"What's wrong with society?"

He sighs. "I... society is fraught with temptation, and too many evils that cannot be fought with a fist. And... when my monastery and my home village were destroyed... I did not wish to make a new life for myself in a new place, force myself to find new names and faces to fill the hole in my heart. I buried the dead and went off to simply exist, in isolation and contemplation."

He shifts his leg into a new position. "This position will help strengthen your thighs."

New position. Ow.

"Well... even with the rapist goblins, I'm actually really glad I'm not dead. I thought I was going to. Die, that is."

He nods. "Where there is life, there is hope."

"Amen.

"This moving mediation thing is harder than I thought."

He shows her how to modify the pose if she's feeling any pain. 

It's not much longer until the final resting pose. As promised, her mind feels clearer than it has since she entered this realm. That odd feeling from the plant, which by this point may have faded into the background noise, is gone as well.

And she rests and thinks. "I'm Sadde, by the way."

"I am Jojo." He bows his head, though it looks odd since he's lying down.

"It's funny, in a horrifyingly ironic way, that the crime that got me sent to this rape world was having consensual sex with a priest who was coerced into his vows of chastity."

He flinches. "Well. That's... desperately unpleasant. I'm very sorry. I hope our world is better to you than it seems."

"Maybe the punchline is less dark than it looks," she agrees, smiling slightly. "—oh, I should ask, since you're friendly and haven't gotten entirely sick of me yet—I found this bottle—" She sits up and rummages through her things to show it to him. "Is it actually food or...?"

He looks it over. "Incubus draught," he diagnoses. "That's what I was talking about when I told you turning male was relatively easy - that's what it does. Separately, it is also nutritious. However, drinking it will cause some small amount of corruption unless you have it purified by an alchemist."

"—oh. I see. But I can meditate the corruption away? And where would I find an alchemist?"

"You can," he sighs. "I favor a zero-tolerance approach, but I have vows to consider. Alchemists... I believe I saw one the other day, wandering around near the Green Lake with a lab-cart. I'm sure he'd help you for a price."

"Is the price sex."

"-no!" He laughs in shock. "No, not everyone is- no. I meant a price in gems. It's Mareth's system of currency." He holds up a crystal the size of Sadde's thumbnail.

...okay, yeah, it's funny. She giggles and shrugs at him. "Look, I've faced more rape threats in the last couple of hours than I had in my whole life, you can't judge me for assuming."

She examines the crystal, anyway.

It’s a slightly elongated hexagon, geometrically perfect and deep red in color. It’s quite beautiful, actually. 

“Gems are the same size and shape, but different colors,” Jojo explains. “You can usually find some on the person of demons and monsters you defeat; even if they don’t care about the currency, they’re drawn to the shiny rocks.”

He pulls a small pouch out of a pocket in his robe and offers it to her. “Here. As a ‘welcome to Mareth’ present.”

Sadde blinks at the offer. "That's—that's too kind, but I couldn't possibly impose that much—"

"As I mentioned, I don't interact with society much. I only have these because I take them from the imps I defeat. I'll probably never use them. And you seem to have had a very unpleasant day."

"I—" She blinks again at the offer, then nods and accepts. "Thank you."

She's not tearing up, she's just got something in both eyes.

Jojo considers her seriously. "Would you like a hug?"

"Yes."

Jojo hugs her. He's out of practice and he doesn't quite know what to do with his tail, but it's nice.

That's alright she kinda really really needs this hug.