April 28th 2035
Shatterdome, Hong Kong
The Wards
0928
Tooth groaned and grumbled as she dragged her half-awakened carcass all the way to her bunk. She had to spend a whole night inside Blue Winter's harness as the cargo helicopters flew them and Cherno, to home.
She gingerly touched a hand to her stomach and nearly felt her meal from two days prior surface as slush on her tongue. She forced it back down, but groaned all the same. She had been thrown around like a rag doll for the better part of 8 hours. She stole chance looks at Jack when they hit smoother weather and was utterly befuddled. He was asleep. Asleep!
Of course she couldn't be sure of it, he just seemed peaceful as he leaned back in the harness. When they had landed he rose, and stretched with a mighty growl, as if he'd slept in luxury bed instead of a Jaeger harness. He had instantly greeted her with a chipper tone, and set about work as usual as she clambered to her feet.
Which led to now, as lumbered her way to her sweet bed and bathroom that she had been dreaming, somewhat, about for the past few hours.
She heard voices up ahead, and recognized them as the Australian crew that Jack had utterly pummeled single handed. It was an added embarrassment for them that he had been recovering from a aborted Drift sequence. This led to animosity against Jack, and anyone who remotely was close to him. Making Tooth public enemy number one. This also didn't help with building any kind of friendship with the crews.
Tooth shook herself out of her mental rambling. She saw an open door and ducked in at once. She pressed her ear against the solid steel and sighed quietly at hearing the thick accents pass. She rubbed her arms. She had been so worried about being attacked that she didn't notice the room's difference in temperature compared to the outside. She bumped against a desk, and fumbled for a lamp switch.
She gripped it and clicked it into the 'on' position. The room was absolutely Spartan. A traditional sleep mat and pillow were strewn on the floor from her fumbling, the rest of the room was bare save for the desk and light.
She noticed several papers strewn over it and picked one up.
"A wish is something you wait for, a dream is something you will fight for."
She looked through them all. They were all written in the same beautiful script, and all on the same worn out paper. From what she could tell they all seemed like scratch pieces. One was written on a napkin, another on a note card, and countless others scrawled along the walls.
She went rigid upon realizing she was in someone's actual living quarters. She was about to beat a hasty exit, when something halted her.
There sitting on a hollowed out shelf sat two tablets. Stone Tablets. She half-expected the Ten Commandments, but was surprised when she read the first one.
"No excuses. Waste of breath and total bull."
Her eyes traced over all the words written on those two blocks.
"Turn away from saying useless speech.
When you stand firm make sure your feet are in the right place.
Forgive your enemies, but take advantage of their mistakes."
And so, and so on. The last one drove it home to her.
"You are in control."
She traced her fingers over the words painstakingly carved into the granite. She froze when she felt a familiar hand on her shoulder.
"Good evening Tooth."
Jack whispered to her.
Two and two came together in Tooth's mind.
Jack's room. She was in her co-pilot's room.