[RL with Birkin]

[screwloose]

Stein stepped through the portal the young man had opened for him without hesitation, and looked around. He honestly had no idea what exactly to expect, other than a laboratory of some kind, and he wasn't disappointed.

There was a twinge of nervousness despite his boldness. Walking blindly into someone else's territory, especially someone Stein knew to be of like mind to himself, wasn't necessarily a smart idea. Then again, Stein was more than capable of taking care of himself. He didn't have a weapon with him, but he could easily kill with his bare hands, if necessary.

He reached up with one hand and rotated the bolt stuck through his head a couple of times, considering his options, then picked a direction and started walking.

Sooner or later, he'd either run across some interesting experiment, or find Birkin himself. Win win.

Comments

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin laughed nervously. Okay, yeah, that was pretty much the long and short of it but... "He and I have known each other for years and years. Wesker would never hurt me. Plus, he needs my help with things; I'm smarter than he is, I'll have you know."

He smirked and pointed at the Licker. He hadn't actually meant for it to sound as bad as it did, but he was willing to roll with it. For now.

[screwloose]

Stein glanced at Birkin sidelong, though he didn't take his eyes off of the creature. He wasn't planning on treating it cavalierly. Birkin might be like him, but that only meant he probably wasn't trustworthy. It was possible this was some kind of trap, and he didn't want to get bitten either out of carelessness or treachery.

"Well, if you were on my world I'd probably have to snap your neck for that," he said thoughtfully, running his fingers over the taste buds. "But it's not my world. Not my problem."

He frowned faintly. "What happened to your wife?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin gulped audibly. That was not the sort of thing he liked to hear from people while he didn't have anyone else near-by. "Well. Good?" There really wasn't a response to that as far as he could tell. "Uh. Hand me a scalpel, would you? To really get the full effect, you need to see them up close..." He was mumbling now, anything to stop thinking about Stein snapping his neck was a good enough thing for him to say.

He sighed. "She died. Because of a lab accident." Hey, it was part of the truth.

[screwloose]

Stein smiled faintly at the response and drew back from the Licker. He picked up a scalpel from a nearby table and handed it over. "Don't worry," he said, trying to reassure the man. "Like I said, it's not my problem. I won't interfere."

He sobered. "I'm sorry to hear that." It was the thing to say, after all.

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

He reached for the scalpel and sighed. "There's a difference between 'not interfering' and still considering me a friend. I wouldn't have told you that if I didn't trust you." Birkin drew the blade out of Stein's hand and bent over the Licker to cut off a small piece of its tongue.

"Thanks. It was really her own fault though. Shouldn't have tried to shoot the damn thing..." Even if 'the damn thing' was him, that was how he felt. "How about you? Ever been married?"

[screwloose]

'Friend'? 'Trust'?

Stein glanced at Birkin askance, considering that. "The information doesn't change how I see you, Birkin," he said honestly. "Don't worry about that."

The callous reply was more in line with what Stein might have expected, and he relaxed slightly. "No, never really bothered with intimate relationships," he said with a shrug. "I had a long-term partnership once, lasted about five years, but then he got married."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin smiled slightly at that. God knows he needed a friend who wasn't Wesker or Vanessa and who didn't think he was a complete monster.

"What a dick," he blurted out. "I-I mean! I'm sure he was a great guy but that was kinda..." He shrugged one shoulder slightly, worried expression on his face. "Dickish." Birkin glanced at the ground. "Though I guess I shouldn't talk. That's pretty much what happened when I got married. My wife wasn't much of a fan of Wesker so - Or did you mean a 'partner' sort of partnership? Because Wesker and I haven't - and I'm not - a-and... Ugh, nevermind, I don't want to know." Birkin had now settled into a lovely shade of red and decided that it was time to shut up now and take the bit of tongue that he'd cut off over to a microscope before he said something really retarded.

[screwloose]

"We had sex on occasion," Stein said, answering the question Birkin hadn't really wanted to ask but obviously wanted the answer to anyway. "We were fighting partners and close...friends, for five years. He was my Weapon, and my favourite test subject. But when he found out I'd been experimenting on him in his sleep, he cut things off."

He shrugged, moving to the microscope to wait his turn to look at the tongue. "I don't think that's really that dickish, to be honest, but it is a shame."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin shot Stein a thumb's up as he put the microscope into focus to let him see the sharp spines coming out of the tongue. "That falls into the category of an 'overshare' and I don't like them from you anymore than I do from Vanessa. And it's not too shocking he decided to cut you off after finding that out."

He'd pulled back from the microscope partially to express his horror and partially to let Stein take a look. "It would take a special kind of crazy to put up with being your science fair project at all, let alone willingly. Considering the circumstances... No, not that dickish. More pitiable than anything. No offense." He laughed nervously.

[screwloose]

"Sorry, I didn't mean to overshare," Stein said, leaning in to take a look. "I was just trying to explain. And you did ask, pretty much."

He peered down onto the slide, his eyebrows quirking as he saw the spines. So the tongue could flay someone just with a slap, it looked like. Beautiful.

"Like I said, I understand why he left, and I don't blame him. We're still friends, if we ever were." He lifted his head, his glasses glinting. "I have to admit I'm a special kind of crazy. And that tongue is a marvel."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

He studied Stein as he looked through the microscope, feeling his pride swell as he noted every little facial twitch. Birkin could always tell when someone liked his work. "Isn't it though? It took months to get the DNA right to make them naturally grow those things after extended exposure." He sighed happily, remembering the look on everyone's face when he finally accomplished it.

"And I somehow figured you were a special kind of crazy from your..." Birkin moved his hand in a circle in front of Stein's face as he tried to think of the word, "Aesthetic."

[screwloose]

"Hmm...?" Stein replied, a faintly innocent tone. He reached up to rotate the bolt, his eyebrows rising. "My aesthetic?"

He grinned. "You've done a great job creating them," he complimented the other scientist. "Any other features you're proud of?" He was actually eager to get his hands even more dirty, and he picked up a scalpel, moving over to the table with the intention of just getting right down to cutting. "What are these used for, anyway? Shock troops?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Oh god that thing made a noise. Birkin felt a tingle creep down his spine. He could have gone without that in the worst sort of way.

"You really think so?" He he a slightly dreamy look on his face, sort of like a sixteen year old girl getting asked out to prom. Usually people who disagreed with his methods couldn't appreciate his creations so when someone actually did, Birkin really let it be known that he appreciated the compliment. "They're used for security, mostly. They can withstand an extreme amount of damage and their hearing is like nothing else. Plus, they usually run around in groups, so if you so much as drop a pin in the area they're guarding... Well, you'll be having a very bad day."

Birkin grabbed another scalpel and pointed to the creature's exposed heart. "If you're planning on seeing more, do what you can to avoid that; they're no use to me dead."

[screwloose]

It was rather adorable. Stein was pretty sure that when people showed appreciation for his own creations, he wouldn't make that dreamy little face. But then again, few people really showed appreciation for what he did, so maybe he would.

He prodded the heart thoughtfully with a finger before leaving it alone. "So they only die if you destroy the heart?" he asked curiously, before going after a lung, cutting away a sample. "What about the brain?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"The brain's a bit better protected. It's still exposed, but shooting them in the head only stuns them." Birkin poked at the frontal lobe for a second. "The heart, for whatever reason, is their biggest weak point. Just stabbing it kills them. They're hearty creatures." Smirk. "Pun not intended."

[screwloose]

Stein chuckled at the admittedly lame joke, though he did find it a bit funny. "I guess they're not too bright," he said, giving the brain a prod with his scalpel before slicing off a bit and dropping it onto a slide also. "You mentioned that the virus only causes this necrosis if it's not injected directly into the bloodstream. What did you call it - a Tyrant? What are those like?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"They're more intelligent than most of the other things I make." Which was sort of an embarrassing set-back, he had to admit. "Right. Tyrants are... Well, they range from looking human - or almost human - to looking inexplicably tall, with green-blue skin, the exposed heart again, and giant claws. And everything you can think of between the two. They were experimental though. The mass-produced ones all look human." And one or two of them looked pretty unassuming most of the time. "They'll always have red eyes though so you can see them coming a mile away. Unless they find a way to hide it, at least." Birkin chuckled good-naturedly.

[screwloose]

Stein looked intrigued by this, and he paused in taking a sample of the necrotized scraps of skin - or possibly muscle tissue, he wasn't sure yet - that adhered to the exposed ribcage. He turned to look at Birkin curiously.

"So they do go through changes, usually, but they can look completely human? Any changes other than the red eyes?" He was definitely intrigued by this. Ugly monsters were interesting, but this sounded like it might be more practically useful than he first suspected.

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"Speed, strength... Fast and agile enough to dodge bullets in some cases. And strong enough to punch through metal." Birkin inwardly shuddered. "But that's really not something you want to get involved with. It's a slightly different virus with a significantly lower success rate." Plus, he wouldn't even dare give it out anyway.

[screwloose]

Stein nodded thoughtfully, thinking of how so very useful such abilities would be. "It's the kind of thing people in my world kill innocents and eat their souls to get," he observed thoughtfully. "But the vial you gave me wouldn't make human-looking Tyrants, I guess?"

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

Birkin didn't bother hiding his disgust at the thought. "Sounds... Appetizing." And he was still grappling with the idea of souls even existing in the first place, so someone eating one was freaky as any thing in his eyes.

"No. That's the one virus I'm not willing to give out."

[screwloose]

Stein chuckled faintly. "I can't say I blame you. It always looked strange to me when my Weapon ate a soul. But he purified the corrupted ones. Spirit wasn't eating innocent souls."

He turned back to the licker and finished taking his sample of unknown tissue, then took all of the samples over to the microscope to examine them each in turn. "I guess I can't blame you."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"That virus is both my biggest accomplishment and biggest failure wrapped into one. Even if I wanted to, I don't exactly keep samples of it around." He'd destroyed the last vial of it years ago to keep it from infecting anyone else. God knows he didn't have the vaccine for it on-hand anymore.

Birkin winced a bit as he thought about it. "No amount of power is worth all that. Eating souls, I mean."

[screwloose]

"But it's worth it to infect yourself with a virus that could turn you into a monster if something goes wrong?" Stein returned, gesturing with a vague wave of his hand towards the Licker.

He shrugged. "I suppose people like Jack the Ripper disagreed with you. But that's what my school exists for. There'll always be someone willing to do something disagreeable for power."

[touchofgenius.livejournal.com]

"You've never seen Wesker fight," he mumbled bitterly. "For some, it's worth it." Not for Birkin though, not by a longshot. Not willingly at least. "People willing to do so much for power don't deserve it. And no one but them wants it." He sighed, playing with his tie nervously. He always hated talking around this sort of thing. Especially around people he liked.