This strip is inspired by a personal experience I had as a child in China. Like in the story, I was in the car with my dad when a group of street children came begging for money. My dad immediately locked the doors and explained to me that these kids were known to stab and rob people when the passengers open the window to give them food or money. And like in the story, my dad also grew up in extreme poverty, having to eat rats for survival in his childhood, but instead of sympathizing with the street children, he believed that anyone can pull themselves up like the way he did so there was no need for charity. There is no moral to take away from this situation. I can't say what would have been the right thing to do at that moment, but I did gain a better sense of the class struggle that existed and still exists. I want to show in this strip how ignorant and spoiled Vance and Alex were, and the kind of country that Frey and Robin wants to change.
Vance just wanted to make the most out of his college experience under a totalitarian regime, and if that meant hacking into the university to assign himself a hot female roommate, then so be it. The last thing he expected was to be dragged into a crazy conspiracy to overthrow the government by his most-definitely-not-female roommate. College was meant to be exciting, but not this exciting. Between failed dates, failed grades, and successful hacks, Vance will slowly begin to question the morality of his actions and the true price of freedom.
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