Pashaara Pulastra

NAME:
Pashaara "Pasha" Pulastra
SPECIES:
Togruta
GENDER:
Female
AGE:
25
HEIGHT:
5'10"
WEIGHT:
146 lbs




















Pasha is, overall, a good person. She's been through a lot in just a short while, and her high school days seem a lifetime ago. In many ways she's entirely different than what she was, but in some other ways she manages to be about the same as before. For starters, growing up among humans she's a terrible Togruta. The smaller an animal is, the worse she feels about eating it, with a special love for cute things. When eating her necessary meat, she opts for larger animals, which she views as 'spreading the guilt around.'

She's an athletic person, no longer on any teams, but still regularly running and keeping her body in proper form. If anything she's taken to overcompensating for the loss of an arm. Sometimes she struggles with finer control in the left arm, and she purposefully holds cigarettes with the left hand to get practice in. That smoking habit is something she picked up while kicking a struggle with alcoholism, in a classic example of swapping one addiction for another.

Sometimes Pasha is still bitter. It's been hard to get over her loss, not just of limb but of a sports career. She was great at Slingball, with a promising future, and the gap between reality and dream can be harsh. The Togruta woman had always hoped for a great recognition, for awards and success in her sport. Being a recruiter didn't ever register on her hopes for the future, nor a drinking problem, nor a disability.

In the state she is, with a trashy cheap apartment on Coruscant, Pasha hasn't talked with family in-person for years. Her brother she still messages occasionally long distance, but the prospects of coming home to Bogden for the holidays are nonexistent. It is what it is for her.






Born Pashaara Ki, on Shili, during some of the worst possible times, she was quickly orphaned. A series of Togruta rebellions appeared on Shili, calling for a isolationism and a return to traditional ways. They tried to burn down the spaceport in Corvala, but were dispersed by Republic security. For the next few months they attacked loyalist villages and tribes, putting many into the grave or to flight. Pasha's village was razed, and her parents killed. A security patrol found her, and a dozen other orphans. She was too young to remember it in any detail, more general impressions, memories, a few blurry recollections. She was taken to Corvala, kept with a foster family for a short time, and then adopted by a human couple on Bogden.

Pasha had no idea about that for quite a while, always taking for granted that she was adopted, but not considering that her parents were any less parental. Togruta fit into social structures easily, and she was no exception. Pasha, even with parental support, only had a limited amount of her own culture. She learned the language, discovered she liked her steak very rare, and learned bare feet were nice on warm days without sharp rocks or splinters nearby. She got along well with her 'big brother,' even though she quickly grew taller than him. In particular she always admired how smart he was, begging him to 'help' with her homework so she could go outside and play. Play was usually splashing around in the swamp, getting covered in mud, and playing with turtles and snakes. Or little rodents. She killed a rat once, and instantly felt terribly guilty. She cried for days, and when Nom mentioned her species ate 'stuff like that' she cried even louder and he was forced to apologize.

She still loved him though. When he was bullied, she got suspended at the age of 6 for biting the bully so badly he required stitches. Also she'd told him she was venomous, and he cried about it. Very reluctantly she apologized, mostly because her parents were adamant. For her part, Pasha loved having a week out of school.

Her major feat in high school wasn't academics, but sports. Pasha was an excellent Forward at Slingball, with several awards for games. She even headed off world now and then for games. As if that wasn't enough, she ran cross-country and learned to pole vault, with the full intention of taking a sports scholarship off to college, and maybe a professional career. Sure enough, she rode her abilities to a scholarship for the Slingball team at the National University of Corellia. Pasha was, for the sports devotees, one of the top rookie prospects, and in her first season she had the potential for a great career. However, she was notified that her brother had entered the war.

Of the entire family, she was consulted the least. Besides she felt like he was.... Softer and smarter, not tough enough, and she had the drive to go take care of him, to bail him out. There was a military recruiter out there on the campus, and Pasha went straight to him on impulse. She didn't consult advisors or coaches before signing, and she took off for recruit training inside a week. The Republic was desperate for manpower against the Sith.

Infantry didn't get more than a month or two of training, and luckily Pasha was already physically fit. The Recruit Depot at Rendili was full, and Pasha fit in well with her troop. The women were fewer in number, but she had an important role in the barracks, acting as a lead. Training was uneventful, Pasha becoming a PFC with deployment to the front.

Her specific role was grenadier in her squad, with a launcher mounted under her rifle. Pasha is both proud of her service, and also not prone to talking about much of it. Her first deployment was on New Cov, successfully halting the Sith, but at steep costs, and in a deeply unpleasant and dangerous jungle environment. Rodia, Mon Gazza, Lannik. Pasha fought at them all, and was one of very few in her squad left alive. However, eventually her luck ran low on Charra in the same 'Southwest Campaign.' Ironic given that she liked caf plenty, their fighting took place primarily in a lengthy series of caf groves. Untended by the war, they merged together in thick rows, fighting blasting holes through them here and there.

Pasha was on point when she heard and felt the grenade coming, and reflexively she swung up with her rifle, catching the grenade on the butt and sending it flying backward. It would have been perfect if the Sith trooper hadn't cooked it. Instead it detonated close to the rifle butt. The shrapnel did deflect, and was concentrated mostly on her left arm and side. There was also a considerable amount of abdominal injury.

Thanks largely to her reputation inside her squad, Pasha, then a Corporal, was taken to the rear in critical condition, and treated at a field hospital. Damage was very severe in her arm, and it was amputated at the shoulder. Her recovery was long, further hampered by the kolto shortages. And when she woke up, actually woke up, Pasha was... Deeply displeased.

Her memory of most of the incident was fuzzy. The treatment especially so, and it was enraging to her that she could feel the phantom sensations of a limb that wasn't there. Being trapped on a hospital ship bound for Chandrila wasn't any better either. Ostensibly Chandrila had excellent facilities for war-wounded and there was the promise of a top-notch prosthetic. No amount of promise helped though, because Pasha felt like half a Togruta now, and in the pit of her stomach knew her athletic career was gone forever.

On reaching the Lar Keelis Medical Center, Pasha found no arm waiting. In fact, she was informed they had over year-long waiting list for her prosthetic, and was instead offered a medal. The Republic Cross of Glory. It didn't make her feel better. She was discharged on recovery after three months, discharged, and told to report to the Veteran's Hospital on Coruscant in a year. She didn't want to stay on Chandrila, nor did she want her parents to see her like this, nor did she want to wait that long on Coruscant, so she opted to head to Alsakan. With her pension providing just enough for a cheap hotel room, she dived into the exciting world of liquor.

Being the disabled vet who hung out in the bar wasn't her career goal, but drinking beer with her only hand and trashtalking the athletes on the holonet, or after a bottle of Corellian whiskey talking about the war. She had the chance to cheer the announcement of a Republic victory from a bar stool, trying to kiss the bartender who instead called her a taxi home.

Her issues with alcohol were perhaps not as bad as they could be, but, by the time she reached Coruscant and found she was being 'fitted' with another six months to go before even receiving her arm, they spiraled. Pasha frequented a few of the worse districts because they had the cheapest liquor, and she did her very best to kill her liver, hating the looks people gave her missing arm. When she was drunk especially, it seemed like everything revolved around the arm.

It was a very polite Caamasi Doctor who, in the first fitting session back, took note of her alcohol troubles. Substances, he warned, could have complicating effects on the nervous system. It was important she try to stay in better control if she wanted to effectively regain utility via the prosthetic arm. He recommended some quiet meetings for her, and she started to attend, but only in true earnest when her arm was attached. That was because her begging and pleading brought about a promise. If she could pass the military physical tests with her new arm, she would be brought back into noncombat duty.

The problem? She was very out of shape after a solid year of alcoholism and living through a near-fatal injury. Her fitness suffered, and so she had to knuckle down. Part of that was cutting out the alcohol. There weren't other Togruta present in her neighborhood, but she found a support group of non-human alcoholics that met in the basement of a cafe run by an old grey-haired Mirialan couple and their kids.

It was hard to shake it, and she had a few relapses over the course of a couple years she spent ironing out her trouble. Towards the end of it, she did successfully complete the physical exam, and get military refresher training, qualifying on pistols this time instead. She was promoted to Sergeant. It felt fantastic to be in the Republic uniform again, but to her distaste she found that her duty was.... Recruitment.

Being a recruiter didn't make her feel better. Especially since she was instructed to downplay anything related to her arm, and encouraged to keep it hidden under the uniform as much as possible. She took up a lot of smoking breaks, just to avoid looking hopefuls in the eye for too long at a given time. But, the Cross of Glory she kept over her desk was a powerful tool to the brass, and it was better than being a civilian.

BIRTHPLACE:
Shili

FACTION:
Republic Military

RANK/OCCUPATION:
Sergeant/Recruiter

RELATIONSHIP STATUS:
Single










EQUIPMENT:

Republic Armor, Dress Uniform, Cybernetic Arm 


SHIPS/VEHICLES:

None


DROIDS:

None