The groups greeted each other, with Toktok using sign language and Linlin—always the scholar—easily communicated with her in her language. Her husband, Angelo, was still learning with the improved memory upon upgrade, his progress was pretty good.
It was only Oslo, who hadn’t really considered studying sign language, who was unaware about what they were talking, er, signing about.
The only ’sign language’ he learned from Alterrans were those used in battles to communicate with each other without speaking, especially useful while fighting enemies and stealth jobs.
This had been one of the reasons for their impressive teamwork. Interestingly, many of their signs might be some conventions in the terran military, but some were also stemmed from sign language.
Seeing full conversations with it sparked his curiosity. Should he get Linlin to teach him later?
Soon, it was Toktok’s turn for the cotton candy. The candies this time had gotten quite creative and they could make characters with the cotton.
Toktok bought one that looked like a ’pig’, though Oslo only knew of those from children’s story books sold in the territory’s bookstores. Something about three pig brothers building different houses or something.
Linlin bought a goblin-shaped cotton candy and teased the green ones, adorably saying she was about to eat them, causing them to giggle. The goblins, on the other hand, were not ’cannibalistic’ so most of them did not order goblin-shaped, but they chose a different animal.
The two groups melshed together like this and ended up walking together. Toktok was ’chatty’ because it wasn’t often she could talk with someone so proficient with sign language.
Angelo just watched his wife super happy and then elbowed Oslo. "The ladies are busy with each other. Shall we watch the fight?"
This made Lin curious. "What fight?"
"Oh, Baku and Gill are sparring again today."
Oslo’s eyes twitch. "Again?"
Baku and Gill were pretty famous for always sparring until they were bleeding to heck.
Now, as soon as things settled after the Cold Wave, they were at it again.
It started with the whole misunderstanding about Gochi, though somehow things just developed in a way that they preferred fighting each other.
Many people came up with different explanations for these, one of which was simple: their personalities just clashed by default. They were just the kind of people who repelled each other when they were in the same area.
Another group was the self-proclaimed ’experts’ in analyzing fighters.
When ’analysts’ went by to explain, they said it was because the other’s style was the other’s weakness, and they could grow most by fighting. Baku was specialized in very close-range combat, which could be neutralized—assuming a person was powerful enough—by mid ranged weapons.
Long-ranged too but generally those weren’t fast enough to shoot an arrow or cast a spell before Baku could get to them.
On the other hand, Gill who specialized in spears would have trouble with movements that were very quick and those techniques that consistently reduced the distance to nil.
That, and they’re really just annoyed with each other.
"Wow, confidence."


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