Tabitha, Bridget & Alphonse
Tabitha Shelley Caligari
Tabitha is an eccentric young scientist. One might even call her an unorthodox scientist, or an esoteric scientist. Just don’t call her a MAD Scientist, ‘cos she’s not. Mad Scientists are those OTHER guys, the weird ones who do bad stuff. Tabitha is NOT a Mad Scientist, not at all. She’s just an unusual scientist… who happens to create super-powered cyborg zombie children… Okay, Tabitha’s totally a Mad Scientist, but she’s a NICE one! In fact, she’s been brought up in the ways of Mad Science from birth. Her father is quite accomplished in the ways of sciencing madly too… or he was, until the “mad” part kind of took over. That’s a big part of the reason why she wants to avoid the madness herself.
Often, people who spend all their time curled up in some lab fiddling with stuff instead of interacting with others end up shy and quiet. Tabitha, on the other hand, is a very cheerful, friendly young lady. Aggressively friendly. WEIRDLY friendly. She wants to be friends with everybody, but she’s got so little experience actually BEING friends with people that she doesn’t realize when it’s getting weird.
Probably the most important thing to know about Tabitha, though, is her kids. Any good Mad Scientist has a minion or two, and Tabitha has a pair of dead children that she reanimated via cutting edge cybernetic and biomechanical whatsit. And make no mistake, Tabitha ADORES these tykes. She intensely, obsessively, fanatically LOOOOOOOOOVES these kids. In fact, let’s meet them!
Alphonse Reinhardt Caligari
Alphonse is sweet, softhearted little crybaby. He gets scared by loud noises, people he doesn’t know, rooms that aren’t bright enough, just about everything. Not that he can’t be happy and cheerful, mind you. If he’s had time to get used to you, Alphonse is the cutest, most cuddly little kid you’ll ever meet. He doesn’t have a single mean bone in his body… UNLESS you’re another kid getting a little too much attention from Tabitha. That’s HIS Momma, you go get your own!
Alphonse has the power to manipulate computer systems with his mind. And since this is THE FUTURE and everything has computers in it, that means Alphonse can pretty much take over anything anywhere with his brain if he wants. He usually doesn’t, though. In fact, Alphonse’s favorite things are good old-fashioned books, not computers. He’s got a MASSIVE library of big, dusty old books that he loves poking around in. That and listening to good old-fashioned classical music. Alphonse’s greatest dream in life is probably to be a cellist, even though the poor guy’s not big enough to play one yet.
Bridget Soong Caligari
Bridget is a cool kid. A hardcore, tough-as-nails, awesome kid who’s basically cooler than you’ll EVER be. Tabitha gave Bridget super-strength, so she can pretty much hold her own against any person anywhere. She tears the heads off killer mutant monster-beasts for fun, then walks away without turning around to watch it fall, ‘cos she’s JUST THAT COOL.
At least, that’s what she wants everyone to think, especially Tabitha. Bridget is absolutely convinced that her Mom is the coolest person in the history of ever, and wants nothing more in life than to have Tabitha think the same thing about her. She DOES, of course, but Bridget is surprisingly insecure about this sort of thing. For example, she loves little bro Alphonse to death, but she can’t help being a bit jealous when he can help Tabitha out with her science-ing in ways she can’t. Not that Bridget’s dumb or anything, she’s just… straightforward. Bridget likes going fast and knocking things down, and that’s kind of all she’s good at. That and being COOL.
FAQ
Q: Is Tabitha supposed to be the same age at Layla?
A: WHY MUST YOU KEEP ASKING ABOUT CHARACTER’S AGES? *sigh* If you must know, she’s a little bit older than Layla. Like, maybe a year or so, enough for there to be a bit of a “Big Sis” vibe to their relationship. Still somewhere in her late teens, though.
Q: What about Bridget and Alphonse?
A: Even if I wasn’t so weird about not giving out specific ages, that’d be a really hard question to answer. I mean, they were technically dead at one point, so where would you even start counting?
Q: Why don’t Bridget and Alphonse talk?
A: Somewhere between the speech center of the brain and the vocal chords, something didn’t go right during the reanimation process. Tabitha’s hoping to fix this one day, but for now they’re mute. Also, just so you know, something in their ears didn’t regenerate properly either. That’s why they have those grey pointy ears, they’re complicated future hearing aids.
Q: Okay, ignoring the whole age question, can Bridget and Alphonse grow up, or are they permanently children like Avatar?
A: That’s a good question. By standard zombie logic, they really should be in a state of gross decay, not maturing into something bigger. But we ARE talking about superpowered cybernetic zombie children here, so “logic” left the conversation a while ago. Anyway, I can’t imagine Tabitha being okay with her babies not being able to grow up just like anyone else, so I’ll say they can. Somehow.
Q: It’s just… some pages they’ll look one size, then the next they’ll seem noticeably bigger or smaller.
A: That’s one hundred percent because I’m not a very good artist. The worst offender is that I’ll draw Layla holding Alphonse the same way I draw Tabitha holding Alphonse, forgetting that there’s a major height difference between the two, so it SHOULDN’T look the same. But no, Bridget and Alphonse aren’t spontaneously stretching and squishing from page to page.
Q: So… if they’re zombies… do they stink?
A: No, ‘cos rotting flesh stank isn’t very cute.
Q: Um, Tabitha seems to really, REALLY like Avatar… and Layla… and Trigger… and *insert character here* What’s that all about?
A: Sorry to throw your shipping charts into disarray, but any time you think Tabitha’s flirting with somebody, she’s not. It’s just that she spends the bulk of her time hidden away in her lab, and most of the time she DOES get out, she’s surrounded by Mad Scientists even weirder than she is. The girl really has no idea how “normal” people interact with one another, so she tends to come on a bit strong. And honestly, she’s so head over heels in love with Bridget and Alphonse that pursuing an serious romantic relationship with anyone never crosses her mind. Who has time for THAT?
Q: But… She KISSED Trigger that one time…
A: …and thought it was a funny joke. Really, that alone should tell you everything you need to know about why Tabitha isn’t really romantically interested in your character of choice.
Q: We already asked about Bridget and Alphonse’s height, but did Tabitha have a growth spurt or something in between appearances? She looks WAY different in that first arc.
A: Funny thing about that: the original way I drew Tabitha seemed fine when I was just doing solo sketches of her, but when I actually put her on the same page as Layla, I realized they kind of looked identical. Seriously, look at those early Tabitha pages, she looks like Layla just let her hair down and put on some glasses. Since I knew I wanted to pair them up more in the future, I figured I’d better change things up a bit. Since Layla was already established as not-tall, making Tabitha VERY tall seemed like a funny way to establish a visual contrast between the two. (Also, you’ll notice that Layla starts getting more and more curvy past this point, as a further contrast to Tabitha’s lankiness.)
Q: Why do people still need glasses in the future? Shouldn’t a Mad Scientist of all people be able to fix any eye problems?
A: Don’t be ridiculous! If Tabitha didn’t have glasses, how would anyone be able to tell that she’s smart and nerdy? There is LITERALLY NO OTHER WAY that character information could ever be communicated unless Tabitha were drawn with glasses!
Q: Tabitha’s Mom. Full stop.
A: NO SPOILERS.