Training Ground
February 22nd, 9:33am
The Player and Squigly sat together underneath a tree by the creek while watching Filia undergo her swordsmanship training by Samson, using, of course, those special swords he bestowed her a little while ago.
Squigly had a few bandages on her body and a little bruised, her right arm was in an arm sling, showing that she was still healing from her Black Dahlia hallucinations that occurred just 5 days prior.
Her injuries had seen a steady recovery, but of course there was still a ways to go. She couldn't train with her friends, nor could she do much on her own and relied on the Player and Filia's help to get her through most of the day, however none of these trials stopped her from coming out to see the two improve, she even acted as a mentor for Filia in certain fields of self defense.
Not only that but Squigly was still the most skilled fighter of their little group so there was no real harm in missing a few days.
Leviathan's recovery on the other hand was much quicker than his hosts, the burns he suffered had healed over the course of a two day rest and he was better for it. Like the Player and Filia he often assisted Squigly with whatever needed to be done…unfortunately the ones in charge didn't know how to cook so breakfast, lunch and dinner was often bad when homemade. Luckily instant ramen, pizza and takeout served as a good enough substitute for the group.
"Hm. You know it never occurred to me before, but why haven't we gotten your stitches removed yet?" The Player asked Squigly as they sat together, to which Squigly nor Leviathan comments on, just looking at him with casual looks.
Meanwhile Filia was busy trying to properly adjust to using one of her swords as dual wielding was too complex for her. With one of the swords planted in the ground she focused on single-handed combat with a lone target: the tree just as ahead of her.
"Alright, so…right foot forward-" Filia goes to extend her right leg.
"No!" Samson brashly interrupts. "You're right-handed, you stick out the left foot."
"Y-Yeah, of course." Filia quickly readjusts herself and extends the proper footing to fit her handedness. "Left foot forward. Both knees bent…"
"Noooooooo!" Samson groaned, apparently losing his patience.
Hearing him made Filia flinch out of her stance. "What now?" She asked timidly.
"How many times have we been over this? You don't bend both knees like that; you extend your left foot forward, a single step OUT, and you sink into it. If you bend too much you'll never have time to properly maneuver around your opponent once they strike."
Filia closed both eyes, a tiny bead of sweat visible on the side of her cheek as she groaned softly. "Now I remember…" She was lying, she just wanted him to stop being so strict.
"And what's this?" The Parasite continued. "What did I say about putting your weight on your heels? Are you trying to stumble back and die? If you do that you're out of balance and you can't move your legs as easily."
"I thought it was going to make it easier to back off in case they suddenly rush me. Um, should I lean forward instead?" Filia goes from leaning too far back to going too far forward.
Samson facepalms himself with his tendril and drags it down his face. "You're too far out. That puts too much stress on your knee and you're likely to injure yourself. You find a BALANCE and don't be stupid about it."
"This is so complicated!" Filia drops the sword and falls to her knees, throwing a rather adorable fit. "The stance doesn't even feel natural."
"Get up!" Samson demands. "We've got a few more hours to go!"
"I don't wanna!" Filia debates like a rebellious child.
"Filia, get up!"
"No!" She proceeded to cross her arms, directing her head upward.
"Wha-?! I said get up!" Samson elevated his tone like a daunting dad, he was initially surprised Filia declined him.
"No! Not until you start being nicer to me."
"Like hell I'm gonna do that!"
The Player, Squigly and Leviathan watch the two argue, admittedly amused, but they were clearly not getting anywhere with this and it was becoming painful to watch.
"Poor Filia." Leviathan laments for the young girl. "Out of all Parasites to have why did she have to get paired up with that Buffon?"
"Surely he can't be all bad, Leviathan." Squigly said.
"Mmm…" Both Leviathan and the Player express their opposing opinions with a grimace. 'Squigly, how naïve.' The boys thought to themselves, unaware they were thinking the same exact thing.
The Player stands up and stretches his arms out. "He needs to take it easy. Filia is new to this kind of thing so it'll take some time for her to adjust, right? It's not fair to constantly compare her to his old host, who was most likely some kind of fierce warrior. Right?"
"I don't remember much of Delilah's achievements, but I do know that Samson was quite fond of her." Leviathan replied. "And you're right of course, she was far more skilled than miss Filia, but that was because she had years' worth of experience."
"Wait, wait, wait. Samson actually LIKED someone?" The Player was genuinely surprised to hear this, up until now Samson seemed like he hated everyone, but knowing this put the brash Parasite into a new perspective. "Wow. I never would've guessed."
"What did you two think I meant when I said 'he can't be all that bad'?" Squigly was on the verge of rolling her eyes at them for failing to realize what she originally meant. "I'm sure he has his reasons for being so…so…"
"Vulgar?" Leviathan threw in a word to help Squigly find the one she was looking for.
"Douchey?" The Player even tried it.
"No." Squigly declined with a sigh, at this point she wasn't even surprised in their choice of words. "He's overprotective. He just has a different way of showing it. I'm almost certain he's doing this so Filia will never get hurt. He lost the host he cared for the most, I bet he doesn't want to go through that again. Filia isn't like that other woman, that's why he's pushing her so hard. He wants her to be ready."
When putting it like that the Player was actually beginning to sympathize for Samson, and maybe Squigly was right — maybe, just maybe, underneath that arrogant and uncivil shell was a hurt soul wanting redemption for the one he lost.
Squigly reaches out and grabs the Player sleeve in an attempt to pull herself up, albeit with a bit of trouble.
After seeing her struggle to get up, thanks to her injuries, the Player immediately gives Squigly a helping hand and helps her up on her feet. "Whoa, hey, don't push yourself." The Player was still very caring as Squigly's aid, almost to the point where he didn't want her to try moving on her own at all. It could be a bit overwhelming, but his patience with her condition often charmed the singer to the point of not noticing it.
"I'm fine." She assures him with a warm smile, showing that she was grateful for his assistance. "Don't worry about me, why not make amends with Samson?"
"Amends?"
"Yeah. You two are always at each other's throats so why not break the mold? Show him that he's not the only one who wants to protect Filia. We all do."
The Player doesn't say anything, instead he just looks over to see Filia giving in to Samson's demands and getting back into her training with sword in hand.
Although Samson and himself haven't seen eye-to-eye since they met it didn't change that they were partners, showing some form of camaraderie couldn't hurt.
"…What do you think, Leviathan?" He asked.
"I supposed you could give it a shot. Who knows, something good may come out of it."
Squigly gently pushes the Player forward. "Go on." She says to him, earning his attention which she provides a bright grin in response to his curious eyes to show that she was being playful.
"Fine. I don't know what good it'll do though." He takes the duo's advice and moves along toward Filia.
The amnesiac continued to struggle with proper sword etiquette, much to the annoyance of her Parasite mentor, but she kept going in an attempt to get it right.
Ignoring the stance Filia moves onto practice swings, which was done in a wild and unprofessional manner. Seeing this the Player made sure to keep his distance until she stopped.
"Um, yo." He greets the two to get their attention.
Filia noticed him and put her practice on hold. "Oh, hey. You need something?"
"We're busy, ass-bite." Samson dismissed him, using his tendrils to guide Filia's attention away from him by manually facing her forward.
The Player's nerve was pinched ever so slightly and it was enough to get him ready to start a war of insults, but with what little patience he had he turned to face Squigly and Leviathan who gesture their hands/tail to coach his temper, asking him with body language to keep his cool.
Seeing his friends try to emote goodwill the Player inhales and exhales calmly, forcing a smile and inching closer. "So, how's progress going?" He attempted to break the ice once again.
The fact that he was still there made Samson sigh. "What do you think? You've been watching us since we got here."
"…True."
"What do you want?" Samson asked with a deadpan glance, he clearly didn't want to be interrupted.
"I just- Uuuh, y'know, just wondering how you've been."
Filia inclined a brow and turns her head against Samson's tendril. Samson was just as surprised and looks at him as if he was being offered candy from a stranger. "You have?" They both questioned doubtfully.
"Yeah. I guess."
Samson wasn't buying that. "…Do you want money or something?" He asked plainly.
"Money? No, I-"
"Because the only person I'd be willing to give money to is literally anyone else."
The Player drops his shoulders, 'is he serious?' he thought to himself. "No! I don't want any goddamn money. I'm trying to converse with you."
"Why?"
"Why? Do I need a reason to-"
"Yes." Samson interrupted. "We're asses to each other 24/7, now suddenly you want to talk?"
"That's just it, Samson. We're asses to each other 24/7. I want you to know that there's no real issues between us. You're a part of Filia and Filia is a part of me-"
Hearing his words made Filia clasp her hands together and blush. "Aaaaw…" She smiles gleefully with her eyes sparkling.
"Shut up, Filia." Samson casually dismisses Filia, acknowledging her as a minor distraction from the moment at hand.
"-and like it or not, we're all part of each other." The Player continued explaining himself like nothing happened. "I want to know more about who you were before all of this. Who were your previous hosts? Like Delilah. Leviathan told me she was-"
"Let's not talk about Delilah." Samson says sternly. "You don't want to tread on thin ice." He was serious about this and rather touchy when it came to this particular subject, it was clear as day just by looking into his eyes.
Realizing the situation was better left untouched the Player respectfully nods in understanding. "All right, well, how about you?" He moves along to another subject as a means of recovery.
"Me?"
"Yes, you."
"What about me?"
"I want to know more about you."
"What's there to know? I like to kick ass and I'm not particularly fond of you. What more do you need to know?"
"Samson, be nice…" Filia tried to get her Parasite to come around since she saw the Player was actually trying to make an effort with him. "Wait, I know! Why don't you two try syncing?"
"Sync? The Player questioned. "Why would we have to do that? We sync all the time."
"Yes, WE sync all the time, however you've never done it with Samson."
"Wait, I thought you two were a single unit? By syncing with you I sync with Samson, right?"
"I don't know." Filia answered with a shrug. "You tell me."
This was something he didn't have an answer to, by Heart Syncing with Filia he was always under the impression it automatically went straight to Samson as well, ergo lack of bonding with the Parasite because Filia served as the proxy host, or so he thought.
"Huh. I…I don't know. I'll have to ask Marie about that later."
"You don't need to ask Marie." Filia assured. "Just try it now. It can't be hard. You two are friends…in your own unique way, so just give it a try."
"Filia, you're just trying to talk your way out of learning to use a sword." Samson's comment made Filia's eyes go wide for a second, she proceeds to smirk mischievously but remains quiet, leaving the topic for the boys to discuss. Samson diverts his attention from his host to the Player, who looks back at him and casually shrugs.
"It would save us an unnecessary Skullgirl cameo." The Player comments.
Marie was now standing beside the Player and Filia. "Too late." She says while void of emotion, which caught everyone's attention.
"J-JESUS!" The Player jumps in fear.
"AH!" Filia yelped in a high pitch.
"Holy shit!" Even Samson wasn't expecting her sudden appearance.
Off in the distance Squigly wiped her eye into her forearm to make sure she was seeing right and, yep, that was Marie. "…I…didn't even sense her presence." She says in disbelief.
"Nor…did…I?" Leviathan was just as lost as everyone else, shocked even.
Marie was dressed in formal winter attire: a nice double breasted coat over whatever she was wearing underneath, it covered her body down to her knees which apparently shows her white stockings and black shoes. She wore her hair down, which reached her back in length, but her eyes retained the iconic red glow with the Skull shaped pupils.
The young Skullgirl was able to suppress the blue energy emitting from her backside enough to make it less apparent, but the back of her coat was still glowing that faint shade of blue.
"Marie…what are you doing here?!" The Player asked with his hand over his chest.
"It doesn't matter. You had a question regarding Heart Synchronization, yes?"
"…Y-Yeah, I suppose. But you didn't have to come all the way out here for that. We were going to try it out for ourselves."
"That wouldn't explain how it works. Would it?" She inquired.
The Player looks over to Filia/Samson and then back to the Skullgirl. Puzzled beyond words, and at a general loss — not even knowing how to approach the situation, he just hesitantly raised his shoulders. "I…guess?"
"Exactly. Now, as the Player of our universe you have the power to not only bring out the power between host and their Parasites, but also the Parasite itself."
"Annnnd how does that work?"
"Are you familiar with Theonite?" Marie asked.
"Theon- ...No, I don't believe so. What's that?"
Marie held out her hand and created a small blue ember in her palm. "Theonite is a special force in our world. There are only a few that possess it: Parasites, the Skull Heart, Skullgirl, Living Weapons and yourself. The history of Theonite dates back long before I was born so I cannot properly explain the lore, however I am knowledgeable of how it works. When you connect with Filia you empower her with Theonite, as well as her Parasite. That's why you often see it take larger forms that are otherwise impossible to achieve."
"Seriously? Oh!" He goes on to hammer his fist down into his palm as if he just solved a case. "Wait, so that aura that we see-"
"Theonite, yes." She clarifies.
"Oooooh. So now we know the name of it. I see. But why can't Samson use that giant form without my input?"
"It would destroy Filia's body. A normal Human would never be able to withstand the full power of their Parasite. In fact…the form you've seen, thus far, is only a small peak of the Parasites true potential." The blue flame in her palm begins to burn fiercely, eventually setting her entire hand ablaze in a fiery blue majesty. Once she clenches her fist the Theonic energy dissipates into a million tiny embers.
"So you're saying it's possible to restore a Parasite to their primordial state?" Leviathan's voice breaks into the conversation as Squigly approached the group having overheard the conversation.
Marie, who acknowledges their presence, nods. "Yes. The Player has that ability, however it takes a lot of energy to use, far more than it does when you sync with Filia. Do you remember that exhaustion when you first tried it? It's a lot more severe with a Parasite. Beware."
"Yikes…" The Player had memories of how hard it was to operate when he first experienced Heart Syncing, it really took its toll and thinking of a worse variant just made him shiver.
"So it could kill him?" Samson asked in intrigue.
Filia wasn't pleased with Samson's question as she felt she already had the answer. "Of course not, Samson. It never-"
"It can, yes." Marie corrected.
"HUH?!" Shocked, Filia looks at the Skullgirl with wide eyes.
"Using too much Theonite can kill him. Just like if you lose too much blood; you become dizzy, weak and faint, or worse, die. That's why it's very important to bond and have a proper understanding of when it's best to use it."
"…You couldn't have told me that when I said I was going to overuse it?" The Player squints his eyes at Marie for leaving out that crucial bit of information.
"I thought you would've known better by then." She plainly states. "Not to worry though, you've grown accustomed when it comes to Filia so you don't suffer any severe exhaustion, now that you want to expand to a Parasite it was critical to inform you of the dangers."
Now getting Parasites involved was beginning to sound like a bad idea for not only the Player but Filia, Squigly and Leviathan as well. Samson on the other hand was more than curious.
Samson slowly extends his face into sight of the Player's space. "Weeeeeeell?" He gave the former a charismatic little smirk.
Having Samson so close made the Player lean his head back to avoid having his personal space invaded. "What?" He countered that smirk with a look of minor disgust.
"Let's give it a go! I'm ready!"
"Absolutely not!" Filia interrupted.
Samson retracts himself back onto Filia's head and groans. "Now you're against it? You were just pushing us to try it out."
"If I knew it meant his life would be in danger I wouldn't have agreed to it." She states rather seriously.
"Didn't stop you two from trying to master it before." Samson taunts with his tendril-like arms crossed.
"We didn't know!" Both Filia and the Player exclaimed humorously.
"While risky it's nevertheless important that you learn how to sync with the host's Parasite." Marie goes on to explain in that same monotonous voice despite being in regards to the Player's life. "If you're to survive this world you best begin mastering all forms of synchronization."
"It's too great a risk." Filia continued to debate.
"Filia, he can think for himself." Samson was still supportive of the idea…even if it was for the wrong reasons. He then directs his attention to the Player. "Right, kid? Don't you want to see how strong I can be?"
The Player gave it some thought, and while risky his mind was already supplying him with enough curiosity to go through with it. Not knowing was going to really bother him later down the road, so why not just kill two birds with one stone. "…Yeah. I do, actually." He put on a fake smile as a challenge to Samson's words, failing to realize his bravado was being tested.
Hearing him prompted Samson to grin, not because he was agreeing to potentially throw his life away but because he actually went through with manning up to the idea of unlocking the secrets to this power for the benefit of the team.
"Now that's what I like to hear." Samson was actually quite sincere when saying this even if his tone didn't support it.
Filia was taken aback to hear the Player agree and faces him, the fear apparent on her face. "You can't be serious!" She placed her hands on his shoulders and looks him in the eye, to her horror she found that he meant it before he even spoke.
"Don't worry. There's no way I can die. I'm one of the heroes, right?" That didn't stop him from being a little on edge, this was his life after all, but even so, saying that did soothe his worries a little, it was like acknowledging immunity.
"Don't let Samson make you feel that you need to-"
"I'm doing this because I want to, Filia. Have some faith in me. It'll help us out in the long run, it has to. If there's a threat you can't beat it'll be up to Samson and Leviathan."
There was that possibility, yes, but this new option was still one she didn't want to risk. Filia rejects with a slow shake of the head. "...No. You can't. You can't be so careless with something so precious. What if-"
"Filia." Squigly steps in for support, though smiling to show she had faith. "After coming this far you still doubt him?"
"Squigly? Even you?"
"It'll be alright. He can do this, we both know he can. If not we'll find a way to save him."
Squigly's words confused Marie, her eyes slowly strafes from the singer to the amnesiac. "…That's not how dying wor-" Her mouth was silenced by the Player who put his hand over it.
Death has been a reoccurring enemy for the group since they met and at every encounter they somehow managed to best their demise — they faced certain doom before so at this point it was becoming a job, and the Player just seemed to have a knack for avoiding it, so why should this be any different? It was his power after all so he should know when too much is enough and just stop the process all together.
Seeing the faces of her friends, though Filia doesn't seem to take the Player covering Marie's mouth as suspicious, was enough assurance to swallow her own fear and trust in his choice.
Filia closed her eyes and exhales through her nostrils. Once her eyes were open she looks at the Player. "I'll be here to slap you out of it if I think you're going too far." Her way of saying she'll be there if he's on the verge of killing himself.
The Player chuckles at her response but nods in understanding. "Thanks. I can always count on you." He then faces Marie. "Alright, coach. It's all on you."
Now that everyone was in agreement the Player and Filia took their positions, standing beside one another before Marie, Squigly was back to standing on the sidelines to watch from a safe distance. There was a short break to prepare everyone for the sync.
"Are you ready?" Marie asked the Player.
"…Yeah."
Marie could sense the hesitation, but rather than calling it out she just takes it as a means for him to straighten himself out. "Sync with Filia." She instructs.
The two friends look to one another and exchange a single nod. They face forward, concentrating their focus and in an instant Filia was radiating Theonite which took the form of the iconic aura to symbolize her powered-up state, all that energy surging throughout her body, and of course Samson could feel a nice portion of it.
The Skullgirl herself was impressed it came so naturally to them, but she couldn't get distracted. It was time for the next lesson. "Now, focus your mind on the Parasite. Parasite, use your-"
"I have a name, girl." Samson cut her short. "It's Samson."
Marie wasn't effected at all by his ironic correction, she could've cared less, but for the sake of keeping things on track- "Sure. Samson, whatever, synchronize your Theonic energy with the Players. If you're having trouble reaching out to him use your host as a link."
Controlling his Theonite was second nature, being a Parasite and all, it wasn't a problem, however focusing it to pair with another was a different story, it was a first and would ultimately prove a bit challenging.
In the ethereal space the consciousness of the Player stood alone, by this point he would've met with Filia, but because she wasn't the one he was syncing with there was nothing, just the infinite expanse of water reflecting his person underneath his own feet. He crossed his arms, wondering when things would get underway.
On the other side Samson, in his bipedal form without a human host, stood alone as well. He stood in a state of sleep until he slowly awakened to find this new world waiting for him.
"What the hell? Where am I?" He asked before looking down, finding himself staring at his own reflection. "…That's me. But how?" He looks down to his hands and clutches them. Before he could question anything else he senses a familiar presence and turns around, "Filia?" he called out, but the only response he got was the sound of shallow water beneath his feet.
The water ripples from his position out to the infinite reach of the mysterious world, the emptiness of it all was quite overwhelming.
"Samson." The voice of a female attracted the Parasites hearing.
Turning back around Samson's eyes lock onto a woman in the distance, she had her back turned so it was difficult to make out who it was.
Samson tried to focus in order to get a clearer view of who it could've been and upon further inspection it hits him, "…Delilah?" he mutters the name of his previous host.
His body moved on its own, taking a single step forward before following up with another and then another, the small steps soon turned to sprints. The water splashing under him as he ran across the infinite sea.
The closer he got the more apparent the enigmatic woman became; she had long hair and was wearing Roman inspired gladiatorial armor.
Samson came to a halt a few feet away from Delilah, he takes a moment to catch his breath and reaches out an almost reluctant hand to her. "Are you…?" Before he could touch her she began to turn in his direction.
Samson's eyes widened as he realized what she was doing but just as she was on the verge of revealing her face the image and form of Delilah turns to the much younger Filia. The sudden transition took the Parasite by surprise as he wasn't anticipating it. He rubs his forearm across his eyes to make sure he wasn't seeing things.
"Filia? Why are you here? Where even are we?"
Filia brought up her extended index finger to her lips, letting out a silent 'Sssssssh…' to her Parasite. She looks back in the opposite direction and nods to nothingness. "Yeah. He's here." She says, confusing Samson even more. "I think he's ready. He just needed some time to adjust."
"Who…the hell are you speaking to?"
Filia goes on to hold her hand out to her Parasite. "Take my hand." She said. Before Samson could question it she opens her mouth to speak again "What's wrong?" she asked with a dual voice, the second voice being one only Samson could hear and recognize which, again, shocked him. "Don't tell me you're scared." She playfully teased.
"I-I'm not scared of anything!" He corrects with a minor stamper.
"Heh. Theeeeen what's wrong?" The two voices asked which left the Parasite unable to answer, somberly looking down to his feet and his own reflection.
"…I-" He stopped himself.
"Hm?" As Filia smiles a transparent image of Delilah takes form beside her, though Samson didn't realize this from his current POV.
"I…just want you to forgive me. I didn't mean to let you die."
"Forgive you? You've done nothing wrong, nor did you let me die. I'm right here with you."
Samson looks up one last time to see Filia smiling brightly at him. She once again offers her hand. Samson looks down to her extended hand and then back to her face, there was a familiar comforting warmth emitting from her and just as he did, when he thought Delilah was standing before him, he slowly reaches his hand out and accepts it.
Once they lock hands a blinding light overtakes everything, swallowing them whole.
Back in their training area a large Theonite cocoon forms around Filia and was several feet taller than the Player. The cocoon bursts and with it a powerful gust of wind devastates the area, making leaves in the trees rustle violently, Squigly had to cover her face and stand her ground so that she wasn't moved by the powerful gusts.
Once everything calmed the Player eased himself out of focus, careful to not push himself, and once he opened his eyes he looks to his left and waiting for him was Samson but on a much larger and hulking scale, his upper body was broad but he was thin from the waist down, his arms were bulky and had three sharp spikes extending from them, in a similar fashion to how he makes it appear Filia's hair spikes when provoked.
"S-Samson?!" The Player questioned in mild fear.
Hearing his name Samson opened his eyes and looked down to the Player. Realizing he was standing tall over everyone he lifts his hands and stares down to his palms, seeing his sharp appendages. He felt amazing, refreshed, he had never felt this much power since…well, long before the Skull Heart was even a thing as a rough time estimate.
Realizing he had somehow reached his primordial form he grins, showing a vicious toothy grin before unleashing enough Theonite to create a miniature cyclone aura. It was strong enough to blow the Player and Squigly away.
Marie casually stood her ground, looking on with an indifferent expression. She mutters a dry "Ok." at the sight.
"POWER! I FEEL INCREDIBLE POWEEEEEEEEEER!" The mighty Parasite roars to the heavens as his spikes protrude even more from his body...that is until a few seconds pass and he instantly reverts back to his smaller bipedal form, Filia was laying limp behind him. "-Or not." He said in a slightly disappointed tone.
"HUH!? The Player, Squigly and Leviathan were shocked at how fast things turned around for Samason, he went from being a masculine giant to his slim and scrawny build, give or take about 5'7 in height.
Following his power loss revelation Samason lets out a loud belch that somehow echoed throughout the area which made the aforementioned trio groan in disgust.
"Hey, what the hell happened? I wasn't done with that sensation yet! Skullgirl, explain!"
Marie closed her eyes and shrugged her shoulders. "The Player lost his focus and the Theonite link broke between you. Not only that your overzealousness knocked out your host, so she couldn't keep the connection stable."
"What?! That's bullcrap!"
"Meaning it's time you learned some self-control." Leviathan spoke out, rather annoyed Samson blew Squigly away. Now that he was done with a bit of chastising he put his concentration on helping his host up, along with the Player's help. Luckily Squigly wasn't hurt thanks to Leviathan's wits kicking in to break her fall.
"To hell with that!" Samson ran over to the Player and grabbed his shoulders, showing excitement much to the latter's dismay. "Come on! We've got to do that again!"
"What?! No! What are you crazy?"
"I haven't felt a rush that insane since…since…I don't even know when! Damn! That was amazing! Come on, you little shit! Give me your Theonite!"
"At least take me to dinner first!" The Player argued.
Samson being excited was almost as scary as seeing him in his primordial form, even though he wasn't in for it right now the Player was impressed at that quick look of what Samson used to be long before their time, he began to wonder what the world was like when Parasites were among the people, assuming people even came first.
On the subject of that he wondered of a name for that little trick, 'Perhaps…Samson Prime?' he thought to himself while continuously fighting against the Parasites enthusiastic grip.
While all that activity was going on Filia was comically being jerked around in a daze, her eyes nothing more than two swirls and a single line of drool easing out her gaping mouth as she lifelessly groaned "Bleeeeeeeehhhh…." as her only form of communication.
As Squigly goes to break them up Marie stands on the side, now looking uncertain...ironically she just kept that emotionless guise so on the outside it was hard to tell. A bead of sweat slowly descends down her head as she watched the group interact so wildly. '...Um, I'm starting to think this was a mistake.'
A/N: Interestingly this was supposed to be a lot shorter. Hey, guys. I wanted to introduce these new segments I'm gonna call, you guessed it, 'Training Day'. The plan is to use these as a means to explain some of the techniques we'll be seeing the heroes use rather than just having it spring up randomly, they're meant to be short and explain the basic gist of things without showing too much, it's basically the gang laying down the blueprints of things they plan on getting done and in the future you'll be like "Oooooh yeah. They were practicing this move during that one Training Day chapter." so not only will it be familiar it shows that the characters are always training and learning behind the scenes.
The whole concept of this "Parasite Prime" stuff is inspired by Samson's original character designs as a fighter for Skullgirls, but as we know he didn't make it into the game, if you go on the Skullgirls wiki and look into Samson's gallery you'll find the concepts. With the Parasite Prime ability it'll allow Parasites to revert back to their full-powered form, back before they all had hosts as explained, I wanted to do this for a long time but never created a threat big enough to allow it, the closest being the Chimera from the Halloween special, the focus on that fight though was to show off what Filia could do when empowered by Theonite.
The 'ethereal space' is something we've already seen in past chapters, Marie takes the Player there to communicate with him and it usually takes the appearance of a white void. Squigly was emotionally abused by her own mind with the frequent replay of the Contiello massacre in a her own equivalent - much darker and a horror theme. I have yet to give this phenomena a proper name but it'll come eventually. The general inspiration for it comes from Dive into the Heart from Kingdom Hearts, the Inner World from Bleach, the Mental World from Naruto and most recently, for me, the Soulworld from Marvel. It's essentially the Pocket Dimension trope.
While on the subject of this ethereal space I wanted to discuss one last subject and that's Filia's role as a 'link'. As its been established you need a strong connection to Heart Sync with someone, the complete opposite of what Samson has with the Player. Because of the boys sour relationship they have to rely on Filia to be the bridge that connects them until they get closer. Why Filia? She has a stable relationship with both the Player and Samson. Now let's try to visualize: For a Parasite to access their primordial form they have to combine their Theonite with the Player's — you have the Player on one side and Samson on the other, they try to sync but their Theonite repel each other like two magnets, now let's drop Filia between them, at the center, and now their Theonite is able to pass through her and onto the other.
Furthermore when Samson meets with Filia in the ethereal space she appeared to be talking with someone else, that was the Player she was communicating with, from the other side of course. While the boys couldn't see each other Filia could see, hear and communicate with both because she has that steady connection with the two.
Well, that's about it. Even if they're a lot shorter(this one being as long as it was kind of an accident) we're getting more Skullgirls, right? Hope we can all enjoy that. If there's any confusion then feel free to PM if you'd like, assuming I didn't deliberately leave something out for the sake of explaining it in a future chapter.