All Epilogue 24 - Non-Practicing Druid

Cohen looked over from what he was doing, "And where did you hear that?"
"Read it in the archive, I think," Lucca shrugged.
"Ugh!" Cohen exclaimed. "Fine. That's it. I'm reading this archive. Where is it?"
"Hey! Who do you think you are, asking me to break druidic oath? Frig, man!" He flashed a cheeky grin. With a slight chuckle, he added, "You know you can't just stroll in there, anyway, right? Gotta have the sick tatts and the secret handshake; we're street that way."
He sighed, "Of course." Straightening up, he turned to Lucca, "Alright. What do I need to know?" He looked thoughtful, "The code, the tattoos, some sort of pass phrase...I've probably forgotten more about biology than the average druid knows, and I'm no stranger to ecology, so I doubt that will be an issue."
"And at what point did I say I was gonna tell you, hmm?" He raised an eyebrow, smirking.
"Oh, you're not going to? You don't think I'd be a decent druid student? I'm offended; I know you taught kids back in the day," he grinned.
"Kids are a hell of a lot different than crusty old hermits, you know."
"I take offense at 'crusty'," Cohen interrupted, "but I'll admit that being an old hermit would make me even more suited to druidism. Aren't a full 80% of them obsessive old hermits, at least? I'll fit right in."
"And anyway, those kids were actually druids; I somehow can't see you pursing the calling. I'd be a terrible druid to share the secrets with you." He chuckled, "But I suppose I might be able to, if only you'd ask nicely."
Cohen smirked, "Would you ple~ase tell me what I need to know to fool a bunch of druids into thinking I'm one of them, so I can read their secret library which shouldn't be a secret because it's a library and hoarding information is wrong?"
With a laugh, Lucca finally relented. "Truer words have rarely been spoken! I guess I can do it, just for you." He smirked. "Honestly, I'm glad you wanna invade the archives; they're far too underused and underappreciated. Let's think you up a stupid name and get started."
"Seriously? That's the most important part?" He chuckled, "How stupid does it have to be?"
"Of course not, that would be the code. This is just the most fun!" He said with a grin. "The more absurd the better!"
"Oy..." he smiled, rubbing his eyes. "Well, let's see, it's supposed to have meaning, right? I'm a druid who's taken a disguise to steal interesting things...'Cloaked Magpie', or something along those lines? That's how druid names go, correct: 'adjective, nature-noun'?"
Chuckling, Lucca nodded, "Not the craziest choice, but classy, I like it! And yeah, that tends to be the trend, that or the most obscenely pompous term for a plant or something that you can think of."
"I thought that was a Riolythan custom," he offered.
"Yeah, but it's not like they have a monopoly on it though, is there?"
"Heh. I suppose not." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a small notepad. He took out his pen, the same pen he had been using for centuries now, and put it to the paper. "Alright," he said. "Tell me about druidism."
"Starting point, please? There's a shittone I could cover..." He gave a crooked grin.
Rolling his eyes, he said, "I'm creating an elaborate ruse to get into a library. Start with the most likely thing an archivist would ask me, and work from there. I would assume since I've got a name now, the second question will involve 'the password', 'your tattoo', or 'I haven't heard of you before; who taught you'."
About to answer, he paused and frowned slightly, "Huh. That last one might be an issue...they will probably ask and I don't have the damndest clue what you should tell them. You could maybe get away with claiming someone from off-continent and seeing how that goes? I have no idea how they've been dealing with that, if at all, over the years..."
Cohen shrugged, "You're the expert."
Returning the gesture Lucca said, "I'll look into it and figure it out later. For now, let's talk code." With that he launched into a detailed explanation of the druidic code and it's intricacies. From there the topic flowed naturally into tattooing conventions and on to all the other things he figured the doctor would need to know for his mission.
Category:Advent of the All