Day 7: Glass

This one is a little more silly

Koln rose up from her bed and stretched a bit. She was still feeling a bit achy from the night drill yesterday, but that wasn't reason to laze around in bed all day. She'd leave the oversleeping to Karlsruhe… for a while.

Stifling a yawn, she walked into the restroom and got herself ready for the day. A brief shower– with none of the lingering that Konigsberg was so fond of– before brushing her teeth and putting her hair in two tails. She thought it looked right, but there was only one way to know for sure… she reached for her glasses.

Putting them on did not give her a clear glimpse at her hair. All they did was make her vision worse, turning her world into a soupy mess. She could barely make out the finer details of her hand through the glasses… which she could do without. She was still nearsighted, and vision changes didn't happen overnight…

There had been a mixup, then. Or, more likely, someone's juvenile idea of a prank. Frowning, Koln crouched and opened the cabinet under the sink, searching for a certain stiff, plastic case near the back. There. Her spares. She swung the case open, put on the pair…

And realized the mystery prankster was shockingly thorough.

Koln's extensive search of their room– just in case– yielded no results other than waking Karlsruhe and Konigsberg up, who she quickly brought up to speed. Two people with properly functioning eyes would be a great help in her search.

Karlsruhe giggled. "Someone really swapped out your glasses?"

"It seems so," Koln held up the two new pairs. They were nice enough, she supposed, although the frame was a bit different. Koln really should have noticed sooner… "Do you recognize these? Do you know who wears them?"

"They're not the Commander's, I don't think…" Konigsberg almost seemed disappointed, perhaps because she missed an opportunity. Koln decided not to think about that.

"So we've just gotta go and find where they went," Karlsruhe said. "We can start with other girls who wear glasses, right?"

That… was no small thing. From what Koln remembered, no Vichy girls wore glasses, and the same could be said for the Chinese and Italians. Well, maybe Oriani had a pair? But Koln thought they were tinted, and these were not. So that only left some of the biggest factions on base. Easy.

"Perhaps we'll start with the Americans, and go for the British if we don't find any clues." Koln suggested. It seemed a reasonable plan of attack… and honestly, Koln thought of Langley as a friend. Maybe, if she was lucky, these glasses were Langley's and Langley had Koln's.

She had a feeling it wouldn't be that simple, but there wasn't anything to do but try and investigate. At the very least, Karlsruhe seemed very happy about the prospect of a trip to see the Americans.

Now, Koln wasn't blind, at least not in the legal sense, but anything much further than her hand in front of her face was a total blur. Sometimes, she couldn't even read a book in her own lap, which was really quite depressing… She squinted like a fool and tried to ignore the various people-ish blurs that walked the paths of the base.

Thankfully, Koln and Karlsruhe were there, serving as her escorts. Was it a tad embarrassing? Yes, but it was better than having to practically bury her nose in signage in order to get a sense of where things were. Instead, she just had to keep her eyes on the two blurs of silver in front of her.

(She forgot just how miserable it was, walking around without glasses. Or perhaps she never really had the chance to realize how bad it was, being 'born' with them. She couldn't pick out leaves on trees, crisp lines becoming smudgy. She wasn't really a girl who went crazy about nature, but being deprived of those simple details… The prank was not amusing, she was not laughing along. She felt a fool.)

Perhaps it was good to be humbled a bit, to be reminded of the crutches she almost forgot about. At the same time, she couldn't help but wonder why Karlsruhe was so happy with the situation, other than a simple excuse to take a walk and hang out with different people than usual.

She boldly forged on, greeting vague blobs that were apparently Repulse, Stanly, and a few other early birds. Karlsruhe was even more chipper than normal, if such a thing was possible. Koln walked up behind Konigsberg and whispered: "Did I miss something? I'm glad to see her so happy, but why…?"

Konigsberg chuckled. "You can't make an educated guess?"

"Konigsberg."

"Maybe she's just glad to be a help to her little sister."

Koln blinked. "What?"

"It really is quite unfair, you know. We're the older sisters, and you haven't needed a spot of help, ever. How I am supposed to feel like a big sister?"

"Konigsberg…"

The Americans– or some of them, at least– seemed to have noticed the problem. Koln was reliably informed that she was in the presence of Soryuu, Langley, and Shangri-La, who were all discussing their glasses situation.

Soryuu had recovered hers from Langley, it seemed, and Koln brought a pair that worked for Shangri-La. So that was two out of the way… this wasn't some simple swap glasses between two rooms thing, where everyone formed pairs. The glasses had been thoroughly shuffled, which would have been quite impressive if it wasn't so annoying.

But that did lead to an interesting question: "Who would plot a scheme like this?"

"I have a feeling." Shangri-La and Soryuu sighed in unison.

Whooooo could it be?