Skin Deep
Reason for being in Truly Unique. – First DarkBelle story.
I will admit. The idea is nothing new, change two characters so that one is playing the role of the other. It's been done countless times for many other fanfics. But skin deep was the first one to ever do it in once upon a time. And I can ask you think of no other characters in the show where someone has taken two characters and swapped them.
And to be honest, there's something just slightly more satisfying out of DarkBelle then one normally gets from reading fiction were someone has done this.
And then there is the fact that in this story there are certain subtle yet enjoyable changes made. The main story stays the same of course, but whenever I've run into role swapping in other fanfics, it's normally been cut and paste with the names and pronouns if it's a male-female swap. But otherwise character A assumes role of character B, and then a does exactly the same things that character B does.
And on the occasions I have seen were someone has made changes story, which I will admit are just as common as when people don't, it only seems little more forced to that should. The characters were stumbling around one another just like they do in the pilot episode of the show, still trying to get a read on what their character should or shouldn't do. And unfortunately the fanfiction doesn't last long enough for the author to flush out said stumbling's.
But the author of this story, DD Agent, has managed to, if you follow the example from earlier, create a pilot that is not awkward and melds rather well. And while sadly she has yet to come out with a sequel to the story, it was nonetheless an enjoyable one off that led to a small but enjoyable group of stories (those that finished at least).