Following the distasteful meeting of the alien with his higher up, Lonappan went to the room where Normal-taro was trying on his costume. Taro hated it. In spite of that, he wore it due to obvious reasons.. "So, ready to go?" He asked to Taro, the one concerned over the said costume.
"Sure. Tell me, do I really have to wear this?" He voiced his concern one last time, hoping for a miracle to occur.
"If you want to blend in, then yes." Lonappan said the truth that Taro already knew, yet desperately opposed.
"Fine. Let's get a move on already." Taro sighed and followed Lonappan to the lift. Thankappan was already waiting for them on the outside. He took a deep breath and smiled. "Wow, I did not notice it when I came up before, but this place is really nice!" He exclaimed.
"Ah, we take pride in ourselves for keeping it clean." Lonappan smirked.
"Not that. The air here is really good!" Taro said, taking another deep breath in.
"We do have one of the lowest pollution rate in the city." Although it was not the answer that he expected, but Lonappan really took pride on that little fact too.
"It reminds me of my planet. Like the carbon dioxide, sulfur, nitrogen and all? Ah, too good! Except the oxygen pollution is a bit high here, isn't it?" He said as he sniffed his nose.
Lonappan sighed. "I see, you're the kind who breathes in the pollutants, huh?"
"What do you mean?" Taro asked.
"We breathe in oxygen, not the other gases." Lonappan explained.
"Well, that would make you the ones breathing in the pollutants, am I right?" Taro asked.
"If we were in your planet, sure. However, this is our planet and here you are the weird one." Thankappan included himself into the fray.
"Man!" Taro sighed. He was supposed to be in a planet with no superpowers, but he was still considered weird. He wanted to cry; the poor guy wanted a normal life! But he decided to not worry about it anymore. "Whatever. So, what's this place?" He asked.
"It's called snehatheeram [1]." Thankappan explained.
"Snehatheeram?" Taro asked.
"I guess it means lover's bay or something?"
"That's weird. I don't see any lovers here!" As he glanced over the beach, he saw multiple families glancing at the sunset, but no lovers. He took the name quite literally and was really disappointed at one point.
"There may be some couples around. It might just be that you can't see them." Lonappan said, looking around noticing that they weren't any actual couple.
"Maybe, it's just for the namesake. Just like the black in your name." Taro laughed with a slight mockery in his face.
"It could be that too. Anyway, it's a family spot these days. So you might be right." Lonappan decided to end the conversation and continued walking.
They had been walking for so long that Taro had to put forth the question. "So, where's this new residential area of mine?" He asked Thankappan.
"I don't know. Lonappan's the one who knows. Only he could lead us there." Thankappan answered.
Taro directed his question towards Lonappan upon hearing that. "Where is it, Agent Lonappan?"
"Follow me." He instructed. Thankappan and Taro followed.
#
They followed him for so long—so long that they didn't even notice that they swapped multiple buses and ended up in some unknown place. "We sure took the long way. Tell me Lonappan, why are we so far away from your base?" Taro finally asked after snapping out of it.
"Only the single digits are fairly closer to the base. The special agent has asked me to lead you to #306. That's the reason for this distance." Lonappan explained.
"So, where are we now?" Taro asked.
"We are in a place called Mundur." Lonappan said.
"Mundur? Lonappan, have we already reached Palakkad? [2]" Thankappan asked, quite surprised that they travelled that far in the short period.
"No, we're still in Thrissur." Lonappan said, shaking his head.
"Hmm, I don't get what's going on, but will I get to see my new residential soon?" Taro didn't quite get what this explanation was about, so he asked about the thing that interested him.
"Don't be frantic. We still have to walk for a good five minutes and reach Pazhamukku." Lonappan said, nodding at Taro.
"Aw, man!" Taro didn't quite like walking. The man honed himself with multiple martial arts throughout the galaxy, wasn't rather too fond of walking. He sighed. However, Lonappan was right in his estimation. In exactly five minutes they reached Holy land, a quite good looking two story house. "Is this it?" He asked.
"Yes, it is." Lonappan nodded his head.
"Finally! Let's get in then!" Taro said quite excitedly.
As he was about to get in, a man watering the plants outside the house jogged towards them. "Lonappan, how are you?" He asked.
"Timothy-chetta! [3] These are the two I talked about over the phone." Lonappan replied, dawning a smile that even Thankappan hasn't seen before; a smile so fake that it nearly made Taro puke.
"Two?" The confused Thankappan whispered at Lonappan.
"I tell you about it later." He whispered back and changed his focus back to Timothy. "Chetta, I'll lead them to the room."
"Sure, see you later then. Lonappan, we do have to talk about the rent later though. We have extra people living in there now." Timothy said, rubbing his fingers, signaling money.
Lonappan laughed. "Sure thing!" He assured Timothy.
"Who's that?" Taro asked while they headed over to the first floor.
"Timothy, your landlord from now on." Lonappan explained.
"I see. So, let's go!" Taro gave a thumbs up. He was still excited about stepping into his new settlement.
"Let me remind you, you're not the only one who's living in that place. Beside you, three other people reside there—all aliens." Lonappan said.
"At least I don't have to act different, am I right?" Taro laughed.
"Yea, however the people living across the hall are humans. So don't act all alien-ish before them. I hope you'll remember it. Get in." Lonappan invited them into the second floor. Holy land was not that big. Taro was surprised that the landlord actually agreed to stuff him into that one room too. Three tenants in the small house including the landlord, he sure was a shrewd guy.
But, even though one might think that it would be crammed, the room was actually spacious. It was really weird—a room too small yet spacious. Two things in contrast, still they ended up working in harmony this time. "Whew, this place is nice! I thought the place would be shitty when I saw the higher up of yours smile like that."
"That's not it. Ah, you poor soul! Don't place such an obvious red flag." Lonappan thought, as he glanced at Taro with sympathetic eyes.
Taro didn't notice the glance. Instead he saw two people and a dog before him. "Welcome to the bachelor pad, newbie!" One said. But, Taro didn't quite get the one saying that until the other one pointed at the one who stood there without much movement.
"Wow, your mouth's not even moving! Where are you even talking from? Wow, you're aware of my dialect already?" Taro asked. It was a weird phenomenon indeed. Taro's guess was for the man to be a philanthropist or something.
"They updated the translator before you came. It's not comparable to the universal translator, but at least the ones these guys make aren't totally useless!" The guy laughed, even though he looked expressionless. It was just the sound, no facial movements. "By the way, this is how I speak." The man's head suddenly split open and out came a small creature.
"Wow, disgusting!" Taro gulped subconsciously.
"Hey, I'm a really high level species, you know?" The small creature retorted. Its voice somehow was much cuter than before, since its voice wasn't amplified like before. It wasn't disgusting either—it was just small, really small.
"I wasn't talking about you, but the way that mouth tore open!" Taro explained. "And I believe that there's no one in the universe who won't recognize someone from plankton civilization. It's truly a pleasure of mine to finally see a personality of such great species." He replied as he bowed respectfully at the creature.
"Oh, so you do know me, huh?" The creature was small, yet its pride in particular stood above all.
"Well, who could forget the ones that destroyed eleven bases of the liberation army during the galactic wars and caused their defeat?" Taro buttered the creature a bit more. But it wasn't a lie.
Twenty years ago, due to a really stupid debate between two galactic civilizations, a fight took place. Concerned about the situation of the respective civilizations if this war prolonged, citizen from both the civilization joined hands and formed the liberation army. Soon, it wasn't just the two civilizations. Creatures from multiple civilizations began to band under this liberation army banner, in order to liberate their civilizations from evil and stupid leaders.
However, an evil leader of one such civilization contracted the plankton civilization for the eradication of the said liberation army. The planktons infiltrated under their noses and planted bombs in their bases. Many people died. Although Wados was a neutral party in this war, everyone in Wados remembered that event as clear as day.
"Ah, that was twenty years ago, huh? Kid, you really know your history. Where are you from?" The plankton asked.
"I'm from Wados." Taro replied.
A series of flashbacks galloped back into the plankton's mind. "Ah, now I get it! Your mercenaries were hired by the both sides, weren't they? From front line to the defense, you Wadorians were all over the battlefield. Also, you were the guys who suffered the most damage too when we destroyed those bases." Plankton looked down as he said it. "Sorry, kid! It was a job from a client. We couldn't do anything about it!"
"Don't worry! It's not like someone important to me died in that battle." He laughed it off as if it wasn't a big deal. He laughed it off as if his parents, the only people who used to believe in him and hoped the best for him, hadn't died in that battle. He laughed it off as if they weren't in the base number eight of the liberation army, trying to protect others from the blast. He laughed it off as if he didn't hate whoever coined the plan back then. "By the way, gotta respect the secrecy of your kin. Twenty years and you've still not revealed the client's name to anyone." He wanted the name. By hook or by crook, he so dearly wanted that name. Of course, he might not even be able to return to Wados if the situation remains the same, but if he got the name, he would at least have a face to imagine when he conjure up the revenge plan that he had been cooking up since he was six.
"We can't go around saying the name of a client and destroy our reputation, now, can we?" The plankton smiled. He was indeed a tough nut to crack. Taro decided that he would leave that matter for another day and focused on familiarizing himself with the others. "I like you kid! I'm plankton #69420. But, everyone here calls me Kunjan [4]. What's yours?" He asked.
Taro smiled; a smile so genuine that no one would even guess that he was filled with intense hatred just a while back. "That's a good number! And my name's Taro—Normal-Taro."
"Normal, huh? Saada [5]. Let's make it Sada. Taro is a bit iffy. Sadataro will be weird. So, what about we change taro and put Sadanandan or something?" Kunjan asked.
"Not bad! But, I'll prefer it if you called me by my real name when we are the only ones around." He requested Kunjan, as he extended his hand.
"Sure. Now meet up with the others." He replied as he shook on it.
"Hello, Taro. I'm Gibli. People around here calls me Gibli too." The man named Gibli extended his unusual looking lengthy arm.
"You sure are lanky. I guess you're from Fallen Ark." Taro speculated as he shook hands.
"Indeed, it's as the plankton says, you sure know your history. But I'd like it if you don't call it Fallen Ark—just call it Ark." Gibli replied with a gentle smile—yet a bright fire lit in his eyes. Ark, a civilization filled with lanky figures like Gibli was one of the initial targets of Glomera civilizations. Almost all of them were Glomeran slaves, other than the ones that escaped. Taro guessed that Gibli was one amongst them.
"It was fallen though!" Taro thought, but decided not to say it out loud. He remembered reading about the Ark community eating the heads of people that they hate. He shivered as he thought of it and replied. "Sure!"
"Good. I'll be on my way then." Gibli headed out.
After Gibli headed out, Taro started patting the resident dog's head and noticed something weird. "Hey, Lonappan! You said there'd be three, right? However, there's just two here. Where's the other one?"
"You're standing in front of him." Lonappan replied to the puzzled Taro.
"Hey, don't think of me as a normal dog!" The dog stood straight on his two legs and barked.
"Ah, the dog talks!" Taro was quite freaked out after witnessing that.
"I said I'm not a dog. My species name is canino!" The dog barked like it was personally offended by Taro calling him a dog.
"Yea, canine—dog!" Taro replied straight forward.
But the canino couldn't care about that anymore since it had a short attention span—like dogs. "Whatever. My name is M'Baku. But the kid next door calls me Charlie. So I'm Charlie."
"Oh, Charlie! Who's a good boy?" Taro mockingly patted Charlie.
"Fuck off!" Charlie flipped the finger and walked away.
"How old is that dog?" Taro asked Kunjan.
"Older than you can imagine. He's been in here for the longest time. He's a weird dude. Don't get fooled by his looks. Therefore, it'd be great if you stayed away from him for a bit." He replied.
"Hmm, I can see that." Taro said as he watched Charlie walking with swagger.
"Go take a shower and get some sleep. Go sightseeing or something tomorrow. You still have to familiarize with this place, right?" Thankappan suggested.
"Yea, thanks." He headed towards the shower. "I guess I'll buy some basic necessities tomorrow." He thought to himself.
Thankappan stretched himself. "So, since you've met up with everyone, I'll be going."
As he was leaving, he was stopped by Lonappan. "Where do you think you're going?" He asked.
"Lonappan, what do you mean?" Thankappan was puzzled.
"Ponnappan asked us to keep an eye on this dude. So, you'll stay alongside him in this house." Lonappan explained.
"Then what about you?" Thankappan asked.
"My house is the one next to this. So, I'll be living there." He explained and pointed the house through the window.
"I see." Thankappan sighed. The field agent finally was assigned with his first assignment.
#
Late night; Taro was sleeping peacefully when he felt something by his leg. "What's happening? Why do I feel something against me?"
"Hey, new guy! Don't move. Hold that position, just for a little bit. I'm about to—I'm about to!" It was Charlie, the canino, dry humping his leg. He looked like he was about to drop a load.
Taro didn't held back. One punch and he was flying across the room. "Fuck off, you creepy dog! Next time you do something like this, it won't end within one punch." He roared.
"So strong! I like that." Charlie gave out a perverse smile as if enjoyed that and left Taro. He decided to finish what he started some other day.
"I should probably never interact with that guy ever again. Fucking masochist!" Taro sighed. He couldn't sleep with that stupid dog around now. So he decided to go outside a bit and saw Thankappan there. "Hey, what are you doing out here so late?" He asked the field agent.
"Huh? Nothing. Just that the moon's bright. What about you? Why are you up?" He asked back.
"Just some minor disturbances." The dog came into Taro's mind. Although he had an immense desire to punch it beyond the farthest of galaxies, he decided to leave it alone—for now. "Now that you're up anyway, can you help me?" He asked.
Thankappan nodded. Taro hurriedly went inside and brought something back.
"What is this?" He asked.
"Some plain cards. I wanted to buy basic necessities but I can't talk right now, can I? In short, I want you to write something in your language." Taro humbly requested.
"Sure! And if you want, I'll drop you somewhere you can buy them." Thankappan suggested.
"Thanks man!" Normal-taro felt thankful for meeting such a kind man in his hard times.
#
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snehatheeram_Beach
[2] There are two Mundurs in Kerala, in two different cities, Palakkad and Thrissur, and hence Thankappan's confusion.
[3] Older brother. Equivalent to 'san' in Japanese or 'hyung' in Korean.
[4] Meaning small (കുഞ്ഞൻ)
[5] Saadarana (സാധാരണ) meaning ordinary or normal.