Daria - The Last Days of Solitude

[luxken27]

FANDOM: Daria
FIC LINK: The Last Days of Solitude
AUTHOR LINK: Jon Kilner
RATING/WARNING(S): T
WIP?/WORD COUNT: Complete | 12,865
MAIN CHARACTERS: Jane Lane, Daria Morgendorffer

FIC SUMMARY: Jane is alone and depressed until a new kid comes to Lawndale. See life from Jane's perspective as she encounters the new girl in town: Daria Morgendorffer.

RECCER'S NOTES: This fic is lush and dark - an interesting portrait of Jane Lane, and how her life is changed when she meets Daria. She is drawn quite beautifully, with a rich, complex pre-canon history. We have little insights into her relationship with her brother, Trent; how she deals with school; and why she's taken the self-esteem class six times before Episode 1. The sibling relationship portrayed here is amazing - I love the way the author writes the characters, the subtleties that bring out their canon personalities and give credence to why and how they look out for each other amidst the "benign neglect that has served them so well," as Jane quips in Season 3. It's a great, alternate look at the pilot episode from Jane's point of view, and well worth the read for any Jane fans out there.

Comments

[minkhollow]

...holy blast from the past, Batman. I must've read that well over a decade ago, as I drifted out of the fandom around 2003.

And even from that remove I can second the rec.

[luxken27]

Haha, yup - this is an oldie but a goodie from '99. I lurked in the fandom at least a decade ago, and there was some really good work that's still up at Outpost Daria.

[minkhollow]

Just reread it. Parts of it hit me harder than it did the first time around - but hey, I was 13 or 14 then. Obviously it's going to have different resonances now. But it's still damn good.

[luxken27]

Yeah, I just completed a huge rewatch of the show and went digging through my nostalgia for the fandom - and this story just hit me like a ton of bricks. Even now, when I reread it, it gives me chills. I think he writes Jane as too depressed in some of his other stories, but he hit a fine balance with this one.