Second submission for the mini-bang over at Vegebulocracy, BlackSheep115's Within! I was drawn to this one by its mystery and drama. And trust me, the ending is on point. Link to follow as soon as it's been posted.
Ok so for this first Author Showcase, I decided to review four of my favorite fics from an author who writes mostly one shots. I love so much of what she writes, and am so excited when she posts something new because I know it is going to be in depth, emotional, twisty and just everything I want out of a fic. So we will be diving into four fics from @blacksheep1105, Fine, Royal Jewelry, The Sweetest Dream and her newest fic, Within. You can click each of these titles to read the fics, or you can click the titles in the post to go to the works!! Thoughts below the cut!
Fine
So this fic is absolutely my favorite story from Sheep. I love the whole message behind it. Bulma is feeling pretty shit about something doesn't matter what it is, cause people get pissy about serious shit and stupid shit so it's realistic. Yamcha is a total douche to her, blowing her off and then momma briefs just blows her off too. BUT then here comes Vegeta and he offers her what she needed, a sounding board.
So firstly, i love this idea of Vegeta seeking Bulma out when she's upset because he realizes she's helped him after the GR explosion just cause she's a good person. And he kinda liked that… and he kinda wants to share that feeling back with her. I can see that as a legit like canon reason their whole friendship turn relationship begins. Sure Vegeta is OOC in this fic, but he needs to be to get the moral across so it doesn't bother me.
Sheep has fantastic characterizations of Yamcha and Panchy too. Yamcha is completely oblivious, and carefree and douchey. Panchy is also oblivious and too happy and whatever…. She is like a stepford wife wanting and needing everything to be perfect.
This is the best thing ever. I have crippling anxiety/depression. Sometimes i freak out about seemingly stupid things. Sometimes i just need people to notice me. I'm not one to scream and make a big deal about my feelings (especially online) but sometimes i just try to tell people.. hey im not ok. If you run into someone who is not ok - let them vent. Please dont tell them its ok. And this is advice i need to take too cause i suck at people, but just be there for them. And go read this one shot cause it is fantastic.
The Sweetest Dream
So I think this is the fic most people know by her, and rightfully so. One thing that Sheep does really well is creating an atmosphere. From the very beginning of the piece you can feel the tension in the air, Bulma’s complete despondency. The way she fixates on certain objects in the room and describes how Bulma walks by them and thinks about them really adds to the idea of a great obsession or depression. I like the bookending of the scenes with words, helps drive home this obsessive feeling. And Bulma is very obsessed at this point. Vegeta is lost to war and her life is once again thrown into turmoil.
Each scene drives home the fact that Bulma is basically killing herself with grief. Between the details of things that happened in the past, and sheer world building that takes place all in one room of the palace (and the world feels so much larger than the palace which is really special) the story feels rich. One of my favorite details is when the servant comes in and she is wearing golden chains because she is going to be around the royals, but that she will go back to wearing the iron (or steel) chains when she is relegated to the kitchens in the upcoming week.
It is really nice touch that you need to pay attention to the passage of time. I have to admit I had to read the story a few times before I actually understood what was happening, but only because I didn’t pay attention to the time stamps. The utter horror that you feel at the end of the piece is so heartbreaking. Bulma gets her world torn away from her, then its given back and hell if it isn’t torn away again. The emotion in the piece is fantastic. Speaking of emotion…. This last scene with the Beeps… fuck it is heartbreaking. Like I cry reading it. She keeps this Beep throughout the scene and it helps build the tension and takes the emotion to another level by having the reader focus on this sound that is driving Bulma out of her dreamland… and the last beep reverberates so much because it is like a blackout scene at the end of a TV show and it just fucking rings in the audiences brain… Just very very intelligently written.
Royal Jewelry
So this piece is the first I read from her and there are several things I really love about it.
The first is the humor in it. It is not a serious piece and it is written in the way that reminds us that it is not serious. She was so smart in the way she chose words to elicit a humorous response in the reader. Even in some of the smut there is an irreverent humor that is just really special and I think adds exponentially to the charm of the piece. Bulma is in the IDGAF stage of dealing with Vegeta and his sex bullshit, hell even the name of the piece is a wink and its almost puny which I adore a good pun so that always good.
The next thing is the smut. Its just a fantasy, but it is written really well. Vegeta is imagining all these things and who the hell knows if it is actually gonna happen, but it is pretty damn detailed. Her choice of terminology is fantastic and really feels dirty in the best way. Her descriptions of things like the way Bulma is shaved and how Vegeta will push her deeper into the bed as he fucks her is really really hot. Also, I can’t forget to mention my personal favorite, when Vegeta is imagining how his dick will spread her lips as he puts it inside her. The imagery is just on point and really stellar.
The last thing I want to talk about is the tone of this piece and the growth that I see from this piece to her most recent fic Within. This piece is astoundingly different in tone from the other pieces I have reviewed here. She has a talent for writing heavier pieces, but she also writes humor and light things just as well which I really can’t say for everyone. This piece is good - I genuinely enjoy it, but it is quite a bit more raw feeling than her most recent pieces. I completely blame that on practice, she has been writing in this way a lot longer and the growth is astounding between this first piece of hers and the new stuff. This last piece is so well put together and I can see how her writing is just getting better and better and better with each piece she puts out. I am genuinely astounded by how good she was when she started putting pieces out there, but then I think about how fantastic Within is and there is such a difference in her writing. So I commend her on working at getting better.
Within
So this is Sheep’s submission for the Vegebulocracy Mini Bang 2019. It is absolutely fantastic and combines all of the best things she does into one piece (minus smut, there are a few hot scenes, but if you are looking for smut, its not here). The freaking tension she builds in this piece is fantastic. You really have no clue what the end game of the piece is until the very end. And then when the twist hits you, it is insane. The way she has Vegeta use his sexuallity against Bulma is fantastic. There are two places he freaking plays with her sexual attraction to him just for shits and giggles. And hell the last time he flirts with her, he does it simply to knock Bulma off her guard so he can get the information he wants out of her.
This is her best work. I say that knowing just how fucking good The Sweetest Dream is, but the range of emotions in this piece is really fantastic. She writes this wonderful sexual tension, humor, anger. And they all fit within the piece in a fantastic way, but also they are so in character. She uses the same bookending device where she repeats a phrase at the beginning and end of a scene and it works so nicely to anchor the main theme of each section. This is a freaking complex one shot and it was quite ambitious of her to write this for something like the Mini Bang.
If you don’t read anything else by her, read this one. She captures such an amazing range of emotion in it.It has this beautiful plot that feels meandering, but all of a sudden all the parts fit together and you see what is happening, which makes second read throughs so nice.
Something I really love about Sheep’s writing, is the uniqueness of her ideas. I would have never come up with the twists that she did in The Sweetest Dream or Within. They are truly fantastic story ideas and hell if they aren’t really really well written. One thing that I will say is that as I read through her pieces again, I see so much growth in her writing. She started with Royal Jewels, which is NICE, but then when you read some of her other pieces you see this wonderful Craftsman she is. Because she is not a native English speaker some words have contextual issues, but the main idea is always there. Some slight grammar things are in the pieces, but they are not issues that take away from the reading experience at all. It takes her a lot of time to write, partly because of the fact she is writing in English instead of German, but I whole heartedly believe that her pieces are worth the wait. They are super unique, the twists are fabulous, they are slightly dark (which I love), really well written and I gotta be honest, sometimes I want a really good story that doesnt take me a week to read cause it is 300,000 words. Please take some time to go read this awesome authors works, I 100 percent recommend the above ones, but she has others that are really really great too!!
If you liked this review, after you check this fic out, head over to my A03 and read some of my stuff!
