I watched what remains of the straw man topple over, now finding itself without half of its body, thanks to Michaus.

"Well," Charolette began. "That's that, anyways." 

Yeah. Suppose it is.

Zramazos and I just kinda nodded, a little stunned, I guess. Michaus looked proud of himself.

"Y'know, maybe that thing wasn't so bad after all." S said. Oh, so now he's come around. Great. 

"Wait, M-Michaus! Y-you nitwit! You b-broke the, uh, thingy! And the guy!" Zramazos angrily said to his brother. 

"Yeah, it was awesome!" Michaus said, ever enthusiastic. 

"N-No, you-" Zramazos began.

The two of them bickered(?) for a while, while I had an epiphany. A terrible, grave realization.

I forgot about the cola I bought earlier!

Hmph. How unlike me. I'm growing weak. I was distracted by... stuff, I guess. I must've put my drink in my pocket a while ago and forgot up and about it. For shame. For shame.

Touched the can, feeling around to see how much chill I have left in the drink. 

It's cold. Barely. It's getting warmer fast, though. 

Alright. Time to use that.

My ultimate techni-

I swiftly grabbed the can, looked up, leaned back, and raised the can above my mouth, letting the nectar within fall in rapidly.

ULTIMATE TECHNIQUE: ⌈CHUG THE WHOLE THING BEFORE YOU FINISH THINKING ABOUT IT⌋ 

Glug, glug glug,

I've spent many years, many drinks perfecting this trick. Believe me, it's not for the faint of heart. There's great risk involved, too. If executed incorrectly, you risk losing the whole drink. Oh, or choking, I guess.

Anyways, even after all my practice, something like this, I don't quite have it down to an exact science at this point. Regrettably, a few drops will be lost. Oh, also, my shirts a little dirty. Oh man, that reminds me, I gotta get that fixed. Or, alternatively, I could just, like, never take off my bandages. That's kinda cool. I'll be thinking about this.

Ah.

Yeah, that was good.

"Ahk. Ahem."

A little coughing is expected. 

"Right, you good, Beyes?" S asked, a little concerned.

"Yeah. Aint my first rodeo." I said.

"You do that often? Also, what is that?" Charolette asked. 

"Cola. Empty now, though." I explained. 

"He gets it from that freaky red box outside." S said.

"Cola... That's what it says on the thing, right? You know what it is? S'that mean you know where the box came from? Or what it is, for that matter?" Charolette asked me. 

I shrugged. "I just like cola." 

"Right, you don't know about it, either?" S asked.  

"Nah. Doubt anybody does. Kinda just showed up one day. Not sure why, or where from." 

'Huh. How spooky', I thought, as I opened another can of cola.

"Oh, wait, that other one, it's empty, right? Can I have it? The, uh..." Charolette gestured a cylinder shape with her hands. 

"Sure." I said, tossing her the empty can. "I-I, uh, have some more empty cans. You want those, too?" 

"Cans! Yeah, might be able to make somethin' out of 'em." Charolette said, getting a little excited. It was clear the gears were turning in her head. 

Thus, I began unloading all my empty cans.

...

...

"Woah." Charolette said in surprise, As I unloaded empty shower cans, on top of the cola ones.

...

"Have you... just been walking around with your pants full of cans?" Charolette asked. 

"Oh, no, no."

"Then wher-"

"This isn't even close to full." I explained, handing over my 6th can. Oh, crap, I've only got a few shower cans left.

She looked at me and my pants with a mix of fear and confusion. 

"You should see what he's got in his shirt pocket." S said.

"What, this?" I pulled out my sickle toolbox a little, revealing it, before pushing it back inside. "It's just a toolbox." 

"Eh- wha- Oh." Charolette said. "It's magic, right? Your clothes are en-"

I shook my head. Nope. These are just normal clothes. "It's a small toolbox." I explained. 

...

They didn't seem convinced. I took a sip of my drink. 

"Hey!" Michaus said, returning to the conversation and breaking the silence. "Sorry for breaking your thing. I got a little too excited."

"Oh, eh, yeah, don't worry about it. I can just make another." Charolette said, moving on and turning over to Michaus.

Michaus immediately turned around to Zramazos, and made a thumbs up sign, which Zramazos weakly returned. 

Y'know, speaking of bows and all that, a ranged attack would be nice to have. I mean, imagine how cool it'd be, I shoot an arrow or something, guy dodges it,

'Hah. Missed me.' 

'Hah. Think again.'

Boom, I open up a hole while the arrows flying, and it hits em right in the leg, immobilizing them. 'Aint that cool? Or, maybe, they have the ranged attack, I catch it with a hole and send it back at them. That'd be awesome. Oh, and I guess it would be nice to attack from a position of relative safety, too. 

Well, I guess I can sort of do a ranged attack. I just open a hole near someone, and swing through that. Actually, now that I'm thinkin' about it, that's pretty cool, too, a sickle appearing out of thin air, ready to slash from anywhere at any time. Ooh, that's spooky. Love that.  Problem is, it's a little hard to create the holes while armed. I mean, I can still move my thumbs and pointer fingers without dropping my weapon, but it's a little awkward. Plus, if they're on the move, that kinda prevents me from doing that. I mean, I can move the holes, but with everything going on, I dunno if I'll be able to concentrate while still, like, defending myself.

Not that I intend to get into too many more fights, anyways... 

Actually...

Thinking about combat, I couldn't help but look at my arms, and the bandages. And, strangely, maybe it's the projectile weapon or something, I found my hand slowly moving towards my head.

And I couldn't help but recall

NOTHING.

No, no. Nothing. Everything's fine. I'm alive, I have magic, I have superpowers, I have, uh, friends. And a house! And money, and... Yeah. Everything's great. Perfect, even. 

So I've absolutely no reason to-

My thoughts were interrupted by Michaus's stomach growling loudly. Everything else seemed to interrupted, too, as the house fell silent for a moment. 

I took another sip of my drink.

"M-Michau-" Zramazos began. Man, he gets interrupted a lot. 

"Say, that reminds me, it's about lunch time. You guys mind staying a little longer?" Charolette asked the room. 

"Eh, I could eat." S said.

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure." I said.

"Oooh! Yeah, yeah!" Michaus exclaimed.

"Oh, uh, I'll help, if you need it." Zramazos said.

"Thanks. Alright, lets head downstairs." Charolette said. 

Lunch, huh. Sounds fun.

I take another couple sips as the five of us head downstairs once more.