Companions are Robots and one of the two remaining populaces of Walled City 99 following the departure of Humans.
Background
Early model of Companion (Ancient Relic photo)
Predominately bi-pedal, the robots were constructed as helpers to the humans who lived within the city with limited AI, designed as glorified autonomous cleaners. Many living within the city itself have evolved their AI as such that many have distinct personalities, interests and aspirations in addition to an interest in human behavior. As time progressed and the Zurks have evolved to consume metal, the companions have devised technologies to alert and defend against the all consuming invaders.
Although many have evolved their AI, those who have not, such as the Peacemakers and Helpers are located in Midtown and the Control Room of the city. Along the evolution, Companions evolved their own language and alphabet.
Culture
Companions' culture, including food and dress, seems to take inspiration from many real-world countries, such as Japan (in the case of RAMen, as well as the Guardian or Momo's clothing styles in particular), as well as the United States (in the case of Doc and Seamus' clothing, as well as most of the Companions in Midtown), and many others. Mostly, however, the Companions seem to have evolved to have their own distinct culture in terms of art, music, and writing.
Companions have their own language based on English and French, and they are using two alphabets that are based on the English alphabet. They communicate with each other using sounds incomprehensible to the player, which B-12 can translate.
The main art forms they engage in are music, writing, poetry and drawing. They are also familiar with theater, sculpture, cooking, games, television, dancing, architecture, fashion and sports:
- They perform music mainly on synthesizers, pianos and guitars, and record it on cassettes and vinyl records. They often listen to music on the Radio.
- Companion books are printed in English and their own languages.
- Alexander and Bonobot are poets, and Clementine loves poetry too.
- They paint mostly on walls, their Graffiti can be found all over the city.
- The theater stage can be seen on TV, as well as the hall in Midtown in which the performance takes place.
- In the same scene, you can see sculptures with companions heads and human bodies.
- In all inhabited areas of the city there are cafes and bars where companions prepare various food and drinks.
- They often play board and role-playing games, game consoles are also mentioned.
- On their television, you can see advertisements including social ads, news, quizzes and TV series.
- Midtown companions like to dance to music on the streets and in the Nightclub.
- Although the city was built by Humans, the Companions also rebuild it to suit their needs - they hang Signs, repaint walls, repair or break interior elements. In the Antvillage, they use a lot of wood for construction.
- They are familiar with the concept of fashion and wear different human clothes of different colors and designs.
- Sports "dodgebolt" and tournaments on it are mentioned.
The Companions use computers, transceivers, radios and telephones for communication. The technologies that are used in the city, for some reason, are similar to the technologies of the 1980s-1990s. The Companions understand them and use technology to fix each other (an analogue of medicine), protect against Zurks and Sentinels, for entertainment and science.
It doesn't look like Companions have their own religion, but they use elements of Eastern religions and beliefs, such as meditation, maneki-neko, etc. They use religious-related expressions such as "soul", "for bot's sake", "to hell".
Society
Companions communicate with each other every day, and can make friends and family. In the game you can see a sample of a married couple (conversation outside the Door), a single parent with a child (Seamus with his father Doc, Yosh with his father Elc), individual children (Bilite, Malo, Dav).
Companions address each other as male or female. Of the characters visible in the game, no one uses they/them pronouns. The gender of the Companions does not depend on their appearance or clothing. There are more male Companions in the game than female. Some characters with typically feminine names use masculine verbs in the Russian localization of the game (Anna, Marie, Jo and Lyn), but it is not known if this is a mistake in translation or if they are transgenders.
Companions have no division into nationalities and races.
The political structure of the city is unclear. It seems that there are no leaders there, only guards in the Antvillage and the Slums who help those who arrived there and protect their places from Zurks: Guardian and Baladin. It is not known whether there are laws and punishments there, but we do not see crimes there either.
There is a police state in Midtown, led by Sentinels and Peacemakers. Their laws are dictated by the security protocol of the city, and reach the point of absurdity - for example, Midtown citizens can be put in Jail for trying to overclock their processors, like Lupin. Criminals there can still bribe the police, for example, by turning in other criminals.
The game does not show what the money used by the companions looks like, only cash registers in some shops. On vending machines you can see that they accept cards, and cash was not mentioned in the game. The currency used by the companions is also unknown, but on some textures you can find references to euros (on a box of fruits from France), dollars (a sticker with a crossed dollar) and cents (on a payphone). In the Slums, energy drinks are bartered for items from a merchant, but the bar also has a cash register.
Psychology
Companions are self-conscious and are saying that they have a soul. They have concepts of time, existence, empathy, love, and other concepts that only humans fully understand. They have feelings and emotions that they can express through body language, words and art. Their current emotions are usually displayed on their screens. They know philosophy and can talk about philosophical topics such as the Theseus paradox and Allegory of the cave (Vladee's speech), during the game you can see them talk about time, friendship, feelings and other topics.
Each Companion has their own character, hobbies and interests. They have individual reactions to the events taking place. Judging by their reactions, they can feel pain and try not to lose their lives. They have empathy and try to help others as much as they can, and they can also commit crimes for profit.
They can sleep, but it is not known whether they need sleep to function correctly. Companions cannot smell, yet they understand that such a sense exists and mention it in dialogue.
The various shades of death that we see Companions subjected to in Jail, lead to questions of what the definition of "death" is. If the mind of a human is uploaded into a Companion, then is that person still "alive"? What if they have the personality, but not the memories? What if the memories are subsequently deleted? Or the personality reset? What if the disk is completely wiped? If the head is completely destroyed and removed? At some point, death happened, but exactly where may be a question for philosophers.
Physical appearance
The general structure of the companions' organism is similar to a human one - they have a body with two arms and legs, but consisting of metal components.
In total, the companions have 12 types of heads, some of them are unique. They don't have to have a screen on them, but if there is one, then the current emotion of Companion is displayed on it.
Companions' heads design by Maxim Dorokhov
Main head types
Background characters are not included in the list.
- Full screen, speaker and a button (default): the most common type of head, all companions except those listed below (with a known name) have it, including Doc (his head is slightly modified).
- Slightly smaller than default screen with a round speaker and two antennas: Moka, Alexander, Muka, Bartender, Kosma, Fripp, Krooni, Oskoor
- A large head with a camera, one antenna and two small screens, on the upper one of which the emotion from the lower screen is duplicated, but shifted to the side: Vapora, Kundelich, Jazam, Elliot, Albert
- An upstretched head with visible wires: Bonobot, Koola
- A long head with a horizontal screen, one antenna and two cameras: Mito, Jauxi, Marie, Tonin, Stylist, Pinu, Nikko
- Square head with two antennas on the sides and part of the screen on the bottom of the head: Bouncer, Ozi, Simon, Lupin, Dj matcee, Jameston
- Square head with part of the screen on top and a large speaker on the bottom: Hator, Viv, Camille
- The default screen, stretched up with "hair" made of wires: Morusque, Anna, Lyn, Mattbee
- Head with two wires on the sides going back of the head: Blazer
- Security camera (technically not a Companion's head): Peacemakers
- Two horns: Miko
- Old TV: Bwash
They can see using visible cameras, or maybe with the very small cameras hidden somewhere on their heads. They can hear, taste and feel, but they can't smell.
All faces textures
The main facial expressions of companions that can be seen in the game are nine (see companions' faces doc): love, surprise, joy, anger, embarrassment, silence, sadness, misunderstanding and confusion. Some of Companions have unique emotion screens.
Their children are smaller than adults
Adult Companions are about the height of an average human. The children of the Companions are smaller than adults, most likely they are assembled from small parts that are replaced with larger ones in the process of growth, or they have some other technology to grow. The Companions do not have a division into female and male sexes.
Their original design did not include a digestive system, but they learned to consume food and drinks in some way, most likely through digitizing it like B-12 or just pretending they are eating something. They eat cables and computer parts, and drink energy drinks and oil, which is an analogue of an alcoholic drink for Companions. They can taste ("This "food" is actually horrible") and want to drink ("No thanks, I'm not thirsty").
Their body parts can be of different colors
If their body parts are damaged, they can contact a surgeon or a barber. The body parts of the companions can be of different colors, and they are not always monochrome, though sometimes companions may simply just paint their body parts a different color if they wish to have multi-colored body parts. Companions wear clothes for beauty, imitating human behavior or for belonging to a certain group, although wearing clothes is not necessary for them.
Companions may feel pain, may rust, be damaged, be electro-tortured, rebooted (equivalent to erasing memory). They don't age, but they can die for some reasons. Discharging the companion's battery only causes them to turn off. It is unknown what type of batteries they use, they can charge it by connecting to the power grid.
They can paint their body parts to change the color
Broken companions cannot move, or/and a distorted picture or lines of code are displayed on their screen. Some companions may have an analogue of a human disability or just an injury, it is possible that Alterisateur (broken, rebooted, rusted, speaks poorly and does not move), Lupin (broken, rusted, speaks poorly), Ledoc (perhaps they are not talking because of the breakdown?) or Humar (their leg is bandaged, and not replaced with another) have it.
Voices
Each Companion, when talking with a Cat or with other characters, has their own voice - one of the 12 default voices or a unique voice.
| Name | Sound | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Phoneme |
|
Default voices |
| Chatty robots |
|
Conversations from a distance |
| Reaction heart |
|
Nuzzle |
| Reaction | ||
| Reaction say hello | ||
| Club drink | Drinking Companions in Nightclub | |
| Tripping | Tripping falling: Tripping on the floor: |
Trip |
| Afraid | Unused | |
| Old specific danger | Unused | |
| Recup oldvoices | Common: Uncommon: |
Midtown Hologram sounds |
Dialog
For individual characters' dialog, see their respective pages. However, some dialog is generic, and shared across all characters; default responses on being shown a certain item, for example. These default responses are shown here.
| Id | Text | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| BrokenTracker🛈 | This device looks a bit broken to me. There is this guy named Elliot, he might help you with that. | On show Broken Tracker |
| Cables🛈 | Those are some high quality cables. | On show Electric Cable |
| Cables🛈 | Grandma uses this to craft her unique clothes. | On show Electric Cable |
| ClemAddr🛈 | I know she’s wanted here in Midtown, but that’s all. | On show Clementine's Picture |
| ClemAddr🛈 | Ask someone else. | On show Clementine's Picture |
| ClemAddr🛈 | That's the Wanted Person, right? I don't have anything to do with that. | On show Clementine's Picture |
| ClemAddr🛈 | I see her face every day on the screens. I wonder what she did. | On show Clementine's Picture |
| Club🛈 | You're looking for the club, right? It's the big purple building, you can't miss it. | On show Mysterious Message |
| ClubDrink🛈 | That is some fancy drink. | On show Strange drink |
| Default🛈 | I have no idea what this is. | On show an unknown item. (defensive coding) |
| Detergent🛈 | I bet some people would pay a lot for a full Super Spirit bottle. | On show Super Spirit Detergent |
| EnergyDrink🛈 | No thanks, I'm not thirsty. | On show Energy Drink |
| EnergyDrink🛈 | I've heard that the Barterman is looking for stuff like that. | On show Energy Drink |
| Flower🛈 | Those are pretty flowers you have here. | On show Red Plant, Yellow Plant or Purple Plant. |
| Handle🛈 | What do you want me to do with that? | On show Lever Handle |
| Helmet🛈 | Oh? What are you doing with that, little cat? | On show Worker Hat |
| Helmet🛈 | You want to be a cat worker? | On show Worker Hat |
| Jacket🛈 | Nice jacket, you work at the factory? | On show Worker Jacket |
| Keys🛈 | Oh, keys? What does it open? | On show Keys |
| MusicSheet🛈 | A music sheet? I don't play an instrument sorry. | On show Music Sheets |
| Notebooks🛈 | Oh yes, everyone around here knows this symbol. It's the Outsiders. | On show Notebooks |
| Notebooks🛈 | They live on the upper floors of this area. You can probably talk to Momo about this. | On show Notebooks |
| Password🛈 | Oh a guy wearing a bomber jacket and a gold chain? | When showing Contact Message: it then picks one of the 4 following items. |
| Password🛈 | I know exactly who you're talking about. He's creeping near the factory right now. | |
| Password🛈 | Hmm nope, that doesn't ring a bell sorry. | |
| Password🛈 | I don't know what you're talking about. You can check the clothing shop maybe. | |
| Password🛈 | Yeah I think I saw a guy like that earlier today. He was near the club, I think. | |
| Poncho🛈 | I recognize Grandma style. She's very talented you know. | When showing Poncho |
| Postcard🛈 | The Outside? Why bother trying to find it? We're good here. | When showing Postcard |
| Postcard🛈 | What's that? A "Beach"? I never heard of that in my whole life. | When showing Postcard |
| Postcard🛈 | You want to go Outside? Well good luck, it's not going to happen any time soon. | When showing Postcard |
| Postcard🛈 | Some people tried to find an exit in this city. | When showing Postcard |
| Postcard🛈 | It didn't go well. | When showing Postcard |
| PostIt🛈 | It's a very old binary code you have here, only a real geek can read this. | When showing Safe's Mysterious Password |
| Tape🛈 | Oh? What's that song? | When showing Cassette Tape |
| Tech🛈 | That's some quite advanced technology here. | When showing Atomic Battery |
| Tech🛈 | What is that thing? | When showing Atomic Battery |
| Tech🛈 | Is it one of those new 'game consoles'? | When showing Atomic Battery |
| Tech🛈 | Sorry, I don't know how to use that. | When showing Atomic Battery |
Gallery
You can find more pictures of Companions in their pages: visit Characters#List_of_all_Characters_by_species to view the full list of Companions.