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xxxxxRaphael is only twenty-two years of age, and it seems at times - between his energy and looks - that he's barely one step separated from the students he instructs and protects. Once lost to the chaos of his own mutation, Professor Xavier tamed the winds against all odds, and now Raphael commands them to the benefit of a hopeful future. His students like him for his similarities, for his good advice, and for his willingness to occasionally shirk the rules as is his nature.
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xxxxxRaphael Lennox had the good fortune of being born in Manchester, New York, as he would one day be needing the help of a certain neighbor. However, in his earliest years, he was just an unruly boy given to meandering off on his own adventures. He was like a contrary element to the suburbanite, white picket fenced environment into which he'd been born, always flighty and defiant of the rules.
xxxxxShortly before the age of thirteen, Raphael began to change in ways which made his chaotic exterior a much more internal force. His thoughts became fluid, with his point of focus shifting from one thing to the next in an endless and unpredictable series. He had a gift for seeing things from so many angles, yet no means to ever have stability. All of this was a herald for his waking X-Gene, which would manifest itself in the most subtle of ways in comparison to what it would become. He discovered that he was able to expel small puffs of wind from his limbs and mouth, as if the tempest within him were teaching him the means to its escape.
xxxxxFortunately, that certain neighbor had detected Raphael's emergence and arrived before the tempest had its way. Professor Charles Xavier came bearing an offer of a full scholarly at Xavier's School for Raphael, complete with room and board, and his parents were all too pleased to accept. The youth's erratic conduct had defied explanation and become too much for them to handle, which was entirely understandable. However, matters of the mind rarely defy explanation for Xavier, and the two of them spent much time together trying to sort out the turbulence in Raphael's thoughts.
xxxxxWith time given to the demands of effort and patience, the Professor and Raphael did arrive at a solution. The elder of the two realized that his new student's existence was intertwined with remarkable closeness to air and wind, right down to the molecular level. It had changed him, body and mind. Rather than attempting to subdue what was now the young man's natural state, Xavier delved further and discovered an orderly pattern within Raphael's fluid thoughts. Yes, they were constantly shifting, but they examined each point of focus from countless angles. With the presence of order came the promise of control, and they successfully mastered an 'off switch' with which to give Raphael's mind peace. He could flick that switch right back to enlightened disorder if he so chose, but Raphael had an entirely new world of normalcy to explore.
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