Tristam Core/Relationships
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Family
Father
Gamighan Core, Tristam's father is a retired man residing on Rodul. Some sixty years ago, he exchanged basotile with Meredyn Tjaent, and after careful preparation, decided to have a child - though neither expected to have twins. He is described by Tristam as somewhat eccentric and cheeky, though is usually hung on Rodulan beliefs of the last Era. He is skilled at making Rodulan swuit sticks, of both the regular and frozen variety. Tristam is extremely close to Gamighan and regularly seeks his father's advice, and not three days goes by without Tristam calling home.
Tristam knows much about telepathy due to his father's continued study on the subject. He'll often quote, or will compare new information on the subject with, something Gamighan has told him over the years. Though he is many lightyears away, his father's words will occasionally influence Tristam's own beliefs on the matter (such as avoiding a telepathic inhibitor, and how quickly Tristam is frustrated or angered at telepaths being discriminated against), and Tristam often gauges what Gamighan's reaction would be to certain situations. His early life includes a lot of time traveling around the quadrant for his work, and Tristam notes he has interesting, yet favourable stories regarding species such as the Betazoids. Gamighan believes that the Federation "can't keep themselves together", and that it requires every individual in it's presence to keep it from crumbling apart - though Tristam is not entirely sure why his father is of this opinion.
Early in his life, Tristam was not independent, struggling to make his own decisions and relying on his brother to do so for him. When Taywor leaves home to pursue studies in a medical area, Tristam spends three weeks at home without a purpose, causing Gamighan to drag him to the university he was teaching classes and introduced him to Guan Medledore (an expert in Rodulan medical technology, on top of other fields of tech). As a personal favour to Gamighan, she tutored Tristam in the basics of everyday technology. Years later, after Tristam has a "significant failure" to get a higher degree in propulsion technology, Gamighan encourages Tristam to study and apply for Starfleet Academy, acknowledging that his own beliefs about life in Rodulan society did not suit Tristam.
Gamighan was deeply affected by the accident that impaired his son's telepathy, and struggled to come to terms with Tristam's lack there-of. Though he encourages his son to remain in Starfleet after the incident on the USS Pioneer, he becomes increasingly concerned about the activities Tristam is involved with. Because of this, it takes Tristam almost two weeks to explain to Gamighan that he'd spent over two weeks in a jungle thousands of years in the past - which may have been detrimental to his health.
Though he is "strictly professional" when working, Tristam gets much of his dramatic tendencies and sarcasm from Gamighan. He has been known to brag to others about his length of lives compared to their own in a joking fashion, which has led to various results - including one scenario where he actually made someone cry. Tristam recalls that Gamighan had "the most epic grin" on his face when it occurred.
He becomes ill on stardate 239303.10, though blames his daughter-in-baso Yanata for keeping the thermostat low as the cause when Tristam catches him coughing during a comcall. Later, during his shore leave home on Rodul, Tristam would find that Gamighan had been keeping a respitory disease from him, and was refusing treatment. Unable to stand by and watch his father crumble away in a medical centre, and angry that his father and brother kept this from him for years without end, Tristam left his home and spent the rest of his leave on his best friend's couch, essentially estranged from his family.
Twin brother
Taywor Taniel Core is Tristam's identical twin, younger by a mere minute. He is a budding psychologist, interested in the workings of a Rodulan's brain. Despite he and his brother believing themselves to be of equal intelligence, neither can truly understand what the other is saying when speaking their study's jargon, Tristam often likening it to speaking two separate languages. Taywor apparently struggles with working technology from cultures within the Federation. He is incredibly important to Tristam, the two having been extremely close to one another prior to Tristam's leaving for Starfleet, and they still keep in regular contact.
As younger kids, the two experimented with their own telepathic abilities. It resulted in bloody noses and severe headaches, though weren't seriously harmed due to their telepathic lobes not being fully developed.
When Taywor's son, Samual, was born, Tristam would babysit for him. Due to being so far away, however, Tristam has not seen Samual in person since he left Rodul - regardless, he and his nephew are still close, both participating in regular calls.
He is often spoken of as the "cute one", despite their identical appearances. He's described as rather restrained when speaking with others, quiet and well reserved. He is more mindful of his actions, typically more responsible, and takes things a little more seriously than his twin. Despite the large distance between them, he often has to remind Tristam of various events - at one stage, this also included their own birthday. Taywor also becomes increasingly worried about Tristam's health the more time he spends away from home - when Tristam spends time on a small moon for shore leave, Taywor cites to him that there had been times that a person was so ill from home sickness on a trip away from their home on Rodul, that they ended up in a medical facility. Tristam tends to ignore these warnings.
Upon returning home to Rodul, Taywor and Yanata continued a facade for Tristam until Roshanara Rahman returned to her vessel, at which he found that all was not as well as it seemed. Unable to watch his family fall apart, Tristam left home. Though he no longer has contact with his brother, Tristam keeps in regular contact with Samual, worried for the youngster's wellbeing.