Mental Blocks

Onizo entered the library, with all intent to find a book on his species. The library was bound to have one, right? He wanted to find out more, not like he knew everything about his kind. In particular, he was searching for a way to turn the backwards speech button off. It bothered him that he could do nothing of his own knowledge to fix that. His current solution wasn't working all to well either. The process of turning his thoughts backwards to turn his words to normal was taxing and even painful. The headaches he'd been having because of it were almost bad enough to rival a broken bone. He knew speaking backwards was bred into the bones of all oni, but there had to be SOME way to fix it. Not like the oni ancestors always spoke backwards.

Onizo scoured the library but he had only gotten so far. It was a long process to look at the spine of every book in an isle and to repeat to make sure he didn't miss anything. It wasn't all bad but it was slow and already he was getting a headache. He started rambling off in both his backwards speech and in his natie tongue, Japanese, cursing occasionally as some books deceived him with titles that seemed on topic but weren't. He had now gone to speaking the names of each book in Japanese pausing many times to be sure he said the actual name and not the opposite. This made the process of finding the book he wanted both easier and more headache inducing, but he didn't care about the headache.

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Topic started with Roqi, if it's okay with her you may join to.

Richard came to the library in search of something interesting. But...

Technology had been present in his life for only the blink of an eye, but already it had hopelessly spoiled him. Prose couldn't hold his attention anymore, and non-fiction didn't provide the entertainment he was seeking. Plus, he couldn't help but feel that all the old tomes in the castle could contain information that had already been proven wrong by modern science, and here he had no way to check. And... the books smelled dead. What interest could a vampire have in dead things? They were of no use to him.

Truth be told, he'd set fire to the whole library for a TV. Or a computer with internet access.

However, there was just one little intriguing thing in the library - the source of chaotic, incomprehensible speech, half-English and half something Asian-sounding. As he followed the sound, his gaze trailed along the shelves to pretend he was on the lookout for something. Soon he turned into the aisle the young man was occupying and did not have to feign surprise at his appearance. Well... that was one decidedly non-human customer. His looks coupled with what he was saying and doing seemed, in some odd way, comical to Richard, and when he cleared his throat, his expression was that of concern mixed with amusement.

"Can I help you in any way, son? You seem troubled."

Onizo was nar to giving up. Well, at least for the moment. His head was on the verge of spliting in half. Not only that but he felt like his brain would, once his skull opened, escape and run to the nearest wood chipper and commit suicide. There were two things wrong with that; one, he knew his brain could do no such thing, and two, he had no idea where the closest woodchipper even was.

Onizo set the book he had been looking at back on the shelf and sat back against the ajacent bookshelf. He didn't care that he now sat on his tail, and he almost didn't care about the man you was now occupying the same isle as he. He rolled his head to look at the man. "By troubled....you mean....frustrated by my inability....to find the book...I want, and because I....was and am still speaking in a way...painful to me which....also frustrates me.......then yes." He used a sarcastic tone though he spoke the truth, mostly due to his current irritated mood. Usually he wouldn't be so rude, but this headache was formidable.

The student's tone did not give Richard a good first impression, of course, but he figured he'd cut him some slack after the other mentioned being in pain. That was a good enough excuse to be grumpy, he supposed. But how was the speech causing it? Some brain knot, no doubt. Perhaps the problem was speaking in another language, the Asian-sounding one being the boy's native one...

He looked to him with sympathy. "Well, I'm not sure if I can help with the latter, but I can certainly try with the former. What book are you looking for?" He leaned his hand on the shelf and almost immediately raised it again, glancing at his palm and rubbing the tips of his fingers together. No dust. It felt like there should be some, really. The castle as a whole was formidably clean, despite the lack of an army of maids which would normally be necessary to maintain that level of tidiness. Somehow, that kind of magic seemed more impressive to Richard than the standard issue fantasy spells and fireballs.

Onizo noticed the man seemed upset by his tone. The man may not have said anything but Onizo was somewhat a steriotyped Japanese man and could sense the other man's mood at least well enough to make a pretty good assumption. He ignored the pain in his head as it subsided some. "When I mean...pain from how I'm talking, I really mean....speaking backwards from speaking backwards." He knew that might be hard to understand but for the moment, it was the only explanation he could think of.

Onizo stood up, "I was looking for.....a book about Oni....trying to find any info on the speech....difference. It's alot harder to....find than I thought...especially since I'm going through....extra work of checking all books.." He laughed embarrassedly, knowing he must seem a little stupid in his method.

As the boy spoke, Richard's eyes flickered over him, taking in his appearance. He was definitely one of the stranger-looking inhabitants of the Island, and it made the vampire wonder just how odd critters like this managed to conceal their existence so well. Magic definitely had a hand in it, somehow; but he still held deep respect for all those who managed to escape the prying eye of humanity as well as he himself did. It couldn't be easy.

The explanation provided didn't explain much, really. Richard hummed in thought.
"Do you mean backwards as in... s-d-r-a-w-k-c-a-b?" He ran a finger across the spines of the books on the nearest shelf, following it with his eyes. "And I'm sorry, but Oni does not ring any bells."
As he looked to the student again, he looked slightly amused. "Perhaps you should have sought out the librarian's assistance, it is his job, after all. Although, I'm afraid that at this hour he must have retired to bed already. You'll have to make do with me." he said, lightly and good-naturedly teasing. "I'm Richard Wallace, the school counselor. And yourself?"

Onizo shook his head slowly, "No....by backwards I mean.....Talking not like this, where everyhing I don't mean isn't the opposite. I haven't been trying to not fix this so my head would keep hurting and people will not understand me with explanation." He was relieved to talk normally without thinking over the opposites. It didn't hurt his head anymore and even helped. This only made him somewhat depressed thinking he may NEVER learn to speak like everyone else. Not that being different was bad but speaking backwards could mean he may come off with the wrong meaning.

Onizo quietly laughed, "Oni is what....I am. In English terms....it would be....Ogre." He paused a moment, his headache returning. "Oni are Japanese....creatures with illusory abilities....and red skin..Their nature is normally....mischeavous and so speaking....the opposite of what we mean....has become a hereditary....trait after so much....use when Oni used to speak 'normal.'"

Onizo nodded in agreement. "That's....why I've been working....on my own thus far...It's nice to...meet you Mr. Wallace." He gave the man a sligt bow, "I go... by the name Onizo."

Richard nodded, observing the red-skinned creature with genuine interest as he spoke in his odd way. Fascinating. Illusory abilities... ha, that also explained a lot. He laughed lightly.

"Mischievous, huh? Thanks for the warning. It's a pleasure to meet you as well, Onizo." He grinned, then rubbed his hands together. "Very well. Let's do this. I suppose our best bet is looking for a book on Japanese mythology, or on ogres, or on speech abnormalities..." He trailed off, brow furrowing in thought. Come to think of it, did the library have only human books...? He supposed that different sapient species and cultures had to know written word as well. But so far, all the books he had seen in here seemed human-made - at least at first glance.
He tapped the tips of his fingers together. That was an interesting subject, to be sure. And what better way to start learning about it than to ask the person most readily available?

"Say, do your people write books?"

Onizo blinked before shaking his head, "I'm....not like them. I hate.....hurting people just because of....my ancestry. I'd prefer....not to even set up....harmless pranks." He looked down, "I'm pretty much....a disgrace of an....oni." He then laughed embarrassedly but said no more on the subject.

As Richard asked his next question, Onizo had been gone back to searching. He stopped and thougt for a moment. "Books......no. They don't write...books." Thinking again, "They do....record history and...other important information in....scrolls...In that way we're....still slightly more......traditional than humans."

He inclined his head. "On the contrary, I think that's a noble disposition." As hopeless as fighting one's nature often was, he admired those who tried to be better than others of their kind.

Scrolls... On his brief examination of the library, he had not noticed any. Perhaps if there were any, they were stashed elsewhere; and either way, they were unlikely to be penned by the Oni. Richard sighed and started examining the book spines. "I don't suppose we will find any here, in that case. A shame."

It took a while before he broke the silence again as he busied himself with looking for a tome that could help. Nothing really seemed like it could contain the information they were looking for, and since he stood still for a while, his hip was beginning to hurt. And so, when he spoke, he sounded slightly more irritated than he intended to.
"Are you sure this is a good idea? These all seem to be man-made books, and what do humans know of the supernatural...?"

Onizo gave the man a grateful look, "Thank you....for thinking that unlike.... my mother had." He looked back at the book, "I never really.....got her affection quite as....much as my siblings did." He didn't say much more, not wanting to either bore or bother the man whether he was the councler or not.

Onizo was also near giving up as Richard asked. "Yeah, it is....true that the library...doubtedly has any Oni scrolls....And you're right that humans don't.....know quite as much about 'creature' as.....the creatures in question know. But it's....pointless to ask other Oni. They probably....wouldn't even consider telling me...if they even knew. But I look.....just for the hope...." He sighed and stood with a slight stretch. "From what I've looked through already.....I doubt the library has what....I want."

Richard smiled, a bit sadly. "Of course. I wouldn't want to assume too much, but I suppose she simply could not understand why would you take a path so different than that of others."
He had almost said 'defied the tradition of your elders', but that was a far too harsh way of wording it and he managed to bite his tongue in time.

He nodded slowly, hooking his finger behind the cover of a random book and pulling it out from between the others. Opening it and flicking through it idly, he glanced to Onizo, then back to the pages. It was a book on Latin grammar; looking at the familiar words he felt a bit ashamed about how rusty he'd gotten at the language. He closed the book with a 'thump'.
"What you need, I think, is research done by neither humans nor the Oni." he said. "A third party. One that knows of the supernatural, but isn't biased like the Oni would be."
Richard replaced the tome onto the shelf and looked at the student again, putting his hands in his pockets.
"As to where to find such a thing... I cannot help you."

That much was true.