diego boneta & he/him / cis male ‷ watch out , zeferino ayala has crash-landed into roswell !! they look thirty-one years old and celebrate their birthday on march third. they are from fort leavenworth, kansas, reside in jupiter valley and are currently working as a meteorologist and weather broadcaster on local news. one thing you should know about them is that he was an army brat and moved frequently as a kid, and considers himself to have no home.‷
content warning: minor mention of mental illness and internalized homophobia
Full name: Zeferino Tomás Ayala Díaz
Nicknames: Zefi; Zefe; Zefa; Z; Zef
Gender & pronouns: cis male, he/him
Romantic/sexual orientation: homoromantic, demisexual
DOB: 3 March 1991
Place of birth: Fort Leavenworth, located in Kansas
Relationship status: In a committed and adoring relationship with @cyrusfm
Occupation: Broadcast meteorologist for local news; also provides weather updates for affiliate radio station
Education: Bachelor’s of science in engineering, in climate and meteorology, concentration in meteorology; completed at University of Michigan, in Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
Languages: English; Spanish; decent ASL
Pets: Dexter Ayala Phoenix (longhair Chihuahua); Poppy Ayala Phoenix (teacup Pomeranian)
biography
Born the second child of two United States Army members, Zefi was destined before birth to never settle down. His mother, originally from Puerto Rico, was close to discharging when Zefi was born; but his father, the son of Mexican immigrants, was in a position where he had to be reassigned every couple of years. Because of this, Zeferino learned to never get too attached to anything or anyone. With no real sense of home, it also made it impossible for him to find a sense of self. He got pretty good at trying out new personality traits to see what others would like, sort of like speedrunning the process of making friends. Usually that also included him letting his classmates copy off his math and science assignments, because he was always extremely smart, specifically with a brain wired for engineering.
That hyper-focus on mathematics and the sciences was part of what landed Zefi a diagnosis of ADHD around the age of eight. Also worth noting there was his propensity to be loud and obnoxious and attention-seeking, which lasted for years and years after that. When his father was finally discharged, Zefi thought it was the end of having to move constantly. The final post was at Davis-Monthan AFB, near Tucson; and the family moved to Roswell part way through Zefi’s seventh-grade year, as it seemed affordable and calm at the time. Under the impression that they were going to be able to stay a little while, Zefi made some more real effort to make friends. He wanted to be the cool guy, with his long hair and baggy clothes and his guitar and his effortless machismo.
What he really was, was a young teen facing a sexuality crisis head-on. It wasn’t manly to be gay, nor was it cool, as evidenced by all the homophobic jokes being made by other adolescents around him. So instead he over-compensated to cover it all up, being an obnoxious, loud bro, and dating and kissing girls. Taking girls to school dances, and then going home and locking himself in his room to cry into a pillow about how much he felt like a foot jammed into the wrong shoe.
During winter break of his ninth grade year, Zeferino’s family actually moved once more, but this time to El Paso, where his paternal grandparents lived, which actually made plenty of sense but he still hated it at the time, angry at his parents for separating him from the friends he’d made. El Paso was the place he stayed the longest, up until college. Because of his upbringing, he had no qualms about going to school in a place he’d never been to. And his choice in field was decided because of a lifelong love of the sky.
After all, no matter where you are, the sky never changes.
Like many, beginning college meant facing new crises of self, and several earth-turning breakdowns. After a friendly suggestion to take advantage of mental health services provided to students, he was twenty years old and gaining a new diagnosis of ADD and panic disorder, rather than the ADHD he’d been living with; as well as the assurance that it was better to be gay than to continue forcing himself into whatever he was trying to do.
Life was turned upside-down, in a good way.
His attractiveness did work in his favor, especially after graduating, because he has the kind of face people want to see on TV. He was able to get work in Ann Arbor, though only reporting and not actually forecasting, and at the wee hours of the night when hardly anyone watched. It just wasn’t fun.
His popularity online was beginning to become annoying to the higher-ups at that job; but luckily for him, his ongoing search for a job elsewhere ended with an opening in Roswell. A longtime weather broadcaster, a mainstay in the community even, was retiring, and it was thought someone else at the station would be taking his place, and the new slot would be filled by the hopeful. But Zefi presented some qualities that the network had not originally considered for their best slot: his online presence was provocative, but it seemed like a good idea to keep younger audiences still interested in local broadcasting; and his addition of movements and visible celestial bodies in the sky was appealing to amateur astronomers, space-obsessed children, and alien conspiracy theorists alike. Also, his face is perfect for TV, and he can do his own forecasts; so he was welcomed aboard to take over the most coveted spot in local broadcasting, apart from actual news anchoring.
He’s only been back in town a couple weeks, and his first primetime broadcast was just a week ago! If you ask, he will say he moved back out here because it’s much easier to see the night sky while in the desert. He has been struggling to be social because he is back in that old mindset of trying to figure out who he’s supposed to be and how he needs to present himself. He wants to be outgoing and funny but fears being perceived as annoying and pushing people away.
