[RL with Birkin]

[screwloose]

This time Birkin was coming to him, and that suited Stein just fine. He knew on some level that leaving his world for a bit would do him good, but he was involved in some new projects and still trying to work out how to deliver his last one to Medusa. It wasn't a good time to leave.

But a little company was always welcome, especially if it was like-minded company.

He'd taken a little trip to the store earlier in the day and bought an array of liquors - some bourbon, some gin, some tequila, and some rum. He didn't really know what Birkin liked, but he figured it wouldn't hurt to have a variety on hand.

And now he was at the computer, poking his nose around and waiting.

Comments

[screwloose]

Stein smirked back, realizing that Birkin was joking, and laughed along with him, sipping his drink with one hand while he turned the bolt in his head with the other.

"I think Vanessa has had a terrible influence on you," he said, leaning a little closer, just to see what Birkin would do. "I know you're only joking," he went on, reaching for him and curling his fingers around his tie. "But I do find you very interesting. I wonder what you'd do with the right...push."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin quickly glanced down at the hand holding his tie. "Wouldn't it be the right pull in this particular case?" The scientist chose to simply widen his smirk and raise an eyebrow, daring Stein to continue. Just how was his current experiment going to react to that little catalyst he wondered. Shame he didn't think to bring his clipboard to take notes.

"And I'm fairly certain this has very little to do with Vanessa's influence over me. I highly doubt she even knows I'm here."

[screwloose]

"Well, then that's even more interesting," Stein said, curling the tie through his fingers. He leaned and set the half-full beaker of rum down.

Then he reached up and tightened the loose tie until it sat snugly, almost uncomfortably, against Birkin's Adam's apple. "How would you like to go examine my new creation?" he offered in a virtual purr, like a contented cat.

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin swallowed hard, not any easier thanks to the tie. It had been years since he's actually warn his tie properly and had managed to forget just how hard it could be to breathe. "Is it? How so?" He cleared his throat slightly; he was going to loosen that stupid thing as soon as they started working.

"I would love to see her, though in my current state, I doubt I could actually do much." Birkin had no reason to deny it; after four-ish glasses of rum, he was pretty much drunk. He set his own beaker down, wondering what game Stein was playing by asking him that.

[screwloose]

Stein smirked, enjoying the other man's evidence of discomfort. "It's interesting that you claim flirting with me has nothing to do with Vanessa," he said teasingly, and getting to his feet.

He held onto the tie, though, using it like a leash as he started for the door. "We don't have to do anything. You can just admire her."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"What makes you think it would have something to do with her?" Really, it was all in the name of science. A very advanced and slightly unorthodox Kinsey test, so to speak.

He resisted the urge to mention that he was not about to be led around like a dog, instead just following Stein to avoid his tie getting any tighter. He coughed slightly; he was never going to make the mistake of wearing a it around the other man ever again.

[screwloose]

Stein liked ties.

"A couple of reasons," Stein said casually, pushing open a thick steel door and leading Birkin into the dimly-lit bowels of his laboratory area.

"You've always claimed to be quite straight. Not only that, but Vanessa mentioned that you were quite absorbed in your work from time to time. To the point where she wondered if you had a depressed sex drive." He glanced over his shoulder at Birkin and shrugged. He could relate. "Besides, flirting with me is the sort of thing she would do."

Down a hall and then on the right another door, which led into a surgical suite. On the steel vivisection table in the centre was a pretty dark-haired girl, laying there unconscious.

All but forgetting about the Kinsey testing, Stein let go of the tie and smiled with pride at the girl. "And here we are," he finished.

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin smirked. "Well, I'm hardly working right now. Besides, what would be the point of flirting with you just because she would? Seems fairly pointless to me." He just shrugged. Stein could believe whatever he wanted; he was never planning on bringing any of this up and would deny it to hell and back if Stein ever mentioned it to anyone.

The first thing he did once Stein released him, was loosen his tie with no small amount of annoyance. Now that he was able to breathe properly, Birkin stared at the girl on the table. "So, how were you able to revive her? I meant to ask you before."

[screwloose]

Stein was still not sure what to believe, but he watched Birkin loosen his tie with a smirk. Maybe he'd poke at him about it a bit more later, but for now his project consumed his attention.

He reached out and stroked the soft hair. "It wasn't really as difficult as I expected. She died of an illness that caused liver and kidney damage, so I gave her a couple of transplants and eradicated the virus with radiation and drugs. Then I sent a controlled pulse of electricity through her body to start her heart and jumpstart cell function once more. It helped that she was well-preserved by cold from the moment she died."

He touched the body, between her bare breasts, where there was a neatly-stitched scar. Her chest rose and fell with the soft breaths. "She's on a pacemaker for now, and a respirator. But I think once Medusa takes over the body it'll work on its own. Of course, there's no brain function, but that's just what I wanted."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin nodded slowly, absorbing the information. "Must be fun playing God like that. Wesker would be jealous." He chuckled a bit, staring at the body. Stein had talent with this sort of thing evidently. Must come with the name. "What happens to Medusa if it doesn't work?"

[screwloose]

Stein smirked. "Well, it might depend on how it happened," he said, pushing up his glasses a little higher on his nose. "If the body dies suddenly, it's possible Medusa could die with it. But that's unlikely. More likely she'll scatter her soul again and wind up having to choose another host. It's not her body... her soul won't be as firmly embedded inside it as it was when she was alive."

He reached for Birkin and curled his fingers around his arm, tugging him closer as he pushed the body up onto its side, facing away from them. "But look at this. I added a little surprise for her."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"Shame that might not work... Don't you ever worry she might choose you as her next host? If I was in your position, that would be the first thing I'd worry about with this little exchange." Birkin stared at Stein for a minute; he was rather protective of his labcoat and didn't usually let other people touch it. Though he seriously doubted the other scientist would even bother listening. He sighed softly and rolled his eyes, but that was all he said on the matter.

Birkin leaned in a bit, narrowing his eyes. "What am I supposed to be looking at?"

[screwloose]

Stein's own labcoat was stitched together from different coats of slightly different fabrics. He wasn't concerned with that, but just wanted Birkin to see what he had to show him.

"I'm really not worried about that," he said, settling the body on its side. "If she could possess me, I'm sure she'd have done it when I first killed her. I think she needs a weak host - an animal, child, or a vegetable like this one. My own soul is far too strong for her to dominate so completely."

He let go of Birkin and parted the girl's long hair with his fingers, revealing a very tiny incision right below the hairline. "Paralysis agent," he said smugly. "I can trigger it remotely."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin looked Stein up and down. "Perhaps it's just because I can't see your soul, but you don't look that strong to me." He shrugged. "I mean, anyone who has a bolt sticking out of their head can't be that formidable. No offense."

He looked at the girl's back, then turned to Stein. Birkin opened his mouth, then shut it, trying to gather his thoughts. He leaned in towards the other man a bit and settled on "You're a genius! She'll never see it coming." He smirked a bit. "Planning on turning it on and cutting her down immediately, or are you actually going to give her a little bit of a head start first?"

[screwloose]

Stein blinked at him in utter amazement. "You do know that I'm the most formidable fighter that Shinigami has ever trained, right?" he asked. "And what does the bolt have to do with it?"

Only the fact that he was pretty sure Birkin would drop like a little girl if he flicked him with a finger stopped him from actually bothering to prove it. Though he might beat him up later, just for fun.

Besides, being called a genius mollified him slightly. "I doubt she'll really give me the opportunity to do it. No, I think I'll wait until she does something to piss me off, like attack me, and then we'll see what she does."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"No, I didn't know that. But if someone were to grab a hold of it," Birkin reached up and grabbed said bolt, "I assume they'd be able to damage you quite well. It's a bit of a hazard, wouldn't you say?" And Birkin would, indeed, drop like a little girl and start crying if Stein did anything. But he's not always the brightest virologist in the lab when it comes to human interaction. "Besides, that's really not saying much considering the others I've met are kids."

Birkin chuckled a bit. "I doubt she'd be able to do much of anything after that."

[screwloose]

The only reason that Birkin managed to grab a hold of the bolt was because Stein let him. He stood still, grinning at the other man in a decidedly dangerous way.

"My kids have killed," he informed Birkin. "Killed serial killers with powers you can't even imagine. Maka and Soul alone have taken down over a hundred together."

His grin widened. "And they couldn't even touch me."

He grabbed Birkin by the sides of the head, moving so fast the other man didn't have a chance to react. And then he attacked his soul directly, right through the palms of his hands.

It felt - and looked - like Stein had just electrocuted Birkin. There was screaming, and then Birkin fell unconscious, bleeding from the nose, ears, eyes and mouth.

((If you don't like this I can edit and back up. I was going to ask you first, but you vanished and I wanted to post it so I wouldn't forget. ^_^ There'll be no permanent damage, but it hurt like a BITCH, and when Birkin wakes up he's strapped to an operating table :| ))

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

The first thing he noticed was that his head hurt. A lot. Worst hangover of his life. Birkin tried to lift his hand to rub his aching head, then realizing he couldn't move it. At all. Oh, right. Stein electrocuted him somehow or another. His head hurt far to much to focus on the particulars.

Birkin cracked an eye open, noticing that he was still in the lab, which was a bit of a relief but... The fact that he couldn't move and a quick glance around the room revealed that he must have been on one of the operating tables sort of damaged his calm. "I am never drinking again..." Birkin mumbled to himself. He started trying to move to test the limits of those damn straps. He couldn't help but notice how ironic this all was. All those test subjects of his that ended up in this same position with some psycho smiling down on them... He understood why they started screaming when they woke up now.

[screwloose]

And here was the psycho, smiling down on Birkin. "Ah, you're awake."

Stein leaned over Birkin thoughtfully, stroking light fingers down his chest. "I thought about dissecting you, but I did promise. How's your head?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin resisted the urge to scream in terror, and settled on a completely unamused glare. "Thank you. You're all heart. I can't imagine why anyone would diagnose you as a sociopath. " He gasped slightly at the contact, but just glared harder. "And it hurts terribly. What did you do to me?"

[screwloose]

"I attacked your soul directly with my own," Stein explained cheerfully. "Dominated it, you might say." If you were Vanessa.

He ran light fingers down Birkin's chest, hooking the fingers in his tie and undoing it deftly, letting it fall away. "You're not much of a fighter, are you? More focused on the science, I suppose."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

He was in no mood for Stein's cheerful attitude at the moment. "If you ever even think of doing that again, I swear I'll..." He knew there was no threat he could actually sling that would phase the other scientist in the slightest. Damn it. He contemplated using Wesker, but Birkin really didn't feel like being beaten up again once Wesker found out. And Wesker could always find out. The sentence probably sounded better unfinished, anyway.

Birkin practically snarled as his tie was undone. "Get. Your hands. Away from me." Hell, if he could move far enough, he would have gladly tried to gnaw through his bonds or even tried to bite his oh, so gracious host. But he couldn't and the best he could accomplish was a killer glare and some feeble struggles. "Okay, wonderful. You are stronger than I am. Now, let me go; there's no reason to keep me here."

[screwloose]

Stein was terribly fascinated by how pissed off Birkin was. It was almost animalistic.

"You're the one who grabbed onto something that's embedded in my skull, to prove a point that it was a weak-point in battle," Stein pointed out with bemusement. "And now you're upset that I retaliated?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin took a few shaky breaths, trying his hardest to calm himself down. Not that it worked, exactly. In reality, his eyes were darting around the room, looking for... He didn't know what, exactly. Help in some form or other.

"If I'd decided to twist that ridiculous thing, I doubt you'd be so smug right now. I was proving a point; not trying to hurt you. And I'm not upset." In a massive amount of pain and scared to death was a bit closer to the truth. Birkin swallowed hard, eyes still darting along the walls. He was going to get himself killed in this stupid place wasn't he? A fitting end, he supposed. "Someone's going to come looking for me, Stein." Though the scientist figured if anyone even noticed his absence, their reaction would be more jubilant than worried.

[screwloose]

Stein laughed. "If I'd thought for one moment that you would actually try to hurt me, you wouldn't have gotten within two feet of that 'ridiculous thing'," he informed Birkin. "But I had to prove a point, too."

He pulled out a cigarette and lit up, laughing again. "Who'll come looking for you - Vanessa? You claim Wesker is dead, and so far as I know you don't have any other friends. Vanessa isn't exactly a threat. I'm pretty sure she'd enjoy you right here, anyway."

He lowered the cigarette, blowing a cloud of smoke towards the ceiling. "Funny thing that," he added. "I'm pretty sure you've been lying to me about Wesker."