Mercenary

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Zeny was an unfortunate young lady. Not only had she been named after the local currency, but her parents had sold her off to a band of travelling mercenaries when she was sixteen. That had been five years ago and, in that time, she had seen just about every corner of Azterra. It hadn’t been a bad ten years, but it certainly hadn’t been easy.

Her hands had been stained by so much blood from fighting. None of it had been wanted of course, but the Thorn Rose band had been her home for far too long to not fight to keep them alive. Zeny busied herself in their latest camp as she sharpened her sword.

“Oi, Zeny. Get your hide over here.”

“Go boil your head Morn. You want something you can shift your lazy ass over here and tell me.”

Morn sighed heavily. The highlander made Zeny look tiny in comparison with his gigantic frame. “I knew letting you hang out with Olivia.”

“Hey, I resent that remark, Morn. You corrupted the kid just as much as the rest of us.” Olivia’s elvish tinged voice echoed through the camp from the nearby tree she was scouting from.

“Gods above you two.” The last member of the group, an orc named Urgoth, grunted as they came into the camp. “I swear all I hear is you all whinging about this or that. Isn’t it bad enough we got the kid in exchange for killing that monster?”

“That ‘monster’ was my uncle.” Zeny spoke quietly. “You guys just showed up, killed him, got me in the bargain and we’ve been murdering and stealing since.”

The camp went silent save for the crackle of the fire. It had been an unspoken thing between everyone who had died the day they had gotten Zeny in the bargain. The man had been evil and morally corrupt. Stealing not only money, but also young women from the region. Zeny had been his next target and her father decided to cut the knot instead.

Olivia spoke softly, “It is not your fault Auria. It has been a hard life, but…”

“But what Olivia? You going to tell me how we’re ‘saving the world’ by murdering some black hearted souls? Because if you are, I’ll tell you right now you’re full of harpy dung.”

“Peace Auria. I meant no disrespect.” Olivia said, trying to placate the young woman.

“Hmph. Whatever. And why do you call me that? Five years of it and no explanation.” Zeny said as she stared at the campfire, her zeal subdued.

Olivia chuckled. “It means gold. Like the coin you are named after, Zeny. All you had to do was ask.”

“Oh. Uhm…thanks.” Zeny tried to hide the blush that coloured her cheeks as she changed the topic. “So. What are we going to do next?”

Morn chuckled and with a smile said, “We’ve got orders from the Queen herself. Seems a member of the royal family pissed off the wrong person and got kidnapped. We’re going to get them back.”

“Why in the name of all that is holy in Azterra would we do that?” Urgoth grunted the words at Morn.

“Because you meathead, we get to be the heroes for once.” Morn snapped back.

Zeny sighed loudly as she walked over to Olivia and sat down on her lap to watch the two other start wrestling.

“I so did not sign up for this.”

Olivia chuckled warmly. “No, you didn’t. But there are worse things in the world to be than a mercenary hero.”

Momo Nisuka. 18. A young and extremely happy-go-lucky girl. Was the leader of the most cutesy bubblegum pop band for nine years. Still thinks everything is cute and going to be okay.

Goog was shocked when the email came in. She had been hired for a job she had applied for on a total lark. IT was no place for an orc and she knew it. In fact, out of the magical races, only the Elves and Fae seemed to be able to get 'normal' jobs in the human sector. Orcs, trolls, werewolves, and well, you get the idea, they got the mining jobs or the dangerous jobs where death was a much higher probability. So when Goog saw her application for a nice desk job at Magitek Corp. had been accepted, she almost tossed it out thinking it was a prank.

One phone call later told her it hadn't been. Goog was in fact the newest employee at Magitek Corp. working in their IT sector. The email confirmed she was to report to HR on Monday. Outside of her dark olive skin and fairly sharp teeth, Goog could have almost passed for human had she not been nearly seven feet and six inches tall. Her height had always been an issue, what with doorframes not really being designed for anyone over six and a half feet. Still she was going to put in some effort to try to look as good as she could.

She arrived at her new job promptly. She had dressed to flatter her appearance, but the clothing was also for function as it would allow her to move easily. She did her best to smile nicely as she softly shook hands with the head of HR who greeted her in the atrium.

"Good morning! Come to my office so we can get a few things squared away. Nothing major."

Goog nodded and smiled. Paperwork on the first day wasn't completely out of the ordinary and she followed swiftly. The office as nice, though the chair was a bit small. Goog made a note to make sure she had one for her height.

"So, first off, welcome. I bet you're wondering why we hired you."

Goog smiled at the young Elf. The androgyny of their appearance made Goog unsure which pronouns to use. "Why yes I am. Don't normally see Orcs getting hired in job like this."

"So. Funny story. I was in our hiring software and I was working on hiring candidates and well, no easy way to say it, but a typo put your name into the system and no one caught it before the hiring got filed."

Goog panicked a moment. "Does that mean I don't have a job here?"

"On the contrary. Your CV was flawless for the job. Let's get the details worked out Miss Goog."

Lyla's Hunt

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“It’s in the family name.”

“You have to follow in your great grandfather’s footsteps, all of us did.”

“Who else but our family to keep them in line?”

“You’re a disgrace if you think about not honouring the family name.”

Lyla Van Helsing had heard everything from her whole family. She hadn’t wanted this accursed name any more than she had wanted to live anywhere near the Old World houses her family owned. Abraham Van Helsing had been a legend. He alone had slayed the legendary Dracula. Lyla was just someone with the same last name as far as she was concerned.

It was a lot to live up to. Lyla hadn’t even gone to a “normal” school. She had specifically be given a special place in the “Van Helsing Institute for Monster Hunters” in order to prepare for her eventual place as the family hunter. Her brother Isaac had revelled in it. Lyla had tried to actively get dismissed from the school.

It never happened of course. A Van Helsing getting expelled from the Institute was unheard of. Actively poor academic or not, Lyla did end up becoming skilled in the family trade. Much to her chagrin, Lyla was about to embark on her first hunt.

It was traditional to have a target given to the newest Van Helsing a target Vampire. Lyla was getting a particular nuisance of a Vampire as her target. Outside of the small town of Valeyick, no one knew much about the Vampire other than the fact it was there.

Lyla tugged at the traditional leather corset that covered most of her torso for protection over the simple cloth shirt that covered the rest of her upper body. During her travels the outfit had become uncomfortable, but she would have to manage. Until she completed her first hunt, Lyla was stuck in traditional clothes.

The village seemed empty as Lyla arrived. Cold wind blew through the streets. Lyla couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched as she worked through the wet cobblestone streets. It was like reading one of her ancestor’s stories. The cliched small town that was abandoned to the vampires, bad weather, eerie silence. Part of her almost wondered if it was all a set up.

“You must be after me, aren’t you?”

Lyla almost jumped out of her skin at the voice. A young man stepped out of the shadows. The pallor of his skin and blood-red eyes told Lyla that this was her vampire.

“So you’re the vampire?” Lyla said, trying to remain calm.

“Dracile is the name. That would make you the Van Helsing that’s after me then. Great Grandfather Dracula warned the family about you in his journals. One of your family already got to Ílsa. I won’t, what the phrase, ah ‘Come quietly’ if that’s what you’re after.”

Lyla sighed heavily at the theatrics of how Dracile was acting. Her eyes flashed an electric blue a she tapped into the old magic and instantly moved to strike. Her attack wasn’t even registered by the vampire as she drove the stake deep into his heart in the same instant she arrived within striking distance. Dracile shuddered at the impact, the wood stake killing him, letting him live long enough to hear Lyla’s words.

“I wasn’t expecting it. I don’t want to be here, but you need to be dead. Tell Satan the Van Helsings send their regards.”

Lyla let the dead vampire drop to the ground. She let out what felt like the millionth sigh that day. So much for not wanting to be a Van Helsing.

Rogue, charming their way out of a bar

Unrequited love is one of the more difficult romance tropes to handle. On one hand you have a relationship between two characters where feelings are very one-sided and seemingly go nowhere. On the other you have a chance to show off a reason why there is this rebuff. Like in real life, not everyone in a story gets a happy ending nor does the hero always get the girl or guy as the case may be. One of the any ways I've seen this is by having the character who is on the receiving end of the affection be some sort of cosmic plaything where they are doomed to some inescapable destiny of doom. While this certainly explains it, it's almost like you avoid the issue by making it a complete non-start.

There are countless ways that this can be done without detracting too much and without having to resolve the relationship by having the object of affection slowly come around. Take this for example. Five adventurers set out on a trip. Kate is over heels for Clark. Clark is pining over Claudia. Claudia however wants Kate. Violet and Pine are twins and can't pick who out of the other three to go after. Now, all of them are aware of the attractions and Claudia as our example only has eyes for Kate. The other three might as well not exist for her as romance options. No matter how often Violet or Pine say something to her, she'll be gentle and say no to it. You can keep this dynamic right on through even if Claudia doesn't get Kate in the end. The one sided nature of this can actually spur your character to act rashly in front of the object of affection ad maybe even sacrifice themselves to save them.

This particular relationship is difficult because we want a relationship to be a two way street. We love seeing characters slowly fall for each other. So when we run into this type of relationship where the love is heavily one-sided and not returned, we wonder why and maybe even write fanfiction about these characters where they don't have these hang-ups.

The thing to remember is this. Real life love goes unrequited all the time. There's no rhyme or reason as to the fine details of why or how as there are many explanations. Having a character experience this may allow you to bring someone into their life that's willing to return their affection. Then you can pull them slowly together and go from there. Equally reasonable is to just let it happen and stay that way. After all, the hero doesn't always have to get the girl at the end.

Indiana Jones and the Vault of Glass