Tales From the New World

#3 Dub You All to English

Note: This oneshot is set during the events of the first game.

Hope slowly opened his eyes, wincing at the pain in his head. "Owww..."

"Hey, are you okay? That was a nasty fall you took back there," a light female voice cut through the pain.

Hope looked to his left and saw Vanille on her knees next to him, looking concerned. "Ugh, yeah, I think so," he answered, rubbing his head where he'd struck it. "What happened?"

"We were fighting a caramel mousse and you got thrown into a boulder," she explained, offering a hand to help him up.

A what? Hope remembered battling a flan... Was Vanille giving strange names to the monsters now? "I see," he said, ignoring his friend's oddness. He took her offered hand and allowed her to pull him to his feet. "Thanks, Vanille."

The redhead cocked her head to the side and regarded him strangely. "Vanille?" she repeated questioningly. Then she giggled. "Is that a nickname you came up with?"

Hope looked at her, puzzled. "Huh?" he said intelligently. "No, that's your—"

He was cut off by Lightning who suddenly came rushing up to them while simultaneously sheathing her gunblade. "Vanilla! Is Hope okay?" she questioned urgently.

Vanilla? Hope mentally repeated, perplexed.

"Yes, he's fine," Vanille answered. "Just bumped his head."

"Ah, Light," called, waving her over. "Did you defeat the flan?"

Lightning looked at him strangely and started to say something, but then Vanille suddenly giggled again and said, "Oh! When did you and Lightning get so close?"

Hope was once again confused. "What are you talking about?"

Before she could answer, the rest of the team came rushing over, all wearing concerned expressions.

"Oy, Hope, you alright?" Fang asked.

"Daddy was so worried!" Sazh announced, and the chocobo chick in his afro popped out to kweh in agreement.

Daddy? "Sazh, who's—" Hope started, but he was cut off again.

"Everyone back off and give him some space," Lightning directed. "Vanilla, you should probably cast care on him just to be safe."

Care? Hope looked from Lightning to Vanille and then around to the others. Something was wrong here.

"Hey now, nee-san. Don't fret so much," Snow piped up. "Hope's a tough kid."

Nee-san? Hope was quickly reaching the end of his rope with all the strange terms his friends were tossing around. "Okay, what the heck is going on here?" he demanded crossly. "Vanilla? Daddy? Nee-san? Caramel mousse? What on Pulse are you all talking about?"

Everyone stopped talking and stared at him blankly for a long moment.

"Hope must've hit his head harder than we thought," Vanille remarked, regarding him with pity in her eyes.

Hope furrowed his eyebrows, annoyed. Were they playing some kind of joke on him? If so, he certainly didn't get it...but maybe if he played along they would stop. "Haha, real funny, guys," he said, faking a laugh. "You got me, so you can quit it now."

Vanille's expression didn't change. "But nobody's joking," she said, confused.

"Wait a minute," Lightning spoke up, her eyes widening like she'd figured something out. "Doesn't something about Hope seem weird to you?" she addressed the question to the others.

"Come to think of it, his manner of speech is usually much more polite," Sazh observed, stroking his goatee thoughtfully.

"And he called me Vanille earlier," Vanille—or was she?—added.

"Right," Lightning agreed. "And he's been referring to all of us by our plain names. Hope doesn't do that."

"He does that to me," Snow protested. He was ignored.

"I think..." Lightning said, bringing her hand to her chin thoughtfully. "I think this might not be our Hope."

"What do you mean, 'not our Hope'?" Vanille looked lost. Hope's knew his own expression mirrored hers.

Lightning lowered her hand and looked Hope straight in the eye. "I think this is the Hope from the English version."

A gasp came from the whole group. Hope paled. No, it couldn't be...

"Wait, but if this is their Hope..." Snow started, his own eyes becoming wide.

"Then where's ours?" Vanille finished.

Hope groaned. His head felt like it had been smashed in by Snow's fists.

"He's coming to, Lightning," he heard Vanilla's voice.

"Eugh," he moaned, clutching his head. "Vanilla-san? Light-san?"

He cracked an eye open and his vision landed on a rapidly-becoming-disturbed-looking Lightning.

"Oh no..." she groaned, putting her face in her hands.

This one was just general crack. Not much to say about it. I live in Japan, so obviously I'm familiar with the Japanese versions of the games. I own all three in both languages.

Sorry this one wasn't really romantic at all. I'm sure the next one will be. ;)