Today in the CBO
The View from the BMU
by Nat Wright-Kowalski
3 August 2297 – Cabot House
On certain Tuesdays for the 2297 and 2298 seasons, we will feature one of the settlements where teams in the Boston Minor Union play.
In our third trip around the BMU, we will go to Downtown Boston for a relic that we never knew to look like it was blasted in the fallout, Cabot House.
"And this is good old Boston, the home of the bean and the cod. Where the Lowells talk only to Cabots, and the Cabots talk only to God."
Then
To write about Cabot House is to write about the spectacular history of the Cabots. Their history is their present because the Cabots have a historical line that outlives even Nate Howard.
“This is my ancestral home. The Cabots have always lived here, since long before the Great War. If you're asking what we're still doing here, with Boston in its current sad state, well... that's a story for another time, perhaps.“ – Jack Cabot
Lorenzo
According to the official history, “Lorenzo was born on March 28, 1835.[2] He is married to Wilhelmina Cabot and they together had a son and daughter, Jack and Emogene, respectively. Cabot was a talented archaeologist that took interest in ancient civilizations that predate the earliest traces of his first ancestors. For years, Lorenzo studied the fabled lost city of Ubar, which according to legend, was founded over four millennia before the first human civilizations.
“In the 1890s, the scholar bid farewell to his family as he left on a steamship on an expedition to the Rub' al Khali, the Empty Quarter of Arabia in the Middle East. All the research he did over the years finally paid off when Lorenzo eventually found a ruined city in the Arabian desert that coincided with the description of Ubar documented by all the papers he read on the subject.
“As his team of excavators began to unearth the site, a strange series of events took place. Two weeks into the dig, a sandstorm that seemed to last an eternity began. This cost the team their native guide and forced them to start over when the storm subsided, having covered the ruins back up with sand. Despite the setbacks, the excavation project yielded many valuable leads and answers to the nature of the city and its long-deceased alien inhabitants.
“Lorenzo and his men uncovered much evidence of their presence, including a mysterious crown that granted him inhuman abilities, such as an unnaturally long life and telekinetic powers. However, this came with the cost of losing his sanity. Believing that there is still more to the city, Lorenzo had the city buried to protect its existence until a time that he is ready to return and uncover its remaining secrets.
"Following his return to Boston in 1898, Lorenzo, 63 years old, was institutionalized indefinitely at the Parsons State Insane Asylum on June 11 of that year by order of his family in order to protect himself and his children from harm.”
Jack
According to the official history, “Jack is the son of archaeologist Lorenzo Cabot. In 1894, his father led an expedition to the Rub' al Khali Empty Quarter of Arabia in search of the fabled Ubar civilization. After Lorenzo returned to Boston from the Middle East with an alien artifact, he was found to have been granted supernatural abilities, yet also been rendered insane by the effects of the crown. For the safety of both Lorenzo and those around him, Jack, as superintendent, imprisoned the archaeologist along with his artifact at Parsons State Insane Asylum in 1898.
“Jack devoted his life to investigating the artifact. His studies into the mysterious object subsequently resulted in the development of a serum derived from his father's blood that defies aging, in other terms halting and even reversing the process. In turn, Jack's special serums granted him and his family the ability to live for more than four hundred years.
“After two centuries since the Great War, he continues to live in Cabot House with his mother and sister, furthering his research into a cure for his father's insanity.”
Emogene
According to the official history, “The youngest and most flirtatious member of the Cabot family. Like her mother and brother, she uses a special serum to defy aging and has been since she was 32 years old.
“Her terminal entries reveal her to be a skilled hacker, as she played around with RobCo's database server.
“During the Great War, while Jack and Edward Deegan were away at Parsons State Insane Asylum, Emogene was responsible for thwarting a takeover of Cabot House by Anders, one of their employees, who tried to forced the family out of the house at gunpoint.
“While appearing to be the most frivolous and irresponsible of the Cabots, In reality she is actually quite emphatic and self-aware. An argument can be heard where she chastises her mother for being picky about what food they eat when the rest of the the Commonwealth barely have enough to survive. This indicates that Emogene is well aware of how well-off her family are compared to the rest of the wasteland.”
Now
More of the same. Thanks to Nate Howard’s efforts, Lorenzo Cabot remains a captive of Parsons. Jack continues his research into what the crown may be—he has ruled out the Zetans—and is known to part with a vial or two of mysterious serum for the right price to unknown benefactors. Emogene now resides full time in Nordhagen Beach in her own mansion and owns the Nordhagen Beach Party Boys team. Wilhelmina still resides in the Cabot House, mostly telling the hired help how to do everything correctly.
As far as Cabot House is concerned, it is as pristine and beautiful as it ever was.