A Drug Dealing Disappointment

Shui woke up to an alarm, and once again, with a splitting headache. She couldn’t remember the last time she had woken up without a hangover, or otherwise out of it from all the shit she did the prior night. It was a wonder she still had decent grades, but then perhaps even mountains of drugs couldn’t overcome a childhood of constant studying.

To Shui’s peers she was a fun party girl that promised to be an easy lay, had plenty of E on hand to really get the party moving, and most of all, always had plenty of booze on hand to keep things moving. But if one really got to know her, they would meet a hard drinking drug dealer who sold stolen ADHD medication to those looking for a leg up studying, party drugs to anyone at the many, many house parties she went to, and had even toyed with selling harder stuff for more profit. Nobody expected someone like her to do that kind of thing. Nor to be the type of person looking at a likely future of cirrhosis, along with a laundry list of other effects from abusing alcohol.

Maybe she welcomed all that. Growing old didn’t shave anything to look forward to. All the old farts she had seen were angry and bitter, no matter how much respect they were paid. Rotting away in a nursing home while the world outside burned down from climate change and the old fucks that had ruined everything claimed kids were the ones at fault… she’d take drinking herself to death over that. She’d take overdosing in an alley through some ungodly mix of drugs and booze over that.

These old rationalizations danced in Shui’s mind, but came to a halt when exited her bedroom, and came face to face with a woman she had never seen before. She had on a punk outfit, and had dyed her hair pink, although the dye looked better than any she had ever seen before.

“Hey, heard you could get me some Molly?” The punkish woman asked. “Maybe even some acid? Got a wild party coming up that-”

“I don’t know who you are,” Shui said, “but get the fuck out before I call the cops.”

Shui was many things. A junkie, a drug dealer, someone who hated her parents. What she wasn’t was someone stupid enough to do a drug deal in her home, or to sell products to those she didn’t know. Both were a one way ticket to prison, if not worse.

“Why so harsh?” The woman continued. “You were more than willing to offer drugs to Max, a guy you barely knew.”

Shui had no idea who this woman was talking about and at this point, didn’t care. She got out of her phone, hoping the action alone would scare off this crazy bitch. There were no drugs on the premises, other than maybe what this woman brought with her, so she could just call the cops like anyone else. But right when she dialed 911, her world suddenly changed in a flash...

“So how was college for you Max?” Paisley asked. “I know that you didn’t get into as prestigious a university as your parents wanted you to, but community college is an excellent option for getting started.”

Max had remembered how proud Paisley had been of him when he managed to graduate from community college. While his parents was more tepid, perhaps because they just saw a degree that said he had passed all of his pre-reqs for a further major, his therapist hadn’t been so restrained with her praise. But despite that, Paisley hadn’t asked how it had gone until the current session.

“College mostly went fine,” Max said. “I could control my schedule, so I didn’t have to worry about being caught masturbating. At the time my parents had me stay in an apartment that was within walking distance of campus, which was perfect because…”

“You could jerk off in the privacy of your own home,” Paisley said. “I think we’re a bit past the part of our relationship where we pretend I don’t know you masturbate all the time.”

They both laughed a bit to release the tension. Max still wasn’t used to the idea that a woman wouldn’t be grossed out by the knowledge that he masturbated all the time.

“You said mostly fine,” Paisley said. “What went wrong? I know it wasn’t the most valuable degree ever, but it was meant to knock out pre-reqs for when you would return to college.”

“Well, other than it being surprisingly boring, there were a couple of incidents,” Max said. “The two that stick in mind were brief but they both reminded me of how much my condition controls my life.”

Paisley nodded, and then returned to a calm, reassuring tone of voice. “Alright, what happened in the first incident?”

“I was at a party on a weekend,” Max said. “I had heard someone there was an easy lay, and… I was just getting tired of my schedule at the time. Schoolwork, homework, masturbation, rinse repeat day in and day out. So I took a chance on something for the hope to get sex, and also maybe to just break up how repetitive my day was. College is supposed to be fun, after all.”

“I can understand that,” Paisley said. “So what happened at the party?”

“Well, I found the girl who was supposed to be an easy lay, and otherwise a fun party girl,” Max said. “Unfortunately, after I got her in a room alone, she turned out to instead be a drug dealer. Offered me ecstasy and… I just ran out of there. My life has been too wrecked by drugs before to do it for recreation.”

“That makes sense.” Paisley said. “Why did the incident stick in your mind?”

“She laughed at me on the way out, and I think she made it sound to the rest of the party like I had a small dick or something,” Max said. “Really though, I was very lucky the situation wasn’t worse. I had gone to a place where I didn’t know anybody because I was bored, and was alone with a complete stranger because I was desperate to get laid.”

Silence filled the therapist’s office for a bit, as Max didn’t want to say anything else about it, and Paisley wanted to give him room to settle down. The whole was just another reminder of how his body’s overcharged libido kept getting him in trouble…

“You ready Max?” Paisley asked. “Next one up is Shui.

“Who the hell is Shui?” Max asked. “Unless… are talking about the girl I met at a party for like, five minutes total, if that?”

“Yeah, and after you masturbate, you will have a grand total of five minutes to save her,” Paisley said, “so chop chop.”

Rather than argue the point, Max just left in confusion to go masturbate again. After cumming again in record time, he thought about how he was going to approach this. Shui was the one at fault, not Max, but on the other hand, her contact with his life was so brief that shoving her in his harem for it seemed… out of character. Both Hanna and Claudia had been major parts of Max’s life, for good or ill, whereas this was a girl he had known for potentially less time than he had to convince her here.

So, Max psyched himself up, hoping their brief relationship would make it easier to save Shui from Harem Hotel. But when he walked into the room, he saw Shui was furious. She was pacing around the room in a way that Max had done himself when mad about something, and was clearly ready to blow up at the first opportunity she got. It was a shame as…

Shui didn’t look bad. Max admittedly preferred women with more tits and ass than she had, but she was surprisingly good looking for someone who he had only ever seen drunk, high, or most likely, a mixture of the two. She had silky black hair, and was skinny without looking gross. Of course none of that mattered because right when Shui spotted him, she launched into a tirade.

“You!” Shui screamed. “You’re why I’m here!”

She threw a booklet at Max. He thankfully managed to dodge it, not wanting to know how Paisley was going to react if someone threw a book at him. It was hard enough as it was to free people from the grasp of Harem Hotel, and even light assault was… unlikely to be forgiven by the hotel. Or the immature people he was dealing with in the audience.

Max could already tell this was going to be a long, tortured conversation. “Look, I was kidnapped like you. If you want to get out of here you have to give me a good reason to let you go-”

“Why do I have to convince you of anything?” Shui screamed. “I’m not going to be anyone’s sex slave, much less that of a guy I’ve never met!”

That almost set Max off, until he realized that an incident he only remembered because it was stressful was for her just another night, and one she probably didn’t even remember. Cursing Paisley for putting him in this position, he re-collected himself. He had already failed someone because of his hatred being manipulated.

“Look, nobody deserves to be a sex slave,” Max said. “Unfortunately, it’s not up to me, it’s up to a screwed up show called Harem Hotel. They’ve demonstrated the ability to teleport, and violate an ungodly number of laws of physics in the process, so I seriously doubt human law is that much of a limitation on them either.”

“How can it not be up to you?” Shui asked. “This booklet here calls you the master!”

“I was kidnapped like you,” Max said. “Worse, we’re on a timer! I’m sorry this has happened to you, but I have to convince a former therapist of mine whose a fucking monster to let you go. You need to come up with every possible reason you don’t deserve to be here. Please note that whether anyone deserves to be a sex slave isn’t a workable argument.”

Shui sighed. “Okay, be that as it may, how do you even know who I am?”

“You are here because you tried to sell me drugs,” Max said. “I know, hardly the worst crime in the world, but alas, here we are. I’m not even a fan of banning weed, much less the idea of making dealers into sex slaves.”

Max was frustrated. He had managed to free Claudia, but they were wasting time. He had to get an answer, and fast.

“I’m sorry Max, I don’t remember,” Shui said. “You’re going to have to tell me more about what happened that night.”

After a sigh, Max continued. “I thought you would be an easy lay, and if you had just told me no, I would’ve been fine with that. Instead, you tried to sell me ecstasy, and then laughed at me when I bolted in reaction to that. I’m going to guess that’s not the first time you’ve sold party drugs?”

That caused the gears to turn in Shui’s head. Max hoped the situation was settling in, and she could provide him a better answer faster.

“Look, I was probably high, okay?” Shui calmed down. “Assuming you aren’t a narc, as this would be a rather elaborate setup for that, let’s just let bygones be bygones.”

Max sighed and continued. “I’d love to do that, but since the only things I know about you are that you use and sell drugs, that’s going to be hard. I have to convince someone else to let you go, and I have to have an explanation, or at least a bunch of mitigating factors for why you did it. It’s horseshit, but it’s what it is.”

“Well, what do you need to know?” Shui asked. “I’m a pretty good student, or at least I think. I’m sorry I scared you like that but… come on, it was just Molly! I wasn’t trying to sell you black tar heroin or something, I was just laughing at your reaction to fucking ecstasy!”

Time was running out. Max was sweating from the knowledge that every single fucking second Shui didn’t properly give him an answer, it was less and less likely he could save her.

“Why do you sell drugs?” Max asked. “Do you have to pay for someone’s cancer treatment or something? Look, it’s not the worst crime in the world, but I know basically nothing else about you, and the sheer aggressiveness with which you sell the stuff doesn’t paint a great picture. Oh, and also, you’re almost out of time.”

The last made Shui hurry. “Look, I do it because it makes money and means I don’t need my family to pay for college. My parents hate me and the feeling is mutual, although I still do good girl shit for them on family calls. I know that sounds selfish but I just sell weed, E, and oh, so some study buddies so students can pass their classes!”

Before Max could respond to any of that, his implicit threat was realized, as he teleported out of the room...

Paisley had taken to reading one of the hentai that he had once brought to school with him. Max was still disoriented from teleporting, even though he had done so six times in recent memory. There was something odd about blinking in and out of reality itself.

“You’re right, this does have more plot,” Paisley said while she turned the page. “Not necessarily a good one, but I can certainly appreciate gyarus, and this artist can draw tits with the best of them.”

“It helped that the gyaru badly wanted to fuck,” Max said. “And also wasn’t doing drugs, unlike Shui.”

“Knew you’d be hung up on that,” Paisley said as she let the hentai fade away. “You do realize most college kids wouldn’t care so much about drugs though, right Max?”

Max quickly realized the trap he had fallen into and pivoted.

“Look, I may not love what she does, but I don’t think selling drugs means she deserves to be a sex slave. Its stuff like MDMA anyway, it’s not opioids or meth.”

“As far as you know Max, but you only knew her for a night,” Paisley said. “Besides, you should know very well that pressure like that isn’t okay. Remember how your mother badgered you to respect consent?”

“Wait, when the fuck do you care about consent?” Max asked. “This isn’t… oh, right. Sorry, it’s easy to forget Harem Hotel’s ethical horrors don’t matter.”

Paisley just smirked while Max glared at her. He took a deep breath and moved on.”

“That was about sex, not drugs… fuck.” Max realized the problem, but still did so too late to avoid Paisley jumping into it.

“Yes, because drugs have never been used to rape someone,” Paisley said. “Oh wait, roofies exist. That’s something you would know very well. For that matter, you know how much alcohol is used to facilitate rape in of itself.”

“Look,” Max sighed, “I got scared. That doesn’t justify trapping her in a harem against her will. She’d be a garbage contestant because she barely knows me, is scared out of her mind, and is almost always on drugs. Given how poorly cold turkey goes, and that treating substance abuse is hard in the real world, I don’t see how that’s going to go better in a reality show that turns her into a sex slave.”

“Max, we’ve been over this,” Paisley got up from her lounge chair again, and walked up to him. “We have magic. We can cure her alcoholism with the same ease that I teleport you over and over again to that hotel room.”

Rather than being reassuring, Max was horrified all over again. Paisley had just said they could do mind control. Maybe he should’ve realized that earlier, especially given his calming aura, but he hadn’t put two and two together yet.

“And now he gets it,” Paisley said. “Yes Max, we can alter people’s minds and bodies. I’ve told you this before, multiple times in fact.”

“I admit to not having thought through the implication of the word transformation,” Max was still processing the revelation. “But… if you alter her that much, what was the point of bringing her specifically? Or of bringing anyone in specific if you’re just going to alter them anyway?”

“Hold those questions Max,” Paisley said. “They’ll be answered in time, but that is outside the core question here, which is whether you can convince me Shui deserves to go. What you’ve demonstrated is that she’s a boozed up drug dealer, which is a terrible argument for letting her go.”

“I don’t know her Paisley,” Max said. “You took Hanna because she ruined my life, whereas I barely know Shui. If we were going to do this on the basis of morality, you should kidnap a bunch of dictators and billionaire CEOs to turn into bimbos who love sucking dick!”

“Max, we already did that season,” Paisley said without an ounce of sarcasm. “Multiple times, and there are more with that premise being greenlit as we speak. We usually throw in a catgirl transformation or two while we’re at it. Heck, there are twelve seasons where mermaids turn hardened criminals into women for a lesbian’s harem, and they eat their testicles in the process. This isn’t that season.”

“Then why Shui?” Max asked, exasperated. “She’s almost entirely a stranger to me, what is my connection to her?”

“She shrunk your world Max,” Paisley’s tone was final. “For her it was just one night out of several, and she doesn’t even remember it. For you, it was something that kept you confined to your room, doing nothing but watching porn, masturbating, and doing just enough homework to keep on track for school. You don’t need me to explain how bad isolation is, do you?”

Max was stuck. There was no mitigating factor he could point to, because the more he found out about Shui, the worse she got. She wasn’t the worst person in the world or anything, but nothing he found out made up for how she had treated him… or the lesson he had taken from her. Because it was true that, along with Hanna, Shui had made him scared of the world. He doubted anyone deserved to be on Harem Hotel, but that avenue was unavailable to him.

“Shui didn’t know what she was doing,” Max said. “You let Claudia go under that logic, why can’t you let Shui go?”

“Claudia’s worst crime was naivety Max,” Paisley said. “You said it yourself. By contrast, while Shui may have been drunk and high, she still tried to make you like her, and then punished you when you refused to join her in the land of intoxication.”

Paisley went back to her lounge chair. “Get ready Max, you have another alcoholic to deal with. While I could wish you luck, I value honesty enough to say that I wouldn’t count on doing any better...”