Description: With Jack Sanders retiring from his position holding the Western Rookie belt, two prominent challengers have at it. Will boxing or wrestling seize the belt?
The Metro City SlamMasters Arena. 9 PM.
Go Time.
The arena is filled to the brim with screaming fans of two colors. On one side? Wrestling fans. On the other? Boxing fans. Boxing vs Wrestling, the two techniques interlocked within the American heart. And right here, right here tonight, right here in the SlamMasters ring, it was going to be settled tonight.
By a pair of relative no-names.
It was hard to fill seats for the Western Rookie Belt. With Jack Sanders suddenly abandoning the belt, it had lost one of the biggest crowd-pleasers that the belt had. Rather than risk ending up like the Eastern Rookie Belt, they had to figure out a gimmick. Something that could help bring in people for the no names fighting. And what better way than to gun up a big 'battle of techniques.'
Sven Maesters, of course, did not care.
Amon Amarth blares from the speakers as the lights drop down low. A spotlight fixes on the swarthy Swede as he thunders down the walkway. Fixed upon his face was the wolfman mask, and hanging on his massive shoulders was a wolf pelt. Just thunders down to the cheers of the wrestling fans... and the boos of the boxing fans. The Warwolf hurls his fists in the air as he saunters down, before reaching the ring. Grabbing the ropes, he pulls himself up, and then, over, flipping over the ring to another round of cheers. Shaking his fists in the air, he roars.
"SVEN MAESTERS IS NUMBER ONE!"
"SVEN MAESTERS IS CHAMPION!"
Tabitha, on the other hand, did care.
It had been a long road for her. From a no-name brawler in Metro City's slums to... well, where she is today, able to challenge for a belt and get a response. OK, so it wasn't a response by the belt holder, but in another way being chosen as one of the two people able to compete for it is a whole different honour. Even if she loses today, she's shown she's worthy of the attempt.
Of course, this is Tabitha. She's not going to be satisfied with a loss.
Tabitha doesn't get intro music. She does get a spotlight as she walks up toward the ring, grabbing the ropes and pulling herself inside like she had years of experience with it. To her surprise she also gets some cheers when she does - more than she was expecting. It may be the lowest of the Circuit of Champions belts, but it's still a Circuit of Champions match, and people assume it's going to be good. Plus, she has some personal fans in the crowd, something she's still getting used to. Not that she objects.
Tabitha adjusts the wraps around her hands as she takes her corner, shadowboxing at nothing for a few moments before she pulls off her sleeveless hoodie. Under it she has a sleeveless shirt and shorts; she came prepared for this.
"Not yet you're not," she says, raising her voice loud enough to be heard. She does not have a mic. It does not seem to matter.
"EH!?"
That is the bellow from the Swede as Tabitha gives her response. Dropping his arms, he turns towards his opponent. Another woman? The muscled, towering wrestler rolls his neck, glaring down at his opponent through the mask's eyehole. "So you are Tabitha?" He asks, having seen the woman for the first time. "Feh. I am not afraid of boxers. I have fought bears!" Sven smashes a fist into the palm of his hands, as he lowers his stance.
He was not exaggerating.
The bell rings, yelling out the start of the match. But Sven does not pounce, no. He spreads his arms out, ready to catch the oncoming boxer. And more importantly, he continues to banter. "I am Sven Maesters! I am the legacy of Ragnarok! By the time I am through with you, you will be crying heavy tears, while I walk away! Walk away with the championship belt!" He claps his hands together once, motioning for the boxer to approach.
"COME!"
"COME AND FIGHT THE WARWOLF!"
COMBATSYS: Sven has started a fight here.
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Sven 0/-------/-------|
It's more than just a woman; it's a young, short woman. Tabitha is probably nineteen years old, a good eight or nine inches shorter than Sven and nowhere near as bulky. It's not quite as silly-looking as if she'd been put up against Sagat, but there's a definite size mismatch going on.
She looks up at the wrestler from her corner, taking an active defensive position just before the bell rings, fists up and ready to strike despite the distance. "I've fought wrestlers. You're going to have to do a bit more than that to intimidate me," she says, with a sudden - and rather fierce - grin.
"So come on! You want the belt that badly?"
The bell rings. Sven might not charge, and neither does Tabitha; she takes a slower, more careful advance, approaching but keeping enough distance that she's just out of reach. Unfortunately, that means she has trouble striking at first, too.
"Then come and take it!"
Suddenly, Tabitha does dart in. She doesn't come straight at Sven but towards his side, jabbing twice at his torso as she tries to circle around him, keep him off balance long enough to strike with a harder straight. She's not sure if that mask obscures his peripheral vision any, but she's betting it's not perfect, and she tries to stay to his flank.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha has joined the fight here.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sven
COMBATSYS: Sven blocks Tabitha's Blindside Step.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-------|-------\-------\0 Sven
As Tabitha comes in, she might realize something.
Sven certainly does. The little girl, and for the towering swede she was a little girl, was plucky. She easily shrugs off the banter from the man in the wolfman mask, and soon, she was already moving in position. Sven had fought boxers, as she had fought wrestlers. But as she darts in, something may become very clear.
Sven was fast.
As she moves in with those two quick jabs, Sven already is bringing his arms up. His massive forearm catches the two punches, bracing against them hard as he keeps his footing even. When the third straight comes to the flank, he is already changing his footwork. The punch comes, and Sven... seems like he oversells it. Taking the hit hard with the same forearm, the limb is already badly bruised as the massive Swede is sent stumbling back. Nearly falling over, he flings himself backwards into a flip...
Right onto the ropes.
Jamming his heels hard into the middle ropes, he immediately springboards off the ropes and into the air. Vaulting through the air, he lunges straight for Tabitha, arms out. And should the Warwolf get his arm's grip on the boxer's head, he would bring in the front facelock, and finish his flying momentum into a brutal DDT, falling flat on his back as he would bring her down with him.
If he got his grip, that is.
COMBATSYS: Sven successfully hits Tabitha with Strong Throw.
-* CRITICAL HIT! *-
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Tabitha 0/-------/---====|=------\-------\0 Sven
Big wrestlers are often slow. Tabitha knows that, and she figures anyone who has a build and gimmick like Sven's is likely to be; she doesn't know his history or experience.
She pays for it almost immediately.
Tabitha brings up her arms to cover her face, ducking down in a boxer's block, but she's not quite fast enough and this kind of block doesn't always work very well against someone simply trying to grab her anyway. She's not entirely sure what happens over the next couple seconds; everything is kind of a blur since she got slammed on her face. She finds herself face down a couple moments later, shaking off the daze and the disorientation from being swung around like a crazy man had her.
Despite the pain and dizziness, Tabitha almost immediately staggers to her feet, her left arm arcing out in a wide sweep to clear some space. Sven probably makes it up before she does, but she doesn't make it easy, delivering another strong straight with her right hand before she lurches back, closer to but not at the ropes.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha successfully hits Sven with Straight Punch.
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Tabitha 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Sven
Slammed.
Smashing Tabitha's jaw hard into the mat, Sven Maesters unleashes the beast to the roar of the crowd. Wrestling fans roar in delight; Boxing fans roar in anger. But as Tabitha is slammed down, the fact remained that Sven had opened up with but a sampling of his aerial techniques.
And now he was on the ground.
Rising up, the Warwolf suddenly seems ponderous in comparison to the agile leaping he unleashed before. His size, while not a limitation on his speed and power, made the act of standing a bit awkward. And in comparison to Tabitha, far too slow. He wasn't even erect by the time the boxer unleashes her straight.
And another roar comes as it connects to Sven's face.
Blood dribbles from underneath the mask as Sven staggers back. Growling in pain, the wrestler regains his footing, and immediately forces himself towards Tabitha. She was against the ropes. That was no good. "You is pretty strong! But you are not as strong like the wolf!" The swede bellows, lashing his arms forward again as he comes in low. This time, if he gets his grips on her, he will bend her over his shoulder, and lift her straight up. And there, he will fall backwards into a suplex, attempting to slam her on the mat as he falls backwards.
The night of the warwolf may have to start sooner than he thought.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha dodges Sven's Power Throw.
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Tabitha 0/-------/--=====|====---\-------\0 Sven
Compared to Sven, Tabitha is definitely a lightweight. She is surprisingly tough, which may explain her general strategy, but she's simply nowhere near his bulk or weight.
She uses that to her advantage. "I don't have to be if the wolf keeps going wild," Tabitha calls back, almost taunting. When Sven comes in for her, she starts moving differently; more swaying motions side to side, and an almost shuffling sidestep that turns into a faster evasion, moving parallel to the ropes.
Sven doesn't quite get his hands on her. It's close, but Tabitha manages to elude his grasp at the last minute, ending up to his side. One of her hand slips forward, attempting to deliver a stinging but not really damaging swat at Sven to ensure he hits the ropes; she's seen wrestlers rebound themselves off it before to come in for another strike.
She's kind of hoping he does.
Drawing her fist back, Tabitha holds the position for several instants, her entire body tensing. She waits for Sven to either rebound or turn - and then her built-up strength explodes outward all at once, driving her fist forward in a single mighty blow directly toward his torso. The force of the impact, if she connects, is sufficient to cause a blast of air radiating outward, like a harmless shockwave; it's enough to tug at her hair, though, and demonstrate the sheer power of her single strike.
COMBATSYS: Sven blocks Tabitha's Impact Knuckle.
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Tabitha 0/-------/--=====|======-\-------\0 Sven
Lightweight or not, she hit hard.
As his grips catch nothing in their net but a swift slap, Sven doesn't lose his balance. Sven was fast, but the boxer was faster. The lighting fast bruiser decides that it was time to bring out the big guns. As she draws her fist back, Sven himself unclasps the wolfpelt cloak. Tossing it aside, he throws his head back, and unleashes a howl.
"AROOOOOOOOO!!!"
And he catches the body blow in both hands.
"THE NIGHT OF THE WARWOLF HAS BEGUN!" Was the snarl as he stops the fist cold. The wrestler's body groans on the impact, the blast of energy blazing over his massive form. Sven's body tenses up, the spirit of the Warwolf flowing into him as he falls into a berserker frenzy. Releasing the fist, he draws back both of his arms.
And he lunges in again.
Blazing forward in crack neck speeds, he is upon Tabitha, attempting to scoop her up. Should he manage to get his grips on her this time, he will pick her up, and spin her around his torso as he keeps himself standing tall. A tilt-a-whirl motion, which only serves as a warning of what comes next. Should he keep that grip, he would then keep with the forward momentum to fall on one knee, and lift her high up before him. And there, he would smash her across his knee into a backbreaker.
And let her roll away.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Sven's World Wolf III.
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Tabitha 0/-------/-======|======-\-------\0 Sven
Tabitha is not used to having some of her most practiced techniques stopped dead - oh, it's happened, but it doesn't happen often. She's pretty good at battering her way through people's guards, after all. She's started to make her opening; now she just has to figure out how to capitalize while dealing with a berserking wrestler.
So, you know, just another day at a championship belt competition.
"Night of the warwolf? Is that what we're calling it?" Tabitha tilts her head left, then sharply right, stretching it out. She bounces on her feet, staying mobile, because he's going to come in right about - now -
There's no way Tabitha can see to completely avoid the assault. She doesn't even try, settling for withstanding it instead, dealing with each portion of the WORLD WOLF III as it comes. Sven gets ahold of her, but Tabitha manages to squirm partially free, making the grip difficult to hold and rotating herself. He comes down, slamming her in a backbreaker, but Tabitha is prepared and braced for it, and has managed to turn herself more or less the right way.
When she rolls away, her back is not broken. She's bruised, but still upright. "Is that the best you've got?" Tabitha bounces from foot to foot again, as if to prove how mostly intact she still is, and then darts in. Her attacks are not especially powerful individually, but there's a lot of them; she actually delivers a reasonably fast three-hit jab combo with her left hand before her right snaps in, trying to continue to wear Sven down.
COMBATSYS: Sven interrupts Rapid Combo from Tabitha with Wolfensteiner.
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Tabitha 1/------=/=======|======-\-------\0 Sven
The fact was, Sven had a lot in his package.
He was fast, he was strong, and he was tough. And while Sven was berserking, all three were being poured out in unison. And yet, as blood continued to seep underneath his mask, it was clear that he was still a man. And from the bruises darkening on his arms, and the swelling on his hands, it was clear that for all his tough guy act, Tabitha was seriously dealing the hurt on him.
And for a moment, was also stopping the hurt from coming back.
Sven's legendary World Wolf III backbreaker is botched badly by Tabitha's meddling. The spin actually has to stop, and Sven has to turn HIS body around to steady himself up. By the time the backbreaker comes, it is a flop, as he lets Tabitha roll away. The wrestling fans and the boxers all share in dull ennui, unmoved by one of Sven's flashiest moves coming outcold. "GRAAAGH!" Sven snarls as he rises back up. As Tabitha bounces from leg to leg, he just keeps that arrogant saunter towards the boxer. And as she darts in to unleash the skirmishering combo to wear him down, Sven has none of that. He just front-flips forward.
And locks his thighs right around Tabitha's neck.
The wrestling fans get a good idea of what is coming, and begin to roar in cheers. The boxing fans, however, are a bit slower. But they soon understand, as Sven catches Tabitha into his signature move, a frankensteiner. Using the counter-weight momentum, he flips backwards, legs still clamped around Tabitha's neck as he smashes her, face first, right to the mat. Sven continues to roll, keeping his grips on her neck. As he finally reaches upon his back, he releases his thighs, and with a great push, launches Tabitha away towards the corner post. And as he rises back up into a stand, he unleashes a deep howl.
"AROOOOO!"
Oh, the boxing crowd knows. They're just not happy about it.
Of course, the fans that just came because a belt competition (even a rookie belt) is fairly big news and to see an interesting fight are cheering. But they'll cheer almost anything as long as it looks cool.
Tabitha finds herself picked up and then slammed into the mat with great force. She feels her face impact first, and though she's /pretty/ sure she has not just completely broken her nose, it is still pretty damn sore through the rest of the roll, rebounding off the corner post.
It looks for a moment like Tabitha is going to fall. Her lip is split and she appears to have gotten a cut on her forehead from the turnbuckle; she wavers as she turns, but then her focus resolidifies. She remains upright, though no longer grinning. Now it's all business. She can still win, though; she's not out of this yet. She hopes.
Tabitha takes a defensive posture. He's /definitely/ starting to wear down, she thinks, looking at him. All she has to do is keep outlasting him (or, part of her mind points out, outlast him at all; she's not doing that well on that front). She attacks only left-handed, keeping her stronger right hand for defense.
COMBATSYS: Sven endures Tabitha's Guard Knuckle.
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Tabitha 1/-----==/=======|=======\-------\1 Sven
Sven seems almost unstoppable.
As the howl dies down, he turns to look at the woman who had refused to go down. She was getting pretty cut; Sven was being pretty extreme with her. But he was on his Warwolf rampage. Every blow had to count now. Staring into the grinning face of the boxer, the wolfman mask's expression is unchanged. But the snarl in impossible to miss. As she comes roaring in, Sven Maesters charges in as well. Left jabs come out, as Sven attempts to just force his way through the body blows. Arms out, he attempts to grab the woman by her right hand. And should he get the grip again, he would hurl her towards the ropes. And for a moment, it would look like he would set up a followup blow.
But like that, the wind comes out of his sails.
A surge of exhaustion hits him like a truck. The berserker fury finally loses its adrenaline, and the crash comes hard. The follow up blow is gone; Sven would not hurl out a punch, or a drop kick. He gasps for air from under his mask, as he falls to one knee. For a moment, he was weak; Tabitha would have her opening.
Dawn rises on the Night of the Warwolf.
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Sven's Quick Throw.
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Tabitha 1/----===/=======|=======\-------\1 Sven
Tabitha looks determined more than anything else at this point. With her face bloody and her arms bruised, she's - well, Tabitha has always taken this battle seriously, but now she's giving Sven every iota of her attention.
The crowd is there, making noise, but she puts it out of her mind. Even the one person in the crowd who is there just for her - he's family, but Tabitha can't spare any time for him right now. Her world narrows down to just herself and Sven and the ring, and it's glorious. She rarely feels so alive.
"COME ON!" she yells, suddenly, as Sven comes in. She gets thrown, and expects a follow-up; she twists en route to the ropes, hitting them with her back rather than wildly slamming into them. But there is no follow-up. That fit of mad energy has finally left him.
Tabitha takes advantage of it. She balls her fist, and energy flows into it, streams of colour pouring into her clenched hand. The coruscating aurora surrounds her fist like a shell as she charges, trailing little sparks of rainbow light as she draws upon her own last-ditch reserves.
Tabitha strikes. There is a sudden scintillating explosion of colour, an aurora-like haze and a sensation of bitter winter chill - and, of course, Tabitha's own right hook powering it all as she smashes all her power into a single blow.
COMBATSYS: Sven blocks Tabitha's Aurora Knuckle.
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Tabitha 0/-------/----===|=======\==-----\1 Sven
It was a matter of win or lose.
Sven Maesters had pushed himself too far. The Swede was struggling to stand, to focus. He had momentum in his corner, and perhaps, momentum was all that he had. His opponent was more determined than him; Sven had some spirit, but not the burning spirit of his opponent. But he had one thing that she did not have. And in a pinch, that is what allows him to bring up that arm as that explosive punch comes.
Rage.
Fury fills his heart as he manages to make a stand in the face of sheer power. The explosion of lights and the bracing cold flow over Sven as his left arm catches the fist. There is a crunching sound, as the massive swede's arm cracks on impact. Ice frosts his naked chest as the energy flows overhim unblocked, the force consuming him. And yet, Sven is not just standing: He is rising. And the massive wrestler, from behind that bloodied mask, stares hard into the smaller woman.
"You want me come?"
That is the lucid answer from the Swede as Sven Maesters throws back his right arm. "Then let me come!" He roars as he steps into the boxer. There is no throw this time, no grappling, no wrestler. But what comes is a massive chop of his entire arm. Sven Maesters attempts to smash his right arm into Tabitha's neck and shoulder. A dangerous gambit; bringing hand strikes to a boxer, as close to wrestling as it was, was only inviting trouble.
But would it be enough of a mixup to catch her off guard...?
COMBATSYS: Tabitha blocks Sven's Fierce Punch.
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Tabitha 0/-------/---====|=======\===----\1 Sven
Tabitha doesn't use her chi much. It's difficult to hold, hard for her to stabilize - but every so often, at a critical moment, she gets what she needs.
The light fades pretty soon, leaving Tabitha without her fistful of rainbows. It still seems to have energized her, or maybe she's the kind of person who gets more fired up when close to defeat. Or maybe it's a bit of both. Whatever it is, Tabitha is still moving even though she's in pain, forcing herself to keep up the fight.
And Tabitha knows punches.
That isn't quite a punch. It's certainly not one she'd be proud of. But it's something similar, and she sees it coming, recognizes for what it is - and responds. Tabitha's arms must be killing her; she's taken so many hits to them, and yet she takes another, bringing her arms up in an X-like block to absorb the impact of the chop and keep it away from her bruised torso.
If she was anything but a boxer, Tabitha might have kicked after that. It was a good opportunity. She doesn't, though. Instead she drives her head forward, trying to connect with Sven's... well, she's not tall enough to hit him in the forehead, so it's more driving it into his frozen chest, trying to knock him back and away from her with the sheer power of her head.
It's pretty hard.
COMBATSYS: Sven dodges Tabitha's Headbutt.
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Tabitha 0/-------/----===|=======\===----\1 Sven
Frosty.
As the hand chop is comes, Sven growls in frustration as the blow is caught. Both fighters were close now; in spite of Sven's surprise DDT early on securing him steady momentum, he was also gradually becoming ground down. As the counter-headbutt comes, however, the brutish Swede's agility comes to save the day. Sven just shoves off the woman, leaving a cloud of frost behind him as he backflips away in a long arc...
Right for the cornerpost
It becomes obvious what is coming up as he lands on the two ropes that lead to the turnbuckle, a foot on the middle ropes. GRipping the top ropes with both hands, he gives another short hop, this time bringing his feet to the top ropes. With a stretch, and a final bound, he leaps off of the ropes, spinning through the air as he takes his long, bounding moonsault...
And aims to smash his body against the agile boxer, full on.
COMBATSYS: Sven successfully hits Tabitha with Three Wolf Moonsault.
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Tabitha 0/-------/=======|===----\-------\0 Sven
Grinding down is Tabitha's favoured way to deal with an opponent. It's not the fastest, but between her ability to frequently slip out of the way of incoming strikes, her excellent defensive techniques, and her good stamina, she does a pretty good job of holding her own in the long haul.
But even she's starting to falter. She's not flat-out exhausted, but she's definitely getting closer to her limits; Tabitha has shifted into a different breathing pattern to keep herself up and going, and she's still able to fight, but it's not clear for how much longer.
Sven's moonsault strikes home. Tabitha goes down like a ton of bricks, and it seems like that's going to be it for her. In the audience, David groans -
But then Tabitha struggles upright. She doesn't have much more in her, but she has a bit. If she can force herself to keep fighting, then... maybe she still has a chance. She strikes, a single blow, blurringly fast as she puts her entire body behind the motion. So much, in fact, that she drops down to one knee afterwards. Can she keep going??
COMBATSYS: Tabitha can no longer fight.
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Sven 0/-------/----===|
COMBATSYS: Sven blocks Tabitha's Blue Streak.
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Sven 0/-------/---====|
Could she keep going?
That was the danger about Sven's aerial techniques. Not for their victims; whether they fall under the sheer force of the flying leaps or not was not the risky part. The danger was that when Sven hurled himself from those ropes, he often threw himself down upon the mat as well as his opponent. And in that brief time between hitting the mat and coming back up, he was severely open for any number of counter attacks. And when Tabitha comes up faster than he does once again? It was the moment where Tabitha was either gonna surge back up and finish off Sven... or Sven was going to barely make it. As that lightning fast blur comes, the wrestler barely has time to react. The flash of blue comes, and there is a crack. A Swedish Curse come boiling out, as the audience falls silent.
Sven stands on one knee, his left arm up to catch the punch from Tabitha.
The arm was no longer straight. It was bent, and a bit of bone was jutting out; those two punches from the woman had caused a compound fracture. And yet, the Warwolf rises to a stand now. Staring down the boxer through the slits of his mask, he growls. "Time Is To End This!" He roars, as he hurls his right arm in a sweeping motion, attempting to slam Tabitha right to the mat.
And attempting to make the pin on the boxer.
COMBATSYS: Sven takes no action.
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Sven 0/-------/---====|
Tabitha almost remains up.
Almost.
She tries. Her iron willpower forces her to rise at least halfway before the body simply can't keep up with the mind. Then she does sink down, and Sven gets the pin long enough for the bell to ring, as Tabitha is too out of it to object by doing much more than flopping a little bit and then passing out.
Victory goes to the Warwolf!
Sven throws his arms into the air, throwing his head back into a howl.
"AROOOOOO!!!"
Log created on 19:55:11 02/26/2015 by Tabitha, and last modified on 09:35:24 02/27/2015.