Ashtray and Cigarette

Ashtray and Cigarette
Case File image
Type	Object of Power
ID	OOP11-KE
Acquisition Date	02/08/1989
Containment Location	[REDACTED]
Bound Ability	Allows passage through the Ashtray Maze

“	I'm averse to using Objects of Power. I don't want to lean on things I ultimately can't trust. But the Ashtray and the Cigarette, smoking there forever, have their uses.	”
— Zachariah Trench, Ashtray Maze (Collectible)

The Ashtray and Cigarette (OOP11-KE) are a pair of objects which together constitute a single Object of Power, contained by the Federal Bureau of Control in the Oldest House.

Description

Overview

The Ashtray and Cigarette consist of a single cigarette within a steel ashtray, which has a maze engraved on the bottom. The cigarette is eternally burning. The object's ability allows any parautilitarian who binds it to create an endless, ever-shifting maze which does not spatially affect its surroundings, at the location where the object is placed. Only the parautilitarian who has bound the object to themselves can naturally navigate the maze, although they can also give access to others.

Containment Procedure

The Ashtray and Cigarette has no unique containment procedures as specified in its documentation.

History

Discovery

The object's existence was first known to the Bureau after reports of multiple disappearances from an elderly care facility, consisting of residents and local responders alike. A team of Rangers sent to investigate discovered the object and recovered it for the Bureau, though the missing people could not be found and were presumed lost in the Maze.

The object was most recently bound to Director Zachariah Trench, who used it to create the Ashtray Maze in the Research Sector to hide the Dimensional Research wing from the rest of the Bureau. Although he restricted access to only Casper Darling and the rest of the Dimensional Research team, Ahti is known to be capable of bypassing the Maze entirely.

Events of Control

The Maze still persists despite Trench's death, and proves an obstacle to Jesse Faden when she attempts to access Dimensional Research during the story mission Finnish Tango, as she was not given access by Trench. However, with help from Ahti, who gives her his Pony Walkman with the song Take Control on it, she is able to navigate through the Maze, after which it ceases to block her path on subsequent journeys.

Gallery

A hallway in the Ashtray Maze

Notes

The Ashtray and Cigarette is the only Object of Power shown in Control that doesn't make a direct appearance. For comparison, the Slide Projector is not encountered but is shown in certain mission cutscenes, while the Ashtray and Cigarette's image appears only in its related Case File document.