Post-Con

by Bicyclette

not a florie not a florie not a florie

The delicate petal of the wisteria bloom pressed gently on Wallflower’s finger. Fading violet pushed back against the green of her skin as she lifted up the flower from its vine just enough to get at her quarry. Pinching those few strands of impossibly silk-smooth hair, she carefully unwound the pink from the purple until the wayward strands could join their sisters, untangled and free..

For a moment, she held them both oh so gently by her fingertips. Two beautiful, dead things, shot through with capillaries that could still hold water in their post-mortem, giving them the illusion of life. But one felt so much more lifelike than the other. Gently, her finger stroked the curve of the petal, feeling a warmth from it that she knew was not truly there.

Then, holding the stem, she lifted the wisteria bloom out of its bed of pink, untangled strands parting from it on either side. Carefully, she stuck the bloom in its place on the vase on the hotel nightstand, stem in the water to suck it up through capillary action, hopefully giving the petals another day of lifelikeness.

“Only a few more,” she said, to the back of Fluttershy’s head. “Sorry it’s taking so long, I thought that it would take a lot less time getting these things out than putting them in.”

“Oh, you know. I’m not going to complain about you running your fingers through my hair.” Though as quiet as Fluttershy’s normal speaking voice, there was just that hint of something when she said, “And I’m sure you wouldn’t, either.”

Wallflower flushed a bit, and she swore she could see her smug smile through the back of her head. She tried to focus on the next branch, but the sight of the soft curves of the bell-shaped blossoms certainly didn’t help things.

“You know, you’re different from your usual self here.“

“Oh? What do you mean?”

“You’re more sure of yourself. You’re more confident. I like it.” Freeing another bloom, she stroked the spot of it with the back of her hand, one set of knuckles against the plant and the other against the mammal. ”I like it a lot, actually.”

Fluttershy giggled.

“I guess that makes sense. it’s just a very different kind of place, at a florie con, you know? Everyone’s just so accepting here.“

“Yeah. Everyone’s very nice here, aren’t they?”

She took out a particularly tricky knot of hair, letting her concentration break.

“Are you sure you don’t want to go to that room party without me? I really will be fine just by myself here, you know.”

“Wally…” Fluttershy laid a hand on Wallflower’s knee. She still had her plantsuit on, so Wallflower could feel the calming texture of cork leather.through her jeans.

“I took us here to show you what it’s like at a florie con. I’m not going to leave you behind in a hotel room so I can talk to the same friends I’ve been talking to all day.”

“I just don’t want you to miss out on anything because of me.”

“Well, if I go without you, I miss out on an evening with my girlfriend. That wouldn’t be so great, would it?”

Wallflower frowned in a way she probably wouldn’t had Fluttershy been facing her. As if Fluttershy could see it, she began to comfortingly rub Wallflower’s knee.

“And it’s really okay if you don’t want to go. I want to be with you where you’re comfortable. And you’re already doing so much, coming out here with me. I know it’s out of your comfort zone.“

“Well, I mean, everything’s outside of my comfort zone. That’s kind of my problem.”

Fluttershy gave her a squeeze. “If that’s your problem, it’s my problem, too. I understand.”

Sucking in a breath, Wallflower peeled another branch free from Fluttershy’s hair, feeling a tinge of satisfaction despite herself. She contemplated it for a moment, before joining it with its sisters in the vase.

“The blooms in the hair really turned out great. A lot better than a wig, that’s for sure.”

“I know, right? I mean, you were there. Everyone was complimenting me about it. Even IvyWhisper.”

“IvyWhisper?”

“She was the one that took the selfie with me? The one with the eye makeup? Magnolia plantsona”

“Oh? Oh. Oh, yeah, I liked hers.”

Fluttershy giggled.

“So, yeah. That one meant a lot.”

Wallflower blinked, realizing what was in her hand.

“Oh, hey, that was the last one!” She completed the collection of wisteria blooms, looking for all the world a pretty uninspired floral arrangement.

“Great!”

With a flourish, Fluttershy got up to shake loose her flowing mane before leaning back onto the bed, resting the back of her head on Wallflower’s knees. She stared up into her with her shimmering blue eyes, that confidence in them, and smiled..

“You know, IvyWhisper will probably be at Treehugger’s room party. If you ever wanted to see her with her hair down.”

Wallflower made a nervous noise. “Well, if I didn’t feel comfortable going to that room party before…”

Fluttershy laughed. “She’s very down-to-earth once you get to know her. And I’ll be there and I know both of you so it won’t actually be like talking to a new person. And- Oh, wow.”

“What is it?”

Fluttershy’s voice was tinged with a bit of her old quietness. “I think Rainbow’s said the exact same thing to me before. And I know how that felt.” She looked at her. “Just want to make sure you know. I’m not trying to get you to change your mind. I know it’s a lot.”

“I know…” She sighed. “I want to want to go, you know?”

“That’s not the same as wanting to go.”

“I know! And everyone’s been so nice and you’ll be there so I know everything’s going to be okay so I don’t really have a reason not to go.”

“You don’t need a reason.” Fluttershy took Wallflower’s hand with a comforting paw of cork leather. “And you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to. We’ll just have a nice evening here, the two of us. And, you know. Hold on. Could you?”

She got up, standing still as Wallflower sat up to unzip the back of her plantsuit before flopping back down onto the bed. Fluttershy stepped out of the plantsuit, stretching for a moment before crawling back into the bed to nestle herself against the bark of the rough sweater Wallflower always wore, even now. Skin against sweater against breathable cotton against soft skin against pulsing, warm blood, no longer muted. Wallflower tried to ignore that as Fluttershy continued.

“You know, we could even just drive back tomorrow instead of doing the second day of the con, if you want. I saw my friends, I finally got to take you to one of these things, I’m pretty happy.”

Wallflower shook her head. “No, I want to do the second day!”

“Really?”

“Yeah! Tagging around with my girlfriend, surrounded by flories and observing them as a nondescript non-florie? I liked that part.”

Fluttershy snorted. “Oh, right, you’re not a florie. I know that. I mean, you’ve told me that before.”

“Yeah! Like I said, I’m like, worse than a florie.”

“‘Worse’? What does that even mean?”

“Well, you know? There’s this culture of, like, being weird and owning it, you know? Being earnest, and nice, and non-judgmental, and not being afraid to express yourself. But I spent my whole life trying not to be weird, and not expressing myself. And, like, it’s not a matter of being in the right environment, or whatever. It’s almost like not expressing myself is how I express myself.”

(Suddenly she could feel the itchiness of the sweater on her, the one she returned to after that brief phase of bright smiles and sundresses after the one big literally magical epiphany that surely meant her life would be completely different forever.)

“You know,” Fluttershy said, “dressing up as a plant isn’t what being a florie is.”

“I know.” Wallflower sighed. “But there’s the nonjudgmental stuff too, you know? And I feel like judging everyone is all I do sometimes.“

She squeezed Fluttershy.

“Not you. You’re, like, the only one I don’t? But a lot of the time I just can’t shake off how weird all of this is.”

“Or maybe you just have internalized stuff to work through.” Fluttershy squeezed back. “Or at least you would, if you were a florie. Which you’re not.”

“No, I’m not,” Wallflower agreed enthusiastically. “I don’t have a ‘plantsona’. I don’t actually want to be a tree or whatever. I just… really like plants.”

“Yes, that’s right,” Fluttershy agreed even more enthusiastically. “And you just like it that your girlfriend has a plantsona, and dresses up like a tree. And when other girls do. And you really like writing about really liking plants on a certain secret blog that’s certainly not yours, all without being a florie. All of that is just okay. I mean, I’m not about to tell you how to identify.”

Wallflower laughed, a low rumbling somewhere between a chuckle and a giggle.

“Okay, I admit it. Part of the fun is meeting all of these people and not having a single one of them know that I’m internet famous.“

“That is kind of fun. I think what they’d be the most surprised by is that you’re not thirty.”

“Thanks. I put a lot of work into my teenage angst to make it not like the other teenage angsts out there. It’s the one thing I did in high school that I can be the most proud of.”

Fluttershy seemed to giggle lightly at that, but Wallflower heard something else too at the end. A quiet sigh, in a mixture of sympathy and exasperation.

“Wally?”

“Yeah?”

“Do you want me to put the plantsuit back on?”

“No,” Wallflower lied. “I mean, you were in it all day…”

“I’ll take a shower in the morning. And I’ll leave the back open. It’ll be fine.”

Fluttershy wriggled out of her halfhearted embrace, and before she knew it, she was the one being embraced by the comforting touch of cork leather. The hint of warmth beneath it, without the warmth itself.

“There’s this one dog at the shelter that won’t let us even approach her unless we’re wearing this ratty old sweater she came in with. You can imagine what state it’s in.”

“Are you comparing me to one of your rescue animals again?”

“I thought you liked it when I did that.”

Wallflower smiled, her eyes closed..

“I do.”

“Good.”

She sighed contentedly, as Fluttershy cooed.

“I just want to be a tree, and hold you like this, on the shore of a peaceful lake. And the animals will burrow and play and live and die under the shelter of my branches.”

Comments

[Miskr]

First!

I am first... *old YouTube thoughts intensify*

[TasermonsPartner]

There really aren't enough Fluttershy/Wallflower fics. I mean, don't get me wrong, some of the Sunset/Wally fics are utterly fantastic, but there's so much potential with this couple...admittedly, I never thought of this particular scenario as being part of that potential, but...

I must say, you got Fluttershy's personality spot-on. Not every writer gets that EQG-Fluttershy has a slightly different personality than her pegasus counterpart, but you did great here. I love how she's more like a counselor here, and more open, and knows what to say at the right moment. The line where she comforts Wally by telling her she doesn't need to have a reason to not want to go to the party...that is the type of understanding you get from human Fluttershy. She understands humans just as well as animals sometimes.

[Mockingbirb]

I certify that this story was added to the contest folder BEFORE the contest deadline.

[Moproblems Moharmoney]

I love the little notion of Wally "backsliding", it's something that's often ignored in fimfics I find.

[Thought Prism]

I was literally just talking to people in Discord about how more people need to ship Wallflower with people other than Sunset, and then you go and post this very interesting short romance. You wrote these two in a very soft manner I appreciate.

[FanOfMostEverything]

“I want to want to go, you know?”
“That’s not the same as wanting to go.”

Lord, ain't that a mood...

Brilliant work in portraying the interaction between these two. Introversion comes in many forms, after all. We've seen how eagerly Fluttershy can come out of her shell in the right subculture. Wallflower, meanwhile, thrives in shade (not that she's a florie) and has a fascinatingly paradoxical sense of comfort in discomfort. She's so used to feeling self-conscious, not doing so is like having the ground fall out from under her.

In all, outstanding character study. Thank you for it and best of luck in the judging.

[Captain_Hairball]

This was gorgeous and sweet and I do not at all identify with Wallflower keeping everything inside. Nope.

Dang, FlutterFLower is a great ship, isn't it? Nice to see Shy being the emotionally resilient one.

[Bicyclette]

11564957
congratulations!
11564973
aww, thank you so much for this comment! i agree it is a great ship, with Fluttershy's personality making her well-equipped to understand and comfort Wallflower. and this did make me look up this pairing on FimFic which led to the surprise of finding out that this very fic might be the first romance fic of it? i find that shocking, since i kind of assumed it would be the second-most popular Wallflower ship after Sunset
11565024
thank you for the contest birb! i would not have written this story, nor ideated the much weirder story i am going to write later, without it
11565074
yep! as it turns out a single profound epiphany does not magically change all parts of your personality forever
11565081
you talk to people on Discord?

and thank you! writing this fic and looking up if other people had shipped them before have definitely given me ideas for more Wallflower ships
11565083
so true bestie especially the part of Wallflower not being a florie

and an insightful analysis of the character study complete with canon references as justification as always, FoME, thank you so much!
11565244
aww, thank you so much! and yes i theoretically may have written enough of myself into this Wallflower to the point where i actually am worrying it's deviating too much from her canon character. theoretically.

[Mockingbirb]

11570928

the much weirder story i am going to write later

I am eager to see this.

[Captain_Hairball]

11570928

I mean modifying canon characters to work out our own personal issues is one of the key element of fanfic, isn’t it? I’ve done this a million times with Fluttershy.

Anyway, I think this is a very good interpretation of her.

[EileenSaysHi]

This was a short and sweet tale boasting a pairing that we don’t tend to see very much of, which is a shame when animal lover and girl-who-thinks-plants-are-an-acceptable-substitute-for-friends seems like a natural fit for a pairing. It’s probably a bit too short, presenting a neat setting and premise but ultimately unable to do a lot with it in under 2k words. But in those words you manage to do some good work with these two personalities, and I’m definitely intrigued by the plans you have for your original idea that inspired this. Thank you for the submission.

[Bicyclette]

11571007
gonna have to wait a bit im afraid! i really want to get it right and i don't quite have anything nailed down except for the first scene

11571725
thank you! do hope to write more of her soon

11589339
thank you for the kind words! i was short on time so it ended up being short on length, but i hope there was something to enjoy at least. and again i also am very surprised so little has been done with this pair

[Loganberry]

Hello! I'm reading and reviewing all the treefics, so here's yours. An imaginative idea (with bonuses for those who are, or like me used to be, in furry!) and a nice way to make this pairing seem natural. Liked!

[Ice Star]

Short, sweet, and a lovely shipping treat. I’d be down to see the prequel.