The Weatherman

* Hero Costume
* Portrait
* Chibi

## Meta

> "*Let's make this two on two.*"
> ― The Weatherman, creating a lightning clone of himself (S3E116)
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## Appearance

Ernest is six feet tall and quite lanky. He has floppy medium brown hair cut just above the shoulder. His eyes are a light gray, but tend to pick up color from his surroundings, and can appear blue, teal, or even light purple depending on the lighting.

Ernest dresses in comfortable hoodies or sweatshirts and jeans, mostly wearing black, gray, purple, and teal. He always carries bulky headphones to listen to chill beats.

His hero costume consists of a helmet with a half visor and incorporated over-ear headphones, a jacket, and boots. The costume has a black, white, purple, and teal color scheme, with lightning bolt symbols and a ‘W’ for Weatherman.

## Powers

Ernest has elemental control over the weather, allowing him to generate and manipulate wind, rain, lightning, snow, and hail. His powers are tied to his emotions, and he often exerts a minor influence over his environment without intending to: the sun breaks through the clouds when he is happy, rain falls when he is sad, a cold breeze sweeps through the room when he is angry, and the temperature of the room rises when he is embarrassed.

As Ernest started training as a superhero, he found that directing his powers along the motion of his body helped him better control them. This led to him wrapping lightning around his fists for electrified punches and the creation of ‘lightning clones’ in the shape of his own body.

When Ernest pulled his weather powers into the Dataverse in order to prevent the team from becoming stranded in the past, he gained the ability to sprout butterfly wings formed of lightning. These wings allow him to fly extremely quickly, and even travel to other dimensions.

When he pulled all of his lightning that Bishop had been storing in batteries back to himself, Ernest gained much finer control of his powers. His lightning became rainbow colored, with the color often reflecting the colors that he sees with his synesthesia. Additionally, his powers became nearly impossible to be stolen or copied by others.

Although Ernest always used music to calm himself down and regain control of his powers or psyche himself up to let loose with them, with the help of his drone companion Cloudy he has been able to bring the interaction of his powers with music to a new level. Cloudy can send DDR-style instructions to Ernest’s helmet for him to dance along to for close range combat, and will play music that shows up as specific patterns in Ernest’s synesthesia for him to direct his powers along at long range.

## Background

### Childhood

Ernest has always seen swirling colors and shapes corresponding to whatever sounds he hears, a result of his synesthesia. These patterns fascinated him, but whenever he tried to point them out to others, they couldn’t seem to see them. His reactions to things that were not there had him labeled as attention-seeking by teachers and a weirdo by other kids. Eventually, Ernest stopped talking about what he saw and did his best to ignore it. When he discovered that chill music helped smooth over the distracting patterns, he started carrying headphones everywhere.

At age 15, Ernest began manifesting his powers of weather control. Not wanting to give his peers another reason to shun him, he did his best to suppress his powers at all times. During emotional moments, they managed to slip through, but if anyone noticed Ernest tried to shrug it off as a coincidence.

### The Accident

When he was 17, Ernest got into an argument with his dad. He can’t even remember what they were fighting about anymore, but while they were shouting at each other, Ernest ended up creating a stormcloud in the living room and accidentally struck his younger brother Timothy with lightning.

Timothy recovered without too many lasting injuries, but was left partially deaf. Ernest’s dad was furious and demanded that Ernest be sent away before he could hurt anyone else. His mom refused, saying that Ernest could learn to control his powers with help. The constant tension in the family kept Ernest on edge and barely able to suppress his powers, so he stopped attending school to avoid putting his classmates in danger.

### Moving to Halcyon City

In July 2019, Ernest’s mom decided to move to Halcyon City. Not wanting to be separated, Ernest and Timothy moved with her. They both enrolled in Big High, Timothy for his sophomore year and Ernest for his second attempt at senior year.

Ernest decided that the only way to learn how to control his powers was by intentionally using them instead of suppressing them. He wanted to try and get some good out of them by working with the Big Team to stop villains.

### Season 3

Upon first joining the Big Team, Ernest struggled to control his powers and as a result ended up causing a lot of collateral damage to structures while doing hero work. He helped tackle threats from the supervillain team Gambite, as well as entering the Dataverse on several missions to help deal with the problems caused by the real world and the digital world encroaching on each other. He also ended up time traveling to Montreal in 1955, where he encountered the Reaper and failed to stop them from creating the Bay. With help from his teammates, he started learning to fly by boosting himself with wind, to fight with proper technique, and to speak ASL.

In November 2019, Ernest’s dad showed up in Halcyon and tried to convince Ernest to let him study his powers for science rather than use them for superheroics. At first, Ernest refused, but when Timothy told him that he planned to move back to New York City if their dad was not able to continue projects researching Ernest’s powers in Halcyon, Ernest agreed. The first experiment went poorly, and led to Bishop getting their hands on a battery charged by Ernest’s lightning.

### Season 3.5

On a visit back to New York City for Christmas, Ernest convinced his dad to stop the projects researching his powers, and instead stay in New York so that Timothy could return to their old high school. He was temporarily bodyswapped as a result of machinations by the Black Magic Club, which led to someone else losing control of his powers and covering the city in a blizzard. He also started wrestling under the persona Stormbreaker with guidance from Hellody Goreman, and failed to help the Consortium steal a magical artifact.

### Season 4

Ernest became extremely worried about Verve’s new pocket powers due to their similarity to the powers that the Reaper used to create the Bay. His fear of encountering the Reaper in 1955 again led him to pull his powers from the real world into the Dataverse to push time back to the present. After this incident, he developed the ability to summon butterfly wings reminiscent of his wings in the Dataverse, but made out of lightning, that allowed him to fly extremely quickly as well as travel to other dimensions. When he encountered the Reaper again in Shadow Halcyon, he used the wings to chase the Reaper down to their pockets and strike them down with their own scythe, helping resolve the guilt he felt for his involvement in the creation of the Bay.

Meanwhile, Ernest learned that Bishop had expanded the battery that he’d charged with lightning during his dad’s experiment to power many villainous projects. His anger over this misuse of his powers caused him to lash out and completely level a Bishop facility. This inspired fear and resentment among various Bishop employees. During the confrontation with Bishop on the Zodiac Tree, Ernest pulled all the lightning Bishop had stored in batteries to himself and reclaimed his powers with more control than he’d had before.

The creation of a 5-story tall rainbow lightning construct of himself during this incident was caught on video and went viral online, rapidly gaining the Weatherman attention from all of the memes that sprang up around him. Ernest decided to lean into this newfound popularity and created The Weather Channel, a BeTube channel documenting his superheroics and anything else he wants to make a video about. Unfortunately, all of the attention also led to Ernest’s email and physical mail being swamped with messages and gifts, fans camping out his apartment for pictures and autographs, and a wave of enthusiastic shippers pairing him with every other teammate he interacts with.

Ernest also helped DNase in their efforts to find their friends and strike back against HELIX. This brought him in conflict with the mercenary Dez, who Ernest was particularly upset with for using one of Bishop’s Weatherman batteries to power her suit. However, he still defended Dez when DNase tried to harm her, and generally tried to persuade DNase to use less violent tactics. While rescuing Gestalt from HELIX, Ernest briefly joined their hivemind and turned against his teammates, setting off deep fears of either losing his friends or betraying them by becoming a supervillain.

## Relationships

### Family

**Timothy Welles**

Ernest’s younger brother. Ernest and Timothy have always been close, and that didn’t change even after Ernest accidentally struck him with lightning and left him partially deaf. Timothy always knows what to say to make Ernest feel better, even when he’s on the verge of a power-fueled meltdown. He moved with Ernest and their mom to Halcyon at first, but decided to move back to New York with their dad after having difficulty making friends in Halcyon. Still keeps in close touch with Ernest.

**Helen Welles**

Ernest’s mother. Divorced from Ernest’s father and currently dating Boon’s mother, Maggie Ostenberg. Ernest and Helen can be distant from each other at times, but have been in better communication after Ernest admitted that he had been trying to hide his nightmares and his relationship with Kurt Woods from her, and the two of them discussed Helen’s supportive intentions in running a support group for relatives of those with superpowers.

**Harold Welles**

Ernest’s father. Ernest always had a contentious relationship with his dad, but they have recently been working to mend it after Ernest convinced Harold to stay in New York with Timothy rather than continue trying to research Ernest’s powers in Halcyon. Harold’s research experiments resulted in Bishop obtaining a battery charged with Ernest’s lightning, which they used to power various villainous projects. Harold asserts that Ernest should attend college or some other form of postsecondary education now that he has graduated high school.

**Ernest Obenaus**

Ernest’s maternal grandfather, deceased. Took care of Ernest and Timothy while they were young, but died when Ernest was seven. Spoke mostly German at home to try and teach them the language, but Ernest and Timothy lost most of it after he died.

## Journal Entries

* The Weatherman's Journal (Season 3)
* The Weatherman's Journal: Book Two (Seasons 3.5 and and the first part of Season 4)
* The Weather Channel (The later part of Season 4)

## Additional Scenes

### Season 3

* Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (11/6/19) - Ernest runs across Melody working out in the Big Team gym and asks her to show him the ropes.
* Recognition Song (11/8/19) - Wren eagerly invites Ernest to sight-see around the RESONANCE HQ.
* Talk to the Hands (11/15/19) - Atlanta teaches Ernest ASL after school.
* The Rainbows in Our Eyes (11/25/19) - Ernest and Gwen share some music and their unique ways of seeing the world with each other.
* Weathering with You (12/16/19) - After the Gambite attack, Ernest tries to find out what’s been bothering Boon. Featuring guest appearance by one Gwendolyn du Lac.

### Season 4

* The Weatherman: Christmas Special (12/6/19 - 1/1/20) - A series of scenes/journals exploring Ernest’s familial relationships over the holidays.
* What We Do in the Shadows (01/05/20) -  Ernest trains Melody to better control her shadow chains as the two discuss their powers, recent events, and personal struggles.
* Parhelion (2/18/2020) - Shortly after Libra reveals their identity as Kurt to Ernest, they have a serious talk about morality and friendship.
* Calm Before the Storm (2/26/2020) - Wherein Ernest, Atlanta, and Jasper get ice cream.
* Time to Say Goodbye (3/17/20) - Carmilla lets Ernest know about her plans to leave for the past.
* Various Storms and Saints (3/18/2020) - Wherein Ernest and Atlanta talk about secrets, promises, and the constancy of fear.
* Who We Are in the Shadows (3/18/20) - Melody and Ernest talk about mistakes, doubt, and friendship.
* Cloud Nine (3/19/20) - After returning from a harrowing mission, Kurt asks Ernest out on a date.
* With Great Power Comes Great Fear of Hurting People With That Power (4/7/20) - Wherein Atlanta has some news for Ernest about Reaper One and Pockets.
* Phaethon (4/24/2020 - 4/25/2020) - After making it back from their unplanned trip to the future, Kurt reaches out to Ernest.
* The Weather Channel Presents: Chimera Cooking (5/30/2020) - Wherein Ernest, Bolt, and Jasper commit food crimes for Ernest's BeTube channel, and Atlanta is forced to watch.
* Counterpoint Duet (6/7/2020) - Faith and Ernest discuss the events that occurred at the HELIX facility, and the song that they can't quite get out of their heads.
* Our Moms are U-hauling it, Does that Make Us Step-Siblings Kind of? (6/8/2020) - Boon and Ernest take a tour of the new house they'll be living in together.
* Double Date (6/14/2020) - Perfectly Normal and Handsome Boy Tadd Dates Faith with nothing but Pure Honest intentions. Kurt and Ernest attend to show their emphatic and unconditional support.
* The Weight of Family and the Pull of Gravity (7/3/2020) - Ernest and Ryan talk about what it's like having your estranged dad show up in Halcyon City.
* Float On (7/23/2020) - Ernest and Ellen discuss plans of leaving, and of how to avoid becoming a supervillain.

### Season 5

* Fruit Loops and Feelings (8/23/2020) - Mel and Ernest have a late night conversation about what Mel just learned from his parents and commit some emotional support food crimes.

## Playlists

* The Weatherman Inspiration Playlist
	+ Songs thematically relevant to the Weatherman (although not necessarily songs he'd listen to himself)
* The Weatherman 2.0 (Starstruck)
	+ Inspiration playlist for the Weatherman as a Star
* Chill Beats Playlist
	+ Songs that the Weatherman listens to all the time to calm himself down and filter out background noise made very distracting by his synesthesia
* Hype Songs Playlist
	+ Songs that the Weatherman switches to in order to get pumped up during a fight
* Starcrossed (Kurt and Ernest)
	+ Songs representing Kurt and Ernest's Enemies to Friends to Lovers relationship
* Cold Front (Traitor Weatherman)
	+ Songs relating to the Weatherman's betrayal and subsequent turn to villainy in the future timeline that Kurt saw
* Heat Lightning (C-Verse Ernie)
	+ Playlist for the C-Verse version of the Weatherman, where Ernie and Timothy were a superhero duo until Ernie became bitter about all the attention going to Timothy and became a villain
* Solo and Ensemble (Ernest and Gestalt)
	+ Playlist for Ernest's complicated feelings during the time he was considering leaving his friends and joining Gestalt

## Artwork

* Hero Costume Back and Front
* Dataverse Digivolution
* Dataverse Digivolution (Cyberpunk version)
* Weatherman Quartet
* Weatherman Quartet (Happy/Sun)
* Weatherman Quartet (Sad/Rain)
* Weatherman Quartet (Angry/Lightning)
* Weatherman Quartet (Determined/Snow)
* Stormbreaker Wrestling Costume
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