Red -Solo- Cup

[Cezerny]

A thread for me, myself and I.

Cezerny had found himself a secluded area of the hideout, up the way from the main gathering area. A little tucked away room that looked like it might have at some point been used for perhaps storage, or some meaningful reflection. The floor of the room was covered in sand and caused the tile to be gritty and dangerously slippery beneath one's feet, but Cezerny was growing used to the bits of quartz and sediment in his shoes, down his shirt, and raining from his hair whenever he shook his head. It was there in the midst of the sand that he sat, shoes off and a jar of cookies sitting before him.
He had been in this room for two days now, recalling the image of Rinko's seal in his mind, sketching it in the sand and considering it. He adjusted prongs on the seal, sketched seal atop seal atop seal and applied chakra, but the results were not to his satisfaction.

Swiping a hand over the drawing and wiping his slate clean, he reached into the jar with his opposite hand, drawing two cookies and ramming one into his mouth. With his other finger, he drew half the seal, staring at it as he chewed. He set the second cookie atop his blonde mop and dusted the crumbs off his fingers before crossing his hands atop one another and concentrating chakra into the seal. It glowed hot for a moment before fading out and disappearing.
"MotherFUCK!" he swore, tilting his head forward and allowing the cookie to tumble forward into his hand, and it was promptly stuffed into his mouth as he wiped his hand through the sand again, smoothing out the already cleared area and growling. He would have to commission her help soon. That was, if they were to have any hope in just bypassing or nullifying the seal instead of just breaking it. He was getting low in chakra. It looked like he was going to be spending another night in here...it was doubtful he had the strength to walk anywhere else worth sleeping.

Cezerny would stop for now, allowing himself to fall back against the wall. He tapped his noggin against the sandstone a few times, as if trying to knock the knowledge loose, groaning a bit as he wiggled his sand-covered toes.

[Sarutobi Sio]

Sio wasn't sure exactly how long she had been in the company of Biju and those who aided them. There was no sunlight down there, no day/night cycle, and so what felt like a couple of weeks was more likely, in reality, more like a couple of months.
In that much time, Sio and Kurama still had not spoken. Their braid sat as tattered as it was that day Kurama had attacked it. The fox just sat in his sealed confines, back to the world, not wanting to utter a word. And Sio was just as content with not talking to anybody, either.

She had tried to train. Honestly, she had. But there was some kind of block there. There was nothing she could do. She still had access to Kurama's power, but it wasn't as if she wanted to use it. If she could have separated herself from it, just worked with what she had and what she could do, she would. She worked on her fire jutsu, and her water techniques with Shadow Clones, but she did not dare access those tailed states that she knew so well.
No...those were HIS. And she didn't need him.

Today, all she was searching for was a place of her own. She liked Rinko enough, but today was one of those 'lady' kind of days, where it wasn't so much a bad day, nothing had really happened, but she was still in a plenty-bad mood for whatever reason. And so she picked through the hideout, checking every place she could for a place she could just unwind and possibly not be bothered by anybody for a couple of hours. But the place wasn't really that big. There wasn't much of anyplace to go.
That was when she noticed the corridor. The corridor with the little door at the end. It looked almost perfect.

Sio quietly opened the door and looked in. It was a nice-sized room...not overly large but cozy. There was sand all over the floor, but that was no big deal. There was a strange jar...looked like there was some kind of food in there. It was hard to tell exactly what it was. Squinting, she advanced further into the room, still staring at the jar. She took a couple of steps toward it, realizing then that there were cookies in it. Not very many, but a few. She squatted down and started to reach in to take a few.

[Cezerny]

Nothing would get past the feral dog...he smelled Sio approaching before he heard her, and he heard her far before he saw her. Still, he didn't move from his position against the wall, instead opting to yawn and close his eyes. The base was big enough...she would likely bypass this little nook and be on her way someplace else.
There was something...eerie and offputting about the jinchuuriki of the Nine-Tailed fox. She seemed...off-kilter. Even beyond her experience with Shu that led her to the custody of the ragtag Biju and Company team. No...whatever this turbulence was within her, it started WAY before that moment.

The footsteps grew closer and closer, and it was obvious that she was not going to pass this place up as the footsteps eventually stopped, the next sound filtering into Cezerny's ears being the turning of the doorknob. The door swung back, stopping short of hitting the mercenary, and he remained silent even as Sio entered the room, looking around cautiously as if expecting someone.
Finally, she crept forward toward the jar of cookies, reaching in.

"Hey, girl." he said, lifting his head off the wall and eyeballing her, a chiding twinkle in his eyes. "You can have one for free, but any more than that, and you're gonna have to pay for them."