"Zell! Stop squirming so much!" Etta Dincht protested as she very nearly got clubbed by Zell's left leg while he hopped around wildly, trying to get into his costume.

"Almost got it!" returned Zell, determined to do it himself. A little while longer and he still wasn't having much success with the furry green suit-- his Carbuncle outfit was trickier to put on than it looked. The outfit was basically modeled from the same pattern as one-piece zip-up pajamas with footies, except with the addition of a hood. The large red gem sewn onto it made it tricky to manage; as Zell windmilled his arms, its weight made the hood flip this way and that, even managing to turn inside-out once or twice. The dangling material forming the ears was causing Zell even more trouble. It was swinging in front of his eyes and blocking his vision every time he moved his head. With an impatient yelp, Zell grabbed one of the bothersome ears.

"Gotcha!" he shouted triumphantly, yanking the fabric even harder.

"You're going to rip it before anyone even gets the chance to see it!" Etta chided, lightly tapping Zell's hand to get him to let go. "The Shyms are going to be here any minute, and this will go much faster if I help." Etta sent him a look, placing her hands on her hips for further emphasis. Putting on the costume required a certain dexterity that Zell's small fingers lacked, and they'd be here all day if Zell insisted on doing it himself.

"Okay..." Zell allowed, but showed his resentment by crossing his arms and pouting. Etta couldn't help but chuckle at the strange spectacle of a disgruntled Carbuncle, which served only to deepen Zell's frown. With Etta's help, the whole process went much faster, and Etta was just zipping up Zell's costume when the Shyms arrived. With their arrival, suddenly the Dincht's front entryway was filled with people.

"Mabel, you've outdone yourself again!" Etta remarked, observing the costumes of Paul, Gella, and Dylan. Paul and Gella had coordinating costumes- Both had purple face paint and purple clothes with different colored shirts made from tank tops and felt. With Gella in grey and blue and Paul in red and black, they made the perfect Minotaur and Sacred. The detail was remarkable, right down to the headbands with horns that were color coordinated with the outfits, of course.

"Oh, it really is just too much fun," Mabel replied, smiling ruefully and adjusting Dylan's sweatshirt. Dylan was outfitted in an entire dark green sweatshirt-sweat pants ensemble that was decorated with light green vertical stripes. He kept pulling at his headband, which had painted cardboard spikes sticking up from it. "Is my little Cactuar doing okay?" Mabel asked Dylan, patting him on the back. He nodded, then scowled as his headband slipped down his forehead.

"Is that what I think it is?" Etta asked, glimpsing Mabel's baby backpack as she turned to attend to Dylan. "Go on, spin around," Etta directed. Mabel obliged, and Etta got a good look at the carrier holding Gella's baby sister. "Felt needles to go with Cactuar! Really, you're just too much sometimes. And Kass, you're adorable."

"Too much with a little too much to keep track of," Mabel laughed.

"I thought Keagan was helping you keep track of the kids?" Etta said, gathering up her keys, a camera, and some snacks and stashing them in a large beige tote.

"I thought so too, but some of those climbers from Galbadia took the Timber train here and. . . didn't exactly realize that our mountains are much different than the cliffs they have over there," Mabel cringed. "They needed the closest person with medical knowledge they could find." Etta shook her head. Every year Balamb got so many tourists during Selebraise that something unfortunate was bound to happen. It was amazing how many people the festival drew in. Officially, it was advertized as "A Celebration of Myths and Monsters, Fact and Fiction!", but over the years it had basically evolved into a giant fantasy-themed carnival. There was a children's parade, games, rides, demonstrations, fireworks, basically everything imaginable. People from all over the world came to Selebraise to experience fun Balamb-style.

"Uh oh, it seems we've left the kids to their own devices for too long," Etta observed, noticing that Paul, Gella, and Zell were no longer inside the house. Mabel took Dylan's hand and the group left the Dincht residence to find Gella and Zell playing some version of hop-scotch and Paul supervising, which was made particularly comical by virtue of the fact that they were all in costume.

"Come on, stragglers," Mabel told them, leading the way to the train station, which was the designated starting point of the children's parade. The parade route wove all through town before finally ending at Balamb Hotel, where the participants gathered for awards. Etta checked her watch. They were surprisingly right on schedule, perhaps even ahead of schedule; they had about ten minutes before the parade was supposed to begin, quite enough time to get there and get in place.


By the end of the parade, the cheer of the group was slightly more strained. Zell was complaining loudly about his costume– the tail made it impossible for him to sit down comfortably, and everyone was hearing about it. Etta and Mabel were more miffed at the results of the parade than anything else. Despite Gella and Paul taking second prize, Zell taking third and the whole lot winning ribbons, they were rather disgruntled by the first prize winner: a teenager who claimed to be dressed as Hyne as his costume. Despite the time obviously invested in his costume, the women felt like it was a copout. After all, who knew what Hyne actually looked like? In an effort to improve both the spirits and comfort of the group, Etta and Mabel took the children back home to change back into regular clothes before reconvening.


"Zelly!" Gella cried, tugging at his sleeve. Since the sights, sounds, and colors surrounding him had a monopoly on his attention, it took Zell a moment to realize she was talking to him.

"Huh?" Zell responded, finally tearing his gaze away from a particularly skilled pair of jugglers.

"Look!" Gella pointed at one of the many signs lining the street. The blues and greens of this particular sign had caused it to fade into the background compared to the more vibrant-hued signs all around. But it was the background of the sign that made the kids stop and stare in wonder– it was a portrait of a giant water beast Gella and Zell were all too familiar with.

"Lev-ee-ah-thun... umm... lunch?" Zell read without much success.

"It's Leviathan Launch," came Paul's voice. Gella's fifteen-year-old brother had gotten stuck with the task of supervising the two five year-olds. The perk of the job, though, was that his mother had left him with two entire sheets of tickets. And, of course, just the fact that his mother had left him."Go for it."

"Win one for the guppy, Zelmer!" Gella cheered, jumping up and down with excitement.

"Uh, it's 'win one for the gipper', actually," Paul said, giving her a strange look.

"Whatever!" Gella retorted, sticking out her tongue at her older brother, then giggling as her annoyance dissolved into amusement. Zell paid little attention to their banter. All the concentration he could gather was focused on the game and how it worked. As far as Zell could figure, it wasn't that complicated. There were rows and rows of narrow-mouthed fishbowls in various shades of blue lined up on the table, and the object of the game was to throw a ping-pong ball so that it landed inside of one of the bowls. It didn't really look all that difficult.

Twenty tries and four tickets later, Zell realized the reality of the situation. It was just a littletrickier than it looked . . .

"Look, do you want me to try for you?" Paul suggested, growing impatient. He'd been waiting there for what seemed like forever, and if Zell was going to use up all the tickets on a game that was probably too hard for him–

"No!" Zell's chin jutted out stubbornly, and he crossed his arms and glared.

"Fine, fine," Paul relented, adjusting his shirt self-consciously for about the eight-hundredth time. It was his new favorite shirt, a grey tee with solid orange profiles of the members of The Moombas, an up-and-coming rock band with a penchant for having hairstyles much like their namesake. His mom had finally given in and bought it for him for being such a help with the younger kids. It was a well-deserved present, too, he thought. "But just one last ticket, which means you only get five more ping-pong balls to throw, and then we move on to something else, okay?" Both Gella and Zell sent him their best puppy-dog looks, but Paul didn't lose his resolve.

"'Kay," Zell agreed, not looking too happy about it. He really wanted to win one of those neat little fishes that everyone else seemed to be managing to win so easily. He threw one of his last five balls. Plink. . . Plink. . . It hit the rims of two bowls then bounced off the table lamely. Pretty much the same thing happened twice more, and by then, Paul was starting to wonder if Zell would throw a tantrum if he couldn't do it. Plink. . . Plink. . . Plop! Zell stared at the fishbowl in amazement.

"Mine! I won! I won!" Zell exclaimed, hopping around and pointing excitedly at the bowl that contained his second-to-last ping-pong ball.

"You won, you won!" Gella joined in, also jumping up and down.

"Congratulations, then," said the man running the booth, coming over to give Zell his prize. "Now, would you like a goldfish or a beta fish?" he asked, gesturing toward the large aquarium on the middle of the tabletop. Zell squinted at the fish-tank, trying to pick the best fish possible.

"Beta," he finally decided.

"Okay kiddies, time for the next activity of your choosing," Paul reminded the kids. This time they listened to him a little bit too well and dashed off into the crowd. Paul sighed. It wasn't easy being a babysitter.

"Okay, here's the deal, you guys," Paul said when he finally caught up with the mischievous pair. He panted just a little bit from chasing after them– Seriously, he was getting too old for this. "You have to stay with me at all times," he continued when he'd managed to catch his breath again.

"Aw!" Gella protested, setting her sandal-clad feet and stubbornly putting her hands on her hips.

"No fair!" Zell whined, stomping around, for all of two seconds until his attention was captured by his new pet. Paul took the opportunity to distract the kids from their complaints.

"You still have to name your fish," Paul pointed out. Gella and Zell's faces brightened up considerably.

"Yeah! We gotta!" Zell exclaimed. Gella nodded in agreement, causing her pink bucket hat to slip down over her eyes. She made a face, then straightened it. They tossed around countless names, everything from Flounder to Gill to Fluffy (which made Paul question how normal these kids were) before Gella finally came up with the winner.

"Leviathan?" she suggested.

"Perfect!" Zell agreed. "Ooh, he can be Levi for short!" he added. "Levi-Leviathan, Levi-Leviathan, Levi-Leviathan!" Zell sang. Even Paul couldn't come up with any better response than a laugh and a shake of his head– and a growl of the stomach. It was definitely time for lunch.

"C'mon, you two. I'm getting hungry." Paul direct. A self-conscious teen and two bouncy children made for an interesting sight as they traveled down the path to the Balamb Hotel. All the food vendors were set up inside the hotel, with tables and booths arranged in every available space of the circular room. The variety was amazing– all sorts of food roasting, baking, and wafting wonderful smells that were drawing more people in from the road every minute. The group of three stuck close together as they navigated the crowds to buy food. Gella tugged on Paul's hand as they came to a booth selling all colors of cotton candy.

"You know Mom's going to have a fit if she finds out you had cotton candy for dinner," Paul warned. Gella just gave him a sweet, pleading smile. "Well. . ." he considered, "I guess one day won't kill you." Paul couldn't help it. What kind of big brother would he be if he denied his kid sister cotton candy? "Just don't let Mom find out."

"Thank you, Pauly," Gella chirped in a sing-song voice.

Zell used the same approach on Paul to get a plate of baked Balamb Fish (which wouldn't have been difficult anyway– the fish was much healthier than the sweets) that he wolfed down, nearly choking once or twice in his haste.

Paul himself decided to go with the 'one day won't kill you' theory and have a funnel cake. Despite being deep-fried and probably the most unhealthy dinner option there, it was absolutely delicious. Unfortunately for Paul, the dessert proved problematic. He made the mistake of inhaling while the funnel cake was too close to his mouth and ended up coughing and wheezing as he got a lungful of powdered sugar. The powdered sugar served to further annoying Paul when Zell helpfully pointed out that it had left little white trails all over his T-shirt.

At about 6 o'clock p.m., Paul took Zell and Gella back to the Dincht house to meet up with Mabel and Etta. The three stood outside waiting for them, but Evan Dincht came home from work first and let them in.

"I hope you weren't stuck outside too long," he said, flipping on the lights.

Nope!" Zell answered, hugging Evan, who picked him up and tousled his hair affectionately.

"How're you doing, kiddo?" Evan asked.

"I won a fish!" Zell declared proudly, as though that entirely answered the question. Paul help up the fish ruefully, suddenly realizing that the Dinchts might not want a fish.

"Drafted to be the one who carries it, huh?" Evan chuckled. "Looks like you won the best one," he said to Zell, who beamed with pride. "You can come all the way in, you know..." Evan told Paul and Gella, who were both standing rather awkwardly by the door, unsure of where to go. They weren't very used to dealing with just Evan, either. He worked so much they didn't see him very often and so it was even more rare that they encounter him without Etta. Evan seemed to realize that. "I'm sure Et and Mabs will be back soon," he assured them.

Paul was momentarily confused by 'Et and Mabs'– he was so used to hearing the full names that the shorter version threw him for a moment. He supposed he should have expected the shortened names– it seemed that nicknames were particularly rampant in Balamb. Now that he thought of it, Etta often used shorter names, too. In fact, she was known to say 'Ev' and even 'Gell' on occasion. Mabel and Keagan didn't have that tendency, but then, they weren't orginally from Balamb. They had both lived in Timber for most of their lives, but had relocated to Balamb to get away from the messy Galbadian invasion. Nicknames had to be a Balamb thing, Paul concluded. He was scientific like that.

Zell tugged at his dad's shirt, trying to convince him to find a home for Levi.

"I don't know if your ma has anything like a fishbowl. We should wait til she gets back."

The wait wasn't long– the door opened and Etta and Mabel hurried through with Dylan and Kassidy in tow.

"Sorry, sorry! The crowds were insane!" Mabel apologized to Paul.

"But how did you get inside?" Etta puzzled, brow furrowing.

"That'd be my doing," Evan interjected, pushing himself up from in front of the kitchen cabinet he'd been trying to find a bowl for Levi in.

"Evan! I thought you had to work all day?" Etta inquired, wondering what brought him home so early.

"I got lucky. The boss let us all off early for good behavior." Evan winked. Paul rolled his eyes at the exchange like any typical 15-year-old would have.

"C'mon, let's go find you a fishbowl," Paul said to Zell. Anything to get away from the sappiness. They were adults, for goodness sakes. It was just weird. Gella followed Paul and Zell into the kitchen, leaving behind not only a proud Mabel beaming at how good Paul was at looking after the little ones, but also Dylan and Kassidy who were completely oblivious to the conversations of the adults. Zell eyed up the small cabinets that flanked the stove, wondering if they held anything he could use as a fishbowl. He supposed there was only one way to find out.

Paul cringed as something glass crashed down out of the cabinet Zell was rummaging through and shattered on the hard tile floor.

"Oops," was all Zell had to say. Etta had quite a bit more than that to say, mostly about the danger of being cut by a shard of glass that everyone except her faced by wearing sandals. The lecture was followed by a short but rather loud monologue on the value of wearing clogs meant for the benefit everyone waiting in the other room while she swept up the broken glass. Finally, they were all able to set out together to the Selebraise attractions located around the perimeter of the town.

As the group neared Balamb's fuel and car rental station, they encountered Keagan just coming through the town's entrance gates. He looked weary and just a little impatient, but he grinned broadly when he caught sight of Mabel and the children nonetheless.

"Keagan!" Mabel exclaimed. "I thought you'd miss the entire day, but you made it after all." She grinned back at him with a fresh cheer that had been missing earlier in the day.

"I just get in the gates, and I'm going right back through them already," Keagan noted good-naturedly.

The first thing they spotted upon exiting the town was a carousel with all sorts of carved monsters to ride. Zell glanced slyly at Gella.

"Last one there's a Bite Bug!" he challenged. Gella and Zell raced to the carousel and were gasping for breath by the time they reached it.

"I win!" Gella proclaimed, tagging the swirled feathers of a chocobo.

"No fair!" Zell whined, but Gella only giggled in response. Not to be outdone, Zell hopped up onto the carousel and dashed off to find the coolest monster. He was rewarded a few minutes later when his search brought him to the side of a beast painted white with a wicked looking horn. Zell noticed the metal nameplate attached to the upraised hoof of the creature. MESMERIZE, it informed him.

"Memorize?" he tried to pronounce. Oh well, it didn't matter because he'd found the coolest one– a fact which he spared no time in shouting gleefully to Gella. She made her way to where Zell was already climbing atop the Mesmerize, but just giggled again and agreed with him. Cheerfully enough, she settled onto the seat of the creature next to the Mesmerize. FUNGUAR, the nameplate dubbed. Both children shrieked with surprise and excitement as the elaborate carousel jolted to a start. Etta smiled to herself at the sight, but silently wondered what kind of world they lived in, that children and monsters could cross paths so freely. The thought lingered in her mind as the sky turned grey and the sun bowed and slid below the horizon– monsters tended to be more active (and more apt to travel in packs) at night. Etta couldn't help wondering how Grand Z Entertainment, as the workers' outfits advertized, was keeping the monsters away. They had probably asked any soldiers or bodyguards to do a large-scale sweep and defeat as many monsters as possible before the celebration. Hopefully, they were all professionals that knew what they were doing. In any case, no monsters interrupted the ride, and Zell and Gella skipped over to where the adults were as soon as it was finished.

"What next?" Evan asked, surveying the whirling, twirling rides extending in all directions and trying to find one suitable for the young children. Despite his weariness, Keagan was the first to spot a promising looking ride and to lead the group in that direction. It seemed to be one of the few rides at Selebraise that didn't involve insane heights or dizzying rotations. In fact, it was much the opposite. A line of Caterchipiller-cars bumbled around a sloping track– perfect for Gella and Zell. They weren't actually convinced of this, and Zell was starting to eye up a ride called "Death Claw", so the adults took matters into their own hands and bundled Gella and Zell off to the entrance gate. As the attendant helped Gella and Zell into the third from last car, Zell confessed something to Gella.

"Catchiplers scare me more 'n Death Claw." Gella was perplexed. Death Claws were, well, Death Claws. How could they possibly be less frightening than what Gella thought was pretty much just an overgrown caterpillar. Caterpillars were cute; they were all fuzzy and silly, and they turned into butterflies. Gella briefly wondered if Caterchipillers turned into huge butterflies. She'd kind of like to see that. But maybe they just turned into huge monsters, a thought that made her shudder. The ride jolted into action, and the cars flew around the bumpy track, leaving no time for further thought or conversation. The next ride on the agenda was Chocobo Bumper Cars, a staple at all good festivals. Observing Zell, the "pilot" of butter-yellow car number 5, Etta leaned over and whispered in Evan's ear. "There's no way I'm teaching him how to drive."

After the bumper cars, the adults agreed that the kids had spent enough time on the rides, and the plan was to head back into town. However, on the way there, a large bonfire (and a group of pretty teenage girls) caught Paul's eye. It involved some sleeve-tugging, some sweet-talking and countless other shameless ploys, but Paul finally managed to convince his parents to let him stay for the bonfire. A mere seventy feet away from the bonfire, the Shyms agreed on a set of conditions after a lengthy discussion (far too lengthy for Paul, who kept stealing glances at a cute dishwater blonde). Paul was going to stay at the bonfire, but so were the rest of the Shyms. And the Dinchts were, too. Paul separated from his entourage as quickly as possible, leaving the rest of the group to find very cramped spots on one of the black benches that had been dragged out of the city and arranged a little ways back from the fire for the occasion. After practically climbing over countless rows of people filling both the benches and folding lawn-chairs the locals knew to bring, they found room next to a boy with blonde hair wearing casual clothes in a popular Timber style and a girl with hair that was a surprising shade of pink and, as about an inch-worth of dark brown roots testified, was clearly not her natural color. They were holding hands and looked quite involved in the task of gazing starrily into each other's eyes, but smiled and slid over on the bench to make room, nonetheless.

"I guess now would be a bad time to ask someone to get me a hot chocolate?" Mabel asked sheepishly. Despite being drained from mending the mistakes of untrained mountain climbers, Keagan got back to his feet.

"Anyone else want something while I'm up?" he asked. He'd posed the question only to his own little group, but the pink-haired girl looked on the verge of piping up with a request, so Keagan hastily broke off eye contact with her and began the lengthy process of disentangling himself from the crowd.

"Get me one too, please!" Etta called after him, "I'll give you the gil for it as soon as you come back." Keagan didn't hear Etta, so Evan got up.

"No problem, Et, I'll getcha one." Evan kissed the top of Etta's head, then hastened after Keagan. Zell stared at the fire, mesmerized, from his comfortable place on his ma's lap. From the fire pit, logs crackled their protest as flames vanquished them into hot chunks of wood and smoking piles of ash. It reminded him of the long, dark nights on the Centran plains and Matron, with her kindly ways, quick to stop fights, quell anger, and soothe ruffled feathers. But mostly, it reminded him of Squall, the only boy Zell had ever been close friends with. Zell sighed, then wriggled a bit, sinking lower on Etta's lap. He missed the gang at the Orphanage sometimes; though, gazing around him, Zell realized that he had the greatest friends and family ever right in Balamb.

"So," Mabel said to Etta conspiratorially, "I'm thinking about trying for another baby." Etta stared at her, eyes wide with shock.

"Geez, Mabs, it seems a little soon, doesn't it?"

"But they grow up so fast!" Mabel protested, gesturing toward Paul, who was across the bonfire talking to the girl he'd been eyeing up earlier. The girl laughed at his remark, and wrote something down on his hand with a thick marker, which she spirited back into her pocket as quickly as she'd produced it. "Kassidy was only just born months ago, though," Etta pointed out. "She hasn't even had her first birthday yet."

"You sound just like Keagan," Mabel complained. She wagged a finger at Etta. "You'll see, though. That little Zell of yours will be full grown in no time, and then you'll realize I was right all along."

"Well, maybe," Etta admitted. But she was willing to take her chances on that one.


Shaking his head, Keagan handed a man at the refreshments booth 300 gil. "Things always get pricey around Selebraise." Evan remarked from behind him.

"Take it from me," Keagan replied, nodding shortly, "When you've got four kids, things are always pricey." As Evan grinned, his teeth gleamed with a faint orange glow from the firelight.

"I s'pose so," Evan said, stepping up to the counter of the food booth that had been temporarily constructed for Selebraise and ordering hot chocolate for both him and Etta. He idly wondered if there would be permanent booths built someday. At the present, there was only a makeshift hot chocolate stand, one that looked (and smelled) like it was serving some type of dinner, and one for more "adult" beverages, where a crowd swarmed around with the deluded notion that alcohol would fend off the autumn chill in the air. Fighting off the urge to go over and inform the patrons that drinking would only serve to constrict blood vessels and actually make them colder, Evan just shook his head instead and took a sip of the hot chocolate he'd just been handed.

"And Mabel wants another kid."

Evan choked. "She was just pregnant!" he said, wondering about the Shyms' collective sanity-level.

"I know, I know..." Keagan sighed, drooping a little.

"Tough break, man," Evan remarked, clapping him on the back.

By the time the men returned with beverages, the children were nearly asleep, blinking with heavy-lidded eyes as the firelight made spotted patterns across their faces. They were just in time to hear Etta and Mabel converse about the occupations the children were certain to have when they were older. Listening in surprise to some of the options Mabel was suggesting for Gella, Evan had to remark "Are you sure she could be a nurse? She almost faints every time she skins her knees."

"Oh, it's just a phase, all kids go through it, I'm sure," she admonished. "Why, what are you thinking of for Zell?"

"I think he'll want to work down at the piers with me," he nodded, spreading out into the area the young couple had just vacated.

"Well, whatever profession he ends up in, I hope it's nothing as dangerous as working at the lunar base. I've heard there's a lot of people getting into that field now... I just hope my little Zelly
isn't looking to the moon for any inspiration..." Etta remarked, taking a moment to gaze up at the cheesy celestial body she was speaking about. It wasn't obvious to the naked eye, but thousands of
monsters roamed that moon, just waiting for an opportunity to fall and create havoc. She shuddered a little, thinking how she would never want to see her child so close to such vicious monsters, not if she could help it. Mistaking her movement for a shiver, Evan draped his sweater around her shoulders to help fend off any chills.

"You've got to admire those people, though," Keagen put in, looking contemplatively at the sky. "At least they're aspiring to something bigger than Balamb." Etta looked indignant, fussing about in her seat like a bird, and excessively adjusting the sweater around her
shoulders.

"Bigger isn't always better," she said, nodding in affirmation of the cliché. Evan observed her nervously; she was starting to let her emotions get the best of her and to speak with her hands. Normally, this wouldn't be all too much of a concern, but Evan was finding her strong nationalism, hand motions while holding hot chocolate, and his favorite white cable-knit sweater in the line of fire to be a bad combination. Oh, this didn't look good. Now she was launching into a detailed explanation of what made Balamb superior to almost anyplace in the world, which was leading to more hand gestures, and oh the humanity, Evan had to step in before someone or his beloved sweater got hurt.

"To each their own, Et, hon," Evan fought Etta's clichés with his own, sneakily taking back his sweater. That was one sentiment everyone could agree with, at least, and the group fell silent for a moment.

"I still think Balamb is the best place in the world," Etta said, determined to get in the last word. However, that honor wasn't destined to be hers; a drowsy Zell managed to get in a satisfied "Me too," before closing his eyes and falling asleep.