Raphael Caelestis
Jedi Councillor
Jedi Councillor
Why do I keep agreeing to do these things? I pose again for the photograph. This one doesn't have a lightsaber in it. The editors love the lightsaber pictures, the photographers hate them. Apparently the blade of light energy screws with their flash. Oh well, big loss. They're getting the shoot and the interview very cheap. Of course they are, I don't have an agent to haggle on my behalf, a few other Jedi and I have done these, and continue to do them, because they make the Jedi look good. People love to read Jedi features in newspapers and magazines, and an exclusive interview will sell for months after a release date. The Bogan have really missed a trick with that one. Flash and the shoot is over. I breathe a silent sigh of relief and turn to grab my stuff. I agreed to meet the interviewer in the bar downstairs. At least I can have a drink with the interview.
So, a few minutes later, I'm sitting there in slightly comfier clothes (a pair of jeans and a warm black turtle neck - better than the stifling outfits of the shoot), no makeup (not that wearing it is my choice) and a very expensive glass of firewhisky, courtesy of whatever magazine the interviewer works for. The journalist herself sits opposite me, a cute up and coming twenty-something writer hoping this story will be a big a break as it's inevitably going to be. Few Jedi ever speak to the press, even fewer with the grace of the grandmaster, and hardly any of those are Jedi Masters. Let alone members of the Jedi High Council. I guess the grandmaster must rate my people skills. She must think I work well as a poster boy, the last one did. The fact that I do actually have talent beneath the airbrushed finish completes the package for this kind of thing.
"You've been a Jedi Master for over a decade and you've been sitting on the council for most of those years, with all that's going on, you must have a hectic schedule. How do you find time to do all that's required of you, and to talk to us about it?"
Nice and vague. She of course was told not to mention the temple's destruction, the Bogan, the debacle of Ando Prime or anything else that had happened in the last five years that the Jedi had not already given their ‘official’ word. Not to mention that the Hutt war came down to boring politics, and the readers of this magazine won't exactly be politically driven in their choice of waiting room literature. Plus the fact that the religious war between Jedi and Bogan was of little interest to Joe Bloggs on Planet X; most likely he would not have even known the difference between the two. I give her a roundabout, vaguely interesting and nicely unspecific answer. This isn't my first interview, I smile charmingly. I take a sip of whisky and wait for the next question.
"At only forty-two, you are one of the younger councillors, and when you were appointed, you definitely were the youngest. Do your achievements at still a young age cause any rivalries between yourself and the other councillors?"
I explain with a light laugh that we have some healthy competition. I reference some of the more famous Jedi, but not the grandmaster, and make light of what I'm hoping is the most probing question in the interview. I seriously add that each of the councillors is so talented, and more amazingly each in a pretty unique way, that there is not a particular area where any real rivalry could take place. Although our arguments, when they get heated, can end in furniture being flung all over the place. She titters again. She asks the next question. It's about padawans, she's surprised I've only ever trained one. I tell her why. It's not a particularly interesting reason, and I concede that I have begun the training of another, and she titters a little when I quip about not being the sort of guy who would try it on with more than one padawan at once. It's not funny to a Jedi, but maybe the brainless masses will react as she did.
"Well you're own padawanship (sorry if that's the wrong word) was quite eventful, why don't we remind the readers of what happened to an 18 year old Raphael?"
It is the wrong word, I don't correct her though. We're building a rapport and I don't want to ruin it. She has to write this and if I piss her off, I doubt she'll portray me, and, more importantly, the Jedi, that well. We talk for the next ten minutes about the past. Firstly about myself as a youngling. Like all Jedi I never knew my parents, and (another reason I'm a good choice for publicity) I had a very stereotypical upbringing in the order from as young as I can remember until I was taken at a padawan, when I was thirteen or fourteen. Then we speak about my exploits as a padawan, during the Alsakan crisis, my ascension to knighthood and before she realises it, I've taken her full circle back to when I took on my padawan, his rise to knight and my own to master.
Then comes the interesting part. The Hutt War, my councillor’s opinion on the battles. I explain that, like most Jedi, I am a pacifist, but I am not frightened to take up the mantle of warrior if it is required of me. I then continue to tell of my own story, away from the Jedi. In the chaos of the erupting war, I sought a moment of peace, to find myself. I explain that in order to find myself, I first had to get lost, although because I did such a good job of that, I was stranded across the wilds of far flung worlds for over a year. I smirk and admit that that was not part of the plan. Nor was my lightsaber being eaten by a rancor. I give enough details for the story to be transcribed, but not enough to shed an air of mystery. Following that, I tell her how finally I managed to return both to the order and my then-vacant seat on the council. The rest, I say, is history. Hopefully the interview is pretty much over.
"Well that's a very interesting story. And quite nicely it leaves us time for one last question, this is one our readers have been dying to know the answer to. We know that Jedi discourage relationships, but have their been any women on your radar? Could there ever be a Mrs Caelestis?"
At least it's the last. I explain in extremely philosophical terms, the Jedi ideas on love and then romantic love. I'm coy about specifics for me. Of course there have been girls, more or less every Jedi has experience romance on one level or another. I certainly don't spell it out. Obviously she's looking for some kind of gossip column style finish. I don't quite give it to her. But I'm sure I leave her enough subtle implication to give her article the ending required to leave her readers salivating for more.
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