A Taiwanese Black Mirror, blending sci-fi and comedy in comics. The intermingling of reality and virtuality, made possible by a new technology, reveals people's desires, contradictions, conflicts, and changes in intimate relationships. In the VR dating app "PEENKY," through topping-up, everyone can live an ideal life by changing their physical appearance, living situation, material conditions, dates, honeymoons, marriages, and even the children they have. Is love real in this world? What is the relationship between a parent and their AI-generated virtual child? Through the stories of various players, this comics explores the fine line between reality and virtuality. Does living an ideal life help us learn to love ourselves and others equally?
In the VR dating app "PEENKY," anyone can become their ideal self as long as they top up. Sheng Li, the founder, realizes that this app not only brings people together, but also reveals the toxicity of many kinds of relationships. Sheng Li herself is consumed by it: she cannot stop looking for dates on PEENKY for her mother, who's been single for years. She believes that if her mother can find love, she herself can also avoid toxic relationships and find love as well. Sheng Li's twin sister, Ping Chi, is much more skeptical about the possibility of their mother finding love on PEENKY. Still, she feels guilty and helpless in the face of Sheng Li's repeated attempts to make their mother Tiffany happy. Ping Chi's doubts are validated when it turns out that Tiffany's newest date is, in reality, a middle-schooler. The relationship dies accordingly, and PEENKY must face a serious PR crisis...
Founder and CEO of PEENKY, a VR dating app. She has a forceful and fiery personality. Due to a complicated family history, she grows from a weepy little girl into a strong, defensive, independent woman. Faced with an emotionally unstable mother and acts of domestic abuse, she chooses acceptance and pacification. She is thus parentified and becomes used to meeting her mother's emotional demands: the love between the two is complicated and tortuous. Though they seem to get along well, ultimately a green line shows up on Sheng Li's finger (in the app, representing a toxic and stress-inducing relationship).
A customer service rep for PEENKY. She joined the company to follow in the footsteps of her older sister Sheng Li. She has six fingers, a fact that embarasses her. She used to be a Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu champion, but for some reason, no longer practices it. She is highly dependent on her sister, and feels upset that her sister does not seem to need her support in return. She lives with guilt from not having acted as Sheng Li's protector in the face of family violence when they were kids, and thus also has a green line on her finger. She has never experienced love. After she meets Hsiao Kuan, Ping Chi experiences physical intimacy for the first time and begins to wonder about the line between love and friendship. She will make peace with her physical body at the end of the story.
PEENKY's product operation director. She likes cooking and eating strawberry shortcake. Early in her marriage to Sheng Li, Mo Mo left home briefly due to hints of sexual violence. She lives by the motto, "I love you, but I won't make myself unhappy just to be with you." Later on, through taking part in the Emotion Replacement Project and learning better communication strategies, she finds a way to be happy as Sheng Li's wife. She also stands by Sheng Li's side in the face of dark family issues.