Impulse

Participants:

amato_icon.gif munin_icon.gif

Scene Title Impulse
Synopsis Munin catches up with Amato at Eagle Electric several hours after his fight with Ethan.
Date November 11, 2008

Eagle Electric

Most notable business collapse in Queens was that of Eagle Electric, a major manufacturer based out of Long Island City for decades, comprised of acres of warehouses and manufacturing plants designed to produce electronic components to suit all sorts of needs. The western warehouse of the Eagle Electric lot is an enormous and foreboding red-painted building made entirely from sheets of ridged steel. Amidst the grass growing up through the cracks in the pavement and the burned out cars in the parking lot, it seems just as uninhabited as the rest of the area. A large and ruined sign at the top of the office and manufacturing building prominently reads, "Eagle Electric—Perfection Is Not An Accident."


Some might see Amato's flight to Eagle Electric as flocking to Kazimir's comforting skirts, but Amato's presence in the warehouse is either unknown or has gone unnoticed or ignored by his master. In truth, Amato sees the derelict home base of the Vanguard a sanctuary of sorts from Ethan, and that is exactly what he requires, if only mentally, at the moment.

The Conscience of Kazimir sits in what was once an office that oversees the warehouse floor, one of a few in the upper story of the building. His duffel bag, still packed, rests against one wall alongside a newly purchased sleeping bag. Even if the Vanguard can afford his daily hotel bill, it is an unnecessary expense that the Italian has decided to no longer indulge in for several reasons.

Evening brings with it a chill, and Amato finds himself wrapping both his wool coat and a scratchier, charcoal gray wool blanket around his lanky frame in an effort to keep warm as he sits on the concrete floor.

There is only one thought in the man's mind as he stares at the blank wall, its plaster crumbling away from its framework of wood and brick.

When Munin arrives at Eagle Electric in search of Amato, the irony of the situation is not lost on her. Here she is, Queen of the Runaways, looking for a fully-grown man so she can hopefully talk some sense into his skull and convince him to come home. Amato will recognize the unique sound of her footfalls, ballet flats scuffing against the pavement, as she approaches the warehouse with her small hands cupped around her mouth to elevate the volume of her voice and send his name echoing across the property.

So far, her birds have turned up nothing. She's starting to get worried.

It takes a few moments, and a few echoes of his name, for Amato to be pulled from his trance-like state. He stands slowly, his bones quietly protesting his weight in the cold atmosphere, but he makes his way to the single, broken-out window that looks down from the office he has chosen to the near-abandoned street below.

His face can be clearly seen in the frame, his pale hair and bandages bright against a monochromatic gray backdrop. He says nothing, but his expression isn't as much cold and uninviting as it is distant and preoccupied. After he is sure the girl has seen him, he returns to his previous position, letting that singular thought pulse once more, much like a second heartbeat reverberating in his skull.

Munin stops beneath that very window, shifting one hand to act as a sort of makeshift visor, shielding her eyes against the fading light of the sun. Her voice is a little softer now, a little less hoarse now that she isn't worried about screaming her vocal chords raw in the search for him, but still loud enough for her words to carry all the way up to his ears. "You can't sleep in there."

Beneath his coat and blanket, Amato's tie is loose and his vest and jacket are unfastened; however, all clothing is retained for the sake of warmth. When he hears Munin's voice again, he makes a slow return to the window and looks down at her, the left side of his face still somewhat obscured by his bandages.

"I most certainly can," he retorts, his voice cold and forceful. Who says he can't? Why is Munin saying he can't? "You would be surprised to know the various places I have successfully laid my head to rest."

"No," Munin reiterates, "you can't, because when Kazimir finds out he's gonna march up there and bludgeon you with his cane." The young woman lets an irritated huff through her nostrils, squinting to get a better look at the Italian in the window. He doesn't look any worse than he did when he blew out of Ethan's flat, but as Munin knows looks can often be deceiving when it comes to assessing another person's mental well-being. "Amato," she tries again, "you aren't gonna stay away forever, are you?"

"Of course I won't," Amato says with a strange smile that is likely unseen at Munin's distance. "But neither are you. If you want to talk, come up. It's silly to speak this way." And, in an attempt to force the young woman's hand, Amato retreats from the window frame once again.

Under normal circumstances, Munin might yield, bending to Amato's will. Luckily for her — but perhaps unluckily for Amato — these aren't normal circumstances. She remains where she stands, though her arm drops back down to her side, hands slipping into the pockets of her pea coat. "I'm not coming up." Not that she doesn't want to talk. "You're acting like a child."

It is obvious that Amato's retreat didn't take him far, as his face soon reappears. "No. I only do not want to broadcast my affairs to the whole of the city." Even if there are few nearby ears to hear it. Amato sighs, then shakes his head. "I apologize for what happened earlier today." Not that it is Munin that he really needs to apologize to, assuming he needs to apologize to anyone. "…You should not have been made to see that." A breach in professionalism, no matter what the cause, is never appropriate behavior, no matter where the guilt lies.

No, she shouldn't have. Amato at least has Munin's agreement there. "It was bound to happen sooner or later," she says, though she doesn't sound particularly happy about it. No big surprise there. "With the way you two are always stepping over each other, trying to climb your way into Kazimir's good graces." When you're as quiet as Munin is, and when you spend as much time simply observing like Munin does, you notice things that other people might not. This is one of them. "He pushes you. You push back. Eventually someone's going to get hurt."

Amato could easily be described as a rigid sort of man, and Munin is one of the only people who has ever seen him in any different sort of light. He slumps against the window's frame, turning his head so that only the right, unharmed side of his face is easily visible. "I don't push nearly as hard or often as he does," he grumps, his demeanor all of a sudden sullen and withdrawn - not the upstanding, polished individual Munin has observed on much more frequent occasions.

Sighing, Amato leans his head against the window frame, then swallows a growing lump in his throat. "He's going to kill me, Eileen."

"Been talking to Sylar, have you?" Munin asks, sounding desperately unimpressed. "Did he paint your picture?" Unless Amato has developed some sort of precognitive ability in addition to the one he already has, Munin suspects he's overreacting to what he already knows about Ethan Holden. In his defense, he is a murderer — she just somehow doubts he'd turn his weapons on Amato without Kazimir's nod of approval. "What do you suppose Kazimir and Dina would do if he did?"

"I saw it," Amato counters in a firmer tone. "Before he let me go, he committed the sin in his mind." And it is an eerie sort of thing, seeing through the eyes comrade (even one your not fond of) as he aims a gun at your own head. Even remembering it forces Amato to close his eyes.

"God only knows," is his answer to Munin's second question, but it is a statement filled with hopelessness and doubt, not conviction as it might have otherwise been. Obviously, Amato's death can't be part of the Divine Plan. Such a thing is unimaginable.

This new piece of information stuns Munin into silence, though she doesn't stay that way for very long. "It was an impulse," she murmurs after a moment, loud enough that he should be able to hear her in spite of the distance between them. "That's all. It doesn't mean anything. Haven't you ever been tempted to throttle him?" It's a rhetorical question, of course; Amato has made his feelings about Ethan very clear. "I know I have, and he's still around."

Slowly, Amato turns his head to look down at the young woman, her already petite form made even more diminuative by distance. "And what would you have me do?" he chokes out, an edge to his voice that can only be explained by the stress of the situation. "You know as well as I that he is not an impulsive person." Even if he may say the wrong thing often enough, Ethan's actions are calculated and planned, each with a purpose and a goal. Even the tease that crossed the line and ignited the fight this afternoon was designed to be one more push against the man's rival.

"You can apologize for attacking him, for starters," is Munin's suggestion, as bitter as it tastes in her mouth. She was there. She knows who is primarily responsible for what happened earlier tonight, and it isn't Amato. "He has no right to treat you the way he does, it's true, but the first step to mending bridges is getting the groundwork out of the way."

If Amato's immediate silence is any indication, apologizing to Ethan is one of the last things he wants to do right now, if at all. He straightens his posture and turns his head away again. "Kazimir doesn't want you doing anything else in conjunction with the Work," he states blandly, changing the subject while trying to grasp at that rigid persona he carries most often. "I'll find a new apartment tomorrow. I am already here, and there is no sense in altering that immediately."

There is a pause, during which Amato swallows and steels himself. "With the doctor, I can only imagine Ethan's place becoming quite crowded." In truth, Amato dislikes the fact that the man has three of the Vanguard's four female members staying with him. It's not healthy for anyone, and the worst is that the Work stands a chance of suffering as well. "I will send word to you when I…come to roost. If you wish to relocate, know that my door is always open to you." Amato turns his head to look at Munin then, the right side of his face noticeably drawn. "There is much I have to mend."

Turning away, the pale man vanishes from the frame for the last time, moving to settle down for the night. Munin is left with the empty window and street as her only company, save for the birds that nest in the eves and on the roof of the abandoned warehouse. For perhaps this night only, the one non-avian member of the young woman's band over which she holds such a subtle yet meaningful control will rest here.


l-arrow.png
November 11th: Strange Meetings
r-arrow.png
November 11th: Mens Rea
Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License