The Man, The Myth, The Legend
@notcrazyokay
There wasnât a person on Chorus that hadnât heard about the daring and courageous accomplishments of the Blood Gulch Soldiers. The atmosphere around the base had been somber these last months, but she had witnessed a complete change in its residents overnight with the arrival of men seen larger than life. Mona had caught glimpses of them herself. Nothing to write home about, but that was the reason for her piqued interest. It wasnât hard to immortalize a man until he was larger than life. Heroes stood a cut above the rest on their pedestals. But that was the issue. From there it was easier to write off failures and even worse a complete lack of effort to do the impossible. The impossible was for heroes. Not normal people.
Since her unintended grounding on Chorus she had been treated with nothing but kindness even when its people were faced with their own hardships. She wanted to give something back. After all their loss Doyle needed to see that it wasnât heroes that made the impossible happen. Sometimes someone that was nothing more than human could do it too. Mona would be first to admit that some heroes were miracles, but more often she had seen men and women that shouldered the weight of being human alongside their accomplishments. She wondered what he was. It didnât take much effort to name him the leader. That meant that he -- that Washington -- of the entire squad was the largest in life. To her he looked like many of the other soldiers she had met: tired.
She scrambled down from her perch of stacked crates and approached the man that only seconds earlier had crossed through the frame of her camera with several members of the Federal Army of Chorus. âMister Washington?â Mona didnât doubt that the last thing he wanted to deal with was more people coming to bother him, but if she waited until a moment he was alone it would never happen. She smiled -- one of the few people that wasnât dressed in standard armor but rather civilian clothing. Doyle had offered to find her a suit that might fit her, but she had told him to keep it for someone that would need it more than her. âIâm Mona Izmailov. Is now a bad time? I was hoping we could talk about something. â She held out her hand to him.
Before he had the chance to answer she continued forward with her piece. It was one she had used quite a few times. âIâm -- â Here Mona paused. She never knew how to fill in this part. Too many titles covered part of what she did, but there wasnât one that could explain it in full. â -- I suppose you could say Iâm something of an anthropological archivist. Iâve spent the last few years traveling to different planets, and documenting the lives of the people there. Sometimes I land in areas impacted by war like Chorus.â Once sheâd even spent three months living with an isolated community of alien life. âIâve been here for almost four months now capturing the lives of the people here, and I was wondering if you would mind if you were in a few photos for however long youâre here.â
