MAKE YOURSELF USEFUL
Pearl Spice is the only daughter of a vampire hunter and doctor of the occult. Her life is simple, and her future is certain. She is to be the humble and loving wife of her father’s protégé, Aubrey Darvell, and live the rest of her days in domestic bliss under God.
But one night, her betrothed assaults her in own bed, and Pearl learns that her world had, in fact, been unspeakably delicate. With her so-called loved ones denying the event, Pearl rushes into the arms of Ianthe Zannouli, a strange foreigner who waltzes around in men’s clothing.
With Ianthe, Pearl finds herself changing bit-by-bit. Soon enough she falls headfirst into her new friend's shadowy world of vice, drink, and pleasures of their own sex. Pearl makes a dangerous gamble: opening her window to a vampire that comes into her home and uses her as it wishes.
But, of course, these two things have nothing to do with each other.
FURTHER READING
No man is an island, and neither is any story! If you liked Make Yourself Useful, I have prepared you a handy list of media that inspired it, directly or indirectly, for your perusing pleasure.
“The Vampyre” (1819) by John William Polidori
A mid masterpiece, the first modern vampire story.
Polidori was Lord Byron’s doctor, a man with an intense mix of both awe and jealousy over the “mad, bad, and dangerous” Byron. In the same challenge to write a ghost story that would spawn Frankenstein, Byron penned an unfinished tale that Polidori would then pick up and work on himself.
What he wrote was a story about a man at turns disgusted and fascinated by his strange, dark traveling companion (who is totally not based on Byron). Published unfinished, initially under Byron’s name, “The Vampyre” is both deeply influential and kind of okay.
Many of the character names were pulled directly from this piece. Polidori’s simultaneous vehemence and admiration of Lord Byron, combined with a lot of telltale licks of amateur writing that persist to this day– and you end up with something so inexplicably charming. It’s got homoerotic vampire antagonism, fridged Greek maidens, and bizarre and arcane vampire rules (“remember your oath”). Check it out!
Project Gutenberg
If you wish to continue down this vein, also check out The Vampire of Vourla and Other Greek Vampire Stories
Possession (1981) directed by Andrzej Żuławski
An enigmatic and frantic portrait of a crumbling relationship. I saw just as I was starting the first draft and it slipped its way into the fabric of the writing. In both a literal sense (scenes of bodily possession) and in a deeper, thematic way. It’s dark and nasty and bewildering, and I love it dearly.
Dracula (1931) directed by Tod Browning
I feel as if there is very little I can say about this movie that has not been said before. And, this feels obvious to me (and will probably be the same for anyone who has found this website)– but goddamn, this movie is horny.
It's on Archive.org :)
Jane Austen
Fully went into Austen expecting to be a bitter hater (because I generally am) but I loved it. This shit is funny. It’s like shounen battle anime but the rule-set is stuffy British upper crust society and the weapons are words. Haters are weak. Get some whimsy in your life.
Austen’s novels are about people at its heart, and even though the society they operate in can be downright alien to a modern perspective, human truths bleed through. Some guys are just impossible to deal with. I made a deliberate attempt throughout MYU to echo the flow of Austen’s writing (at least, until the pussy hits).
Project Gutenberg
Librivox
Kallie
A prolific writer of many a tale of mind control erotica. I struggle to do this little write-up because I feel I haven’t even scratched the surface. I really love the overarching idea in her stories (and I think this is common across many stripes for this particular fetish) that the eroticism comes not from what a person becomes, but the very act of becoming. Great array of different scenarios, tones, and characters. Well-written, snappy dialogue. Really great.
Read Only Mind
EMCSA
You can support her work on Patreon :3
nevermind
Fucking. Really artful use of dramatic irony and unreliable narration. Really hot use of those techniques. It seems every story has some sort of clever and disturbing way to subvert a character’s nature and send them willfully and joyously down the path of evil. Love this shit. The first story that wormed its way into my noggin, in particular, would be Matron. The particular thought spiral of being brainwashed, knowing you’ve been brainwashed, loving being brainwashed and knowing that you love it because you’ve been brainwashed is candy to me. It is one of the best dynamics out there, and nevermind does it so well in so many forms.
Read Only Mind
EMCSA
You can buy a massive collection of stories over on Gumroad
Bonus Rapidfire Round
If Not, Winter: Fragments of Sappho by Anne Carson
Belladonna of Sadness (1973) dir. Eiichi Yamamoto
House of Psychotic Women by Kier-La Janisse
