Practicing on Benches

[Cato Austman]

Cato Austman was a karate kid. He loved the sport. He was always moving when he was younger, so his parents put him in karate to keep him busy. At first, Cato had not been very devoted to it. He would not practice or do his daily meditations, but now it was routine for him. He always got up early to meditate and practice some moves. He meditated three times a day. Once in the morning. Then after lunch. Lastly, he meditated before he went to bed. Without his meditation Cato felt like he was a different person. He was a rude brat when he did not meditate, and he had not meditated when he got his wand from Kiera Potter either. He could only imagine what he had been like with her. Cato set his bag onto a bench on the seventh floor. He then sat on the benched with his legs crossed. He placed his hands on his his legs and relaxed his body. He made sure to keep his back straight. He breathed in, 1...2...3....4, and he breathed out of five. He made sure he kept his thoughts calm. Stressful thoughts would mess up his breathing, and breathing was the most important thing when it came to karate. It was not very early. It was about seven 'o' clock in the morning. There were some students in the halls and various types of noises. It had become easy for Cato to block them out. Sometimes Cato tried to imagine how strange he looked by sitting on a random bench in the school and meditating like a strange person. If he had cared he people thought about him then he would not be here today. Cato took many risks in his life. He would stand on counters, be loud and do things no one else would think of doing. Cato sighed and opened his eyes. He had not friends. He found this to be very boring. Cato was not able to survive without attention from people. He loved being in the spotlight. He loved it when all eyes were on him. It wasn't like he took the fun out of everything. He made everything fun. Yeah, that was Cato Austman.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

The mornings were proving difficult for the young colourblind Gryffindor. He had always not been much of a morning person but, he was sure that come the time he would get up at the right time. It didn't matter if had slept well or not he would get up and be ready for all his classes. It was a nerve racking thing. He was almost worried about not being able to make his classes. He was sure that it would never happen, his own fearing being one of the things that controlled him most. When he was scared or even worried about something, sleep was almost something he couldn't manage and he was always just trying to get. That very morning, well it was reaching the time that he could actually call it almost noon. The young Gryffindor this day did not have to feign the sleep to his roommates. He had sort through them leaving and while on two occasions he had gotten up and stumbled to the bathroom, the young Gryffindor had no actually woken up. What awoke him that day was someone slamming a door. He awoke suddenly. Sitting up in his bad and looking around the room wildly, trying to figure out what the noise had been. After that he had no managed to fall back asleep. He had stayed awake. He had stayed up, he had stayed in bed. Not really doing anything other than just lying in his bed looked up at the roof of his four poster bed. He didn't know if the roof had a design to it. He could see it from this far off. Instead of thinking about much more. The young colourblind boy pushed off his covers and got out of bed. Not liking the cold ground making contact with his feet, or the way he had slept a long time and still felt shattered. Tybalt stretched before turning and lying on the bed to reach his glasses sitting on his bedside table. He  smiled slight as thing came into focus slightly more. Still black and white, but things did look a lot clearer. Tybalt walked to his wardrobe and took out the small sheet of paper from within. He placed it on the bed and then got dressed. Taking the clothes, bringing the tag close to his eyes and then looking at the sheet of paper. Once satisfied he tidied what he didn't need away and headed to get ready. A quick shower, and quick to get changed. This however left him with one small issue, what to do with his day? With this final thought the young Gryffindor made his bed hurriedly, put on a pair of shoes and headed out the door. He had a feeling that while had lost a lot of the day, this would not be a loss. Once he found something to do he would be fine. He just had to find that something.

As it turned out the young Gryffindor did not have to travel too far to find something interesting. He was quickly learning that Hogwarts was the kind of school that always had something happening. It was just that magical. There was always something to see or do. In this case, Tybalt seemed to have stumbled upon a boy who was doing something that looked like mediating. It wasn't something that he had her really seen, or had ever thought about doing. He was a nervous kind of boy, he had always thought that if he did anything with his eyes closed in the school, he'd find himself no sooner being imported to the janitors closet. It was why Tybalt had very acute clostraphobia.  Instead of saying anything the young Gryffindor sat down not too far from the boy and watched him. Almost like he was keeping watch, not like Tybalt would be of any use in a fight, since he tended to run rather than fight. But he was happy to pretend. Very happy to pretend that he wasn't a cowardly little lion. Even if put to the test his pretending would be found out. 

Apologies for how awful this is.
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[Cato Austman]

Cato did not know how he was going to make friends. His need for attention normally drove potential friends away from him. He also liked to do things differently. He did not follow the crowd. He made his own crowd. Cato would never be able to follow a trend completely. He always ended up adding his own flair to trends, fashions and such. The Gryffindor was just not one to 'go with the flow'. He would probably not be here today if he followed the current. Not only would it be boring, but it was like someone, other than his karate teacher, was tealling him what to do.

Cato's eyes landed boy sitting not far from him. He was staring at him. Cato looked around and then let his eyes land on the boy again. "Is there something interesting you are looking at, dude?" he asked curiously and raised an eyebrow at the kid. He looked about his age, but he thought the kid was kind of creepy. He oped the kid came up with a goood answer. He did not want to have to put him on the avoid list.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt Archer was usually a guy who could blend in with any background. He was a chameloen, or so he liked to think of himself. It was all about blending in as muchas possible to avoid being seen by those around him. He didn't want to even think about how much harder his life would've been if he had stood out in the crowd. What made him stand out in a crowd was his life was lacking in colour. Unable to see them, it meant that he was probably the only person in the school who had such a condition. Considering it was an Archer trait, and there were no other Archers. He was the only one of the lot. He was the only one who was at Hogwarts. He was the only person who would be. It was pretty obvious. But, the good thing about no one knowing him at Hogwarts was he good, he could blend in with the crowd. He could just be another small Gryffindor looking forward to the years he had in front of him at this school. He would pride himself on the little things, and forget about how hard he had to work to keep up. He knew he wouldn't complain about it, he was pleased to even be at a school like this. He was thankful to be there. It was the pretty easy life at a school like hogwarts. But, he also knew that he would have to ask if he needed a little more help, if he needed a little more time to be able to do things. If he needed more time with some text or essay. He had poor eyesight, it wasn't like things like reading a page of words came that easily to him. Despite it not coming easily to him, he was always reading. He was sitting with a book in front of him, reading what was written on the page, and just wishing he was the people in the novels. They always seemed so much better than he did. He knew that it was wishful thinking, that it was silly to linger in the stories he read when he was in a story for the ages. He could eventually grow in happiness. He would grow in confidence, the eyesight being a small impairment that he could do nothing about. It was just part of life. He dealt with it the best that he could, and that way was just by dealing with it. Pretending it didn't actually exist, going on as if he had normal sight. Which was actually a lot more work than it seem. He just liked working hard so that helped. If he didn't it would be ten times more difficult.

When the kid who was meditating address him, Tybalt felt his heart suddenly begin to beat hard in his chest. He didn't know what to do, he was looking, but how did you answer that question without appearing odd. He didn't know what to do. He felt like he should just run. That was the only logical thought going through the young boy's mind. "I" Tybalt blurted out, he fumbled, any able to find the right words in his very fumbled state. He had been put on the spot, a lot more than he wanted to. The boy was not use to any form of attention. He wasn't used to being addressed so directly. "I was. I just. I'm sorry" He could barely get out a coherent sentence, his accent making it sound like he was tripping over his words. Tybalt did not like this. He didn't like the way he didn't know what to say. He wasn't watching him to be creepy, just because he'd never seen anyone be able to do it. He had always wondered how anyone could. More so in a place like Hogwarts, with people around all the time. "I have never seen anyone meditate before. I didn't mean to stare. I am sorry." Tybalt met the eyes of the boy briefly before looking down at the floor. He had no other explanation for what had just happened. He just hadn't thought he'd stay very long, he'd just keep going with his day, he'd only been there a minute at most. It was not a good day for this little Archer.
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[Cato Austman]

Cato would have laughed at the boy if he had not have meditated. He simply smiled at the boy. He stood up and slung his bag over his shoulder. He thought the boy's eyes were a nice color. They were like a aquamarine or some sort of light blue. Cato had a strange love for eyes. He loved the variety of colors that eyes could be. Cato himself had orangish brown eyes. He thought they were pretty cool beans. Brown eyes would always be his favorite color for a person's eyes. They were common, but still held an indidvidual shine to them. It interested him.

Cato shrugged. He did not mind at all. "You can meditate too. It is not very hard." he told the boy. He could definitely teach the boy how to meditate. If someone tried to pick on Cato while he meditated he would kick some butt. He was great at self defense, so he would not allow anyone to mess with him or his friends. "You have nice eyes." he said while looking straight at the boy.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt looked down at his feet when the boy looked at him. He was starring at his eyes. He was looking at him oddly. In the same way that the girl from a few days before had. If there was something so distinct about him, then he had not been told. Apart from his nose still showing signs of the break that had occurred years before, he didn't think he was that special, he didn't think he was that important to have meant much to the people around him. Much less that people would start taking to looking directly at him, when others had done that kind of thing, it was generally so that he they could square up and then promptly hit him across the face. This worried him that the boy was looking directly at him. He looked up ever so slightly at the face of the boy in front of him. He'd never had to meditate. He had never had to do anything that would make him calm, it wasn't something he was ever made to do. It wasn't hard he was sure, but he had no idea what use he would have for it. If he was meditating he couldn't see what was going on and in turn this meant that he had to pay more attention to the world around him, which he was pretty much defeated the purpose of doing such a thing. He knew that it was be an endless circling of the him trying and failing because he wasn't very good at just focusing on the one thing. He knew that one day he would be fine. That he would be able to just focus on something close to meditating that wouldn't lead to him,having to watch, or be extra careful.

The second thing that the boy said, made his cheeks redden though he didn't realise it. It wasn't like he knew that he had nice eyes. He had been told about his eye colour. About how blue they were, how nice they were, but he didn't really know. He hadn't exactly seen them very often. If fact he hadn't ever really seen them. It was why he only held the boys gaze for slightly longer and then looked down at the floor. He didn't know if it would be good of him to even bring up the fact that he was colourblind, what good would it do him in the long run. What good would it achieve him, but what difference would it make if this boy knew. "Thanks," he mumbled. He looked up and wondered if maybe the other boy was expecting a compliment too. He gave a weak smile, "So do you." He said unsure of if that was the right thing to say, but also having nothing else that he could say. he didn't really do well with compliments. "I'm Tybalt Archer." He extended his hand to her as a sign to shake it. He had seen that it was what people did when they met.
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[Cato Austman]

Cato noticed that the boy looked at the ground more than he looked at him. Was he scared of eye contact or something? He was probably a Hufflepuff, but then he had some nerve and courage to watch him meditate. Maybe he could be a Gryffindor. The boy looked familiar from sorting, but he couldn't possibly remember all of the kids in his class. Cato rubbed the side of his head. Thinking of all the people in his year gave him a headache. He sat down in front of the boy. Cato's headache went away quickly. He let his hands rest in his lap. He was not able to think about huge numbers or amounts. It was like his brain started to malfunction if he did. Sometimes it got annoying, but he dealt with it. Healers said it was nothing serious, but his parents still refused to believe them. He definitely knew where he got his stubbornness from. His parents did not pay too much attention to Cato though. They were too worried about his older brothers and sister to worry about him. Cato was one of the middle children, so he was ignored a lot. This did upset Cato. He had the be the center of attention. He did not like feeling ignored and alone. Being invisible was his biggest fear. He did not want to disappear from his parents heart, so he acted out and did wild, crazy things. It was all so he could be seen. It was all because he did not want to be invisible.

Cato rolled his eyes. The compliment did not feel real. It sounded like the boy was programmed to return a compliment so lamely. "Really? What color are they? You have been looking at the floor much more than you have my eyes, dude." he said trying to sound nice. That was impossible. Fake compliments irritated him, and so did liars. Cato thought for a moment about apologize, but he did not. He knew there was something different about the boy. The boy introduced himself as Tybalt Archer. What kind of name was Tybalt? It was a strange name, but Cato's name was strange as well. He shook the boys hand firmly. "My name is Cato Austman." he told Tybalt. He often introduced himself as 'Cato the Awesome', but he decided not to. He was told many times that his surname sounded like awesome. It was just proof that he was swagtastic.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Being caught in a lie was never fun for a boy like Tybalt, he wasn't very good with people at the best of times, so when he screwed up and someone ccaught him in the web he'd spun the boy often felt a huge surge of panic. It was clear that the boy in front of him, was not having any form of pretending. Accepting the compliment appeared to have been to easy for the young boy. Tybalt had be left with a do I, or don't I. Tybalt knew that he'd been asked by him to say the colour of his eyes, but he could very easily just ignore that part of the question. He wasn't quite sure how to. After all, the entire sentence set him up into telling the boy in front of him that he'd made it up in the assumption that the other boy's eyes were nice and that he would accept the compliment. The funny thing was that even as he was being asked about the other boy's eyes, his own eyes only briefly looked up at him. it was a habit. Tybalt had always had it drilled into him to stare at the floor and avoid making eye contact. In his eyes eye contact was what got people more likely to hurt you. He knew if he made eye contact with the top bully that this was like an invitation for the guy to hurt him. It never ended well, so the young boy had stopped looking up. He could really only meet the eyes of his family, and really only immediate family. The only ones who had never done anything to him. The only ones who hadn't been hell bent on making his life miserable. Tybalt sighed to himself slightly either he was going to be honest about it or he wasn't either way it could make or break the possible friendship that they could've had. That was the problem. He knew lying more wouldn't help him but he had really promised himself to never actually tell anyone which he had noticed had gone straight out the window. People just somehow always needed to know. It appeared to be the first thin that came up for him, and almost never because he had actually wanted it to. It was odd how some things just worked out in such a fashion. He was however happy to be in Hogwarts and despite the odd trials he appeared to be facing currently he was in. Nothing to hard but it was real confirmation to the young boy of the Archer luck.

"I don't know" was the response that the boy decided he'd use. Mostly because he really didn't know.he looked up at the boy in front of him. He would never know. But it seemed like a better thing to say in response to what colour are my eyes. "I don't know what colour they are. I'm sorry" tybalt added. His accent coming access thickly as he panicked and he figured out what to say, which in all cases basically meant that Stefan was indirectly telling the boy in front of him of his disability. And it was a method where he didn't actually have to say anything. It had been what he wanted in the first place and now he had it. Tybalt didn't think his. And was too odd. It was a little different, but it was fine. It was from shakespeare and he thought it suited him well. It would've been that or he gets called something silly. He had never really wanted to have anything but a normal name and most people he knew did. His name wasn't odd in his eyes it was just different. It didn't mean anything other than just being his name. The boy in front of him introduced himself as Cato. Tybalt smiled at this, it was a nice name. He liked it. He liked it. He thought it suited the boy perfectly. But that was not now what was on his mind. Tybalt was curious now, he wanted to know how to meditate. For future reference, plus he figured with Cato, little harm could come to him. "Could you show me, how to meditate?"[/v] Tybalt asked with a small smile, looking up at Cato as he asked. "I have always wanted to know."
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[Cato Austman]

Cato shook his head. It was not a big deal. He was not going to get mad at Tybalt for not knowing his eye color. It kind of made Cato worried. Did he have some kind of seeing problems? "It's no biggie, dude. If you don't mind me asking, do you not see well or something?" he asked Tybalt curiously. He did not want to offend Tybalt, but it was so Cato would know in the future. He had never made any friends with sight conditions. Cato would not be able to live without color in his life. He loved color and he loved coloring. Cato smiled and nodded. No one had ever asked him how to meditate. It was so much apart of his daily routine he assumed everyone else knew how to do it too. "Sure. It's is not hard." he said and criss-crossed his legs. "Your legs should be like this." he said and waited until Tybalt crossed his legs to look like his. "Now, you relax your shoulders, but you don't slouch your back. Slouching gives you back problems." he joked. To be honest, Cato did not think the joke was very funny. He looked to see in Tybalt's form was correct before he moved on.

Out of Character:

Apologizes for the size.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt had always been taught that listening to others was a good thing. He wouldn't have to worry about if they actually cared about him, but more that he cared about them. It was better for him, or so he'd been told. The young Gryffindor, looked up at the boy in front of him, he was clearly curious as to why, he could tell it in his face, but Tybalt was too keen on offering up that kind of information. He was just colourblind, that was all he had wrong with him, it was a pretty serious matter. It was something that affect everything that Tybalt did. It was something that would help him pick what he was going to end up doing with his life. Where he was going to end up going. After all he had to be willing to find an employer who was willing to hire someone who might have great difficulty in certain areas. It was why his da was all about staying in school, getting an education, no matter what type it was and then getting a job based about the strengths at school. Of which he had many. Because as much as he struggled and work twice as hard as anyone else in his year possibly would. He was pretty smart. He would never say it. People didn't really believe it. So, he never brothered to bring it up, which was probably a good thing. Tybalt had always been taught that he was inferior to most other people. His granda had some pretty strong view on where colourblind people belonged on the human food chain. Tybalt always said nothing. He knew that his granda was just being himself and that he should just try to ignore it. "I'm color-blind." Tybalt looked up at him and gave a very small weak smile. There wasn't much more to it. The scientific name was just too long for him to want to bother with it. He was just colour-blind. That was all that needed to be said.

Thankfully the conversation moved quickly, Tybalt went and sat next to the boy, watching him carefully with his bright blue eyes never shifting from the boy. He criss-crossed his legs, Tybalt was glad he could at least do that. If he hadn't been able to, it would've been a little weird. He was just sitting waiting for him to completely show him what needed to be done. The young boy sat up. He sat up straight so he would be able to relax his shoulders rather than slouch. He had no idea that slouching gave you back problems. He was always slouching, trying to remove himself from situations that he had no desire to really be in. The long and short of it right there. He knew that he really couldn't do too much else. Tybalt relaxed his back. He made his shoulders do small circles before he straightened himself up. He looked at the boy and then attempted to mimic what the other boy was doing. Tybalt was slightly more rigid. He wasn't clearly as flexible as this other boy he was sitting with. But, when the young boy was pretty much happy with how things were he smiled and then looked up at him. "is this good?" Tybalt asked. He wasn't really sure how much this would work in the same sense as he believed it might, but the one thing that his da had said to him before leaving for hogwarts was to be well behaved, and to be open to other people and other cultures. He knew that his wasn't what he normally did. He knew this wasn't how he generally would try to relax, but he believed quite strongly that his method didn't work, and this other boy's method might just be what he had been looking for all this time.
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[Cato Austman]

Cato nodded. Now he understood. Tybalt was colorblind! He wanted to feel sympathetic for the boy, but he did not. Cato was sure Tybalt was used to being colorblind and did not want anyone saying the were sorry. Cato did not do anything, so there was no reason for him to say he was sorry. "So you can't tell the differences in colors at all?" he asked. Cato did not know much on colorblindness. He just saw the words 'color' and 'blind'. Specifics were swag when talking to Cato. He would definitely ask questions if he did not understand something. His parents asked him why he was so loud and selfish, but Cato would ask them why they thought he was that way. He did not understand why his parents thought he was so horrible. It hurt his feelings. He just did not want to be left out, and in a huge family like his he would. He acted the way he did out of fear. Not out of selfishness. Cato was selfless if he really thought about it. "You don't have to answer that if you don't want to, bro." he told Tybalt afterwards. Cato found it strange that he did not call people by their names. He knew the boy's name was Tybalt, but he insisted on calling him 'dude' or 'bro'. He found that to be kind of swaggy. It made him unique.

Cato watched as Tybalt mimicked him. He was doing a good job. It took a while to get used to, but he was sure Tybalt would only try and meditate once. For Cato, meditation was mandatory. Cato and meditation were one. Cato was not himself when he meditated. He was rude, loud and drop dead evil without meditation. His parents weren't able to handle that side of him, so they put him in karate. His karate teacher required meditation 5 times a day for his students. At first, Cato really hated it, but now he did not know what to do without it. Cato nodded. "Pretty good. Now here comes the hard part. Close your eyes, and keep them closed." he said. Tybalt may have thought it was stupid, but, for Cato, closing his eyes was the hardest part for him. Before meditation, whenever he closed his eyes he started to see all of the things he was scared of and all of his insecurities filled his head. That was what the count was for. Counting made you focus on something else and calm down. "Now breathe according to this count. Breathe in, 1...2...3...4, breathe out. Keep that count in your head and only focus on the count." he said clearly. He wanted Tybalt to be as calm as possible. Cato used to have freak outs when he first started meditating. After meditating for awhile they went away.

 

[Tybalt Archer]

Tybalt just shook his head at the boy. He couldn't see colour at all. Though the funny thing about this guy in front of him, was that he didn't appear as though it changed anything at all. Like he could've been completely blind and the boy would've just accepted it and moved on. It was a quality that the young gryffindor didn't see too often. He was always the one changing how people felt about him just because of his eye sight. They pitied him. Felt sorry for him, and just in general thought that he needed a lot of help to be able to lead a normal life. In reality, the boy didn't really need many people's help. He would need help if he lost his glasses, and didn't have contacts in. Mostly because they were what he needed to be able to see. Without them he was literally blind. Well, he could see, but things weren't as clear as they could be if he did see colour, or if he was wearing glasses. Tybalt pushed his glasses back up his nose as the boy spoke again. He didn't really think they were at the point of calling one another bro, but Tybalt was hardly going to stop the boy. After all he was pretty nice. He was pretty normal, and it was nice to think he could also have a couple male friends. Tybalt smiled at the boy, "It's fine, I don't mind answering. So, yeah. I can't. Well, it works in the way that I can tell that my t-shirt and trousers are different colours." The t-shirt was white, and the jeans dark blue. "But, I have no concept of what colours actually are. I know the shirt is white, and I know that my jeans are blue, but what I see is white, and the doctors tell me are shades of grey. Not quite colours." Tybalt hadn't really explained about the colourblindness much. He had brought it up. He had told the first girl he'd met about it, but she hadn't really asked any questions. So, he hadn't needed to answer any of the questions that he maybe had no desire to. But, that was a simple question, though most didn't quite understand not knowing what colour was. Tybalt had no idea what blue really looked like. He had no idea what a bright blue sky was, or incredibly green grass, he saw grey and grey. It was all the same to him. There were shades of grey, but he was never able to tell what colour they actually corresponded to. It was one of the problems with being colour-blind. One of them.

He was pretty bad at keeping his eyes closed. He didn't like not knowing what was going on. Despite the fact that he wasn't very good at seeing things. He was trying to keep his eyes shut, but he couldn't, ever small sound made him open his eyes and look around them. It made him panic ever so slightly. This didn't feel like what he'd always imagined meditating would. He was just trying really had to just concentrate, but Tybalt had never really had to. He had always had to stay alert, and while for now he was doing pretty well on the friends to bullies ratio, he knew it would only be a matter of time till things evened out. He tried hard to keep his eyes shut, thinking about what the boy then went on to say. Tybalt tried his hardest. He sighed slightly, he had to add counting. One through to four over and over in his head. He looked one last time at Cato, trying to mimic everything that he was doing. One...Two...Three..Four, he said over and over in his head. Trying his best to keep his eyes closed. Focusing on the numbers as he tried to breath along with them. It was hard, he didn't think he could do it. Every tiny sound made him think someone was there and his eyes would fly open. Though, not one to give up the young gryffindor sat and continued to try. He kept counting and he kept staying silent. Eventually he was sure that he had reached some state of calm. He realised this as his mind blocked things out. However, the loud slam of a door closing, broke Tybalt out his trance. He sighed loudly, and opened his eyes. His heart was now racing because of this. His breathing was a lot more rapid. It would take a bit of time before Tybalt was able to go back into meditating. "It's pretty hard." He said, quietly, to Cato, who might be still aware of what was going on around them, and if he wasn't Tybalt could claim that he was just saying it to himself.
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