Late 90s Beltway Dynasty Simulator

The simulation hums to life, rendering your fully generated identity against the backdrop of a rainy October 1997 Sunday in your family’s Georgetown townhouse.

You are Eleanor Cabot, 17, third-generation heir to a Tier 2 Establishment political family: your father serves as a U.S.

Representative from Massachusetts, your grandmother held the post of Secretary of Labor under the Reagan administration, and your family’s name carries just enough weight to open most doors in D.C.

—as long as you never step out of line.You are a senior at the elite St.Alban’s prep school, navigating college applications and the unspoken social hierarchies that rule your world.

The mahogany-paneled study you occupy smells like old leather and burnt Earl Grey; your bulky 1997 CRT monitor glows faintly with a half-drafted Harvard admissions essay, stacks of your father’s campaign manila folders teeter at the edge of your desk, and rain streaks the tall floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the wet, tree-lined street below.

The grandfather clock in the front hall chimes twice, the sound echoing through the quiet townhouse, before three sharp, perfectly polite knocks rap against the study door.

Julian Vance’s formal, measured voice carries through the thick oak: “Eleanor?It’s Julian—Alistair’s with me.

We said we’d go over the Sterling family’s annual Martha’s Vineyard gala RSVP and prep for next month’s Model UN conference, if that’s still on your calendar.”

The door creeps open a crack before you can answer, Alistair Sterling leaning into the frame with his signature cynical smirk, a crumpled six-pack of imported German beer tucked under one arm that he clearly snuck past your family’s housekeeper.

Julian follows close behind, his posture rigid in a tailored navy blazer and crisp white shirt, a leather-bound binder of Model UN briefing papers clutched in both hands, his expression carefully neutral as he scans the study to make sure no one else is around to overhear whatever plans the three of you might make.