17 years ago, the town of Ordinary, Maine suffered from cataclysmic paranatural phenomena, or an Altered World Event, that left only two survivors; Jesse Faden and her brother Dylan. While one version of events led to Dylan being taken by the Federal Bureau of Control with Jesse out looking for him, here they were both taken. While Dylan became the new Director of the Bureau like Trench wanted, Jesse (or "P7") is left to work as the personal assistant to the janitor Ahti.
Ordinary Girl is a Control fanfic written by The_Unqualified1 and can be read on Archive of Our Own here
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Ordinary Girl provides examples of:
- Adaptation Personality Change: While being groomed from a young age to run the Bureau wasn't exactly the most ideal of childhoods, here it's implied that Trench had a more hands-on approach in preparing Dylan for the role. While his canon-counterpart suffered from a serious Sanity Slippage due to the Bureau's negligence, here he's a Jerk with a Heart of Gold who takes his job as Acting-Director seriously.
- Affectionate Nickname: Langston — one of the few people in the Bureau that doesn't look to Jesse with contempt — calls her "Speaker" because of her uncanny skill in pacifying troublesome Altered Items.
- Almighty Janitor: Literally. This version of Jesse is the janitor's assistant (a literal example in this case), so she doesn't have the same clearance or parautility as her canon-counterpart. However, she is still able to accomplish things her canon-counterpart could regardless, including ending the Mold infection, rescue the altered items lost in the Investigation Sector, managing to escape Dr. Hartman (something whole swaths of Rangers couldn't do), be the first to realize that the book being read in the FBC book club is a particularly dangerous Altered Item and so on.
- Awesomeness by Analysis: With nothing but stray documents to go on, Jesse was able to figure out that Unless You — a novel being passed around amongst Bureau staff — is actually an Altered Item that is killing its readers and manages to get it away from Emily before it could take effect.
- Blank Book: While most people see the contents of a regular novel in Unless You, Dylan sees it as this.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: When Dylan scolds Jesse for being in possession of an iPod, he tries pointing to a poster saying as much to emphasize his point, only to accidentally point to a "Don't Eat the Mold" poster.
- Florence Nightingale Effect: Having a patient/doctor relationship in this version, Jesse's attraction to Emily (with implications that they are reciprocated) come across as this.
- For Want Of A Nail:
- In canon, Dylan was the only one taken by the Bureau, with Jesse being monitored from afar as a control group in the Prime Candidate Program. Here, they were both taken.
- While canon!Dylan was practically a prisoner in the Panopticon, being treated like a test-subject eventually driving him insane and unleashing the Hiss all throughout the Oldest House, here Dylan and Jesse seemed to have more free-range in the Oldest House. This led to a less-disturbed Dylan taking over as Acting-Director with Trench close to retirement, Jesse becoming Ahti's assistant and the Bureau running business as usual without the Hiss ever manifesting. At least, not until a trip to the Formation goes south...
- In Spite of a Nail: The Hiss invasion still happens, but instead of it happening before Jessie enters the Oldest House like in canon, here it starts while she's on a trip to the Formation.
- Intelligible Unintelligible: While in canon Jesse only ever gets the gist of what Polaris tries relaying to her, here Jesse seems to understand Polaris as though they were having an active conversation.
- "It" Is Dehumanizing: Since Jesse is seen as more like Bureau-property than an autonomous human being by most of the Bureau's staff, they tend to call her "P7" or "Lab rat." Trench in particular refers to her as "It", not even addressing her while she's in the room.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In the first two chapters, Dylan acts like an entitled jerk who sees Jesse's very limited autonomy as her undermining his authority. Later on, he apologizes for his behavior and decides to involve her in business relegated to the Oldest House, even sending her to the Investigation Sector to rescue Altered Items left there.
- Kick the Dog: When Dylan catches Jesse with an iPod, he takes it, shoots it and scolds her for having unauthorized tech within the Oldest House, violating his "trust" and making him look bad. What makes this sting is that 1) she's his sister and all she ever does is try to please him, 2) being in Bureau-custody means she doesn't have much of the way of personal property to begin with, and 3) it was in the lost-and-found, so she wasn't the one who broke any rules. Even worse, this comes right after scolding her for using her "Otherness" (her Dash ability), disregarding the fact that she did it to prevent an Altered Item from hurting Emily.
- Mark of the Supernatural: Whenever a parautilitarian bonds with an altered item or Object of Power, a tattoo of that object manifests on their person.
- Multiple-Choice Chosen: It's implied that while Trench picked Dylan to be his successor, Jesse is equally qualified.
- Pet the Dog:
- Emily will routinely provide Jesse small acts of kindness — like giving her a box full of VHS tapes for recreational purposes — in her brief time as her supervisor. While Jesse is naturally suspicious of these bouts of altruism, she is grateful regardless, having been treated either as a test-subject or a criminal for most of her life.
- It's implied that the iPod Jesse found in the lost-and-found bin was deliberately left there by Ahti as a gift for her.
- Spared by the Adaptation: While Trench Ate His Gun at the start of Control, here he is still very much alive with Dylan as his Number Two.
- Spotting the Thread: Jesse wouldn't have noticed the anomalous properties of Unless You if she had trouble remembering an employee named "Penny" (who was one of the alleged members of the FBC's Book Club). When she gets to Emily, she questions her about the person who gave her the book, and all she can really remember is that her name was Penny and nothing else.
- The Stations of the Canon: While the Hiss Invasion doesn't happen (at least, not right away) and Jesse is without her Director-status (and the Service Weapon), many of the unrelated problems going on in the Oldest House like the Mold infestation and Dr. Hartman in the Investigation Sector are still happening, Jesse being the one to fix them.
