#also Novastorm’s conjunx has a background now :D

[weirdlookingsnakewithlegs]

I’ve never heard of the seeker slave trade before. Like damn.

For some good angst tonight, how do they get kidnapped? Do they get jumped by grounders and then wings bound by a transformation clamp (I’m thinking like the one in tfp they used for Starscream) so they’re helpless? I imagine it happens more in other cities due to Vos being a safe haven for them.

I imagine they’d get sky thirst due to not being able to fly unless their owners have a special leash or somethn so they can get some flight time for a short while and not eventually die.

Are they forced to clean houses or some other back breaking labour (cleaning houses is the only thjng I can think of atm 😭)

I’m going to cut off at a certain point because this is going to get pretty dark pretty quick.

Now in the beginning, grounders would visit Vos, befriend a seeker and then turn on them. Now this could happen in multiple ways, it doesn’t really matter how but there are several ways to contain a seeker to begin with, T-cog locks, wing clamps, thruster blocks, ect ect. Luckily, sparklings were rarely ever taken due to the fact they’re usually being watched over by a whole trine at a time or more.

Eventually one of the Winglords, way before Starscream, cut off from the rest of cybertron save for Praxus and Protihex, Praxus due to the fact that seekers are loosely related to praxians and Protihex for their medical academy as at the time that was the only way for many seekers to get medical aid. Then it got worse. Some medics could be paid off to give up seekers under their care. Which yippee that’s definitely not malpractice and fucking illegal. So not only are these seekers being given up injured, they’re also being detained.

Now yes you are correct, it was QUICKLY discovered that seekers go mad when unable to fly. Now every problem always ends up getting a solution, think of shock collars and the invisible barriers. However, another issue is that it was discovered seekers always need to be in pairs, because eventually they wouldn’t be able to fly due to their inability to properly groom and preen.

Now many seekers were considered eye candy, and while yes they did preform chores and commit to errands, many of them were just made to look pretty and be a little doll on the shelf more than half the time.

Now this is where we’re gonna get evil so mind the following trigger warnings: S/A, force marriage, force forging, cage fights, ‘dehumanization’, child labor, suicidal ideation/mentions, stockholm syndrome, self harm

Now, seekers were not considered to be fully functional before the war. Many thought they were more beast than cybertronian and because of this ‘taming’ one was considered a prize. Now you can probably already imagine what that entails and of course it leads to some… very not good relationships and may include things like stockholm syndrome or the eventual collapse into suicide and self harm.

Many of those that owned seekers were politicians, wealthy, or just high up in social status. Of course, not all these people were good and that led to certain events and the eventual coming of seeker-grounder conjunx relationships, which most of these were very much not at all healthy or even remotely romantic in any sense. With this would come with the idea of wanting sparklings and well, now you have answers for some of the seeker hybrids like Skyfire, Blurr, and a few others.

Sometimes though, another seeker or full grounder would be forged instead. An example of one such seeker being forged into this cruel world is Nacelle, who was put to work by the time he could speak basic Cybertronian. Of course his sire was very against him learning anything but Vosian in the early stages of life but that would do no use here and get them both hurt.

Now, along with that, some seekers were thrown into the Pits. Now, fighting for your life, you’re going to fight dirty and as hard as you can— biting, clawing, going for the vitals, anything. This unfortunately caused the increase in people believing seekers were nothing more than feral cybertronians. Some seekers would manage to go up in rank of course and earn some respect.

Now, considering all of this, the slave trade would continue escalating up until about several vorns before the war when Shockwave, yes Senator Shockwave, made his way to Vos along with a few students for the sole purpose of the fact it was reported that many seekers had outlier abilities. This would cause one of Shockwave’s students to become obsessed with seeker culture and eventually that student would conjunx Novastorm, one of the seekers they happened to be studying. This would lead to submitted research and it would eventually be revealed that seekers are on the same level as basic cybertronians, just that they adhere to traditions and have a very different cultural background.

This didn’t stop the trade at all but it did happen to slow it until the war inevitably started and Starscream and flock joined the Decepticon ranks. The trade would then be shattered and the seekers that survived would end up among the flock where they belong.