Note: The following is the first of three samples I will be posting here of my FanFiction.net writing project “A Skilene-Filled September.” In the project, I will write and publish one short story daily in the month of September 2010 which will explain one possible way that Skipper and Marlene could get together for the first time. My personal writing style has always been to portray Skipper and Marlene as just really good friends and to only “hint” at something more, but I have decided to exempt this project -- and only this project -- from that standard.

On FanFiction.net, a much longer outline of this project’s goals and background was posted ahead of the first actual story, but to avoid folks here from having to read through the whole doctrine, I have instead placed it at the end of this article. I would encourage you to read it if you want to so that you may better understand the project and my intentions therein.

Thank you for reading my brief note. The first Skilene scenario will now begin.

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A Skilene-Filled September
Scenario 1: “Save the Last Dance for Me”
Wednesday, September 1, 2010


Marlene was taking a nighttime stroll through the zoo one evening when an odd display suddenly caught her attention. The peculiar sight was something she had never seen before, and not wanting to draw attention to the fact that she was observing, she stood off in the distance as she looked on bewildered.

“My, my, Skipper, I never knew you had it in you,” Marlene whispered to herself as she watched Skipper dancing back and fourth, appearing to shuffle to a beat that couldn’t be heard, as the lemurs, baboons, and other penguins surrounded him.

Then suddenly, Skipper shifted from grooving solo to some sort of strange routine with Julien, which involved Skipper seemingly using his talent to attack the lemur.

“A little violent for my taste,” Marlene then commented as Skipper began spinning on his head and kicking Julien in the face with his feet, “but I’m still impressed.”

Not long after, Marlene watched whatever dance performance she had just seen come to an end. It was becoming late, so she thought it best to then return to her habitat for the night.

When she arrived, Marlene sat and thought about what she had seen for a short while. She was quite impressed at the degree of her friend’s hidden talent, and wanted to tell him how awestruck she had become by it. She smiled when she decided she would do just that the next morning, then got up to prepare to get ready for bed.

At around 11 a.m. the next morning, Marlene strolled over to the penguins’ HQ in hopes of talking to Skipper about his dancing skills. Upon arrival, she found him alone at the table stamping file folders with a big red “CLASSIFIED” stamp.

“Say, Skipper,” she said as she walked up to him, “I hope I’m not interrupting something important, but could I ask you about something?”

“No, you can’t ask what’s inside these folders,” Skipper replied.

“Um, yeah,” Marlene responded as she rolled her eyes. “Actually, I came to ask you about all that dancing you were doing last night. Why have you never–”

“You saw all that, Marlene?” Skipper inquired. “Well, first of all, it wasn’t the real me doing all that nonsense. You should know that I was temporarily the victim of some of Darla’s magic, though I would describe it more as a curse.”

“Skipper, I know you believe in some pretty far-out conspiracies, but surely you must know that magic isn’t real,” Marlene responded.

“Is too!” Skipper declared. “Mad at Ring-tail, Darla used her witchcraft -- I mean magic -- to take away his groove, and it accidentally ended up inside of me until I used the skills to force Julien into apologizing to her so the ‘groove’ would move back into him. But I am happy to say that I’m now 100 percent cured of that nightmare.”

“Well, that’s a shame,” Marlene sighed. “I was going to compliment you on your talent. I was even thinking about asking you if you would– Oh, forget it.”

Skipper sensed that Marlene was quite disappointed, so he reached over and put a flipper on her back.

“Go ahead, Marlene,” he said. “You can still ask me what you wanted to.”

Marlene smiled a little, then nervously proceeded with her question.

“I … was wondering, … might you be willing … to dance with … me?” she asked.

“Wait, with me?” Skipper asked. “Just because you saw me dancing last night?”

“Well, that’s not the only reason,” Marlene answered. “I actually like you a little, too.”

Skipper was speechless.

“I’m sorry if I said something wrong,” Marlene apologized after a few moments went by. “I just–”

But before she could finish her sentence, Skipper pulled her by the paw to the middle of the room, smiled, and began to slowly dance a few steps with the otter.

“Is this anything like how you pictured it?” Skipper asked after they had danced for a minute.

“No, Skipper, it’s better than I could have ever imagined,” Marlene replied. “But what about the magic?”

“Who needs magic when I have you,” Skipper replied.

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Thank you for reading the first of the 30 scenarios that will be part of my project. Two more samples will be posted here on Fanpop; you may click link to access the next one. The 27 others will be only on FanFiction.net, but you can easily access the project there by clicking link.

For those who wanted to read the full outline and explanation of my project, here it is, the same way it is presented on FanFiction.net:


An important message on how to read the stories of this project:

For a while now, I have been a fan of the “Skilene” concept, which, of course, pairs together the characters of Skipper and Marlene. However, my personal style as a fan fiction writer has been to never write stories that directly set the two up together, and to instead portray Skipper and Marlene as really close friends who upon occasion just “hint” at the possibility of something more. I have always done so for three principal reasons: first, to keep my writing more in line with canon; second, to give readers the ability to draw their own conclusions; and third, in order to maintain a degree of “personal continuity” among all of my stories, ensuring that nothing I write conflicts with something else I’ve written. Consequently, no matter how much I may believe that Skipper loves Marlene, putting the words “I love you” in his mouth has never been an option for me. Until now.

No, I have not decided to abandon my precedented writing style; I still believe that Skilene must first have a strong friendship at its foundation. I have, however, decided to exempt this project from my self-imposed limitations on direct Skilene material and continuity. Here’s how this project will be run:

If you are a fan of Skilene, have you ever wondered just exactly how Skipper and Marlene would fall in love? Each day during the month of September 2010, I will write and publish one short story outlining one possibility of how the two could theoretically get together. In total, there will be 30 of these fictional scenarios in this project, but they will all be independent of each other and of any other thing I have ever written or ever will write. In other words, each story is just one idea of how Skipper and Marlene could have gotten together -- no one scenario is held to a greater or lesser level of truth or fictional validity. Unlike with my two drabble projects, there are no restrictions on the number of words I can use in each story, but they still must be written on the date I present them as. (I may still think of ideas ahead of time, as long as I don’t write any of the actual stories beforehand.) I will also be publishing each story as an individual chapter and will, unless there are situations preventing me from doing so, publish a new chapter each day for the 30 days of this project.