It's a Strangely Disturbing Life

Daria's looking both retro and uncharacteristically cheerful here because this is a scene from the Beavis and Butt-head episode "It's a Miserable Life," which aired on this day in 1995. It showed an alternate reality Daria, who had a boyfriend and smiled and sang carols and made all of Daria fandom die a little inside.

Fanfic Update!

• Another Life, by Princess_Pasta (part 1): "For perhaps the millionth time, Daria Morgendorffer found herself standing outside of the doors to The Zon. It wasn't her usual scene, nothing about grunge clubs or music appealing to her, and yet she couldn't seem to break away."


• Cynic and a Six-String, by fringeperson (part 44): "'You picked up a guy in a vintage stationers while Trent was helping my dad and Jeffy catch the squirrelly menace?' Daria clarified when she and Jane had reunited for pizza lunch and a break-down of their respective previous night."


• Daria (and other characters) on the Defiant Round Robin, by EntrancedCat (part 49): "'Left, left, hard and up you damn idiots,' John Yossarian was screaming to the bridge crew as the Defiant shook under another blast from the ship which had mysteriously materialized out of nothing ten kilometers in front."


• Daria: College Pains The Junior Year, by James the Lesser (part 1): "Daria is listening to Doug about the assignment she had given him. 'I found that all of them were connected to a new drug trial. Something that enhances a persons focus and removes their hunger.'"


• Daria Ravenclaw: No Country For Unpleasant Old Men, by Meester_Lee (part 3c): "Iago watched in shock as the Muggle gunman brandished his pistol and waved it at the crowd. This was as bad as one of the episodes he'd been through in North Africa."


• Daria Takes Charge, by dmsfanman (parts 4 and 5): "Daria stared out the window of the train. Outside was total and utter blackness. It was the blackest blackness she had ever seen. There was absolutely no light other than the lights inside the train car." (Part 5)


• Daria, the Radio serial, by Roentgen (parts 8 and 9): "(Sound of students milling about. Trays clank.) BRITTANY: Ugh! I hate it when the trays are wet when it's lunchtime. DARIA: 'That which does not kill us makes us stronger.'" (Part 9)


• The Life of the Mind, by Two-Eyed Charlie (part 3): "I suppose I should explain the cliffhanger, first and foremost. I've read books and watched TV shows where they do that—cut off the action at the last chapter or the end of the episode, leaving the audience to wallow in suspense for however long the gap in production or page numbers might be."


• Murder, She Etched, by Sacred Dust (part 2): "The bus rumbled down the highway, leaving Ashfield and the shadow of the mountains in the distance. But her daughter's memories, Amanda suspected, would not be so easily left behind."