#like morgan primus but for EVERYONE

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ROMULAN SESKA

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What happened to Rung to make him Gravemaker: TFP Mercy (spoilers)

Pictures from @darija-morgan , Mynametia, @catmetchu​ and @hiddenasalways​ (Elyza)

Including some idea storyboards from Elyza​​!

How Rung went from a meek therapist to a monster hunter badass named Gravemaker!

I recommend reading the story here before reading this post

https://archiveofourown.org/works/37436491/chapters/93426493

(Darija)

So near the end of the story (good ending), Rung and Sunder explain how Sunder erased Rung’s memories using his emotion-manipulating powers. Overwhelming Rung with intense terror, Sunder convinces Rung that to remember anything would be the death of him. To protect himself, Rung represses his memories and becomes convinced that he has no name or past (and is a newly forged Cybertronian). 

Sunder leaves Rung with another group of villagers to hibernate through the Great Cataclysm. [This happened at the end of the Age of Evolution.] The ghoul had wanted to stop Rung from reporting to a Prime that he was a Unicronic monster, since they would have killed him. However, Sunder liked Rung too much to eat him, so destroying Rung’s memories was Sunder’s attempt to spare him and let him live another life away from him and Froid.

(Elyza)

(CATmetchu: original concept artist of Rung)

Rung was not well—stress had faded his colours and he had a hand injury from where Sunder had accidentally bitten him. When the Cataclysm was over, everyone woke and Rung was a stranger among the people he had been dumped with. He couldn’t explain who he was, how he got there, what was wrong with him. He was skittish and fearful but unable to figure out why. No one took responsibility for caring for him and instead, they sent him to a religious group who would.

This group worshipped Prima, “the purest Prime closest to Primus”. Prima had been around in the Age of Evolution and given out some rules and teachings, and these bots follow them. They even liked Rung because he arrived to them pale grey, and the religious group removes their flashy colours to be plain metal colours (like the “flesh” of Primus). Everyone felt that Rung was destined to be with them, so Rung was welcomed and happy.

If you have read the Covenant of Primus, you know that Prima is strict and even a jerk. So Rung wound up strict and no-nonsense as well, having no tolerance for a being like Sunder. But I’m getting ahead here, because Rung was just living a studious calm life for a long time... 

Rung was given the name Luna, an archaic Cybertronian word for “Moon”. (Short names were common in old times such as Orion, Ratchet, Froid, and Sunder). Luna became very religious because of who raised him, and because of his hand injury, he was not fit to do manual work. He did start recovering his colours, but Luna changed himself to be grey and copper anyway (no more orange!). Luna blessed graves whenever the services of the religious group was requested (Luna and the others thought they had a stronger bond to Primus and the Allspark). 

Luna collects enough money to have his hand repaired. Now, he starts thinking about his one holy duty. Every bot of the Pious Pools needs to set a goal and act on how they will make the world a better place. Luna had not decided yet, but now, he wants to take an approach the others had not—he wants to physically fight evil!

For all his life, Luna has despised and feared predators more than regular criminals. He has a drive deep in his spark to take action and not wait for help—he will kill monsters himself. What this really is, is him feeling how he once ran to get help and failed before reaching it (running after Alchemist to tell him about Sunder). Luna wants to be strong enough to kill monsters himself and stop feeling so helpless

(Elyza)

Luna trains under Skids and over time, becomes better at fighting. As a bot who is neither strong nor fast, Luna has to learn how to use tools and weapons instead. Luna gets his face mask and first weapons (small gun, daggers) and starts searching Cybertron for supernatural monsters. He speaks with bots like Swindle to get information, which is how Swindle knew him. In fact, Luna starts taking on missions and gets paid to eliminate mysterious killers. No one believes in the supernatural but him and some other hunters like Crosswise. Bots generally just think Luna is an assassin.

During this time, Luna adopts an alias: Gravemaker. He chose it based on the fact that he used to bless graves, but as a killer, he’s making them now (and yes, disposing of the monsters’ bodies). Gravemaker gets paid very well when problems disappear, even if no one believes he’s killing monsters. So with his money, Gravemaker upgrades his weapons, getting poison darts (Lockdown’s special) and a very powerful gun. Gravemaker calls this gun Funeral to follow his theme.

(Darija. Rung kills a sparkeater-infected Cybertronian)

Gravemaker has tried to hunt down ghouls before (it was just Sunder), but he was never able to find any. This is because Sunder had been keeping watch on Rung and, horrified by what Rung has become, wisely kept his distance. Rung/Luna/Gravemaker has deadly long distance weapons that the ghoul is not eager to face, and still, Sunder does not want to kill Rung. He hates Rung, but he would feel guilty hiding from Froid a secret like that he ate their old friend.

Rung remembers everything after he sees Sunder in Nightbeat’s memories while they were using the cortical psychic patch. The repressed memories were highly distressing, but Rung is able to handle them because he does not feel so helpless anymore. He has the skills and weapons to take down the ghoul now!