* Name: Perceptor
* Journal: gunfondlingbattlestat.dreamwidth.org
* Series: Transformers IDW comics
* Canon point: End of issue 3, Transformers: More Than Meetts The Eye, just after Perceptor triggers the Quantum Jump which Rodimus plans to use to shove the Sparkeater into the Quantum Engines.
* History:
Perceptor's TF Wiki Page* Personality: Perceptor is, in a word, calculating. Once, before the events aboard Turmoil's ship (Spotlight Drift), Perceptor was talkative, relatively cheerful, and eager to please. He would happily answer any question put to him, often with the use of as many syllables as possible, much to the questioner's dismay, usually. He employed a surfeit of terminology, utilizing the most precise terms he deemed possible, to most fully convey the exact meanings he wished-- even if that meant answering with a novel when a simple "yes" or "no" would have sufficed. Unlike some other mechs (Brainstorm, most notably), this wasn't out of a desire to denigrate his listeners or to show off his knowledge, but out of a desire to offer the best, most precise answers possible. Primarily, Perceptor simply failed to factor in that his audience often lacked his higher learning, or interest in that precision of detail, and would have preferred a layman's answer instead.
During his time at the Autobot Orbital Command Hub and later, Kimia, Perceptor is never really seen working on weaponry. The closest he comes to this is when he assists in repairing Kup after Kup's rescue from the planet where he'd been exposed to the highly radioactive crystals which damaged his psyche. (Spotlight Kup) He utilizes weapons in combat, and usually for the purpose of defending others, so he is not a pacifist, however, he clearly leaves the more martial developments to others at Kimia, such as Ironfist and Brainstorm.
All of that changed after Turmoil's ship.
After recovering from the injuries Turmoil inflicted upon him, Perceptor promptly began modifying himself to be "more useful". (All Hail Megatron 15) It weighed on him heavily how easily he was left behind, not only by the mechs they had come to rescue, but especially by Kup, who he had been working closely with and watching over since his repairs on Kimia. The only mech, in fact, who came back for him, was Drift, who, at the time, was completely unaffiliated with them or the Autobots. He now feels a deep debt to Drift for saving his life, which merely encouraged his urge to make himself "more useful" in combat. While Drift remained with Kup's group, Perceptor made it his personal mission to back Drift up and ensure that the swordsmech always had someone watching his back.
Once, before Turmoil's ship, Perceptor was trusting, even naive about a great many things, for all that he was, and is, one of the finest minds on or off Cybertron. Since Turmoil, and more importantly, since having been left behind by his own crew on that mission, Perceptor has become very self-contained. He no longer trusts easily, nor fully, and always maintains a level of suspicion, even towards his "friends", whom he holds at arm's length now. Though he easily slots himself into whatever team he is placed in, he holds himself apart, aloof, and no longer does he speak with the same freedom he once did. When he speaks at all, he keeps his comments short and clipped, answering a quickly and as quietly as he can. His discussion with Ratchet regarding Megatron after that worthy's capture, while once it might have been merely the opening salvo to a lengthy dissertation about myths and legends and theoretical physics, became nearly an unheard of soliloquy for the once verbose scientist/sniper.
In the most recent years of the war, and its conclusion, Perceptor has become intimately aware of the fact that he had very few true friends, and had been desired primarily for his skills and what he could do for others, rather than his own merits. Even those few friends he had have distanced themselves since his rebuild. Blaster considers his modifications to have "defiled" him, and Ratchet would rather have the scientist than the sniper. Even Drift stayed behind on Earth, severing their brief friendship when Perceptor was sent with Kup and the Wreckers to Garrus-9 to retrieve Aequitas. (Last Stand of the Wreckers)
The adjustments caused by the chip's implantations will be very confusing for him, but, ultimately, make for some incredibly interesting gameplay!
* Age: 4 million+
* Gender: robot. In the canon, there is only a single female, who was the result of a science experiment by a deranged tinkerer. They don't really have gender per se, but as the "female" was created by removing something from the default standard, that would make the default hermaphroditic. Nominally, he presents as masculine, and is referred to with masculine pronouns, but that's as much because the original intelectual property was marketed to boys.
* Appearance: Perceptor's robotic form is a tall, red humanois with silver and black details. He has a crystal chest plate with his Autobot symbol ecthed into the center of it, and teal forearms. His optics are blue, with one being hidden behind a targeting monocole that is a permanent installation. He transforms into either a giant microscope, or a stylized tank. He does possess a hardlight hologram avatar (
http://tfwiki.net/wiki/Holomatter) for interacting with humans/human-scaled entities on their own scale. Perceptor's holomatter avatar looks like Erwin Schrodinger.
* Abilities/Powers: Perceptor, like all Transformers, can transform into alternate forms. He is different than some in that he has his original alternate mode of a microscope, and an additional mode he added to himself of a stylized tank. Perceptor is also a genius. He's one of the best minds, if not the best mind to ever come from Cybertron. Though he's reformatted himself to include a tank alternate mode, he retains his microscope abilities, and can examine things under magnification rivaling most scanning electron microscopes. He is also a first class sniper and marskmech, capable of hitting targets at extreme distances with his rifle, and shorter distances with either, or both, of his pistols. He is shown, in fact, shooting Decepticon jets out of the air while hanging upside down from the bottom of a moving ship. His marksmanship skills are nearly without parallel. He also possesses a complete set of micro tools for repairing/working on electronics - particularly other Cybertronians - in his fingertips. These include a laser scalpel, probes, manipulating waldoes, and a micro-welder.
* Personal Items: A small field medical kit (Cybertronian), and one pistol with two spare energy packs.