THE WOMEN OF PHINEAS BOGG
A/N
This is complete and total fluff that just sprouted from my head on a whim. What would happen if the leading ladies written by Daynawayna, CassBogg and MrsPhineasBogg all met? And just for fun, throw in Cannon characters Susan and Olivia, who both had more than just a passing interest in our Handsome Hero. This story, that's what happens! Please see notes at end for an explanation of The Renegade and Achim.
Cassandra Thompson and Kayla Sheppard-Bogg used with permission from their respective creators.
(CassBogg is an author who had a few stories posted here years ago but took them down after another author hijacked her stories, killed the OC Cass Thompson, then re-wrote them to suit her own fancy.)
The world was spinning out of control and there was nothing she could do to stop it. She screamed and then felt... nothing?
Was it minutes or hours later? She had no idea. She moaned and slowly opened her eyes.
"Oh, look. It's another one, and she's got red hair, too."
"Well, at least she's not pregnant..."
Tracy sat up slowly and looked around. There were two women sitting on a blanket in the grass; the redhead she knew instantly, the other, a brunette with short hair (and very pregnant) she had never seen before.
"Cassey?" She glanced at the redhead. "What happened? Where are we?" Tracy held her head in her hands, waiting for the spinning to stop.
"You know her," the other woman cried out. "Don't tell me she's another... ggaaaahhhh!"
Cass sighed and walked over to Tracy and helped her up. "Good to see you again, Trace. This frustrated young lady here is Kayla Sheppard... Bogg."
Tracy's eyes popped open wide, "She's Kayla who??!?"
"Sheppard BOGG. Yes, you heard me. I'm married to Phineas Adam Bogg!"
"Since when is his middle name Adam?" Tracy asked.
Cassey shrugged, "Beats me. I'm still trying to figure out how he's married to her, engaged to me and is dating you."
Kayla struggled to stand, "And I'm pregnant with his second child Joanna!" The other two women stared at her in shocked silence. Kayla glared at the other two ladies and after a moment, challenged them. "What?"
Tracy shook her head and sat down on the blanket. "This doesn't make any sense. I mean, it was hard enough to meet Cass here, thinking we each were dating Bogg..."
Her friend nodded in agreement, "Yeah, tell me about it! Didn't we clear all that up way back when? You know, when The Renegade started making trouble for everyone, trying to undo correct history?"
"Yeah... and I hit my head or something and he convinced me I was 'his Desdemona' and then I went renegade too?" The two of them laughed and Tracy looked at the young mother, "You'd think Phineas would have mentioned you..."
Kayla looked on in shock. "What the hell are you two talking about?"
Before either could answer, two more women appeared at the cozy picnic spot. Both were blonde and beautiful; one wearing something akin to Grecian Robes, the other in a female flight outfit from the late 30's or early 40's, complete with bomber jacket. Before either could speak, a third blonde showed up... looking a lot like Veronica Lake at her evil, sultry best.
They all stood there, looking confused. Tracy looked over at the sultry blonde with shock and hatred.
"How can you be here, Victoria? I watched you disappear from your altered time zone! You don't exist!" She lunged for the woman, but Cassey held her back. "After what you did to Phineas-"
"What did she do to Phineas? If she hurt one hair on his beautiful head..." Kayla looked ready to take the woman on, pregnant or not.
Victoria laughed derisively at Kayla and scornfully addressed Tracy, "Ooohh, look Trace! It seems Phineas likes brunettes, too!" She glanced at the woman's swollen belly, "Seems he got a bit closer to her than to you, poor dear. You never could get over the fact that he ogled me in class and ignored you..."
"Excuse me," interjected the woman in robes, "But it was me that he stared at. I'm..."
All six women spoke in unison, "The Blonde with the Mole."
"At your service," said Victoria.
"But, that's me," said the Grecian robed blonde. "I've never seen this Victoria before in my life!"
"How dare you? I'm the blonde with the mole!"
Kayla scooted out of the way as the two beautiful blondes got into a verbal sparring match and approached the other women.
Tracy looked at the third blonde, "And who are you?"
"Olivia Dunne. Voyager, class of '97. Susan, the one in white robes, was in the same class with me and Phineas Bogg, whose name seems to pop up a lot. And just who, exactly are you?"
"I'm Tracy Reynolds, Voyager Class of '97. I'm Phineas' girlfriend, and I don't remember seeing you in any classes..."
"You can't be his girlfriend because I'm his wife!"
Olivia and Victoria stopped yelling at each other and turned to face Kayla, eyes wide.
"You're his what," Olivia asked.
"Why does everybody have such a hard time believing I am the wife of Phineas Bogg? It's not like I'm some random hussy who fell for his amazing looks and tried to claim him for her own!" She glared at Tracy, Cass and Victoria.
"Now wait just a sec--"
Cassey was cut short by the appearance of several books that landed rather loudly on the blanket. She walked over and picked one up. "The Voyagers Aide, Part 1? What's this?"
"I'm a Voyager's Aide," Kayla said in an awed voice.
Olivia picked up another book, "Time's Keeper?"
Susan took another book. "Drake's Revenge, huh? I might want to read this one..."
Each woman took a story and started glancing through it, only to become so absorbed she would sit and finish the entire thing. Some were shorter than others, but all revolved around the adventures of Phineas Bogg and Jeffrey Jones. The stories were written by CassBogg, Mrs. Phineas Bogg and Daynawayna, each of whom had a preference for writing Cassey, Kayla and Tracy respectively. Susan and Olivia appeared in a few stories, and Victoria in only one.
Kayla looked up from her copy of Drake's Revenge and looked at Cassey with tears in her eyes as she rubbed her swollen belly. Their eyes met and for a brief moment, they shared complete understanding of love and loss.
Olivia had quickly read Time's Keeper and handed it to Susan, "You need to read this, now."
Once complete, the two friends looked at Victoria in disgust then quietly discussed the books and what needed to be done. "Later," whispered Susan.
As for Victoria, she idly thumbed through Voyagers Aide 2: The Disappearance and A Magical Voyage, thoroughly disinterested in the whole thing. "As incredibly fascinating as all this is, I don't understand what this has to do with anything, least of all, me, other than showing the flaws in my original plan to-"
"Stuff it Victoria!" Tracy was on her feet again and Olivia was by her side in a second, forcing her to sit back down. She stood over Tracy and glanced at Susan.
"Tell them, Susan."
"Obviously, these are stories written about us by people who care about our world, and Bogg and Jeff in particular," Susan said to the group. "Each one of you," she pointed to Kayla, Cass and Tracy, "help Phineas and Jeff in various adventures, and each of you is instrumental to the story. And of course, each woman is in love with Bogg." She glanced at Olivia and they smiled. They all briefly thought about Phineas Bogg and smiled.
Olivia now spoke, "The only constant we have seen in all these stories, besides Jeff and Phineas, is that Susan and I seem to appear in most stories, and our history with Phineas at least, is the same in every story, whereas you ladies, well, you can't all have Phineas at the same time, can you?"
They all looked at each other and shook their heads.
"So this means what, exactly," questioned Kayla.
"This means that we, Susan and I, are not simply the creation of said authors as you four are, but we in fact, are Real."
Disbelief was written on every face. Only Victoria seemed barely disturbed by this news and stepped forward. "Well, I don't know who brought me here, or why, or if I'm 'real' or 'fictional', but I do know how to seize opportunity when it knocks!"
"So do we," said Susan as she and Olivia quickly grabbed the sultry Voyager. Susan turned to Victoria, "It's obvious that you were a mistake that this Daynawayna was correct in erasing the first time. Olivia, Time's Keeper, if you please!"
She handed over the book with a grim, satisfied smile. "I'm so glad you aren't Susan," she said to Victoria.
Victoria's eyes widened in shock, "But, but I'm the Blonde with the mole! I'm the one Phineas stared at in class..! You can't-"
Susan held the book right under her nose. "It's good to be Real, ya know that?" She tore a page from the book, the very page in fact where Victoria is 'lost to time', and crumpled it up. "Good bye, bad lady." With a flick of her wrist, she tossed the balled up page into the water and watched it start to sink.
"No, no! You can't do this to me! Not again...!" Victoria struggled in vain and then was gone.
The other women looked at Susan in shock and huddled together. Tracy and Cass stood in front of Kayla, trying to protect her and the unborn child. Olivia looked at them and started to laugh, "Oh ladies, please! You have nothing to fear from us!"
"Why not," demanded Cassey fearfully.
"I think I know, Cass." Tracy looked at Susan thoughtfully. "The more I think about it, the more I realize that Susan actually, I dunno, feels right somehow. Even now, as I try to remember Voyager School with Phineas and Victoria, Phineas is solid in my memories and Victoria is fuzzy... she seems to just fade... like she wasn't real or something. And I'm starting to see Susan in her place more and more."
"But how does that protect us Trace? They could just tear out a page from our books and do the same thing to us!"
"But they won't Cass! Susan said it herself: Victoria was a mistake. If we are all just fictional characters, maybe my author didn't remember Susan's name or real character, so she created Victoria to fill in the gaps." She placed a hand on Cass and Kayla's shoulders. "In these stories, these women are our friends, or at least are not threatened by us. They won't kill us, Cassey, I'm sure of it."
"So, you think we're all... made up? We're fictional characters," Kayla asked in disbelief.
"It's the only thing that makes sense," Olivia replied. "I don't know how this Daynawayna, CassBogg and MrsPhineasBogg know about us, and I really don't care; other than the fact that each of you gets to have Phineas and we don't."
Susan smiled and nodded in agreement. "It's obvious from these writings that Voyagers are loved and even revered... well, okay, Jeff and Phineas are, anyway. But the point is that you three were created by the writers. Olivia and I flit in and out of these stories, and in the stories, we know you. But here, wherever here is, we've never met. So we can only assume we are real, and you, well, aren't."
Kayla found her voice at last and stepped from behind the others. "So, we're 'not real' but both of you are 'real' and Victoria was a mistake. We all want Phineas as our own... what's to stop either of you from getting rid of us so you can fight over my hus.. well, the man we all love?"
Susan laughed, "Kayla, you have nothing to worry about. If these three authors are any indication, I think someone, somewhere will take pity on the two of us and just might write a story where we get the guy. Anyway, I think Tracy was right in that Victoria was supposed to be me, but the author didn't realize her mistake when she wrote Time's Keeper. At least she was smart enough to kill her off! But she more than made amends as far as I'm concerned in..." she rifled through the books, 'The Bonds of Friendship.' It was a pretty good characterization of me, if I do say so myself."
"And I think this MrsPhineasBogg did okay by me, too," Olivia countered. "Seems I do pretty well for myself in Pioneer."
They all stood there a moment in awkward silence, each contemplating what had just transpired. "So," Cassey finally asked, "where does that leave us?"
"I'm glad you asked," Olivia said with a smile. "As we were all reading, books kept appearing on the blanket. There was one in particular that caught my eye, and I think we should look into it. It concerns you, Cass." She held up a book with a black cover. "It's called Protector of Voyagers and the author IndeMaat, seems to get a little carried away with things..." she glanced at Susan, "Seems she thinks Cassey here is a "Mary Sue", whatever that is."
"Is that a bad thing?" Cassey asked.
"Well, it is if you're IndeMaat. Apparently she feels... well, her character Agent Allison feels that Mary Sue's must die, and apparently, that's you. She took you out not once, but twice, and both of your demises were brutal and, I think, over-excessive."
Susan had perused the story and her face was grim. "What gives her the right to say those things?" Her voice got higher as she recited the 'charges' against Cass. "She says, and I quote: 'I charge you with the intend to meddle with the character integrity of Phineas Bogg, intend to reduce the part of Jeffrey Jones to sidekick," she paused here and looked at the others, "I think she meant to say 'intent'. And she criticizes CassBogg?" She shook her head and continued, " 'and intend to make the intelligence of guest canon character Drake laughable.' " She looked at Olivia and laughed, "Well, that's not hard to do!"
"Amen and amen Sister Susan! Down with Drake," Olivia cried and the others laughed.
"May I continue," Susan asked as she finally stopped giggling. Olivia nodded. " 'Further I am charging you with intend to turn an educational TV show into a romance novel for your own personal pleasure and for riddling it with false information. Your actions are punishable with death, to be executed a.s.a.p.' "
Cass, Tracy and Kayla looked horrified. "How could she.. I mean, don't we all..." Tracy spluttered, then found her voice as fear gave way to anger. "How dare she say such things about Cassey! And what about Kayla over here? No offense hon, I really like you! But talk about a romance novel... hello! She's like Nine Months PREGNANT for goodness sake! How would this Indy person like it if Drake had killed her parents and--"
"But that's the point, or seems to be," retorted Olivia. "You ladies aren't real, remember? You were created by the authors of these stories. If I had to make a guess, a Mary Sue would be the alter ego of the author, designed to connect with the character that they love. I guess IndeMaat thinks Cass here is a prime example of that and should be... well, removed."
"Wait a sec. Ohhhh... this is... yeah, this might be.." Kayla was pacing and absentmindedly rubbing her belly. "Olivia, you might be onto something here. I knew Phineas put you in Pioneer for a very good reason! Now, I haven't read that book, but isn't it a bit presumptuous of Indy to bash poor Cassey when she herself is playing the hero?"
The others looked at her in consternation, then Tracy's face lit up. "Of course! Agent Allison is IndeMaat's own Mary Sue! What could be more 'romantic' than 'rescuing' the object of your desire from someone 'less worthy than you', whether or not she ends up with the man? And what does it matter if you have to tear down other peoples work to do it?" Her eyes flashed with excitement. "Cassey, what say we give 'ole Achim a call... he always did have a soft spot for you, and I'll go bat my eyes at The Renegade..."
Susan looked confused, "Wait, who? We don't seem to have their stories here."
Tracy waved her hand, "Don't sweat it, just trust us. We've been through thick and thin with those guys, and when Renny finds out someone is playing God with Cassey and possibly others..." she glanced at Cassandra who smiled wickedly. "Well, lets just say that between Ren and Achim, 'Agent Allison' doesn't stand a snowball's chance in Hell. I don't know why their story didn't show up; maybe it got destroyed or something, who knows? But I know those two would be more than happy to band together to take out Mary Sue Allison. Whaddya say ladies? Shall we create a whole new adventure together?"
The others nodded and smiled, then Olivia spoke up. "Ok ladies. Let's do this! Agent Allison, prepare to meet your match."
The End.
A/N AGAIN
For reference, the authors CassBogg and Daynawayna were part of a message board years ago (the msg board was removed) on the Voyagers! Headquarters website (see link on my bio page), and several of us started a round robin story: we'd each take a character and write a bit and see where it went. The characters of The Renegade and Achim came from that story, which sadly was lost due to a virus on my computer that corrupted the files. I cried for days.
Anyway, Renegade was a 'regular' guy who found a Voyager who had just died and was looking at his odd 'pocket watch' and pressed the button... well, he quickly discovered he could change history and started changing things that were Green Lights to Red... Cassey and Bogg and Tracy all worked against him, then Tracy hit her head (or something, I forgot!) and Ren found her and she fell in love with him... yeah, you get the idea. Achim was an Arab from centuries ago who figured in there somewhere, and he had a soft spot for beautiful women and striking bargains with Renegade. I'm so sorry the files are gone, because I SO would have turned it into a story now! Oh well.