Mr Yammy's Marvellous Mysteries was a travelling sideshow that toured The United States between 2268 and 2290. Founded and run by Bill Goldman (known professionally as Mr Yammy) until his death in 2290, the sideshow billed itself as "an exhibition o...
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Estimates of Cassandra McKeown's year of birth vary from 2230 to 2240, with her place of birth similarly ambiguous, thought to be somewhere East possibly Maryland. As a member of the travelling sideshow: "Mr Yammy's Marvellous Mysteries", the details of her birth and upbringing were deliberately obscured to add to the mystery and intrigue surrounding her life and her journey to becoming Squid Lady.
Not much is known about her childhood or family, save that she had a brother who was recruited to The Brotherhood of Steel and that she was married in 2259, giving birth to twin girls 4 years later. Tragically her husband and babies were all killed in the escalating violence in the area between The Brotherhood of Steel and Enclave when the roof of their house collapsed after being hit with several rounds from a Tesla Cannon. Mentally crushed, but physically unscathed, Cassandra entered a catatonic state, refusing to leave the ruins of her home, barely eating, barely sleeping, barely surviving.
Several months later and she was a shadow of her former self, her hair was grey and matted and her body weight had plummeted; her face once rosy and plump was now pale, gaunt and haunted. However, the worst of her troubles was still to come and they arrived with a bang one day when yet another firefight erupted between the Brotherhood of Steel and the Enclave and an errant grenade rolled into the cracked foundations of her family home and exploded beside her, shattering the bones in her legs, ripping the flesh and tearing the muscle to bloody shreds.
When friends and neighbours rushed to her aid she was found slumped in a corner staring unblinkingly at her foot that had been blown across the room towards the broken crib where her babies had once slept, clutching something desperately in her hand which was later found to be her left kneecap which she would only release after receiving several doses of Stimpak administered by a Brotherhood of Steel medic.
A makeshift stretcher was cobbled together from the scraps of her old bedding and she was carried from the house (under her own weak, sedated protest) and taken to a Brotherhood of Steel aid station where her pain was managed and bleeding stopped and the dead flesh was stripped away from the living, however no doctor or surgeon could be found to amputate her legs. Patient waiting turned from days into weeks and finally months and the aid station swelled with sick and injured people, with no medical personnel around to help them and aid supplies rapidly dwindling.
Tired of waiting around to either spontaneously heal or die, those patients able to get out of bed decided their best chance of survival was to leave the station in search of somewhere safer. Still catatonic and regarded as a terminal case, Cassandra was initially left behind until her screaming protests grew so loud a handful of sympathetic citizens and soldiers turned back to help her. The true extent of her injuries had been unknown to the other patients and they struggled to conceal their horror upon seeing her tragically mangled legs which looked like they had been sliced into ribbons. Unable to bear her weight, the most they could do was help her out of bed, whereupon she was surprisingly able to move by dragging herself along the ground with her arms that although weak were bolstered by her sheer determination to move. A steel plate affixed below her pelvis helped prevent the ground eroding any more of her flesh away, though thankfully most of her nerves had seemingly been burnt away in the blast as she did not complain of pain, a rope affixed around her midriff allowed her to be pulled along when the strength in her arms failed.
The group wandered together in safety for many miles before members began to defect and break away and upon reaching the town of Pennydrift only Cassandra and Patrick Donnahue, a blind soldier remained in the group.
Dehydrated and starving, the pair were desperate for food but had no money to pay, and little in the way of services to offer and instead had to go round together looting junk from garbage cans and old cabinets to trade for caps, becoming the subject of much ridicule from many of the townsfolk who treated them with scorn and contempt. Unbeknownst to both of them, Patrick had been suffering from a slow bleeding in his brain and one day passed away peacefully in his sleep.
Left alone again and unable to physically fend for herself, Cassandra took to begging on the street, drawing considerable attention from onlookers both fascinated and horrified by her appearance where she acquired various nicknames including "The Half Woman", and "Tentacle Queen".
Becoming both a curiosity and object of ridicule, she again struggled to sustain herself and took the offer of a travelling merchant to accompany him to the new Vegas strip for a chance at making some decent coin, stopping at various towns along the way to showcase herself.
She settled at the strip for a good year and though she had to pay a good cut of her earnings to Mr House, she still made a living, despite having to suffer ridicule, violence and verbal abuse on a daily basis.
One day a dwarf in a power helmet entered the strip handing out fliers for a travelling freak show heading to town called "Mr Yammy's Marvellous Mysteries" and in the coming days a big tent spectacular popped up just outside the gate in Freeside, showcasing disfigured human beings and animals alongside skilled performers and entertainers.
Upon hearing of the famous half woman beggar, Mr Yammy himself came to visit her and she was enticed to join his show and re-branded as "Squid Lady - twisted creature from the deep blue sea" signing a binding and highly dubious contract, committing her to at least 10 years of loyal service.
Joining the show provided Cassandra with a bed every night and up to 3 square meals a day - luxuries she hadn't known in years, but even better than that, Mr Yammy's armed guards (a particularly brutal outfit known as Squadron Sigma)
provided her with protection from unruly spectators and the obscenities they would often yell. And so she settled into life with the sideshow, travelling all over the country in a Brahmin-drawn carriage, showcasing her injuries to shocked crowds and curious onlookers.
