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[oncmcretime]

closed starter for @athenahowards

location: beach

"I'm not a fan of being here at all," She really empathized, not wanting Athena or any eavesdroppers to think any different, "And definitely not a fan of this weird shit that keeps popping up everywhere. But I'm just going to say, with how long we've been here, it's a miracle that it seems nobody has gotten super sick in any way yet." She said, before tacking on for good measure, "Lets hope I didn't just jinx that."

[oncmcretime]

closed starter for @ardensocean

location: beach, near the shore

"Do you think there's a way to, like, create our own scuba gear somehow?" Lillian asked the other woman, "Being here so long now makes me so curious about what lies more underneath, especially knowing how important the reef in Samoa is. I wonder if there's one laying underneath this very island." She said, taking a deep breath in of the ocean air, "That would probably be too ambitious though, right?"

[oncmcretime]

closed starter for @painendured

location: beach

"You know," Lillian took out a pocket knife, not originally her own but something she found early on in the wreckage. Probably something one of the people who didn't make it packed. For what? She didn't know, but it didn't matter to her now, "I drank some coconut milk before this but I never actually had to cut coconuts open and drink directly before. I don't know if people back home would actually believe me if I told them that I know how to do this now. Though I guess that it would actually probably be the least unbelievable thing that's happened."

She finished up the cutting, relieved and took a drink, "Anyway, do you want a coconut?"

[oncmcretime]

Lillian's eyes went a bit wide at Elvira's statement of it having been a few months. Not wanting the other person to think she was being rude, she wiped her hands over her face with a, "Fuck. It's been a few months already?" Taking a couple deep breaths, allowing the knowledge to sit with her more, she admitted, "That does sound about right, though. Just what other plane crash survivors have had to wait a few months before being rescued?"

"Someone probably." Elvira shrugged, she'd stopped thinking about how long they'd been here, as far as she was concerned it wasn't helping anyone to wallow praying for some nebulous salvation. Strange as it may be, life here had become a new normal. "I think it's been a few months at least, I'm not really sure how many though."

[oncmcretime]

Lillian gave Autumn a small smile, one that was definitely sad in nature but hopefully comforting and reassuring as well. Hopefully. It was one of those times that a squeeze of an arm or leg, or a hug, would probably be the most reassuring, but not something she was sure Autumn would want.

She shook her head as she spoke softly, "You didn't do anything, in this life or any past one," She sighed, "Sometimes, these things are just random." She continued, "Though I'm not sure if that actually makes it better, or makes it worse."

"I know right?" she agreed, "I'm glad... no I mean... not that you're sad too... that I'm not alone... when it comes to feeling..." she shrugs, "I don't know... hopeless," she explained, "And, like you said, it's hard being away from family so long and then... this is what happens after you finally got to see them," she explained, "I know like... rationally, it's not connected, but it feels like I did something awful in a past life or something.." she mused, "You know?".

[oncmcretime]

Lillian laughed at the comment about being a spray bottle worthy offense. It was nice, whenever the chance came up to still enjoy something and find humor in something while stuck on this island that is turning more and more terrifying by the day.

"No offense, truly the only worse game I could think to teach them would be tug of war," She said, hoping it would make sense to Ren, "But truly I think it would be a cute idea. Maybe we can find a deck of cards and teach them some card games." She smiled as she said, "Or they may just eat the cards."

"Um..." Ren had to think now, that had never crossed his mind, but now Lillian mentioned it was kind of obvious, ".. uh... well... that would be a spray bottle worthy offence, don't you think?" he wasn't even sure what he was saying, "Yeah, maybe not the best idea," he conceded.

[oncmcretime]

Lillian nodded, in a level of understanding of what Athena meant about sense of time. Days could turn into nights then back into days without realizing even before this island. At least a week made her smile a bit, a small smile and a breath out of her nose. She vaguely understood the other was joking.

Finally, allowing herself to get out of her thoughts and actually talk, she said, "Yeah, yeah. At least a week," She kicked some sand, "You know, if I had thought during that first week that we'd be here so long, maybe I would have kept track. But I really thought we would have been rescued back then."

''my sense of time was crap before this whole thing started due to being in labs or researching most of the time, I can safely say though we have been here at LEAST a week.'' they answered with a small grin just for amusing themselves while knowing all too well they'd been here far too long. long enough to realize this island was most certainly not normal. it wasn't funny but they needed the humor to cope.

[oncmcretime]

At the woman's statement, Lillian just nodded. 'Too gay for math' got a small smile out of her, but pretty much all she could do is nod. She was right, of course, thinking about how long they've been stranded would probably just be depressing and welcome nihilism.

At the final part of it, though, she remembered what her mom would always say and repeated it, "Right, I mean a watched pot never boils, or whatever that proverb is," She said that last part and immediately regretted it. She knew that that was the proverb, why did she say 'whatever it was'? She continued, though, as she might as well, "Guess I never learned my lesson there. I can't say I made my own food enough to use a pot too much anyway."

Logan was on her way to the beach, looking to gather some sand needed for stability in building a little hut near the outpost. She stopped upon realizing someone was getting her attention. "Nah," she admitted, "no point. It's boring, and it just welcomes depression for me. Plus, I'm shit with numbers. Too gay for math." She laughed at her own joke, hesitated, then cleared her throat, realizing maybe now wasn't the time. "Anyway, I just think... dwelling is going to make it seem longer. Right? Like when you sit and watch the clock tick."

[oncmcretime]

Lillian thought back to just before they landed on this island. She was home, for Christmas, and got to see her family for the first time in a year and half. The other person's words reminded her of that, because one of the things she thought about when she was there was just how good it was to get to hug her mom again.

"No, it's not pathetic," She reassured the other person, "I get what you mean completely, hell I was in San Francisco because of that very thing." She left her story at that, no need to get into things, "But who knows? Maybe we'll be rescued, and I'm sure your mom will be happy to see you."

"We're not getting home. I know we're not. I keep saying I think there has to be a way but it's a bunch of shite," Autumn sniffed and wiped her sleeve over her eye before quickly acting as if nothing had happened, "I just want my mum. You know? Is that pathetic?"

[oncmcretime]

"So," Lillian let out a long sigh, "Do you think anyone is keeping track anymore of how long we've been here? I tried at the beginning, but I can no longer tell if it's been weeks, months, or how long," She put her head in her hands before looking back up, "Just definitely not days, it's felt like forever."

[oncmcretime]

Well, that would have been something nice to know earlier, Lillian thought to herself. But okay, this is exactly what it's like to work with people to make sure they can get what's needed, and this is needed. If they wanted to get back to camp, this is what needs to happens. They need to get over this hurdle.

"Okay," She let out, "Listen, you made it this far, and going back the way we came would be just as scary, right? Both involve having to climb down, one is just toward where we need to go, and the other will just leave us stranded. Is there anywhere you can mentally go to make this easier?" She asked, "Like a happy place?"

open to all

"I know this is the worst time to tell you this but-" she trailed off, looking at the sheer drop below, "..I-I'm terrified of heights."

[oncmcretime]

"Good and cute idea in theory but," Lillian trailed off a bit, "I would be worried about the long-term consequences. We don't want them to start playing fetch with each other using any of our limbs."

"Good idea or bad idea? We teach the dinos to play fetch..."

[oncmcretime]

[oncmcretime]

BOBBIE DRAPER in The Expanse Season 6 Episode 6 “Babylon’s Ashes”

[oncmcretime]

FRANKIE ADAMS // have you seen LILLIAN WESTERLUND around the crash site? we’re trying to make sure they’re still alive after the crash! according to the manifesto SHE is a 28 year old CIS WOMAN. i hear they’re known being a HEALTH EDUCATION VOLUNTEER WITH THE PEACE CORPS. LILLIAN is also known to be LOYAL yet also STUBBORN at times. we have a couple questions for LILLIAN when we find HER, we heard something about a secret they might have? such as SHE PRETENDS SHE JOINED THE PEACE CORPS FOR PURELY ALTRUISTIC REASONS, BUT IT WAS ACTUALLY MOSTLY BECAUSE SHE WAS LAID OFF FROM HER OLD JOB! (natalie, 26, est, she/her)

Stats & bio under the cut!

STATS

Name: Lillian Westerlund

Age & DOB: 28, July 21st 1971

Ethnicity: Samoan

Occupation: Health Education Volunteer with the Peace Corps

Gender, Pronouns, and Sexuality: Cis Woman, She/Her, Bisexual

Marital Status: Single

Religion: Agnostic (raised Methodist)

Languages: English (fluent - her first language), Samoan (fluent)

Height: 5 ft, 11 in

Hometown: Sacramento, California, USA

Location (before crash): Apia, Samoa (technically Sacramento, California, USA, but had been living in Apia)

Faceclaim: Frankie Adams

BIO

Lillian Westerlund was born on July 21st, 1971 as the youngest of three children in Sacramento, California. Her mother, Susana Westerlund (née Brown), worked as a medical laboratory scientist, and had moved to California from Tāfuna, American Samoa at the age of 18 to go to college. Her father, Daniel Westerlund, worked as a cardiologist and had moved to California from Siumu, Samoa at the age of 22 for medical school. The two met in 1960, and got married in 1962 before having their first child, Lillian’s older brother Peter in 1963. They later had Lillian’s older sister, Jana, in 1968, before having Lillian in 1971. It would be no wonder that Lillian would eventually go into the health field herself, having two parents in the medical field, though she was the only one of her siblings to do so.

She always grew up interested in health, and what her parents did, though more so what her mother did than her father did. There was a point of time, as a child, where she was interested in becoming a doctor, but it was at that time and age where all of the children were interested in being doctors or lawyers or teachers or even the president. As she matured in life, she found that she was never actually interested in becoming a doctor and living that life, having that MD or DO by her name didn’t attract her at all. Still, the general field of health interested her, it’s just that she wanted to do something more behind the scenes. But she definitely didn’t want to go into accounting like her brother did, or agriculture like her sister did. She just wasn’t sure where in the “behind the scenes” work was best for her.

So, as the curious person that Lillian is, she talked to as many people as she could. Her parents obviously had many co-workers and friends in all fields of health work, and she wanted to know their jobs, and what they studied. That is when she discovered Public Health, and also understood the job of a community health worker. She continued to talk to other people, learn about their jobs and their education, but that was the field that stuck with her, and the one she eventually chose to go down. She wanted to mostly stay in California, but applied to some universities out of state as well, and for all of the schools she applied to, she applied as a Public Health major. Ever the intelligent student she was, she got into most of the schools she applied to, and chose to go to the University of California, Berkeley to study for her Bachelor’s degree in Public Health.

She truly thrived at Berkeley, and after she graduated in 1993, she easily landed a job as a community health worker in Oakland, California, only a short 13 minute drive from Berkeley. Getting to work on the frontlines, helping to improve health outcomes in the community by working with members of the community to break down cultural barriers to treatment, then working with health care agencies and the state government to make appropriate changes was so fulfilling to her. The rest of her job, including just educating the community about health issues and promoting outreach into the community to build better health outcomes, was also so fulfilling to her. To know that, because of her, someone might actually feel empowered enough to seek out the healthcare they need, and therefore live a longer life, filled her with so much glee. That’s why it hurt, in August 1997, when she was laid off. She then shortly after had to leave Oakland, and move back in with her parents in Sacramento, because she couldn’t afford to live there anymore.

Jobs as a community health worker were getting harder to come by, especially as she spent a longer time unemployed. Even the connections her parents had couldn’t help her much, times were tough and there weren’t any openings for her. That was when she turned to the Peace Corps. They had tabled when she was in college and spoke to some of her classes, trying to recruit college students to apply after they graduated. And hell, if she couldn’t get anything else, why not? It would definitely be something that would look on her resume. When she saw there were specifically openings for health education volunteers in Samoa, that’s especially when she decided to apply. What a health education volunteer did fit her perfectly. She spoke Samoan, something that wasn’t even listed as a requirement. And her father was even from Samoa! So why not? The application was due by early January, and she made sure to get it in. She heard in mid-February that she was accepted, thank God, and she had to go through their training first, but she was able to leave for Samoa, with some other volunteers, in early June 1998.

Lillian had only been to Samoa a few select times in her life, and always went immediately to her father’s hometown of Siumu, not Apia, so there was a bit of culture shock when she first arrived. However, she seemed to acclimate herself to life in Apia faster than some of the other, mostly non-Samoan, volunteers, which was nice. It was also nice to have the other volunteers, though, as a reminder of home and as people to talk to about the experiences of being a volunteer. She overall enjoyed things, and as time went on, it was sad to remember that she would leave in June 2000, when her time as a volunteer expired. 

As time went on, though, she also remembered that she hadn’t used her vacation days, and by December 1999, she had already added up to 36 days. So, she decided to use some of those to visit her family for Christmas. It wasn’t something super important to her, but she knew it would be important to her family, and on December 15th, she flew from Apia back to Sacramento, technically arriving in San Francisco after a layover in Sydney, but driving the 2 hours from San Francisco to Sacramento. It was nice to see her family, to open gifts, and have some true American meals. Getting an actual hug from her mom after a year and a half also felt so comforting. New Years didn’t feel as important to her, or her family, as much as Christmas did, though. So there was no real reason to continue her time off into January, she would get on a flight to head back to Samoa on December 31st, 1999. Specifically, she would take Amtransa Airways Flight 78 from San Francisco to Sydney, as a connecting flight, before boarding a flight from Sydney to Apia on a Virgin Australia Airlines flight.

It was a simple enough flight plan. Connecting flights are annoying, sure, but there weren't any non-stop flights from California to Samoa, so it was what the plan had to be. She had also just gone through the opposite way, from Apia to Sydney to San Francisco, as her way to get to California. She didn’t expect crashing on an island, though, but she does feel lucky she survived. Now that it’s been a couple of months, though, she’s getting a bit fed up, and hopes they get saved soon. But at least she does have some survival skills that have been helpful to the group, given her health knowledge. And she has been living on a South Pacific island for the past year and a half, so some of the tropical aspects of the island aren’t anything new to her. 

Lillian just can’t wait to get home, or even to get to Apia.

[oncmcretime]

pinned links!

GENERAL

all open starters / all meme weekends posts / about the mun / rpg

LILLIAN WESTERLUND

about / headcanons / musings / visage / aesthetic / conversations / tasks / ask meme answers / open starters