Do you have any Filipino!Natalie hcs?
HELLO I AM FREAKING READY AND THIS IS GONNA BE LONG HERE WE GO
Her parents are immigrants from the Philippines from the Visayan region. They studied law there, met and got married, then decided to move to America while Natalie’s mom (don’t remember if her name was given in the book) was carrying Natalie; they figured their child would have a better life there.
Natalie’s parents didn’t teach her much Tagalog or Bisaya, so she decided that she’d learn Tagalog herself using Rosetta Stone. She’s not completely fluent yet, but she’s pretty good! She plans to learn Bisaya after.
She is super proud of her heritage and has done so much research on Filipino history, making sure to confirm with her parents for accuracy especially if she knows or thinks it’s not written by an actual Filipino.
She loves whenever there’s Asian representation, but gets ecstatic when there’s even the slightest bit of Filipino representation in anything. She barely sees herself represented so she will cling onto even the smallest things. (She doesn’t cry over it like I would, but she will not stop smiling or talking about it.)
She hates that she has to call all of her parents’ friends Tito or Tita or Auntie or Uncle because she honestly has no idea who she’s actually related to anymore and it drives her insane. She swears that her mom keeps changing her answer whenever she asks.
Hates Filipino parties because the younger kids scream and ruin her room (and occasionally steal something from it). She learned to hide her more important stuff or anything she doesn’t want them touching where they won’t find it.
Another reason to hate the parties: titas constantly asking “Do you have boyfriend?” Her parents constantly told her “No boyfriend until you graduate” and her titas tell her the same thing (some have said until she’s 35) so why would they ask her that question???? (Found out eventually that they were joking. She thought they were serious before.)
She doesn’t do the karaoke during parties, but will do it when it’s just her and her parents. She isn’t an amazing singer, but she’s pretty decent for someone who never had voice lessons.
Her parents believe Filipino superstitions. She doesn’t. She has tried to explain to her parents that they aren’t true, and will go to bed with her hair wet to prove she won’t go blind or use deodorant to show it won’t make her armpits black.
Also refuses to use Vick’s as a miracle cure for getting sick or hurt.Gets really, and I mean really, annoyed when people try to guess her ethnicity. She keeps being mistaken for Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Latina, and a couple others.
Another pet peeve is when she’s told that she’s “not Asian, she’s Filipino.” Will explain to you that Filipino is still Asian (amount of detail in her explanation will depend how annoyed she is).
Doesn’t like using the bathrooms in most other people’s homes because there’s no tabo.
She also always has to wear her tsinelas (slippers) whenever in her house. She hates being barefoot or wearing her shoes in the house. In other people’s homes, she will just wear socks if she needs to.
Loves spaghetti with hot dogs. She thinks Americans are missing out by using meatballs instead, because the hot dogs are amazing. Also loves pancit.
Probably eats too much rice but she doesn’t care.
Her family visits the Philippines every year for usually about two weeks. She enjoys the visits since it’s to see the rest of their family.
She likes durian candy. Doesn’t like durian itself. Has gone to the Durian Capital of the Philippines. She doesn’t plan on going back anytime soon.
She’s done research on many of the islands in the Philippines and wants to go island-hopping one day with her parents. She knows which island has what and even has the plan on which islands to go to and what they’ll do.
Once her mom introduced her to Yoyoy and she decided that she never wanted to hear his voice again. Complained to Scott about his voice, only to find out the next day that Scott looked him up on YouTube and memorized the Philippines History song. Scott decided to prove this by singing the whole thing. Natalie was not happy.
Also showed Scott a picture of a Philippine tarsier, and he cried over how cute they were.
The Recruits don’t understand why she gets easily annoyed when taking more than two pictures.
She brought lumpia to school once and shared it with the rest of the Recruits. They absolutely loved it, so she makes sure to bring lumpia whenever her mom makes some, usually storing a ziploc full of them in the back of the fridge before a party.
This is long and way more headcanons than you probably wanted sorry djdndjdnndnd