Fanfic / How You Lived

Art by shslbs

How You Lived is a Monster Prom fanfiction written by SEGASister. It was originally published on November 1, 2019.

Vicky Schmidt has a good life in Monstropolis: a loving mother, great friends, and good grades to boot. However, lately, she’s been having nightmares of a life she barely remembers. This leads her to wonder: was her life like before she came to become her undead self?

On May 30, 2020, a sequel, How You Loved, was announced (along with the official cover art for the original story), and published on October 1, 2020.

On August 1, 2020, Ask Undead Blue Lesbians was announced, serving as a sideblog to the main stories. The blog mainly focuses on Vicky's romantic relationship with Polly after both have graduated from Spooky High and started living together. The first story is alluded to occasionally, while the sequel was teased during one of the Halloween posts.

The series contains examples of…

• Added Alliterative Appeal:
  • The official ship name for Vicky and Polly is "Double Dead Dames."
  • The official ship name for Vicky and Isis is "Preserved to Perfection."
• Happily Adopted: Vicky. Her adoptive mother was the one who reanimated her.
• Informed Judaism: Vicky canonically, which is brought over into this canon as the religion Vicky and her mom practice. Polly is also revealed to be half-Jewish on her mother's side.

• Suddenly Ethnicity: While she has a Germanic surname to go with the Frankenstein theme, her flashbacks and her adoptive mother's recounts reveal she was Hispanic in life. We even meet her birth family in the sequel.

How You Lived contains examples of…

• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Vicky especially, especially since the story is about how she died.
• An Arm and a Leg: Type 3. Vicky's dismembered remains were scattered all over town by her killer.
• Based on a True Story: In-universe example: The movie that Vicky and her friends decide to watch just so happens to be directly inspired by her very own murder, complete with characters clearly based on both her and Brian.

• Chained to a Bed: Vicky in her captivity.
• Childhood Friends: Dr. Frances Schmidt, Vicky’s adoptive mother, was Vicky’s best friend in life. For a while, she was also Brian's.
• Composite Character:
  • In-universe example. The movie Vicky and her friends watched condensed her real-life boyfriend and Brian, as well as her sister and Frances.
  • Vicky's killer was loosely inspired by 90s serial killers, though Jeffrey Dahmer was the main inspiration.

• Friendly Zombie: Brian, particularly with his brother-like relationship with Vicky. He and Vicky also met briefly in life before she died.
• Historical Character's Fictional Relative: Frances studies the work of her ancestor, Victor Frankenstein, of the novel Frankenstein, in order to bring Vicky back to life.
• Horror Hunger: Brian revived with a very specific hunger, beelining toward the man who killed both him and Vicky with his initial primal instinct.
• Just Desserts: Vicky's killer likely met his end after a newly-risen Brian (who he had also killed after escaping trial) immediately went off in pursuit of him with the predictable results of being pursued by a zombie.

• Off with Her Head!: Vicky's head is placed in a trash receptacle outside her dad’s auto shop.
• Original Character: Dr. Frances Schmidt, Vicky’s creator and adoptive mother, along with Vicky’s living family and her killer.

• Trauma Button: Happens twice in the story. Particular mention goes to Chapter 3, wherein while watching a horror movie with her friends, Vicky becomes physically sick during a scene with a murderer luring a victim to her death, and then blacks out when the murderer attacks a couple. Brian is angered during the former for reasons he's not initially sure of, and all four of them recognize the "couple" as being nigh-identical to Vicky and Brian themselves.

How You Loved contains examples of…

• Back from the Dead: Vicky and Polly convince the Coven to cast a spell on them giving them temporary living bodies so the former can reunite with her original family, on a temporary basis.

• Exact Words: The Coven says that the spell lasts seventy-two hours. Daylight Savings ends on the final day of the spell. So while it seems that the spell’s effects wore off an hour early, the spell did indeed last seventy-two hours.
• Gratuitous Spanish: It doesn't happen often, but it usually occurs with Vicky's birth parents speaking to each other and their children. It even appears in the final scene with the family; when the time comes for Vicky and Polly to return home, the conversation she has with her parents almost mirrors the last time she spoke with them when she was alive.
  Elísa: You have your cell phone in case anything happens, right?
  Vicky: Yes, Mamá.
  Carlos: [while hugging his daughter] Mantente a salvo, Princesa.
  Vicky: Te queiro, Papá…

• Our Souls Are Different: Vicky's identity in life, Vickí, gains its own soul and self-awareness in the afterlife. The two even have a conversation.

Ask Undead Blue Lesbians contains examples of…

• A Day in the Limelight: The other couples get to answer some questions in June's batch of posts.
• Affectionate Nickname: Vicky calls Polly "Honey-Bunny," and Polly calls Vicky "Kitten."
• Amicable Exes: Polly used to date Oz and Vicky used to date Damien. Both relationships didn't work out and at first, Damien was a bit jealous when Polly and Vicky got together. Oz and Damien eventually got together and often visit Polly and Vicky for game night.
• Art Evolution: After the original artist left in July of 2021, the blog got a new artist and, subsequently, a new, stylized, art style starting in August of that year.
• Call-Back: The main ending this series stems from is the LOCKET ending. However, the Crime App, Furry King, Sun Punch, and Prom King/Queen endings have all been referenced as well. There's also a visual callback to the Reverse Romanian Wilkinson ending.
  • And Ask 100 alludes to the Co-Op ending from Camp in a potential What-If scenario.
• Cute Kitten: Polly and Vicky have a pet cat named Shelley, who often shows up in asks. She's been Vicky's pet since she was alive.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Vera was going to have Vicky assassinated (by Mr. Pheel the Eel no less) before Polly convinced her not to.
• Flirtatious Smack on the Ass: Vicky receives one, courtesy of Polly.
• Luminescent Blush: Polly causes this to happen to Vicky once, Vicky returns the favor a different time.
• Mad Scientist's Beautiful Daughter: Vicky is this to Dr. Frances Schmidt, who isn’t too bad looking herself, according to one user.
• Official Couple:
  • Polly and Vicky, who are dating and live together, are the main focus, but there's also
  • Brian and Scott
  • Oz and Damien
  • Amira and Vera
  • Dahlia and Aaravi, though both have since broken up and gotten with Susanne and Sawyer, respectively.
  • Liam and Miranda, though it's been revealed that they broke up.
  • Abdu and Sadie
  • Noodles and Batniss
  • Valerie and Riona
  • Zoe and Jun-Seo
  • Blobert and Abby
  • A rare platonic example with Kale and Calculester
• Polyamory: During the October 2021 question batch, it's revealed that Polly and Vicky invited a third person to their relationship.
• Rejected Marriage Proposal: When Polly proposes to Vicky, they offer to let Isis marry in as well, but she turns them down, feeling it is too soon and too fast.
• Sex for Services: Polly mentions in one post that she was sleeping with her landlord to live there rent-free, and that she and Vicky were evicted after she stopped.
• Slice of Life: The blog's main focus is Polly and Vicky's relationship and their daily lives after graduating Spooky High.
• What Could Have Been: An in-universe example explains what might've happened had these girls been able to continue living their lives. Vicky would've been able to inherit her dad's auto mechanic shop and she and Frances remain close friends and life partners. Polly, meanwhile, would've gotten a nursing degree to help her dad and people like him who suffer from alcoholism.