Theme of Intermittently Funky Mercenaries: BGM/Menu by George “The Fat Man” Sanger (Swords and Serpents NES OST)
You shout it to the world, “I’M ONLY IN IT FOR THE MONEY! I’VE NO FUCKS TO GIVE!”
. . . but you’ll probably do the right thing in the end.
Most of the time.
Look, uhhh . . . you didn’t become a wandering soldier of fortune because you wanted to die in your sleep or in a bed in some for-profit hospital.
Nor were you the sort to feel a swelling of joy in your chest as you imagined your perfect wedding ceremony complete with choreographed groomsmen and bridesmaids entering to the action movie music from The Life Aquatic.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, you got bank accounts set up to provide for the bastards you’ve strewn across the overworld map-you’re not a total louse . . . except when you are . . .
Look, some people don’t like church and state and taxes and tithes.
Some of us ain’t feeling it when some boss or supervisor convinces themselves they’re a king.
Some of us just aren’t scared of badges or presidents or prime ministers or dictators-for-life . . . though we’ll gladly take their money . . .
To be an outlaw is to be an outsider of a kind, ideally an outsider by choice . . . but why’s it sting when people sling words like ‘psychopath’ or ‘bloodlust’ or ‘thug-for-hire’ . . .
Look, even if you don’t always choose to defend the peasant farmers against the robber barons and marauders of this world . . . even if you end up on the wrong side of some regional conflagration . . . at least you can enjoy all the gory details of your own defeat.
People who care too much . . . there’s a risk they may not bounce back from devastation.
You have a dream where all of the flags are burning . . . all of the nations are falling . . . people are losing their minds in the streets . . . but you’ve got a thousand fake passports, and a thousand safe houses, and a thousand bank accounts . . . and soon enough the sweatshops are manufacturing new flags, and the lawyers and the oligarchs are concocting new nations . . . What's everybody shouting about? Seems pretty orderly after a few cycles . . .
You know how it all works, and how it doesn’t.
You have your place, until you don’t, but you kinda prefer living rough these days.
You’ll even get a chance to be the hero every other cycle.
And it only gets funnier to you each run . . .
