In the seat across from her is a blue-skinned demoness in a tight-fitting business suit.

"Welcome back, Ava," she greets her.

"Welcome... back?"

She has no clue why she's here, or what she's doing. It looks bad, though. Is she being... approached by a succubus? Of some kind? This doesn't make sense. Is she asleep? Something very strange is happening. 

"I imagine you're likely very confused at the moment. Allow me to explain.

"Some time ago, Hell came under new management. The new management decided they cared rather a lot more about consent, but this ran into a bit of a problem in that some demons need non-consensual sex to feed. We were in a bit of a bind, you see. The solution our new queen found was to acquire... counterfactual consent, you might call it, or forgotten consent. We approach likely candidates in a dream, make our offer, and if you agree, you forget the dream and the agreement, and we use future dreams to allow demons that meet your criteria to rape you, taking advantage of this grey area where forgetting that you previously consented makes it count as nutritious for the demon."

She pulls a sheaf of papers out of a briefcase and sets it on the table.

"Here is the contract you signed. Today is your first check-in. Do you have any questions, so far?"

"So wait a second, that dream was real?" 

Ava's jaw drops.

"I was actually, for-real raped?" 

She pauses. 

"And you say I consented to that...?" 

Ava frowns, and looks down at the contract.

"... In exchange for a magical gender transition, to be tendered when I'd been raped enough." 

She bites on her back teeth. 

"Okay I don't even know where to begin. This is a bluntly ridiculous situation and I'm frankly appalled that my previous self apparently didn't think it through enough to make sure I'd even remember signing the contract. I - It wasn't that bad? But knowing it was real makes my stomach do a fucking flip. What the fuck."

"... But I guess I did kind of give advance consent, and it wasn't that bad..." 

"This contract says there's supposed to be a therapist present. Uh, can I get that accommodation now please? I need to sort my head out, I'm in no condition to negotiate right now." 

She nods. "Entirely reasonable. Just a moment." Then she vanishes into smoke and embers that quickly fade.

With another puff of smoke, this time smelling of cinnamon rather than woodsmoke, a different demon appears, a gentle smile on her face.

"Hello there, Ava," she greets her. "I'm Allisandra, the demonic therapist assigned to your case. Would you like to talk about how you're feeling, dear?"

"Ah, yes, good to see you." 

She pauses. 

Of course they produce a therapist. There wouldn't have been a rider in the contract saying they could produce a therapist if they didn't intend to. 

Does she trust the forces of Hell to do repair work on her soul. 

... She has had some remarkably bad experiences with pretty much exactly that, honestly. But she's also pried herself out of them again. Sometimes with help. 

But it's a source of more information, so. She'll try. 

"Okay, so, first of all I would like to say that, uh, getting a therapeutic rapport is going to be real hard because, bluntly, I don't really trust your, uh, whole institution you've got going. I'm still here because I do, in fact, want magical transition enough to put up with a lot of bullshit. But I'm not exactly happy with your people's customer service right now."

"This would be a lot easier if you weren't Literally Hell. But, well. I guess we're not living in a convenient world." 

"I am probably already screwed if you are Literal Actual Hell, by which I mean ontologically evil aliens who just want to cause suffering, and not even in a human way. I am going to assume for the moment that you could actually prove you're not that kind of demons to me, somehow, even though you apparently have memory editing magic. That basically requires that you be principled somehow. So let's start there. What's your code of ethics as a professional demonic therapist like?" 

"A smart first question," she replies with a nod. "Put extremely briefly, my code is benevolence, kindness, honesty, fairness, confidentiality, and clear communication. I am bound by Infernal pact do everything in my power to leave my client better off by their own standards. There is some allowance for prioritizing what you would choose if you knew and understood all the information I have over what you would choose without, but I have to do my best to guide you to actually understanding all of the information it would take you to make that decision if I do so. I am bound to be as kind as possible through this process — though it is important to note that kindness is not the same thing as niceness, meaning I am allowed to be firm or forceful if I sincerely believe you will be better off for it. I do quite prefer being nice over being harsh, however, so I avoid that unless I'm quite sure it will help."

She reaches out and plucks a steaming mug of cocoa from the coffee table and sips it.

"I am bound to honesty. I cannot lie to you under any circumstances. I am also bound to communicate as clearly as I can manage, and to prioritize this over time and effort. I'm bound to keep everything we discuss in our sessions absolutely secret from everyone except where explicitly specified by you. Without your explicit permission, I am limited to providing advice to your negotiator about contract terms that would be in your best interest, and telling you about yourself — useful in cases where you do not remember a previous session. It is important to note, however, that if I tell you about anything that relates to the contract outside of these sessions, it would likely void the remainder of the contract. Finally, I am bound to do everything in my power to ensure all those who contract with Hell have access to the services of a therapist if they wish it."

She takes another sip. "Do you have any questions about all of that, or anything else about me, my work, or this process?"

That... Is actually a surprisingly reasonable code of ethics. 

Of course it would void the contract to be able to consult her as her unknowing self though. That's not ideal. 

Okay. 

Probably the smart thing to do is engage and see how she feels about it. The more she learns the better, and... the vibes are actually surprisingly good. 

That hasn't always saved her in the past, but she's got to start somewhere.

"Alright. I — frankly I still don't trust you, though I realize that if your organization meant to manipulate me you could just groundhog day attack me and it would probably be easier than... going to all this trouble. I'm going to try and calm down and have a reasonable discussion." 

She takes a deep breath. 

"Okay, so. Here's my problem. Past me, the me who signed the contract, wasn't agreeing to be raped, she was giving her consent to a particularly complicated kind of kink play. Past me who had a complicated and arousing dream that was unusual but not very unpleasant was not materially harmed, because she didn't know that she'd had actual sex, and didn't experience anything that really scared or hurt her. But me, the me in this room, remember an encounter that happened that I don't remember consenting to, and I know that it was real. That... is a lot closer to my actually having been raped than I would like it to be. And I'm basically taking it on trust that there even was a previous negotiation, because I don't remember any of it." 

She exhales. "I would like to hear your thoughts on that before I go any farther."

She smiles gently and nods. "You're in a difficult situation. Everything comes down to whether you can trust us to deal honestly with you, and you frankly have no way to verify that we are without taking either the contract terms or my code of ethics on faith. We have a video recording of the original negotiation we can show you, but that doesn't prevent us from having used extremely skilled actors to produce it. It's normal to feel some degree of hurt and violation right now. That's to be expected, when you've signed up for a contract like this. It is technically rape, because you didn't recall the contract at the time it occurred.

"It's entirely normal for that to be a lot right now."

She exhales. 

"Thank you. Just hearing that helps a lot, honestly."

Ava picks up a small packet of chips from amid the refreshments, pops it open, and eats a couple. She's basically in the power of these people already, and she can't think of any reason they'd additionally want to drug her. 

As she munches away she thinks a little more.

"I'd like to see that recording, but it can wait a couple minutes. Right now I want to... talk aloud a little about what I feel."

"Firstly, it is really fucking freaky that hell exists and has memory magic. And is apparently 'reformed.' What Hell was doing before this program doesn't take a lot of filling in." 

"Like, that means I have to ask questions like 'have I been raped before even participating in the program and just don't remember it?' Existentially it's really, really freaky."

"Secondly, I am kind of pissed at my past self for not bothering to think ahead more than five minutes. She must have been so focused on the experience of her unaware self that she didn't even take five minutes to consider my feelings. She could've preserved her memories, and chose not to, and that's a whole second can of existential bullshit."

"... She basically committed suicide because it was easier for her than making her unaware self take more of the burden."

"That is pretty fucked up."

She exhales. 

"It's one thing to know I have depressive episodes, and another to see that." 

"So yeah, how's your day going?" 

"Quite well!" she warmly replies. "I get to help people who are dealing with extremely concerning and stressful situations have better outcomes and come to terms with everything. I quite honestly love my job, and care deeply about each of my clients."

She leans forward and continues, "You're right that memory loss is arguably death, though I would point out one additional factor in your past self's decision: the magic it takes to reversibly suppress memories thoroughly enough to count nutritionally as absent is complicated and expensive, and accordingly eats a fair bit of your contract budget. You could renegotiate your contract to include that memory suppression going forward, but it would require taking on additional challenges. It's extremely valid to find your past self's decision very stressful and concerning, though. I would quite frankly be surprised if you didn't have complicated feelings about that."

"I think we'd be having a very different conversation if I remembered the negotiation myself," Ava says. "But yeah, it's a lot."

She cracks open a can of soda and brings it to her mouth.

"Is this soda real, by the way? The contract says we're supposed to meet in a dream space..."

"What I actually mean is, uh, does it cost you anything if I just eat all the snacks?" 

"It costs us approximately nothing. Feel free to eat as many as you like. We tried to pick things you'd enjoy, for obvious comfort-food reasons."

"Thank you." 

Ava breaks open a pack of fruit creme cookies and has a couple, and also opens a small pack of gummies and has them too. 

"Maybe not the best coping strategy, but if it works..." 

She exhales and takes another drink of her pop. 

"Okay, so. Hell existing isn't really part of the contract, even though it's a trip. Past Ava's decisions were her own, and while they're inconvenient for me they're probably not awful. I don't see why you would need my cooperation in order to do something like this, so I'm going to tentatively assume you all are on the up and up."

She folds her hands in her lap and considers. 

"So really the question is how I feel about knowing that I've been raped, at least in a technical sense."

She has a couple more chips while she considers.

"... So, I think I'd like to start by saying that — I don't believe rape is a special kind of bad. A lot of people are like, as soon as sexuality enters the picture of a breach of trust it's uniquely bad, uniquely awful, and I don't buy that."

"So at least theoretically we should be able to use the same tools as with any other thing that could be hurtful to analyze it. So..."

"I guess I'm less concerned about whether I was technically raped or not and more about whether I'm personally okay with it. And I think..."

She looks down at the contract on the table. 

 "It makes me feel bad, but I've dealt with worse for worse reasons. I don't feel like I'm broken somehow for not being injured by it. I don't feel like I'm broken from an injury either. I feel bruised, but not so badly I can't keep on. And the things the negotiators have on offer are genuinely worth a lot to me."

"I am definitely going to renegotiate to get to keep my memories though, finding this all out in quick succession like that was... Not pleasant."

"... does that seem reasonable?"

She nods, smiling encouragingly. "That sounds extremely reasonable. A strategy I'd consider for your situation is to consider the various elements you can add to your contract in terms of... how much extra suffering they add relative to what's already present. As an example, a client with a contract like yours might consider most of the existing features at the Gentle level to not be much of an additional burden compared to being raped at all. Or perhaps some of those features do count as meaningfully more burden than what you already have. It's a judgment call, but looking at it that way can be helpful for getting... the most reward for the battering your heart will take, you could say."

"Thank you. I'll try my best. Let's hope we meet again under better circumstances, Allisandra."

"I think I'm ready to negotiate again."

"I'm very glad to help, Ava. Is there anything you'd like me to explain to your negotiator for you, or shall I just switch right out?"

"I think I can explain anything I need to, but thank you for the offer."

She nods, and vanishes in a flare of cinnamon smoke and embers once more.

The negotiator returns the next moment. "Hello again, Ava. I hope Allisandra was able to help you. Do you have any questions for me?"

"Okay, so. I think you're more likely than not to be on the up and up. We're going to need to restructure the contract a lot, since it's clear from this contract that last time I was trying to give you zero inches with which to fuck me over." 

She nods. "That makes sense. We can absolutely do this. The first thing you need to be aware of is that you could end the contract today, and you would wake up to no further encounters with us apart from our providing the agreed-upon magical transition at a convenient time sometime soon in the waking world. If you did so, and likewise if you end your contract at any future check-in, you would keep all memories of the negotiation-dream in which you ended the contract. Removing or suppressing memories is only required to ensure that future encounters count nutritionally. All that being said, here is your current contract and the options you can add to it. You have five unspent gratitude, as it stands."

The demon spreads the contract across the table once more, along with the brochure of options for modifying it.

"Wait, I could quit now and still get a magical transition?" 

"Hangonaminutehangonaminute."

"You get the rewards for agreeing to the contract honestly even if you drop it immediately?"

"Yes," the negotiator replies with a sharp grin. "Our new Queen is very firm on dealing in thoroughly good faith with you mortals."

She gives the impression of being quite pleased with the standards her Queen is insisting upon.

Ava touches her lips. That seems almost suspiciously good... 

... But it means they're not holding her transition hostage, like she thought they were. 

"Alright," she says. "Then I'd like a more extensive contract. Something sustainable. I'd like to actually help, if you're dealing in good faith. And while I'm not certain of that just yet, I'm going to try."

And she goes at her contract with a will, marking corrections all over the paper. The whole gentle category is fine. She can take some demihumans, and even tentacle monsters are okay. A good number of the rough options she can take as well, she's pretty sure. And with all that and a little up in encounter frequency, she can pay for her memories to stay between encounters and have enough for her and the Pirates to get their proper bodies and not age either.

"... I should probably blacklist specifically centaurs from the strange bodies option. And give you some more details on some of this... But the changes are so extensive I'm not sure where to start. I'm pretty sure that the gentle category is just fine, but we might want to go through the rough category in detail. And I think I could take more encounter duration or more demons per encounter relatively safely; this is a very rough cut right now. Uh, what's your opinion on this so far? I could use some clarifying questions." 

She looks over the changes and nods. "This looks like a very reasonable set of changes so far. Blacklisting centaurs from the set will cost you one additional gratitude, bringing you to zero. I suppose the first thing I'd like to ask is whether you have any pre-existing intuitions pabout the force levels used in hair-pulling or stepping."

"Hmmm. My intuition is that I'm fine with being hauled around by my hair as long as they grab me by the, uh, root of it and not the long? Jerky movements bad, having my head controlled very good. Not sure if that's a blacklist or a special mention or both. As for stepping, I think any reasonable weight — like, that doesn't break me — is fine. I would maybe be a little concerned about being stepped on with shoes, especially heels, but my intuition is that it's hard to damage someone stepping on them in bare feet as long as you don't, like, crush their face, which I assume is more than bruise level damage? I could maybe also see stepping on the gut specifically being bad..."

"Maybe I should be more specific about my overall limits in this category act by act. I think that might help. And we'll see how the points shake out."

"Uh, let me see, this is a little embarrassing to list all out again. Uh, spanking is fine even if it's pretty hard, the butt's pretty resilient. Stepping's fine. Deep-throating is - well, I used to do it to dildoes and I'm sure I could get my gag reflex suppressed again, but gagging is bad so I'm less sure of it than I maybe should be. Hair pulling we've been over. Lactation would be great and gender-affirming, so I super don't mind even if I'm hooked up to a milking machine or something. Pet play I'm assuming is collar and leash - again, fine as long as the leash isn't jerked hard. Feet I'm pretty much straightforwardly okay with even though they're a little dependent on my head-space to be fun in reality. It's a submission thing. Fucking machines is a pretty large category, I don't know if that includes like electrostim or just vibrators and reciprocating dildoes and stuff. I am pretty straightforwardly okay with mechanized dildoes and vibrators. There's some pretty funky machines I've seen in hentai, I don't know how weird yours get by default. Edging and forced orgasm I am pretty unconditionally good with, I love being, ah, trained like that. Humiliation... I am more unsure about, I think it might land differently from strangers than from people I love, but it really is one of my more central kinks. I think some definitions of my limits there would be nice." 

She takes a long breath. "Oh, and punishment slash discipline - I think that one needs some discussion too because I respond a lot better to positive stimuli than to negative stuff, I think in my head that's sort of 'training program' stuff but I think that's not quite what you'd think is central to that category." 

"And honestly, mind control is one of my biggest kinks, it's just that I don't super want to just give blanket consent to be mind controlled in any way you would like to offer." 

"And I am actually a pretty intense masochist, at least in my fantasies, so I think I could take acts from the brutal or deadly categories, I just think that's a lot at this point when we haven't even tried the merely rough stuff." 

"Oh, and I should talk about partner preferences too, that matters. Uh, sorry, there's a lot here."

She pauses and considers. 

"Okay, I'm pretty much blanket okay with any feminine-leaning demon. I don't like admitting this but I'm actually bisexual, it's just a lot harder for me to find random men attractive, and my tastes are a bit idiosyncratic. I don't know how good you are at matching that or if by attractive you mean, like, 'conventionally' attractive. If I could specify that only men I personally found attractive would appear then I would be able to include that category, it's just less easy for me to include than feminine-presenting people because of my personal hangups." 

She exhales. 

"Okay, going on to demihumans. Demihumans I'm pretty straightforwardly okay with, everything here is fine."

"Humanoid options - I would like to special-mention that most broadly humanoid bodyplans that you'd see in the furry community are okay. It's a bit idiosyncratic, uh... No taurs that are not straightforwardly human or demihuman upper halves, no beaks or talons but claws are fine, broadly canine or feline head features in the kind of look that's common in the furry community are fine even though I haven't marked them down, anything that looks like a draenei or classic cloven-hoofed succubus is fine but I don't want to give blanket permission to whatever random weird feet, I completely forgot to take unusual skin and I think that's straightforwardly fine, I am in fact kinky enough to be fine with most things recognizable as an animalian cock within my size limits - like, I don't want to give permission for random demon #275 who literally has a coke can for a penis, or random demon #394 who has a ten meter long extremely thin duck penis, but somehow I doubt either of said demons actually exist; I actually might be a little less okay with alien vulvae, that's worth considering as a potential edit. I'd also like to special-mention women with snakelike lower bodies, that's a great bodyplan, especially if it comes with twin hemipenes. Uh, what else..."

"Okay, monstrous bodyplans. I am specifically okay with tentacle monsters because I've seen them a ton in porn. Once we know each other a little better I might be okay with some mythic monsters or obviously demonic animal forms, but that's definitely a deeper-rapport kind of thing. Specifically slimegirls are also great, but I don't want to give blanket permission to incorporeal specters and so on." 

She taps her fingers against the desk. "Uh, we're probably going to have to go back to the recording to cover all this in detail, but, like, I'll do my best. Uh, encounter density and duration - up to a dozen might be okay, it's just slowly more and more to deal with and the point return is relatively small. Similarly, increased duration is possible to take - I kind of want to take "until they're satisfied" simply because it'd mean I'd be Doing A Good Job, to be honest, I just think it'd be rougher on me. We'll have to negotiate that more fully once we get the special conditions hammered out, I think. I also might want a scheduled checkin for once the contract's been firmly established for a while, but that'll cost me some gratitude so I want to see how deeply I'm in the hole or not to see if I want it." 

"Sorry, I do tend to natter on. Feel free to dive into all that wherever you'd prefer to start."

The demon negotiator nods as Ava explains, writing down Ava's opinions in a notebook as she listens. When Ava finishes, the negotiator nods. "The force limits you describe fit within the usual bounds for stepping and hair-pulling and spanking, so that is easy enough. With regard to the gag reflex concern with deep throating, one suggestion I have is reducing or removing your gag reflex altogether. What are your thoughts on that?"

"If you can do that in the dream space only, that sounds great. I don't want to choke on something in real life and die."

"We can, but we can also give you a gag reflex that you can suppress at will, which I suspect you would find superior."

"That's wonderful. Is that on top of the transition or considered part of it?"

"That will be included with the transition, because we have not yet changed your body in the waking world. It's just a matter of tweaking the template we're using in your dreams and will eventually use to transform your waking body."

"We'll have to talk about how to do the real-world transformation, but that's a separate topic."

"Anyway, thank you! What would you like to cover next?"

"How hard is too hard with the leash?"

"I honestly don't know, I've never worn one before. I feel like it's more about jerking it than about steady pressure? It might depend on how it's attached."

"Ruling out jerking the leash would require another blacklist entry, but you spoke of another special mention we could balance it out with, so that is fine. Fucking machines are just elaborately mechanized dildos and vibrators; electricity does not feature below the Brutal tier. Humiliation is somewhat more complicated, however. How do you feel about degrading speech? What about when it is cherishing versus punishing?"

"Both are fine with my partners, it's more of an uncertainty thing with strangers. Cherishing stuff is almost certainly fine."

"I think I'd need to talk about the kind of stuff I like and don't like..."

"Stuff that's definitely fine... Being called a slut, pet, or toy. Being told to kneel or to kiss the floor or someone's feet. Being stepped on. Almost anything that's warm emotionally."

"Stuff that's definitely not fine: Being called anti-gay or anti-trans slurs. Faggot, tranny, etcetera are not okay. Similarly for anything involving racism."

"In the middle... Bitch, doll, slave, being told to literally kiss someone's ass, being called a loser or a failure, being told to admit defeat. I have some specific kinks in this general zone that really get me going, but the category is dependent on trust and that's hard to get with strangers. And they're embarrassing to admit, and in general I abide by the rule that if you can't discuss it you shouldn't be doing it."

"Does that help?"

She nods. "That does help. Refining the category that way will require another blacklist entry, however. Fortunately the thoughts you had on partners give me more than enough room to cover that."

She notes these restrictions down onto the contract, then continues.

"As far as mind control, what specific experiences or outcomes are you looking to avoid?"

"I think it's a tricky subject because it's so expansive. Mind control covers a lot of stuff."

"Like, do you mean generating hallucinatory sensations? Installing alternate personalities? Putting me to sleep or waking me deliberately? Supressing memories as play? Installing a general desire to obey? Installing specific kinks I didn't previously have? Making me more aroused? Making me hazy and foggy, or empty of thoughts? Putting me into specific emotional states? Mental play is practically its own whole set of options, and I don't know what you mean by 'light mind control.' What kinds of things do you consider part of that category?"

"Taking these one at a time: hallucinatory sensation is light if it's easy to tell what's real, heavy if your sensorium is more thoroughly taken over or tricked; alternate personalities are part of personality rewriting, an entirely separate detail category; sleeping and waking is light; suppressing memories as part of an encounter is on the border between heavy and rewriting, and is extremely rare regardless; installing a desire to obey is part of the obedient mitigation option and is considered separately; increasing arousal does not fall under mind control at all, but rather aphrodisiacs; the majority of hazy and foggy and empty-headed states fit under the entranced mitigation, and the rest vary across light and heavy based on their intensity; and lastly imposing mental states is light if it's more of a suggestion or a flavor to your experience, and heavy if it's strong, intense, and hard to resist."

She sips a cup of tea. "Does that clarify the question of mind control for you?"

"In that case, I've given literally everything I just mentioned in this category, even up to personality rewriting, a shot at one point or another — by mundane means rather than magical ones, but same difference — so the stuff you consider light I consider pretty light too. All of it sounds very doable and I'll take the opportunity to say that that kind of stuff is a special interest of mine and I'd love to see it included more. I won't include heavy mind control or personality rewriting in the contract, but that's more a trust thing than anything else."

She notes that down as well. "The last item within your discussion of encounter features is punishment and discipline. Given that you respond better to rewards and incentives than punishments, I agree that this merits some discussion. Given the encounter duration you specified, most 'training programs', as you put it, would be more in the shape of a single scene: things like punishing you with an approved painplay element if you orgasm without permission, or if you don't orgasm quickly enough. How do you feel about that range?"

"That sounds wonderful. I particularly like being... shaped to be convenient for someone, so if you have anyone who's into the other end of that, that might be good. Am I likely to have, ah, repeat clients? Because if so then a longer term set of scenes might be able to develop that kind of dynamic."

"Repeats are certainly possible, and become more likely over time as we find good matches for you. Providing more detailed and accurate partner preferences helps that process."

"Okay. Then I think that could happen maybe."

She stretches. "What else was there?"

"That was the last of your considerations on encounter features. Now we come to your musings on partner preferences. The first thing I will note is that the attractiveness standard is entirely based on your own judgment, not some 'objective' measure."

"Oh, cool!"

"Waitaminute, are you reading my mind?" 

"... We are literally meeting in my dreams right this minute, of course you are reading my mind. Nevermind." 

"Yes, to some extent it is unavoidable. We try to avoid having anyone sapient do the mindreading if at all possible, however. Attractiveness determinations are processed by non-sapient enchantments that consult your mind, for example. So, given all this, would you like to add masculine presentations to your partner-matching? Perhaps as-is, or perhaps with some additional restriction?"

"I am okay with average feminine presenting demons and only attractive or divine masculine presenting ones. That is probably sexist of me. But I would be okay with mixed gender or alien gender ones too if I picked stricter standards..."

She frowns. "I think maybe the smart thing is for me to only take Attractive and Divine appearances and then take the broader slate of genders?"

"That would seem to be the smart plan, both in terms of producing a better experience for you, and also remaining net-positive on our measures of gratitude."

She marks that down on the contract. "Moving onto humanoid details, your further refinement of taur restrictions can just modify that existing blacklist item. And on the subject of the blacklist, we're retaining your blacklist of your waking partners' appearances. Further, you requested to blacklist beaks and talons, which will be another line in the blacklist, and another for restricting unusual feet to just hooves and paws with optional claws. You have points to spare, however. So I am adding unusual hands, faces, and feet with those restrictions. Does that all sound correct so far?"

"That all sounds correct so far, thank you."

"Adding unusual skin, and then you had some restrictions to note for unusual genitalia, restricting them to recognizably animalian, and excluding alien vulvae. That takes up another blacklist line, as does restricting monstrous body plans to tentacle monsters and slimegirls. Then you had your special mention for snakegirls with dual hemipenes. Any other special mentions you'd like to add, or anything to correct?"

"You mean for partners? Uh, let me see... Googirls and snake women because I think either of those will be fun for me to share with Sable. Anything that looks broadly like a female draenei from world of warcraft, that's an excellent bodytype and plan. I like women that are taller than me, even in a slightly giantess kind of way. Like, a woman who's eight feet tall is not going to cause me issues. I prefer relatively feminine men, like bishonen types. Um, women wearing glasses is a little bit of an aphrodisiac to me, even though I'm shy to admit it. I think I prefer women with tentacles over totally tentacled creatures, but either are good. I have a particular weakness to foxlike women, whether they just have the ears and tails or if they're more anthropomorphic. I think I'm willing to make another exception to my shapeshifters policy for anything that's, like, specifically a demonic fox spirit. I don't know if that exists but if it does, yeah, I'm on board. Um..." She runs a hand through her hair. "I actually actively prefer demihuman forms to humanlike ones, I'd say. More range of expression, and exoticism is hot."

"Thank you for those details, Ava. That will be very helpful. And now do you have any other special mentions you would like to note for kinks and encounter features?"

"Man, it's hard to come up with thoughts on my likes. I tend to flow a lot to please my partners so I have a worse idea of what I personally really enjoy. Uh... Tantric sex. D/S play of some kinds, I need to think about that. I think everything I listed as "definitely okay" in the degradation section is a special mention, now that I think about it. What else... Oh! I have a vibrator in real life and I love it to pieces, and I once tried to do overstim play with it but kinda sorta failed and I want to experience what it would actually be like but it's too intense for me to do to myself, you know? But I want to feel that. So that's a specific want — overstim play via vibrator or fucking machine. I'd like to special mention that. I also really enjoy being trained to orgasm quickly because it... makes me more convenient? Something like that. So that's a special mention. And I'd like to special mention relatively gentle aphrodisiacs because I have less libido than I'd ideally have and that being fixed is part of the reason I took Sacred Slut. I don't know what you can do regarding fixing my various infirmities with the magical transition — most of 'em are mental issues so I don't know how much of that is even doable — but if you could help with that somehow it would be nice. I would also like to no longer need glasses, which seems more fixable."

She exhales. "Sorry for the digression. Special mentions... Oh! I've always wanted to try a Sybian, I've heard they're amazing but I don't have the parts for it. Yet. Whether you want to call that the same thing as the earlier fucking machines thing or not I'll leave up to you. Uh, you already have the request for vaginal penetration, uh... Having a cock occasionally in dreams also okay! I might want that sometimes. What else... Oh, special request for giving oral and being trained to give good oral. Most anything that'd boost my real life sexual skills I'd use with the Pirates would be fun. Uh... Forced orgasms especially good, I think that's a kind of play that's really hard to do alone but translates wonderfully to this kind of situation..."

She taps her fingertips together. 

"... Also, if you could endeavour to give me a rape kink the hard way, that would be fun. Because it seems likely to soften things, and because I like picking up new kinks."

"Sorry for rambling, I kind of special-interest on kinks so if you ask me you're likely to get a list about three feet long."

She nods and notes things down, murmuring softly as she does. "Special kink mentions for tantric sex, specified degradation variants, highly intense vibrator and fucking machine play, including Sybians, including to the point of overstim, quickshot training, oral training, forced orgasms, having a cock if we can verify you're in a mood for it, inspire a rape kink the slow way..."

Then she flips to a different page and continues, "Repaired eyesight, improved libido, digestive system refinement, cooperative metabolism within mortal bounds..."

Then she looks up. "Ah. One issue. It is technically possible to do mental health repairs, but that is an extremely delicate operation using powerful mind magic. We do not keep it on the standard price list because it is extremely difficult and delicate. If you wished to do so, it would cost approximately three hundred and fifty gratitude alone."

"Yeah, that's out of my price range right now, more's the pity."

"So what does that put me at, gratitude-wise, so far? Is that a valid contract?"

"Valid," she confirms with a nod. "Leaves you with thirty-eight unspent."

"Thirty-eight unspent, huh? That's a good amount left over. In that case, I think I want a luck blessing, a wealth blessing, and a couple more scheduled check-ins."

"I'd like another check-in in, let's see, two years - that's ten points, right? And I'd like to specifically say that in the unlikely event that I conceive a child, that should be a check-in condition too."

"I don't think it's very likely at all that I will conceive a child unless things shift a lot - but in the event it ends up happening somehow I definitely want to review the contract, because that's very definitely a life-altering thing." 

"I just want to give my future self more room to be different from how I expected, I guess." 

The demoness nods and notes those changes down on the contract. "All reasonable, and that should leave you with three leftover gratitude. Over the course of the future, you will gradually accumulate additional gratitude from the demons you feed, and if there is anything you would like to spend that on at a future check-in, that can be arranged. Can you elaborate on your feelings about parenthood, however?"

"My family's not great, school sucks, and I'm... Well, because of my mental issues I'm disabled, in reality. I don't feel that I'd make a very good parent, nor do I really want to pass on my mental issues if they're heritable. But if I had a body that was better, and money wasn't an issue, and I could be reasonably sure my children wouldn't inherit my diseases, maybe then I'd want it. And I'm going to be around for a while unless I have some form of accident, thanks to the anti-aging blessing. So I guess... I want to have the option eventually, but maybe not now?"

"I don't suppose you can throw in reversible sterility." 

"Unfortunately the cheapest option I have available is using a later body modification to reverse it. You could easily earn enough in a year or two, but it is still a thirty gratitude expenditure."

"Yeah, if and when I choose to up my contract again that'll be small potatoes. And I shouldn't be deciding to have children anytime in the next few years, I'll have much bigger fish to fry. So I think I'm comfortable saying you should make my new body sterile by default." 

"... Especially because that'll make it a lot easier to explain," she adds. "I haven't really thought about what I'm going to think about the body change given that I'll be unaware of the contract. Do I have to be concerned about keeping my legal identity, or is sorting that out part of the package? I'd like to lose several feet in height along with the genital replacement, but that kind of thing is likely to, uh. Cause problems." 

"One of the consequences of my Queen's edict to deal fairly with mortals is that we cannot cheat the identification problem directly, inconvenient though that may be." She smiles wryly. "My best idea there is to arrange for your transformation to Inexplicably Occur in front of witnesses such as a doctor or government official who has already verified your identity."

"How many of these contracts are you doing? Is hell, uh, going public? I kind of don't want to be the only person other than the pirates this very inexplicable thing has provably happened to. That seems likely to cause all kinds of trouble."

"We do not have any plans to issue press releases per se, but we are putting the rumor mill to work regarding the existence and reformation of Hell, and the existence of magic. You are not the first person to opt for a magic transition, though by and large previous contracted individuals have opted to play it off as implausibly effective hormones. The contracts will never become common knowledge, of course, because that would destroy their effectiveness."

"Yeah, that makes sense. Uh, hmmm."

She considers for a long moment. Does she want to be the center of a media circus, or does she want to compromise on her ideal body...?

She is kind of already compromising by staying human.

And there are other supernatural creatures out here. That is pretty significant. 

"I think I am going to take a relatively restrained transformation that keeps my height and my, uh, being a human, if not my body features. I think anything in this category is going to be... awkward... and I would rather be able to retain my original identity without too much fuss, much as my soul cries out to be a foxgirl. I particularly don't want to attract the attention of other supernatural creatures that might not have my best interests in mind." 

"Reasonable decision. Assuming you stick with both the monthly frequency and the new three-demon encounter density you've been considering, you'll be able to afford both a new transformation and a Demon Sign to mark you as under our protection in under four centuries. The number may seem large now, but it's truly not long, from the perspective of the ageless. By that point magic will almost certainly be extremely well-known, so further transformation will not surprise anyone by then."

She hums softly. "And you may find yourself comfortable with an expanded contract between now and then, which would shorten the timeframe dramatically."

"Yeah, I'm more or less betting that I'll expand the contract again in a few years now that I will actually know what's going on. The process will be messy but we'll get there, I think."

"I don't know if there's any life milestone checkin that would make sense at this point, honestly. Do you have any suggestions on what to spend my handful of spare points on?"

"Honestly my advice would be to bank those for the future, at this point. You don't have enough leftover to add an additional condition, you already have the most frequent interval-based option, and nothing else is under fifty gratitude."

"Alright then, let's do that." 

She takes a deep breath.

"Is this where I say 'see you in two years'?"

"Almost." She snaps her fingers and presents the revised contract for Ava's review and signature. "Just need to get this formalized first."

Ava reviews it, and points out one error - the Check-In Condition she had set for conception is still in the contract, and is no longer necessary - but the whole is sound. She crosses out the small section, then takes a breath and puts her signature to it. 

And the negotiator smiles warmly, takes the contract, and sends it back to the archives. "It's been a pleasure, Ava. See you in two years."

Ava closes her eyes, expecting a sudden discontinuity —

And she wakes up in her bed, the dream completely forgotten until her next check-in.