OKAY FINNEEEE so i rewrote my lnwtd self insert/oc's lore. whatever.
SO Ellery's basics are still the same, same appearance, gender, pronouns etc. but.... here's a rough timeline for his presence in Jack's life!
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- Fundamental Fysiks Group founded 1975 (this was actually a real group in the 70s which sought to explore the link between quantum physics and the paranormal! Which is why I thought this would be PERFECT to incorporate into Ellery's lore, seeing as he's a physicist!!)
- Ellery Finch joins group in 1976 as one of its newest and youngest members with a promising quantum physics background and quickly rose through the ranks to make himself one of the primary public faces of the group
- when Night Owls reaches out to the group later that year, Ellery was ‘elected’ to be the representative member to go out on the show
- nobody had the brilliant idea to move the episode featuring Ellery and the FFG (Fundamental Fysiks Group) to Halloween, despite its proximity to the holiday and semi-paranormal subject matter, so the episode aired October 11th 1996, just a couple of weeks before it
- the episode was a success though it sparked controversy as it seemed to signal the beginning of Night Owls’ downfall into fast money TV, where all that was valued was quick cash, views and popularity, as opposed to ‘quality television’ as it had been put by some critics
- just as soon, though, everyone forgot about the existence of the FFG and the conversation around the link between quantum physics and the paranormal died down until the following year
- Ellery, of course, like most Americans had been watching Night Owls for awhile now and had developed a bit of a parasocial crush on Jack, which he did his damndest to hide while being interviewed by the man himself on his show
- lucky for him, Jack had taken a particular and unprofessional interest in the young man he’d just interviewed
- after the show, Jack made a point to ‘run into’ Ellery, ‘accidentally’ bumping into him (totally not a ploy to get close to Ellery- unrelated, but he smelled very nice, a hint of lavender cologne) and using the opportunity to have to catch him from falling over. How convenient.
- Ellery, a bit starstruck and at a loss for words, just kind of stood there, basking in the afterglow of the physical contact he’d just had with Jack Delroy
- Jack, now even more enamored with Ellery what with his reaction, laughed softly and told him something along the lines of an apology that led all too smoothly into an invitation for a little time together, a drink perhaps?
- the two kept in close touch, Jack often visiting Ellery in California when he made his trips to The Grove (also in CA)
- 1997 comes around and the Night Owls crew are preparing a special episode for Halloween featuring all things paranormal, having learned from their mistake last year and actually landed the episode on the holiday that year
- Jack invites Ellery back on, despite him having kind of drifted from the FFG and taken his own path in the more concrete world of quantum physics rather than the one intertwined with the paranormal
- Ellery declines, though he does make the trip to see the show in person, to indulge Jack
- the events of the movie come to pass and when Christou is whisked away off stage, having just projectile vomited black bile of unknown composition, Ellery starts to feel deeply unsettled and leaves the show, hoping Jack will understand when the two see each other again afterwards
- he couldn’t have predicted how the show would continue to unfold and by the time Jack convinced June to summon Mr. Wriggles, Ellery was already on his way back to try to convince him to back off, next time the show took a break and he could actually talk to Jack
- something felt … wrong. Deeply, inexplicably, unequivocally wrong
- by the time Ellery got there, he found Jack standing over Lily’s dead body, surrounded by the carnage Mr. Wriggles had wreaked
- he had to slap Jack to snap him out of the stupor he’d worked himself into, upon having realized what he’d done
- the two managed to escape before the cops showed up
- in the aftermath of it all, Ellery brings Jack back to his home in the Bay Area of San Francisco, CA
- Jack, at this point, was damn near catatonic, responding only intermittently to Ellery’s presence
- then one night, Jack started sleepwalking, waking Ellery who did his best to wake Jack
- Jack’s head snapped around to meet Ellery’s eyes and it was deadly clear that what was behind those eyes wasn’t Jack right now
- after a lot of digging back into the events of the last show, The Grove and his past with the FFG, Ellery came to the disturbing conclusion that Jack had been possessed by a demon; whether it was Mr. Wriggles or Abraxas himself was unclear as the demon only referred to itself as ‘Not Jack’
- Ellery dove down the rabbit hole that was the FFG once again, in an attempt to find a way to expel the demon from Jack and bring him back entirely
- with the help of his contacts back from the FFG, Ellery is able to find away to banish ‘Not Jack’ back to wherever it came from and bring back Jack for good