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."