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"Just take ittt! I bought it for you, don't waste my hard-earned money!" March 7th huffed out, shoving the Grimace birthday meal into Stelle's unfortunate hands.
The Trailblazer looked down at the meal- and most eye-catchingly, the unnaturally purple milkshake in her left hand. 'Why the hell is it that color. This is like.....purple 40,' she thought to herself. Looking back up at March with concern, she expressed how much she didn't want to drink this monstrosity.
"March." Stelle walked up to her companion, trying her best to seem intimidating. March narrowed her eyes in response.
"Either you drink that shake or I'm gonna take the WORST pictures of you! And make sure that EVERYONE sees them!" March pulled out her camera just to make sure Stelle knows she isn't playing.
Moments pass. Looking down at the purple shake and the food that was beginning to go cold, Stelle had to gather some mental strength. She had a bad feeling about this; why was March so adamant that she consume this...could it even be classified as food? Even Himeko's coffee would have been better than this.
How the hell did March manage to get McDonald's on the Astral Express in the first place? Stelle felt it was best if she didn't know.
'10...9...8...' Stelle counted, timing her submission to the Grimace milkshake. Squeezing her eyes shut and gripping the drink with both hands, she takes the first sip.
March smiles and pokes Stelle on the shoulder. "Soooooooo? Is it as bad as you thought it would be? Hah, thought not," she taunts.
"I dont know..." Stelle processes what she was tasting. "It's like....I mean it'sdefinitely a milkshake. It's so sugary, I can't tell what it's supposed to be." Stelle takes a few more sips as March watches her impromptu food review. Stelle scrunches her face, setting the drink down away from her.
"Eugh....no, no I can't drink this anymore. I can feel my blood turning into rock candy," Stelle laments. March rolls her eyes at Stelle's comment.
"Yes, it's sugary, thats the point! It tasted fine to me, you're being so dramatic...I guess I'll finish it then." March picks the drink back up, takes a big gulp, and sets it right back down. "On second thought...you may have a point...ugh." March sits down next to Stelle, watching her play whatever loud game she has pulled up. A few seconds pass.
"Oh, look who came out of his room!" March waves over Dan Heng, motioning him to join. He walks in front of them, arms crossed, giving March a stern look.
"Where did the McDonald's come from. This is the fifth time you've done this," he criticizes. March sighs.
"That's none of your business! I have my ways...anywho. Look what I got this time! I made Stelle try it," March says, jumping up to grab the half-emptied Grimace birthday shake.
Dan Heng makes a confused expression. "Why is it such a.....saturated color? You really shouldn't have drunk that. I don't know what's in it, but anyone with common sense wouldn't put that into their body."
"Ughh, you are so dramatic! It's literally just a blueberry milksha-" March is interrupted by a sudden coughing fit. She hastily sets the drink down, making it spill. 'Pom-pom is going to have a fit over this later...', she thought. Dan Heng tries to help her, to no avail.
Stelle gets up, rushing over to March, witnessing the purple shake spill on the floor, and over March's clothes as the once bubbly girl was hunched over, Dan Heng trying to pick her back up. Horrified, she runs to find anything to clean up that terrible drink, before she is stopped in her tracks.
Stelle's vision goes dark.
Collapsing, the Trailblazer's body hit the once-clean floors of the Astral Express. Laying on her side, staring off into the distance, she could feel the inevitable overtaking of her body by the milkshake take root, like a parasite.
It was as if she has, once again, caught the gaze of Nanook, and felt her body give way...if Nanook was purple and tasted like pure glucose. She could only be sure of one of those things, however, since there's no way of knowing.
Coughing up the purple poison, reaching her hand into the sky, Stelle appeared as if she were reaching her final moments. Is that really what it took to destroy a stellaron? The grimace shake? Maybe this is what Kafka had planned all along. The strings of fate unraveled themselves in strange ways, twisting and turning until the threads find themselves tangled. This cycle continues, until The Force of The End Of All Things decides to suture the threads with the fires of eternity. And maybe, this time, what it took for the thread of Stelle's fate to be burned and sealed was a milkshake from McDonald's.
Dan Heng stands, abandoned, unsure of what to do. The once calm but alive Astral Express has now been tainted in purple. Stelle and March 7th both lay defeated. The room is full of heavy silence as he calls Himeko and Welt, hoping they will know what to do. All he knows is that this incident is going in the Data Bank later.
Himeko and Welt rush into the room, hearing Dan Heng's pleas of mercy from the spectacle before him. Startled and frightened, the two rush over towards the afflicted of the Grimace-colored hellscape. Checking that both March and Stelle are still alive, just unconcious, Mr. Yang and Himeko decide to help to the best of their ability, before Pom-pom sees what a mess has become of their passengers. Exit Dan Heng, up to the archives.
Closing the door quitely, with shaky hands and a shaken soul, he writes:
"Grimace's Birthday milkshake.
"Ughh, you are so dramatic! It's literally just a blueberry milksha-" -March 7th, one of the victims.
As a new annual event, the fast food chain McDonald's had released a limited-time meal for the birthday of one of their mascots, Grimace. This meal is notoriously known for the milkshake that comes with the meal; a vibrant purple drink with insanely high sugar content. This drink has been known to cause terrible, horror movie-esque scenes in its consumers. Be weary of this drink, due to the risk that this milkshake may be the last thing you will ever eat."
Moving away from his desk, Dan Heng looks back towards the door, dread filling his being. He hopes that something like this will never happen again.
That is, until such a billion-dollar company begins a new marketing campaign that March 7th cannot ignore.