"... 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.