#this post is enhanced by reading my other Caseyposts tbh

[honestlyvan]

(Crossposted from DW)

There’s some interesting parallels to be drawn with the way Scratch is an aspect of Alan, just like the Casey of the Dark Place is. One reflects all his darkest fears, the most self-destructive narratives he can tell about himself, and the other encapsulates the skills and virtues he needs to push himself forward, one wearing his face and another one wearing the face of someone he admires.

So you could do quite a bit with Scratch inheriting that obsession with Casey from Alan, but in a furious, bitter, jealous form where Casey is an interloper, a challenger to Scratch's ownership of Alan, coming between him and his Alan, a stranger, an intruder. Because that's what Casey is -- a tool and a shield, the impression of someone Alan trusts -- someone for Alan to cling to, someone who can disrupt Alan’s internal narrative, and he's taking Alan from Scratch.

Casey is just as much a prop to Scratch as he is to Alan, he's just there to be the hero so Alan can be the victim and Scratch the monster. And just like Scratch's love of Alan is a warped mirror image of Alan's hatred of himself, Scratch's jealousy of Casey is a mirror of Alan's suppressed desire to be a better person. To be a hero, to drive the story forward on his own terms, to have agency.

Which is how you get Scratch hissing “You're not going to get what you want” against Casey's lips, shoving him against a wall in an alleyway when Casey has once again showed up as a diversion, letting Alan run away, taking Casey away from Alan the way he took Alan from Scratch. “You think you know. You know shit. You don't really wanna know”, while bleeding venomous jealousy into the air because he is Alan and Alan is him and Alan is his and this outsider thinks he can take Alan from him. Like Alan isn't just using Casey, too, like Casey is something more than a just an empty vessel for Alan's wants when that should be Scratch, that should have been Scratch from the start.

Because Casey doesn't hate Scratch any more than he loves Alan. His role is to have compassion for the victim, to protect him, to move the plot forward for him, just like Scratch's role is to antagonise and delay and stop Alan from progressing. Scratch knows what he's dealing with. But there's more to Casey than just what he got from Alan, he is a reflection of the real Casey through the lens of Alan – and that’s the really fucking offensive part. That Alan can so scarcely accept himself that he’ll bring in this outsider, discarding Scratch, using a stranger’s face instead.

Scratch is Alan, after all. He has Alan's face and he has his voice, and he knows Alan better than Alan knows himself. “You're going to get what's coming to you”, he tells Casey, loop after loop, until he can get him out of the way for good.