Episode 3 part 3
Weight of Names, Weight of Lives
[Team Banana – Left Tunnel: “For those who dare not fall”]
A pit yawns before them, bottomless, dark and hungering.
A frayed rope stretches across the void, swaying in the dungeon's unseen breath. A simple mechanism: one rope, one way across. But a metal plaque nailed into the stone reads:
>One rope, three chances. Choose your turn. Trust your weight.
Each member enters their choice privately- no words, just silent gazes.
The wind howled through the tunnel, carrying the sound of distant whispers. The rope creaked, untouched.
MangaGrumpy clenched his fists. "Someone’s gotta go. Ain’t gonna be me first, though."
Droid96 mechanical eyes flickered with calculations. "FACT: Probability of structural failure increases with hesitation. Yet… hesitation persists."
Corne, massive and imposing, shifted his weight. His voice was a low growl. "We don't got all day. But I am not rushing to my death."
Another beat of silence.
MangaGrumpy exhaled sharply, rolling his shoulders. "Fine. Guess I’ll be the damn guinea pig."
His hands gripped the rope. The fibers bit into his palms. Every muscle in his cartoonish body tensed as he swung forward, legs dangling over the abyss.
"Easy… easy…" he muttered, sweat beading on his brow.
Halfway across, the rope trembled.
MangaGrumpy froze. His breath hitched.
A single thread snapped.
"Shit. Shit, shi-" He forced himself forward, teeth gritted. "Just a little more…"
With a final, desperate lunge, he reached the other side. His knees hit solid ground. He gasped, pressing his forehead against the cold stone.
"...Holy hell. I made it."
But there was no time to celebrate.
Droid96 whirred, stepping forward. "Calculations suggest simultaneous crossing is unwise. However, time is a factor."
Corne grunted, already moving. "Yeah, yeah. I'm not waiting around."
The moment Corne’s full weight settled, the rope groaned---a deep, shuddering sound.
Droid96’s mechanical voice crackled. "Warning. Load capacity exceeded"
Corne turned, eyes widening as he saw Droid96 behind him.
"Wait---you idiot, get OFF----!"
CRACK.
The rope split like a gunshot.
Corne’s shout was cut short as gravity took him. His massive form plummeted, claws scraping uselessly against the stone.
Droid96’s arms flailed, his voice glitching. "This data--- does not-- compute---"
And then, silence.
Only the echoes of their fall remained.
MangaGrumpy stared at the broken rope, swaying like a dead thing. His hands shook. His breath came in ragged bursts.
For a long moment, he didn’t move. Didn’t speak.
Then, softly, voice cracking:
"...You dumbasses."
A pause. A shuddering inhale.
"You shoulda waited."
[Two gone. One survives.]
[Team Better Banana – Right Tunnel: “For those whose names bear weight”]
The door stands tall. Carved into it is a simple question, yet it echoes like a challenge etched into their bones:
>“Who among you is most worthy?”
They stare at one another.
A silence heavier than the dungeon’s depths settled over them.
Penguin, ever the first to break tension, puffed out his tiny chest, adjusting his crooked wizard hat with a flourish. "Well, obviously me. I’m the wisest, the most cunning, the--"
Fujiya cut him off with a glare sharp enough to flay skin. "You can’t vote for yourself. That’s not how this works."
Penguin blinked, then scribbled his vote defiantly "Penguin."
Fujiya’s fingers twitched toward the knife at her belt. "You idiot--"
Penguin scared, "hold on hold on, I vote for 178bpm"
178bpm usually so steady, so calm swallowed hard. His hands shook as he lifted the chalk. He glanced at Penguin, then Fujiya, then back at Penguin.
"I… I’m sorry," he whispered, and wrote: Penguin.
Fujiya’s jaw tightened. She didn’t hesitate. Her chalk scraped against the stone: 178bpm.
The door rumbled, its surface shifting like living rock. A grotesque face emerged, lips peeling back in a grin of jagged teeth.
>"178bpm… has been chosen."
178bpm’s breath hitched. He stepped forward, his boots scuffing against the dust of a hundred forgotten challengers.
The door’s eyes ignited, twin embers in the dark.
>"Riddle me this"
>"I walk on four legs in the morning, two at noon, three in the evening. What am I?"
178bpm closed his eyes. He knew this. Knew it like his own name.
"A human," he said, voice steady.
A beat. A terrible, endless silence.
Then---
Click.
The door slid open with a whisper. The ground behind the door start breaking..
Penguin whooped, waddling forward with a triumphant flap of his flippers. "Ha! See? I told you I was the brains of this--"
Fujiya moved.
One second, Penguin was celebrating. The next, her hands were on him--shoving him back with brutal, calculated force.
"W-WAIT--" Penguin’s voice cracked as the ground below him vanished, his tiny claws scrambling at empty air.
Then-- fujiya let go, Penguin fall into the empty void.
No scream. No final curse. Just the fading rustle of his robes, the distant tap of his little hat bouncing off unseen rocks below.
178bpm screamed. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?!"
Fujiya didn’t even look at the abyss. Didn’t flinch. She just wiped her hands on her coat, cold as winter iron.
"He voted for himself," she said, voice flat. "And you voted for him. That was too close. Next time, we might not be lucky."
178bpm’s hands balled into fists. His voice trembled with rage, with grief. "You don’t just--just kill someone for that!"
Fujiya finally turned her gaze on him. Her eyes were dead. "I ensured we survive the next round."
178bpm wanted to scream. To hit her. To undo this.
But the door stood open. The dungeon waited.
And so he walked through.
Fujiya followed.
Behind them, the age darkened, as if the very stones were swallowing Penguin’s memory.
One team, down two .
The other tainted by blood.
[Survivors]
Team Banana: MangaGrumpy
Team Better Banana: Fujiya, 178bpm
------------------------
The tunnel spat them out into a vast, cavernous chamber. A hollowed-out heart of stone, its walls throbbing with the faint, rhythmic glow of dying embers. Three path bled into one.
And there, across the expanse-- the survivors.
MangaGrumpy staggered to a halt, his breath ragged. His eyes locked onto the others, 178bpm, pale and trembling, and Fujiya, standing like a blade still wet with blood.
"Whoa…" His voice was rough, scraped raw from the dark. "You guys made it out too?"
178bpm didn’t meet his gaze. "...Mostly."
A beat. A silence too heavy to lift.
MangaGrumpy’s gut twisted. His eyes darted between them. "Where’s Penguin?"
178bpm flinched. Fujiya didn’t blink.
The air turned to ice.
178bpm’s voice was a whisper. "He didn’t make it."
MangaGrumpy’s fists clenched. He looked at Fujiya--really looked at her. At the dried blood under her nails. The hollow indifference in her stare.
"You mean…" His voice dropped to a snarl. "He wasn’t allowed to."
Fujiya exhaled through her nose, unbothered. "He would’ve gotten us all killed. I did what had to be done."
MangaGrumpy lunged forward--stopped only by 178bpm’s arm snapping out to block him. "You always act like you’re two steps ahead," he spat, "but you left a trail of blood behind you. That make you smart or just scared?"
Fujiya’s said "Smart enough to survive."
178bpm’s voice cracked. "...We’re all monsters now."
The chamber swallowed the words whole.
The path ahead yawned wider, leading them to a towering monolith of black stone. Ancient glyphs scarred its surface, their edges glowing faintly like embers stirred awake by their presence.
As they stepped closer, the carvings moved.
Figures writhed across the stone, a kingdom in ruins, a grieving king, a dungeon built not for treasure, but for answers.
Fujiya’s fingers traced the words as they burned to life.
"This dungeon was once a refuge," she read aloud, her voice echoing like a funeral bell. "A last resort for a broken kingdom. Its king, wracked with grief after losing his child to war, built it as a place to test the worth of those who sought the truth. Not riches, not power… but truth."
178bpm’s breath hitched. "There’s more…"
The wall showed them visions teams tearing themselves apart, friends turning blades on each other, the moment of choice between sacrifice and slaughter.
One final inscription flared crimson:
>"Only one may into the Heart. Only one may learn the full truth. Only one may leave."
MangaGrumpy let out a bitter, broken laugh. "Great. We get here, just to find out it was never our story."
His voice dropped to a whisper. "We were… experiments."
Fujiya’s eyes burned. "Not experiments. We were the answer."
178bpm stared at the wall, his reflection warped in the shifting stone. "Then what does it mean that we’re the only ones left?"
Fujiya didn’t hesitate. "It means one of us must finish it."
The door ahead groaned open, a wet, organic sound, like flesh peeling from bone.
Beyond it, the Heart Room pulsed.
Warm, red light throbbed from the walls, rhythmic as a heartbeat. In the center stood a single pedestal, and before it--three pressure plates.
A voice echoed-- not mechanical, not human. Alive.
>"Welcome to the Heart."
The words slithered into their skulls.
>"Three minds enter. One truth remains. Step forward, and choose."
>"If none choose, all shall perish."
>"If all choose, none shall leave."
MangaGrumpy’s lips peeled back in a snarl. "This again. More choosing. More dying. I’ve had it."
Fujiya’s fingers flexed. "There’s no trick here. Just the final consequence."
178bpm’s voice was hollow. "...So we choose who gets to know? Who gets to leave? After all this?"
The three of them stood there-- battered, bleeding, changed.
The plates waited.
The dungeon held its breath.
Options:
1. MangaGrumpy steps forward.
"If someone’s gotta carry the guilt… might as well be me."
2. Fujiya steps forward.
"I did what I had to. I deserve to see the end."
3. 178bpm steps forward.
"I never wanted to survive like this… but maybe I need to understand why."
4. All three step forward.
"We decide together. Even if it kills us."
5. None step forward.
"We reject the game. If that means death… so be it."
6. Dont step forward.
"Your character will not step forward onto the plate"
[Feel free to discuss it here, the top 3 options you can only choose for your character only. and if you dont want to step forward you can just say option 0. example- If Fujiya chose option 2, and you two chose option 0. we begin with fujiya ending.]