Characters / Sundy Stairway

The Main Group

Sunday

“Mom..?”

The bright, adventurous, and starry-eyed protagonist of the game, Sunday is a fourteen-year-old boy with a knack for exploration and an unbreakable will.

---

• Abusive Parents: His father, Friday, regularly gets into arguments with his mom, Monday, which are implied to sometimes get physical. Friday also sometimes physically punishes Sunday for his misdemeanors.
• All-Loving Hero: Sunday loves all of his friends and family equally…except for June, who’s his very best friend.
• All for Nothing: Somewhat subverted. In Act 1, even if you decide to save Monday, she won’t die, but she’ll still fall into a coma after returning to the land of the living. Since Sunday and company saves Abril in Act 2 as well, it’s inevitable that this will also happen to her.
• Aww Look They Really Do Love Each Other:
  • A platonic example. Sunday and Winter get into multiple squabbles over the course of the game (heck, their first encounter is due to the fact that they literally bump into each other on the way to school), but they genuinely care about each other, as shown when Winter gives Sunday a polar bear cookie when she hears that he’s been going through a rough patch in his life.
  • A paternal example. Sunday and Friday’s relationship may be strained at best, but the morning after Monday’s coma, Friday explains to his son that due to his inability to cook, he isn’t able to prepare an actual meal for him, but he’s tried his best and has prepared him a bowl of fruit.
• Badass Adorable: Sunday might be sweet, caring, and dorky, but he has the second highest Attack stat in the game after Winter. He’s also prepared to fight anyone who disrupts his team’s adventures, from mini-bosses to the occasional Big Bad.
• Batter Up!: Not unlike his friend Winter, Sunday’s weapon type of choice is various bludgeons, ranging from candy canes to wooden sticks with flowers to traffic cones.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Sunday is a sweet, helpful All-Loving Hero, but his attacks can pack a punch during boss fights, and he isn’t afraid to start a fight if necessary.
• Big Damn Heroes: Sunday saves not one but two people from dying over the course of the game.
• Big Good: Sunday is the protagonist of the story who strives to help the lost souls in the Stairway.
• Cheerful Child: Or, rather, teenager. Sunday is the gang’s powerhouse, who motivates the other party members, inspires both Melanie and Anghela to keep on going despite the hardships and pain during each one’s Character Development arc, and leads the way during adventures.
• Chekhov's Gunman: Sunday is the one who decides to interact with the mirrors in borth acts, triggering the events of the first and second Stairways.
• Chekhov's Skill: He has uncannily good intuition, which he uses to save lives. He even remarks on this in Act 2, saying he has a weird natural talent for it.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With June in Act 3.
• Chronic Hero Syndrome: Sunday enjoys rescuing others, up to the point where it seems like he doesn’t care much about his own safety as he does the safety of those in distress. He doesn’t hold a grudge against his father, Friday, even if it’s implied that he mistreats him, and he doesn’t hold a grudge against his mother, Monday, for making him go through all the trouble of saving her.
• Combat Medic: One of his skills, Resuscitating Hug, revives an out-of-combat party member.
• Combat Pragmatist: Sunday will do anything to save others and defeat the Big Bad, even if that means endangering himself or people around him.
• Cosmic Plaything: The first time the game introduces Sunday, it immediately becomes obvious that he lives in a Dysfunctional Family, and is clearly having some struggles with adjusting to the new environment. Then, on his second day in Calendar Town, he finds out that his mom's committed suicide, and he has to go through all slrts of grievances in the first Stairway in order to save her. Then, immediately after that, his mom falls into a coma. Thankfully, he gets some support from his two new best buddies, one of which also ends up committing suicide, forcing Sunday to re-enter the liminal world to save her. The poor kid can't catch a break.
• Crush Blush: During a flashback sequence in the game, Sunday and June meet up and exchange goodbyes before Sunday moves, with both of them getting this while talking to each other.
• Dark Is Not Evil: He has dark hair and eyes, and one of his unlockable costumes, Night Suit, is fairly liberal with its usage of dark purple and black, but he's the farthest thing you can get from evil, at least in Calendar Town.
• Determinator: He strives to start anew in Calendar Town despite mounting familial tensions and Moving Angst, is quick to learn the ropes in a literal different realm, and encourages his friends to carry on and face their fears despite challenges.
• Didn't Think This Through: His Fatal Flaw. Almost all of his actions in the game are driven purely by his impulsivity in the heat of the moment, which causes him a fair amount of grievances.
• The Ditz: Sunday is an overly impulsive and sometimes airheaded teenager who often fails to understand social cues. He's also the Unwitting Instigator of Doom for the gang while they're out and about in the Stairways.
• Ditzy Genius: As mentioned above, Sunday might be The Ditz, but he sometimes takes time to think before he acts and clearly has good intuition, which he uses to save lives. He's also shown to have a good sense of empathy and is ready to comfort people when necessary.
• Establishing Character Moment: He’s first seen in the game intently listening to the radio of his dad’s car as they’re driving to their new house, commenting on how sad the situations in the radio broadcasts are, showing that he’s someone who doesn’t like other people being unhappy.
• Everyone Has Standards: He may be a Combat Pragmatist, but he doesn’t hold a grudge against Melanie for abandoning him due to her grief over Marin’s death, and, when he finally reunites with her, he goes through all the effort of defeating Marin in order to forgive her.
• The Faceless: In the liminal world, Sunday’s face is covered with a purple candy-shaped mask, which looks strikingly similar to his candy plush.
• Fatal Flaw:
  • He’s adventurous and ready to help anyone, but he has a case of Chronic Hero Syndrome and frequently acts on his emotions instead of reading the room first, sometimes endangering the rest of his friends and family in the process.
  • His heroic sense of empathy does not extend towards his own feelings. Sunday admits to wanting to help people understand their emotions despite not understanding his own.
• For Happiness: His goal in life is to make the world a better place.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Being energetic, happy-go-lucky, passionate about the things and people he cares about, and determined, Sunday is the Choleric character of the main gang.
• Hidden Depths:
  • The night before his first day of school in Calendar Town, Sunday blasts his favorite music in order to distract himself from his parents fighting in the other room, with the text in the game implying that he does this frequently.
  • Sunday is good at comforting people, as seen when both Anghela and Melanie get a Heroic BSoD in their respective Stairways. Due to the state of his family situation, it’s implied that he’s had to learn this skill in order to temporarily put a stop to the frequent family arguments.
  • He also explains to Winter that he’s glad they befriended each other fast, as in the area where he previously lived, he only had a single friend. June really was his best friend—because she was his only one.
• Identical Stranger: Sunday’s candy-shaped mask, which he wears in the liminal world, is strikingly similar to an actual candy-shaped plush toy that he owns.
• Improvised Weapon: His weapons are all improvised, ranging from candy canes to traffic cones pulled from the ground.
• In Touch with His Feminine Side: Sunday enjoys and keeps a collection of plushies, wears a pair of barettes on a streak of his hair, and appears to like the color pink.

Melanie

“Who are you?”

The central character of Act 1, Melanie is a Shrinking Violet who’s been trapped in the liminal world for quite some time. She eventually befriends Sunday and joins him in his adventures.

---

• Abusive Parents: Her mom mistreats her to compensate for the misfortunes of the family, which she believes Melanie caused. For the entirety of her childhood, Melanie was The Unfavorite, getting beaten for even the simplest misdemeanors, recieving virtually no attention or care from her mother, and barely getting enough to eat. Thankfully, her brother Marin is kind to her, gives her food and even gifts when their mom isn’t looking, teaches her to love origami, and is the light of her life. However, after Marin’s death, Melanie’s mother’s abuse gets worse, culminating into when she abandons her on a busy street and, once Melanie returns home, beats her to an inch of her life, throws plates and cutlery at her, and leaves her to die on the asphalt.
• Action Girl: The third-best fighter out of the four, behind Sunday himself. She has a fairly high Attack stat by default.
• All-Loving Hero: Though timid, Melanie cares for her friends and doesn’t hold grudges. Subverted when she gets mad at Sunday for revealing that Marin is dead, cursing him and running away while a heartbroken Sunday is at a loss and doesn’t know what to do, but played straight again when they reunite.
• Anguished Outburst: She lashes out at Sunday after getting reminded of Marin’s demise when the latter decides to enter a flashback, so much so that Sunday is driven to tears. After Sunday rescues her from Marin, however, she becomes genuinely apologetic and reassures him that she’ll join him again when she is ready.
• Apologizes a Lot: Melanie apologizes for even the most minor infractions, real or imagined.
• Beware the Nice Ones: As is with almost every character. Melanie is a kind-hearted Shrinking Violet, but she has the second-highest Defense stat of any playable character behind Abril, and has a high Attack stat. She also snaps into uncontrollable rages multiple times after she sees her companions suffering.
• Break the Cutie: Melanie’s past history of abuse and neglect has irreparably damaged her, but her mental state worsens further once she’s forced to remember said history in order to help Sunday save his mother.
• Came Back Strong: Occurs in Act 2, when Vela calls for Melanie to assist Sunday and Winter to help save Abril. She mentions that Vela had been helping her train and become stronger while Sunday was gone.
• Character Focus: In Act 1.
• Cloudcuckoolander: Is prone to wild, imaginative flights of fancy that frequently devolve into complete nonsense.
• Cute Clumsy Girl: Melanie is clumsy and prone to becoming the Unwitting Instigator of Doom for poor Sunday, such as when he has to fight Marin after Melanie runs off.
• The Cutie: Anghela even mentions it in Act 2.
• Deadly Disc: All of her possible weapons, which include shurikens, fidget spinners, and just about anything that can spin, are thrown at opponents.
• Disappeared Dad: Melanie’s dad is only mentioned once throughout the entire game, in a single piece of dialogue by Marin in which he reveals that their father abandoned them after Melanie was born because he couldn’t take care of another kid.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: She assumes that anybody who acts kindly to her, even if they’re doing it out of the goodness of their heart, is doing it purely out of pity. Understandably, she hates this, and even mentions it to Sunday.
• Driven to Suicide: After she gets violently chased out of her home without warning, without anyone to help her or anything to keep her alive if she ran away from home, Melanie quickly becomes this, and attempts to slit her throat with a shard of porcelain.
• Emotional Regression: Has this whenever she’s panicked or afraid.
• Flechette Storm:
  • Her Paper Bird attack has her throw origami cranes at another character to increase their Speed.
  • Her Paper Tornado attack is essentially this.
• Four-Temperament Ensemble: Is the Melancholic character of the group.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: Melanie enjoys pastel colors (especially pink), likes feminine wear such as ribbons and dresses, and is a dreamy Cloudcuckoolander, but that doesn’t stop her from wielding sharp Deadly Discs in battle.