Grief
Even with his limited training, Mez felt the voices of many crying out from across the void. Distant ripples in the Force, combining and resonating together to form wave after wave of pain and death that washed over his waking mind. The hum of the machinery around him was silenced as he felt the Jedi, one by one, being severed from the living force. Confusion and fear flooded his mind, drowning his senses as his vision clouded and he began to fervently glance left and right, feeling the fear grip his heart as some unknown shadow took hold. In the midst of this deafening shadow he heard the faint sounds of blaster fire beneath the mechanical hums of the foundry, and then the clearest whisper within his waking thoughts pierced the veil with a single word: "Run."
It'd been years since he had felt the dark shadow fall across the Force. Years since his escape into the depths of Coruscant, and his slow, terror filled climb to the surface and eventually off-world. Years since he had felt truly hunted at every turn, hiding in the darkest and seediest of places lest the Clone shock troopers found him. Years since he had ignited a lightsaber, or reached out with the Force. He had escaped Coruscant by stowing away on a small freighter bound for Centax I, changing to another ship in port and on and on until he eventually found his way towards the Outer Rim. It had taken well over a year for Mez to climb his way out of the lower levels of Coruscant, and nearly another to make it to the Outer Rim, where the Empire was stretched thin and many would be willing to forget a stranger's face. He found himself on Troiken, a small planet controlled by the Pykes near the end of Perlimian Trade Route. A tidal-locked planet of extremes, Troiken was half incredibly hot and half incredibly cold, with a habitable strip near the equator of mountainous and heavily forested terrain. As a Togorian this agreed with Mez, and he quickly made himself a home within a small village. A small community of four-armed Xexto, a species famous galaxy-wide for their podracing ability, were wary of the worn and haggard figure of Mez when he wandered into their village one morning. Half starving, clearly in need of rest, and smelling fiercely of the sewage and garbage he had been hiding in for the last two years. At first the villagers were scared of Mez. His exceptionally tall stature, gaunt appearance from the last two years of running and hiding from the Empire, and all together "cornered beast" mannerisms were less than endearing to them. Mez took to camping in a tree just outside of town, watching the village from afar and residing himself to a life as a wild hermit in this quiet part of the galaxy. While many shunned Mez, a kind Xexto named Trigano took pity on the wayward stranger. While he was wary of speaking with Mez by virtue of his appearance and foreboding stature, on one cool morning he left a small canto of food and supplies at the base of the tree. This was the first act of kindness Mez had received in two years. He was suspicious, choosing not to touch the canto for a few days. After a series of bad hunts and poor weather, his hunger got the best of him. In the canto he found a small box of food, now a few days stale, but better than anything he had eaten in some time. Alongside the box was a bar of soap and a brush.
It'd been years since he had felt the dark shadow fall across the Force. Years since his escape into the depths of Coruscant, and his slow, terror filled climb to the surface and eventually off-world. Years since he had felt truly hunted at every turn, hiding in the darkest and seediest of places lest the Clone shock troopers found him. Years since he had ignited a lightsaber, or reached out with the Force. He had escaped Coruscant by stowing away on a small freighter bound for Centax I, changing to another ship in port and on and on until he eventually found his way towards the Outer Rim. It had taken well over a year for Mez to climb his way out of the lower levels of Coruscant, and nearly another to make it to the Outer Rim, where the Empire was stretched thin and many would be willing to forget a stranger's face. He found himself on Troiken, a small planet controlled by the Pykes near the end of Perlimian Trade Route. A tidal-locked planet of extremes, Troiken was half incredibly hot and half incredibly cold, with a habitable strip near the equator of mountainous and heavily forested terrain. As a Togorian this agreed with Mez, and he quickly made himself a home within a small village. A small community of four-armed Xexto, a species famous galaxy-wide for their podracing ability, were wary of the worn and haggard figure of Mez when he wandered into their village one morning. Half starving, clearly in need of rest, and smelling fiercely of the sewage and garbage he had been hiding in for the last two years. At first the villagers were scared of Mez. His exceptionally tall stature, gaunt appearance from the last two years of running and hiding from the Empire, and all together "cornered beast" mannerisms were less than endearing to them. Mez took to camping in a tree just outside of town, watching the village from afar and residing himself to a life as a wild hermit in this quiet part of the galaxy. While many shunned Mez, a kind Xexto named Trigano took pity on the wayward stranger. While he was wary of speaking with Mez by virtue of his appearance and foreboding stature, on one cool morning he left a small canto of food and supplies at the base of the tree. This was the first act of kindness Mez had received in two years. He was suspicious, choosing not to touch the canto for a few days. After a series of bad hunts and poor weather, his hunger got the best of him. In the canto he found a small box of food, now a few days stale, but better than anything he had eaten in some time. Alongside the box was a bar of soap and a brush.
