Neglected Fandom Recs: Mac/Cassidy/Dick from Veronica Mars
I fell in love with Veronica Mars in season one due to the Veronica/Logan chemistry. I stuck around season two for Mac and Cassidy Casablancas. It’s been over a year and I still can’t get over the fact that Cassidy Casablancas was the!ebil. I even stopped watching Veronica Mars over it. Regardless, I still have a soft spot for MacCass and always will.
The only positive thing that came out Cassidy being teh!ebil in Season 2 is speculation that Mac & Dick would find solace in, and love with, each other (since they are probably the only people who’ll remember Cassidy as more than a psychotic rapist/mass murderer). It took me a while to warm up to this pairing, since MacCass was seriously my OTP, but the fanfiction is so excellent that I was converted.
Below are what I consider the best MacCass & MacDick stories out there. One is even a OT3. And yes, I even pimp a fic that I wrote. Happy Reading!
Title: By a Most Incestuous Birth by tempestquill
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Mac/Cassidy/Dick
Summary: She steps into the kitchen and her mouth falls open at what she sees. She blinks several times as a squeak escapes her throat and then the two of them draw apart and she’s faced with the reality that yes, her boyfriend was just in a liplock, tonsel hocky, NC-17 rated mouth make out with his brother. At least this sheds some light on Dick’s fascination with “Brokeback Mountain”.
Comment: First things first: you can not have a Mac/Cassidy or Mac/Dick rec list without including tempestquill. She has written so many excellent stories that it pained me to include just one. Oh, but this is the best one: a Casablancas sandwich threesome fic. So, so, so hot! BTW, I didn’t include an excerpt because the summary is already an excerpt and, honestly, the “Brokeback Mountain” sentence really is the best line in the fic.
Title: Storm-Tossed Man by gravity_chelle.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An AU world where Madison and Mac weren’t switched at birth, but she finds Cassidy anyway.
That night, he made a list. All the reasons why he could never have Madison Sinclair. She was a year older than him, that was number one. She was smart, smarter than him, even though he’d tested at genius levels and if his third stepmother had stuck around long enough to follow-up, he’d be in the best private schools instead the crappy Neptune Junior High with his retarded brother Dick. Number two. And then number three: as pretty and as confident as she was, she’d never accept a damaged boy like him.
Comment: You know when a fic is great (not just good, but great)? When you have to pick an excerpt for a reccing post and you almost can’t, because so many lines just take your breath away. This is one of the fics. Plus, I always wondered how Mac & Cassidy would have found each other if she’d been raised an ‘09er.
Title: With Conviction by everything_inme.
Rating: PG
Characters: Mac/Cassidy
Summary: There is a list on her laptop that she updates on a monthly basis. That list contains each and every one of the statements that she can say with conviction, and she smiles every time she adds another bullet to the page.
Her list grows steadily and she’s tempted to delete the third page of it. Almost every bullet she’s added for the past two months mentions Cassidy in some way or another. She doesn’t want this to be like high school, doesn’t want him to hurt her again.
Comment: everything_inme is another great writer of MacCass fluff and angst, whether canon or AU. I recced this story primarily because she took the underlying premise of a story I’d written and made it so much more believable (and better).
Title: Refuse by random00b
Rating: PG
Characters: Mac, Cassidy
Summary: Mac refuses to acknowledge certain truths.
“Dick was never as stupid as everyone thought. Everyone had to find their way to survive Neptune. Alcohol was his,” Cassidy explains.
“We survived without being perpetually drunk,” Mac counters.
“Maybe, but, in my case, just barely. I almost-”
She cuts him off. “But you didn’t. You were able to leave and get help. You’re much better off.” She pauses before mumbling, “I know leaving changed me.”
Comment: Yes, I am pimping my own fic. This story is canon through episode 2.18 or so. This labor of love is chock full of angst and what-might-have-been because, even if Cassidy isn’t teh!ebil, he is still severely damaged.
Title: Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by bittersweet_99.
Rating: R
Summary: She hasn't thought about Neptune in years.
Questions of what went wrong, explanations too little too late, time wasted and lost. That's what they are really. A sum of almosts and ifs. It doesn't really matter why. Because even if she knew, even if it could all be explained away, wrapped up neatly in simple logic, they are what they are. Almost happy. Almost together. Almost real.
Comment: Another AU MacCass story (because canon is too painful, really). Another Cassidy-is-too-damaged-to-have-a-relationship-with-Mac story. But it’s well-written, with just the right balance of angst and hope.
Title: Asphalt Pyre by paynesgrey
Rating: PG
Summary: Mac would like to remember Cassidy differently. Each day she mourns him at the spot where he fell. Dick remembers Cassidy too, driving by that memorable spot. They know that they both mourn him, but can they mourn Cassidy together?
With her last candle burnt out, Mac prepares to leave, the sun setting in the evening sky. She is prepared to come back again, seeing his limo circle around her as she mourns.
She feels she’s rather gotten used to Dick’s limo circling her every day. Mac wonders if it’s an indication that her mourning is almost over.
Comment: paynesgrey writes in several fandoms (I’ve recced some of her Peter/Claire fic in May) and she really gets her characters in all of them. I like this story because I feel it’s some missing scenes from the summer between seasons 2 & 3.
Title: Make Her Fly by citygirlheart
Rating: PG-13
Summary: “The two of you were only brought together by tragedy, anyway. Because she let you remember; because you helped her forget.”
you know it’s not healthy - you’ve known this much all along - but no one else understands. You’re not healthy together, but apart, you would be worse.
Comment: So many of the “aftermath” fics (as I like to call it) are told from Mac’s POV. This one, though, is from Dick’s, which is probably why I like it so much.
Title: Trilogy And He Kept His Promise, And She Does It on Purpose, And that's the way it should be by dangergrl79.
Rating: R
Characters: Mac, Dick
Summary: What happened to Mac after that fateful night at the Neptune Grand?
Mac was going to be someone’s mother after having sex once...with the bad guy. Shannen Doherty could play her in the made-for-TV movie.
Comment: This is a trilogy; the excerpt is from part one (“And He Kept His Promise”). If nothing else, the Shannon Doherty line made me laugh hysterically.
Title: Once Upon a Wedding Night by tempestquill
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Mac, Cassidy, Dick
Summary: Mac’s heart swells and she’s biting her lip to keep from laughing as Dick just shrugs and steps out of their way. As they head toward the elevator they can hear him call after them, “Damn Beav, go get laid already.”
She gives a little stretch, and smiles a little at the aches in her body because she can remember the night before so clearly. The sunlight slips in through a crack in the curtains, and she shifts, and her hand slips into her husband’s hair, and her breath stills a little….His arms are wrapped around her possessively, and he’s warm, solid, real, and last night was their wedding night. She shifts and presses a kiss to his temple, and he groans before he pulls back a little, and she carefully slips out of the bed so she doesn’t wake him.
Comment: I really tried to keep this rec list to only tempestquill story, but I just couldn’t keep this story off the list. There’s a bit of misdirection (or, as one of a fellow LJ put it, massive confusion) since this isn’t an AU fic, but once again, C.K. Blake delivers the good. Plus, (as with By a Most Incestuous Birth), she writes the hottest smut.
The only positive thing that came out Cassidy being teh!ebil in Season 2 is speculation that Mac & Dick would find solace in, and love with, each other (since they are probably the only people who’ll remember Cassidy as more than a psychotic rapist/mass murderer). It took me a while to warm up to this pairing, since MacCass was seriously my OTP, but the fanfiction is so excellent that I was converted.
Below are what I consider the best MacCass & MacDick stories out there. One is even a OT3. And yes, I even pimp a fic that I wrote. Happy Reading!
Title: By a Most Incestuous Birth by tempestquill
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Mac/Cassidy/Dick
Summary: She steps into the kitchen and her mouth falls open at what she sees. She blinks several times as a squeak escapes her throat and then the two of them draw apart and she’s faced with the reality that yes, her boyfriend was just in a liplock, tonsel hocky, NC-17 rated mouth make out with his brother. At least this sheds some light on Dick’s fascination with “Brokeback Mountain”.
Comment: First things first: you can not have a Mac/Cassidy or Mac/Dick rec list without including tempestquill. She has written so many excellent stories that it pained me to include just one. Oh, but this is the best one: a Casablancas sandwich threesome fic. So, so, so hot! BTW, I didn’t include an excerpt because the summary is already an excerpt and, honestly, the “Brokeback Mountain” sentence really is the best line in the fic.
Title: Storm-Tossed Man by gravity_chelle.
Rating: PG-13
Summary: An AU world where Madison and Mac weren’t switched at birth, but she finds Cassidy anyway.
That night, he made a list. All the reasons why he could never have Madison Sinclair. She was a year older than him, that was number one. She was smart, smarter than him, even though he’d tested at genius levels and if his third stepmother had stuck around long enough to follow-up, he’d be in the best private schools instead the crappy Neptune Junior High with his retarded brother Dick. Number two. And then number three: as pretty and as confident as she was, she’d never accept a damaged boy like him.
Comment: You know when a fic is great (not just good, but great)? When you have to pick an excerpt for a reccing post and you almost can’t, because so many lines just take your breath away. This is one of the fics. Plus, I always wondered how Mac & Cassidy would have found each other if she’d been raised an ‘09er.
Title: With Conviction by everything_inme.
Rating: PG
Characters: Mac/Cassidy
Summary: There is a list on her laptop that she updates on a monthly basis. That list contains each and every one of the statements that she can say with conviction, and she smiles every time she adds another bullet to the page.
Her list grows steadily and she’s tempted to delete the third page of it. Almost every bullet she’s added for the past two months mentions Cassidy in some way or another. She doesn’t want this to be like high school, doesn’t want him to hurt her again.
Comment: everything_inme is another great writer of MacCass fluff and angst, whether canon or AU. I recced this story primarily because she took the underlying premise of a story I’d written and made it so much more believable (and better).
Title: Refuse by random00b
Rating: PG
Characters: Mac, Cassidy
Summary: Mac refuses to acknowledge certain truths.
“Dick was never as stupid as everyone thought. Everyone had to find their way to survive Neptune. Alcohol was his,” Cassidy explains.
“We survived without being perpetually drunk,” Mac counters.
“Maybe, but, in my case, just barely. I almost-”
She cuts him off. “But you didn’t. You were able to leave and get help. You’re much better off.” She pauses before mumbling, “I know leaving changed me.”
Comment: Yes, I am pimping my own fic. This story is canon through episode 2.18 or so. This labor of love is chock full of angst and what-might-have-been because, even if Cassidy isn’t teh!ebil, he is still severely damaged.
Title: Slow Dancing in a Burning Room by bittersweet_99.
Rating: R
Summary: She hasn't thought about Neptune in years.
Questions of what went wrong, explanations too little too late, time wasted and lost. That's what they are really. A sum of almosts and ifs. It doesn't really matter why. Because even if she knew, even if it could all be explained away, wrapped up neatly in simple logic, they are what they are. Almost happy. Almost together. Almost real.
Comment: Another AU MacCass story (because canon is too painful, really). Another Cassidy-is-too-damaged-to-have-a-relationship-with-Mac story. But it’s well-written, with just the right balance of angst and hope.
Title: Asphalt Pyre by paynesgrey
Rating: PG
Summary: Mac would like to remember Cassidy differently. Each day she mourns him at the spot where he fell. Dick remembers Cassidy too, driving by that memorable spot. They know that they both mourn him, but can they mourn Cassidy together?
With her last candle burnt out, Mac prepares to leave, the sun setting in the evening sky. She is prepared to come back again, seeing his limo circle around her as she mourns.
She feels she’s rather gotten used to Dick’s limo circling her every day. Mac wonders if it’s an indication that her mourning is almost over.
Comment: paynesgrey writes in several fandoms (I’ve recced some of her Peter/Claire fic in May) and she really gets her characters in all of them. I like this story because I feel it’s some missing scenes from the summer between seasons 2 & 3.
Title: Make Her Fly by citygirlheart
Rating: PG-13
Summary: “The two of you were only brought together by tragedy, anyway. Because she let you remember; because you helped her forget.”
you know it’s not healthy - you’ve known this much all along - but no one else understands. You’re not healthy together, but apart, you would be worse.
Comment: So many of the “aftermath” fics (as I like to call it) are told from Mac’s POV. This one, though, is from Dick’s, which is probably why I like it so much.
Title: Trilogy And He Kept His Promise, And She Does It on Purpose, And that's the way it should be by dangergrl79.
Rating: R
Characters: Mac, Dick
Summary: What happened to Mac after that fateful night at the Neptune Grand?
Mac was going to be someone’s mother after having sex once...with the bad guy. Shannen Doherty could play her in the made-for-TV movie.
Comment: This is a trilogy; the excerpt is from part one (“And He Kept His Promise”). If nothing else, the Shannon Doherty line made me laugh hysterically.
Title: Once Upon a Wedding Night by tempestquill
Rating: NC-17
Characters: Mac, Cassidy, Dick
Summary: Mac’s heart swells and she’s biting her lip to keep from laughing as Dick just shrugs and steps out of their way. As they head toward the elevator they can hear him call after them, “Damn Beav, go get laid already.”
She gives a little stretch, and smiles a little at the aches in her body because she can remember the night before so clearly. The sunlight slips in through a crack in the curtains, and she shifts, and her hand slips into her husband’s hair, and her breath stills a little….His arms are wrapped around her possessively, and he’s warm, solid, real, and last night was their wedding night. She shifts and presses a kiss to his temple, and he groans before he pulls back a little, and she carefully slips out of the bed so she doesn’t wake him.
Comment: I really tried to keep this rec list to only tempestquill story, but I just couldn’t keep this story off the list. There’s a bit of misdirection (or, as one of a fellow LJ put it, massive confusion) since this isn’t an AU fic, but once again, C.K. Blake delivers the good. Plus, (as with By a Most Incestuous Birth), she writes the hottest smut.