Possible


One of the more popular theories about the universe, especially among science fiction fans, is that anything that has the potential to happen… happens. Somewhere. Every decision you make splits off a billion other universes: one where you chose door A; one where you chose door B; and one where the doors exploded and you ran screaming in the other direction. There's an infinite number of possibilities every day of your life; now imagine that multiplied across all the people alive in the world, and all the people who were alive, and will be, and could have lived; and again by all the days in a year, every year that has ever been, ever will be, ever could have been. Infinite is not a strong enough word for it, but infinite is the biggest you can get, so it will have to do.

But sometimes, rarely, but sometimes, there's only one possibility that's strong enough to actually occur fully in any and every reality, and all the other possibilities become mere shades of real universes, dream worlds. (This is also where instances of déjà vu come from.)

At this moment, this single point in time, for one single person, and him only, there is a single split in his future – two paths he can take. His personality and history and feelings and ethics have combined so that he, as he is now, can only do one of two, very very different, things; become one of two very different people.

Down the first path, Cassidy Casablancas grows up to be a criminal mastermind, specializing in extortion and murder for hire. He marries Madison Sinclair after college and has a son who goes slowly crazy and homicidal and winds up gunning down seven people in the middle of Los Angeles a week before his seventeenth birthday before turning the gun on himself. Cassidy dies with a massive amount of wealth and absolutely no one to leave it to.

On the other, Cassidy Casablancas grows up normal – or as normal as you can get, growing up in the Casablancas household and Neptune in general. The craziness after Logan Echolls' acquittal eventually dies down, murderers of all sorts are caught, generally thanks to the Mars family and their intrepid sticking of noses where they don't belong, and Cassidy eventually becomes a successful (and legal) businessman complete with a happy home life and lots of kids, none of whom become psychotic murderers. Or lawyers. He lives to a ripe old age and has no regrets when he dies, surrounded by family and friends.

On the second path, Cassidy refuses to help his brother and Logan set fire to the Neptune community pool.