Minific: Nerds Need Love Too

[stainless]

Title: Nerds Need Love Too
Characters: Perceptor/Chip Chase
Verse: G1
Wordcount: 515
Rating: K
Contains: non-explicit xeno (awkward flirting)
Summary: This is a fill of one of femme4jack's wishes in the Snowflake Challenge. She asked for some xeno featuring Chip Chase, saying that she felt he's an underused and underappreciated character. I agree. I  like Chip. As a person with a disability myself it makes me happy to see someone like us being a hero. While I get that he's in many ways a token character, and I can understand why others might not like him, I always did. Especially since the Transformers often react to his "wheels" in ways I always found interesting. They have this sense of him not as broken or messed up but as "kind of like us," it seems to me. I could be misremembering, but I think I can even remember a Decepticon (Starscream? Skywarp?) referring to Chip as "the human with wheels," rather than as "the broken human" or "the weird human," and that really makes me feel good. So I like him. But I write about Decepticons most of the time and could never come up with a story I wanted to tell about him.

When I saw femme's request it reminded me of liking him and of always planning to do something for him, so I knew I wanted to fill it. When I saw an article linked on access_fandom about characters with disabilities "vanishing" from science fiction (because in The Future, we have cures, so no one has those pesky disabilities any more!) , I knew I had to fill it.

So here it is. It's just 500 words of cute awkward nerd love between a human and a giant robot, so I'm not sure it's going to change the world, but I had a blast with it. Hope I haven't mucked anything up -- I'm not paraplegic and it's been over a decade since I was a chair user, so if I got anything awkwardly wrong, let me know so I can fix it, please.

Chip looked away from the console. Perceptor was standing behind him, humming to himself, a low, monotone droning. Chip recognized the noise. Percy sometimes made that sound when he was analyzing something... but only when he was pleased with what he'd found.

And he was standing very close to Chip. Very, very close. "Are the handles on the back of my wheelchair bumping into you someplace and would you like me to move?" close.

"Um, Perceptor," he stammered, "I'm -- I'm sure this code is child's play for you. What are you so excited about?"

"That is correct, Chip," Perceptor said. "I had computed the output of your query before you began coding the program at all. But I -- but I was -- pleased to see you succeed at it. The human brain is a primitive processing unit compared to those we possess. Therefore, what you've just created is, for a being of your type, highly impressive. I was simply assessing your achievement as admirable, and vocalizing my response."

Chip made a small, choking sound.

Perceptor spoke again, hastily, a staticky buzz lacing his words. "Oh dear. I have insulted you, haven't I, human? I -- I did not mean to imply that your processor is -- inferior to ours. I simply meant to express --"

Chip laughed. "Hang on a minute, Percy. I'm not insulted. I'm sure my brain isn't all that amazing, compared to robots that can think and have been alive for millions of years. I'm just --" he felt himself blushing, more deeply than he would have expected -- "I just never thought you'd be the type to be proud of anyone. Especially not some human."

"I do not understand your statement. Your quick thinking has enabled us to outwit the Decepticons on several occasions. For a member of your species, you are highly intelligent, and you have proven an invaluable ally to us. Why wouldn't I -- 'be proud' of you?"

Chip unlocked his wheels, turning to face Perceptor (and narrowly avoiding whacking him with a handle.) "I -- I wasn't thinking of it like that," he murmured, still blushing.

"I -- I believe you should have been," Perceptor answered. The bright blue optics flickered, and Chip realized that must be his friend's own version of a blush.

I think a giant robot is hitting on me, Chip marveled, wondering why he didn't find it as weird as his mind told him he should.

Then again, why would he? He'd had all of his adolescence to wonder how attraction and dating and sex were supposed to work with the lower half of his body out of his control. He'd thought of plenty of sensible things and plenty of crazy things, too. He'd even tried some of the crazy ones, when he hadn't felt too shy and had the chance. Why should he, of all -- er, humans -- care whether something was weird?

"Well, I -- well, I'm glad to hear you say that," Chip answered, smiling up at a massive face that smiled down at him.

Comments

[lyricality]

*makes fluffy sounds*

I love Chip, too. He's certainly my favorite of all the human characters in G1--although Raoul is a very close second--and I've always hated how he was just discarded after season 2 (although admittedly a lot of characters shared that same fate after TF:TM). He was just as close to the Autobots as the Witwickys were. To the science team and Prowl, he was probably even closer. I always felt cheated that he never appeared again--not even to mourn the dead.

But anyway! Oh, these awkward, awkward boys. They suit each other almost too well, hee. I doubt you mean to continue this, but if you ever did, I would love to watch them stumble along together. ♥

[stainless]

I didn't really mean to, but I think they're totally cute together, so who knows? I wound up turning KO/Sierra crackficlets into a series, after all.

[femme4jack]

I already squeed all over you on my journal, but can I just say once again how HAPPY this story makes me. These two are just adorkably perfect together, and I grin every time I think of your words here :D