Chip
From Axalon RPG
(Character created by Corvus Cassetticus; revived for the Predacon Base RPG)
Contents |
General Info
- Name: Chip
- Faction: Maximal
- Type: Transmetal
- Beast Mode: Gray squirrel
- Alternate Mode: Lawnmower
- Height: 7ft approx.
- Gender: Male
- Primary Function: Um... nobody's really sure any more, but Chip's been known to call himself a Ninja Squirrel when asked.
- Theme Song: "Ch-ch-check it out" ~ Beastie Boys
Statistics
- Strength: 5
- Stamina: 7
- Speed 8
- Skill: 8
- Firepower: 6
- Aim: 7
- Intelligence: 7
- Discipline: 4
- Luck: 6
- TOTAL: 58
- AVERAGE: 6.4
Skills
- Athletics
- Firearms
- Explosives
- Hacking
- Melee Weapons: Axes
Physical Description
Beast Mode
Just like any other typically cute-looking gray squirrel you may find at your local park, Chip has the same bright little black eyes and fuzzy bushy tail. Unlike most Transmetals, his beast mode body is covered in synthetic fur, which is gray in color, soft, and... well, fluffy. Pretty innocent at first glance, right? First impressions are important, and most bots will look at Chip and judge him to be not much of a threat. He can however be the complete opposite (though this can depend on the facts of the particular situation, what sort of mood he's in, and whether he can be bothered to anything about it or not at the time).
Alternate Mode
A small and rather non-descript silver-gray lawnmower with the Maximal insignia emblazoned proudly in red on the top. The lawnmower is rectangular in shape, and rounded a little at the corners. It also has a 'handle', which is basically a bar of gunmetal-gray metal bent in two places so that it forms a 'doorway' shape. The two sides of this 'doorway' shape are attached at the ends to the main body of the lawnmower, leaving the remaining 'top' of the 'doorway' shape to run horizontally, thus forming a handle of sorts by which the lawnmower can be pushed along by another bot (not that Chip can't drive in this mode by himself, of course). The lawnmower has an engine that runs on energon, and there is a small circular flap on its side that can be flipped open so the 'fuel tank' can be refilled. Chip can trundle along at a nippy maximum speed of around 60 MPH in this mode, cutting things with the rotating blades on the underside of his body as he goes along. The cutting blades are made of a tough specialist alloy, and are very, very sharp. The alloy appears silver in color, and the blades themselves have been polished to a brilliant, chrome-like shine. This lawnmower mode is, as you might think, intended for cutting things like grass. However, Chip has been known for one creative but rather messy incident in which he leapt onto an enemy, tranformed into lawnmower mode in mid-leap, and landed on top of his unfortunate target with the lawnmower blades already spinning away. His commanding officer at the time had to admit it was a pretty effective manoeuvre, but had nonetheless forbid Chip to use that particular move again due to the amount of spattered mech-fluid and shredded body parts that had to be cleaned up afterwards.
Robot Mode
Chip has a fairly average build– not too skinny, but not that burly either. He is relatively small in size, but has his own ways of making up for his lack of height. His nimbleness in robot mode is a reflection of his beast mode's agility. In appearance, his robot mode is primarily the same gray of his beast mode and alternate mode, with darker gunmetal helmet, boots and gauntlets (lined with off-white trim at the edges), as well as some rusty-red highlights. Chip wears a visor over where his optics should be; in contrast to the color scheme of the rest of his body, his visor is a bright, emerald green. Chip's beast mode head splits into three sections so as to allow the top part to fold down to form his chest in robot mode. The other two segments fold away out of visible sight, underneath the chest armor. His helmet features pointy bits of decoration at either side which resemble his beast mode squirrel ears. His beast mode tail is retained in robot mode, and is used to help him balance where needed.
Personality
Chip, whilst undoubtedly a fast learner and usually surprisingly quick on the uptake, is also known for being a bit of a nutcase (hence the rather random and rather pointless alternate mode of, of all things, a lawnmower). He bounces around like a child on speed, is often hyperactive, tends to have an attention span significantly shorter than your average bot, and is very easily bored. Those who have been unfortunate enough to be charged with responsibility for Chip in the past (teachers, senior officers, etc) learned very quickly that it was probably a good idea to keep Chip occupied at all times, lest he get bored and wander off to cause trouble. He can at times seem to have a natural talent for being able to derail the topic of a conversation by dropping in an apparently random contribution which doesn't solve the problem in question, but instead takes the discussion elsewhere for what can be quite some time (until someone finally notices and drags everybody back on-topic again). Conversely, though somewhat less frequently, he will sometimes manage to say something unexpectedly insightful completely out of the blue. This often results in everyone else staring at him in surprise for some moments afterwards.
Because of his hyperactiveness and the easiness with which he can lose his interest in something, Chip often finds it extremely difficult to concentrate during lectures from his commanders, briefings before a mission, speeches by the leadership, and so on and so forth. Chip will often become easily bored with things he judges to be uninteresting. The trouble is, he has a habit of finding a LOT of things uninteresting. During situation briefings he has been known to put up with it for the first five minutes or so (admittedly with the odd yawn thrown in here or there) while the Commander drones on about tactics and whatnot, then he'll usually get fed up and simply wander off elsewhere. "Strategic pre-planned tactics" is a phrase at Chip will never understand, and he would sooner scrap the long discussions, go straight in, and simply make things up as he goes along. Normally this strategy works out better for him than for the other unfortunate bots whom he has dragged along with him, because for all his lack of a plan he seems to be VERY good at improvising on the spot. This improvisational skill also extends into other areas— Chip can sometimes appear to possess an almost McGuyver-like ability to cobble together a needed piece of equipment from whatever he has to hand. He’s the sort of character who would have few problems blowing locks off doors using nothing more than a piece of chewing gum, a nickel, and a half-used box of paperclips. He makes a pretty decent lock-pick too. Never label a door No Access, Restricted Area, Staff Only, or something else along those lines, in a place where Chip will be able to spot it. It will only pique his curiosity and make him determined to find out what's on the other side. A previous commanding officer managed to figure out after a while that replacing the words "restricted area" with something more like "DANGER OF DEATH!" was usually just enough to keep the nosey squirrelbot from snooping around too much.
In any given situation, it is usually difficult to predict exactly what Chip will decide to do next. Those who work around him find themselves dreading what he might do in the same way that people on Earth dread the coming of a forecasted natural disaster— you know it's going to happen, but you don’t know exactly what or exactly when, or exactly how serious the potential consequences will be. Chip can at times remind people of a wild card or a loose cannon. Except that most loose cannons don’t tend to be hyperactive, fluffy gray squirrelbots that ooze cuteness... right up until they swing at your head with a large, double-bladed battleaxe. Yes, Chip is VERY good at wielding his Favoritest Weapon. And he isn't a bad shot with a gun, either. Like his beast mode, Chip is nimble, agile, and quick on his feet. His apparently endless supply of energy adds to the difficulty of scoring hits on him in a fight.
99.9% of the time, it is a Bad Idea to give Chip access to things like energon-goodies. It only compounds his hyperactivity. He can, however, sometimes have calmer moods during which he'd rather sit back and nibble on a peanut instead of bounding across the assortment of pipes in the engine room in his beast mode (or whatever). Chip also enjoys learning about things, and loves to experiment. It was through experimentation (including trial and error) that he was lead to create his preferred range of small explosives later on (he evidently enjoys it when he gets to blow things up and/or cause chaos). He enjoys playing computer games or reading datapad-comics in his spare time (another thing that makes him seem comparatively childlike at times), but if he's feeling really creative, he might instead pop down to the nearest lab and start mixing up any available chemicals, just to see what happens. Habits like this have, of course, caused numerous headaches in the past for people who are not Chip himself.
Finally, the last thing to note about Chip is that when caught, he’ll try to squeeze himself out of trouble by putting on that innocent puppy-eyed look (If at first you don't succeed, cheat until caught, then make with the Wibbly Eyes). Surprisingly enough, it works more often than you’d expect. Perhaps it's just because Chip is... well, Chip. Like how Puss in Boots is just... well, Puss in Boots. Plus Chip’s squirrel beast mode is just so adorably cute, and that cuteness is something that can be transferred to his other modes (don't ask me how he manages to pull it off in lawnmower mode. I have no idea. He just does.). Punishing him would feel like kicking a puppy, and no-ones wants to kick a puppy... right?
Weaponry
The Battle-Axe
Chip's preferred melee weapon consists of a huge double-sided axe blade mounted on a long handle. The blade of this weapon becomes the rotating spin-blade system of Chip's lawnmower mode, and is consequently made of the same extremely tough metallic alloy (see description of lawnmower mode). His lawnmower-mode's 'handle' unbends from its 'doorway' shape to form the pole-like structure which is the handle for this weapon. Chip, despite his all-over-the-place hyperactive unpredictability, is undoubtedly an expert at wielding this weapon, and has been known to deliver execution-style swings that remove his opponents' heads or limbs. When in robot mode, this weapon is normally stored in sub-space for safe keeping... and to stop Chip from waving it around too much and accidentally decapitating people or amputating their limbs.
Hunters' Daggers
A matching pair of blades each about as long as Chip's forearm, inclusive of the unadorned, simple grips. These daggers are made of the same shiny silver alloy as the blade of Chip's axe, though unlike the axe they don't become part of his alternate mode when he transforms. Each blade sheathes into a compartment, containing a subspace pocket, at either hip.
Laser Blaster
A black and gunmetal-hued weapon that looks like a cross between an AK-47 and a medium-sized Nerf gun. A relatively short-ranged gun that can score accurate hits on the other side of a medium-sized hangar at most, when fired from the other side. The closer the range at which a target is hit, the more damage the gun will be capable of doing. This is because the laser bursts fired by the weapon lose some of their energy with distance. The gun takes its energy from black, square-cornered, rectangular block-batteries a little smaller than the size of Chip's hand (he'd be able to comfortably hold one in his palm). These are loaded into the base of the gun and replaced with fresh batteries when energy runs out. The bursts of red-colored laser energy are capable of heavily scorching another bot's armor and melting all but the more reinforced types to the point of distortion (degree of distortion depends on the thickness and density of the armor, and how close Chip was when he scored the hit). This weapon does have lower damage settings, but Chip rarely uses those for anything except, say, toasting marshmallows.
DB-3000 Automatic Machine Gun
The heavier duty firearm with a high rate of fire. Its size means that Chip sometimes has to hold it with both hands in order to be able to fire it properly, which can make it cumbersome. A medium-to-long range weapon, this gun is capable of scoring hits from over a couple of blocks away, given the right conditions. It is silvery-blue in color, and fires sharp-tipped projectiles that are ultimately capable of punching through a moderately thick wall (if Chip has the opportunity to pummel the same spot on said wall for long enough). This gun features a clip on the underside, onto which Chip can attach a launcher for the grenades he’s developed a habit for carrying around with him in sub-space.
Equipment
Explosives
(Includes Chip's grenades.) Chip is pretty good at conjuring up a range of different explosive devices and charges which are used for everything from blowing the locks off doors, to blowing the door itself clean off. He doesn't tend to include the heavier duty demolitions-type stuff in his area of work, though due to the lack of prior examples to go by it's not known if he'd be capable of pulling demolitions work off effectively if he tried. (It should be noted that the thought of Chip armed with a device capable of leveling an entire building in one go terrifies most people). He always carries a varied assortment of what explosives he makes around with him in his sub-space pockets; most are designed ready for specific uses, but it's likely that he will be able to come up with something that he doesn’t already have if you give him the required equipment and any specifications on what you want the 'bomb' to do.
History
Chip is the owner of a relatively unextravagant history. He grew up in a rather large family, and started out as your average kid-bot growing up in the suburbs of Cybertropolis. He lived a relatively happy childhood and went to Cybertron's equivalent of school just like all other good little Maximal kids, but then dropped out of education sometime during or after Cybertron's equivalent of College. His family weren't sure where he'd gone, until they got a message from one of Chip's college class-mates saying he'd signed up with an exploration team setting off from Cybertron later in the stellar-cycle (year). Satisfied that the expedition would help fulfil their son’s love of learning about strange new things, Chip's parents had left him to it.
So Chip had boarded a ship bound for the far corners of Space. To start with, he spent most of his time playing around with whatever was in the laboratories, until the head scientist came in and discovered him one day. Following that, he was promptly kicked out of the lab and forbidden from touching anything unless told to. It was a pretty useless rule really, because even with it in place Chip was the sort of bot who’d still go around doing pretty much what he pleased.
The team's exploration ship, the Orion, ended up visiting 3 known planets before discovering 5 new ones. It was on the 5th of these new planets that the team encountered a rather hostile race of technorganic natives. These natives attacked the team a number of times before one of them managed to sneak aboard the Orion, and that was when Chip pulled his (in)famous Leap-into-Lawnmower-Mode move and literally shredded the unlucky intruder to pieces.
Later on, the Orion was on its merry way through Space after leaving that 5th planet, when for no apparent reason the crew ran into a black hole. Some of the team managed to escape in space-hopper crafts before the Orion was sucked in, but a freak space-time anomaly caused a wormhole to open, and the various escapees were sucked in and ended up spat out at the other end in different corners of the galaxy. Commander Vendrix ended up back on Cybertron, while head scientist Spinner ended up back on the 3rd planet discovered by the Orion team, where the primitive organic natives promptly made him their God.
And as for Chip... well, unsurprisingly enough, he ended up at the Ass End of the Galaxy, where his space-hopper floated around for a while before being spotted by a delivery vessel on its way to the Cybertronian Beta station. They decided to pick him up, and Chip travelled with them until they stopped off at Cybertronian Beta. There they dropped him off along with their scheduled deliveries, then headed off back to wherever they had come from. Chip spent a while on the station, until the arrival of the Toastmaster. Chip and various other bots then retreated to the Happy Customer, where we caught up with him at the time of Cybertronian Beta.
Other Info
Commander's Notes
- "Chip? Ah yes, Chip. A bit of a handful if I remember correctly. You had to make sure you always kept at least one optic on that one, you did. He'd probably wander off and cause problems, otherwise. Interesting combat technique, a complete lack of understanding in tactics, but nonetheless fared well on improvisation. Hmm. Yes, an interesting character, if I remember correctly. Mm."- Vendrix, Commander of the Orion.
Known Aquaintances
- Name: Spinner
- Gender: Male
- Function: Scientist
- Relationship to Chip: Crew-mate aboard the Orion. Thought of Chip as a "perfectly likable young bot when he's NOT being the bane of my existence." Unfortunately for him, Chip tended to be the bane of his existence for the majority of the time.
Noted Quotes
- "Some planets are like lychees. They have this hard crust on the outside and gooey stuff on the inside, like a Lindor ball. Other planets are like... like... like tribbles. The soft stuff goes on the outside, or sometimes the soft stuff is fluffy– like with Jupiter, you know? And then the denser stuff goes in the middle."
- "Eagles may soar, but squirrels don’t get sucked into other bots' jet engines."
- "My axe is bigger than yours is. And that means... you lose!"
