Francis Bonnefoy, Professional Date Rapist

By a mere touch of a section of a plant, he can infect the entire plant with a toxin, which only currently has the ability to stun or knock out humans. He has no control over this ability, as direct contact to his skin will set it off. The plant can infect a human by either cutting a person with its thorns, injecting the toxin right into the bloodstream, or in its smell and pollen if the person is within the radius of the area either one can reach. The toxin itself is poisonous to the plant, so it will die within minutes of being touched (longer if the plant is bigger).

Non-mutants can be knocked out by being exposed to the toxin once or twice (unless they've trained physically in some sorts, then it'd require more dosages); mutants themselves have a better resistance against it, only feeling dizziness after their first exposure, and at most needing four or five most exposures before being knocked out. Some may take more than the usual amount, either having an ability that increases their resistance, or over long periods of consistent exposure to the toxin. He himself is not immune to the toxin, but after years of knocking himself out with his ability, he has an incredibly high resistance to it, taking many doses of his own toxin before it does affect him.

It has a secondary ability of making the plant he infects harder and sharper to the touch, so that mere petals have the potential to cause minor cuts to the skin. And while he can't make seeds poisonous, after touching it, the plant will grown with this secondary ability.

Francis likes to view himself as a lover, not a fighter, despite that he's known to have a violent temperament when pushed enough. Though he prefers not to use his abilities until he has to (or until someone tells him that his jacket was from last season's fashion). Since most nights he enjoys to go out with the non-mutants, especially flirting with the pretty ones to get a date out of it, he rather would just make peace with them instead of following the ideals Magneto has for the Brotherhood.

Most of the time, he's a social being with a soft spot for anything beautiful. He'd feel just as comfortable in an art gallery, talking about the themes of paintings and sculptures, as much as he would in a club with alcohol and people twisting their bodies to loud music. As long as there's something about the atmosphere that he can adore, and if there's people around he can talk to, it wouldn't make a difference. Although he's not above the simple pleasures of annoying someone who finds his company a bother - especially if they happen to be English and named Arthur. He can overreact and whine over the most minor things though, sometimes making it hard to take him serious.

However, in his more melancholy state he regrets having his powers. He already dislikes having the ability to kill something so delicate and beautiful - especially as he has a great love of flowers and grows them in pots in his room - and he worries that as he gets older the toxin itself will become strong enough to kill people too. A part of him also doubts that it'd be possible to get non-mutants to ever accept them, though he knows not to bring up the topic around anyone, since it'd be pointless to their goal to get alone with the non-mutants. He does dwell on the negative side of things too much, more than he lets on to say the least.

Childhood:
His family came from France, but Francis himself has never lived there. He has only been there on holidays, but has otherwise always lived in America. Regardless, he speaks French fluently and even has an obvious accent, but it's not enough to make his English difficult to understand. He's had his powers from birth, yet they had been weaker, having no affect on humans what-so-ever. All that would happen was he'd touch a plant and minutes after it'd wilt. No one of course could trace down the ability to him, no one even suspected anything of it, other than confused at small plants dying so quickly.

It was not until he was old enough to play outside without his parents needing to help him stand or move did people in his neighbourhood get worried. His abilities had affected things like trees and grass, killing off entire gardens and parks. Not that he ever knew he was doing it. It was assumed some pranksters were going around spraying gardens with weed kill. Only until at the age of six did he realise it was his own doing - he'd cry to his parents and teachers about it but none had believed him. This was when he started to cover up, dressing in more longer clothing, and avoided playing around outdoors for too long, to try prevent from coming into contact with any plant.

He managed to live a mostly normal life, aside from avoiding touching any flower or tree, his family loved him dearly and he had many friends in school. Since it had only killed plants, he mostly never had to worry with being associated with it, especially if only a flower or two died. That was until he was eleven. The first upgrade in the toxin. He found himself being talked into playing soccer, and when he tripped and landed on the field, the contact with the grass had turned the entire field into a strongly odourred gas chamber, causing dizziness and numbness in the body to everyone on that field, including Francis. It had taken an hour before it wore off, but the incident had gotten the authorities suspicious this time. He was only fortunate that he too had been effected, as he was considered a victim in the case and wasn't searched.

Teenaged Years:
After years of miss-incidents, and making himself sick and numb with his own abilities, he'd grown enough of a resistance to not have to worry about doing so again to himself. He'd also grown to realise that he was a mutant, and to keep his ability and all traces of himself being linked to any such incident hidden, to continue his normal life. It was easy enough to do so. Other than people wondering how the hell he could stand the heat when he continued to fully cover up, he didn't particularly stick out to anyone as odd. Nor had he ever done anything that would cause others to be suspect of him.

That was until the toxin strengthened shortly after he turned seventeen. It had been on a date, when he was giving a girl a bouquet of thornless roses, and she had taken one out to place in his hair without him thinking she would - the toxin from the strong odour it released that time effectively knocked her out, and made him dizzy enough to want to throw up. Before anyone else grew too suspicious he had to grab the rest of the roses and knocked himself out too (and a few people in the neighbouring tables), only to take the blame off himself. They woke up between two to three hours later in a hospital, finding that like when he was a child he wouldn't be questioned any more than the others by the police, and managed to get away with it.

Adulthood:
It had only been more than a year later, where once again he had knocked his date out on accident, and he had taken her to his home to let her sleep as he didn't know where she lived, did the real trouble occur. While none of his dates had ever minded sleeping at his house, this particular one did, and got a charge on him for date rape. During the investigation, they found traces of an "unknown drug" that had been in the victim's blood. While they couldn't get him for rape, they had enough evidence to bust him for attempted rape. When his only options were to plead guilty of the crime or admit to being a mutant he took the former. Even if he told them he was a mutant and that he did it on accident, there was no guarantee that he would be found innocent.

So convicted he was. He got into a regular prison and spent what he considered too long a time in there. Since from outside of prison, he had his regular doctor think he was allergic to organic blends of clothing, so Francis could manage to hide his mutant abilities as his medical record followed him so the prison had to at least give him clothing and a bed sheet not made of organic material - though it was really uncomfortable as there was no way they'd pay for something like silk.

During his time in prison, he finally started to practice learning to better control his abilities. Even though his clothes weren't oraganic, he still had the issue of being around many inmates who did wear it, some of them all too happy to try start a fight with him to improve their own cred in the joint or because they needed anger management. He started to use it more offensively and even realised to the first time that there was a secondary effect. It was a toughening experience for him. One he wasn't sure of how long it had been, although he knew he spent enough time in there that he was of legal drinking age when he was finally released.

Then there was one day he was called in for a hearing again. He wasn't sure of what happened, but some unknown benefactor had wanted to represent him in court. The woman that charged him for rape had mysteriously changed her story and they were re-trying his sentence. He was proven innocent and let out - though it caused an uproar on the media since no one had believed he was suddenly not guilty after admitting guilt to the crime. This was when he found out that the X-men had been the ones to help him out of jail, since they knew his crime was from his mutant abilities. At the time he only joined with them because after how the media portrayed his trial he didn't expect he'd be getting a job any time soon, and when the offer came with providing some employment and a place to stay, why refuse?

He did manage to get into a college and complete a degree in Art History. Only recently he's returned to work at the institute full time, that is, until he gets the job he wants at an Art Museum.