Day 55: Cafeteria

[mustbethesuit]

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[its_the_mileage]

The first thing Indy realized on waking up was that the hat he was wearing was not his own. He took it off and inspected it: a black wool beret. The rest of his clothing was also not part of either the usual Landel's uniform, Indy's adventuring gear--or, now that he looked at it, anything else he'd ever worn before. It was an unfamiliar military uniform: dress boots, dog tags and all.

Indy didn't like being put into the uniform of an army he couldn't identify and didn't support. On the other hand, this was a hell of a lot better than the sweatpants, although Aguilar whoever was running the show now had thoughtfully preserved the yellow face symbol on the armband. Groaning slightly as he sat up, Indy turned over the dog tags and read them: Harry Lucas, Jr., B Class,
06121981M. Was there any significance to that number, he wondered, or had it just been assigned at random

[hat_einen_vogel]

What the hell had happened last night?

That was the question on Prussia's mind ever since waking up-or perhaps more accurately, ever since waking up and finding out that there had been some minor changes to the prisoner uniform: they finally had real clothes.

A soldier had burst into his room moments as he'd been studying the identifiers on his new dog tags-Gilbert Beilschmidt, C Class, 65337489M. Neither the number nor the class was familiar, but Prussia couldn't help but smile a little at the sight of the tags themselves.

He'd adjusted his beret-and was reminded of Switzerland for all of about a second as he did so-and then followed the soldier out of the room towards the mess while wondering about last night, and how he could have forgotten who and what he was. There was no getting around it: he'd forgotten things. He'd called himself 'Gilbert' around other nations. He hadn't even remembered West was his brother, outside of context clues that had led him to the conclusion.

But he was Prussia. He was the Free State of

[its_the_mileage]

Indy looked up from scrubbing the table to see Gilbert Beilschmidt standing nearby, conspicuously not carrying cleaning gear. One of the food fighters, then. He ought to be old enough to know better.

The flicker of irritation died when Indy remembered the man had lost his brother. Rumor suggested room changes did occasionally happen, but Indy hadn't seen his roommate since dinner the other night, and that was a bad sign. Gilbert looked in a remarkably fair mood under the circumstances. Maybe the self-proclaimed living embodiments of nations didn't feel the same way about siblings as ordinary mortals), Indy thought dryly, but still, he should say something, even wary as he still was of the Beilschmidts.

"Good morning," he said, slowly soaking and wringing the sponge so he could focus his gaze on Gilbert Beilschmidt without appearing to stop working. "I'm sorry about your brother."

[hat_einen_vogel]

Whatever greeting he'd been expecting to hear back from Jones, the mention of his brother hadn't been a part of it.

Prussia's friendly expression fell away immediately, replaced by confusion. Jones was... sorry about West? What was that supposed to mean? He hadn't actually spoken to his brother since that night with the doppelgängers, and that had been a couple of days by now; had something-...

"W-what do you mean?" he asked nervously.

He really didn't like the sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach, and he tried to mentally shoo it away. There were all sorts of things Jones could have meant, really; it didn't mean that something bad had happened. Maybe West had just gotten hurt a little; something like that probably would have looked pretty bad to a human, but really he'd only be uncomfortable for a while

[its_the_mileage]

That was why he hadn't looked upset.

It was never fun to be the bearer of bad news, but at least hearing that bad news from another person might be better than slowly noticing the disappearance and just wondering. Indy regretted having made the assumption, though.

"Sorry," he said. "I thought you knew already. I saw your brother at dinner the night before last, but not since then. Another new arrival has moved into my room."

The sponge was dry. Indy dunked it and squeezed it again just for something to do with his hands. What could you say in a situation like this, especially to someone you didn't know well? A disappearance might at least be a step up over the violent death a patient might have at the hands (or jaws) of one of Landel's lab rats, but that would be cold comfort. "I'm sorry," he repeated after a beat.

[hat_einen_vogel]

The sinking feeling didn't get any better as Dr Jones explained. It had only gotten worse, though Prussia wasn't going to stop trying to ignore it. The night before last... That would've been the night he'd run into Minako, the night after the doppelgängers. The last time Jones had seen West had been after the last time Prussia, but really, it only came down to not having seen him yesterday. That wasn't long at all.

"Maybe he just changed rooms," he suggested after Jones had apologized again. "I've been moved around to three different rooms already; just because you guys aren't sharing a room now, that doesn't mean......"

Mean what? Mean that West had disappeared? That he was gone?

There was a long pause before Prussia spoke again, but when he did, he didn't finish his previous thought, "You've been here longer than I have, Dr Jones." The man had never said as much explicitly, but ever since they'd met he'd come across as knowledgeable, experienced. Jones knew more than Prussia did about this place; he was convinced of

[its_the_mileage]

"It's possible," Indy agreed. "If you haven't seen him since then, I'd try asking on the bulletin board. Nothing about Ludwig Beilschmidt had struck Indy as particularly distinctive, aside from the man's screwball ideas about being Germany, but he must know other people after a few days. Or maybe one of the four female patients would've noticed his Aryan good looks

[hat_einen_vogel]

The morgue... Yeah, that was good idea. Prussia felt pretty confident he wouldn't find West there but, it wouldn't be a bad idea to check if this happened to someone else. It would have made confirming Raph's death a whole lot easier.

And then there was the brainwashing. That seemed just as impossible to Prussia as West dying, but... No matter what he may have said to Austria, Hungary's behavior when she'd visited had been pretty damn weird. Was that what had happened to her? Had she... been here before him, and gotten brainwashed once they were done with her? She was way stronger than that, but...

"I hope they're sent home," he finally said. If West was back home, that would be a good thing. Hell, it would be a great thing-no worrying about what might happen to their country in West's absence, no worrying about being cut off from the land. Maybe West could even do something about this damn place, now that he knew about it

[its_the_mileage]

"If so, they don't write back to tell us," Indy replied wryly. Hard to believe they hadn't remodeled that mail room upstairs into something more Landel's style, like a torture chamber or a breeding ground for dog-sized termites. Maybe it was for the benefit of visitors.

He didn't answer at first when Beilschmidt asked about the visitors, just kept working his way around the table. It would've been easy to avoid the question, but that didn't quite sit right, somehow. Without looking up, Indy said, "My father. They said he'd been a patient, and he had a partial file in the discharge records, but if he was here, I never knew about it." His voice was grim.

Indy didn't like talking about it, especially to someone he didn't particularly trust. After a pause, he switched topics: "I can't figure these guys out." A quick jerk of his thumb at the armed soldiers along the wall made it obvious who he meant. "It'd be nice if the changing of the guard meant we might actually start getting some answers, but this doesn't seem like a promising start

[hat_einen_vogel]

...Dr Jones did have something of a point. If people who'd disappeared had gone home, writing back was the least they could have done-they certainly hadn't done much about busting the rest of them out of here. But then again, what could a handful of individuals do? West could do a lot more than any of them combined, but Prussia wasn't going to just hold his breath and wait to be rescued, either. He wouldn't stop trying to get out of here by his own power

[its_the_mileage]

Indy's first impulse was to be impressed by the sudden display of intelligent insight, before he remembered that it was no wonder someone who billed himself as the personification of Prussia talked with such authority about military issues

[hat_einen_vogel]

....Oh, right; the intercom. With all the confusion about what the hell had happened last night, Prussia had practically forgotten what had been said over it. Dr Jones' mention of it served to jump-start his memory.

While he definitely liked the improvements this military had brought so far-proper uniforms, someone who knew how to give orders instead of all that leading around and coaxing-he agreed with Dr Jones on one thing.

"I can't say I like the idea of playing along either, but it could be worth it if it gets us closer to out of here." Even if he liked the changes they'd brought, it wasn't his military. It wasn't even West's military.

Nevertheless, he instantly straightened to attention at the piercing whistle that was issued a moment later. If he did decide to leave a good impression on the new order around here, he'd already gotten off to a bad start. He needed to improve on that, just in case; he could always change his mind later on