Sunny Character Discussion

Sunny Vance

Appearance
• 18 years old, 5'7"
• Chestnut hair a little past shoulder length
• Dull, dark green eyes

Backstory
• Family moved over from another country (depends on where the school is set) when she was around 5
• Actually, her family just moves around a lot, so she never had the opportunity to forge any lasting interpersonal relations
• Harbors some resentment toward her father for changing jobs so often
• Eventually she went for a “spray and pray” approach, attending numerous clubs to satiate her human desire for friendship without any lasting consequences
• Sunny found solace in art, photography specifically, not because she liked it, but because she had somewhat of a talent and it took her mind off of things
• Younger brother, Aaron, born when she was 13, the only family member she cares deeply about
• Parents cared increasingly less about her, came to a head at the age of 15
• Her grandmother was suffering from a life-threatening condition in her country of origin, Sunny obviously wanted to go see her, Aaron too young to know what’s going on
• Mother and father both seemingly surprised that she cared at all about her relatives, refuse to let her interrupt her studies
• Her parents don’t actually care about her that much, yet expect her to take care of her brother once she gets a job
• Incidentally, this is why she entered the school: so she can accelerate her course and help her brother. Also, because she wouldn’t have to return home, see next point.
• Dislikes returning home to a loveless environment, often eats at local convenience store but finds it embarrassing
• She starts volunteering at a local hospital but her parents are completely against her going, saying she will never amount to anything
• Sunny tells her friends about her situation, but no easy solution exists. She’s content with just letting it out.
• At 16, became president of photography club. Relinquished the position soon after with too much going on in her life.
• She feels she is a complete burden on her friends by sharing her troubles with them, yet can’t help but do it
• Continues to put on a façade of outward cheerfulness, but finds no happiness in life, borderline depressed
• Only person she will not hate is Aaron. Despite everything, she took what her parents said about her responsibility to heart.

Personality
• Easily flustered, seen by her friends as gullible yet passionate about the things she likes (e.g. art)
• Ironically, she has no passion for anything except the one thing she doesn’t show: helping Aaron
• Only confides in people she doesn’t know well, since the situation would be awkward for subsequent meetings if she told close friends
• She also denies that she has any close friends, in part due to her aversion towards making any. She still does, though.
• Lives in dorm but still goes to convenience stores to eat due to force of habit
• Cares deeply about everyone she meets, even when demonstrating that unhealthy empathy is detrimental to her own happiness

Story Elements
• Photography club plays a huge role, along with the concept of taking pictures of star trails
• MC helps her find direction in her life, work toward her vague goal
• More to be added later

16 years old

Couldn't this present legal issues?

Eventually she went for a “spray and pray” approach, attending numerous clubs to satiate her human desire for friendship without any lasting consequences

MC could meet her at various clubs (makes her route easily accessible from multiple parts of the prologue).

Mother flatly refuses, says that she doesn’t even deserve to be sad because she never knew her grandmother that well

She appeals to her father, he says he’s willing to talk to her mother about it. This was an outright lie.

This does not seem realistic, unless you present her family as delusional.

Easily flustered

Lots of blushing and huffing in this route you say? This pleases me.

Only confides in people she doesn’t know well, since the situation would be awkward for subsequent meetings if she told close friends

And Michio would be the first to get her to confide and continue speaking... could be interesting.

Cares deeply about everyone she meets, even when demonstrating that unhealthy empathy is detrimental to her own happiness

The route could come to its climax when she has to decide between trying to make everyone happy and making herself and Michio happy.



Seems cool, you could create some really depressing themes with this.

You raise some good points about the age. Perhaps I should make her older; there's no real significance behind her current age.
As for the situation with her parents, I hoped to convey that they have no interest in her at all. Or rather, they can't comprehend her feelings because they never saw her as capable of having them. What do you think would be a more realistic way?

I actually like the non-caring parents. It gives Sunny something to relate to with Michio

Well they can be uncaring, but here they're just antagonistic.

I changed it so her parents would (hopefully) seem less antagonistic towards her. It might be too simple, though.

based on my skeleton of ryme so far, I'd assume that it's be a good match to pair up with your character.
What i'd see is that Sunny would have a lot more know-how of the world around her, while Ryme has a lack of understanding of the world around her. The mix of the two would complement each other a little.
In regards to the family, Sunny depends on her younger brother as she supports him. Ryme will most likely depend on her older brother as he has support her. Both families' parents reject them and they seek comfort elsewhere.
That's all I got at the moment, but I'll make more connections as I write more out.