Bridges L. Skellen

Bidges L. Skellen is the doctor of the Skull Pirates and a former assassin and bounty hunter.

Personality
Skellen possesses two very distinct sides to his personality that appear at random and even overlap occasionally.

A lot of the time, especially when in public, Skellen appears to be a very jovial and carefree person. He will often make sarcastic remarks and will gladly partake in drinking, partying and merry-making. He will often make sarcastic jabs at those around him, or will otherwise employ humour in his conversations (frequently at the expense of other albeit).

The other side of Skellen isn't nearly as much fun to be around. Skellen can become very serious, dark and brooding and when made too angry can become border-line psychopathic or sadistic. Thankfully these moods usually strike him when he is either alone, or in a situation that calls for him to be more serious. He tends to seek to calm himself through being alone with his interests or taking out his aggression on something, both work it simply depends on which he feels more like at the time.

Skellen likes a challenge and has on occasion been involved in gambling - especially on street fights (which he may be participating in) - and loves to win. This being said he is prepared to take a loss should it serve him well later on. Behind is zany antics, brooding moods and confusing personality Skellen is actually very calculating and intelligent. He is good at thinking on his feet, learns quickly, is diligent and is very knowledgeable in several areas (not quite so good at tact in a lot of cases unfortunately).

Skellen is extremely interested in chemistry, biology, medicine (and poisons) and  martial arts. This combination of skills has lead to not only incredible accuracy but has also given him an excellent knowledge of the human body as well as of various potent chemicals and how to obtain them. This skill set allows him to be useful as a scientist, doctor and as an assassin (making up for his lack of brute strength).

As the arcs of The Golden Age have progressed, Skellen has begun on occasion showing a more compassionate side. Examples of this behaviour include loaning Lotte his jacket (and by extension the weaponry within), his treatment of Bass during their imprisonment and escape and most recently his efforts to ensure Vance's well-being during the battle with "Billionth" Aldridge despite a notable risk to his own health.

Appearance
Skellen is a pale-skinned young man standing at a relatively tall height of six feet. He is of a toned, but thin, build and possess angular features. Skellen has narrow, rather piercing black eyes that when coupled with his small pointed nose give him a slightly sinister snake-like look. Skellen’s hair is jet black and rather long reaching a ways down the back of his neck, hanging around his ears and worn with a long fringe that almost reaches his eyes. Skellen is always cleanly shaved and despite the dangerous times has unblemished skin.

Skellen's original attire consists of simple black trousers and shoes and a white button-up shirt which he wears with the first few buttons undone. He was also usually seen wearing a thick brown jacket with many pockets inside and out (some concealed) and a matching satchel. The pockets and satchel contained many of his weapons, poisons, medicines and tools.

During the Dinas arc Skellen leaves the jacket behind after discovering it empty in the lock-up and his clothes have become severely damaged. He is currently wearing several bandages and a belt with two swords hanging at his left side and two large knives hanging at his right. Near the conclusion of the Dinas Arc, Joshua outfitted Skellen with black trousers, a hazy-gray coloured T-shirt and a large, cloak-like and hooded coat. He currently has a brown belt around his waist that has several pouches hanging from it as well as a larger knife at each hip. A flask with a magnetic lid hangs at his right hip in which razors are marinating in an as-yet unidentified poison. Skellen still carries his brown satchel.

History
Skellen spent his childhood on the small Grandline island of Eden. The only child of two notable doctors, Skellen had always been surrounded by medicine and chemistry and as such he was fascinated by his parents work. Especially in their work with toxins and antivenoms (despite the name “Eden” several of the beautiful plants and animals found only on the island are venomous). As such, Skellen spent a lot of his time as a child accompanying his parents on the less-dangerous jobs they took part in and did a lot of his own research in the subject. A fast learner, by his early teens he was almost as knowledgeable as his parents – although they didn’t recognise this, he was only a child after all (something that irritated him somewhat as he always became skilled in what he studied hard at).

When Skellen was at the age of fourteen his beloved home of Eden became the temporary resting place of a rather infamous pirate crew, nothing particularly new as several less well-known crews has stopped there briefly before. This was much the same, during their stay the pirates were friendly and caused little trouble, a tad rough sometimes and a rowdy bunch but not as bad as they were believed to be it seemed. Unfortunately, their notoriety led the Marines to follow them to Eden. In a brutal battle the pirates were ousted. Yet the marines remained. Corrupt, vicious and domineering the group of marines set up a base of operations on the island to “apprehend pirates attempting to rest there”, which really meant to laze around, cause trouble for Eden’s natives and demand money for their protection. The marines would destroy buildings, brutally assault those whom “weren’t grateful for their protection” (meaning “didn’t give them Belli) and were generally cruel to the people of Eden. By the time Skellen was sixteen the natives of the island had more than had enough of the marines. A group of the island’s men and women launched a rebellion, Skellen’s parents treated both sides of the skirmish that ensued (at this point Skellen would have happily joined in the attack himself had his parents not prevented it).

Unsurprisingly, the rebellion was crushed by the marines. But that doesn’t mean that there were no shocks left for Skellen. His parents were both killed by the marines due to their giving medical aid to rebels – even though they remained neutral and provided it to marines also. This was the last straw and finalised Skellen’s hatred of the world government and the marines working for them. Several weeks after the death of his parents, Skellen initiated his own one-man rebellion. Using his knowledge of poisons and his impeccable accuracy he infiltrated the base of the marines, killing any that stood in his way until he was able to do what he had come for. Covering many of the marines’ boats as well as their main base in various flammable chemicals Skellen set fire to them resulting in several small explosions and a tremendous blaze. As almost every marine on the island died Skellen sat on an ornate chair – a remnant from one of the boats or buildings he had destroyed – floating in the slightly warm water watching the destruction. During the next day he fled the island with as many of his supplies as he could gather and a bounty now on his head.

Ever since his escape from Eden, Skellen has worked as an assassin (although he has done anything he could really to scrape the money to survive… these days he is rather wealthy for one person who has to frequently travel). Skellen spends most of his time tracking down high ranking members of the marines or world government and seeing to it they die. That being said, he isn’t above obtaining the bounties of his fellow criminals should he need the money.

Loguetown Arc
Skellen was introduced during the first arc of One Piece: The Golden Age when he was still working as an assassin. Skellen had targeted a corrupt marine and tracked him to a shady pub where he approached the man and appeared to befriend him. As the marine got progressively drunker, Skellen slipped a poison into his drink.

True to Skellen's luck however, he was caught in the act as several other marines walked into the bar just as Skellen's victim toppled over. Assuming (correctly) that Skellen was to blame once it became apparent that the corrupt marine was dead not asleep the other marines gave chase. At around the same time this was happening, it was revealed that Zakiru Kiba had become aware of Skellen's presence in Loguetown.

Not long after fleeing from the marines, Skellen ran into Bass who was also on the run from marines and soon after several others who would soon make up the first Skull Pirates. However when marines arrived at the execution platform and interrupted the meeting the group was separated once more, fleeing in several different directions.

On his own once again Skellen found himself cornered by another group of marines. In the fight that followed he was able to take down all but five with relative ease thanks to the use of his toxins, however things became more complicated with the arrival of Kiba. In a brief battle Skellen and Kiba fought one on one, trying to outdo the other with clever and precise attacks. For the majority of the conflict, the two seemed quite evenly matched until near the end Kiba managed to get the upperhand. The battle seemingly lost, Skellen managed to inject Kiba with a sedative and escape over the rooftops soon finding himself reunited with the group who would become the Skull Pirates.

Duke Island Arc
Along with the other Skull Pirates, Skellen disembarked on Duke Island. Whilst the majority of the group headed off in search of the supposed treasure, he was more intent on finding useful supplies that he could use in creating medicines and poisons.

It was on this search that Skellen met soon-to-be-crewmate Avril Meads who was being pursued by a pirate. Through a sly act and several lies, Avril managed to force Skellen into defeating the raging but unskilled pirate. Following this turn of events, Skellen deemed that Avril owed her life to him and would have to become an "assistant" to him on the Dreamchaser to make up for it. Avril blinded Skellen with a flashbomb and fled, prompting him to begin an angry search for her.

Skellen did indeed find Avril again, the woman now in the company of Hayden Vance. In the confusion that followed Avril slipped away leaving Vance and Skellen roaming the town together. Unsurprisingly, this lead to an encounter with the Tensen Pirates that was soon interrupted by members of the Akahige pirates who defused the situation. It was at this time that the mad dash for the supposed treasure began, resulting in Vance and Skellen being separated. Not long after, Skellen encountered Lotte whom Vance was originally looking for.

Heading up the mountain with Lotte to rejoin the rest of the Skull Pirates, Skellen once again encountered the three Tensen pirates. Fighting the pirates three on one Skellen seemed to be at a disadvantage but after knocking the marskman of the group out and with some help from Lotte, Skellen was able to tie Warp and Mina Tensen together and toss them from the mountain effectively negating Mina's Kilo Kilo Fruit abilities and winning the battle.

Skellen was later present during the brief confrontation involving the Akahige Pirates and Vice-Admiral Koan and subsequently fled the island along with his crew.

Dinas Arc
Like on Duke Island, Skellen set out into Dinas in search of useful supplies with Bass in tow. As the pair moved further into the city, Bass' appearance was met with outward disdain and fear which angered Skellen leading to a minor indecent with a local. This got the attention of Unit Member "Hundredth" Sarah who took the pair into custody.

After a brief, but still eventful, stop at the courthouse where Skellen took it upon himself to insult Sarah and the judge as much as possible, it was revealed that most of the Skull Pirates had received a raise to their bounties. Following this revelation, Skellen - whom Sarah had incapacitated with electricity - and Bass were locked in cells across from each other in the dungeons below Kobushi Tower.

During their time in the dungeon Skellen and Bass encountered "Hundred-Thousandth" Narro, whom on a whim sentenced everyone in that section of the dungeons to death. This prompted a speedy escape from the two Skull pirates, but unfortunately they ran into a large group of marines on route to retrieving Skellen's belongings. Bass was quickly downed leaving Skellen to fight off the marines. However Narro soon reappeared and took over the battle. As Skellen and Narro commenced their battle, Bass rose in a bloodlust and began attacking both the marine and Skellen indiscriminately making the already difficult fight even harder for Skellen, who was trying not to further injure Bass. Once Bass seemed to have turned most of his attention to Narro, Skellen used the opportunity to retrieve his satchel returning to the scene of the fight to find Bass defeated.

The struggle between Narro and Skellen began again but whilst Skellen was able to hold off his opponent he was outmatched even with access to his poisons and weapons. It seemed Skellen would lose the battle when Kiba arrived on the scene, surprising Skellen, who was unaware of the marines truce with Morgan and Avril, by coming to his aid. Through grudging teamwork the two were able to defeat Narro, causing an explosion that seems to have killed him. Skellen quickly patched up himself and Bass before exiting the dungeons with Kiba, Bass over his shoulder.

The group soon ran into Kuzo and Lotte and split ways, Kiba heading back to the dungeons and the pirates heading back up the tower to rejoin the fray.

Not long after parting ways with Kiba, Skellen (still in the company of Kuzo, Bass and Lotte) met Selena and Nokam F. Joshua for the first time and discovered them to be members of his crew. The group proceeded to head up the tower where they encountered "Billionth" Aldridge whom had defeated Hayden Vance with ease and practically encased him in poison. A brutal battle ensued.

During the first half of the battle, Skellen seemed primarily concerned with providing medical aid to the fallen Vance leaving the majority of the fighting to Selena, Kuzo and Joshua - however he seemed to be planning something. As the battle continued and Skellen's injured left side was further damaged, he assessed the situation and determined that Selena should put his plan into action whilst he himself acted as a distraction since he wasn't able to move with agility on a par with the Chef in his weakened state. Leaving Selena with one of his seastone injections, Skellen and the other remaining fighters proceeded to launch a diversionary attack on Aldridge which resulted in them being heavily injured, but Selena successfully injecting the Unit member.

The battle was far from over though, even as the tower began to collapse around them, it was revealed that the small amount of seastone in the injection was not enough to neutralise their powerful opponents toxic abilities. Billionth continued to inflict severe damage on the Skull Pirates, however the injection did take it's toll allowing for them to gradually regain their footing in the battle. In a last-ditch effort to win the traumatic battle, the Skull pirates launched a final assault on Aldridge that resulted in being pinned down and weakened to the point that Selena could finish him off with a powerful attack. During this part of the battle Skellen collapsed, barely clinging onto consciousness.

Skellen was the first of the downed pirates to be able to make it to their feet having sustained slightly less damage than the others (bar to his left upper-body) despite his lesser endurance. The group then escaped the tower with the aid of the Sky Pirates and Zakiru Kiba and later regrouped at the Mermaid's Pearl restaurant. During this time Skellen developed The Elixir and used it in his treatment of his crew and their allies.

During a celebration at The Mermaid's Pearl, Skellen and the other Skull Pirates were caught up in a surprise attack from one of the three admirals of the Marine's. He, along with the rest of his crew, was easily defeated by their superior opponent and was only evaded capture thanks to the intervention of Vyne Crash, one of the Shichibukai, who was revealed to have grown up alongside Kuzo.

Lotte
Skellen and Lotte have grown to be much closer since the beginning of their journey where Skellen's main interest was in cutting her open to test her claim about being unable to be hurt. Skellen considers Lotte to be naive and a bit of a ditz but is fond of her and is finding her to be a hard worker and since their battle with the Tensen Pirates he has grown to find her much more dependable.

As of the brief timeskip in Dinas Skellen has been tutoring Lotte in basic medicine.

Tristan D. Kuzo
Despite Kuzo being the captain of the Skull Pirates, Skellen has little faith in his leadership ability or intelligence (the latter being due to the man's shocking maths skills). Despite this Skellen has a lot of respect for Kuzo's bravery, attitude and skill in battle. Despite his rather shaky degree of faith in Kuzo's leadership, Skellen finds himself obeying Kuzo with few objections for reasons he can't really understand himself.

In Dinas, Skellen and Kuzo bonded somewhat over their shared status of being orphans.

Bass
Whilst at first Skellen was indifferent towards Bass, whilst Bass actively avoided Skellen finding him creepy, the two have become noticeably closer as the events of the Dinas arc continue. Skellen has grown to dislike those that mistreat Bass because of his appearance and actions equating them to the marines who took possession of Eden in their attitude and whilst he finds the bat annoying he can't help but want to keep an eye out for him.

Skellen has recently become aware of Bass' need for blood. At this stage he has been rather indifferent to this revelation but his positive relationship with Bass was demonstrated when Skellen offered the bat his own blood to satisfy his need.

Wright D. Morgan
Since the disappearance of Reaper K. Leon from the crew, Skellen's relationship with Morgan has shifted to somewhat fill that void. Skellen has something of a "love/hate" attitude towards Morgan finding that they agree on some issues and can have similar attitudes at times but also finding him to be ignorant, reckless and rather grating at times also. Skellen has shown something of a respect for Morgan's abilities as a Devil Fruit user and considers him a capable fighter and a valueable member of the crew. He considers Morgan amusing and enjoys arguing with him and taunting him.

Hayden Vance
Vance and Skellen share a friendly relationship despite having vastly different personalities. Skellen finds Vance to be pleasant company although he does believe that like Kuzo he trusts people to easily. During the battle with Alrdidge in Dinas Skellen considered Vance's failing health his top priority above both victory and his own and was prepared to take serious risks to ensure the Navigators safety.

Avril Meads
Skellen met Avril when he was forced into defeating a pirate that was chasing her. Whilst defeating the other pirate wasn't difficult for The Taipan, he believes that Avril owes him her life, since he saved it. At first he intended to have her join the crew as his assistant (not that he actually thinks he needs one) but when the two sat down in a tavern to discuss this Avril blinded him with flash bombs of her own design and fled into the town.

When Skellen and Avril met later she was with Vance, having been involved in another scuffle with pirates. She fled using Skellen's surprise at seeing her with Vance as a cover. Skellen bares a very obvious grudge against Avril at this point and is determined to get payed back for saving her life, or at least to make her suffer for running out on a debt.

When it was revealed that Avril had once been a marine, Skellen's distrust for the woman intensified. He did grudgingly tend her wounds though.

Selena
Having only just met Selena, Skellen has yet to form much of an opinion on her. However he approves of her fiery nature and has concluded he will find her a lot of fun. During the battle with Aldridge, Skellen seemed to develop a respect for Selena's abilities and agility in battle, believing her to be the most suited to carry out his plan to inject their opponent with seastone.

Nokam F. Joshua
As with Selena, Skellen has only just met Joshua. At this stage Skellen's only opinion of Joshua is that he is very polite and well-dressed and a highly capable fighter. Skellen is fond of Joshua's sense of style.

Firenze
Skellen has presumably met Firenze in the weeks following the defeat of the Unit but no interactions between the two have been shown.

Zakiru Kiba
Skellen first met Kiba in Loguetown where the marine attempted to capture him, Skellen having taken out several of his men. During the brief conflict Skellen managed to inject Kiba with a sedative and escape, later boarding the then Grand Justice. The two would later meet again in Dinas when Kiba appeared during Skellen and Bass' escape from the dungeons below the Kobushi Corporation tower. Surprising Skellen when he instead worked with him to defeat Narro rather than trying to capture Skellen.

Skellen perhaps trusts Kiba over some marines, but still holds little regard for him. He believes very strongly that Kiba has many ulterior motives for his actions and has a noticeable dislike for the man. Despite this he seems to acknowledge the marine's ability as a marksman and was able to work with him effectively in their battle with Narro.

Abilities and Powers
Skellen does not possess a devil's fruit and as such does not have any powers, he is however a formidable opponent and skilled doctor. Skellen is highly intelligent, knowledgeable and resourceful (as seen with his creation of seastone injections) and possesses a wide range of skills and a large knowledge-base that gives him notable prowess both as a fighter and as a doctor.

Hand-to-Hand Combat
Throughout the story so far Skellen has displayed an aptitude for hand-to-hand combat utilising his knowledge of martial arts and the human body and his experience as an assassin and bounty hunter to use complex sequences of attacks. Skellen isn't as physically strong as most of his crewmates and doesn't take hits particularly well and so uses his considerable speed and agility when in combat in order to focus on calculated offense and evasion.

Weapons
So far Skellen has demonstrated a degree of skill with several weapons, which are often augmented by dangerous poisons. Skellen's primary weapons are knives and razor blades that he can use as close-range or long-range weapons allowing him to use an easily variable fighting style. Skellen has demonstrated an extremely high level of mastery and precision with these weapons.

During the Dinas arc Skellen also displayed a decent level of swordsmanship using swords both in his battle with a large group of marines and in the battle with Aldridge. When battling the marines Skellen also made use of an axe but was clumsy with the heavy weapon.

Poisons
Skellen has an in-depth knowledge of many dangerous chemicals, primarily poisons and uses poisoned weapons and injections to compliment his fighting style. At this stage Skellen has used several different toxins varying in intensity and probably produced several of them himself.

Medicine
Despite his career as an assassin and now as a pirate, Skellen was originally trained as a doctor and is a highly capable one at that. Skellen has demonstrated his ability frequently already and has been able to produce extremely rapid recoveries in even severely wounded individuals such as when he tended to Morgan after the Duke Island arc. Skellen was knowledgeable enough to be able to partially counteract the unique and dangerous venom produced by Aldridge during the siege of Kobushi Corporation Tower.

The Elixir
The Elixir is a thick, gold coloured medicine developed by Skellen on Dinas using the complex proteins found in Alridge's poison. The unique liquid counteracts most harm done to the body - it heals wounds extremely quickly with minor wounds healing within minutes and severe or life-threatening injuries taking a far shorter period than normal to heal and counteracts poisons. The Elixir takes a period of several days to brew to perfection, however an imperfect Elixir is still capable of preventing the deaths of Vance and Marta. Despite this, it should be noted that if concocted wrong this "super-juice", as dubbed by Kuzo, could be potentially toxic.

Goal/Dream
Skellen has two goals. The first is to bring an end to the reign of the World Government, especially the navy. The second is to discover as many effective medicines and poisons as he can (and to use them on the appropriate people).

Quirks/Trivia
Other than having two very different sides to his personality, Skellen has a tendency to have rather bad luck. Trouble seems to always know where to find him. He also has a tendency to talk to his plants (or any poisonous animals he is keeping at any given time).