Avril Meads

Avril Meads is an ex-Marine who made her first appearance during the Duke Island Arc. She unofficially joined the Skull Pirate crew during this time, and is currently serving as the crew's shipwright.

Personality
In terms of personality, Avril is fairly lively girl. She’s honest and believes in hard work if one truly wishes to accomplish something. The girl can often lose herself when working with various forms of machinery, whether repairing broken down objects or creating new works of her own. She can come a bit strong at times to those around her, but she really does not mean harm... most of the time. Avril is extremely free-spirited and has a unique way of thinking. She tends to always find a ray of light in any situation, almost to a point at times where it seems she takes very little seriously, even going as far as to make up her own words to describe what she may have done when remodeling or inventing something, to even a common action or description of something.

Before Joining The Skull Pirates
Born and raised on a small island in the East Blue, Avril was the only child of the Meads family, Charles and Olivia. Her mother was always a very frail woman, so as a result she passed shortly after giving birth to the girl. This left her to be raised alone by her father, a man who made his living as repairman in the village that they called home. Although money was never really in abundance for the father and his daughter, Charles always did his best to make sure that Avril was well provided for.

Avril was always an odd girl compared to most her age when growing up. Instead of playing with dolls, shopping, going on dates, and the like, she was much more content to play with tools, take things apart and try to put them back together, and to make it simple, get her own hands dirty with actual work. In some regard, Charles put the blame for his daughter's unusual behavior upon himself. After all, he never had much experience in actually raising a girl... and since her mother had passed away so early, the girl only had a strong, male role model in her life. Regardless of this however, Charles still encouraged Avril to do what made her happiest. After all, that was what the man figured was most important in his daughter's life.

As time moved on, Avril's skills and interests at repairing, tinkering and the like continued to grow. They began to grow so much that some of the villagers began to grow annoyed with her antics. Avril had developed a habit of just taking hold of other peoples things, regardless of the fact that she had not been given permission or the fact that they were not broken, and just take them apart and try to make her own improvements to them. Despite the fact that she was simply doing what she loved, Charles began to feel pressure from the other villagers to find a solution to this growing problem. Thankfully for him, the problem managed to solve itself.

Upon her eighteenth birthday, Avril came to realize that there was a lot more that she could learn out there about her hobby and passion. In particular, she thought a career in the Marines would be the best way to go about furthering her interests. As such the girl set out and joined said organization, hoping that it would prove as fruitful as she thought it would be...

During her time in the Marines, Avril found herself becoming engrossed in the construction and functionality of the various weapons used by them. In fact, she kept finding herself wanting to do with the various weapons and cannons what she used to do back on her home island... She would often attempt to take them apart, learn about how the weapons functioned... she would even go as far as to try and scrap and strip them to develop weapons of her own. Needless to say, the Marines were not too thrilled with Avril's... unique way of doing things. In fact, the captain she served under seemed to have a very short fuse when it came to the girl's free-spirited and unique way of thinking. Whenever her antics seemed to start up, he always ensured that Avril was punished by having to do extra exercises and laps, chores, and all that sort of thing.

Eventually, the strict way of living the Marines provided began to make Avril feel quite cramped. She was not able to pursuit her hobby as much as she wanted... In fact, she was starting to feel like her talents and goals were starting to slip away from her. So, without a moment's further delay, the girl quickly left the Marines... But not without a few souvenirs of her time there, such as some blueprints and weapon schematics. If the Marines were not going to take advantage of their own plans and make something amazing from them, then Avril would just have to do it herself.

Needless to say, the Marines were not to pleased and a bounty quickly put on her head...

Duke Island Arc
Avril made her debut appearance during the crew's adventure to Duke Island. Avril had arrived there by somehow managing to stowaway on an unknown pirate's crew ship, hiding away in a barrel of banana's during the boatride to the island. Avril did not manage ot slip out of the ship undetected, and a rather humous chase began between her and a swordsman of this crew. While Avril probably did have the ability to easily dispatch of the pirate, she instead used quick wit and a silver tongue to dispatch of him instead, once she ran into the first member of Skull Crew she encountered, Bridges L. Skellen .

Once the duo had managed to dispatch of the swordsman, they decided to lay low in an abandoned bar situated in one of the alleys of the town. It was here that Skellen began to inquire why Avril used him to aid in her escape and how she would intend to pay him back for his assistance. While Skellen had originally intended to make the girl his "apprentice", Avril had other plans about such activity. The girl decided to thank Skellen for his aid and then make a quick escape via use of more lies... and a flashbomb.

Avril's escapades did not end there, however. Shortly after escaping Skellen, the woman found herself meeting with yet another member of the Skull Pirates, this time in the form of Hayden Vance. Once more surrounded by rather blood-thirsty and treasure seeking pirates, Avril found herself forced to team up with the Navigator in order to survive the fight, this time physically helping out in battle by use of her hammer and other tools. The two managed to do rather well against their enemies. Avril did not stay for long, however. Skellen managed to catch up to the duo during their skirmish, and Avril used the opportunity of the doctor's anger and Vance's attempt to calm the man as another chance to slip away.

Eventually, Avril would come to willingly work with the Skull Pirates, after learning of the treasure's location atop the peak of Duke's Island tallest mountain. Avril used her wiles to convince Wright D. Morgan to assist her in reaching the peak. It was no walk in the park, though. Along the way the two would have to deal with with the Fishmen Pirates. Among those the two fought and managed to defeat included Maruko, Oogwei, and their captain, Jishi Jeremoh.

Eventually, the two would manage to come to the peak of Duke's Island along with a majority of the Skull Pirates. Unfortunately, the treasure was not at the peak as promised. Rather, it seems the whole hunt was put together by a woman named Kasumi Kobushi. Before the group had anytime to question the matter further, they found themselves under attack by one of the Government's top officials, Vice Admiral Koan Marismo. Being a former Marine herself, Avril was taken by surprise to see the woman there, and tried to urge the others not to fight her. However, Morgan still insisted on holding her off long enough for the rest to escape. Morgan did his best to try and hold her off, but he was not fully a match for the Vice Admiral. Luckily, Tristan D. Kuzo appeared to know Koan. The captain of the crew was able to diffuse the situation, buying time for them all to escape back to their ship and leave Duke Island. It was during this time that Avril "joined" the crew, though she viewed it more as Kuzo insisting she was more than the woman actually believing herself to be a member. Simply going along with it for the time being, Avril took on the role of the ship's shipwright due to her technical knowledge and knack of inventing.

Abilities and Powers
In combat, Avril prefers to let her physical strength do the talking. And what better way to do that then to use a weapon she crafted together herself? Avril fights using an electrified sledgehammer. The hammer has a single-use (until reloaded) hydraulic pressured launcher that can send the head propelling forward like a projectile, allowing the girl to have a mix of both close and long ranged combat options. The hammer would normally be rendered useless without its head, or at least until Avril would pick up the head, however the girl has taken note of this and made preparations for just such an event. Within the handle of the sledgehammer is a roughly 40 ft. chain that can be used to return the hammerhead back to its base.

Along side her hammer, Avril uses various, ball-like objects to battle her opponents. These spheres aren't really useful for straight-out combat. Rather, they give Avril advantages by using tricks to impair their combat abilities. These spheres include various, handy devices such as flash bombs, water, and even gasoline.

Goal/Dream
To create the world's strongest and technologically superior weapon, seizing her place as the world's greatest mechanic.

Quirks

 * Avril has an odd habit of coming up with nicknames for anyone she meets, as she feels this is usually easier than actually remembering their name.
 * Avril has a deep love of bananas, and will eat one whenever it is possible. She'll even go as far as to mix it with foods that most others would never dream to.
 * She can become so involved in her work, that she will literally lose track of time and everything that is going around her. It's almost as if she enters her own little world.
 * Avril holds treasure in the highest of regards, and will not hesitate to deliver the ultimate punishments to anyone who steals her treasure.

Tristan D. Kuzo
Avril shares a mostly cordial relationship with the captain of the Skull Pirates. Out of the few reactions they have shared at this point, she seems to get along well with Kuzo. That said, his rather spontaneous attitude and his insistence of Avril being a member of his crew no shorter than five minutes after they had both met did seem to get on the woman's nerves. Avril at times will mentally berate Kuzo for his rather childish and at points irresponsible decisions, but she never outright goes out of her way to tell him this personally, and will try to offer alternatives to his quick and at times, reckless decisions. She tends to refer to him as Ku-kun.

Wright D. Morgan
Out of all the Skull Pirates, Avril probably shares the closest relationship with Morgan. This is partially due to the fact of how much time the two have spent together thus far, as Morgan has been Avril's accompanying partner up to the peak on Duke's Island and through the Kobushi Tower at Dinas Island. She tends to regard Morgan as one of the more level-headed members of the Skull Pirate crew, but that has not stopped her from trying to change his mind or reason with the man when Morgan makes a less than rational decision. Due to his Devil Fruit power, Avril refers to Morgan as Pepper-kun, although at points she does call him by his proper name. It should be noted that Morgan is the only member of the crew to have this happen.

Lotte
Avril shares a mostly cordial relationship with Lotte. At the time of her coming aboard the Dream Chaser and Kuzo's insistence of her joining the crew, Lotte was the only female in the group. Because of this, Avril went a bit more out of her way to try and forge some sort of relationship with Lotte. It seems that the younger girl still keeps Avril at a bit of a distance, although the duo did enjoy a shopping adventure upon their arrival at Dinas Island. Avril calls Lotte by the nickname of Loli.

Bass
Though initially surprised by the sight of a giant, talking bat, Avril was more accepting of Bass than most might be upon their first meeting. She seems to find Bass rather cute and is always offering the bat a friendly smile whenever she sees him. Although the two have not really had a chance to have a lot of time to interact with each other, Avril affectionately refers to Bass as Batsy-chan.

Hayden Vance
Avril seems to get along well with the navigator of the Skull Pirates. The two have shared a few conversations since she came aboard the Dream Chaser. Vance also was the first member of the crew that Avril fought alongside of during her time at Duke Island, although she did not really know he was a pirate or a member of the Skull Pirates at the time. Vance also was selected to accompany Avril and Lotte during their shopping trip shortly after arriving at Dinas Island. Avril also happened to discover the truth about Vance and his rope. Although rather than hide it, he told Avril about the details of it, and the two even came up with a way he can carry it around in a much more useful manner, which Avril has already began the plans of making for the navigator. Avril commonly refers to Vance by the nickname of Vanny.

Bridges L. Skellen
The doctor of the Skull Pirates and Avril share a rather unique relationship. While Avril does not really have a major liking or disliking of Skellen, the doctor can essentially not stand the woman in the slightest bit. A part of this tends to stem from how Avril tossed a flashbomb in front of the man to get out of a deal that had been worked out between the two shortly after they had met on Duke's Island, one that came from how he helped save the woman's life. Since the event, Skellen has always held a grudge against the woman, one which only deepened after learning that Avril was a former Marine. Skellen is constantly referred to as Skelly by Avril.