recursal/Fanatic-Fandom huggingface dataset:
Reburb

**Reburb** is a in-universe website active in the year 2000 that profiles angry suburban bands. They had a page for Mystik Spiral, located in the section "Rock>Medium Loud>King of Deep>Sorta Trippy". It had a Downloading For Dollars program (the Spiral had earned $6.04) where you can download four Spiral MP3s: "Icebox Woman", "Ow! My Face", "Little Sister", and "Every Dog Has Its Day".

It promotes bands similar to Spiral, called Tragyc Cyrcle, Pyre of Pain, and Styptic Pencil.

On the subject of those MP3s: "All material is protected by copyright law and international treaties. You may download this material for personal use only. You may not resell, distribute, or duplicate for your own personal gain unless authorized by the copyright holder. It's kind of a scout's honor system. Honestly, we can't really do much about it. Please don't screw us over. Thank you."

As well as listing the history of Mystik Spiral, it has gushing reviews of all the songs up for sale and of "Freaking Friends" ("Mystik Spiral's most ambitious song yet, an opus of sorts, clocking in at least 2 minutes")

## External Links

Wayback Machine capture of website (may need to click Stop as soon as it loads)
Middleton College

**Middleton College** is a small, liberal arts college in Lawndale where Jake Morgendorffer and Helen Barksdale met and began dating during the late 1960s. They graduated in the Class of '72 ("The Daria Database"). The campus is revisited in "College Bored," and is referred to a few times through the series. Coyote Yeager and Willow Yeager were presumably at Middleton as well, as the four knew each other in 1969 and would go on to live in a commune together after graduating. ("That Was Then, This Is Dumb")

"Mad Dog" Morgendorffer paid for Jake to go there, when Jake would've likely been drafted for the Vietnam War otherwise - or, worse, dropped out to become a hippie. ("The Daria Diaries") Mad Dog may have thought Middleton, due to its religious background, would stop Jake dropping out (oops).

What we actually know about Middleton is limited. It has a long history, going back to Colonial times, when it was a religious all-male school. ("College Bored") It is considered to be a second-tier school (near the end of the series, we learn that they have "gotten rid of all the requirements, so you can take whatever you want!!"). It has such a reputation that Grove Hills uses Middleton as an example of the type of place your children might end up if you don't send them to Grove Hills. The alumni newsletter is Middleton Musings.

Helen only attended it because it was the height of the baby boom, and getting into a better school was hard. Jake, however, has described it as a family tradition, though we don't know if he means other Morgendorffers went there or if he just means him & Helen. He does like to think it's a brilliant college, which his wife chalks up to his need to delude himself about parts of his past in order to function. (Is It College Yet?)

Helen keeps missing class reunions and swears she'll make the next one, though she did invite some fellow alumni to her twenty-third wedding anniversary party - aside from that, she doesn't seem to keep in contact with her old classmates, as she managed to lie to them that Daria "had the flu, which sapped her energy" and is normally cheerful. ("The Daria Database")

Other students from the Class of '72 are shown in "Database's" copy of Middleton Musings to be a bit rubbish: "L.A. transplant" Marjorie Kurtis is noted to have "given up her acting/food management careers" to become a self-published author (The Art of Acting is her first), Doug Preston is working behind the counter at the Turquoise and Trinkets store in Santa Fe, Nancy "Woodsy" Woods has passed the bar almost twenty years after graduating Middleton Law in 1979, Lad Duncan is a snowboarding instructor.

When Daria and her family visited the college, the current Bursaw was a corrupt, dodgy man: he refers parents who need loans to a "family business" who have "very agreeable terms" and have "a variety of interests"...

## Middleton College in Fanfiction

Jake and Helen's days in college have been covered in several fanfiction stories or series, including "All My Children", "The Lost Seasons" and "Falling Into College". In the John Lane Series, the football team is called "The Mud Daubers".
NomadX

## Biographical Information

A member of "the Fandom" since 1999, NomadX has done a lot of silly things with words, pencils. and PhotoShop involving "OH." A lot of it involved unjustifiable crossovers and multiple dimensions. He justifies this citing "Depth Takes a Holiday" and laughter.

In the the real world he is based out of San Diego, California with a BA in Graphic Design.

## Fanon and Fan Culture Contributions

Throughout his early years in fandom, (up until the end of his high school career) NomadX kept his fingers in a lot of pies. He was a frequent beta reader, Wrote his own meager body of work, and was a frequent contributor to PPMB, #daria+, Crazy Nutso's Rubber Board. He also drew illustrations for Shallow15's Attack of the Lawndale Zombies, the start of many future collaborations with Shallow15, Thea Zara, and Tafka the Dragon.

Recently however NomadX's participation has been mostly limited to the occasional art piece and AIM. And... bringing cute Canadians into the fold.

* **From the Pad of NomadX** - The Pad Trilogy begins here.
* **TRANSCRIPT\_43685T--9-3-00** - fun with the 4th wall
* **Digital Girl in the 21st Century** - a Strange little piece in which Daria is trapped in a Nintendo GameBoy.
* **Breaking Point** - Basically, a "Sandi Goes crazy" fic. Very messy. Notable for the Endnotes being more entertainment then the fic itself.
* **The Song Remains the Same** - Daria and Jane travel across a world of music in order to save Trent Lane from a coma.

NomadX is known for shying away from Daria's 'house style,' often complaining of it's expressive limitations. As a result his work tends to have a bit of an abstract fell too it compared to many of the more traditional Daria Artists, such as S.C. . The following are sample of his fan art's evolution over the past 7 years.

## Daria Fanworks Awards

2009 Daria Fanworks Awards

* Favorite Original for *Boxcar*

## External Links

* NomadX's Ancient Fic Archive
* DeviantArt page containing NomadX's fan art
Pitchfork

**Pitchforks** are a PPMB in-joke where writers who leave unfinished stories are "jabbed" by their readers with pitchforks or other pointy objects in a jesting way, to encourage them to finish their tales. As an "angel in hell," Angelinhel initiated the use of pitchforks (usually flaming) on slow writers. Kristen Bealer is another PPMB regular known for enthusiastic use of pitchforks. Other fans use various other implements, such as Thea Zara, who prefers the whip. Variations also include using fanon characters, such as Bump (especially when "bumping" an old thread), in mini-scenes to deliver the hint.
Jane's Life's Lottery

WellTemperedClavier's Jane's Life's Lottery (wow, thats a lot of possessive apostrophes) gives the reader a chance to put themselves in Jane Lane's boots and guide her through life.

Based on your choices, Jane might discover religion, enter the world of advertising, go into a life of crime, or stagnate in Lawndale. She might even become an established artist! The choice is yours.

### Trivia

Tied for first place for Favorite Alternate Universe (with Princess Pasta's All's Fair) in the 2018 Daria Fanworks Awards.

Won first place for Favorite Science Fiction/Fantasy/Supernatural/Horror in the 2018 Daria Fanworks Awards

Won first place for Favorite Weird Idea in the 2018 Daria Fanworks Awards

## External Links

* Jane's Life's Lottery at Archive of our Own
Search Engine Obfuscation

A post-canon fan fiction by WellTemperedClavier.

## Story

After graduating college, Daria gets a job as a copywriter for a sketchy search engine optimization company run by Upchuck.

## Trivia

Search Engine Obfuscation is a sequel to High School Never Ends - WellTemperedClavier Version, but it is not necessary to read one to follow the other.
President's Day

**President's Day** is a gestalt entity found on Holiday Island in the episode Depth Takes a Holiday.

Unlike the other holidays, President's Day is represented by two teenagers, versions of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, instead of one individual. (The Day was formed to celebrate the birthdays of both presidents.) Washington and Lincoln have independent minds and are usually referred to as individuals or as "the Presidents".

President's Day takes charge of popularity at Holiday Island High School after Christmas, Halloween, and Guy Fawkes Day leave to form a band. (Thanksgiving was too distracted by family issues) They bully around the remaining holidays (like poor Arbor Day) with Veteran's Day as their henchman, leading Valentine's Day and St. Patrick's Day to seek outside help.

Their reign ends when the missing holidays return and perform with their band, the Holidays, at the school dance, which encourages the students to stand up to President's day - the Holidays weren't going to do it but the idea of the Presidents running the place sickens them. After the performance, with the band needing an extra member (as Trent Lane is going back to his band), George Washington joins them as a harpsichord player. He can do electric *and* acoustic!

## In fanfiction

"The War on Christmas" by Smijey reveals that when Lincoln and Washington's birthdays got merged, President's Day became representative of *all* presidents - including the sucky ones.
Rita Is Better Than Helen Or Amy!

**Rita Is Better Than Helen Or Amy!** is a revisionist essay by The Angst Guy (featuring some unicode issues), arguing that Rita Barksdale got a bad rap from fandom.

As well as arguing for a favourable view of Rita and what she's likely gone through, TAG points out that in her first appearance in "I Don't" - one of the rare showings that led fandom to dismiss her - it's Helen and "cool" Aunt Amy who are the ones being unpleasant. Rita has also been more involved than Amy in Daria and Quinn's lives, since they barely recognise the latter aunt!
Military

**Military** fanfics depict one or more *Daria* characters in a branch of the armed services. These can be post-canon, depicting a path characters take after Lawndale High; or alternate universe stories where the characters live in a real-world war or a Science Fiction conflict.

A few fanfics have depicted "Mad Dog" Morgendorffer's military service - notably "Chosin Fate" by Richard Lobinske, depicting him with PTSD - or Jake Morgendorffer's time at Buxton Ridge Military Academy, such as Kristen Bealer's "Shake, Shake, Quiver and Quake".

Examples of characters joining after school include:

* Decelaraptor's "Kadhimiya", where Quinn had joined the National Guard and found herself sent overseas during the Iraq War
* CAP's "Salmon", where both Jeffy (Navy) and Stacy Rowe (Coast Guard) have spent a term in service and come out more mature.
* The Angst Guy's "Darkness" reveals in one scene that Upchuck died during the Iraq War, something that reshapes a future Daria's perception of him
* CAP's "The Road Not Taken By Tom" (requires the Rosetta Stone), an Iron Chef where Tom Sloane doesn't go to Bromwell, has Tom apply to the Coast Guard Academy to prove his own merits

Examples of alternate universes include:

* Night Witches by Jason Weiser, with Daria and Jane as bomber pilots during a 1980s Third World War (with Amy Barksdale later appearing as a propaganda agent)
* Submariner Series by Wildgoose, where a limited nuclear war caused by Y2K sees Daria and Jane drafted into the US Navy
* Gimme Skelter by The Angst Guy and Brother Grimace, where Mack is part of a military expedition in a timeline where all white people turned into raging rzombies
* The Round Robin fanfic Mecha Ensign Daria, where the entire cast are teenage mecha pilots in an increasingly militarised fight against giant monsters
Anti-'shipper

An **anti-'shipper** is a *Daria* story created with the specific purpose of discrediting a  romantic pairing between characters by showing perceived flaws and insurmountable hurdles that the relationship might come up against. Generally speaking, any fanfic describing a failing relationship is an anti-'shipper, but the term is most commonly used to refer to the Daria/Tom and Daria/Trent pairings due to their importance in certain sectors of the fandom.

## Anti-'Shipping in *Daria* Canon

While being the ones to set many of the most important ships up in the first place, the creators of *Daria* also worked toward sinking them in the show itself. "Jane's Addition" simultaneously set up the Jane/Tom relationship and brought a close to Daria's infatuation with Trent. "Dye! Dye! My Darling" ended Tom and Jane's time together and set up Daria/Tom, which would later come to a halt in *Is It College Yet?*; IICY? also ended Kevin/Brittany. Both *The Daria Diaries* and *The Daria Database* would imply Jodie and Mack's relationship was hollow and unsatisfying, and up until "Sappy Anniversary" the series would regularly imply, for laughs, that Helen and Jake's marriage was failing.

Glenn Eichler has stated outright in an interview with Kara Wild that Daria and Trent were not meant for each other, and there has been a great deal of fan speculation that one of the reasons Tom was introduced was to quell rumors concerning Daria and Jane  becoming a couple. He also raised the issue that Helen and Jake may - or may not - be the type of couple that seperates once the kids have moved out.

## Anti-'Shipping in *Daria* Fanworks

Martin J. Pollard, former webmaster of Outpost Daria, gave credit in an essay for the creation of the first *Daria* anti-'shipper fic to Kara Wild, for her 1999 story, "'Shipped Out."

While many anti-'shipper fics are created based on irreconcilable differences between the characters in question, some other are crafted in reaction to specific pairings being simply  overused.

### Examples

* I've Waited Here for You by Kristen Bealer
* 'Shipped Out by Kara Wild
* Timeless Love by The Waco Kid
Nicky

**Nicky** or **Nikki** is one of the Lawndale High School cheerleaders, specifically the one with dark brown hair in a beehive style.

In "Daria Dance Party", where she and the rest of the time swore an oath not to date Kevin, she was seen at the dance snogging a blond Lawndale Lions player.

In "The F Word", where she gains a voice and name, she remarks how it's great when the teachers come out to support the team - "God, I hope they don't talk to us" - and thinks it's normal for Brittany to *literally* get lost or confused about who she is.

She got into Great Prairie State University: the only place that would take her.

## Nicky/Nikki in Fanfiction

She is a recurring figure as she's one of the few non-Brittany cheerleaders we know the names of. Her personality and role varies, though she's usually presented as popular and (as in the show) buddies with Britt.

In the Turnabout Confusion series, she is part of the cheerleaders 'faction' following the lead of Dawn Wilkins in waging social warfare.

In Lawndale Fighting Championship, she was given the surname Dowling.
Songfic

A fanfic that either consists entirely of lyrics to a song (the lyrics having to do with the *Daria* show, and the song being a commonly known one such that singing the lyrics is made easier) or is instead a short prose piece interwoven with the lyrics of a well-known song, borrowed for story purposes.

## Examples of *Daria* Songfics

### Stories Based on Existing Songs (Unchanged)

* Songfic list from Lawndale Leftovers
* "For the Love of Quinn," by Ronin
* "Last Kiss," by Kara Crane
* "Nowhere Man," by E. A. Smith
* "Sarcastic Kind of Life," by CuteDiva
* "Trent's Romance," by Alexandrea Thomas
* "When I Go Out," by Rhianwen
* "Why?" by Isa Yo-Jo
* "Jesse's Night Out / Phase Two" from "Aw Mama . . . Can This Really Be the End?" by Scissors MacGillicutty

### Original Song Lyrics in Stories or as Stories

* "The Ballad of Stacy Rowe," by TAG
* "Can't Touch That!" by TAG
* "Daria Dance Party," by TAG
* "Dear Whoever," by TAG
* "Go Ahead and Dance!" by TAG
* "Meet the Fashion Club," by TAG
* "Snow Ball in Hell," by TAG
* "Story Girl," by Shallow15
Infamous Unserious Five

Originally *Daria* fans and authors Mahna Mahna, Scarlett, Tananda, and Beth Ann, the formerly titled Infamous Unserious Four later expanded to include their "Number One Fan" Taryn. Other fans, authors, and artists joined the insanity, including Kristen Bealer, Angelinhel, Woot, and others. Members (mostly female) posted long threads on PPMB from 2003 onward, with lively and amusing *Daria* ficlets and digressions on every off-topic issue imaginable. By 2005 the IUF's influence was fading online, though members still visit PPMB and SFMB and post on occasion. The sum of their contributions to *Daria* fandom is sometimes called "Tanandaria," after one of the members, though this is also a website of its own hosted through SFMB.

Members' names have been used for character in a number of *Daria* fanfics from 2003-2005, such as "Scarlett," "The IUF Tale," and even "The Omega Jane."

## Members

As of 2008, the existing members of Tanandaria are as follows:

* Angelinhel
* The Angst Guy
* Beth Ann
* Brandon League
* Chad Page
* Dark Wing
* Elizabeth Haynes
* Huggy
* Kristen Bealer
* Krysten
* Mahna Mahna
* NomadX
* Qwerty
* Ranger Thorne
* Save The Penguins
* Scarlett
* Tananda
* Taryn
* Thea Zara
* Wonderbread
* Woot

## External Links

* The IUF Message Board
* "The Cave"
* "Juvenile Unserious Justice Union (The Home of Kivo and Kevo)" a typical thread IUF thread on PPMB
* J.U.J.U. - Beth Ann, look here: another IUF thread
It Happened to Jane

"It Happened to Jane" is an essay by Kara Wild, written in May 2000.

## Background

Season Four was a time of deepening rifts in the *Daria* fan community between those who preferred the satire of Season One (such as Daniel Suni), and those who felt that the characters' changes represented much-needed growth. A number of people fell in between the two extremes, welcoming growth but uneasy about how it was being carried out. Wild places herself in the third group.

Nonetheless, she grew tired of frequent fan laments that a character had been ruined beyond all redemption, or the show itself was ruined. "It Happened to Jane" was intended to put everything in perspective, to reassure others as well as herself.

## Summary

Wild looks at Jane's brief time on the cheerleading squad in episode "The F Word" and claims that although the plot line's execution left much to be desired, that didn't mean the episode was not a part of canon, because *everything* written by the writers was canon.

## Trivia

Wild would rethink this point of view in her essay "The Other Side of the Kiss," where she argues that although the writers clearly meant for viewers to accept Tom Sloane as Daria's boyfriend, they did not provide enough visual *or* verbal cues for fans to get a clear sense of a lasting connection being made early on in "I Loathe a Parade."

## External Links

* Essay at the Contrarian's Corner
* Essay at Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine)
Love is a Way Too Many Splendored Thing

**Love is a Way Too Many Splendored Thing** ("An Almanac of Quinn Admirers") was an MTV 'flipbook' run by Quinn, mostly lost to the mists of time.

*Some people say that you've got to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince. My philosophy is, stay away from the frogs and concentrate on princes because there's only so much time in the day and you'll have to kiss an awful lot of princes to find the one with a nice castle and not one of those mildewy ones that gives tours to regular people and doesn't have central heating.*

*Here is a flipbook of some of the commoners I may have to consider. if the royalty thing doesn't work out.*

Quinn's view on her admirers:

"COREY Corey was the first guy to ask me out when I arrived in Lawndale. He has a special place in my heart, behind all the other guys who have nicer cars."

"ARTIE I'd rather forget about this geek. He drooled on my shoes. And they were suede!"

"JOEY, JAMIE, JEFFY These guys are fun to hang out with, except when they are fighting over me, which is even better."

"DANNY He bought a lot of long distance phone cards, but how can you take a guy who is such a bad actor seriously?"

"PUSH COMES TO LOVE INSTRUCTOR I still can't believe he was lying about that make-out scholarship."

"ZETA THETA DA VIDA FRATERNITY They made me their Keg Queen. It's like practice for when I find that prince I was talking about."

"RONNIE He's really nice and dependable. Next!"

"SKYLER FELDMAN His family owns a boat so he's the perfect match for me…at least until Labor Day."

"BOB (STANDS FOR BOY ON BIKE) He was even cuter than Hunk In Honda."

"TAYLOR It's not just that his parents have a ski house…they also have a snowmobile."

"TOMMY How can you trust someone who is two hours late and can't throw a pebble to save his life?"

"CLIFF, OR IS IT CLINT? We're in love and all the rules and regulations in the world can't stop us! No, nothing can keep us apart, except the fact that I gave him a fake phone number."

"GARRETT A really sweet guy, especially when he punched that minister in the eye."

"MINISTER I still don't understand all that stuff he said about communion."

"ETHAN Parting is such sweet sorrow. But not so bad once he finally admitted that I'm cute."

"ZACHARY I hear he ran off with Theresa on Junior Five. Good riddance!"

"SHAWN Gotta admire a guy who is willing to double date with my sister."

"TRAVIS He's a hot hitchhiking cowboy. Reminds me of that guy in the movie with the flying car."

"MARCO Warning: Stay away from talcum powder models. It's not worth the heartache! The same goes for cornstarch."

"STUART BOBBY Just goes to show, beware of geeks bearing gifts."

"DAVID SORENSON I can't believe this guy thought I really liked him when I was just pretending so I'd get a better grade. Really. Why are you looking at me?"
MMan

**MMan** is a *Daria* fanfic author. His name is also written as "M Man" and "mman." A prolific and highly creative writer, MMan left the fandom in July 2009 for personal reasons.

## Daria Fanworks Awards

5th Daria Fanworks Awards

* Favorite Crossover (tie) for *Fife in the Fast Lane*
* Favorite Erotica - Straight (tie) for *Something to Hide*

## Bibliography

* The Adventure of the Chinese Restaurant
* Angst Nauseum
* Anywhere But Here
* Barely Popular
* Boxing Quinn
* Bravechuck
* Brother, I Asked for It!
* Disappearing Act
* A Leg Up the Competition
* Par for the Course
* Screwed
* Something to Hide
* Without a Shower
It's All About Respect

Written by Brother Grimace, **It's All About Respect** is an incomplete novella about Daria's experiences in a special seminar program at Lawndale High School run by Dr. (Colonel) Kyle Armalin, a psychologist and sociologist who is also an undercover military intelligence recruiter for the U.S. government agency known as DELPHI.

The second major plot line in the novella explores the relationship between Jake and Helen Morgendorffer. The Morgendorffers seem to be at odds due to the professional (and personal) relationship that he has with Lauriel de la Ribas, a gourmet chef who works with Jake on her cable cooking show. Helen is also becoming more incensed over how Daria's continuing behavior is (in her eyes) lessening her chances for a successful life.

This novella was one of the first fics written in the sub-category of angst known as Daria Mental-Torture Fiction.

While only seven of the intended ten chapters of 'IAAR' have been posted online, a number of the characters have apeared elsewhere in Daria fan fiction and Armalin became a prominent shared character in 2000s and early 2010s fandom.

## Original Characters

* Kyle Armalin
* Robert Bakeson
* Horizon Bridger
* Franklin Davers
* Lauriel de la Ribas
* Bronwyn Ruttheimer
* Wendy Thackerell
* DELPHI

## Links

*It's All About Respect* can be found:

* here at Glitter Berries
Pre-canon

*Daria* fanworks that shows the series characters before "Esteemsters," which was the first *Daria* show considered to be in canon. By this token, Daria's appearances in *Beavis and Butt-head* are often taken as pre-canon.

The series has several flashbacks to pre-canon events: "Camp Fear" (Daria and Quinn at Camp Grizzly), "Pinch Sitter" (Daria and Quinn as children), "Monster" (Daria and Quinn as infants), and "Boxing Daria" (Daria not fitting in at school). Several episodes would show Helen and Jake's hippie days. We also heard about various pre-canon events and facts, like DeMartino's childhood ("The Daria Hunter") and Trent living in a tent for six weeks hoping someone would invite him back inside ("Lane Miserables"). "The Daria Diaries" and "The Daria Database" add more details, such as photographs of Daria's childhood and Jake & Helen's wedding vows.

Fanfiction has often used these pre-canon details, wielding stories around them or using them as points of divergence for Alternate Universes.

Reams of fanwork has been created of pre-canon events to explain how the people we follow ended up as they did. Kristen Bealer in particular has dedicated herself to pre-canon.

## External Links

* Past & Future fanfic collection at Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine).
* All My Children series by Thea Zara and Deref
Jordana

**Jordana** is the woman that runs Great White Shark, a museum about an alleged shark that plagued the nearby beaches. She gives a long, rambling history of the shark, which she claims she hunted down and killed "two months ago". Said history is the plot of *Jaws* and it's not clear if she's conning people or is demented; she does mention "that little snot Richard Dreyfuss decides that it was all his big game".

There are giant billboards for Great White Shark all over the main road, so Jordana appears to have some money.

Her name is given in the MTV flipbook "Guestward Ho!". She introduced another flipbook of movie references in Daria, "A Derivative Retrospective: Moments cribbed from famous films":

"I'm Jordana, and I've been asked to introduce this roundup of the many scenes in "Daria" that reference famous films. I'm not sure why they chose me, but I was sitting alone sipping a soda at Schwab's when a movie producer spotted me and signed me to a five-year contract. Then the director said, "You're going out there to host a small section of the 'Daria' website, but you're coming back a star!" I was a bit nervous as I had no training, but after finishing up at my welding job I practiced my dance moves in a torn gray sweatshirt and then, overcoming my inhibitions by joining a working-class all-male strip revue, I felt up to the task. Then just at the moment of my triumph, an alien burst from my chest. The End?"

https://web.archive.org/web/20010822152602/http://www.mtv.com:80/onair/daria/chapter3/retrospective.jhtml

## In fanfiction

Smileyfax's "Unbearable" reveals that *Jaws* really happened, but Hollywood replaced Jordana with a fictional character.
Moving Pictures

**Moving Pictures** is a fanfic by Brian Taylor, spinning out of discussion in the Iron Chef: Modern Day Daria thread (or what *was* modern day in 2010).

With the timeline moved forward by thirteen years, Amy Barksdale is now a pre-teen science fiction fan in the 1980s and received a video camera for her twelfth birthday. The story follows Amy's "documentaries" across the 80s, including her mother remarrying, family disintegration, her school crush, and Helen in her hardcore punk stage. (Her stepfather is also mentioned to have been part of the Iran-Contra Affair).

The fanfic is a 'prequel' to God Save The Esteem - or that's the 'sequel' to Moving Pictures - as both stories take place in the same timeline, sharing concepts and characters.

## External Links

Moving Pictures (original thread)

Repost (cleaned up from unicode issues)
Ring Toss

**Ring Toss** by Nemo Blank is one of the few Daria/Tom shipper stories around, and it is arguably one of the best. It is a long story with many interwoven threads, including Daria and Tom's slide to the brink of breakup and back, the breakup of Brittany and Kevin with the resultant consequences, deeper examinations of Upchuck and Andrea, and Trent's new girlfriend (a shocker), all topped off with corporate intrigue at Grace, Sloane and Page.

## Original Characters

* Thornton Sloane
* Reese Winters
* Solomon Gold
* Martin Lords

**Plot**
The plot follows the adventures of our characters, as they learn the twists and turns life can take. Daria and Tom realize how much they love each other, and what they are willing to do. The Fashion Club members are being torn apart from each other, thanks to Sandi's new boyfriend(a red head shock) and Quinn's will to actually study. Trent Lane finds Lawndale High's most popular cheerleader to be an compromising girlfriend, while her boyfriend seeks himself to the most infamous goth chick of all, Andrea. With new characters introduced working at Grace, Sloane and Page, it is able to take a deeper look at the companie's troubles, and eventually, its search for a new chairman.

## Trivia

* The fanfic was written before Tom and Daria broke up in "Is It College Yet?
Peggy Nicoll

**Peggy Nicoll** is a writer and story editor for *Daria*. During the run of the series, Nicoll would write ten Daria episodes as well as an accompanying book, The Daria Database.

Nicoll would become a story editor during season four and five. Her most productive season was Season Two, where she would write three Daria episodes -- The Daria Hunter, Gifted, and Fair Enough.

She has also written for programs such as *Mighty Morphin Power Rangers* and *Bratz*. Another writing credit of note is for the PBS series *WordGirl*.

Nicoll is not known to have ever granted an interview, unlike some of the others who worked on the show.

## Daria episodes written by Peggy Nicoll

* The Lab Brat
* The Daria Hunter
* Gifted
* Fair Enough
* Daria Dance Party
* Just Add Water
* Murder, She Snored
* Fire!
* Is It Fall Yet? (co-writer)
* Fat Like Me
* My Night at Daria's
* Is It College Yet? (co-writer)
Marco

**Marco** is a famous talcum powder model, so famous he doesn't *need* a surname to be known! He appears in "Just Add Water".

In a chance encounter at the beauty salon Tres Tress (where he was immediately surrounded by staff hoping for reflected glory), Quinn was able to get Marco to go on a date with her to the school Casino Night - he was won over by her shallow blather about the less fortunate not having proper grooming assistance (the staff were *not* happy), and considered her thoughtful. "You know, I used to go out with my hair uncombed and stuff, but then I realized that by looking good, I'm bringing a little beauty into the lives of people surrounded by their own ugliness."

Quinn told everyone at school about Marco and was left distraught when he stood her up, with Sandi putting the boot in until *she* got stood up. As it turned out, Marco had just shown up a bit late and was wondering where everyone was (and was soon latched onto by DeeDee).

In "Love is a Way Too Many Splendored Thing", Quinn lamented: "Stay away from talcum powder models. It's not worth the heartache!"
Paul Meyerson

**Paul Meyerson** was Rita Barksdale's latest partner in "I Don't". A middle-aged middle-class man, he was disliked and ignored by most people for his overbearing attitude - Rita having a notoriously crap taste in men.

When they were children, he and Jake Morgendorffer were in Boy Scouts together. In adulthood, his workplace had made him Vice President at 29.

He was Rita's first partner after Roger, her dead skydiving boyfriend, and Amy Barksdale confused him for Roger. Paul had been unaware Roger existed. The MTV flipbook "It Takes Two to Tangle" claims she went out with the dull, pathetic Meyerson in reaction to the more adventurous Roger's death.

During Erin's wedding reception (where he planned to leave and play golf later), he abandoned Rita to hang out at the bar with Jake, boasting about his career and boorishly saying "Rita's a little flighty, of course, but she's a tiger in the bedroom". Jake got extremely fed up but held his tongue (until he didn't). When Paul later got drawn into a spat with Jake and a drunk Helen, Erin immediately assumed Paul had started it and implied this had happened before: "Oh, you know perfectly well what's going on, Mother. Your pathetic boyfriend is making a scene!"

Once the cops showed up to investigate the reception's fighting, Paul bribed them to go away.

He's not seen or mentioned at *all* when Rita next appears...
Nemo Blank

Fanfiction writer known for wild, often over-the-top stories that couldn't be told any other way. Many of his Daria stories are unabashed Daria/Trent shippers, Daria's Season of Goodwill being an extraordinarily good example. Also writes Ranma 1/2 and Star Trek fanfiction.

## Written Works

Daria

* Blast from the Past
* Crossover (Nemo Blank story)
* Daria's Season of Goodwill
* Dark Horizon
* Hero!
* Jane's Devious Plot
* The Mighty Quinn
* New Eyes
* Out of the Slushpile
* Restrain Jane Lane
* Retrograde Girl
* Ring Toss
* Too Many Choices
* Vengeance

Works at Outpost Daria Reborn
Sam Stack

Quarterback for Oakwood High School, a bitter football rival of Lawndale High. Brittany dated him briefly, an affair discovered by Upchuck and used against Brittany in "The Lab Brat."

In 2000, the MTV tie-in websites (transcribed here) list Theodore Wozniak as the Oakwood Taproots quarterback. Was Sam replaced or did he graduate?

## Sam Stack in Fanfic

Sam made his first known appearance in "Ring Toss" as *Sam Stagg* and Kristen Bealer posted a theory about Sam being related to Mr. O'Neill (either as a nephew or a secret son) but otherwise wasn't touched on much other than in his forementioned role in "The Lab Brat." On July 2012 however Shiva started an Iron Chef about Sam, there was some discussion about the character and some contributions.

Shiva's "A Lift" shows Sam helping Jane with some car trouble (and mentions that O'Neill is his Uncle), while "Last Night of Bliss For A QB" slashes him with Tommy Sherman, and finally "What Sam Really Likes" has Sam Stack hooking up with Andrea.

OverlordMikey's "A Wish for the Perfect Night" showed him as a smart jock but hopelessly in love with Brittany.
Shawn

**Shawn** was part of the double date Quinn arranged with Robert and Daria in "The New Kid", intending to use it to buy off Daria into restoring sports and clubs to the yearbook. Her cover story was that Shawn "never shuts up" and she needed a backup who could talk - in the actual date, an oblivious Shawn could only ever ask "What?" before being told to shut up.

Shawn is old enough to drive a car and trusted enough by his parents to have access to one.

In "Love is a Way Too Many Splendored Thing", Quinn admitted "Gotta admire a guy who is willing to double date with my sister."
Random Pairing

**The Random Pairing Challenge** is a yearly romance Iron Chef, timed around Valentine's Day, by JoeMerl.

The rules are:

"This is a fandom that seems to encourage random weird pairings, so here's a way to make them randomer than ever before! ;)

"I have concocted a list of fifty Daria characters, twenty-five male and twenty-five female, varying from OH herself to minor backgrounders. The list has been randomized, except for one factor: all the odd numbers are female and all the even numbers are male.

"Your IC, should you choose to accept it, is to pick two numbers at random. I will inform you which characters you chose, and you write a story shipping them. You can adjust your number choices for het, slash or femmeslash, but other than that you won't know who you're getting."

If you got an incestuous pairing, you could trade characters out. In 2019, the list expanded to 55.

The challenge has run since 2013, skipping 2015.

## External Links

* Random Pairing Challenge 2013
* Random Pairing Challenge 2014
* Random Pairing Challenge 2016
* Random Pairing Challenge 2017
* Random Pairing Challenge 2018
* Random Pairing Challenge 2019
Self-Esteem Class

**The Self-Esteem Class** is one of the extra classes held in Lawndale High. It makes its first and only appearance in the first episode, "Esteemsters".

## General

The attendance of this class is decided either by psychologist Margaret Manson or Pprincipal Angela Li. In Daria and Shaggy's cases, they were put in it after 'failing' a mandatory psychological assessment every new student had to have with Manson.

It is taught by English teacher Timothy O'Neill, and by "taught" we mean he reads out memorised speeches and assigns the same homework over and over. At least another female teacher is involved, as the class is said to be divided into groups by gender for one session to discuss gender-specific esteem issues.

Jane Lane attended it six times, apparently just to kill time during the afternoon.

## Known attendants

Students that have taken the class include:

* Daria Morgendorffer
* Jane Lane
* Burnout Girl
* "The Head"
* Shaggy
* The Smirker

## In Fanfiction

Self-esteem class is best known in Daria fandom for being the setting where Daria and Jane first meet and start their friendship, which becomes one of the main themes of the show. Thus, despite only appearing once in the show, this class has been featured in multiple fanfiction stories and where it does not appear in an alternate universe, its absence is indicated as significant.
Mrs. Sullivan

**Mrs. Sullivan** was an elderly resident at the Cedars of Lawndale hospital in "Ill", and had the room before Daria. Dr. Phillips and the other stuff mutter darkly about a horrific ordeal Mrs. Sullivan went through, giving the impression she died horribly - and thus Daria has a nightmare of Sullivan's ghost coming to take her to Heaven.

As it turns out, she's alive - she'd just been having a lot of enemas. (Huh huh huh) She turns up at the end to see if she left her enema bag in the room.

In Daria's dream, she's "Eleanor Sullivan" but this is not said in the real world.
Roger

One of Rita Barksdale's boyfriends, a skydiving instructor. He's mentioned in passing in "I Don't" as having been killed in a skydiving accident. (He landed on a cow.) Nobody seems that bothered about being respectful to the dead man, with Daria and Amy Barksdale being happy to make light of it and Rita not bothering to be upset about it.

Roger was the last boyfriend Rita had before Paul Meyerson: the MTV flipbook "It Takes Two to Tangle" claims she went out with the dull, pathetic Meyerson in reaction to the more adventurous Roger's death.

Amy was last in contact with Rita when Roger was around but was unaware of what he looked like, as she mistakes Paul for Roger. Paul was unaware that Roger existed.
Pause in the Air (series)

**Pause in the Air** is a romance series written by The Angst Guy wherein Daria Morgendorffer and Jane Lane deal with pregnancy as an inevitable part of marriage...*to each other.* The series is named for the first story.

Pause in the Air (PitA) might be the first story that not only pairs Daria and Jane as a couple in a long-term relationship, but one which eschews the typical elements that belong to the genre known as slash. As opposed to a sexually explicit story, the deep love that Daria and Jane have for each other is understood and the physical aspects of Daria and Jane's private life are deliberately left unexplored. The series began as a single tale intended only to poke fun at the slash genre, then grew out of proportion after.

PitA was said by TAG in January 2010 to be completed. The ten stories in the series, in chronological order, are given below. Titles are usually constructed as short puns or word plays with double meanings.

* “Pause in the Air”
* “Thanks Giving”
* “Moving Day”
* “Silent Night”
* “Shock and Aww”
* “Family Affairs”
* “Writes of Spring”
* “April Showers”
* “Labor Relations”
* "After Birth"

## External Links

* "Here comes the brides..." short essay on the origins of the series by the author
Highland Herald

**The Highland Herald** was Highland High's school newspaper. It was shown in the Beavis and Butt-head episode, "Sporting Goods" when Daria Morgendorffer was pressured into joining the paper by her parents. Because she was a girl, she was made the fashion reporter, despite her hatred of fashion and the lack of any fashion in the town.

Daria's photo of Beavis and Butt-head in thongs was put on the front page, so we can assume the Herald wasn't the most serious of school papers. (After doing this, we never hear of her being on the paper ever again!)

In fanfiction, it is sometimes assumed that Daria was the fashion reporter for a long time and has a secret knowledge of fashion as a result. She's often incorrectly called the fashion *editor*.
Lotto Nonsense

**Lotto Nonsense** is the first "episode" of C.E. Forman's Lost Season One (of the The Lost Seasons series), written in August or September 1998. Like all of Forman's Lost Season episodes, it is written in quasi-script form with three Acts and commercials.

## Summary

The story revolves around Daria winning five thousand dollars in a lottery. She quickly finds friends she didn't even know she had. Meanwhile, Quinn gets busted for shoplifting.
Mr. Herrera

**Mr. Herrera** (voiced by Sam Johnson) was the Spanish teacher at Highland High. This meant he taught Daria Morgendorffer - unfortunately for him, it also meant he taught Beavis and Butt-head. When Beavis became the Great Cornholio in "The Great Cornholio", he disrupted class and pissed Herrera off.

He celebrated their apparent demise in "Beavis and Butt-head are Dead".
Melodrama

The term **melodrama** is fairly broad and can encompass stories from many genres. It is generally characterised as a story with a sensational plot and heightened emotions, often with a very unambigious struggle of 'good and evil', and where characters may be simply drawn to help achieve this. Often the term "melodrama" is used in a pejorative sense, implying a lack of realism or nuance.

Though the two styles are similar, melodramas are distinguished from angst writing in *Daria* fandom in that angst stories focus on intense suffering and are not guaranteed to have a happy ending. While Hurt/Comfort stories can be melodramatic, this is not always the case. Likewise, melodramas may or may not include Hurt/Comfort elements.

A special award for Favorite Melodrama is voted for in the annual Daria Fanworks Awards. There is considerable confusion when using the terms "drama" and "melodrama," to the point that the nominations for Favorite Drama and Favorite Melodrama often show considerable overlap. (The same dramatic story might win in both categories.) Excellent recent examples of *Daria* melodramas, making use of the definition above, would include "Apocalyptic Daria," by Doggieboy; "The Crow-Daria Ascension," by legendeld; "Three" by Richard Lobinske; and "Something To Shoot For," by Dervish.
Holiday Breaks

The 9th story in the Falling Into College series by Richard Lobinske. The story occurs between Christmas Eve, 1999 and early January 2000.

## Summary

Back in Lawndale, Daria is surprised when Quinn starts to seriously ask her for advice about boys. Quinn sees how happy Daria is with Michael and Trent with Lindy, while her dating has dropped off to almost nothing. All the local boys either aren't interested in spending the effort on her anymore, or she doesn't want to see them.

After the new Year, Jane moves into her dorm room at BFAC and meets her new roommate, blue-haired Cecilia "CC" Czernicki

## External Links

Holiday Breaks at Outpost Daria (via Wayback Machine)

Holiday Breaks at Lessons From Lawndale

Template:Succession box
Lawndale-High

**Lawndale-High** is a *Daria* message board, running on Proboards.

It was created in 2019 and in that year was the only board aside from Paperpusher's Message Board to be active. While it shares the basic layout and purpose as PPMB, the forum has a different code of conduct.

The board is, of course, named for the school and shares its colour scheme, as well as naming its forums after school subjects: History for discussion of the old show, Language Arts for fanfiction etc. The board's description quotes the old MTV Lawndale High website.
High School Never Ends - WellTemperedClavier Version

A post-canon *Daria* fan fiction by WellTemperedClavier.

## Story

With her college career interrupted by an inconvenient mental breakdown, Daria heads back to Lawndale to recuperate. Parental (well, Helen's) nagging prompts her to get a job as a tutor, and her first client is none-other than former quarterback and Lawndale High's only fifth-year student, Kevin Thompson.

## Trivia

"High School Never Ends" coincidentally shares a name with an unrelated fan fiction story by Princess Pasta.

The story is followed by a sequel, "Search Engine Obfuscation".
Minds Touched by Madness

A *Daria* fanfiction by WellTemperedClavier that is a post-canon crossover with HP Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos.

## Story

During the summer after graduation, Jane gets involved in an art project inspired by her own troubling dreams. Chaos of a distinctly eldritch variety ensues.

## Trivia

Minds Touched by Madness tied first place for "Best New Series" in the 2013 Daria Fanworks Awards.
Sequel

Also called a continuation, a **sequel** is a fanfic written to show events that occur after the end of another given fanfic, either the writer's own tale or someone else's. The sequel could also show events happening after an episode in the canon Dariaverse, over a time period that is otherwise not described. The fanfic or episode on which the sequel is based is self-contained and does not require the sequel, which could still tie up loose ends from the original story or expand upon minor plotlines. The implication is that a sequel is like an afterthought, and was not conceived until after the original episode or story was presented. A post-canon story is often a direct sequel to *Is It College Yet?*, following *Daria* characters as they go to college.

An example of a canon sequel would be "A Tree Grows in Lawndale", which is a sequel to Tommy Sherman's death in "The Misery Chick". In the story arc covering the triangle of Daria, Jane, and Tom Sloane, "Fire!" is a sequel of sorts to "I Loathe a Parade," "Dye! Dye! My Darling" a sequel to "Fire!, and *Is It Fall Yet?* a sequel to "Dye! Dye! My Darling." *Is It College Yet?* serves as a sequel to *Fall*, using the same naming scheme, showing the end of the Daria/Tom relationship that the first film started, and including another Landon summer party.

An example of a fanfic sequel to a show episode would be TAG's "Sudden Death Overtime," which immediately follows events in the fourth-season episode, "A Tree Grows in Lawndale." A fanfic sequel to another fanfic by the same author would be E. A. Smith's "The Tempest," which follows his Love's Labours Trilogy. A sequel written by one author for a fanfic by another author would be Chris Smith's "More Than Anyone Can Take," a follow-on to "Maine Escape," by Michael Pfeffer.

## External Links

* "The Whole Truth," by Galen Hardesty (sequel to Renfield's "Diary Dearest")
MTV

**MTV**, short for **Music Television**, is the network that hosted and produced *Daria* from 1997-2002. (This article principally refers to MTV/U.S. Daria was also broadcast on many international MTV channels during its original run.) MTV also hosts, through MTV.com, the official *Daria* website, though it is no longer updated and is missing some links. The site was probably last updated in 2002, as it includes an essay "by" Daria Morgendorffer referencing the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks on the United States. To promote the DVD release of *Daria: The Complete Animated Series*, MTV launched a new Daria website with streaming video of several season 1 episodes.

In the early nineties, animated programming made its first appearance on the channel in the form of Liquid Television and later, the famously low-budget studio MTV Animation was formed. Arguably MTV's most popular animated program to date was Beavis and Butthead, first aired in 1993, and from which *Daria* was spun off.

In off-canon canon material such as Sarcastathon 3000, Daria and Jane would gently (and not-so-gently) rib MTV, its shows, its work culture, and the small amount of money it spent on animation. The "Look Back in Annoyance" retrospective even had the characters worry that, after the attacks they'd just made, they weren't going to be invited to the 2002 Video Music Awards.

## External Links

* MTV's current Daria website
* MTV's previous Daria website
* MTV on Wikipedia