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 their 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 their own way in life, and a chance encounter in a Cove City café sent them head over heels into a life of rhythm and melody.

The tiny opossum child, having scurried away from their erstwhile duties helping to tend the family market stall, was sipping a mug of hot cocoa when the most fabulous creature they 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, their heart was lost to music, and their head full of dreams of performing on stage themselves. They scrambled to introduce themselves 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 Raff can now be found constantly shirking chores and practicing their music, ears full of the roar of the crowd.