Rotten.ST

### Device

Atari ST’s STSPEECH.TOS (which originally was used in conjunction with the AY-3-8910 (YM2149F PSG variant) chip)

### Famous For

U96 – Das Boot, Quadrophonia, other early Techno

### Social Media

Twitter

*"Oi"*

## Website Description

Rotten.ST has been in and out of British prisons since starting the cyberpunk movement in the early ’80s. Although nobody really knows exactly what he was arrested for, we can only imagine it was for good reasons. Rotten.ST has a pathological relationship with any form of authority, justice, law or order. You can be sure you will find him there loudly decrying the system, clamoring against police brutality, trying to start a riot (often succeeding). He is always the first one in the paddy wagon. When things get rough, his signature blunt weapon is a large microphone stand, which he will gladly swing towards anyone in uniform. His intentionally buzzy and electronic voice and his looks- which consists in showing off as much electronic parts as possible- are all about subverting social norms.

## Design

Rotten.ST's design is very cyberpunk in nature- a choice that can be explained by his bio stating that started that movement in the world of Chipspeech. Though, interestingly, while a common theme of cyberpunk is concealing identity and covering large amounts of the body, Rotten focuses more on "showing off as much electronic parts as possible," down to his pants being hung low on his hips and unbuttoned. His skeletal appearance is possibly a reference to the fact that skeletons are a common artistic theme in general punk aesthetics. He also has chainsaw teeth, which are capable of sawing off metal bars.

While he has a rather lanky looking build, Rotten is still quite a large and intimidating man, standing at 198.5 cm- or 6'05"- with his height in centimetres being the same number as the release year of the Atari ST. His height is further boosted by the fact that he is stated to have a habit of wearing platform shoes regularly.

Based on his given background details, his physical age can be placed around in his 30's. However, it appears unlikely that his age mentally is the same as the age of his actual hardware- a common trait amongst Chipspeech robots.

Any file he sends, voice clips included, have their names written with each character containing a space between, and with a certain text effect (example; "S E C U R I T Y" instead of "security.") His tweets appears to be written in a Cockney dialect, which, paired with the fact that he has been sent to Belmarsh several times, directly implies that he is specifically from east London.

## Personality

Rotten is a rather honest person, though this can make him come across as rather rude at times. Interestingly, there seems to be one thing in particular he tends to not be so honest about- His emotions.

Rotten has a very complicated relationship with his emotions. He has made a comment stating that he has actually tried to remove them before. This comment was made in a thread where he was struggling with the feelings he had over Bert’s “disappearance,” thought it was worded in a way that meant it had happened long in the past. Despite this, he actually seems to be a very emotional person. Rotten is afraid of becoming attached to others- there's evidence to support that this is due to him associating attachment with getting hurt and being left. This is backed up by several comments he made during Bert’s “disappearance,” as well as the first hint we got to his fear of attachment. It's commonly theorized that this fear of attachment branches out further into a fear of love in general.

Another trait of his is impulsivity, which often gets him into rather stupid situations, such as the time when, upon returning home after a long while gone, he found a large amount of spiders on his synth collection- one of which was supposedly the size of his entire hand. His first reaction was apparently to punch them. This did not go over well, as apparently one of the spiders might have been a wolf spider, as it "exploded" on impact. This led to him having to spend days trying to kill all of the spiders.

Rotten.ST has an attitude and many twitter responses reflect this. He is very prone to openly swearing, much more so than the rest of the cast. Like many Chipspeech characters are in one way or another, he is a criminal and is known as such, though the only crimes he has been known to commit is rioting, vandalism through wheatpasting, breaking into CiTech, and breaking out of prison.

## Relationships

### Dandy 704

He is not afraid of Dandy 704, and was even willing to take up his offer on a fight. The two of them definitely don't like each other, and have been shown repeatedly to not get along. Part of the reason for Rotten's dislike of Dandy could potentially be his treatment of Bert, as well as his general narcissistic attitude.

### CiderTalk'84

He's certainly not fond of CiderTalk'84 in any way, and mocked Cider when he hacked his account. This can be easily explained with the fact that Rotten started the Cyberpunk movement, which is known well for being highly critical of megacorporations and billionaires. On top of this, Rotten has stated several times that he does not see Cider as being legitimately qualified- something that's actually implied to be true.

When Cider went on his drunken tirade on the night of June 11th, Rotten commentated on it, once again mocking him, this time in the company of Bert as well. He stated Cider was making a "public embarrassment of himself-" which is true- called him barmy, and implied that he found his behavior to be childish. After Cider made his statement that he was stepping down, Rotten commentated on it. He stated that he did not believe this was permanent, as Cider most likely would have made a point of saying it was a full resignation, telling the audience not to shed any tears over the matter as they've "lost absolutely bloody nothin'," and proceeded to express anger towards Cider for saying that he, like everyone else,has been going through a lot lately, stating that his problem was born of privilege and not of unfortunate circumstance.

### Lady Parsec

He is wary of the watchful eye of Lady Parsec. He is very much against the principles of Parsec's regime, and is known well for openly protesting against it. Interestingly, on the day of Rotten's release, Parsec made a statement saying that this was his "last chance." This implies that whatever impact Rotten has as a revolutionary figure is strong enough for him to be recognized by Parsec, and strong enough for him to be on a chance system with her rather than permanent prosecution or execution being used.

Rotten's impulsivity once led to him throwing rocks at one of her ships, an action prompted by Dandy which he initially turned down, but quickly changed his mind upon further asking. This didn't go far, as it resulted in spotlights being thrown down after only one rock thrown and him needing to take cover.

### Pedro/VODER

Rotten and Pedro are acquainted, and used to be on pretty friendly terms. Their acquaintanceship was jumpstarted by him having a rather long conversation with Pedro about the EMP situation. Afterwards, he helped Pedro and VODER to a homeless shelter when they had no where else to go, saying it was "the best he had for them."

They had a falling out during their attempt to get Bert out of CiTech that resulted in Pedro breaking into tears and leaving with VODER. It is unknown what Rotten's feelings on that are.

### Bert Gotrax

Rotten and Bert are best friends, with Rotten saying they have known each other for years. The pair are known for being tender and a bit protective of one another. Rotten cares for Bert quite a bit, with a few notable examples being him expressing immediate concern upon finding him lying in an alleyway, listening to him vent and trying to help him after Bert had just finished making a mural of his late father, taking the apparent gradual yet massive shift in his personality seriously and assuming it was the fault of trauma rather than blaming it solely on Bert, and wishing he could have helped him more. Rotten has also stated that Bert was his one exception to his rule of not getting closer to people.

He was hit incredibly hard by Bert's "death" and following "disappearance" due to him needing to get transferred to a computer, being made speechless by the news that he very well could be dead, and having a vast change in personality as he tried to cope with the loss of his best friend. During this, he openly stated a couple times that he misses him, and that he wanted to be angry with him but couldn't bring himself to. He was ecstatic- albeit confused- at the news that Bert had just been stuck in a computer at CiTech the whole time, immediately agreeing to try to rescue him with Pedro.

Currently, the two of them live together- an arrangement that seems to be making the both of them happy. Rotten is unable to pick his favorite memory with Bert, a struggle which is mutual between them.

## History

Due to his behavior, Rotten has been in and out of prison for roughly 30 years, and has been a known troublemaker throughout. He is very openly anti-authority, being unabashedly critical of the government and- in particular- the police. He frequently protests/riots against police brutality, which has resulted in him both killing officers in self defense and also losing one of his eyes.

It is unknown how long Rotten has actually been in the same place as the rest of the Chipspeech cast, as he is the only character that is stated to have actually lived in Europe. Interestingly, he has made the comment that he has been best friends with Bert for (an unspecified number of) years. It is unknown whether some of this friendship was an online/long-distance one or not.

It can be assumed that he has been to Belmarsh several times, due to his twitter bio having "HM Prison Belmarsh (safe bet)" set as the location. Interestingly, there are also many references to him breaking out of jail, and if these two facts are linked, this would make him the only person who has been able to break out of Belmarsh.

His first on-screen interaction with another character was when he hacked CiderTalk'84's account "drhandshake." He had apparently just left prison at the time.

## Character Influences

His manners are suggestive of the mid-late 1900's working class British, a staple trait of the rise of punk in England. His design is meant to be reminiscent of classic cyberpunk  aesthetics, with an air of the Techno-punk style of the '80's that became popular as a result of the rise of techno music in the 70's. His personality very much reflects the anti-establishment political stance that punk established itself as a foundation during its raise as a music genre.

The "ST" in his name likely comes from the computer known as the "Atari ST," of which the sound chip he is based on was famously used within.

The bomb symbol on the screen on his chest is the same symbol that appeared on the ATARI ST screen when the computer encountered an error to signal it had essentially "crashed." When it was noted by a fan as one of the biggest woes of Atari ST users, it was stated by the Chipspeech twitter account that they "had to add it."

When he hacked CiderTalk'84's account, the first sound clip he added starts "it sure is great to get out of that prison" in his own voice. This is a dig at CiderTalk, as the 1984 Mac presentation begins "it sure is great to get out of that bag."

## Technical Information

* Rotten.ST

 * The ability to talk was given to Chipspeech mostly owed to the "vintage prosody" of both CiderTalk'84 and himself as Plogue didn't want to waste this sound.

## Trivia

* Rotten.ST was unveiled on the 1st of September 2016 as the 10th vocal for Chipspeech.
	+ His name was revealed after a fan asked about the AY-3-8910 appearing in Chipspeech, with Plogue revealing in the process that he was one of the two upcoming vocals.
* Rotten.ST was first teased- canonically- as early as June 12, 2016, when Terminal 99 mentioned him by name and seemed to express concern with him being released.
* Though Chipspeech is a VST plugin, Rotten was notably the first character to feature anything music themed in his design- being his mic stand and the speaker on his stomach.
* Rotten is wary of the color blue, as it reminds him of the police.
* Rotten is warm, much like a retro computer.
* Rotten is both gay and demisexual, the latter of which was revealed during 2020's Pride Month.
* On July 6, 2016, a fan asked which character- between Cider and Rotten- would be the better boyfriend. The response received was "Definitely not Rotten."
* Interestingly, Rotten can actually see colors outside of blue. The extent of which he can see is currently unknown.
* His "birthday" is June 30th, according to his Twitter page. This is both the closest one can get to "1632" dates wise, as well as- conveniently- being close to the worldwide release of the Atari ST.

## References

1. ↑ Rotten's chainsaw teeth in action.
2. ↑ Rotten confirms his height.
3. ↑ He likes to feel tall...er
4. ↑ Rotten has tried to remove his emotions in the past, but failed.
5. ↑ Rotten struggling with his feelings over Bert's disappearance.
6. ↑ Rotten finds some spiders.
7. ↑ At least one of the spiders was abnormally large.
8. ↑ Rotten's impulsivity leading to spider punching.
9. ↑ Rule One of Life: Never squish a wolf spider.
10. ↑ Rotten spending several days taking care of his spider infestation.
11. ↑ Dandy and Rotten insulting each other
12. ↑ A lot of insults thrown Cider's way.
13. ↑ Definitely not a full resignation, according to Rotten.
14. ↑ Billionaires are billionaires. You've lost nothing.
15. ↑ Rotten calling Cider privileged.
16. ↑ "This is your last chance, Rotten.ST."
17. ↑ Rotten refuses to throw rocks at Parsec's ship.
18. ↑ Well, that didn't last very long.
19. ↑ "How many rocks does it take to get sent directly to prison?"
20. ↑ Pedro and Rotten talk about the aftermath EMP.
21. ↑ Rotten helps Pedro to a shelter.
22. ↑ Rotten makes Pedro cry, and quickly leave.
23. ↑ Rotten's response to Pedro crying and leaving.
24. ↑ Rotten calling Bert his best friend
25. ↑ Rotten sees Bert in the alleyway
26. ↑ Rotten offering to help Bert after he had just finished the mural.
27. ↑ Rotten saying Bert has been an adult this entire time, just one that has been stuck in a state of age regression.
28. ↑ Rotten greatly affected by Bert's disappearance.
29. ↑ Rotten having no idea how to respond to the news that Bert could potentially be dead.
30. ↑ "... A miss him."
31. ↑ Rotten can't bring himself to hate Bert- somehow the worst part of his very convoluted emotions.
32. ↑ Rotten excited, but confused upon learning Bert's whereabouts.
33. ↑ Rotten confused at Bert being in CiTech the whole time, but ecstatic to rescue him with Pedro nonetheless.
34. ↑ Rotten and Bert are now living together.
35. ↑ Rotten unable to pick his favorite memory with Bert.
36. ↑ Favorite Memory Comparison.
37. ↑ Rotten got one of his eyes shot out by riot police.
38. ↑ "Pretty bold move for someone who just got out of prison."
39. ↑ It wouldn't be complete without the bomb!
40. ↑ "It sure is great to get out of that prison."
41. ↑ link
42. ↑ Tomorrow.
43. ↑ Terminal referencing Rotten
44. ↑ Rotten is wary of the color blue.
45. ↑ Rotten confirms that he's warm.
46. ↑ Apparently, not the best boyfriend.