Maria Felipe Joyce delos Reyes, the Republic of the Philippines, is a cheerful, bouncy and family-oriented nation, almost parallel to that of Spain, as well as outgoing and optimistic; quite like America. Out of her siblings, she is usually the latest, due to her infamous "Filipino time" that ensures that she will always be late to gatherings. Singapore complains that she even beats Indonesia and Malaysia when it comes to being "fashionably late." Nevertheless, she usually brings cheer and a whole lot of food.
The Philippines stands out in more ways than one. Her tanned skin is the darkest among her Southeast Asian siblings, which boasts of her tropical weather, but is not even considered as dark among her Latin "siblings." She is the curviest among the Asians, and if asked about it, her answers would range from "geographical location" to "it's the Iberian assets that everyone wants." She's not even completely sure of it herself. But paired with her straight black hair and dark brown eyes, she looks more like a tropical Asian than anything else. The Asian part manifests with the fact that she only stands at 5"4.
Neither completely Asian or Latin, many others have no idea where, or even how, to classy her. She sticks to Southeast Asian.
Though she owns a few impressive business attires for the important meetings, she tries her best to add the right amount of color. Sometimes she says she's too used to the colorful fiestas and pambahay attire of her homeland, other times she says she enjoys surprising people and grabbing their attention.
Spain blames this on America. America would simply grin and give a thumbs up.
At the meetings, her attention usually waivers by the second hour, reminding her of just how long these meetings last, and would start chatting with her neighbor; most of the time it's Indonesia or Thailand that sits next to her. But the moment America opens his mouth to suggest a completely-out-of-there-idea, or simply commands the room's attention to none other than himself, her attention shifts to him. Because despite all that has happened, she still takes a good chunk of her outgoing-attitude from him.
Spain still remembers when he first came across her when she was just little. Romano calls it creepy, Spain replies that all his colonies were the freakin' cutest. China just pouts.
Even at a young age, China had established a trading route with the small country, thus introducing more influences to the already growing number of other cultures. She was simply too far, and China had his own troubles back them. His people simply called her Ma-i. She ran free with the tribes on the islands.
When Spain had voyaged into her land lead by a Portuguese explorer, he pretty much fell in love with the small nation; which happened more often than one would like to think. Romano still shudders when he remembers the number of nations he shared the house with back then. But out of the multitude of other colonies in Spain's house, the Philippines found herself a brother-of-sorts in Mexico. They have similar festivals; their language is similar to one another and both seemed to have similar likes and dislikes. They still keep close contact with each other till the present time.
Though Spain had left her to her own devices for extended periods of time, after all, she was an Asian nation and was quite far from where Spain usually colonized, he still held a stern authority over the nation. Unfortunate to say, when his men decided to give a name to the nation, they had either forgotten to ask of the nation's sex, or were aware and ignored the issue. Thankfully, La islas Filipinas irrevocably became the archipelago's name. Spain eventually gave her the name "Maria Teresita Anna Joyce Elena Carriedo," giving his last name like he had done to his other colonies. Suffice to say the good majority changed their names after they were free from Spain.
Maria added Filipe in her name just to annoy him. Mexico was very proud when she told him.
For 333 years, the Philippines was under Spanish colonization, so it is to no surprise that she has taken most of personality from him. And just like Spain's other colonies, used Spanish as a basis for their own language. Spain tends to get depressed when the Philippines or his other colonies speak in their native language; crying out that it is a twisted version of Spanish.
It's their little victory.
When the Second World War came in, however, and America decided to play hero and save the Philippines, he immediately became her version of a knight in shining armor. She chose to ignore the more obvious reason why he came to her rescue. His charismatic-ness and blindingly optimistic view on life made an impact on the Philippines, and tries to fashion herself the same. Her siblings thank the good heavens that she is not as severe as the American.
She still tries to stop herself from flinching every time Japan passes by unexpectedly, because even though her people now can't fully comprehend what he did, and had even made a following to the animation and whatnots of the stoic nation, she can't forget.
The stories of the white ladies don't just come from Spain's time.
In the meetings, she immediately sits with her fellow ASEANs, though a few times she is stolen by her Latin counterparts. However, despite the time she had spent with them, her Southeast Asian siblings are who she identifies herself with. More than that of the other Asians. China tried his best not to look too depressed from that statement.
Lately though, she has been spending more time with South Korea, enjoying his version of tela-novelas. All her siblings pray that the Korean isn't contagious.
Author's Note:And for some reason, this went beyond what I thought it would be.
And yes, I was having fun with long Spanish names.
I'm actually starting to feel a bit sorry for China, good countries to have colonized, never got the chance to. I think I'll expand on each of their relationships at a later time XD
I don't own Hetalia, only the OCs that had spawned into my mind.
