Editing Mongo Thomas (section)

== History ==

Mongo's given name means "In days of no rain, crops grew," recalling when his African tribe discovered underground springs near their village. The tribe had only recently been discovered by civilization. When Mongo was fourteen years old, a couple years after he attained manhood, a missionary named John Thomas and his wife Barbara arrived and began working with the tribe. It was John who took to first shortening Mongo's long and difficult-to-pronounce name to the form it is today.

The Thomases met with mixed reception at the tribe, but Mongo, always curious, assisted them in learning the language and translating their Scriptures to his native tongue. When John Thomas discovered he was dying of cancer, Mongo desired to return to the United States with them. Once there, Mongo was introduced to the world of forms with required surnames. Whenever he's been required to use a surname, he's chosen the name Thomas.

At twenty-four years old, Mongo needed to find employment. After a long, hard search, hindered both by his unfamiliarity with English and his race, Mongo finally discovered a restaurant that entertained its diners with music and acrobatic performances. The manager decided to hire him as an acrobat in a production that played off his tribal roots in a culturally insensitive way. To Mongo, it was only a job, and the production only highlighted American's ignorance of his tribe's culture, but he chaffed under the way his trainers and employers treated him. At day's end, he would go to the kitchen to assist with washing the dishes, looking forward to a share of the leftovers to be thrown out every evening. The chef took a shine to him, and taught him everything he knew about cooking. When the chef finally retired, Mongo stepped into his place to escape the poor treatment he received from his trainers.

One day, Captain Petrius stopped in at the restaurant. He was currently outfitting his air ship, the ''Cloud Dancer'' for an expedition. Whether he'd been looking for a cook already, or whether Mongo's fare made him realize a critical gap in his workforce, Mongo doesn't know. All the ship's cook knows is that Petrius burst into the kitchen and offered him a job aboard his time-travelling airship. Mongo's curiosity was piqued, and the rest is history.