Listen Up I Need To Talk About Characters In Pain Alone. A Fighter Who Won Their Most Recent Match But

listen up I need to talk about characters in pain alone. a fighter who won their most recent match but who goes home alone to a crappy little apartment where they're lucky if they manage to make some ramen before they pass out on the couch, only to wake stiff with bruises in a few hours. a vigilante who loses to the villain and gets left on a rooftop to pick themself up and try to stagger home without getting found, arrested, or passing out in their costume. the new member on a team who gets the dirtiest, hardest jobs as an initiation and who can't admit to anyone that they're breaking under the pressure because all their teammates will hear is weakness.

I need characters pasting bandages on injuries with trembling fingers as their vision blurs. I need characters desperately trying to haul themselves up just one more stair so they can stagger to their front door. I need characters who make it through that door only to collapse right behind it, watching the light in their bathroom blur and fade before they can get to their first aid kit. I need characters passing out in alleyways only to wake up hours later and know they still have to try to make it home on their own because they think they have no one to call.