The 180 Degree Turn

The 180 Degree Turn is an dead alternate universe fanfic serial by Walter Kovacs that was inspired by a random thought involving crossing over The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya and Daria. After an abortive retelling of Esteemsters with Haruhi added in, the concept was combined with another of Walter's ideas -- moving Daria to a cyberpunk setting.

The Morgendorffers have moved from Highland to Lawndale during the summer in between 8th and 9th grade. Jake, Amy and their children Darius, Daria, Haruhi, Quinn and Veronica come, bringing both a supercritical mass of snark and a heaping dose of weirdness to the table.

This fic replaces both the Esteemsters-IICY? set of events and Daria's time in Beavis and Butt-head.

Chapters in the Series

 * Chapter 1: New Page, same book: The Morgendorffer Family leaves Highland and moves to a new town looking for a hopeful new start. They trade a town with uranium in the drinking water, for one that's on "Sick, Sad World" on a regular basis...(Complete!)
 * Chapter 2.: Four Lines, no Waiting: The new residents of Lawndale finally get a chance to explore the town. Haruhi and Alex visit High Hills park during the day to map it out for another visit. Darius and Quinn have their own outing while Daria and Elsie snark their way through lawndale. Meanwhile Amy, Jake and their youngest child tagging along decide to meet up with Jake's sister along with a visit to some old friends.(Ongoing)

The Morgendorffers
Compared to canon, the family dynamics are smoother and less-conflict prone. Things aren't perfect, obviously but the Morgendorffers' home life is calmer. There isn't the pre-Psycho Therapy ticking time bomb of possible divorce that existed canon. The fact that Amy actually broached the subject of sexuality(and pushed Jake to do so with Darius) means that all five of the children have at least somewhat healthier attitudes to dating.


 * Darius Alexander Morgendorffer: Daria's older fraternal twin brother, complete with similar tastes in popular culture(bad movies, fashion choices, etc), personality to a certain extent(snarky, intelligent, sarcastic) and hobbies(both are creative, but Daria is a bit more narrowly focused on just writing while Darius is also into roleplaying). Is recovering from a messy breakup with his first girlfriend back in Highland, one Cassandra Garcia and is a bit socially withdrawn and suspicious as a result. That said, he's usually more expressive and personable than Daria. Quickly befriended Tom Sloane after arriving in Lawndale.
 * daria Gianna Morgendorffer: As a result of having her best friend betray her so recently, Daria is like her brother a bit more suspicious and withdrawn than she was before. However, like Darius she is slightly more willing to be emotionally open to people who she trusts than canon. Has recently befriended both Jane Lane and Elsie Sloane.
 * Haruhi Morgendorffer::: Haruhi is still an eccentric and focused on trying to be the person living a unique life, but Daria and her other siblings at least try to stop Haruhi's most illegal ideas. Emphasis on "Try". On the other hand, having Haruhi around, with her front of coldness and indifference has been a second factor pushing Daria and Darius to be more like canon. Haruhi's siblings sometimes get exasperated with the weirdness happening around her that she's oblivious to but generally have normal relationships.
 * Quinn Louise Morgendorffer: She's still got the same basic personality but is more academically focused, somewhat nicer, gets along with her siblings better and puts her interests into music instead of fashion. Immediately developed a crush on Trent when she first met him. The fact that Quinn doesn't spend thousands of dollars a year at Cashman's in this world is why Jake isn't on blood pressure meds.
 * Veronica Victoria Morgendorffer: The baby of the family. Veronica's personality is the most 'normal' of the five children, but her interests are the most geeky. Besides strong interests in computers, anime, and gaming, Veronica has interests in the hard sciences and mathematics, as opposed to Daria's literary interests, Another thing making her unique is the fact that unlike the other four, Veronica is a joiner.
 * Jake Morgendorffer: Jake is still the lovable, semi-bumbling, clueless lug of canon for the most part, even if he is a bit less stressed and somewhat mroe health. However, having a son and managing to not repeat his old man's mistakes has made him more confident and with the help of advice from his wife rather more financially successful than in canon. This is why the Morgendorffers ended up in Crewe Neck when they moved to Lawndale. Unfortunately, Jake is just as prone to "experimenting" with recipes as in canon.
 * Amy Morgendorffer: The biological mother of four out of the five children, and thanks to the fact that her job of reviewing manuscripts for publishers to find error before release lets her actually be there for her family. Unlike Helen, she actually avoided making her mother's mistakes -- she's less image-conscious at the expense of everything else and likes to encourage her chldren's talents. Compared to Helen, Amy is much less prone to trying to micromanage her children's time. Amy is still sarcastic and has imperfect relations with her two other siblings, but things aren't quite as dysfunctional as they were before Aunt Nauseum in canon because having kids and managing to avoid repeating history in her parenting style has mellowed her out slightly towards Helen and Rita. Keep in mind it's only a slight improvement.

Trivia
Quiverwing was the one who came up with the title, thanks to a remark from her about an alternate universe with Tom at Lawndale needing a 180 degree turn from canon to really be effective. Categories: