"I'm sick of being stuck on the ship. Let's get out of here," Jack said as they headed back to the Galley.
"There's still a lot of dishes left," Will said.
"Go tell Lace we're leaving. I'll be right back," Jack said. She disappeared below deck leaving Will with an amused expression on his face.
"Apparently we're leaving," he said as he walked into the galley.
"If the dishes aren't done by morning, North will get a lot more creative with his extra duties," Lace shook her head. She didn't stop washing.
"Apparently Jack has some kind of plan for that," Will shrugged.
"That she does," Jack said from behind them. "Quinn, can you make sure the dishes are done by morning?"
"Of course," Quinn said from behind her.
Jack stepped aside to let Quinn past, then she leaned against the doorway.
"That doesn't seem right," Will said. "He didn't do anything wrong."
"Neither did we," Jack shrugged.
"I can still feel where he pulled my shorts up into my crack when he hauled me off of you," Lace said to Jack. "I'd say that's worth a few dishes done."
"I don't think that's what your crack is still feeling," Jack smirked.
Lace burst out laughing. "Yeah, alright. Guess he made up for it."
Will's brows lifted as he glanced from Lace to Quinn, but he decided not to comment. Instead he tried to stay on the real issue. "It's our job, we should be doing it."
"The Captain wanted to make an example out of us. She successfully did that. North doesn't care as long as the dishes get done. Quinn can do them faster than all three of us put together," Jack insisted.
"How's he going to do that?" Now it was Lace's turn to look skeptical.
Quinn looked to Jack for a moment. She nodded. "Go ahead."
He put his hand into the sink. It immediately started to froth and churn. He dipped a pot into it and the waters started to circle, faster and rougher, harder and harder like a small hurricane. When Quinn pulled the pot out it was spotless.
Lace and Will just stared. Will finally blinked. "Yeah, alright. He has this handled."
Lace gave Quinn an affectionate shoulder check. "Thanks"
After the others had left the galley, Jack came back in to give Quinn a kiss on the cheek. "Come join us when you're done. Thanks." Quinn didn't respond, but the corner of his mouth turned up just a little. Then she left at a half-run to catch up with the others.
She pulled on the shirt she'd grabbed while she was below decks. Will did the same with the one he'd hung by the galley door. "Have either of you been to Barcola before?" Jack asked.
"A few times, but it's been years," Will said.
"Same," Lace said. "It's always been a stop-over for me. I've never been further in than dockside."
"It's an interesting place. I've always wanted to be here on All Souls Night. We're in for a good time," Jack grinned.
It was nearly midnight and the festival was in full swing. The pop and flare of fireworks were starting to be sprinkled through the music and din of a few thousand people revelling. The parade had circled round again, adding more musicians and dancers. There didn't seem to be a particular song. Just a few people with drums who organically synched up and set the beat, and other instruments who improvised high energy melodies. The key seemed to be set by an ocarina-style flute. Everything else built off of that. Will was impressed by the obvious skill of the many musicians- it was clear they hadn't rehearsed. It all overlapped in a surprisingly consistent and musical cacophony.
The bright colored fabrics Barcola was famous for were in full display. Skirts swirled and scarves trailed. Many of the revellers had their faces and bodies painted to look like rainbow-hued skeletons. It was a jamboree of dancing dead.
Most docks smelled terrible, but tonight this one was tantalizing. Spiced and smoked meats cooking on porches or sold out of rickshaws made stomachs rumble and mouths moisten. The occasional sulfurous waft of fireworks breezed by. The strongest scent was incense. There were dozens, perhaps hundreds of small candle lit shrines all along the wide road, and nearly all of them were burning sticks of incense as well. The fragrant smoke was so plentiful that it left a haze in the air and gave the street lamps a corona.
"This is amazing." Jack's eyes and grin were wide as they could be as they found a gap in the parade and pushed into it. They had to travel along with the dancers for a short distance, moving with the tide as they crossed the street. Dancers took their hands and moved them in improvised circles in time to the music. The trio couldn't help but laugh and dance along. The mood was infectious. By the time they crossed the street their spirits had lifted considerably.
"What is this festival for?" Will asked over the noise of the crowd.
"It's All Souls Night," Jack answered. "It's a Nivaleese tradition. The Nival religion is a kind of ancestor worship. There's a host of great spirits who they think of as family. Since these spirits are everyone's family, the Nival are very community minded. They consider anyone who reveres their spirits to be family. All Souls Night is when the spirits come to the mortal realm. So their family throws them a coming home party."
"What's the face paint about?" Lace asked.
"So the spirits are comfortable and don't stand out in the crowd. Apparently some of them are shy." Jack's head was on a swivel trying to take in everything at once.
"I don't remember the walking dead being nearly so fun loving," Will said wryly, remembering a particularly harrowing encounter he and Jack had been through in the early days of their career together.
"Well, no. That wasn't exactly their fault though," Jack replied.
"What?" Lace asked, confused. The trio began walking down the street, picking a direction at random and just watching. They were going against the flow of the parade. On this side of the street the colors were much brighter. On the dockside there was a sensible restriction on open flames. Here on the rocky ground, lanterns, candles and bonfires burned everywhere.
"Jack and I ran into a whole bunch of rather energetic corpses once," Will explained. "They chased us through a cave system. We had to climb a very tall shaft to escape."
Lace looked simultaneously surprised, horrified, and skeptical. "I've heard stories, but I didn't really believe..." she trailed off.
"Oh, they're true," Jack said. "In my opinion, necromancy is about half the reason witches and other spellbinders get such a bad reputation. The stories aren't even half as scary as the reality. The dead really should stay buried."
Will gestured around. "This whole festival seems to imply otherwise."
"These are costumes, Will," Jack rolled her eyes.
"Well there might be some truth to the traditions, right?" Lace asked. "You just said the stories were all real."
"You think that the Traveler and her entire host, and any other spirits of the dead that happened to tag along, are here, wandering the crowd in disguise," Jack asked mockingly.
"Well, maybe not all here. This isn't the only place celebrating this festival, right?" lace shrugged.
"No, not hardly," Jack answered.
"We have an Asura on our ship doing our dishes right now. Is it too hard to imagine that one or two of these people might be a spirit in disguise?" Lace shrugged.
Jack laughed. "Well, when you put it that way..."
"When something becomes normal, it's easy to forget that to others it might still be fantastic," Will shrugged. "To the people of Barcola, this is normal fun that happens every year. To us, it's incredible."
"Now I want to stop people and ask if they are spirits,' Jack chuckled.
"Sounds like most of them would say yes," Lace grinned. "The whole point is to let the real ones get lost in the crowd, right?"
"Damn," Jack said in mock exasperation. "I guess I'll just have to guess."
"Spot the spirit. Sounds fun," Will grinned, scanning the crowd.
Jack wandered over to a small kiosk selling tin cups that had been hammered into the shape of skulls. Money exchanged hands and she came back with her prize. Will smiled. "You and your souvenirs."
"You decorate with shipwreck salvage, I don't think you get to chastise me about a cup," Jack said unflappably. "Besides, there's method to my madness. Watch."
Will and Lace shared an amused look as they kept walking. "That one. Definitely a spirit." Lace said, nodding towards a man on stilts. He had long crutches that ran from his forearms to the ground, letting him move like a long-legged animal through the crowd. He was draped in layers of shredded cloth that obscured most of his body and gave the impression of fur. He wore a vibrantly painted animal skull on the top of his head so that he could keep an eye on the throng below him while his skull headpiece looked like it was facing forward. He rolled his shoulders as he moved, looking a great deal like some sort of strange beast.
"Good pick," Will nodded. His eyes followed Jack as she wandered off to another kiosk on the side of the road. She came back with her new cup full. She sipped it and sighed contentedly. "I've wanted to try this again for years."
Lace raised an eyebrow. Jack handed her the cup. One sip later and Lace handed Jack her drink back and went was jogging back towards the man selling the skull cups.
