Tabitha Smith - Phase 1
This page is about the Phase 1 incarnation of the character. For other uses, see Tabitha Smith (disambiguation).
| Tabitha Smith - Replaced in Phase 2 | |
|---|---|
 Portrayed by Katee Sackhoff | |
| Codename: | Meltdown |
| Affiliations: | X-Men, Xavier Institute - Staff |
| Birthdate: | January 23, 1982 |
| Journal: | x_meltdown |
| Player: | (Former) Shai |
Tabitha was a student at the school before leaving to pursue her college degree in library science. She since returned, to work in the library and try to get back in shape training with her old team. She was killed during the attack on Muir Island in January 2015.
Contents
Details
Character Journal: x_meltdown
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 YoungstersUniversity of California at Monterey
Relationship Status: Dating Sam Guthrie
Occupation: 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 was almost immediately embroiled in Field Trip Curse shenanigans, when dinosaurs were set loose on New York. She quickly learned how out of shape college had 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 showed Tabitha that there was always more to learn about her powers, and she took the first step in learning to detonate bombs without a countdown. Shortly thereafter, she requested to rejoin the X-Men. She continued 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 Voght 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.
Reminders of the Past
May of 2009 brought Tabitha's past back when her old mentor kidnapped her for unknown reasons. In her drugged state, Tabitha remembered hearing about the Black Court and remained twitchy when it was mentioned, though there is no shred of evidence that they were involved.
Tabitha's friendships took a step back when she asked Lil to set up a drinking session with Manuel in the hopes that she would lose her virginity to him. Manuel later turned her down and she revealed her jealousy of Cammie's relationship with him. Later, under the influence of Cammie, she posted an ad on Craigslist.
In August, she took on the mentorship of the New Mutants and took them on a trouble-free field trip to an amusement park.
She became caught up in the events of Hotel Saragarhi and the jailbreak and later contacted Lex about training, something they continued on with over the next couple of months, eventually leading to the relevation, in February 2010, that Lex was still “bleeding” energy when he trained.
Tabitha took Bishop and Amara to Puerto Rico for Christmas after contacting several folk with no families to return to.
In April, she tested her powers as she took down an oncoming armored division during Lakshmibai Raj and, in June, she confronted a Reaver with Bobby during the graduation disaster. Tabitha's connection to the New Mutants remained strong and she convinced Artie to rejoin.
Tabitha also kept strong connections outside the mansion, being asked by Vanessa to help investigate Haven during Butterflies and Hurricanes and saw more than she bargained for one day in the library, becoming mildly traumatized and reminding the students and grads that the library is not a good place for hook ups.
Life continued to be full of action over the next few months for Tabitha, as she attempted to learn about the Hellfire Club in September and October and was involved in the rescue of Julian's mother in November. Her investigations into the Hellfire connection with Telford Porter resulted in the kidnapping of Doug's sister, Katie and Tabitha hitching a ride with Porter when he tried to escape to his base in Madripoor. Closure was achieved in the form of beating up her former 'Fagin' and blowing up his brothel.
Early in 2011, Tabitha formed a friendship with newcomer Wade Wilson after he called her the “paranoid hot chick” and her friendship with Warren led to a night in his suite and, later, to a madcap race across Europe to find blackmail material with him, Monet and Kurt. On her return, she entered the world of roller derby on Garrison's behest.
And, in June, she was involved in the rescue of the New Mutants from Artie's mad foster mother in the sewers of New York before taking a well deserved trip to the Hamptons. In September, Sam and Tabitha swim in the lake together and hatch a plan for a confidence course for the New Mutants. Through October, she continued to be awkward and unsure about flirting. This was not helped by a Halloween transformation.
With the holidays, Tabitha joined Cammie, getting into bar fights for fun. To counter-balance this less than savory activity, she organizes the New Mutants to help with the HeliX soup kitchen. As the new year approached, she and Warren discussed things left undone, or "bucket lists."
Devolution
The new year brought Day Zero to the big screen. Tabitha helped foil a plot to bomb the premiere. She mostly kept her head down until Genosha.
Genosha changed everything in her world. From the inside prison experience to an interrogator finding fears she didn't know she had, the experience greatly shook Tabitha. Even though nearly everyone escaped, she was left with severe mental trauma.
Once home, Tabitha had a great deal of trouble sleeping. She only seemed to be able to sleep on other people's couches. She continued her "fight nights" with Cammie as an avoidance tactic. She continued to participate in X-Men missions for the same reason.
In September, she accompanied Sam back home for an adventurous reunion. In November, she turned over responsibility for the New Mutants to Angel, further distancing herself.
2013 came in quietly, with Tabitha just coasting along in the background. March finally brought some change when Sam approached her about maybe dating and she approached Angelo about joining X-Corps.
June brought a sort of intervention over her insomnia, when Kurt confronted her over sleeping in public places. Sam and Tabs' awkward courtship continued.
In October, Lorna discovered Tabitha's inability to feed herself and Cammie discovered her lack of vibrator. Cammie, never one to let awkward things alone, takes her sex toy shopping in November.
Demons attack the library in December, resulting in Tabitha blowing a hole in the library wall. She blamed it on Kyle.
2014
The year brought with it more changes in Tabitha's life, though it was quiet at first. Her attempts to cancel her birthday (a vain attempt to avoid getting old) were ignored by her friends. In February she and Sam when on their first date, finally. She continued her defense of the library, especially after accidentally destroying it back in December, and she continued her X-Men training to stay in shape. In August she joined an X-Men team in investigating strange occurences in a Slorenian town which nearly killed the entire team when they were ambushed by The Fury. They managed to escape, and Tabitha withdrew back to the library.
The End
In January 2015, Muir was invaded by Magneto and the Brotherhood, and Tabitha joined the X-Men in going to fight them off. The battle took a turn for the worst, and Tabitha died when one of the invaders grabbed a bomb she'd thrown and tackled her, holding it as it exploded and killing both of them. A few days later an automatic email went out to the rest of the X-Men - set up by Tabitha before she left on the chance she didn't return - thanking everyone for their friendship and asking Paige to take care of Sam (who, unbeknownst to Tabitha, of course, had also died in the battle).
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. As a result of her efforts to regain her athleticism, she has dipped into the territory of Anorexia athletica. As a result, she is more prone to soft-tissue injuries.
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 has mostly overcome her dependence on the "countdown." She has learned how to reabsorb her bombs.
Equipment
None.
External Links
Phase 1
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
X-Men Mission: X-Mas in Milwaukee
2012
X-Men Mission: Day Zero, the Movie
X-Men Mission: Amid These Storms
2013
2014
2015
Meta
Former Player: Shai
Player Icon Base: Katee Sackhoff
Meta Trivia: Previously used pb: Cheryl Colgan
Formerly played by Dixie, picked up by Shai in March 2007 and played until the relaunch of January 2015.
