Curly Vs Kakania
My Kakania versus Curly formal post so buckle in while I give a brief on both characters before diving straight in. Feel free to skip them if you know both of them.
Kakania is from Reverse 1999 and the 6th book, E Lucevan Le Stelle. Youโll also see it being referred to as the 6th chapter, I prefer calling each segment books so Iโll be using that. The 6th book follows a new protagonist from the seriesโ established protagonist, Vertin, ignore her for now, sheโs great on her own but not important to Kakania. Kakania, or Klara Vingler (Many arcanists change their names. Kakania is a reference to The Man Without Qualities by Robert Musil), is from Vienna in 1914. Reverse 1999 is a modern fantasy and cosmic horror about hurtling back in time at major historical moments, 1914 being right before WW1. This is where we share our first two themes to Mouthwashing with cosmic horror and an inescapable doom as after the crash, the Tulpar was then given a very short list of possible endings where most included death. As a marginalized group in the middle of high tensions Kakania and other arcanists are subject to many restrictions which is why she establishes her an activist group called The Circle with other noble and nouveau riche children in Vienna with love for the arts and formal education. Isolde is the closest person to her from a long family of โhysterical arcanistsโ, but as Kakania is called that just for being born that way she ignores the constant warning signs from Isolde. Kakania offers to be her therapist despite a total lack of any qualifications (even in terms of 1914 standards), and recklessly told Isolde to "let go of her inner desires". At the end of her story, Kakania tries to save others in Vienna before everything is sent hurtling back in time as a way to take responsibility for her recklessness having a rippling effect on everyone. Ultimately, however, she was the only one to survive the 0.49% chance of survival (without ur skull turning into mud) which is a main source of guilt in her appearances afterwards.
Curly is the captain of the Tulpar in Mouthwashing. The Tulpar is property of the Pony Express. We don't get a clear era for Mouthwashing, but it's generally a futuristic Sci-Fi setting with visuals set after 1989 (when the first Game Boy came out). The Tulpar itself being outdated to look like it's still the 60~70s is an important note to the way the Pony Express sees its crews: entirely expendable. Curly is the exception though because despite a company whose name is directly taken from the real life Pony Express that would hire people who they deemed as expendable and wouldn't be missed, Curly is offered another job elsewhere alongside the news of them shutting down. This fact is particularly important with Curly because the posters around the Tulpar from the Pony Express are to show the conditions that they live with. No sleeping more than 5 hours, any use of medicine is docked from their pay,ย no late deliveries, no taking any naps despite the fact that this is a 24/7 job for OVER an entire year. On top of it, the crew is collectively punished if there are any reports of findings of "HR complaints of poor crew synergy may result in collective punishment." Swansea and Daisuke are clearly at odds throughout their story, Swansea is the oldest on board being a father with even grandchildren, and Daisuke is the newest hire being added on with no preparation to receive him. Swansea is constantly at odds with Daisuke (which you later learn is in hopes that Daisuke doesn't come back to their dead end job), and Curly always steps in and reaches an understanding. The core of the story leads up to when Jimmy crashes the ship after finding out that his assault on Anya would be found out, something that Curly didn't consider when Anya revealed the pregnancy to him first because he trusted Jimmy to be a good person. Upon Curly's injury leading to his total disengagement from the story, Jimmy takes charge as his copilot. Letting the crew believe Curly crashed the ship and even egging others to hate him for it, before ultimately wiping out everyone before "saving Curly" by putting him in the remaining cryo-pod.
Something something you canโt stop what you didnโt prevent. Prevention is the only long term solution, and addressing problems as they arrive will inevitably lead to something you can no longer pick up the pieces for. Curly ignored Jimmyโs actions and all of the warning signs of Anya trying to hint at the things he did, and Kakania ignored the rumors surrounding Isolde. Both characters assumed they knew better about the person closest to them, and that they knew everything about them which ultimately blinded them to their worst capabilities.ย
A core part of what leads to the destruction of their communities is their unwavering trust in their friends.ย
Curly trusts in Jimmy as his friend despite knowing what he's capable of from their past together. Jimmy is a repeat offender, and Curly admits while doing their psych eval that the Tulpar is their "fresh start". The psych eval that Curly offered to give Jimmy because the sexual harassment was so bad that Anya couldn't give it to him herself. After Anya gave him the eval for Jimmy, Curly didn't seriously press him to answer it because he believed that, like for himself, it was unnecessary to share their emotions like that. For Jimmy it's likely more overt as well as a reason he harasses Anya when she tries to give him the eval, but Curly also doesn't take the eval seriously coming from Anya. While Jimmy sees it as below him to answer to a woman, Curly doesn't believe he should be sharing his emotions to anyone other than a close male friend whom he trusts. Curly ignored the warning signs with Jimmy's aggression towards Anya being constant, and far above the level he has towards the other members of the crew (even those who are factually unqualified and unfit to be there like Daisuke who was added last minute). He also ignored the warning signs from Jimmy's past behavior, and how he was repeatedly harassing Anya to the point she couldn't do her job.ย
The entirety of Mouthwashing is about patriarchy and rape culture, and how misogyny plays a huge role in our bias even without meaning to. Curly assumes that Jimmy is lashing out from his own place of hurt, and maybe they know each other far back enough to know exactly what might be hurting. But Curly's fault is that he trusts him to the point that he ignores the possibility of escalating behavior despite it being an obvious result of how little consequences there are to Jimmy's actions. Curly is a successful and talented Captain of the Tulpar, despite the many conditions that punish the crew for being humans with needs, he still has good trips without seemingly any big incidents (none that ever got reported anyways). For those reasons, like Kakania, his role in pushing the domino makes him responsible for the result.ย
The "missing stair" in the metaphor refers to a dangerous structural fault, such as a missing step in a staircase, or the sugar in mouthwash; a fault that people may become used to and quietly accepting of, that is not openly signposted or fixed, and that newcomers to a group or organization are warned about discreetly.
- The analogy of the missing stair makes it clear that the problem is the predator (the missing stair) and that the solution is stopping the predatory behavior (fixing the stair).
Kakania on the other hand trusts the Isolde that she's seen. She trusts Isolde because she's only ever seen her while she was masking her underlying mental health issues. Isolde grew up being heavily restrained with what she could or couldn't do, and how she could act in accordance to her status. Her mother, Evangeline, was a famous opera singer and arcanist diviner within Vienna. Leading to the reasons Mr. Dittarsdorf decided to marry her despite her just as well known delirium. Through Isolde's character story, The Small Door, we gain some insight on how her mind works and the way she copes with her powers as a medium alongside the issues from her mother prior to her own psychotic break. The story also follows how she and Kakania met, and how Isolde became attached to her at first because of Kakania's self proclaimed prowess in โcuringโ those with mental health issues.ย
Between Curly and Kakania they both greatly overestimate their own situations and abilities in comparison with their environment. Their willingness to blindly trust the friends theyโve known for years led to the destruction of the world around them. Both in Isolde taking part in causing the Storm in 1914, and with Jimmy crashing the ship in an attempt to cover up Anyaโs SA and subsequent pregnancy.
Do I find it ironic that despite the many connections between Curly and Kakania, the one thing she most desperately wants to do is take responsibility for her actions despite how much action she took DIRECTLY after finding out she was responsible for spurring Isolde into action? Yes yes I do.
I find it so interesting that with how similar they are their mindsets are both the exact same but also different. Iโm not really sure about Wrong Organ as a whole but I know that Bluepoch loves their religious symbolism and themes, and both Kakania and Curlyโs solutions to take responsibility for their endings is closer to repenting over responsibility.ย They want to die by the end as a solution for closing the chapter.ย
Curlyโs mindset is a bit harder to draw from with the sheer lack of agency and comment we get apart from pre crash and HTFIMโs DLC where his attitude in the end is closer to โI brought Jimmy here, I made this cake now I have to fucking eat it.โ Which the absolutist mindset is so interesting because the exact vibe of it is also themed so well to the culture of masculinity too of โoh I made this I have to deal with it alone and by my own strength otherwise I failโ. A strong theme you see between the initial moment that establishes Curly and Jimmyโs relationship: he canโt open up to a qualified nurse heโs known for years by now, but he can with a male friend heโs known longer. We canโt really compare his relationship to Swansea vs Jimmy who heโs known for a long time to confirm whether itโs about the extent of the bond, gender, stigma around mental health, etc.ย
Kakania is also an absolutist in her mindset which we see in her own character story and the first installation for Series of Dusks. Kakania is pushy, and she constantly assumes how the other party thinks and feels within her own context. This mindset also extends to how she perceives people and feels about them. Her empathy is closer to projection in the same way Curly canโt see outside of his own views.ย
