Sing Like Sirens (Dustin)

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Of course Kara signed up for a blind date as soon as she heard about it! And she was entirely thrilled to go. It was exciting, not knowing who she would be paired with. If anything, it was a great way to make new friends. And new friends were always good, especially since she still hadn't made that many since moving to England. She made some friends who she saw at the clubs at night, but not really that many serious friends, not like Evelyn, or Brandon, or like Poe was starting to be. She knew a part of the reason for that was that it was hard to explain her situation to people, so Karen preferred that they kept themselves more than not. She, however, was much more interested in becoming social.

She was told to meet her date at the aquarium, and she was just waiting outside now. She had arrived five minutes early, for she felt that was the best amount of time. She was wearing a yellow shirt with a bright pink sweater, and it had been communicated to her date that that is what she would be wearing so they could find her. She had to put down that she was willing to go out with anyone really, regardless of gender, so she had no idea who she was waiting for. She was incredibly excited to see the aquarium, though! Almost as excited as she was to have a new friend to share it with.


@dustin

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Dustin hadn’t been sure about this whole ‘blind date’ situation. He knew that he needed to get back in the game, so to speak, but he wasn’t sure if anyone would ever be able to make him feel the way Vi did. Even now, three months later, her betrayal still felt new and raw. He was hoping that a blind date, without much pressure to commit to something longer term, would be the perfect transition back into the realization that he really was single. Dustin had actually been kind of excited when he saw the owl announcing that his date would take place at an aquarium. He had kind of been hoping that there would be flying of some sort involved, but Dustin also realized that a blind date ought to make both people comfortable, instead of just one. Besides, there were sure to be loads of cool fish, and maybe even some sharks at the aquarium. They weren’t as cool as birds, but again, Dustin was biased. He made his way towards the aquarium, sticking his hands in his pockets as he did so. Since they were in a Muggle area, he was wearing some casual-ish Muggle clothes – khakis and a button-up shirt in Gryffindor scarlet. There were a few people milling around the entrance to the aquarium, but his date had told him what she was going to be wearing, so she was easy to spot. Dustin sidled over, giving her his patented charming smile. “Hey. I’m Dustin.” He kept his hands firmly in his pockets, not wanting to awkwardly shake or anything. He was fine with just smiling.

@karen

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Kara was just hanging and waiting when her date found her and introduced himself! What a smile that was! She grinned, giving him a nod, "hi! Kara, as I'm sure you've guessed," she laughed. Obviously he knew who she was! "And you're that seeker," she chuckled. She had heard of him before, even though she didn't follow quidditch that closely. "Shall we?" she said, turning toward the aquarium and leading the way inside. She didn't really consider that calling him 'that seeker' would be weird to muggles or even consider that maybe he didn't want to be seen that way, but she just said what came to her mind first, which is what she often did.

"Kind of strange being set up on a date, isn't it? But the mystery of it all is fun!" she exclaimed. She would honestly do this many times if she could. But for now, she was focusing on this date at hand! "Have you been to this aquarium before?"

@dustin

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Dustin smiled at his date. He had indeed guessed that she was Kara, since that was the name of the girl he was supposed to be meeting. “I hope my reputation doesn’t precede me.” Dustin said smoothly when Kara stated that he was “that Seeker”. Truth be told, he was rather thrilled to be recognized, but he didn’t want to seem like one of those guys with a big head… even if he could be that way sometime. “We shall.” Dustin said, offering an arm to her in case she wanted to do that thing where she held onto it as they walked.

Dustin shook his head when Kara asked if he had ever been to the aquarium before. “I have six younger sisters, so getting us all out of the house to go to an aquarium wasn’t really possible.” He said with a laugh. It was an ordeal enough to get all seven of the kids ready in the morning. Dustin thought his parents probably would have fainted if they had to think about excursions like the aquarium. “What about you? Ever visited before?” Kara didn’t sound British, but Dustin had learned better than to assume anything about his dates, which meant that his leading question would have to do for now.

@karen

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Kara laughed as he spoke and shook her head, "oh, don't be coy. Confidence looks good on you," she complimented. He seemed confident to her, at least. And quite charming too! He offered his arm and she gladly looped hers through the gap, smiling at him with her big goofy grin. "Such a gentleman! she noted.

He explained how he had a big  family and that it was hard to get them all to one place like this. She knew plenty of big families that did stuff like that, but she didn't want to devalue his parents or anything by saying that. "Six! And all younger? You must have learned how to parent from a young age," she chuckled. "I only have one sister. An older one, so she had to deal with me as a child," she missed Alexis like crazy, and felt a little whimsical about that for a moment.

"As for this aquarium, no I haven't! I've only lived in England for a little under a year," she explained. "I've been to the Seattle aquarium back in the States, though. It's pretty magnificent! Ooh!" she saw a tank with an adorable little crab up ahead and tugged on his arm, leading him over to it.

@dustin

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Dustin couldn’t help but grin when Kara said that confidence looked good on him. That was the sort of compliment that he soaked up like a sponge, and being called a gentleman helped stroke his ego a bit, too. Maybe this was exactly what he had needed to get back in the whole dating game. Even if things didn’t go great with Kara, he was at least not going to make a fool of himself if he decided to pursue someone else.

Dustin nodded when Kara repeated what he had said about six sisters. “Mostly I learned how to stay out of other people’s arguments.” Dustin said with a small laugh. Trying to referee his sisters was an exhausting task, especially when there were so many of them. He didn’t want to be perceived as taking sides or loving one of his sisters more than the others, so staying out of it had just been the easiest thing to do. “Were you a wild child?” The Gryffindor asked curiously. The words “deal with” didn’t make him optimistic about Kara being one of those kids who was content to sit in the corner with a book, and her personality also didn’t seem to go along with that. Her as a toddler, on sugar… now that would be interesting.

“Why’d you decide to move?” Dustin asked, allowing himself to be tugged over to look at a crab in one of the tanks. Dustin chuckled a little. “You ever seen The Little Mermaid?” He asked Kara. The crab was a dead ringer for Sebastian, in his opinion.

@karen

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Kara laughed, "a wise choice," she said with a nod. With that many kids in one house Kara was sure there were arguments galore. Kara and Alexis had enough of their own, and there were only two of them. Though, they were best friends more than not, though. She nodded vigorously at his question, "quite so, a good chunk of the time. Wild and... curious," curious was a good word to describe Karen as a child, right? She was always looking into things and trying to figure out how things worked. At least, that's what Kara had heard.

He asked why she decided to move and she shrugged, "I just wanted to try something new, really. Life back home was a little complicated anyway," her still having not told her parents she was magical had that affect. At the mention of The Little Mermaid Kara grinned and clapped three times, "yes! We were a big Disney family in my house. Mulan was always my favorite, personally," she said. She leaned forward to survey the crab with a happy grin, her eyes crinkling a little at the sides.

@dustin

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Kara agreed that she had been a wild child, and Dustin chuckled. He had guessed right. “Wild and curious are a good match.” He commented. He liked to think that that was a good description for him, though Dustin had gotten a lot less wild since Christmastime, and was only ever curious when it came to Transfiguration and Quidditch. “Curiosity does need to be tempered sometimes, though.” He added. Dustin’s sisters – the Ravenclaw ones, at least – seemed to get in trouble fairly often thanks to their curiosity, and sometimes Dustin wished that they would stop and think before shoving their noses into something.

“Don’t I know about complicated.” Dustin muttered. He had thought a secret girlfriend was pushing things, but Evelyn had had a secret fiancé and… yeah, he was probably never going to get over that one. Dustin grinned when Kara responded enthusiastically about Disney movies. “Looks like Sebastian, right?” Dustin asked, pointing to the crab and hoping that he was right. “My middle name’s Ariel, so I was always partial to The Little Mermaid.” He explained. “My mom insists that it means lion or something like that, and a lion was kind of my school’s mascot.” Dustin shrugged. Since they were in a Muggle place, he would go for that description to describe being in Gryffindor – hopefully Kara would know enough about Hogwarts to know what he meant.

@karen

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She nodded, agreeing with his statement that wild and curious were a goo match. Then he said that curiosity needed to be tempered sometimes and her eyebrow raised, "and does the wild, too?" she questioned. Really, Karen had gotten into some trouble because her curiosity wasn't 'tempered'. Kara was sure that she would get into even more.

Dustin muttered something about knowing complicated. She was glad he grinned at her comment about Disney, though. She giggled, leaning forward to look at the crab. "It certainly does! It's red, so that's a start," she chuckled. Then he said his middle name was Ariel so he liked The Little Mermaid, and she turned toward him, head tilting to the side. "It means... lion? I was not aware of that..." She couldn't remember for the life of her which Hogwarts house was a lion right now, though! "Do you think it suits you? The lion mascot I mean."

@dutsin

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Dustin shrugged when Kara asked if the wild needed to be tempered, too. “I think the nature of being wild is that it can’t be tempered, so trying to be less wild might just backfire.” There were some things – and some people – that weren’t meant to be contained, and trying to do so only lead to heartache for everyone involved.

The Gryffindor laughed loudly when Kara said that the crab was red, which was a step closer to being like Sebastian. He didn’t know why it was so funny to him, but it just… was. The fact that they were in a crowded Muggle place made the date all the nicer, Dustin thought, because they could ignore the fact that the Wizarding world was on the brink of war. “Lion of god, I think? Something lion-y.” Dustin said with a shrug. It was just his middle name, so he wasn’t that concerned with the etymology. “I’ve been told so.” Dustin replied when Kara asked about his lion mascot. “Some think I’d be better suited to a snake.” Dustin didn’t think himself particularly close to Slytherin, except for in his ambition. Life would have been different if he had been in Slytherin – his relationship with Vi being one of them. Dustin blinked away the thought. “Do you think they have an aviary? I heard some aquariums have birds.” Dustin loved to show off, so showing his affinity for birds on a date sounded like a great way to continue keeping Kara interested.

@karen

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'Trying to be less wild might just backfire', he said and she grinned widely. "You know, I think I like you Dustin," she said with a firm tone and a short nod. He was cool, she liked that. She liked that he recognized that the 'nature of being wild is that it can't be tempered'. That was basically her life, after all. She knew that she wasn't meant to be tempered... even though she often was by Karen at times. Well, Karen tried.

Dustin laughed loudly as she mentioned the color of the crab and she laughed along with him. Wow his laugh was refreshing! It was honest. He tried to explain the lion thing further but clearly didn't have that much to add to it. She nodded, accepting it. He said that he had been told that Gryffindor suited him, but that he would have been better suited in Slytherin - some said. Kara was proud of herself for remembering the house names, though it was easy having been writing Brandon for so many years. "I think I would have been a lion. So my friend Brandon says," she explained. Then, he asked about an aviary and her brow furrowed, "I bet they do! Shall we search for it?" she didn't really wait for an answer before she started walking.

@dustin

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Dustin smiled at Kara. “I think I like you, too.” This was what a first date was supposed to be like – carefree and with a lot of laughter, just spending time with someone to figure out whether or not you wanted to spend more time with them. It occurred to Dustin that his dates with Vi hadn’t really been that… open. They both had so many secrets they were keeping from each other, even if they didn’t realize that was what they were doing. Even though he and Kara hadn’t talked about anything super substantial, Dustin didn’t feel the need to dance around words beyond what was required by their location.

“Us lions have to stick together, then.” Dustin said with a grin. “What was your friend?” He asked, curious. He was pretty sure this Brandon fellow wasn’t a Gryffindor, because Dustin would have remembered the name, but that still left three other houses to consider. Maybe one of his sisters knew this Brandon person. Dustin nodded when Kara asked if they should search for the aviary, though apparently his approval wasn’t necessary since Kara was already walking. “I should warn you, birds and I have a thing.” Dustin said as he began scanning the pathways for signs to get to where the birds would be.

@karen

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Dustin said he liked her too and she grinned, happy to hear it. He said that 'us lions' had to stick together and she bit her bottom lip as she giggled at that. She felt proud to be an honorary lion. "Badger," she answered, her voice buzzing with affection. She loved Brandon and being in the house of the sweetest ones, as far as she had heard, suited him very well. "Last name is Fisher. He's in his last year," she explained. She didn't bring up the whole switching to Durmstrang thing. It seemed irrelevant.

he As they headed to the aviary as he said that he and birds had a thing. "A thing? That sounds... cool, depending what that thing is," she chuckled. She searched the signs until she finally saw a bird symbol and an arrow. She pointed ahead, "found it!"

@dustin

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Dustin made a mental note to ask his sisters if any of them knew a guy with the last name Fisher. The name didn’t ring a bell for Dustin, but he also wasn’t friends with that many Hufflepuffs – he preferred to have friendships in his own house, especially after he had played professionally, because there just wasn’t enough time to meet up with people in the other houses. “Never heard of him, but I bet one of my sisters has.” Dustin said, to put that subject to rest for now.

“It’s definitely a cool thing.” Dustin promised Kara. He wasn’t going to say that he had an affinity for birds, just in case any Muggles heard him, but he was certain that anyone who was familiar with the concept of animal affinities would understand he had one when he stepped into the aviary. Dustin held the door to the aviary open for Kara, and then stepped in himself, letting out a low whistle of greeting to all his new bird friends, some of whom were already looking at him curiously. “What do you want them to do?” Dustin asked Kara, trying his hardest not to show off, but failing miserably. He loved getting attention from pretty girls, after all.

@karen

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He said his sisters probably new Brandon, so she let it go. Then he confirmed his bird 'thing' was indeed cool, and then asked what she wanted them to do. She looked at him with wide, excited eyes and then turned back to the birds. "Um... maybe... a tornado formation?" she suggested, not really sure. She'd think of more ideas while he tried that one. Did he just talk to them in their minds? Or whistle? She was full of anticipation. She had always wished she had a cool affinity or something like that, but she knew that wasn't really something you could just make yourself have, no matter how hard you tried. No, she just had dual personalities. There were other cool things to learn, though, like being an animagus but... so much work.

@dustin