Group RP 𝐄𝐥𝐬𝐞𝐰𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐞 // Worldbuilding

[chap]

LUCINDA WHITLOCK

AGE: 78
OCCUPATION: Whitlock matriarch
PERSONALITY: Coldly composed, uncompromising, and deeply controlling. Lucinda speaks rarely, but with total certainty when she does. She has the presence of someone who doesn't need to raise her voice to be obeyed. Not outwardly cruel; simply unyielding, as if softness were a liability she outgrew long ago.

BACKGROUND: Lucinda is Malcolm Whitlock's wife and the quiet center of the family's private life. She's almost never seen in town, rarely attends gatherings, and seems to exist more as a rumor than as a person. Those who have met her describe brief encounters; an observing gaze, a few measured words, the sense of being assessed. Within Whitlock Manor, her influence is unquestioned, though it's expressed through silence rather than spectacle.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Lucinda exists on the island in the way the manor does: permanently, innately, and without explanation. St. Else is not a place she lives; it's something she presides over.

CONNECTIONS:

• Malcolm Whitlock: Her husband; their bond is formal, lasting, and unreadable.
• Vivian Whitlock: Their daughter, and the family's public face; Lucinda's shadow behind a smile.
• Quentin Whitlock: Her grandson and the Whitlock heir apparent; watched with scrutiny, expectation, and quiet disappointment.
• Dr. Hansel Beck: Trusted by the Whitlocks in ways that unsettle others.

AVAILABILITY: Chap only

 

[chap]

LYLE MERCER

AGE: 34
OCCUPATION: Dockhand and odd-job laborer
PERSONALITY: Restless, unreliable, and painfully earnest when he's sober. Lyle has the jittery energy of someone always trying to get his life back on track and always slipping sideways. He can be funny and personable, but there's a constant undertone of shame and defensiveness, like he's bracing for disappointment.

BACKGROUND: Lyle has worked the docks for years in an uneven pattern; showing up early for weeks at a time, then vanishing for days without explanation. Everyone knows he's struggled with addiction on and off, and the island's isolation hasn't helped. He takes whatever work he can get: unloading supplies, fixing ropes, running errands for shop owners. Lyle talks about leaving St. Else sometimes, but never with a real plan, as though the ferry is a concept more than an option.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Lyle feels trapped in the island's smallness. St. Else is both the only place that keeps giving him another chance and the place he can't seem to outgrow. Te dock is his anchor, even when he's drifting.

CONNECTIONS:

• Jon Merrick: Jon keeps an eye on him, unwilling to abandon him.
• Hob Carrow: Teases him, feeds him small bits of normalcy, but doesn't full trust him.
• Burt Thompkins: Has little patience for Lyle's disappearances, but still helps when it matters.
• Sheriff Pike: Knows him too well; more wellness checks than arrests, at least.
• Sally Rook: Offers him quiet kindness when he's at his lowest.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all

 

[chap]

MALCOLM WHITLOCK

AGE: 82
OCCUPATION: Head of the Whitlock family
PERSONALITY: Reserved, precise, and unnervingly calm. Malcolm speaks softly and rarely, but with the certainty of someone accustomed to being obeyed. He is not outwardly emotional; his presence feels more like a rule than a man. Polite, distant, and impossible to read.

BACKGROUND: Malcolm Whitlock is the aging patriarch of the island's most powerful family, living above St. Else in Whitlock Manor. He has spent his life as the island's quiet owner in all but name, overseeing the remnants of Whitlock Industries and the old structures that keep St. Else functioning as it does. Even as his health fades, his influence does not. To most islanders, Malcolm is less a person than a constant presence; spoken about carefully, encountered rarely, and never challenged.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Malcolm doesn't belong to the island; the island belongs to him. St. Else is an inheritance, a responsibility, and a thing to be managed. Whatever lies beneath it, he has lived with it long enough to treat it as simply a part of the estate.

CONNECTIONS:

• Lucinda Whitlock: His wife; the matriarch and quiet equal beside him.
• Vivian Whitlock: Their daughter, carrying the family's public face.
• Quentin Whitlock: His grandson and heir apparent, watched with expectation.
• Dr. Hansel Beck: Trusted physician and confidant to the family.
• Sheriff Pike: Maintains a careful, professional relationship with Whitlock authority.

AVAILABILITY: Chap only

 

[chap]

MARLA KEENE

AGE: 24
OCCUPATION: Waitress at Driftwood Diner
PERSONALITY: Bright, bubbly, and quick to smile. Marla has an easy warmth with customers and a knack for keeping conversation light, even when the island feels heavy. Energetic, talkative, and far more openly cheerful than most people on St. Else, though her brightness sometimes feels like something she's learned to hold onto.

BACKGROUND: Marla works full-time at the Driftwood Diner under Janey Carrow, serving coffee, meals, and familiarity to an island that doesn't see much change. Her parents both passed away when she was young and she was largely raised by Hob and Janey, growing up between the diner and the docks. That upbringing made her a kind of island daughter; known by everyone, looked after in small ways, and rooted deeply in the day-to-day life of St. Else. She knows everyone's order, everyone's moods, and has become one of the few sources of lightness in the island routine.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Mara belongs to the ordinary side of the island; the meals, the jokes, the small rhythms that pretend nothing is wrong. St. Else is the only real home she's ever had, even if part of her wonders what life looks like beyond it.

CONNECTIONS:

• Janey Carrow: Her guardian in all but name, and her boss.
• Hob Carrow: Raised her alongside Janey; treats her like his own.
• Burt Thompkins: A regular she fusses over, whether he likes it or not.
• Gideon Marsh: A quiet, unlikely connection beneath her brightness.
• Sally Rook: Someone Mara looks up to from a distance.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all

 

[chap]

MARNIE VALE

AGE: 39
OCCUPATION: Owner and operator of the General Store
PERSONALITY: Quiet, steady, and hard to read. Marnie is polite but reserved, the kind of person who listens more than she speaks. She has a practiced neutrality, as if she's learned that on a small island, showing too much emotion only invites questions.

BACKGROUND: Marnie owns and runs the General Store, keeping the island supplied with whatever the weekly ferry manages to bring in and whatever the locals can't do without. She knows everyone's routines through what they buy and when they come in. The store is one of the island's only true centers of normal life, and Marnie keeps it functioning through quiet competence and consistency. Attached to the back of the building is Dr. Hansel Beck's small clinic-room, making Marnie one of the only people who sees him regularly.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Marnie is part of the island's ordinary structure; the commerce, the schedules, the necessities. She doesn't chase St. Else's mysteries, but she lives alongside them, keeping her life small and her store steady.

CONNECTIONS:

• Dr. Hansel Beck: Shares the building with him; daily proximity and quiet understanding.
• Perrin Sloane: Professional familiarity as another shop owner, though she keeps her distance.
• Hob Carrow: Regular overlap through dock supplies and routine.
• Jon Merrick: Coordinates shipments and deliveries through the ferry.
• Janey Carrow: Casual town familiarity through ordering and supplies.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all

 

[chap]

PEBBLE

AGE: Unknown
OCCUPATION: Constant companion
PERSONALITY: Curious, unpredictable, and strangely self-possessed. Pebble appears friendly one moment and distant the next, as if following rules no one else can see. He has a habit of turning up exactly where he shouldn't be, watching with calm, unreadable attention when he's not in the throes of an excellent nap session.

BACKGROUND: Pebble is Hazel Quill's constant companion, though 'pet' doesn't quite fit. He drifts through St. Else like he owns it; sleeping on diner steps, slipping into the chapel, appearing near the factory fence, vanishing for days and returning unchanged. Hazel speaks to him as if he answers back and people laugh when they realize Pebble often leads her to places she shouldn't know about. No one remembers when he first arrived. Some islanders suspect he's always been there.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Pebble feels less like an animal and more like a moving anomaly; an extension of the island's curiosity. Where he goes, small disturbances follow: a door that was latched is standing open, a kettle whistles in an empty kitchen, a person takes a turn they don't remember choosing. People swear they've seen him twice in the same hour in places too far apart or find pawprints where no cat should have been able to climb. He's only ordinary if you don't pay attention.

CONNECTIONS:

• Hazel Quill: His interpreter and closest confidant.
• Father Mallory: Uneasy about how often Pebble enters the chapel uninvited.
• Elias Thorne: Has sketched Pebble more often than once without meaning to.
• Janey Carrow: Lets him sleep on the diner stairs.
• Perrin Sloane: The only person on the island Pebble seems to actively dislike.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all

 

[chap]

PERRIN SLOANE

AGE: 36
OCCUPATION: Owner of Island Mercantile
PERSONALITY: Polished, courteous, and unsettlingly composed. Perrin is always smiling, always agreeable, with manners that feel slightly too perfect for St. Else. He speaks gently, as if every conversation is a transaction, and nothing about him ever seems truly spontaneous.

BACKGROUND: Perrin runs Island Mercantile, the island's most refined shop, stocked with goods that seem oddly out of place among the salt-worn stores nearby. No one is quite sure how long he has been on St. Else, only that he's always there when something is needed, usually with a rough estimate of the cost before anyone even asks. Perrin maintains an air of quiet prosperity and careful distance, inserting himself into island life through commerce without ever seemingly fully a part of it.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Perrin doesn't feel rooted to the island so much as interested in it. St. Else is not his home; it's his opportunity. Whether he's simply a merchant or something stranger is a question most locals avoid asking directly.

CONNECTIONS:

• Marnie Vale: Professional familiarity as another shop owner, though she keeps him at arm's length.
• Hob Carrow: Friendly on the surface, distrusted underneath.
• The Whitlocks: Perrin shows them special deference, though it's unclear why.
• Pebble: Open mutual hostility; Perrin can't charm the cat and the cat seems to know something Perrin doesn't want known.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all

 

[chap]

QUENTIN WHITLOCK

AGE: 22
OCCUPATION: Whitlock heir
PERSONALITY: Petulant, restless, and contemptuous. Quentin carries entitlement like an illness; bored with everything, irritated by everyone, always acting as though the island is beneath him while also refusing to leave it. He's sharp enough to be dangerous, but too impatient to be disciplined.

BACKGROUND: Quentin is Vivian Whitlock's son and the heir apparent to the Whitlock legacy. Raised in Whitlock Manor under layers of wealth, silence, and expectation, he grew into someone half-cultured and half-feral; expensively dressed, poorly grounded. He drifts through the island like a man waiting for his life to begin somewhere else, spending most of his time in private rooms, on his phone, or disappearing into the estate's corridors. He resents the weight of inheritance even as he clings to it.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Quentin is bound to St. Else by blood, not by love. The island is his birthright and his prison. Whatever the Whitlocks truly preside over, Quentin is next in line; whether he wants it or not.

CONNECTIONS:

• Vivian Whitlock: His mother; a relationship defined by polish and pressure.
• Malcolm Whitlock: His grandfather; distant, watching, unreadable.
• Lucinda Whitlock: His grandmother; her scrutiny feels colder than affection.
• Dr. Hansel Beck: Trusted by the family and one of the few who speaks to Quentin plainly.

AVAILABILITY: Chap only

 

[chap]

SALLY ROOK

AGE: 44
OCCUPATION: Owner and operator of the Harborlight Inn
PERSONALITY: Composed, perceptive, and a bit unreadable. Sally is warm in a practiced way; polite, welcoming, calm under most circumstances. She has the kind of patience that comes from managing other people's discomfort for a living. Beneath that hospitality is a sharp awareness of everything happening in her vicinity and a talent for keeping her own thoughts private.

BACKGROUND: Sally has run the Harborlight Inn for many years, providing one of the island's few public-facing spaces: a place for visitors to stay, for locals to gather, and for conversations to happen softly behind closed doors. She is not from one of St. Else's old families, but she has become essential through consistency and discretion. Sally knows who arrives on the ferry, who leaves, and who never does. She keeps keys, rooms, and secrets with equal care.

TIES TO ST. ELSE: Sally is part of the island's fragile normalcy. The Harborlight is a buffer between St. Else and the outside world and Sally is its keeper. Whether she stays out of loyalty or because leaving is harder than it sounds is something she never answers directly.

CONNECTIONS:

• Jon Merrick: An intermittent romance or just a way to pass the time.
• Sheriff Pike: Keeps a respectful working relationship; Sally hears more than she reports.
• Marla Keene: Looks out for her in a gentle, older-sister way.
• Elias Thorne: Offers him space and coffee, though his questions make her uneasy.
• The Whitlocks: Maintains formal politeness, but keeps her distance.

AVAILABILITY: Open for all