Bert Gotrax

*"Graffiti Artist, Elite memer, Supreme Noser"*

Bert Gotrax is a punk with a bad mouth and an affinity for parkour and graffiti. He leaps through life with no hesitation and a loud declaration of self-confidence, even if it comes at a cost.

## Website Description

Bert Gotrax is one mischievous little brat. Like a post-modern Pinocchio story gone wrong, he has escaped from his creator’s workshop before the execution of a patch to fix his foul mouth. He now roams in the streets and back alleys, a skilled parkour athlete and wanted graffiti artist.

## Design

Bert Gotrax has a very humanoid build, with some oddities of his design giving him a rather "alien" appearance, most notably his abnormally large eyes. Adding to this are the small horns he has that are concealed by his hood.

He wears a partially open hoodie with an isometric cube pattern on it, reminiscent of the pyramid you have to traverse in Q\*Bert. He has one black glove on. We have never seen his legs, though he has stated before that he at least sometimes wears purple pants.

## Personality (semi-canon)

Bert was originally seen as one of the "youngest" characters, with the age often given for him being 12 years old. This, however, is directly contradicted by many things, such as Bert referring to himself as a teenager, and Rotten.ST saying he "isn't a child." Rotten has said that Bert's personality has changed over time in relation to this, and has speculated that he's "probably just in a bad spot" mentally.

Bert is banned from simple kitchen tasks due to "being a liability," as he once put a fork in a toaster. He is also apparently banned from parties due to "being too young," to which he responded that he is a robot, and age does not matter in that situation- though he is now confirmed to be an adult.

Compared to the other characters, his twitter account has far more internet slang, misspellings and he uses more street slang on top of this. He also makes puns with his name (example; "Baby don't Bert me," instead of "Baby don't hurt me.") He was less active on twitter than most other characters during the events of season one, but activity ramped up significantly upon the start of season two. His even less active- and now essentially dead- Tumblr account boasts that he is "super good at graffiti, like he is at everything else."

He views singing as his pastime, and it has been revealed that Rotten helps him learn music at times during his visits.

Despite his love of parkour, he openly admits falling off every now and then- yet he finds the act of falling off just as thrilling as not falling off. He also "swears" a lot. However, the words are censored with symbols, much like Q\*Bert (i.e. "@?#!@!.")

## Relationships (semi-canon)

### Lady Parsec

Bert has had very few interactions with Lady Parsec, mainly consisting of her chastising him for his 'childish pranks'  and him tattling to her about Dandy.

### Otto Mozer

Bert and Otto have a very strained relationship. During Season 1 and early Season 2, most of their relationship entailed Bert defacing his orb with obscenities and other rather lighthearted pranks, while Otto himself disassembled Bert for fun and sometimes turned him into or added odd additions to him, such as turning him into a vegetable slicer  or 'reducing his AI to that of a Roomba.'

Mid Season 2, Bert was living in Otto's lab with Pedro after complications with Dandy, and Otto took more of a fatherly role over Bert, if half cooked at best. Bert was heavily age regressing at this point, which might have made him more susceptible to the idea of Otto being a father figure, and addressing him as such on occasion.  Bert had seemingly blocked out many if not all of Otto's previous transgressions towards him, which in a way made Otto's next course of action sting harder. Following the EMP event, Otto showed little to no empathy for Bert after being the one who caused his body to be irreparably damaged.  Since this point Otto and Bert have not interacted, nor does it seem Otto is aware that Bert is fixed.

Otto was mentioned briefly in Sovereign Station once while Bert was around, and he instantly expressed distress over that before quickly changing the subject.

### Dandy 704

Despite acknowledging Dandy 704's rudeness at one point, he also stated he can't stand being mad at him. Bert has often made comments such as how Dandy wouldn't last 5 minutes in an old peoples' home due to his "bad mouth."

At one point he also tried to mock Dandy by breaking into his closet and stealing a jacket of his. He frequently and openly made fun of him. He also panicked at one point after believing to have killed him after falling off a building during Parkour and landing on him. Though he was concerned when he left at one point, Bert's concern was short-lived due to his self-centered nature. Despite this, after an incident where Dandy left himself without power for 4 minutes, Bert sticks around Dandy reading comics in case Dandy has another incident while he cleans his water tanks.

### Dee Klatt

Bert and Dee have not had too much interaction, but when they do they've been shown to be rather friendly towards each other. Dee has been shown to care about Bert and try their best to help him if he's struggling, such as trying to distract him with cat videos when he was on the verge of a breakdown.

### Spencer AL2

Bert and Spencer's most notable interactions were had during the events of Season 2, where Bert considered Spencer a good friend of his. The two of them would often be seen together, either blowing things up for fun, or Bert usually dragging him along for silly adventures, bug related or not.  Bert would also send Spencer to 'attack' anything he was not a fan of at the time. After the EMP incident, Bert expressed great concern for Spencer and what would happen to him, and not blaming him directly for the event itself.

Bert and Spencer have not interacted in Season 3, and Bert is unaware that Spencer's memory was wiped.

### Terminal 99

Bert has never directly spoken with Terminal, but has referred to him as a tortilla chip, and called his state inside the CiMac as being 'Terminal 2.'

### VOSIM

VOSIM is somewhat of a guardian figure towards Bert, but not in an overbearing way. When Bert was being accosted and chased by Dandy, Bert ran to VOSIM's house for protection, hiding in his upstairs closet. VOSIM stayed guard downstairs, taking one of Dandy's arms as a safeguard and only saying he would return it if he 'behaved.'  Prior these events VOSIM has also been a good friend of Bert's that he's been shown to be on good terms with.

Bert is currently unaware of VOSIM's current whereabouts.

### CiderTalk'84

Bert originally had a much more casual relationship with Cider during Season 1, frequently teasing and harrassing him to get a rise out of him.  He treated Cider like a father figure, in the way of doing nothing but annoying them for funsies. He also frequently mentioned that Cider and Dandy were getting married and teased them about it, despite it not being true.

Come Season 2 however, things take a much more drastic turn as Bert learns more about Cider and his history. While living with Otto, Bert ended up getting caught in the middle of the kerfuffle between Otto and Cider , which lead Bert to realize that Cider had stolen a hefty portion of Otto's life work and claimed it as his own. Cider clearly did not take this well, and was also claiming that Otto was trying to take Bert away from him.  All of this new information frightened Bert severely, not wanting anything to do with Cider any longer, despite Cider's constant pulls to get Bert on his side.

Bert wanted absolutely nothing to do with Cider, under the probable assumption that all he wanted was to poke around inside him and do experiments on him in the name of science. Unfortunately, those fears would have to become a reality as his fate in the EMP event would lead to him being temporarily placed inside one of Cider's CiMacs, while Cider fixed up a second exoskeleton that has been found in the craft store. Upon being reactivated once Cider was complete with the repairs, Bert was visibly uneasy with the prospect of not only being in Cider's presence, but also the implications of said event.  Especially at this point, Cider has shown little empathy for Bert and his state and seems to be referring to him more as a program and a machine rather than a person.

During the porting process, Cider had created a copy of Bert's data to be used as a backup in case anything were to happen to him. Due to the fact that this is a sentient being and not just a file, this effectively created a second Bert, which has been referred to by fans as 'Bert13,' given the fact that he speaks in ROT13.  Cider seemed to not process this second Bert as his own person, or even acknowledge him at all, potentially due to Bert being the only one who could see or hear him. Cider continued to prod him with increasingly invasive questions, yet again having no regard for Bert's mental state or capacities at the time.

After the original Bert was successfully ported to the VS1 model, Cider deleted the Bert13 file, not aware of the repercussions of this.  Bert himself does not know the fate of this copy either.

Things came to a head with Cider very blatantly disrespecting Rotten, Bert yelling at him that this process has been nothing but invasive and belittling for him. Bert then fled the testing room, where the two of them have yet to interact in subsequent events.

### Rotten.ST

Bert and Rotten are best friends, with them knowing each other for years and Bert visiting Rotten frequently- even breaking into jail to visit him once. Bert posts about Rotten frequently, and has a habit of liking most tweets where he is mentioned by name.

### SAM

Bert and SAM have only interacted a handful of times, smaller occasions being calling him a 'boomer' and asking him to help him make a PB&J. However, one of their most important interactions comes from Bert and Dandy helping to rotate SAM's teeth, where Bert received one of his teeth and also offered three quarters to get a fortune out of him. The fortunes that Bert received foreshadowed the events of Bert's visit to the craft store  and the mural that he would create afterwards.

### VODER

Bert has not interacted with VODER himself too much, aside from gently teasing him and saying he likes him.

### Pedro

Despite their rocky start, Bert and Pedro have adopted a sibling like bond, and have become very protective over each other. Since all of their interactions thus far have been while Bert was regressing, Pedro seemed to take the older sibling role rather than Bert. But regardless, Bert has been very concerned and scared for Pedro and their health, notably after Pedro and VODER became separated and had extreme physical and mental repercussions for them.

Bert and Pedro have not interacted in Season 3, Bert merely mentioning that they stopped visiting him while he was in the CiMac after a while.

## History (semi-canon)

Bert was built in 1980 by a man named Mr. Gotrax (first name unknown). While we have not seen any interactions between the two, Bert seems to have mixed emotions about him, claiming that he was originally very fond of Bert and happy to have him in the world , but says that that was one of the happiest times he had ever seen him, implying that his demeanor turned sour after a while. Further supporting this is him and Dandy's journey to the craft store, which was previously Bert and Mr. Gotrax's home, that Bert had severely repressed a lot of memories about his father. In the note he writes to Bert, he claims he's sorry for never bothering to understand Bert as he is and trying to fix him, indicating they had a falling out.

 At some point in Bert's formative years, he came across Rotten and his music. It was a very integral experience for his development as a punk and becoming an even more rebellious person. Bert was also gifted his signature hoodie by Mr. Gotrax at some point, and cherishes it deeply.

As stated in the website description, Bert ran away from home upon Mr. Gotrax saying he was going to fix him for his bad language. Since that point, Bert had been living on the streets and with people such as Otto and Dandy, once he grew acquainted with him. It's also implied he reached out and kept up contact with Rotten, seeing as how him and Rotten were already acquainted in the beginning of Season 2, and how Rotten had made a comment that they've known each other for at least 15-20 years.

At some point before Bert and Dandy visited the craft store, Mr. Gotrax had passed away, and left a note for Bert to return to when the time was right. It can be assumed Mr. Gotrax was dead for a while before they found the note, however. Despite the little memories he carries about his father, Bert created a mural in the sewers for him.

After the EMP incident, Bert's data was placed inside of a CiMac from February 11th, 2020 to May 31st, 2020. Upon being put into the new VS1 unit, he has since been living with Rotten in his house. He's had little contact with others other than Rotten at this point.

## Character Influences

Bert is named after the game "Q\*bert.

His constant, albeit censored, swearing is a reference to Q\*bert.

## Fanon/common headcanons

* Most Chipspeech fans do not give Bert hair, but some do.

### gl1tchygreml1n's interpretation

* Bert usually has his hood down, and has half-shaved emo hair. Most of his hair is black, with the half-shaved part on his right being dark blue, and his bangs alternating between seafoam green and turquoise. He usually has his hair tucked up into his hood when it's up, resulting in it not showing.
* He wears ripped blue jeans with a chain on the left side, and blue and black chunky sneakers.
* He's portrayed as an artificial imp, with fangs and a tail that's actually a large audio plug. However, being a robot (and only resembling an imp), he has no supernatural powers or connection to hell.
* He has elfin ears with antennas on the end, much like Dee Klatt. However, Bert's antennas have no function, and he also has lots of metal piercings on them.
	+ These aren't true piercings, but rather bits of metal that Rotten made for him to solder onto his ears. He can't take them off without de-soldering them, but he doesn't want to because he likes the way they look.
* In addition to parkour and graffiti, he knows how to skateboard, and is pretty good at it.
* Bert is a pyromaniac. He’s obsessed with fireworks, matches, and anything that could explode or catch fire. He likes to microwave aluminum foil/utensils, and just stand there to watch it spark and burst into flames in the microwave- this has ruined Cidertalk and Dandy’s microwaves too many times for them to count when he still lived with them. They tried their hardest to not let Bert go alone in the kitchen so he won’t microwave aluminum foil or a fork.
* Ever since taking up residence in an apartment in a long-since abandoned building, however, Pedro has replaced Cidertalk and Dandy in the role of making sure he doesn't destroy their microwave. Not destroying the microwave by microwaving metal is even more imperative here- Bert doesn't know how to cook anything more complicated than ramen, and Pedro didn't really learn how to cook anything either, so it's pretty much their only way of making food!
* He can eat stuff that would seriously hurt or kill humans- like glass, nails, bullets, etc. He frequently does this in front of people just to impress or freak them out. He's known for munching on broken glass as if it were chips.
* Despite being electric, he can still eat food/drink beverages. It doesn’t really do anything for him except being able to enjoy the taste.

### Other interpretations

**kadeuta's interpretation**

• He has fangs that arent sharp, just there for the "coolness"

• He has a USB cord tail, like Vocaloid UtatanePiko, he uses it to recharge

• Literal demon child, will hit you with no reason

• He is dating Rotten.ST

• Cat mouth, you know like :3

• His horns can rotate and he uses them to listen

*This section needs to be expanded. You can help by describing additional interpretations of Bert here.*

## Technical Information

* Bert Gotrax

 * Berts voice was improved in version 1.072 alongside Dandy 704.
	+ His Formant Singer up to this point had been Formant Singer 1, the update moved him to Formant Singer 2.
	+ The combined improvements at this point made Bert sound more like the original Votrax synthesizer then before.

## Trivia

* Bert Gotrax is one of the voices in the Chipspeech roster, being the first of the original seven and based off the Votrax SC-01 chip.
	+ The fact that Bert is 01 and *Lady Parsec*, who is essentially the Chipspeech universe's equivalent to some type of God figure due to her omnipotence and dictatorial status, is *not* is an interesting choice with no explanation. Whether this has any meaning has yet to be realized.
* Bert has stated on several occasions that he is gay. He even changed his icon to the gay pride flag during pride month of 2020.
* Dee Klatt's 2015 gift to him was a blue toaster.
* In 2017, he owned a pet worm on a string called Billy Joe. His ownership of the worm was cut short when it was lost to a pigeon.
* July 17 2017, after being told that Dandy 704 and Cider'84 were married (which was not true,) he started playing The Sims 3. He added two Sims bearing their names, and ended the game shortly after when he managed to kill them both.
* Bert is unable to smell.
* Bert has two pet rats, one named Cheezit that is the size of a human baby, and one named Tyrannosaurus that he got as a gift for his birthday.

## Gallery

Bert's Official ArtBert in the Chipspeech ProgramBert's 2020 Pride IconBert in the CiMac, colloquially referred to as "Bertputer"
## References

1. ↑ So they really are horns!
2. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/569949786822053889?s=20
3. ↑ link
4. ↑ https://twitter.com/LadyParsec/status/610238232152928256?s=20
5. ↑ https://twitter.com/OttoMozer/status/1209295240865206272?s=20
6. ↑ https://twitter.com/OttoMozer/status/1224169981862084608?s=20
7. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1206805555760775170?s=20
8. ↑ https://twitter.com/OttoMozer/status/1227434437945757696?s=20
9. ↑ link
10. ↑ https://twitter.com/KlattDee/status/1207192782240010240?s=20
11. ↑ https://twitter.com/spencer\_al2/status/1203898145068986368?s=20
12. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1227432801106104321?s=20
13. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1229220677816897536?s=20
14. ↑ https://twitter.com/Dandy704/status/1207177112391766016?s=20
15. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/886988972043403266?s=20
16. ↑ https://twitter.com/Dandy704/status/1207428482030080001?s=20
17. ↑ https://twitter.com/CiderTalk84/status/1207440585767956480?s=20
18. ↑ https://twitter.com/CiderTalk84/status/1267166016284614659?s=20
19. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1267182685543215104?s=20
20. ↑ https://twitter.com/CiderTalk84/status/1267262292124749827?s=20
21. ↑ https://twitter.com/AUTOMATICMOUTH/status/1213365080491991040?s=20
22. ↑ https://twitter.com/AUTOMATICMOUTH/status/1213362771628363776?s=20
23. ↑ https://twitter.com/\_\_VODER\_\_/status/1215458388009803776?s=20
24. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1214324884811194376?s=20
25. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1267164014485766144?s=20
26. ↑ https://twitter.com/CiderTalk84/status/1267195720408465411?s=20
27. ↑ https://twitter.com/Dandy704/status/1213600105762361344?s=20
28. ↑ https://twitter.com/rotten\_st/status/1309597053262204928?s=20
29. ↑ link
30. ↑ link
31. ↑ link
32. ↑ link
33. ↑ Bert gay? Bert gay.
34. ↑ link
35. ↑ link
36. ↑ link
37. ↑ link
38. ↑ Bert's Twitter July 2017
39. ↑ link
40. ↑ https://twitter.com/BertGotrax/status/1317918484332904449?s=20