#that woman definitely broke the law there but we're gonna ignore that

[pigspeetsandhooflikefeets]

[Note: YDKJ is a game for adults, and this audio is a reflection of it. <18 DNI. Transcript under read more]

Schmitty: Ahhhh, boy. Y'know what? I- uh... I really don't feel like doing this anymore. I' tell ya what, I'm gonna call the HR department and uh, tell 'em I'm going home sick. Let's see here... where'd I put that medical dictionary? [flips pages] Here we go. [flips] Oh this one sounds good! [dials and inputs numbers]

HR Woman: Hello, Human Resources?

Schmitty: [weak coughing] Uh hi- this is uh-um Josh Schmitstinstein? I-iiiuh think I need to go hooome. I'm-I'm feeling a little sick.

HR Woman: Uh huh. And what's wrong with you?

Schmitty: What's wrong with me? [clearly throat weakly] um, well, um-

[question starts audio]

Schmitty: I-I seem to have come down with a case of balanitis.

HR Woman: What are your symptoms?

Schmitty: "What are my symptoms"? yeah- "Inflamed penis"? "Rectal bleeding"? "Detached tongue", or "projectile vomiting"?

[jumpcut]

Schmitty: Ah- of course. That's what's happening- my... penis is inflamed. Ha. Oh boy!

[question audio]

Schmitty: Yeah- yeah. That's it. The head is... really grotesquely swollen, I mean- heh- it's really screwed up! Sure wouldn't want to be me! Heh heh. Oh- oh my god. Hello!? Hello!?

HR Woman: [giggling] Yeah. Go ahead Schmitty. We've got you on speakerphone here in the cafeteria.

[canned laughter from the cafeteria]

Schmitty: ...y'know I'm actually... [clears throat] feeling well enough to finish out the rest of the game here. Let's move on!

[vickyvicarious]

I agree with you so much on the clouded kokoro case. The abuse shouldn't be portrayed as lighthearted and I wanted Ms. Garrideb to go to jail for abuse.

Yeah, I mean Juror 5 has some pretty awful stories but we don't see it onscreen so it's possible he's exaggerating I guess. And the Beates aren't really as bad. They actually seem more doting, it was mostly just that one sprite of her yanking on the scarf around his neck that bothered me. But the Garridebs... whoo boy.

So, in the investigation portion I actually initially thought Joan was going to be a straight-up villain. Every time he talked too much she poured scalding tea on his hand to shut him up! It seemed obvious that she was hiding a dark secret and that he was afraid to speak, at least in front of her. And then after the reveal that they were married, I was kinda surprised that it was just left at "but you still love her/it was just a lover's quarrel" when there seemed so much fear happening, and the reactions were so extreme.

His face was red with a slap most of the time, he got burned tons right in front of us, she insisted that her throwing tons of stuff at him wasn't wrong since she needed to just let the emotion out rather than let it fester, also she tried to basically gaslight him in front of the court by saying she only threw soft things because she loves him? When in fact the stuff she threw could potentially have seriously injured or even killed him. And she set his stuff on fire and ignored him trying to put it out or deescalate the situation. She broke his favorite pipe and ruined his favorite book.

All the super aggressive stuff appears to be meant as "retaliation" for the note in the book from another woman. It sounds like he just bought a used book that already had a love note in it, but even if that's not the case, they both seem too used to her behavior for me to think this is the first time. She talks about being "fiery" or whatever, and when she burns him he sometimes says stuff that's like "stop, we're in front of people". Which! If she's this comfortable hurting him in front of strangers or in a court of law, then what about when they're alone together?! And I know he's trying to keep up appearances a lot with the whole maid thing, but that seems to be equally a role she wants to play so it's not like he's being super oppressive or anything. Not that it would make her abusing him any better even if he were hiding her away or having an affair.

I mean, when you list it off it's not funny at all (not that I found it amusing in the first place...). I imagine she's getting charged for some kind of assault at the end of the case? But it sure seems like she's gonna get off really easily for this, since the injury was an accident, the injured party is no longer in a coma, and Mr. Garrideb came up to support her. He's clearly not going to be pressing any kind of charges, even assuming in-universe there isn't an attitude that "women can't be abusers", which is definitely the vibe I got from this case.

It would be really nice to imagine otherwise, though. That with all this out there someone reaches out to Mr. Garrideb about not having to live with this treatment. Maybe Inspector Gregson or van Zieks (thinking of his moment of kindness with the Beates where he basically promised not to fire the guy for what he did). And then eventually they prosecute or something.