The Haunting Of Excalibur

Overview

The Haunting Of Excalibur is a side story I started with myself. My characters are the only ones involved, and it's honestly more of me just explaining why I was missing from the rp for five in-game days. And I'm having a blast with it. But there's a chance I'm not gonna finish it before some of you end up leaving. So instead of leaving you on a cliffhanger, I'll write everything down in here, too! Now, you'll have to forgive me if you read this more than once and find there's been changes. My lore almost never stays settled in one spot, that's why I haven't ever written anything down before this. I always end up changing things. But either way, this page will serve as a description of the events of those five days, as well as bonus material, where Bane took Kaitlyn while I was on break and we were waiting for the Great Conquerer's final battle to roll around.

Day 1

Day one starts with Kaitlyn and Clara entering the hotel room in Excalibur and promptly getting locked in. When Kaitlyn makes a dive for the door, it ends up burning her and sending the two of them into a near panic as Bane suddenly appears behind them. Bane tells them they're going to play a game and teleports the two of them to a random location on Earth. The goal of the game is to figure out where you are and tell Bane. The duo found their attempts interrupted by time freezing and the inability to speak. It was quite annoying. It was very difficult for them to communicate while they were being chased by The Man and The Beast, a silent duo with one glowing eye each. Over the course of the day they met another victim on Bane's, Khadija. Khadija is a young, blue-haired lady, who was accidentally causing the time freezing. Her magic was out of control and it was incredibly painful to her. Clara leant her some healing, though it didn't do much to stop the constant pain. Bane managed to snatch Khadija away from the two of them after they pulled some cheap shots against him. By the end of the day, Kaitlyn and Clara had encontered enough creepy crawlies (and a certain jebus statue) to figure out they were in Rio, Brazil.

When Bane took them back to the hotel room while he picked they're next location, Kaitlyn tried to lay down on her bed. Unfortunaley, Bane had other ideas and swiftly pulled that bed out from under her via targeted portal. Clara tries the door one more time, finds it still locked, but no longer burning, and then Bane pulls the two of them into another portal.

Day 2

Kaitlyn and Clara find themsleves stranded in a ghost town. Literally. Bane switched the perspectives around and made it so Kaitlyn and Clara could see the ghosts, but the ghosts could not see them. Through much frustration and anger, Kaitlyn leaves the town, climbing out of the crater it seems to be located in, and starts to make her way towards the next nearest city, hoping to find someone who can tell her where she is. She doesn't even get halfway, however, when Bane begins to taunt her. Eventually, Bane gives Kaitlyn a hint, that they were in Africa, and she runs back to the town at top speed, having left Clara there hours before. Now, back in town, Clara had been following a pair of ghosts who were chatting about growing up in this town. Eventually, she discovers that she can still effect the world around her, so even if she couldn't be seen or heard by the ghosts, she could write words in the dirt and the ghosts could see it. Using this method, Clara learned that they were in a small town called Vredefort. If that name sounds familiar to you, it should! This is the small town that the old Qara plot took place in. This is where Riptide gathered his army of twins and awaited the day he could return to Qara. Once Kaitlyn and Clara reunited, they shared the information they had each gathered and came to the conclusion that they were in Vredefort, South Africa.

With a swirling portal, they were back in the hotel room once more! Kaitlyn make a move for the door, gets burned again, but keeps banging on it anyway. Unfortunately, the door is magically sound proofed and no one outside can hear a thing they're saying. I left them off here, with Kaitlyn yelling angrily at Bane, even though he is melded with the shadows and cannot be seen.

Day 3

Now, here we get into a bit of spoilers, seeing as how I haven't actually done this bit yet. I still plan on finishing this side story, but life happens. I might not be able to rp this whole one out, so here's what's gonna happen in the last three days.

Rubble. That is all the duo can see around them when they arrive. But it's old, the dust has settled. This is not fresh destruction, it happened months ago. It just hasn't been repaired yet. Not this part, at least. A little wandering around and the girls find themselves in a city being rebuilt. Something big hit this city like a hurricane and everyone around knows about magic. The whole city is magic-aware. And magic-cautious. They are not huge fans of magic users, seeing as how they blame their beautiful city's destruction on a godly being and her powerful magic. That's why this city's Alley Cat has been staying on the downlow. That, and because it was grievously injured during the attack and still hasn't fully recovered. The duo will encounter the injured Alley Cat at some point in the day, and it will tell them all about what happened to the place. Meanwhile, the whole city is still under the effects of magic, and nobody even knows about it! This strange magic hovering over the city? Time freezing! Khadija's back! And we get to learn a little more about her! She's been under Bane's thumb for the longest out of anyone. She's the only victim he's kept around instead of killing off. Mysterious, I know. You'll find out why on Day 5, but *spoilers!* While this day's events are not fully fleshed out yet, I do know *where* they are. And soon enough, they can figure out where they are, too. Paris, France. The Eiffel Tower is still under reconstruction, from the devastating blow an angry Delvad dealt on one of her bad days. Yeah, that attack on Paris from forever ago? They still haven't recovered. There was a lot of damage. And I mean *a lot.* That's why it takes all day for Kaitlyn and Clara to figure out where they are. The city is near unrecognizable from all the damage Delvad did. Eventually, they figure out where they are, and Bane takes them back to the hotel room.

Back in the hotel room, again, they've given up on the door. They know it's not gonna open. They know no one outside is gonna hear them calling and banging. So they try to make a deal with Bane. Try to find a way to trick him into letting them go. Unfortunately, they are unsuccessful, and are instead sent off to their next location!

Day 4

Day four is not entirely fleshed out, either, but I do know that they are going to encounter a strange amount of cats here... I wonder why... oh. Maybe because the girls have found themselves in the center of the Alley Cats' headquarters! But of course, they haven't the slightest clue just *where* that even is! One step outside would reveal that they're in a desert, and one look upwards would reveal that they are in the Sphynx! With some simple logic, one could then determine that they were in Giza, Egypt, the location of the Sphynx. Problem is, they have to get *outside* in order to come to these conclusions. Which means they'd have to fight their way through the red tape of the Alley Cats, meeting their leader and discovering the secrets of the Alley Cats, when all they really want to do is go home. In exchange for telling the Ally Cats' leader that Chase is already dead (for context, go read the Alley Cats page), she lets them go. It doesn't take long after that for the duo to figure out where they are, in Giza, Egypt.

Taken back to the hotel, the two feel down in the dumps, depressed over their new lot in life. They only spent like half a day in Giza, so the rest of the day is spent back in the hotel room, in silence, with one or both of them crying. Any attempt to fall asleep, however, is always thwarted by Bane, though that is all he does. He does not even taunt them for the rest of the day, he just lets them simmer in their silence and their sadness.

Day 5

Finally, the last day, but they don't know that. For them, it's just time to accept that this is their life now. They cannot escape Bane's games, no matter how hard they try, and so they finally give in and accept it. Unfortunately, this is boring to Bane. So he dumps Kailtyn straight into the ocean and Clara into a pile of dirt on a random island. Eventually, the two find their way back together, but they have given up. Which bored Bane even more. So he brings Khadija back to try and spice things up a bit more. But Kaitlyn and Clara are far too exhausted to fight or to be entertaining to Bane, so he ends up revealing some secrets to them. Just trying to stir the pot, he tells them the truth behind Khadija and why he's kept her around so long. Truth is, he has no choice. For she is not his victim, she is his creation. Much like Cynthia and Cyrus, Bane tried to create a whole new being. For Cynthia, it was a necessity to try and save her life, whereas for Bane, it was a desperate attempt to be able to turn back time. He wanted to make someone who could travel into the past and save him from ever becoming the god he is today. Khadija was that somone, except she can't actually turn back time. She can only freeze it.

So why exactly does Bane want to change the past? Why doesn't he want to be a god? What *does* he want? He wants to be normal. He just wanted a normal life, but fate had different ideas. Before Bane was Bane, he was Tristan. Yes, *that* Tristan. Toya's old boyfriend from forever ago. The one that broke up with her because she stopped aging. (You can read more about him on the Salvation (Savvy) page.) Except that's not entirely true either. You see, Bane was Tristan, but Tristan was actually Chase. The artificial Immortal Soul took over Tristan's body when he was a small child, and trapped his soul within it. But when Chase found out that Megan was the one who used magic on Toya, and that Toya had killed her for it, he raged. He knew Megan was Crimson and that he had gotten so close, but she had escaped him yet again. In a blind rage, his control slipped, and the soul of Tristan was able to escape. This soul fled, ran for his life, but was captured by SONG and accidentally turned into a god. With his new powers out of control, Tristan, now Bane, fled again. He ran from SONG and never looked back. But what he always wanted was a normal life. He wanted to turn back time and stop Chase from ever taking his body. You see, Bane wants revenge on Chase as well. Imagine his surprise when he finds out Kaitlyn killed the guy forever ago! Almost as much of a shock as it was to the Alley Cats! With this new revelation come to light, Bane isn't sure what he wants to do going forward.

He takes Kaitlyn and Clara back to the hotel to have a civil discussion, but gets rudely interrupted by someone finally opening the room's door. From the outside. Finally, the duo's friends had come looking for them. Finally, they were freed from Bane's control. Bane wasn't ready to give them up yet, though, so he opens a portal and tries to suck them through. But he is too late, the room's door is opened before the portal can suck the two through. This is where we rejoined the present timeline and saw the aftereffects it had on the duo, with their suppressed memories and all that.

Khadija

Later, Bane yoinks Kailtyn through a portal to solve the Khadija problem, because he wants to free her, but he doesn't know how. Honestly, I have no idea what they end up doing. Because it's all off screen and I don't plan on revisiting Khadija and Bane after this. This is me solving my own problem so that I don't have to deal with it later. It's the same thing I did with Solace and Sorrow. So sorry for the cliffhanger, but you may choose to believe whatever you'd like. You can think it was a happy ending, or you can live the pessimistic life and say Khadija's dead. It's up to you, I don't care.