It’s all about the music, man! Born into a large family, Raffaele (or Raff to their buddies) has been pulled this way and that, and was always looking for some way to stand out among his many siblings. Their parents - traders in strange fruits and colorful woven cloth and other textiles - kept the family ever busy weaving, picking, and dyeing wares, and while they adored their young “daughter” Rose, and showed love and affection to all of their many children, there just wasn’t enough hours in a day. So Raff had to find his own way in life, and a chance encounter in a Cove City café sent him head over heels into a life of rhythm and melody.
The tiny opossum child, having scurried away from his erstwhile duties helping to tend the family market stall, was sipping a mug of hot cocoa when the most fabulous creature he had ever seen, a skunk with their fur full of glittering mica and streaks of colorful paint, stepped up to a raised platform and twirled a flute decorated in twisting ribbons. Raff sat entranced as the skunk played, stomped, and whirled through an epic told at times through song, at times through poetry. On that day, his heart was lost to music, and his head full of dreams of performing on stage himself. He scrambled to introduce himself to the performer, who called themselves Mephiti and laughed uproariously at the youngster’s star-struck eyes. They agreed to teach Raff “a song or two”, and suddenly Raff was constantly shirking chores, practicing their music, and sneaking off to jam sessions around the streets of Cove City.
Ears full of the roar of the crowd, "Rose" found himself more and more at odds with his hardworking family, and at the same time learning new and confusing things about himself as he fell into a new crowd of friends. Where his parents and siblings expressed themselves in their weaving and work, he found himself more and more in his music and his own personal expression. This led to a few exuberant exchanges with his parents, especially after he decided on a new name, but even that seemed to fit the young opossum's new sense of self. Loud, up-front, and in your face - that was how Raff wanted to present himself to the world! And he wanted to do it now!
His parents did come around, especially after Raff showed them just how hard he was willing to work - at his own thing, instead of his family's craft, but it was hard work regardless. And so as he came into his own as a young adult he set out, to the place on the Isles where he knew he'd find others like himself. Shadow Moss Caves, where the Beat flows (and glows) through everything, was the place for Raffaele!
