Welcome to the DFB2! (a message for the new fans)

From the time MTV announced it was releasing the Daria DVD set, this blog's followers have more than doubled in number, and it has now collected over 165,000 hits. Lots of new fans and former fans were drawn in by the DVD set. You are always welcome here, and the fandom is glad to have you.

It might help to say a few general words about this blog and the Daria fandom's other party places on the Internet.

This blog was set up about 2.5 years ago, long before anyone know of the DVD release, as a multipurpose watering hole for this fandom. (Yes, there was a DFB before this one, but is is now inactive.) The giant links directory at left was put together to help people find the current hot spots as well as get nostalgic over the long-ago sites of glory. A lot of the Daria art here was recovered from long-extinct MTV and fan sites using the WayBack Machine, which is why it looks official (it was, at one time) but possibly unfamiliar. The sounds bites that play when you click on certain images came from the Daria's Sick, Sad Life Planner CD and various WAV collections online. And my colleagues and I add little notes about famous (or stupid) things that happened each day, usually related to Daria or just quirky enough that Daria would have liked them seeing them on Sick, Sad World. This blog thus imitates the SSLP, which also announced interesting anniversaries and holidays.

The main day-to-day function of the DFB2 is to list newly completed Daria fanfiction, as much of it as can be found. I might have missed a few recent stories, sorry, but am fixing that. If you know of a website where new Daria fanfiction is appearing, let me know.

EXTRA NOTE: I also frequently update and correct postings in the blog, so check back in every so often to see what's new, especially looking for NEW! tags.

And you can comment on anything Daria-ish here using the Comments section below each post. Try to stay current, because not many people will backtrack to read it.

The main message board for actual written conversation is at the PPMB (see links at left). Going off topic at least once in every thread is a requirement.

Any questions or comments are welcome. Glad to have more fans here! Now let's see if that Mystic Spiral TV series can get going...

FF.net

• Secret Plans and Clever Tricks, by Fringeperson (COMPLETE!): Every Saturday that Quinn had a date, Daria slipped into the overly pink and frilly room, tip-toed her way to the closet, and removed something. It didn't matter much what, but she carefully picked things that she was certain Quinn wouldn't miss – that is to say, things she had bought long enough ago she had probably forgotten about them. This item she then carefully photographed and folded, then put up for sale over the internet. As a small support for her father, she carefully divided the money from the sales and deposited a third into his bank account. Admittedly, Quinn would probably just spend it before their father even noticed the money had gone in, but Daria figured that if it spared her another trip into some national park where they would try to be one with nature, and just end up high on berries, then it was worth it.
• Technicolor Dream, by Miss Pennyfeather (Part 2): Trent sank his head under the pillow and stopped thinking. Soon he'd be in dream land and he'd forget everything about this unannounced interruption into his otherwise peaceful, uneventful life. He wasn't sure whether he had locked the front door, but he didn't care. He was going to fall asleep. But one eye remained open, one eye refused to close. He was staring at the darkness around him and he was thinking. Was it the music that was getting to him? Was it the gig? Was it the fact that he couldn't remember his mom's face? Was it the annoying mail box in front of their house? The name "Mystic Spiral" made him depressed too, but it had never caused personality deviations before.
• That's What You'll Take to the Grave, by Mediancat (COMPLETE!): After two rings, the person on the other end picked up. "Hello?" "G, it's Daria. I got a favor to ask." "Certainly. How can I be of assistance?" "Tell me what you know about todhunter demons." (Daria/Buffy the Vampire Slayer) [Story completes saga begun here and continued here.]
• While the Bat's Away: The Substitute, by Echopapa (continued): After Principal Li gave Ms. Dahl directions to her classroom, she closed the door behind her and went over to the picture window overlooking the Lawndale High campus. True, she could see more by studying the security monitors, but sometimes there was nothing like surveying things one's own eyes to give one a feeling of power. Another crisis averted, she thought. My efforts to keep Laaawndale High running smoothly never end... "Eh?" Her reverie was interrupted by the beeping of her phone. (Daria/DC Justice League)
  

PPMB

• The Dream of the White Darkness, by jtranser (continued): The magazine was one of Daria's guilty little secrets, one she indulged in only when at conferences out of town, away from anyone she knew. She'd go to the local book/magazine store, pick up a copy, pay for it, have it sacked and then take it directly to her car. Later, in her hotel room, she'd fix a mojito, turn on her mp3 player loaded with Martin Denny tracks, stretch out and read the latest issue of Modern Popular Culture Magazine. Within were such articles as: "Desperate Suburban Homemakers and Desensitized Robots equal Disappointed Love!", "Astral Freakout", "Repressed Hostility and Guilt: Your House Plants Know!"
• NEWER! The Ephemeral Ties that Bind, by Thecoffeeguru (continued): "Well, let me introduce myself. My name is Mrs. Manson and I am the student psychologist at Lawndale High. It is my job to..." "What kind of school employs a psychologist? Shouldn't you be an ex-hippie with a made-up certificate in motivational counseling?"
• LAST NEWEST! Eye of the Beholder, by GlitterShrooms (Part 2): After a brief phone call, Helen stood up in her office. She looked around with a smile. It was that time of week. Walking around, Helen closed her office’s blinds, and dimmed the lights. It wouldn’t be too long before she heard that sacred knock. Knock. Knock. “You can come in,” Helen said. Sandi Griffin entered the room wearing her French maid costume.
  
• MOAR NEWEST! Falling into College: The Clip Show, by RLobinske (Part 10): Seated at her computer desk, Daria looked over her shoulder and sighed. "You know, after all this time, I should be used to the weird feeling that someone is about to do something very strange to me. Alien adoptions, supernovas, long-term amnesia. You name it, someone's done it to me. That's why I subscribe to Angst Guard. So that no matter what is done to me, I can bounce back in the next story as good as new."
  
• Finn Morgendorffer 46: Shields Up, by HolyGrail2007 (COMPLETE!): It did not take long for rumors to spread at the school. After all, Barch was unexpectedly gone. While the males of the school may have been grateful for it, they were also curious. After all, if something could be done to get rid of Barch just like that, anyone would want that sort of power. Finn wasn’t sure if he should tell the truth. Stories got distorted very easily...
  
• The Hallowed Halls of Fielding, by Roentgen (Part 30): The students in Goodlet's class still segregated themselves. There were the "brains," who were a small group to themselves. There were the "average" and there were the "low" —Quinn's natural group, consisting of herself, Patty Clark, and a girl named Madeline de la Rosa. Each group approached the material at a different level; Quinn, Patty and Madeline approached at "survival." Even so, Quinn found herself listening in to the other two groups. And, amazingly, Quinn could actually understand what they were talking about. The really smart kids were riffing on the material, their questions half-reinforcement and half "can you top this?" as if they were trying to give each other an impossible exam that would be even worse than Goodlett's. (FF.net)
• Into the Fray, by Minx (Part 10): "From what we’ve been told, they use the women and children as bait and bargaining chips to get the men that are fit enough to fight to cooperate.” Trent paused and looked at the three girls. “Which is why we need to be careful. For all we know this guy is using you three as bait and fooling you into thinking he is a good guy, to lure us out of hiding.” “Why would they go to all of that trouble? It sounds like a waste of time; this isn’t one of those cop drama movies or whatever,” Quinn said. “Really? ‘Cause last I checked we were running around in a would-be war zone. Didn’t it cross your minds that this Sam guy is playing the good cop role, promising to bring back news on your folks so that we would welcome him back, only to realize that it was an ambush?”
• LAST NEWEST! John Lane 46: Substitute Plans, by RLobinske (Part 1): Ms. Ruiz paced back in forth in Principal Li's office beside Ms. Barch and Mr. DeMartino. "Might I remind you that was part of what made me agree to hire on to your school?" Ms. Barch cut to the subject at hand. "Do we get our raise or not?!" Ms. Li calmly said, "Better! A new coffee maker in the teachers' lounge."
  
• NEWEST! Judith Strikes! Opening Gambit, by Erin M. (Part 1): It was a dead world, and had been for some time. Civilization had its time and had moved on, quietly and with little fanfare. There were still some traces though. A few buildings still stood relatively undamaged and were still structurally sound. One of these was a large, red brick, two story house on a quiet suburban street. While a majority of the windows were shattered and blown out, the rest of the house was still intact. The lawn was yellowed and dead. If anyone was still around to look in the garage, they would have found an old red SUV sitting in there, also long dead form disuse. The interior of the house wasn't much better. The elements had taken over in the years since the end and the furniture was rotted and unusable in most of the house. In the living room were the remains of six human skeletons, all jumbled together in a pile in the center of the room. They, too, hadn't been disturbed in years.
  
• NEWER! A New Set of Rules, by Dennis (Part 12): The next two days were only slightly more productive than her library foray, so Daria was in what could charitably be called a foul mood when the wall buzzer heralded Kevin's arrival for his study session. She expressed her irritation by greeting him over the intercom with a hearty, “What the hell are you bothering me for?” His puzzled response, “Uh, to meet your for our tutoring session?” did nothing to reduce her annoyance, but rather than unleash a blistering string of profanities, she turned around and stalked from her room without further speech. On her arrival at the check-in desk, Kevin gave her an attempt at a mollifying smile, but she chose not to accept it. Without even looking at him, she signed him in and turned back to the hallway with a grumbled, “Come on, dumbass.”
  
• Shining Star: Temporal Conundrum, by RLobinske (COMPLETE!): Ringbearer Jane led the others to the Gateway Café just off the main plaza of Terra Beacon One. "Now everybody, just have a seat and order what you want, on me." Daria said, "Where are you going?" "I've got to go explain to the Ringmasters why I've brought four unauthorized persons and a car here. I'm sure that they've noticed by now and… they'll have questions." "Blame it on me," Daria said. "Oh, I will," Jane said. (FF.net)
  
• NEW! A Sick Sad Interview, by Abe (COMPLETE!): How did I get myself into this situation, anyway? Oh yes, of course: Jane. "Hey, they've got positions available for a junior reporter/interviewer and an assistant animator/graphics artist! With any luck, we can work there together!" and "Come on, it's Sick, Sad World!" So we get hired, and they stick Jane in a cubicle in an office building, doing stuff only very distantly related to her art, and send me all the way out to this one-horse town to interview some nut-case.
• LAST NEWEST! Tracksuits, by Malakite (Part 7): Quinn made her way back to the STET's main hallways, then stepped past the dozens of people who had received the glorious gift of early Renewal. Most of the recoverable wounded had already been removed for processing, along with the obsolete. After a few minutes of growing irritation at getting yet more blood on her boots, she found the man she was looking for, "supervising" a clean-up crew. With her friendliest voice she called to him. "Hello, Preacher." "Ah, good day Agent." He paused, then with his gaze sweeping over the bloodied piles, added, "or perhaps not so good."
  
• NEW! Unnamed alternate ending (Finn Morgendorffer 46: Shields Up), by Brother Grimace and TAG, continuing a story by HolyGrail2007 (COMPLETE!): Twenty years later, Finn woke up in his bed to find a frazzle-haired figure beside him, holding a two-handed axe high over her head, The mad figure looked down in triumph. "Never make an enemy you can't kill," hissed Angela Li.