Tabitha Smith
| Tabitha Smith | |
|---|---|
| File:Tabitha.jpg Portrayed by Katee Sackhoff | |
| Codename: | Meltdown |
| Affiliations: | X-Men, Xavier Institute - Staff |
| Birthdate: | January 23, 1982 |
| Journal: | x_plosive |
| Player: | Shai |
Tabitha was a student at the school before leaving to pursue her college degree in library science. She has since returned, to work in the library and try to get back in shape training with her old team. Lately she seems to be pushing herself overly hard to make up for the stress of several missions.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_plosive
Real Name: Tabitha Smith
Codename: Meltdown
Aliases: None
First Appearance: September 26, 2003
Date of Birth: January 23, 1982
Place of Birth: Roanoke, Virginia
Citizenship: US
Relatives: Marty Louis Smith (father), Mandy Smith (mother - deceased), Wanda Jo Bialowsky (step-mother)
Education: Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters University of California at Monterey
Relationship Status: Single
Occupation: Assistant Librarian
Team Affiliation: X-Men
Background
Childhood
Tabitha Smith was born to Marty Louis Smith and Mandy Smith, in Roanoke, Virginia on January 23rd, 1982. Her parents divorced and her father later married Wanda Jo Bialowsky.
Tabitha loved her mother with all the enthusiasm and selective blindness an eleven-year-old can have. She idealized their relationship, purposely forgetting that the blind-folded driving adventure and others like it could have easily gotten them both killed. Her father filed for sole custody under pressure from his own parents and her mom never contested his claim. Since Tabitha never saw the inside of the court room, she saw her father taking her away to spite her mother. When he remarried so quickly after her mother's death, she saw her young step-mother as an interloper. Wanda wanted a family of her own, not a bratty little step-daughter. All around, nobody was happy with anybody else.
She never really got along with her parents, so when her powers began to manifest the fighting finally came to a head. In retaliation for the latest bout of name-calling, Tabitha put a miniature time-bomb in her father's lasagna. In retaliation, he beat her severely. She ran away that night, ending up in Atlantic City, New Jersey. She kept to the periphery of the local gangs, avoiding attention and living off of what was left in vacation homes and what she could get from picking pockets.
She dodged enforced membership to the Atlantic City gangs with fast feet and an uncanny talent for B&E. She jumped terminals for public transit and walked wherever she could find food and other comforts. Her habit of spoiling herself in vacation condos was her downfall. The ACPD caught her in the steam shower of a vacationer who visited his place unexpectedly one sunny Tuesday afternoon. One of the officers who picked her up knew about Xavier's and the chances it offered to mutant kids. Tabitha spent four days in juvenile holding before she found herself in a car with a representative from Xavier's.
The Team, Departure and Return
Tabitha, calling herself Meltdown, was an asset to the X-Men in the early years, where the skills she acquired in her "misspent youth" occasionally proved useful on a mission. She also showed a keen skill for research, both online and off. In early 2004, for reasons not yet made public, Tabitha left the mansion for California. While not official staff at the West Coast Annex, she has been known to stop by on occasion.
In 2007, Tabitha rejoined the school, having completed tertiary study and taking on the position of assistant librarian. During her college years she had let herself get out of shape, and one of her goals was to return to the fitness she enjoyed as part of the team, however the true reason was that she had lost her direction in life and wanted to find it again. She settled quickly back into things, throwing herself into her work and maintaining a friendly - if sometimes distant - relationship with the rest of the school.
Upon her return, Tabitha is almost immediately embroiled in Field Trip Curse shenanigans, when dinosaurs are set loose on New York. She quickly learned how out of shape college made her, but she and Dani still managed to keep their particular dinosaur from killing any body. A quick second engagement with people trying to kill her in the form of Arcade's fun-house ice-cream torture chamber convinced Tabitha that she needed to get back into the game, and quickly. She started exercising vigorously.
The mission to Afghanistan shows Tabitha that there is always more to learn about her powers, and she takes the first step in learning to detonate bombs without a countdown. Shortly thereafter, she requests to rejoin the X-Men. She continues to ramp up her work-outs to prepare for the vigor of being an X-Man.
In August of 2008, all of Tabitha's over-training came to a head when she collapsed in the library. After a thorough scolding from Amelia about the enormous extra calories burned by energy projectors, Tabitha tried to keep a better eye on her food intake.
After the events of Day Zero, Tabitha went back to the West Coast Annex to help keep things going while they deal with the fallout from Alison's time as Death. While there, Haroun and Tabitha rebuilt a 1964 Mustang to keep their minds and hands busy. Tabitha took the car back to New York the following spring.
May of 2009 brings Tabitha's past back when her old mentor kidnapped her for unknown reasons. In her drugged state, Tabitha remembers hearing about the Black Court and remains twitchy when it is mentioned, though there is no shred of evidence that they were involved.
Physical Characteristics
Height: 5'5"
Weight: 140
Eyes: Blue
Hair: Blonde
Other Features: She often struggles to maintain the happy balance between caloric intake and output. She put on quite a few pounds while in school, as she really didn't have the spare time to keep up her exercise routines.
Powers
Tabitha creates "time bombs", small spheres of plasma that remain stable until she explodes them. The approximate damage is based on the size of the bomb - spheres the size of a marble explode like a small firecracker, while larger ones are capable of significant destruction.
Tabitha's one crutch to her power is her need to count out loud before detonating her 'time bombs'. Through training, it is hypothesized that she will be able to overcome this difficulty. She has learned how to reabsorb her bombs.
Equipment
None.
Trivia
None.
Plots
2003
X-Men Mission: Bombing At Disneyworld
2004
2007
2008
2009
2010
X-Men Mission: Who You Gonna Call?
2011
X-Men Mission: Roller Derby Queen
Meta
Player: Shai
E-mail: 
AIM:
Player Icon Base: Katee Sackhoff
Meta Trivia: Previously used pb: Cheryl Colgan
Formerly played by Dixie, picked up by Shai in March 2007
