AWE posting 10.1. (2)

[yvannairie]

Like.

Largely it just comes down to genre and coding. The Controlverse stories take place in worlds that are heavily driven by the concerns of the genre, where the characters are shaped by their narrative environments. They're event-driven, not character-driven, which gives them room to set up characterisation that is in conflict with himself. In the first game the genre-driven development Alan gets is "man with a sedentary intellectual's lifestyle has to pick up a gun and start shooting", he doesn't become Ash from Evil Dead until Alan Wake's American Nightmare, thanks to that story's shift into an action-mystery genre for its duration.

Casey in the Dark Place is ruled by his noir coding over and above what the real Casey or even Alan thinks about him. His genre has been decided for him, and he doesn't get to show fear or sentiment or tenderness beyond what is prescribed in that codified shared-subconscious "noir detective" frame. The real Casey, once he is within the field of effect of the story, gets prescribed the genre markers of "the cops in a horror story" -- he's ineffectual, unaware or incomprehending of the forces at work, granted prestige and authority just so the story can subvert that authority, unable to even help himself to drive home the fact that nobody is coming to help the protagonists. He has to be cool, has to seem capable and dependable, so it's scary and upsetting when he can do nothing to make the narrative budge.

And once the story really kicks in, Casey becomes what the story needs him to be. But before finding the first manuscript page, there's that liiitttle sliver of time before the narrative has been established, before either of their backstories become relevant, where he's played noticeably less eloquent, more restrained, almost awkward, and in real life... that's just how guys like him come across. Resting bitch face, kind of intense, seems unsociable because he doesn't really talk to people.

Also, the guy self-consciously looks like Sam Lake, who -- while being quite attractive, ngl -- is still kind of a goofy nerdy guy. You could make a drinking game out of the times he gets describes as "youthful" and "boyish" and "childlike" in interviews and profiles, and presents in public as not exactly being in a rush to get people to take him seriously. Casey, in universe, looks like kind of nerdy, and outside of the narrative we don't see enough about how he's treated by the people around him to really draw any conclusions either way.

So this naturally means I get to read my preferred baggage into the character, right?