"Good! I'm so glad you're getting along with your soulmate. I like human poetry and art too, you know."

"That's cool! I don't actually know that much about it, really. Do you have a favorite or is it too hard to choose from, um, literally everything that humans have ever created?" She wonders absentmindedly if Janet can produce poetry and art that's been lost to time without a more solid description, or if she can do better translations. Maybe she'll suggest figuring that out in class? It seems like the kind of thing they'd be interested in, anyway.

"I like 'I wish I were an Oscar Meyer weiner.' The pathos! The yearning! Truly it captures the essence of the human condition."

"Oh. Huh." That wouldn't have been what she would have expected, but "not what she expected" seems to describe a lot of things about Michael, and about the Good Place as a whole, so... okay. "Is... that all, or?"

"No, I also like the creativity of the poem. Who but a human would think of wishing that they were a hot dog in order to be loved?"

"Huh. Yeah. That's... pretty cool, actually, to see an outside view on it? I never thought about it that way before. Humans, man." Faye has absolutely no idea what is going on but she thinks she might have so little understanding that she wrapped back around and genuinely understood his point? Maybe she needs some sleep, or processing time, or something, because probably she should not be agreeing that I Wish I Were An Oscar Meyer Wiener is a good poem in literally any way, but here she is.

"Humans are wonderful. No other species could have invented the flavor 'blue raspberry.'"

"It's delicious, too!" She was not expecting this to just be a conversation about how weird humans are but apparently that's what it is. She's enjoying it, though!

"One thing I've always wondered is how you know what it's supposed to taste like."

"It tastes like artificial sweetener and the color blue! Maybe in the future they'll do that with more... colors? flavors? and invent more fake fruits to go with them, that'd be so cool." She sounds entirely genuine about this.

"Humans know what blue tastes like?"

"I... guess? Not inherently, but society definitely taught me that blue tastes like, um, whatever artificial flavoring they use in blue raspberry flavored things."

"Fascinating! --But, in fact, I called you in for a serious purpose, Faye. I am sure it hasn't escaped your notice that your soulmate experienced a lot of trauma in her short life."

"Yeah."

"You were selected as her soulmate because of your compassion and your history of work with traumatized people. We believe that, of everyone in the Good Place, you are the single person best suited to help Sasha and Lev come to terms with the trauma they experienced in their lives."

That seems unlikely, because helping them seems really hard and so far all she has done is panic about it, but also kind of really sweet. Her throat closes up a little; she nods instead of trying to talk.

"So I've called you in to give you some information that will help you and give you the opportunity to ask any questions you have about them." He shuffles some papers. "How much have you learned about Sasha and Lev's pasts so far?"

"Um, I know quite a bit about Sasha's? I didn't even really know that Lev was traumatized. I try to stay open, but I don't want to pry too much if they don't want to talk about it, you know?"

"That is exactly the sort of kind attitude we chose you for! But more information will help you make decisions." Shuffles papers. "Lev's mother was raped by her father. His father encouraged his mother to let Lev's grandfather be alone with him, because his father believed it was important for children to have a relationship with their grandparents. Naturally, Lev was abused for several years until Lev's mother finally, with the encouragement of Lev's adoptive mother, divorced her husband and cut off her parents." He grows serious. "Needless to say, everyone involved in this clusterfork except for Lev and his adoptive mother is going to the Bad Place."

Faye nods. She started off thinking about how that's kind of a sketchy basis on which to invade privacy but also Michael probably knows better than her if they'd be okay with it, and by the end of it she is mostly thinking about how she really wants to give Lev a hug now. (Her brain helpfully provides her with a bullet-point list of reasons she should not do that.) "Alright. I'm... glad that there won't be any danger of. That kind of people. Here. Even if it might not be the Perfect Place, it wouldn't be a very Good place if they made it."

"Absolutely! We want your experience in the Good Place to be flawless, and that means it's a space completely free from abusers. Now, Lev doesn't want to admit to his trauma or accept the ways it's affected his life, but getting him to admit it is a very important step in his recovery."

"Okay. I can... try? to help?" (She has no idea how to help and is maybe internally screaming a little. Michael said that her don't-push attitude was why she got chosen, but also if she's being instructed to do it specifically then probably she should actually do something other than just making herself available to listen? Aaaa why are things so hard.)

"He also had a very abusive relationship with a trans-identifying woman in high school. He was hit, he was forced into sex, he had to commit crimes... It unfortunately left him with the idea that as a gay man he should be attracted to trans-identified women like Sasha."

"--Oh no, that's awful. Oh wow."

Now she really really wants to hug Lev. It's okay, Faye, deep breaths. Think. Okay.

"Do you have any therapists in the Good Place? Because I am going to do my best but I am not in fact a trained professional."

"We do! This Good Place neighborhood is actually specially designed for people recovering from trauma, and we have many people who specialize in trauma therapy. But neither Sasha nor Lev is going to be willing to go into therapy without your help."