Nom Pulastra

Nom was born on on Scipio of all places. His grandfather was one of the few humans in the general circle of the Muun bankers, and left a fortune behind when he died. Tharkan Pulastra had a staggering twelve children who he passed his wealth onto, and Nom's father was one. Jelorn was as strange a child for a wealthy banker as humanly possible. He was a novelist, and not a particularly good one, who'd been living on Empress Teta in an apartment his father reluctantly paid for. While there he had married a yoga instructor who wrote bad cookbooks, her name was Sarlissa. She was pregnant and gave birth scarcely after the will was read. 

As it happened their share was substantial, and desirous to get away from it all (especially away from the cold) they asked a nice-looking young man where they could go that was warm and would help Jelorn get inspiration for his novel. The young man replied with "Bogden" in a way that was probably sarcastic, and the result was a great fish out of water comedy about well-intentioned city-folk trying to open a bed and breakfast in an earthquake-prone swamp planet full of smugglers. 

Fortunately the property costs were low and they had a large section of bayou near to the town, with a very, very nice floating home. Wide verandas, big plantation shutters, three stories. It wasn't a bad place to grow up, if you didn't pay too much attention to the fact it was a damn swamp. Besides, thanks to holonet advertising they had enough guests to at least break even, if not pay off their investment. 

Jelorn Pulastra's new book "The Spires of Coruscant" wasn't a great success as a mystery, but it passed as a romance novel and took up a degree of success, being followed by numerous other shlocky bits of moderately engaging romance novels. The 'premium guests' who visited the bed and breakfast through Nom's growing years would routinely praise his father's visionary status. Usually they were middle class older women who struck him as lonely. 

Nom was, initially, educated at home. There was a program to help learn aurebesh, and a protocol droid that labored to teach him basic, early functions on those occasions his parents were busy. He moved on to actual preschooling with other local children in 'The Republic School,' as they called it. Not all the locals opted to go, but those who did were an interestingly diverse group from numerous walks of life, some more or less illegal.

To the annoyance of his Core-educated parents, Nom grew up with a slightly twangy hint of a drawl, like most of the Bogden locals. He also had a habit of spending all his time with aliens, which they approved of, for the sake of diversity. They also made a point of adopting an alien child themselves. 

There'd been a disturbance on Shili in the news, an anti-Republic uprising in the wake of a crippling drought in the Lishara Lowlands. There were a large number of orphans, and since Bogden was so close, Nom's emotional parents were among the first to take in a child. He was 5 at the time, and she was 3. A very precocious 3, and by the time he was 7 she'd managed to slip past him in development. 

Her name was Pashaara, or 'Pasha' as they liked to call her. She was a rusty orange sort of color, and Nom wasn't quite sure what to make of her for about two weeks, after which he came to the conclusion she'd just always been there. Their relationship was always interestingly complicated. He was the smart one, but she was the stronger and quicker, with great hand eye coordination. In fact when he was eight, she got in trouble for biting his bullies so hard they went to the hospital. She'd also told them she was poisonous, and they'd lose their arms. They cried. 

Nom was perpetually grateful, and as they advanced into their teenage years he wasn't above helping her with homework assignments. Besides, they were both busy with different things anyway. She was in slingball and track, and he was in the science fairs. Often he was busy dissecting gizka in class, and Pasha cried when she had to. Despite being from a predatory race she had the drive of a wet paper bag, and an undying love for all things small and cute. Nom didn't particularly get it, but he had to admit his own choices weren't uniformly brilliant.

The only reason he went into the biology lab was because Rina'attuna was there. He had the hots for her, every since he'd gone into her family's corner pizza-shop and babbled out an order to her awkwardly, because she was so distractingly pretty. And blue. Very blue. Not just the skin, but also the eyes. With little grey flecks that sparkled...

The fact he managed to do well in sciences anyway also encouraged Nom, and his path was soon inclined towards the medical field. The end of the Mandalorian Wars coincided with his final year of high school. He graduated a little bit early, and was remarkably surprised to find he wasn't the only one from Bogden to attend the University of Alderaan at Aldera. Rina was there, distracting as always, and he worked up the nerve to ask her out. She said yes, and they dated all through a lovely two years. 

That was the end of the galaxy's lovely times too, as Revan and Malak returned with an invading army, and over the course of a year Nom feverishly overloaded all his courses so he could graduate pre-med early. He'd talked a lot with Rina about it, and with his friends, and he wanted to help the Republic. He took his degree, and immediately headed into the Republic Troop Depot at Ord Mantell. He was trained as a Medic, rather hurriedly as their shortage of men was severe, and deployed into the last year and a half of the Jedi Civil War. 

He had the distinction, minor as it was, of being aboard Admiral Dodonna's flagship during the attack on the Star Forge. Afterward he tried to bump shoulders with Jedi and the big heroes of the hour on Rakata Prime, but the most he saw of Revan was a faint human outline in the distance. He cheered anyway. 

He'd enlisted with ideas about a heroic war, and then moving back onto his own path in the university systems, but things didn't seem to work out so neatly. The timing wasn't right, and as he explained to Rina on a three month leave, he had to see it through another few years to make sure the Republic was safe, really and genuinely safe. 

She understood, though she joked her own medical degree would be completed much sooner. He got leave for her graduation three years after that, where she proved him right. He made up for it with an exquisite ring, and she said yes, pending his return from the service. 

The service went well too. Nom was intensely surprised to find Pasha'd followed him into the service, and they managed to meet up now and then to talk about family and relative experiences, even if they were very different in specialties. He started Republic extension courses that would work towards a medical degree, and earned a great reputation as a hands-on medical assistant in the Telos Medical Complex. He kept up the work there, getting a promotion to Corporal, and finding a rather unique special assignment...