/or Hurt/Comfort theme week has come to an end and we would love to hear from you. Do you have any favorite angsty stories you recommend, or perhaps a suggestion for a lovely hurt/comfort fic? We'd be so pleased if you would share with us!

• Recced stories can feature any pairing as long as they match the theme. Fan art, podfic, and fan vid recs are also welcome.
• You don't need to write a review (unless you want to). All you need to include are title, author, and a link to the story.
• Fic or media as a single file are preferred, if available.
• If you'd like to use our reccing template, you can find it under the cut.
  

( Totally Optional Rec Template )

Previous Readers' Recs topics can be found here.

Title: Flying Weight
Fandom: Supernatural
Pairing: Sam/Dean, Dean/OMC
Genres: AU, Sam-centric, Angst, Amnesia, Mystery
Length: Epic (48,747 words)
Warnings: Non-con, dub-con, torture, incest

Author on LJ: fleshflutter
Author Website: flesh @ AO3

Author's Summary:
Sam wakes after being soulless for three years to discover that Dean and his relationship with him have undergone some serious changes. Through traveling and hunting with Dean, Sam struggles to put his life back together after events he has only limited memory of. A season six wincest AU.

Review:
I'm usually one that avoids angsty fics, but this one is a beautiful example of angst done right, being the thing that makes the story rather than a gratuitous addon. Sam regains his soul after a much longer period of time than in canon, waking up to a different world and a different Dean. A Dean who won't tell Sam what happened whilst his soul was missing, and in fact doesn't even seem to want to be around him. Sam's bewilderment and hurt are heart-wrenching to read, and I found myself with my heart in my throat throughout the fic, aching for him as he tries to figure out what happened when he was gone and why his and Dean's relationship is so stilted and changed.

Both Sam and Dean are characterised beautifully. Sam is all too easy to empathise with, and Dean is understandably different but still very much recognisable after three years of soulless!Sam. You'll be at the edge of your seat whilst reading this fic - it really takes you on an emotional ride. At the ending of my first read through I felt like I'd been through the wringer - in an awesome way! - as I was so invested in the characterisation and the story. This is one hell of a fic that you should read even if, like me, you're not much of an angst lover.

Flying Weight

Title: don't trust the air you breathe
Fandom: Welcome to Night Vale
Pairing: Gen
Categories/Genres: Hurt/Comfort, Horror, Friendship,
Length: Medium (6884 words)
Warnings: Implied violence and possible torture

Author/Artist on LJ: devilishkurumi
Author/Artist Website: DevilishKurumi

Summary:

Set just before "Station Management" - Carlos receives a warm welcome from the Sheriff's Secret Police, which isn't so much warm as it is painful, and Cecil comes to his rescue, which isn't so much a rescue as it is an exercise in string-pulling.

Review:

More often than not, when I rec fics for Welcome to Night Vale, I dither over the Categories/Genre section, tempted to add 'Horror'. More often than not, I decide not to. This isn't because the Night Vale verse isn't a horrifying place to be. Oh, far from it. But its format, the Lovecraftian parody of the quaint little local news radio station, transforms what might be a genuinely horrific experience (if explored through, say, a more visual media) into a pleasant little aural jaunt. The unquestionably violent quotidian is condensed and explained and swaddled in Cecil Palmer's soothing voice until even the most violent deaths become peculiarly bloodless and almost, dare I say it, cute.

don't trust the air you breathe is the exact opposite. In DevilishKurumi's Night Vale, wounds hurt and bleed, death treads ever on your heels, and safety comes for an occasionally steep price. This the Night Vale we won't let ourselves see, and experiencing it is more visceral for our willful ignorance than it might otherwise be. This is the Night Vale where you follow the rules, or else.

don't trust the air you breathe