Chapter 1: Sean O'Leary, the Music Man
"My music is a requiem!" – Sean O'Leary
Sean was the child of the O'Leary family and was born within the year 1686. He was raised and spent a majority of his childhood in the city of Dublin, the very capital of Ireland. Within this city, his family had no fear of poverty amongst the many residences, and he was raised without the need to fret about losing this generous upbringing. During several of his later years, he became akin to the study of music, and intended to earn a legacy as a world renowned musician.
Sean's father was ill-equipped to teach his son any manner of music, considering how his specific field of knowledge focused on fashion and stylisation of common public attire. To compensate for this, his father hired the best musician they could find, though Sean was never choosey of what instruments he wished to practice. In the end, an expert harpsichordist was found and hired to teach Sean for a modest price, though the teacher willingly accepted the opportunity.
During the years of practising the harpsicord, Sean had unfortunately adopted a new attitude towards his teacher. Instead of being grateful for the fortune he was bestowed with, Sean was impatient and unaccepting of any responsibility for his own mistakes and failures. Nevertheless, the teacher was unwilling to consider abandoning this career, particularly for the payment he received for tolerating the family's son.
In 1702, at the ripe age of sixteen years, Sean O'Leary had eventually equalled his teacher's skill and presented them to his family, thus resulting in the teacher's eventual relief of his duties. Sean would spend the next two years working in local pubs and inns as the source of entertainment. Every pub he played at would immediately grow in popularity amongst the public, leading to many competitive pubs and taverns offering larger sums of gold for his cooperation.
In 1704, at the age of eighteen, Sean was playing in the Singing Siren tavern, and he was being celebrated for his famous ditty "The Melody of the Forlorn Mermaid". Cheers and chuckles echoed through the tavern as the widely proclaimed "Music Man" finished the final notes and leaned back in his stool in exhaustion. The entire tavern roared with applause as men and women alike drank from their beer steins and cheered for the harpsichordist.
However, the front door of the tavern suddenly burst open, diverting the attention of the entire tavern as the air fell silent. Approaching through the doorway was a man dressed in a blue rifleman's coat, marching robotically towards the harpsichordist. Standing before him, the stranger reached for his sword, and the entire tavern prepared themselves for a sudden attack. Fortunately, the stranger instead produced a document from his belt and offered it to Sean.
"Mr. O'Leary, you have been summoned to the Baron's palace for the anniversary of Ireland" the messenger informed before adding "Should you accept, transport had been provided outside this establishment". Sean then answered "'Should I accept'?! Of course I accept!", to which the messenger bowed and escorted him to the awaiting carriage. As he entered, everyone in the tavern left to cheer for him as he was ridden to his next destination.
Sean could not have ever expected to be the entertainment for a baron's party, no matter how far his narcissistic expectations of success could have extended. He was relatively unknown amongst the delegates, though he was quickly gaining popularity amongst the guests. He could never have believed that the following events of that night could have steered his whole life in a new and unwanted direction.
It all began when the party was slowly coming to its closure, when Sean had finished his final song and was paid for his services. As he proceeded to wander through the outer hallways of the palace, he found himself approached by three guests. "The baron would like us to thank you for your services" a guest said, Sean merely chuckling and bowing in respect to the trio, "It's nice to receive such a generous complement".
"Although, I would recommend more practice of Vivaldi. The final number was somewhat fast and rushed in comparison!"
Sean's eyes widened as he answered "What do you mean?" in a whisper. He glared towards the three blasphemers and questioned "Whatever form of such a masterpiece have you heard, my friend? My portrayal was flawless!" From this, the guest then snidely remarked "You know not the meaning of perfection, sir. You have no relation to the artists we have come to respect" before turning away and taking their leave.
Suddenly, a guest was grabbed from behind and swung to the left wall, though it wasn't a wall he had encountered. Shards of glass glittered through the air as the guest fell to his undeniable death, screaming in horror all the while. It was not long until the remaining blasphemers were to accompany him, the fools attempting to combat him instead of fleeing to the aid of the royal guard. From the window, Sean gazed upon his accomplishment, muttering "My music is a requiem".
From this day, Sean O'Leary had disappeared without a trace, though he was known to be the culprit of the murders. In truth, Sean had fled the country and escaped to the neighbouring land of England, free of the law and the responsibility of his homeland. However, with his reputation in utter ruin, he was forced with remorse to mingle amongst the Englishmen, though he remained ambitious of his return to world renowned popularity.
During 1705, living within England wasn't exactly as different as Sean had expected, nor did the typical activities of the common public, for that matter. He originally spent several months within the obscured state of Kent, continuing his harpsichord performances in local inns in order to regain his lost wealth. Thankfully, he had changed his name to Walter Plinge in order to escape his previous history. Unlike before, he made an effort to remain open to criticism, though he was glad to find little of it in his working environment.
However, during March of 1705, the inn he was currently performed in was strangely empty, though the Sunday's were usually busiest of all days in the week. He eventually abandoned his helm and exited the building through the front door, surprised to find a majority of the townsfolk standing in a large crowd around a single carriage. Naturally, he mingled amongst them to learn the source of the commotion.
Within the crowd, he found the carriage to have a written 'Call to Arms' Announcement from the British army, stating "Citizens are informed that men between ages of 18 and 55 are to be assigned to the Highlanders and attend the inspection in the town square by this evening. Failure to appear is considered treason and will be punished by imprisonment". Sean was taken aback by this, considering how he had little to no knowledge of war nor combat.
Soon, however, the crowd was distracted by the approach of several armed horsemen, all wearing the identifiable British army colours. The lead horsemen raised his sword as he commanded "All men shall follow me to the town square!" Without any alternative, Sean followed alongside the other men from behind the horsemen. After a short journey, Sean was surprised to find several hundreds of men alongside a line of carriages.
Sean stood amongst the other men in the series of orderly lines, leaning to the stranger beside him asking "What's going on here?" The stranger turned to face him and answered "This is a dispatch for the Highlanders. They're taking us to Gibraltar". "What!? I thought we just got rid of those Spaniard bastards last year!" Sean exclaimed, the stranger answering "Well if we scared them off before, we'll probably do it again. It's just a matter of who dies, I suppose".
"Silence in the ranks!"
The men were enlisted by the lead sergeant of the 3rd Highlanders, and they were all soon on their way to the northern provinces in the horsedrawn carriages. "A pity I never learned to fence nor to fire a gun. I suppose I'll die from this" Sean muttered nonchalantly, though a voice drew his attention as it stated "Killing a man isn't as hard as you'd think. Just aim, pull the trigger, and make sure you don't fire from the left hand".
Several suspenseful days passed by, and Sean made the most of them by practising his swordplay and marksmanship amongst the other inexperienced recruits. "I'm not even from this country! Why should I give a damn whether an English fort gets taken?" Sean complained, swiping a sword towards his partner. The partner blocked the attack and answered "I actually am from this country, and even then, I don't care".
Finally, after an entire week had passed by, the cliff of Gibraltar loomed into view, and the veteran officers cheered with relief. On the other hand, Sean remained silent from this ordeal, his sanity beginning to dwindle from the long and repetitive week that had passed. The carriages proceeded to the outskirts of the fortress and the soldiers left to join him, each soldier taking a carriage horse for themselves to mount alongside the party.
The sergeant took out his telescope and viewed the situation, before suddenly retracting it and announcing to his men "The Spanish are approaching from the Easter shore!" Immediately, every soldier followed after the sergeant as he rode onwards to the eastern bay of Gibraltar. Sean O'Leary prepared a flintlock pistol and held it to his chest, sighing in defeat as he charged to his oncoming doom.
As the war party neared the shores, the sound of gunfire began ringing through the air as Sean aimed his flintlock for any potential targets. The sight before his was almost unbelievable, dead bodies of both Spanish and British had already begun littering the sandy shores, but the Spanish still continued to charge towards the party from their flagships. Eventually, Sean spotted a lone target approaching him at full speed, so Sean aimed his flintlock and fired.
From that moment, Sean had suddenly remembered the feeling of killing another human, the feeling filling him with a sense of adrenaline. With the flintlock empty, he tossed it aside and drew his sword, before leaping from his horse and landing in the crusty sand. He searched ecstatically before he finally spotted a lone Spanish infantrymen, and ran towards him as his attention was turned to firing at another officer. The blade of the sword was plunged into the man's spine, sending him collapsing into the sand as Sean began cackling to himself with excitement.
Suddenly, all sense of joy from this situation ceased when he no longer held the sword, nor did he feel anything in his left hand. He viewed the end of his arm and found the reason instantly, his hand had been severed. He gripped the bloody stump and screamed in pain, before spotting the paralysed Spaniard wielding a bloodstained rapier. Three enraged stomps on the man's head was sure to kill him, and Sean immediately ran inwards from the shore towards the forestry.
Miraculously, Sean managed to find a stray horse and ride away from the battlefield and into a neighbouring town, where he was taken into care and his hand was mended. From this, Sean knew that any chances of regaining his musical career was in shambles, considering he had no knowledge of any instrument that didn't require individual fingers. However, for the next few years of his life, his thirst for killing would only ever increase as compensation for this loss.
An astonishing four years later, during the calm years of 1709, Sean had been traveling across the world by ship. During his journeys, he met an old sea dog named Sancho Fernandez, who was proclaimed 'The Mad Armorer' by his shipmates. After telling his life story while travelling the coast of the Caribbean, Fernandez was delighted by the man's described skill with music, and was willing to offer Sean lessons with the accordion.
Sean was pleased by this, considering the lack of a requirement for both hands to operate the instrument. During their travels, Fernandez was even kind enough the fashion a prosthetic forearm equipped with a sharp hook for the hand. With this tool, the pair had several adventures trading amongst the locals of the island, while Sean could finally demonstrate his long-lost skills with ivories as he would play for the crew.
However, during their trade routine on the Leeward Islands, Sancho Fernandez found their livestock and merchandise stolen by a band of corrupt British infantry. Apparently, according to a clearly faulty law system, the British trading companies were permitted to obtain a competitor's stock in order to gain profits for their wares. This revelation convinced the pair of traders to turn to piracy in order to have justice.
After hiring a pirate crew, the pair spent the next three years looting and pillaging from settlements and British trade flagships. Sean had the opportunity to prove his thirst for violence and was earned the role of interrogator, torturing survivors and captives with his hook for information. Their wealth increased and the crew were capable of capturing and sailing an enemy ship alongside their original, intending to use it as a Trojan horse for looting more settlements.
However, while sailing along the shores of China, their ships were suddenly locked in a three-way skirmish between the British and Chinese Trade companies. The crew managed to hold their own in the overwhelming combat, Sean and Sancho managing to prevent any traders from entering the cargo hold to steal their loot. Between the four ships, the pirates had the advantage and seemed capable of leaving this battle as the victors.
That was until more Chinese battleships emerged from the horizon, ensuing a rapidly increasing one-sided war. By the time the Chinese Traders had boarded the pirate's ship, the Trojan horse had already begun sinking as the crew abandoned the doomed vessel and its treasure. As he stood dumbfounded by this revelation, Sancho suddenly found himself in combat with the traders, though they quickly dispatched of him.
Sean held his own against the encroachers, but upon viewing the collapsed and bloody corpse of his colleague, he suddenly lost the will to continue this futile conquest. He fell to his knees in defeat, silently praying to be spared from death, though such mercy would seem impossible. But miraculously, he was instead cuffed in a pair of irons and escorted onto the Chinese ship, as the cargo hold of the ship was looted of its treasure.
As they sailed to Hai Phong, he was endlessly interrogated for information, though both he and his captors knew the futility of questioning a man who cannot understand the language. Nevertheless, he was convicted of piracy and sentenced to hang for his crimes. For the following days of confinement aboard the vessel, he couldn't help but find the situation ironic, how his quest for world-renowned reputation would end at the hands of people who would never know his name.
Amongst the few captive survivors of the skirmish, Sean was lead in an orderly line towards the gallows. He stood beneath the noose as the executioner bound the rope around his neck before tightening it, waiting patiently for the end to come. The verdict was read aloud for the surrounding public onlookers as they sneered and spat at him in disgust, Sean himself shutting his eyes upon noticing the executioner reached towards the lever.
Suddenly, a gunshot rang out as the executioner grunted in pain, prompting Sean to reopen his eyes and watch as the executioner's lifeless body fell into the crowd. The crowd began panicking and fleeing in terror as the soldiers readied their firearms for combat, and Sean and the rest of the inmates gazed around them for the source of the gunshot. Everyone's questions were answered as a swarm of encroachers attacked and began firing upon the soldiers.
As soldiers dropped like flies from the overwhelming armada of criminals, a lone figure climbed the staircase to the gallows and stood before the rope. He raised his sword and sliced the rope in half, freeing Sean and his colleagues from their fate. Sean turned to his saviour, finding a handsome privateer dressed in a blue sailor's coat and an eye patch on his left eye, the man smiling smugly and he jumped from the gallows into the ensuing battle.
Sean ran to the piled weaponry and found his hook before reattaching it, and then arming himself with a flintlock. Within the mass of slaughtered Chinese infantry, trades of gunfire and the ringing of swords, Sean finally escaped the gallows and returned to the docks. There, he spotted what must've been the outlaw's ship, complete with a symbolic flag replacing the national colours. He quickly made his way to the docks in search for a means of escape.
As he did, however, he noticed the man who had saved him from the rope, who was currently amidst a duel against a pair of soldiers. Though the man held his own, he was clearly overwhelmed by the pair and was soon disarmed of his sword. The one-eyed man was backed towards the edge of the dock, and Sean decided to take the opportunity to repay the man. He ran for one of the soldiers and swung his hook with extreme force, penetrating his neck and severing the spinal cord, killing him instantly.
Using this distraction, the man quickly took the distracted guard's sword and ran him through. Sean and the man analysed eachother before Sean chuckled, explaining "You saved my life, I should at least save yours". The man laughed and shouted in a gravely tone "By god, you be a man of quality!" Suddenly, a gunshot pierced the air and the pair discovered more guards approaching, the man shouting "Quick, to me ship!"
They casted off and quickly fled the armada before setting out to the open ocean, free of the fear of interception. Sean sat against the deck in exhaustion, before the man offered his hand to help him up, to which he accepted. "I like knowing the names of me colleagues in arms" the pirate stated curiously, a grin stretching across his face. The men shook hands as Sean introduced himself, "Sean O'Leary, though some call me the Music Man".
Joined in the year 1712 as the Jolly Roger's Musician and Interrogator.