Chapter Text
Standing outside of the prison's gate, Velvet took in a breath of fresh air. Her brother, Veneer, yelped with a startled jump when the warden himself slammed the gates closed. " Good Riddance! " he shouted, his eyes shielded by sunglasses, as they'd always been. He turned around and walked back to the building's doors, shouting furiously. "And while you're out there, learn to sing! No amount of practice in that cell will ever be enough for you!"
"Prick." Velvet hissed once he slammed those doors too, gone from sight. She then turned towards Veneer and eyed him judgmentally. "What just came out of your mouth?" she narrowed her eyes at him, "It sounded very undignifying."
"Uhm," Veneer stammered, holding the bulky performance suits they'd been wearing when arrested in his arms, "I call it 'yelling', and it's what happens when I get scared by things, like..." he said, dragging out the word "like", "door slamming?"
Velvet scoffed, "Well, try to make it sound more dignifying. I can't be seen walking around with a guy who screams like a little girl."
" There's nothing wrong with my scream. " Veneer mumbled. Velvet paid him no mind, which was unusual, but she was distracted at the moment. ' Where's the paparazzi? They're usually crawling all over the place by now. ' she hummed, biting the inside of her cheek. She pulled a strand of her green hair away from her ponytail and wound it around her finger. "See any cameras?" she asked Veneer, who shuffled closer to his sister out of habit. Veneer paused and glanced around quickly, even taking a moment to look at each window of the prison. "... No." he answered uncertainly, "Not unless you count the prison's cameras."
"Hm." Velvet hummed again, "Well, it's for the better. I don't have my makeup on anyways."
"Neither of us do." Veneer reminded her of his dilemma, "Maybe we should go home? Get better outfits, that don't make us look like we just got out of prison?"
"That would be favorable, if our penthouse hadn't of been repossessed, idiot." Velvet rolled her eyes. "O--Oh, right." Veneer smiled nervously, then frowned, "Aw, that means they took our penthouse, our yacht, my $450 curling iron--"
"And your illegal pet monkey."
Veneer drew in a loud, horrified gasp, "THEY TOOK MISTER CHUCKLES?!"
Velvet sighed irritably and grabbed her brother by the collar of his orange jumpsuit, then began to drag him towards Mount Rageous's shopping district while he mourned the loss of his very beloved pet. The prison was on the outskirts of the main city-- not quite the suburbs, but far enough away from the shopping district that Velvet almost walloped her brother over the head because she refused to carry him the whole way. Upon their arrival, no one seemed to notice them. Velvet was not pleased with this, but again, it was probably for the better. ' I need to fix myself up, first. What better way to do that than with a new outfit? ' she thought with a smirk. Behind her, Veneer was all but shaking. ' No one even recognizes us yet! Is that good, or bad? Is everyone mad at us? Do they miss us? ' he shivered, really not feeling like getting swarmed by fans-- or ex-fans-- at the moment. He didn't know what everyone would think of them once he admitted to trollnapping, troll torture, and fraud, but based on the audience's reaction from the Rage Dome show, seven months wasn't enough time for Mount Rageous to forget what he and his sister did. "Hey, uh, Vel? Maybe we should lay low for a bit?" he suddenly urged his sister, who was looking around the shop district for certain stores. "Why would I do that?" Velvet asked him. She was walking confidently, like she still had power. "B--Because!" Veneer walked faster-- almost doing a short sprint-- to catch up with his sister. "We may not be as popular as we once were." he whisper-yelled to her, alarmed that she was about to walk right in the middle of a crowd. "Oh, that would be your fault, right?" she waved him off, " Relax , Neer, I can almost guarantee that every Rageon on the Mount loves us, if it weren't for the fact that we've got haters that want to be us!"
Veneer was too nervous about Velvet's lack of concern to notice the hostile gazes and glares that lingered on the once-famous twins.
The glares grew quickly in numbers.
...
Velvet couldn't find anything too glamorous, sadly for her, but she did find something decent enough to satisfy her for a bit-- a long coat with shoulder pads and missing its sleeves, with a large long-sleeved shirt (with its arms shredded off at the mid-upper arm). The look was completed with black skinny jeans that disappeared into her platform boots. As for Veneer, he got a white sweater covered by a jean-jacket with its sleeves shredded off. He had on black flares for pants, which worked out because he was currently stuck with his massive platform boots. They both kept their earrings and bracelets and collars on, because style matters, but other than that, the overall look was tame compared to what the two are used to wearing.
Velvet was frowning when that thought crossed her mind.
"Ew." she muttered, looking at her reflection on the store's polished windows. Veneer, who'd gotten shopping bags to carry their things around in, deflated with dread when he heard his sister's words of disappointment. Thankfully (and luckily for him), Velvet said nothing further on the matter, rolling her eyes and turning to continue their walk through the district.
"Well, now that we're back in the Rage-Scene, we're going to need two things." Velvet said, not even turning towards Veneer as he jogged to keep up with her. "Financial support and a roof over our heads?" Veneer tried. His sister didn't comment on that, continuing as if he hadn't answered her. "Money, and a new assistant!" Velvet clapped her hands together once, "Obviously, we're not hiring Crimp again."
"Uh, Velvet?" Veneer speedwalked beside her for a moment, gaining her attention, "I really don't think we're in a good position to hire a new assistant, let alone get back in the limelight."
"Why not? Those fines didn't take all of our money!" Velvet rolled her eyes, "And we have been practicing."
"Y--Yeah, we have, and that's the problem." he pointed out, "Why did we have time to practice?"
At his not-so-subtle reminder of their recent release from prison, Velvet scoffed. "Please, you're seriously going to tell me that we don't have a single fan out there? Someone has to still be supportive of us and buy our music."
"Actually, no. No one does." said a stranger's voice.
Velvet and Veneer both paused their conversation to look for the voice's owner. It was then that they noticed the crowd that was starting to build up around them. Rageons of all shapes, sizes, color, and style were glaring at them, distrust and disgust making the air thick with tension. The voice that had spoken to the ex-superstars belonged to the Rageon standing closest to them-- she had black and grey skin, with long purple hair and a pastel pink dress-- and she looked ready to start a fight. "After the Rage Dome incident, everyone started canceling your music." she hissed, "There's no room for troll-exploiters in the Rageous industry."
Velvet turned aware from Veneer, not noticing how her brother was beginning to shake. "I'm sorry," she said with a raised eyebrow, "What are you saying?"
"No one plays your songs on the radio anymore." shouted someone else in the crowd, his masculine voice bellowing over the growing shouts, "They've been blacklisted on every station!"
"But they're great songs! Why--" Velvet tried to argue, only to be cut off by the crowd.
"You tortured innocent trolls!"
"Yeah, who'd support that?!"
"Uh, Vel," Veneer put his hand on his sister's shoulder, whispering in an unsteady voice, "I think we should go."
Velvet turned her head to snap at her brother, but stopped before she could start yelling when the surrounding Rageons started throwing things at them.
"Liars!"
"Frauds!"
"Troll-nappers!"
"Fakes!"
"Wait!" Velvet began to plead, dodging a half-empty fountain drink that'd been thrown at her, "Please, you used to love us--!"
She didn't get to finish, as the roar of the angry Rageons drowned out her voice. Veneer quickly grabbed his sister by the wrist and hauled her away, cutting through the massive circle of teenagers. "Veneer, what are you--?!" Velvet started to yell, but Veneer ignored her and pulled her away from everyone, his fear of an actual mobscene breaking out being more intense than his fear of his sister.
...
He didn't stop running (and dragging Velvet behind him) until they were at the edge of the shopping district and looking at the residential area of the great Mount. They had to slip into an alleyway at some point and not-so-gracefully dodge a car or two (courtesy of Veneer jaywalking in desperation to get away from the shopping district). It was only when Veneer let go of his sister and leaned against the side of a building that Velvet started yelling at him. "What in the name of RAGEOUS was THAT , Veneer?!" she screamed, her hands in the air, fingers flexing like she was going to strangle him. "V--Vel--!" her brother tried to reason with her between heavy breaths, but she wouldn't listen. "We could've gotten that under control!" She stomped her platform boot down as heavily as she could, "It was the first time that we've been seen by the public in seven months! And you BLEW IT! "
Veneer shrank backwards, holding his arms (still loaded with shopping bags) as close to his figure as possible. "For Mount's sake, you're insufferable!" she turned on her heel and raised her hand towards the building they were beside-- acting as though she were going to punch it-- then lowering her fist when she seemingly realized that the act would hurt her more than it would hurt the building. "Ugh!" she opted to grunt, thinking that it would be better than abusing her hand. Veneer stayed quiet, not speaking until his sister took a deep breath-- something she learned in prison, funnily enough. "I--I'm sorry, Velvet." he apologized shakily, "I just... I--I thought they were going to hurt us!"
"Maybe they were, maybe they weren't." she scoffed with a dismissive wave of her hand, arms half-crossed, "Running away makes us look guilty, and is probably the worst thing you could've done in that scenario."
"... But... aren't we guilty?" he raised an eyebrow at her logic. Velvet finally turned to face him again, "Guilty of what?! Being famous?! Being number one of Bop on Top?!"
Veneer couldn't help the half-lidded, deadpan expression on his face, "Trollnapping, troll torture, fraud--"
Velvet grabbed the nearest thing-- a potted plant on the building's nearby windowsill-- and chucked it at him. Veneer yelped and ducked, and the plant flew past him and broke on the street corner. "Th--That was a bit much, don't you think?!" he whined. Velvet glared at him, "I will throw another one."
"Fair point, you win! What's the plan now, sister dearest?" the younger one of the two smiled nervously at his sister, a scared chuckle escaping from him. "The plan," Velvet said through gritted teeth, "Is to get ourselves a house, for now. One that our bank account can handle until our career is back on its feet-- minus Crimp, obviously."
His sister walked past him, continuing to drone on about how much the little fuzzball needed to be thrown into a washer. Poor thing.
Veneer turned on his heel to follow his sister, a slight shake of dread in his footsteps. ' Getting a house is going to be impossible. ' he wanted to tell her, but the threat of being hit with whatever she could snatch off of the street corner was still present in his mind.
"I'm thinking a five bedroom house with a pool. What about you, Ven?" Velvet said, bringing his attention back to her. "Sounds good." came the automatic reply before he added, "I love a good pool."
"Great! Now we just need to find a real-estate agent and we'll be on our way!"
...
" What do you mean there's no houses?! " Velvet screamed, leaning in so closely to the orange Rageon's face that he had to wipe off his glasses. "There's no houses for sale. Sorry." he said, truly unapologetically. Veneer was shyly standing by the door to his office, still holding onto the shopping bags, watching with concern as Velvet blew a gasket. "There has to be something! " Velvet threw her hand at the wall in an exaggerative gesture, "A mansion, a condo, a penthouse, an apartment , even! Are you going to tell me that there's not a single place to move into in all of Mount Rageous?!"
"Oh, no," the orange Rageon said, a bored frown on his face, "There are houses and such for sale-- we're just not selling to you ."
Velvet's rage only intensified.
"Do you know who we are?! We can clearly afford any house you throw at us!" she stomped her platform boot, the heel tearing the carpet up a little. "Uh, Vel?" Veneer hesitantly tried to get her attention. Velvet didn't hear him, preparing to chew out the real-estate agent in front of her. "That's not the problem, Miss Velvet." The Rageon adjusted his glasses, standing up. He leaned forward, his hands on the desk, "My associates and I are aware of your financial abundance. What we're worried about is your reputation."
Velvet paused, taking a step back. The pause wasn't long, but it was just enough of a hiccup for the agent to continue. "Seeing as to how you and your brother are on police and public record for fraud, we do not feel comfortable allowing one of our prestigious homes to fall into your filthy hands."
" Filthy?! You son of a--!"
"Velvet, come on! Let's just leave!" Veneer said, stepping forward worriedly. "I'm afraid that many businesses have the both of you blacklisted, actually." the agent continued, "Real-estate agencies, insurance companies, major venues and concert halls..."
"But that's not fair! We have nowhere to go now!" Velvet screeched. The orange Rageon shrugged, as though he didn't care, "You could always leave Mount Rageous and live somewhere else?" he suggested.
Velvet stopped in her tracks, giving him a wide-eyed glare out of surprise.
"Velvet, please, can we go now?" Veneer carefully grabbed her wrist and leaned forward, almost like he was whispering to her. Velvet glared at the Rageon for a bit more, studying his features, before turning and walking away, almost whipping Veneer in the face with her ponytail. Veneer looked nervously between her and the orange Rageon, then speedwalked after his sister.
Once outside, Veneer barely managed to slip past the exit as Velvet slammed the door. "What in the Madonna is that guy's problem?! " she hissed, "He was a total pill! Ugh! The nerve!"
"W--Well, uh..." Veneer tried, almost backing down when Velvet turned her glare towards him. "Uhm..." he swallowed his bravery, "Maybe they're ex-fans too?"
Velvet rolled her eyes. "A hater, go figure." she spat. Then she looked across the street, a glimmer of sunlight off metal catching her attention. Looking at the sign, her eyes widened, then she looked down at her boots. "Veneer," Velvet said suddenly, before her brother could question her strange behavior, "I'm tired of walking, let's buy a car."
"Oh!" Veneer's eyes gleamed with excitement, genuinely not seeing a downside to getting a new car. "Come on." Velvet waved him towards her, then started walking off. Veneer ran to stay with her, the worry of unfriendly Rageons still hanging slightly above his head.
Once walking into the establishment, Velvet immediately went to the luxury vehicles. Veneer followed, hoping that she'd let him choose the car. Velvet stopped right before the first one, then angled her head slightly, as if she was too lazy to turn it. "Fetch whichever one you like. You're paying." she flicked her fingers in a shooing gesture. Veneer didn't take the gesture to heart, setting the bags down instead as he eagerly went off in search of a car that he liked. There was quite the selection of cars, all of which were affordable, thanks to their savings-- 'Which could run out quickly, if we're not careful.' Veneer realized with a bit of discouragement. The green-haired Rageon redirected his sights for the less-expensive luxury vehicles.
Don't get him wrong. He does want to save money, but once you own one (1) luxury vehicle, you simply cannot go back.
He wasn't prepared for the vehicle he found, however.
"My baby!" Veneer smiled so wide that his face almost split into two. He ran up to the red, white, and gold two-seater that he had grown very attached to in his two months of driving it. Hopping into the driver's seat of the vehicle, he took in its fine details. There was a distinct coffee stain in the back seat (which he remembers Velvet literally ripped his hair out for, because he stopped too hard at a red light, causing her to spill her scalding hot latte all over her legs), a scratch mark on said seat as well (also courtesy of Velvet's temper), and a barely noticeable bitemark in the steering wheel (again, Velvet's temper rose, and she shoved him into his own steering wheel). "Oh, the good memories are flooding back to me." he hugged the steering wheel. "You can take it." spoke up a Rageon who'd suddenly appeared beside the vehicle. Veneer jumped, but looked at him with innocent curiosity. "Pardon me, sir?" Veneer asked politely. "I said that you can take it. It's free." he snorted, "It's only worth about five thousand, but since no one wants it, it's yours."
Veneer actually looked a little sad as Velvet strolled up to the vehicle with the shopping bags. "I mean, I'm loving the discount, sir," Veneer said, "but why does no one want it?"
"Because you two were its previous owners." he rolled his eyes, "I mean, a custom-made two-seater? It was obvious."
He then tossed the keys at Veneer, who caught them with a near-heartbroken look on his face. "Now get. That eyesore's been in my dealership for seven months-- I'll die if it's here for even another seven seconds." he turned and walked away. Veneer could only stare after him, holding the keys in his hands. "And while you're at it," the dealership owner called back over his shoulder, "why don't you make yourselves scarce and leave Mount Rageous?"
Velvet glared after the man, her eyes narrowed into burning blue slits as she hissed. "What's with that loser?" she asked her brother. Veneer slowly shook his head, "I think we really messed up, Vel. Everyone hates us."
"Everyone does not hate us." Velvet said in the same tone as before, but when Veneer turned his head to meet her gaze, he noticed the waver of uncertainty in her expression. But she shook it off and patted his head, "Come on, Neer. Let's leave."
Veneer simply nodded his head, still worried, put the key in the ignition. Turning the key over, the vehicle started up with a roar, then idly purred before roaring again as he slammed on the gas pedal. Veneer peeled out of there by accident, but it seemed like the dealership owner was unfazed, as he hadn't even turned around to address the sound it made.
The moment Veneer pulled the vehicle into the parking lot, it seemed like there was a riot. He slammed on the breaks so as to not hit anyone.
It was the same crowd as before, and it had grown. Everyone was screaming, chanting, throwing sticks and soda cans and rocks, not caring if they hit one of the other Rageons in the crowd. "Frauds, frauds, frauds! " the Rageons were chanting over and over. "V--Velvet!" Veneer began panicking, trying to shield himself with his arm. Velvet felt her temper boiling. Leaning forward so that the rioting Rageons were focusing on her, she stood tall and screamed, "Listen up, Mount Rageons!"
There was a momentary pause in the shouting and throwing, but the tension in the air was so thick that you could cut it with a knife.
"You don't think that we're still using trolls, do you?" she announced, "Because this time, Velvet and Veneer are going to climb back to the top. On. Our. Own! What do you sat to that?"
Perhaps Velvet hoped to calm the crowd a little. Perhaps she even expected a round of applause for acknowledging their past mistakes.
But instead, the Rageons that surrounded them flew into an uproar.
"We don't WANT you back!"
"You should've stayed in prison!"
"There's no room for frauds on Mount Rageous!"
"Frauds, frauds, frauds!" They chanted, raging louder and louder.
'This is why we're called Rageons!' Veneer panicked. Seeing Velvet fall back into her seat, a pained expression on her face and a hand flying to her freshly bruised temple, Veneer's anxiety shot through the roof. With a scared cry, he put the pedal to the metal. The roar of the luxury vehicle's engine was enough of a warning to part the crowd in front of them, and Veneer drove past the wall of raging Rageons, swinging them onto the busy street, and flooring it down the road. In his panic to get away, just as he and Velvet had done at the Rage Dome, Veneer jumped the curb. Their vehicle sailed through the air, making a rough landing on the zero-gravity highway. "Ouch! Veneer!" Velvet shouted when she hit her head on the backseat. "Sorry! I'm so sorry!" Veneer apologized, tears in his eyes, "I--I'm just so scared, Vel! They hate us!"
Velvet seemly bit back a snarl, finally backing down from the argument that she'd been having with her brother all day. 'He's right.' she finally accepted, 'Oh my god, he's right.'
Velvet screamed out of frustration, digging her nails into her head. "God, this is all your fault! Yours and that stupid troll!" she hissed, "And CRIMP! Rageous, I hate her!"
Suddenly, as they were quickly approaching the outskirts of Mount Rageous' highway, they were slammed from the side.
Velvet and Veneer both shouted out of surprise, Veneer having to swerve the vehicle so they wouldn't fly off the highway. All around them, vehicles were swerving and jumping lanes, following the ex-superstars like a pack of hungry sharks.
"Get out!"
"You're not welcome here!"
"Leave the Mount!"
Through the ramming, slamming, swerving, screaming, horn-honking mess that was the highway, the message was clear to Velvet and Veneer.
They need to leave.
Right now.
As they were quickly approaching a construction zone, Veneer saw another road. It was relatively incomplete-- he's fairly certain it was an abandoned project-- and it wasn't even connected to the highway, but there was just enough road for him to jump the barrier.
When they came up to it, he took in a deep, hyperventilating breath. "Velvet, hang on!" he screamed. Velvet held on tightly, then saw where Veneer was looking. "Veneer, no, don't you DARE--!" she screeched, her eyes shut tightly as Veneer practically U-turned the vehicle, smashing through the construction barriers, sailing through the air, then slamming onto the incomplete road. The vehicle bounced a couple of times from the abuse, and Veneer had to drift it at an angle to correct the direction, but soon they were driving away smoothly, the pandemonium on the highway fading as they got further and further away.
If Veneer had been paying attention, he would've noticed that the sign on the exit said "Vacay Island".