A Sinking Feeling - Emmy

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There were three major problems with being Nicodème Keâts. Firstly, It was hard to travel anywhere without being stared at for being so massively tall. It was a trait he was told he'd inherited from his Grandfather, Tomaz. His height made it rather difficult to blend in and move with the crowd when he simply towered over everyone. The second problem with being who he was, in his own opinion, anyway, was that he was simply too intelligent and curious for his own good. A trait inherited from his mother. But the one thing that seemed to get him worried or accusing looks was... his name. Now, Nicodème was a perfectly nice name. A French derivative of Nicodemus and he was rather fond of the pet name 'Nico' or as a select few called him... 'Nic'.... It was the 'Keâts' that was proving to be the most problematic.

Nico was always the friendly and social sort but introducing himself always made him uncomfortable. That was the trouble with having a grandfather, father, and brother who were wanted by the International Court system. Well, okay so his brother wasn't specifically wanted but Leon got confused for Rio so easily, and Leon is a bit of a trouble mater, that Leon is just simply unofficially on that wanted list. Other than that, Nicodème Keâts had it made. His mother was a time lord, and what that meant to Nico was this: access to a plethora of information and awesome gadgets.

One of which was a Vortex Manipulator he'd nixed from his brother. He was tracking down some strange activity that had piqued his curiosity. It sounded similar to one of his father's stories; children going missing... but what was different was that the children who went missing, the families in questions were either denying they ever had the child in question or they couldn't remember. Why did this interest Nicodème Keâts? The man had nothing better to do. So, the twenty-five year old half Time Lord was leaning as casually as a 7'3” man could, against a tree, listening to a concerned pair of neighbors discussing that they had not seen one of the neighborhood children in several days and that they parents were acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

It was probably nothing. Kid was probably sick and staying indoors until they felt better, but it might be worth looking into, right? So, Nico finally pushed off of his leaning spot and made his way towards the apartment complex, a bit of psychic paper in his inner jacket pocket, ready to be flashed in unwitting faces if they started asking questions. And who better to ask than what looked like a completely bored looking blond. A smirk tugged on his lips as he started walking towards her. “Pardon me, Miss.. If you're not too busy, do you mind if I ask you a few questions?” he asked, flipping open the psychic paper for a quick moment. At a glance, it looked as though he was some sort of Private Investigator.

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Emmy was bored. It wasn’t a new emotion for her, and it was something that she was slowly becoming used to. Her life was a neverending cycle of monotony – she got up, she got dressed, and she went to work in her shop. She worked on the history textbook that she’d been commissioned to work on. Emmy was beginning to hate the subject with a passion because it was always the same mindless dramas repeat over and over ad nauseum. Occasionally, Emmy would chase down aliens, the Doctor, and make a general fool out of herself every time. So it went.

This day was no different. Emmy was dressed rather plainly, as on this particular day she had a strong vibe of ‘I don’t give two flying fucks’ around her. Her blond hair was laying rather limply around her, slightly tangled. She hadn’t put on make-up this morning, so the circles under her eyes were evident. Her keys and ID card hung around her neck on a lanyard that didn’t go with her outfit at all. She knew vaguely about the children that had gone missing, but she didn’t care. She wasn’t a kid. She didn’t have a kid. So why would she?

Once she got to the complex, she began fighting with the lanyard to release her ID and keys. She heard someone approaching her and she clenched her teeth irritably – it was probably the land lady demanding to know what she was up to. The complex was too seedy to have proper security – or ID swipes that worked, but Emmy always went through the motions anyway. She turned around to look at the approaching figure as a shadow fell over her. It definitely wasn’t her land lady. The keys finally came loose just as the man opened his mouth to speak.

“Damn, you’re pretty tall,” Emmy said bluntly. She was a human – quite unbearably human. There were no genetic flaws, and although regular humans had quite a few inconsistencies and flaws, Emmy didn’t. Her brain was set up differently – the TARDIS she’d been conceived on had made her brain different. There were very few perks – a few of those being her penchant for history and clockwork... and that she wasn’t susceptible to telepathy. It was for this reason that she stared at the blank piece of paper. It seemed as though words were struggling to appear, looking like they were being drowned in water.

Emmy raised an eyebrow, and offered a small shrug. “Yeah, sure. About what?” she asked, putting her keys back around her and staring up at her.

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Nico couldn't help but arch a brow when she commented on his height. Well, this conversation was already off to a fantastic start, wasn't it.. Not only, that but he could tell by the way she was looking at him, the psychic paper had no effect on her. He huffed a bit, stuffing it back into his pocket and looking down at her with a slight smirk. He couldn't help but notice just how blue her eyes were. They were almost grey, like his mothers. But as he stared at her, there was no mistaking she was human. But, something seemed familiar about her. Like a smell your grew up around, haven't smelled for a while, and then suddenly out of nowhere, BAM, nostalgia.

“Well.. You seem the pretty observant type” he began, making a slight joke in her obvious comment regarding his height. “Maybe you can help me out. It seems there have been a few missing children reports in the area.. You wouldn't happen to have noticed anyone or.. anything strange lurking about, have you?” He tilted his head gently as if that would somehow even out their height without him stooping down to her level. As he watched her, he couldn't help but notice her rather casual attitude about the whole thing. Not exactly heartless, just.. disconnected.. She was going to need a little incentive to help him if she did know anything.

“I could make it work your while.” he offered, pulled up the sleeve of his jacket, revealing a vortex manipulator and he grinned at her.

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He was staring at her. Emmy crossed her arms, staring back up at him defiantly. She probably looked a mess – she certainly wasn’t dressed up, and she had skipped the make-up, but that still didn’t give him an excuse to stare at her. She cleared her throat pointedly, tapping her foot on the ground as she waited for him to finish his examination. His eyes were very intriguing – a nearly alien pair of blue and green eyes stared down at her. Alien? A devious smile crossed her face as she leaned back, the cogs working in her head.

“Do I?” she asked, obviously teasing him as he told her that she ‘seemed’ the observant type. “I just notice big details at times,” she replied. Her interested expression diminished as he talked about missing children. She shrugged and blew hair out of her face. “They’re probably dead. A few of them were quite annoying, I wouldn’t be surprised if the parents offed them,” she said lightly, unbothered by thoughts of dead children. “They aren’t my children. It sucks for the parents if they were kidnapped, but it’s none of my business.”

Would her parents care if she was murdered? She doubted it. Her parents hadn’t held a conversation with her since she was fifteen. “Worth my while?” she asked, quirking an eyebrow at the manipulator. “Are you propositioning me?”

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“They’re probably dead. A few of them were quite annoying, I wouldn’t be surprised if the parents offed them, They aren’t my children. It sucks for the parents if they were kidnapped, but it’s none of my business.”

Nico arched a brow at her comment. She seemed so cold and indifferent. He wasn't sure what to make of this woman, suddenly. But as she had said, she was observant. He was at a bit of a stand still. Until she made that grin at him and it somehow made his skin crawl. He'd never had anyone look at him like that before. He realized it was probably his eyes and reached into his pocket to retrieve his sunglasses and slipped them onto the bridge of his nose and looked away with a somewhat bashful cough. “So.. You want to help me figure out what's going on? I could.. Make it worth your while.”

“Worth my while? Are you propositioning me?”

He just stared at her a moment and the glasses seemed to slip off his nose, a bright flush of color across his face as he held up his hands. “No.. No no, Goodness, no! I mean.. well.. I mean that.. You could be really helpful and..” he took a moment to reconsider the definition of the word and then hung his head as if in defeat for a moment before returning the gaze. “Yes.. Yes I am. You want in?”

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She rolled her eyes as he pulled on the sunglasses. Really, what was the point of that? “Why are you putting on the sunglasses?” Emmy asked, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one leg as she stared up at him skeptically. “I’ve already seen your eyes. No point in hiding them now, tall, dark and handsome,” she said drily. As he continued talking to her, Emmy’s eyes lit up in amusement as he propositioned her.

Emmy mentioned as such, and his expression was priceless. He backpedaled furiously, and Emmy grinned, her sharp canines exposed. It was amusing him back into the trap she’d laid out. Finally he admitted defeat. “Of course I want in,” she said silkily, her words perhaps a slight innuendo. “Anyway, what was your plan? Concerning the ever so darling children.”