The Doll’s House Hotel

Note that this is the original name of this story. It has also been posted as The Doll Hotel on Gromet’s Plaza. I renamed it to that, to avoid confusion with Doll’s House fanfic relating to the Joss Whedon TV series. However, I still prefer the original name, and on reflection it was pointless to rename it. In any event, it has nothing in common with that series, so if you were hoping for that, you’re in the wrong place.

Lost in the forests on the German-Polish border, low on petrol, in temperatures well below zero, a luxurious hotel seems to offer refuge. But there don’t seem to be any other residents at the hotel, and the staff seem a little strange. Sucked into a cloistered world of rubber-clad maids, strict discipline, and disturbing body modification, the poor protagonist is soon discovers that the hotel is home to as many plots and schemes as it is secrets.

Our unnamed protagonist is lured into the world of the Hotel. On the outside it’s a luxurious country house hotel. On the inside, it is a mecca for rubber enthusiasts, and the heart of a sinister slave-training operation.

Only the most committed rubberists can gain admission to the exalted ranks of the maids, and work their way up through the hierarchy of The Association.

This was the third story I wrote, originally penned in 2005, and now refreshed and revised for this publication. It remains much the same story as it was originally; it would be too much to rewrite it completely, but many small improvements have been made throughout.

The life of a maid is hard, but also rewarding, for those who truly love rubber, or submission to strict rubber discipline, and an all-consuming way of life. But above the maids, the exalted Mistresses are locked in a vicious struggle for power. They indulge their most depraved whims, while using the maids as pawns in their battles. And there are hints that behind it all, lies an even darker history.

Who is Heather? What is Number One really interested in? And will we ever discover who really disposed of her predecessor?

Contents

I worked out the general plot and universe that all my stories would fit into while writing Little Shop Of Rubber, but it wasn’t until this story that I added a lot of the characters and details that would flesh out my plan. The only character in common between the two stories is Dehlia, though even that may not have been apparent to readers, as she goes by a different name, and looks like a different person. It only becomes possible to work out who she is through (meticulously) careful reading of later stories, until finally Return to the Doll’s House makes it explicit. I thought that was terribly clever at the time, but in retrospect it seems needlessly obscure.