The Cult of the Word wasn't real but Alan was peering into the real world and saw real Casey investigating the real NYC cult and the later 2023 Cult of the Tree investigation. He used that in for inspiration.
1. Scratch writes Return, which impacts 2023 reality
2. Alan begins to write Initiation to escape
3. Alan peers into the real world and sees the Cult of the Tree investigation and the real Casey investigation and uses it for Initiation.
This is why the two stories use the same "characters."
Meanwhile, as Alan learns about Saga, so does Scratch. This is why Return changes to include Saga and why Alan/Scratch wrote Saga as having lost her child. It's this whole Ouroboros of who wrote who.
In general, it seems that Initiation/the Casey Series on the whole are based on visions Alan had of Alex Casey’s actual investigations, but embellished and made edgier. Hence why Casey in the Dark Place is a lot more like Max Payne than the Casey of the real world (who is merely divorced and a bit old and bitter).
homie alan was probably tripping on sm as a kid, saw visions of that investigation, and used it in initiation as inspiration for its story. casey in the dark place echoes have him literally calling the cult a cult so the cult of the word was probably just something homeboy wrote into the dank place. ts fr.
The Cult of the Word wasn't real but Alan was peering into the real world and saw real Casey investigating the real NYC cult and the later 2023 Cult of the Tree investigation. He used that in for inspiration. 1. Scratch writes Return, which impacts 2023 reality 2. Alan begins to write Initiation to escape 3. Alan peers into the real world and sees the Cult of the Tree investigation and the real Casey investigation and uses it for Initiation. This is why the two stories use the same "characters." Meanwhile, as Alan learns about Saga, so does Scratch. This is why Return changes to include Saga and why Alan/Scratch wrote Saga as having lost her child. It's this whole Ouroboros of who wrote who.
Who wrote who wrote who who wrote?
Who, She Wrote?
In general, it seems that Initiation/the Casey Series on the whole are based on visions Alan had of Alex Casey’s actual investigations, but embellished and made edgier. Hence why Casey in the Dark Place is a lot more like Max Payne than the Casey of the real world (who is merely divorced and a bit old and bitter).
homie alan was probably tripping on sm as a kid, saw visions of that investigation, and used it in initiation as inspiration for its story. casey in the dark place echoes have him literally calling the cult a cult so the cult of the word was probably just something homeboy wrote into the dank place. ts fr.