The Janitor's Assistant (Control — Video Game)
Sunset's Isekai
The Janitor's Assistant (Control — Video Game)
By Wanderer D
*Cast and references in Author's Notes.
Jesse Faden turned on the lights as she walked up to the room, and waited patiently as one by one the lights came on, as if prompted by the previous one to get on with it and get out of bed.
The flickering, yellow light of the desk lamp in the room cast stark shadows around the room before it finally stabilized with a low hum of electrical protest, revealing the mess of papers on the desk. Gritty concrete walls painted red from about shoulder height down, barely decorated with some posters and pictures, and a dart board. An old sofa with an even older-looking coffee table stacked with odd magazines of random topics ranging from gardening to DIY shelf-making, to plumbing, and even an esoteric issue about 'mold people' on the corner next to the lamp.
That, plus a coat rack with its prerequisite dusty coat hanging from it, and a bowler hat tilted on top. Metal lockers and a table mostly made all of the contents in the room, except for the slightly tilted, barely-held-together cork tack board on one of the walls, which is what she had come to check.
'And here I am again. The Janitorial Office. The one place that really reveals what my job is all about. I may have the big title and office, but what good does that make if I believe my place is there and not here, where I can find out what needs to be done to essentially save the world?' The thoughts accompanied her as she stepped in fully into the office.
Her hand went absently over to her belt, where the cassette player was secured. Touching it, she smiled as she glanced around. 'No sign of Ahti. That's good, that means he's still on vacation. Funny that someone having a holiday is so comforting. But still…' she glanced at the board, suspiciously empty of additional work, or just about anything other than a single business card for a bar, which she took from it with some confusion, twirling it in her hands as she went over her mental checklist of things to make sure reality didn't collapse around everyone in the building, and/or prevent them from being eaten by extradimensional moss.
'Seems like there's nothing at the moment.' Jesse sagged and sat down on the table with a tired sigh, glancing at the card in her hand, finding no address or phone number on it. 'It's been months of near constant work. We seem to have a handle on the Hiss remnants for now, and nothing new has come from the Foundation expedition.' She twirled the card in her hands. 'It's been a while since I went out… I could really use a drink.' She chuckled to herself, shaking her head as she gathered her willpower and stood up again, ready to go back up to her office, when she felt the resonance within herself.
'Polaris… she's telling me something. Something's… changed?' She looked around the room again, and immediately noticed that the door that would normally take her towards the Ventilation area had changed.
No longer was it made of metal—it was now carved, dark wood, with a somewhat familiar symbol on it. Blinking, she looked down at the card in her hand, where the yin-yang sun was depicted. Immediately wary, she used her senses on the card, then the door.
"This… this could be dangerous," she muttered, frowning as she approached it. Unlike many other objects of power, this door was too unique to comprise an archetype of a door, which meant that it was either vastly more powerful, or something that just wouldn't have existed in that world.
She considered her options. Previous history with suddenly-appearing objects leaned heavily onto the realm of nasty results. 'Maybe I should bond the do—' she immediately reared back when she felt Polaris' reaction to the thought. 'Nope, bad idea? But…' her frown turned into surprise when she felt the slight push of intent. 'So you're saying not to bond it… but still go in? Is it safe?' She shook her head, sometimes wishing that she could hear a voice rather than intent, but Polaris had never failed her. It had always protected her and led her right. Even here, in the Oldest House.
"If you say so…"
The chime of a silver bell. 'This place feels different.' Jesse thought, stepping past the door into a small corridor made of red bricks. 'I the air is fresher, I still feel like I'm inside a huge creature, but this time I'm not being constantly watched. It doesn't feel like I'm going to be ambushed, distorted or trapped if I'm not careful…' Her eyes narrowed. 'Suspicious.'
She made her way through the short corridor and up just a couple of steps to where she could see a room. Or more accurately, a bar. Several tables waited for customers; a jukebox at the far end of the room lit the area about it with neon colors; pictures, posters, and artifacts lined the walls, some of them mundane, others pulsing with power.
Closer to where she stood, at the entrance and the cashier, was a crystal container with some sort of golden liquid. 'I feel it passively probing the area around… I wonder what it does?' She walked further in, taking in the strange creatures in the pictures. Unicorns. Griffons. Dragons. Aliens. Furries. She paused when she saw the spider in its terrarium. 'Dangerous…'
"Welcome to Sunset's Isekai, my little bar in the Omniverse!"
Jesse blinked at the bartender, a young woman with red and gold hair, a tinge of orange to her skin that seemed to be natural, and striking teal eyes. 'Omniverse? Does she mean she has access to other places? Places like the slide? The Hiss? She's not human…'
"Hello." She said awkwardly, trying not to seem uncomfortable, suddenly being on the spot. "I uh, didn't see you there."
The bartender smiled, grabbing a menu and motioning for Jesse to take a seat. "Don't worry, when people with deeper perceptions walk into the bar, they usually take in the outside objects first, and I tend to fade into the background while they do so."
Jesse narrowed her eyes. "I don't understand how that's possible… you are brimming with power."
Indeed, the bartender had an aura that put to shame just about anything she had seen so far. 'How did I not notice her? She wasn't hiding her presence, and she eclipses the energy of everything else in here by magnitudes.'
"Maybe you were looking at the trees rather than the forest?" the bartender asked ponderously, before shrugging and placing the menu on the bar for Jesse's perusal. "Anyway, I'm Sunset Shimmer, welcome again to my bar."
Jesse nodded as she felt a slight nudge from Polaris. 'I did want a drink…' She started reading the options.
"If you don't mind my asking," the bartender—Sunset—spoke up, "It seems you used one my business cards to visit, did someone give it to you?"
'The card. I know it wasn't there yesterday, and the only one that would go to that room, or send anything there really…'
Jesse nodded, pulling out the card from her pocket, studying it for a moment before showing it to the other woman. "Ahti."
Sunset smiled. "It's been a while since I've seen him. How's the old codger?"
"He's taking a vacation." Jesse responded, unwilling to provide too much information, given how little she knew of Sunset herself.
Around her senses, Polaris lay, not dormant, but… content, somehow, yet her experiences made her wary of the calm. 'How much does she know, really? How much should I say?'
"Good for him," Sunset said, nodding firmly. "Being at it for thousands of years does get on your nerves after a while, no matter how menial the task. He must've found one hell of an assistant."
Jesse's smile was self-deprecating. "Well, here I am."
Sunset gave her a look before letting out a proper belly laugh. "No wonder you need a drink. The Old House is a pain in the ass. Especially since Director Ash stepped in." She shook her head. "That man should have known he was way out of his league."
Jesse blinked. "You knew Director Ash?"
"I had the misfortune of bumping into him during a visit," Sunset replied with a sour grimace. "Utterly convinced he had things under control, which he didn't, and utterly convinced of the benevolence personally awarded to him by… not so benevolent beings." She snorted, crossing her arms. "If Ahti hadn't stepped in, his entire crew would have been gone in an instant."
"I see."
That matched with the history she knew of the Oldest House, and was safely within the parameters of what she had learned in the Foundation. 'But, what is your agenda? How do you know so much? Are you like Ahti, and if so, benevolent?' Jesse started when she felt Polaris give her the ethereal equivalent of a smack to the back of the head.
"Have you decided what you'd like? If you're Ahti's assistant and he gave you the card, I can put the first drink on his tab."
"He has a tab?" Jesse asked weakly. She shifted in her seat, looking around and imagining Ahti in his overalls sipping his drink.
'Ahti is essentially an ancient god. And he has a tab in a bar, likes to fish, and visit woodlands with the commodities of modern day convenience.' She sighed, letting the thought push away some of her wariness. "That's oddly reassuring."
"What is?" Sunset asked.
"Um… nothing." Jesse perused the menu, noticing some of her favorite cocktails were listed, while drinks she would normally avoid were completely missing from it, even if they were on the shelves behind Sunset. It was as if the bar knew her already. "I'll uh, have whatever Ahti would order out of these."
"MacCutcheon on the rocks it is."
Jesse straightened up. "Never heard of the brand." Watching Sunset, who had turned around, grabbing a bottle from almost the top of the shelf. 'Oh. Ahti might not be happy about this one.'
"I'm not surprised, it's not something you can find in many worlds."
Jesse leaned on the bar, holding her hands to her face. "Many worlds? Just… how expensive is it?"
Sunset chuckled, pouring her a glass and placing it in front of her. "In some worlds? A single shot could be over a thousand dollars? In my bar? Not quite that much." She shrugged. "Besides, I've forgiven his tab a few times. Ahti is just… he really needed a break. He cares a lot more than he lets on."
Jesse snorted, relaxing a little. "That he does." She took a deep breath, letting the aroma from the whisky reach her nostrils. The smokiness, spices and hints of wood. It smelled delicious, so she took a sip. "Hmm."
Sunset nodded. "Yep, that's usually the reaction."
"I have questions."
"Many people do," Sunset replied, leaning one elbow on the bar. "I'll try to help, but your world is not my own. I might be limited on how much I can help."
"You said you met former director Ash, how did that happen?"
"Hm." Sunset pushed back and went over to grab a glass of whisky for herself before walking around the bar to sit on a stool next to Jesse. "I guess my answer depends on whether you've been to the Foundation or not."
"I have." Jesse nodded. 'The Foundation, the place where it all started, where the FBC had been effectively created. Where Director Ash had found the Service Weapon. Where the Nail was located… so much happened there. Is it any wonder that it would be at the center of even this new event?'
"Well, then, I was on a regular treasure hunt, you know? Old Scrooge and my business partner, Rarity, had found documents indicating a powerful device that was hidden somewhere in this particular corner of the omniverse. So, naturally, I came by to check it out. Turns out that Director Ash and his team had just broken through the lowest levels of the Old House and found their way into the Foundation."
"What… did you find?"
Sunset lifted her glass and swirled the cubes and whisky inside, watching the amber-gold liquid slosh a little. "When I arrived… there was a column. Black, obsidian like, and stretching up from far underground to the ceiling above. Nothing was happening, there were some entities there, but nothing of note other than some busybodies that threatened me for a while. Then, when the FBC broke in, things… changed.
"The column broke before they arrived, cut by the entities, who then lifted the upper half until only the tip was visible on this side of reality. They called themselves the Board and used that piece to filter out the voices of others in there, and uh—" she blushed a little, "—I admit they caught me by surprise. I was rendered ethereal at that moment. So I watched the FBC meander about and study everything, subtly guided by the entities that had broken the column, which they called the Nail now."
Jesse frowned. "Wait, the Pyramid is part of the Nail?"
Sunset shrugged. "It's simple but effective. You have two spiritual parts of the same unifying object. A nail is essentially something that binds things together, a pyramid concentrates power or intent into a single point. If the pyramid is what completes the nail, then…"
"The intent, and thoughts are bound together," Jesse muttered.
"Exactly, if you're inside the Oldest House, which ethereally is located now under the Pyramid, you are bound by the intent from above, and the pull from below."
"But if you're at the same level as the Nail, the intent is dispersed… there's no binding or glue to behold you to the single thoughts…" Jesse shook her head. "Is… that why I could understand the Former there, but not above?"
"I'm not sure who the Former is, but at least there would be less interference from the Board," Sunset said. She cleared her throat. "I realize this sounds weird coming from someone that's from another dimension, but you have to be careful who and what you trust from other realms, no matter how benign they might seem."
"Tell me about it." Jesse snorted again, and took a deep drink out of her glass, wincing as the whisky burned her throat a little. 'Damn good whisky though.'
"I don't trust just anyone," Jesse continued, allowing a slight hint of bitterness to enter her voice. "Outside of Ahti and… someone else, I can't afford to believe people or entities have my best interests in mind. Even when I thought I was living my own life, it turns out that everything I did, everything I said was recorded, notated, analyzed and archived. Even if I'm the Director now, I'm in the dark about what the Bureau wants."
She sighed, letting the weight finally show in front of this stranger. "It's… hard. Hard to deal with the politics on top of the secrets, on top of the danger. When are you supposed to feel calm or safe when the mere acknowledgement by those around you that an object is exactly what it is turns it into the primal, archetypal representation of itself with often malignant intent?
"Everyone wants to keep their secrets, to guard their place, to protect their interests, hide their knowledge, but they expect me and everyone else to somehow figure things out and make them work in spite of that." She snorted. "I couldn't get a single straight answer most of the time. Everything is redacted, classified, protected… even being the Director I have to go through hoops and chase red herrings before they feel like they have no other choice but to be honest… even my allies!
"I'm in a position where power is implied, but denied. Where the change I can effect can only come from breaking the whole establishment, but even those that want me to change things feed further their agenda to possess—not change—the establishment they 'so hate'. Is it any wonder that the real job of the Director is to be the assistant of the janitor? I do my job and clean up after the mess they create themselves, despite their mistrust, and despite their envy… and whatever little respect I get is undermined by the sheer greed of these people, gossip, the Board and anyone else that has a stake in it."
Jesse clenched her fists, closing her eyes and forcing herself to slow her breathing. 'I had never… been this honest with anyone other than you, Polaris. Is this normal? Am I being manipulated? Or have I just had enough?'
The sound of whisky being poured into her glass made her open her eyes and blink.
"Hey, it's okay," Sunset said, turning to pour a bit more into her own glass. "This is what I'm here for." She motioned with her head at the wall of pictures. "The majority of those pictures are of people that came here because life was getting to them. They needed a place to relax without worrying about being judged or attacked." She shrugged, smiling. "This is what my bar is about."
Jesse liked her lips. "No Board, no agendas?"
Sunset shook her head.
"No interdimensional invasions or wandering evils from the dark corners of the universe?"
"None of those, no one, and nothing with bad intentions can walk through that door," Sunset assured her.
Jesse drank her whisky, then reached over to the menu. "Um. It says here I can order food?"
Sunset grinned, motioning over to one of the tables. "Come on, let's get you somewhere more comfortable. Then you can tell me all you want, and I'll listen."
Jesse stepped out of the bar with both, a card of her own, and a small picture frame, where Sunset, herself and—incredibly—Polaris sat around a table full of food and drinks. She shook her head in wonder at the whole thing, turning to find that the door to Sunset's Isekai was now gone.
'For now.'
Jesse let out a small sigh and stretched, feeling refreshed after a long, long conversation with Sunset Shimmer. She still wanted to investigate if there had been other sightings, and she still had questions about what Sunset had been doing in the Foundation, but…
"I can leave that for next time."
The radio on her belt buzzed to life. "Director? Are you there?"
She took it and brought it up closer to her face. "I'm here, Frederick, what's going on?"
"We had some weird reactions in the Panopticon, do you mind coming over to check them out?"
Jesse snorted. "Of course you did," she muttered, then pressed the radio's button. "Roger that, I'll be right there."
She replaced Ahti's card where she had found it, then put away her card and the picture. "Time to get back to work—" she grinned, "—but at least now I have a full stomach."
The End
Stats
Page generated in 0.037 seconds
Total duration
886 users online
562,636 hits today, 2,280,440 yesterday
FIMFiction
My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic Fanfiction
Designed and coded by knighty & Xaquseg - © 2011-2024
Follow & Support Us
Support us
SubStar
Chat!
Discord
Follow us
Twitter
MLP: Friendship is Magic® - © 2024 Hasbro Inc.®
Fimfiction is in no way affiliated with or endorsed by Hasbro Inc.®
The old cover art was better
I've watched https://www.twitch.tv/genesisw playing 'Control' a few times. And also 'Alan Wake', which takes place in the same universe.
I've just started playing this game (and watched a full LP of it, so nothing was spoiled) so great timing all around. :) Fun little story as well.
11108169
It has potential, if all the characters were drawn in a similar style. Something to unify them a bit more, but it just seems... lazy in it's current iteration, being just images pasted over a generic bar background.
It needs some consistency is all, the idea behind it is good, but the execution is very lacking imo.
11108169
I agree, since the new one doesn't seem to show many new characters compare to the previous one. But it seems it intended to show her new classroom or something? In that case, I don't think this picture really depict the feeling I got from the previous chapter - too classy if you ask me.
Happy new year, awesome new chapter, and just as amazing new cover art.
A late Christmas present. :D Very well-done, and thanks for the links. I got the gist of what was going on even without them, so double kudos, Wanderer!
Ah, Control, very good. I enjoyed that game.
That was amazing!! I love Control, and I feel like you nailed the characters. And even after my playthrough of the game, I didn't get the perspective on being the director that you gave. Amazing job. Sadly though, no matter how much I want Jessie to be a recurring character, she is like her game, amazing for one round all the way through, but replays aren't as good as that first experience. If you do bring her back, I'd love it, but I doubt it will happen.
Cool new cover art too, I hope that's an indication of future chapters coming soon, I look forward to it.
If you think things are messed up now, Jesse, wait until you learn your entire reality and life may have been written by an author to help him defeat a dark force.
11108201
I agree
My favorite kind of god: they're people but moreso, and the ones worth worshipping are the ones who recognize Uncle Ben's wisdom. *glances at Celestia*
11108169
it changes as the Isekai changes
I can think of no more appropriate bar for Jesse to frequent. Let's just hope she doesn't ever run into someone from the SCP Foundation. That might get... awkward.
I love it when this fic updates. Though I agree that the old cover was better.
interesting update
Ahhhhhh, such a wonderful surprise to see it update! I did so enjoy Control, so to see it here was awesome!
11108539
they weren't asking why it changed, just stating that they preferred the other cover art over the current one.
11108552
except maybe Connor. Though, the bar probably would not appear in the SCP universe too many times, especially since both the foundation and whatnot are a-holes. But knowing them. one of their 'Safe' Catalog SCP would be Sunset's business card.
I really can't say how much I have enjoyed this series, it's easy to read and follow and well enjoyable from the start. Hoping for many more chapters.
Pondering Pinkies and Control.
I reqlly need to go play Control again, I barely scratched the surface of that game.
Ha. So much power humming off her that it was mistaken for background noise.
"Shut up and enjoy your drink"
Remarks and corrections:
> 'I the air is fresher
Not sure what the "I" is doing there at the start.
I do love how you used the internal monologues she uses so often as a naritive to inform the players of whatshappening. Nice touch.
I played this game on a whim, and never looked back. It always screamed to me of a more stable SCP Foundation. It certainly is heavily based on the idea, to the point where the game nearly beats you over the head with this fact. I dearly hope the game gets more content, or even a sequel where Jesse has to find the Writer (Alan Wake) in order to save her brother.
Ah Control, such a great game. I do like seeing how Jesse vented to Sunset and seeing how she's dealing with all the shit of the Oldest House. Great work!
Ah Jesse Fayden, good times
Out of everywhere the Isekai could pop up, The Oldest House is probably the easiest to accept for whoever finds it.
And let's not forget, Sunset probably has her power heavily suppressed to not make normal creatures feel uncomfortable when they come into the bar or when she goes outside. Like when Agadio said that her instincts are telling her that should run far away from Sunset while Sunset was trying to hide her powers. And let's not forget that The dazzlings were in world with constant war and skirmishes and a LOT of negative emotions, meaning they were juiced up big time, and they still wanted to Rmrun at the mere sight of Sunset. Pretty sure Sunset, at this point, Far surpassed Celestia and the gods that come and go in and out of her bar. The only one who i think it's more powerful then Sunset from all the creatures that we got to know, i think only Rarity fits into that category.