Today in the CBO
Settlements Today
by Nat Wright-Kowalski
15 June 2297 - Roxbury (Shaw HS)
On certain Tuesdays for the 2297 season, we will feature one of the settlements, teams, and owners of the Commonwealth Baseball Organization. This is meant to tell you more about life in the Commonwealth, as well as give you more information about the teams and their owners. These will be done at Nat Wright-Kowalski's availability
In our twenty-fourth installment of "Settlements Today," I went to the up-and-coming section of the Commonwealth, Roxbury, the home of the Shaw HS Knuckle Punchers.
Nate Howard stated that Roxbury was a suburb of Boston. According to the terminal it was a neighborhood, but it covers a pretty wide area. That same terminal goes on: "Before the Great War, one of the multitudes of nationwide riots over food shortages took place in Roxbury. In response to the chronic food shortages, violence broke out, resulting in four civilian casualties and injuries to eight others.
The riot began after soldiers of the United States Army's 184th Infantry Regiment opened fire on a group of unarmed civilians after an unknown person smashed the plate glass window of the Roxbury food bank, prompting several people in the line outside to storm into the establishment. Jonathan Corman, spokesman for the Army, insisted the troops acted within their authority, stating that they issued several explicit verbal warnings to not break the line and attack the food bank, and that hunger is no excuse for civil disobedience, vandalism or starting a riot that puts the lives in the area at risk. He emphasized that it was the role of the United States Army to maintain order in that difficult time, and taking the time to note specifically that the soldiers of the 184th Infantry Regiment have not had a food ration in two days, and understood their hunger 'probably better than anyone.'
"This account was contradicted by the civilian witnesses of the riot. Eighty-five-year-old grandmother Hannah Henry was in line at the food bank and claims the soldiers had anything but order and liberty on their minds. She stated that the soldiers were laughing, joking about who they wanted to shoot first. Although the window was broken, it was clear they were looking forward to firing upon the civilians before anything provoked them to do so."
Roxbury Station 2288 - A supermutant did not yet spot the cameraman
Roxbury was almost an afterthought for Nate when it came to freeing Roxbury. When he first got to West Roxbury, the area around West Roxbury Station, which included Fallon's Department Store and Milton General Hospital, was overrun by mutants and Gunners in a perpetual war.
Roxbury's Shaw HS 2288
Shaw High School was a "modern design of a public school" that became "a super mutant encampment" when Nate found it. Don't worry, he sent those muties back to the realm of Atom. According to the history of the high school as recorded in a terminal, "In August of 2076, students at Shaw High School were receiving very low test scores. Ronald Tanner, a failed Vault-Tec salesman and current principal of Shaw High School, devised a plan to raise test scores by smuggling Mentats into the school and coercing delinquent students to distribute them to the student body in secret." Read more about the interesting history in this intranet site:
https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Shaw_High_School.
Roxbury 2297 - Roxbury Inn, where visiting teams and fans and Toyland tourists stay. See the small but full build at: https://imgur.com/a/VpkR1C3
Nate has not explained his insistence that the Roxbury area have a team other than mentioning that his wife used to love Fallon's. Despite Roxbury not being built up a lot, there are some good things happening. For one, we will get to the Atomatoys link below. For the established businesses, Fallon's Department Store is leading the Commonwealth in apparel production and distribution. Milton General Hosptial is the largest hospital in the area, serving most of the area south of the Charles River. Also, crews have been clearing out West Roxbury Station with plans to make a mini shoppiong mall and market and hopes of restarting the subway system one day.
Owner - Arlen Glass
Arlen may not be as prominent as John-Caleb Bradberton, but do not underestimate his influence on the pre-War Commonwealth. Glass was alive them, but he is now a ghoulified and quite elderly man.
Arlen Glass
His is a sad story. According to a terminal on his history, "Cofounder of Wilson Atomatoys, Arlen was the lead toy designer until October 21, 2077. He worked tirelessly alongside his friend George Wilson to make toys to help children dream and to imagine a better future. It was their passion that they pursued for the next 35 years, often at the expense of time spent with their families. Their flagship product, the Giddyup Buttercup (created by Arlen), became a smash hit on the market, eventually bringing in hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue per year, in spite of its excessive price tag ($16,000 per unit).
"However, as the years went by, the pressure on both of their families only increased. Arlen neglected his wife and daughter for years, focusing on his work as much as possible, while George missed his son's birthdays, graduation and his wife's funeral. He brought on Marc Wilson as vice president in a bid to reconnect and eventually abdicated his position as company president to him in late 2077, believing that Marc grew into the toy business, despite initial reservations. His son, turned bitter by years of parental neglect, immediately turned his back on his father's legacy. Sales forecasts for the fourth quarter of 2077 indicated that sales of the Giddyup Buttercup would decline in from $122,000,000 to $110,000,000, a year-over-year loss of 17%. They cited brand stagnation and market saturation at the current price point as reasons for the continuing decline. While Arlen reacted to the news with incredulity, he immediately set about finding new ways to enhance the brand's appeal. These included collectible variants (e.g. mythical horses), alternative markets for boys, Premium Princess lines, as well as promotional tie-ins with Hubris, Nuka-Cola and Vault-Tec. Marc, on the other hand, had other ideas.
"The new president made a bid for the secretive SCYTHE Program initiated by the United States government to bolster their wartime production by converting part of the Atomatoys factory into an ordnance production facility. His application was accepted on September 1st, despite doubts by some of the Pentagon staff, as the Atomatoys factory exceeded the requirements specified for the project. Colonel Thomas Nelson, director of the SCYTHE Program, scheduled a visit in person while Wilson and Nathaniel Hawke set about converting three of the five assembly lines for military production of land mines. The first phase of the conversion was completed by October 15, a week ahead of schedule, with production scheduled to begin on November 1.
"Arlen was kept out of the loop. He tinkered with leg servos, new paint schemes (missing his daughter's recital), while none of the executives returned his calls or moved forward with his licensing proposals. By October 20, Arlen was desperate to make any sort of headway on his projects, to have something to show at the board meeting. He did not expect to see a representative of the military at the meeting, much less hear about the values of the company being betrayed in favor of patching its budget by manufacturing weapons for the Army. Forty-five minutes into the board meeting, Arlen exploded and had to be removed from the premises by security. He tried in vain to enter and talk to Marc Wilson to dissuade him from the course he chose, but only succeeded in being removed several more times and forcing security to notify the police. The CEO fired him immediately. His dismissal was a shock to all employees of the company, who considered him to be the heart and soul of the place.
"Arlen made one last bid to try and convince Marc to change his mind on the morning of October 23, 2077. He left his Cambridge apartment and made his way to the Wilson Atomatoys headquarters. Although he was promptly removed, he managed to convince the security guard to deliver his final plea to Marc, who promptly threw it in the trash. When the bombs started dropping, Arlen tried to make his way back to his family in Cambridge, but when he came home, he only found a massive, irradiated crater. Traumatized, he lay among the ruins, wanting nothing but to die and join his family. Instead, he survived, and the radiation from the crater turned him into a ghoul. He kept on going, using his talents as a toymaker and expert engineer to get by, always haunted by the memory of his family and especially young Marlene, lost without so much as a goodbye. His focus on toys and technology helped him stay sane for over two hundred years, eventually settling down at the Slog, helping out the ghoul farmers with his expertise and trying to put one more Giddyup Buttercup together, for old times' sake and to perhaps gift it to a child in the wasteland. Although a wrench and a tool is far cry from the high-tech facilities he once had at his disposal, he keeps on going."
When Nate met Arlen, he was living in The Slog, mostly keeping to himself and tinkering with toys. Nate went on a quest for Arlen to procure a Giddyup Buttercup, the most famous toy made by Wilson Atomatoys. Nate got that Butercup for Arlen and convinced him to restart the toy industry. Arlen agreed, saying, "I may not have my family, but I can bring joy to other families. That gives me a purpose until I die or go feral."
Atomatoys 2297 and Toyland
In addition to reopening the Atomatoys Corporate HQ in DDowntown Boston and the Atomatoys Factory west of Quincy, Arlen Glass also opened an office in Roxbury across the highway from Shaw HS and east of Milton General. There, he has cleared out the land for what he said will be a future major tourist attraction in the Commonwealth, Toyland.
There are rudimentary attractions there now. They have incorporated the largest playground in the Boston area. There are future plans to build up rides and attractions like Nuka World. Glass said, "It will be more like the Kiddie Kingdom park in Nuka World. But I guarantee it will be ten times as fun."
Atomatoys logo
Arlen has started reproduction of Giddyup Buttercup in the factories for "mere caps." Atomatoys has also participated in settlement-building activities by fixing up playgrounds throughout the Commonwealth.