8 Fuel to the fire

"Indeed." Someone answered from below. Taro looked down to saw Charlie standing in his two legs, sipping coffee just like him.

"Fuck! Don't creep me out like that, my dude. Aren't you supposed to be a dog? It doesn't look like a dog-like behavior when you do that shit." Taro was genuinely creeped out by Charlie after his first night in the Holy Land.

"For the love of God, I'm a highly intelligent species of the canino population. I'm not a dog!" Charlie retorted. He didn't like Taro calling him a dog and in turn completely denying the existence of his intelligent group of species.

"Dog, canino—potato, po-tato; just the same shit." Taro shrugged his shoulders. He couldn't care less about the Canino species he talked about. So, he quickly changed the topic. "By the way, where the hell were you last night? Like we were having a serious discussion about us taking up a job and you were MIA."

Charlie was irked about how Taro didn't give a fuck and decided to have his own share of fun. "It doesn't matter if I was present or not, is it? Remember, dogs can't work, you know! It won't be a dog-like behavior if I did that shit." He laughed. However it sounded as if he was coughing hard.

"You sly old fox! Using the 'I'm a dog' statement when you deem necessary!" Taro exclaimed as he gave out a wicked smile of his own.

"That's how we're supposed to use them anyway, aren't we?" Charlie tried to apply that wicked smile on himself. Instead, he looked super adorable.

"Wait, okay. You are a dog, right? Dogs doesn't need to have an allowance, right? How about I, an intelligent humanoid species take that cash and use it for the greater good." Taro patted Charlie's head. Charlie reacted swiftly to this action and swatted Taro's hand off his head.

"Yea, I heard how this 'intelligent humanoid species' fluffed up his entire allowance and is in desperate need of a job. So, fuck off. I had enough of this conversation." Charlie got back into all fours and curled his body in a corner.

"Hey, you dodged my previous question. Where in the flaming hell were you for the last two days?" Taro asked.

"I do what I want to do. Who are you to judge me?" Charlie replied with a sneer which pissed Taro off.

"Sheesh, I was just looking out for you." He said as he left Charlie alone.

"I don't need an idiot looking out for me." The dog retorted back. However Taro didn't bat an eye anymore.

Instead, it was someone else that gave a reply. "Did someone say idiot?" Thankappan stood up from his bead and looked around. He was still sleepy.

"Huh, an ugly spat with M'Baku, huh." Gibli came out of the kitchen, holding a cup of coffee of his own.

"He has a bit of a temper and a foul mouth. That's why we don't mess with the dude." Gibli explained.

"Do you know where he was for the last two days? Like, does this shit always happen?" Taro looked as if he was whispering to Gibli, but it was a small room and Taro voiced beamed out crystal clear towards M'Baku, who decided to give a silent treatment.

"I presume he was chilling across the hallway with that girl. To answer your question, yes this happens often. He doesn't like Plankton's cooking." Gibli answered with a chuckle. He could clearly see M'Baku's ears pointing up, as if he was listening the conversation attentively.

M'Baku got the wind of it and finally decided to break off his minute long silence. "Guys, you're literally talking about me right before. At least have the decency to talk behind my back. However, Gibli is right. Plankton's food is too less of a quality dish for an exquisite tongue like mine." He said.

"Besides, what does the other family give you?" Taro asked. He was kinda happy that M'Baku decided to talk. He might've been a creep, but who could resist the charm of an adorable dog!

"They give me this fantastic coarse food in bite size and it has multiple fantastic flavors. Just, simply amazing!" M'Baku answered as his mouth started watering on the thought of that.

"Well, that's a roundabout way to say dog food!" Gibli replied. But this time, he decided to give out a full laugh.

"And you say you're not a dog." Taro joined in on the fun as well.

Fed up off the ridicule, Charlie stormed off yet again. "Yea, I'm not coming back to this conversation." He said as he was leaving the room as slow as he could.

"So, what's the deal with this girl you talked about?" Taro asked, returning back to their conversation.

"She's the one who named him Charlie. Moreover, he lets no one else call him by that name." Gibli got back into his explaining stuff session.

"Hmm, seems like an interesting relationship." Taro gave out his thoughts.

"Yea, he kinda like her." Gibli replied to that, clearly witnessing Charlie's reluctant walk towards the door, as if he wanted to hear what they were talking about.

"Eww, like a pedophilic love?" Taro was disgusted. Pedophilia was shunned upon in the entirety of the universe other than some backwards planets, who still hasn't updated their thought process. But it made sense in Charlie's case, accounting the behavior he saw from the dog.

However, Gibli corrected him after he felt that Taro genuinely meant that. He wondered what happened between those two, for Taro to consider him as such a lowlife. "I guess it's more like a father-daughter love. Who knows, maybe it could be pedophilic too! He's a creep, afterall!" Gibli continued adding fuel into the fire.

"Guys, I'm literally here!" M'Baku barked before giving up the notion right away. "Fuck it, I'm gonna get myself out."

"Oh, hey Charlie!" Enter Lonappan, who stretched out his hand to give out a high five. However, M'Baku thought of it as an advance to pat his head and swatted his hand away.

"Call me M'Baku, goddamn it!" He barked at Lonappan, before sprinting out of the room.

"See? Just like I said." Gibli turned towards Taro and spoke.

"Sheesh, what's wrong with that dude today?" Lonappan shrugged his shoulders.

"Hello, Lonappan. How're you doing?" Taro welcomed the agent.

"I'm fine. Where's Plankton?" He asked, looking around the room.

"He's cooking." Gibli replied.

"I see. Call him up—we gotta go." He said as he stopped before Thankappan, still sleeping like a log in his bed. "And someone wake Thankappan up!" No one did, so Lonappan took it upon himself as he pushed his junior to the floor.

"What happened? Is it the job?" Kunjan came out wearing an apron.

"Remember when I talked about a few things that you'll learn eventually? Looks like today's that day." Lonappan answered.

#

"So, what's this thing that you speak of?" The plankton asked yet again.

"Okay, you know how the WPP's the ruling party of the state government and some random ass one's the ruling party in the centre, right?" Lonappan asked.

"Right. Why is that important?" Kunjan asked back, since he didn't get the flow of the conversation.

"Because now, the central government's been increasing the price of fuels, like one rupee per day or something and people ain't liking it." Lonappan answered, with a smile for no apparent reason.

"So, what's WPP doing?" It was Gibli who asked the question this time.

"We're gonna conduct a strike all over the state. However, to conduct such a deed, they need numbers. You get what I mean?" He explained.

"We're the number." Kunjan finally got the thing that Lonappan talked about.

"Right, we just have to get to the central government controlled facilities and make some peaceful ruckus there." Lonappan continued.

"There's such a thing like a peaceful ruckus?" Taro asked. Since he used to be a team leader of the disaster management back in Wados, he had never seen a peaceful ruckus. It always ended in casualities. So, he was quite intrigued.

"Apparently. Or so he says." Gibli had his doubts too. Meanwhile, Thankappan had nothing to say, since his system hadn't turned on yet. He was still sleepy.

"So, what's the pay?" Kunjan asked the important question.

"Wait, isn't that like a free service because we're WPP members now?" Gibli raised his concern.

However, Lonappan cleared those doubts. "Two hundred per head. How does that sound to you?"

"Huh, it's not free service?" Gibli was honestly surprised. The glomerans never paid them a penny when they integrated the Ark into their society, hence he expected somewhat similar of a situation here.

"Well, the members of WPP are working class members, right? I know for a fact that there's no way they'd be willing to spend a day to conduct a strike without pay. However, isn't two hundred a bit low?" Kunjan asked Lonappan.

"It is what it is. Rather than the money, it's an opportunity to prove that we are the faithful members of WPP." Lonappan shrugged as if he couldn't help it.

"True. Who'd have expected for such an opportunity to come right before us just as we began our journey as WPP members?" Gibli asked. He was kinda happy that such an opportunity came through.

"Dude, we're in Kerala. There's strikes on literally every stupid thing in every single day!" Kunjan replied. He knew something like this would happen sooner or later.

"Touché." Lonappan agreed with Kunjan's assessment.

"Well, what're we waiting for? Let's go!" Kunjan stood up, throwing his apron aside, ready to go.

#

????????????????:

I'll just list all the alien's names and their Earth names (if that's what you would like to call it.)

1. Normal-taro: Sadanandan.

2. Plankton #69420: Kunjan.

3. M'Baku: Charlie

Gibli's called the same and others as well.