How to Define a default stroke in InDesign

For years I had a default stroke of 0.25 point (black) set and it worked fine. Now, whenever I go to create a new line (I use these for callouts), the settings are correct, however the line path is created but without a color or width assigned to it. Just the "placeholder" is present, which I have to go in and fix Every. Single. Time.

I need to do hundreds of these and I don't know what I messed up (or when), but it's driving me crazy. Any thoughts?

In this top image the supposed-default setting of black/0.25pt is selected.

As soon as I attempt to draw a line with these settings this is what results:

Result: 0 pt line, no stroke color.

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