Chapter Text
Working for Voxtech wasn’t all bad. The pay was good and the work wasn’t too strenuous. The problem was the hours. 8AM to 7PM. Nearly twelve hours a day.
No one else was willing to hire you though, because of the way you’d died. Drug overdosers never managed to get jobs. Let alone keep them. You’re always seen as potentially unstable, even if you manage to go clean.
But Voxtech is willing to hire anybody, so they’re never at a shortage of workers. You managed to get one of the higher ranking jobs cleaning sheets for Valentino and dresses for Velvette as opposed to working in a sweatshop making Hellphone circuit boards.
Occasionally you’d run into Valentino or Velvette. Valentino always seemed to size you up, as if wondering whether or not you’re sexy enough to be in one of his pornos.
Velvette seemed to be indifferent towards you. She’d glance at you casually but never say anything unless giving you a dress to clean. Despite being nearly a foot taller than her, you felt intimidated by her. Valentino at least seemed somewhat laid back, but Velvette was… intense. Often yelling at her models or other workers. Your tendency not to ever talk seemed to have spared you from her wrath though.
That was, until one of the dresses you’d cleaned came out wrinkled
”Y/N YOU USELESS BITCH!” Was the first thing you heard as you wheeled a cart of sheets through the modeling room. You froze and turned to face Velvette, who was stomping towards you holding a dress you had washed an hour earlier.
She grabbed the collar of your shirt and pulled you down to her eye level, and you began to sweat nervously. “This dress is WRINKLED. Aren’t you supposed to be making them as good as new back there??” She nodded her head towards the laundry room you had been heading towards.
“Sorry, miss Velvette, ma’am.” You answered anxiously, your heart pounding. “Would you like me to run it through the laundry again?” Velvette let go of your collar, allowing you to stand straight up again before handing you the dress.
”Just don’t fuck it up again.” She told you angrily, looking up at you. “Or I’ll replace you with one of the sweatshop workers. At least they work hard.” She turned and strutted back towards her models.
You carefully placed the dress atop the sheets and continued on towards the laundry room. You placed the dress into the dry cleaner and proceeded to wash all of the sheets as well.
You made sure to take the dress out of the cleaner as soon as it was finished, and ironed it extra carefully this time. You left the sheets behind to finish their cycles as you brought the dress back out into the modeling room.
You found Velvette and anxiously walked up to her. “…and fix your makeup, you look like a clown.” She snapped at the model she was talking to. She turned on her heel and upon seeing you she immediately examined the dress.
“Hm. Well done. Maybe you’re not completely useless after all.” Velvette took the dress and gave you a quick smirk before turning around and shouting, “BEATRICE! Go put this on!” You couldn’t help but feel a little flustered at the praise Velvette had given you. You quickly shook yourself out of it and headed back into the laundry room.
You ironed and folded all the sheets and placed them into a clean cart and began to roll them back to Valentino’s studio. You noticed before you left the modeling room that Velvette was watching you leave. That was a bit weird.
You continued to swap cleaned sheets with more dirty ones from Valentino’s studio, awkwardly avoiding eye contact with the porn stars, and went back and forth washing sheets over and over until your shift ended.
Voxtech had some on-site apartments if workers preferred to live there. They still charged rent but you didn’t have to commute to work every day. Plus, it was always safe during exterminations.
You opened the door to your dingy two-room apartment. Exactly how you left it. You walked into the kitchen and grabbed an orange from the fridge and began to peel it. You laid down in your bed and turned on your TV. You were immediately met with Katie Killjoy’s grating voice announcing that the extermination had been moved up to six months from now.
You sighed heavily. Of course Heaven would pull something like that. You finished eating your orange and laid down to go to sleep. But a knock at your door got you up to answer it.
”Good evening sir!” A squeaky voice called. You looked down to see a three foot tall frog dressed in a suit. “Sorry to interrupt but I am an assistant to Miss Velvette herself, and she’s sent me to give you this.” The small intern gave you a small bow as he handed you a small business card and waddled off.
The card had a confetti PNG base with the words “you’re promoted!” Written in red cursive pen. You turned it over to see more writing which read “be in my office at 10AM prepared to model dresses. -Velvette”
You stared at the card, thoroughly confused by the fact that of all jobs you could’ve been given, it was dress modeling. You placed the card down on your counter and laid back down in bed, turning off your 7AM alarm. And you began to wonder. Why had Velvette chosen you?