Chapter Text
LOGIC - Think things through. Connect the dots.
Good for: Puzzle enthusiasts, Analysts, The Rational Types.
Logic urges you to analyze the living daylights out of cases. It enables you to piece symptoms together, detect inconsistencies in diagnoses, and impress everyone with your astonishing conclusions. It’s the bread and butter of many a surgeon.
At high levels, Logic will be able to solve even the most complicated puzzle. You will be very proud and thus susceptible to intellectual flattery; for those blinded by their own brilliance often miss important clues. With low levels of Logic, you’re going to have a hard time solving even the simplest puzzles. Even if you find the pieces, good luck putting them together.
ENCYCLOPEDIA - Call upon all your knowledge. Put your Ivy-League education to good use.
Good for: Pretentious Asshats, Trivia Fiends, Librarians.
Encyclopedia makes you a know-it-all, turning your mind into a database of facts. It enables you to draw on these facts innately, offering a wealth of background knowledge to all things related and unrelated to your cases. Who knows when the batting averages of the Red Sox will provide the breakthrough you need to make a diagnosis – or when knowledge of prohibition-era moonshine might save a life?
At high levels, Encyclopedia shares this wealth of knowledge to an almost overwhelming degree – while it may give you crucial breakthroughs, it more often will clutter your mind with useless tidbits. With low levels of Encyclopedia, though, you’ll be forced to work with only the clues in front of you. Without any background knowledge, being a surgeon is going to be tough stuff.
RHETORIC - Practice the art of double-speak. Read between the lines.
Good for: WASPs, Dinner Party Hosts, Award Winners.
Rhetoric urges you to say the right thing. It enables you to break down every little sentence and hear what people are really saying. You’ll spot fallacies as soon as they’re used – what information exactly is your patient witholding from you? Does your attending actually hate you or are they this tough on everyone? Was that double entendre intended, or did you just get an accidental lead?
At high levels, Rhetoric will make you a social chameleon - able to weave through conversation with little to no effort. You'll know exactly what to say and how to say it so that you can please everyone - except yourself. With low Rhetoric, though, you’ll have a hard time articulating yourself at all. You'll be stuttering like a fool simply trying to get a word in edge-wise.
DRAMA - Play the actor. Fake it until you make it.
Good for: Theatre Kids, Compulsive Liars, Socialites.
Drama urges you to treat the world as a stage – and on it, to perform. It will enable you to lie, to concoct a performative mask of whatever is most advantageous to the situation at hand, and to keep your feelings safely tucked away from prying eyes.
At high levels, Drama may render you a basket case - never open about anything with anyone, telling them all "I'm fine." When all you want is to sink into the bottom of the ocean. However, with low Drama your heart is trapped on your sleeve, leaving you emotionally vulnerable in even the most mundane of situations.
CONCEPTUALIZATION - Think outside the box. See things through new eyes.
Good for: Escape Room Designers, Detectives, Miracle Workers.
Conceptualization makes you an abstract thinker, letting you pick apart every single piece of the puzzle and put it back together your way. It enables you to make fresh associations - examining problems from every possible angle and finding unconventional solutions to problems that just aren't that clear cut.
At high levels, Conceptualization makes you go big – perhaps too big. It makes you think "unicorn" when you hear hoof beats before zebras (or god forbid, horses) ever cross your mind. You'll become an Olympic gold medallist in jumping to conclusions. At low levels, however, you'll be unhearing to any ideas that aren't the most likely. A rare condition won't even cross your mind even if all the evidence is staring you in the face.
PRACTICED APATHY - Pull yourself together. Don't look behind the curtain.
Good for: Former Gifted Kids, The Therapy Averse, Burnouts.
Practiced Apathy keeps you afloat - even if the best you can do is tread water. It gives you the will to keep putting one foot in front of the other - usually by keeping you numb. Examining your emotions deeply will only make you spiral, so why bother? Sometimes, Practiced Apathy will be a bit more introspective, honing in on specific parts of yourself and asking: "Is this really a good idea?".
At high levels, Practiced Apathy makes you emotionless. When you’re about to get funky, it overcompensates to keep you "normal". At low levels, however, you’ll feel everything - making you profoundly unstable, falling apart at the seams as you make irreversible mistakes.
INNER NARRATOR - Imagination and prediction. Are you onto something or just catastrophizing?
Good for: Writers, Dreamers, The Cripplingly Anxious
Inner Narrator is the unfiltered wellspring of hunches, self-awareness, and foreboding. It enables you to see what's coming and knock yourself down a peg before anyone else can beat you to the punch.
At high levels, Inner Narrator will be right on the money - like you're in a TV Show and you're reading the script as it all unfolds. At low levels, Inner Narrator will be totally off the mark, leaving you to look like an utter fool.
EMPATHY - Understand feelings. The world is cruel, but you won't be.
Good for: Parents, Therapists, Judges of Character.
Empathy breaks into the souls of others and forces you to feel what’s inside. It enables you to figure out how other people feel - whether it be in the moment of pre-emptively. You'll notice what's underneath people's facades the second their masks slip.
At high levels, Empathy seriously puts you in other people’s shoes. You’ll commit insurance fraud to make sure patients get healthcare, attend the executions of death row convicts because you pity them, and generally be far less stable. With low Empathy, however, you’ll be an ungainly beast unable to talk to anyone without upsetting them.
MOTHER'S DAUGHTER - Connect to Seattle Grace. Navigate hospital culture.
Good for: Doctors, Nurses, Medical Drama Enthusiasts.
Mother's Daughter is the medicine behind the medicine - the people behind the treatments. It enables you to understand your fellow surgeons as well as the rest of the hospital staff; from appropriate language to use with your attending to the ebbs and flows of hospital gossip.
At high levels, you’ll be the very heart of the hospital: a worthy successor for the shoes you need to fill. However, without Mother's Daughter you’ll be flying blind, unable to understand discreet remarks colleagues make in high-stakes situations; remarks that might just save lives.
SOCIAL CUES - Understand relationships and dynamics. Ingratiate yourself.
Good for: Suck-ups, Criminal Profilers, Functional Members of Society.
Social Cues makes you understand people, enabling you to figure out what's expected from you with anyone you're speaking to. Additionally, you'll pick up on the ways people interact with each other - whether it be a thinly veiled animosity, mutual sexual attraction or simple friendship.
At high levels, Social Cues makes you great with people - hyperaware of what you should and shouldn't do. At low levels, you'll struggle to really make an impression on anyone.
UNSTOPPABLE FORCE - Be a surgical machine. Don’t let the world kill you.
Good for: Insomniacs, Marathon Runners, Human Batteries.
Unstoppable Force keeps you alive - even if you're just barely breathing. It enables you to survive being a surgeon. While everyone else is complaining about 80-hour work weeks and trying to find an on-call room to nap in, you're pulling all-nighters without issue and taking beatings like the best of them.
At high levels, Unstoppable Force makes you a nigh-unkillable juggernaut, one who looks down on the mere mortals who can’t keep up. At low levels, however, you'll be fragile. One tiny slip and you'll be falling down the stairs.
SEXUALITY - Sex sells. Turn off your brain by sticking your head between their legs.
Good for: High-Fliers, Porn Stars, Newlyweds.
Sexuality is the animal within you, the beast longing to be unleashed to indulge and enjoy. It enables you to understand sexual dynamics and topics, seduce people, and perform competently in the bedroom.
High sexuality makes you a woman of unrestrained pleasure - having as much inappropriate fun with as many inappropriate people as you please. But with a low Sexuality, you’ll be a prude - more concerned with someone's sexual history than their Syphilis.
ELECTROCHEMISTRY - The problem can always be solved with more tequila.
Good for: High-Functioning Alcoholics, Party Animals, Fraternity Pledges.
Electrochemistry is there for you even when your liver isn't. It enables you to drink more with fewer negative side-effects, and identify the sobriety (or lack thereof) of the people around you.
At high levels, Electrochemistry makes you the poster child of bad decisions. You'll be too busy indulging yourself with a bottle to worry yourself with pesky things like "patients" and "surgeries". At low levels, you'll not only be a party-pooper, but you’ll be too innocent to be effective. Without a working knowledge of drugs and alcohol, the city will be difficult to understand.
SHIVERS - Gut feelings. Waiting for the other shoe to drop.
Good for: Psychics, Pessimists, The Paranoid.
Shivers come when the temperature drops and you become more keenly aware of your surroundings. It enables you to prepare yourself for when the worst case scenario inevitably happens. It is a supernatural ability; old wrongs play out in present time, scenes across the country happen in front of you. You'll know things that by all rights you shouldn't be aware of.
At high levels, Shivers may make you seem mad to the outside world – as you spend more time in your own head, you don’t listen to others. Your superiors may begin to worry. With a low Shivers, though, your intuition will be unreliable and untrustworthy. You'll seldom hear your surroundings.
HALF LIGHT - Fight or flight. Let the body take control.
Good for: Surprise Haters, Deers in Headlights, Heavyweight Boxers.
Half Light is the adrenaline in your veins. It enables you to sense the way situations are about to turn. It injects palpable fear into your heart – fear that urges you act before it’s too late to act ever again. It is aggression and it is terror in equal measure.
At high levels, Half Light makes you ultra-attuned to the world. It is perpetual fear – of your own shadow, of someone else’s name or scent. You’ll always be on edge, ready to pounce or cower with your tail between your legs. At low levels, however, you’ll find your survival instinct is lacking. Instead of running away from the live bomb, you'll stick your hands in it.
POISE - Blend into the crowd. Go unnoticed.
Good for: Flies on the Wall, Thieves, Escape Artists.
Poise makes you invisible - able to get yourself out of situations you don't want to be in with little difficulty. It enables you to hide from people you're avoiding and know when to take the stairs because the last person you want to see is on the elevator.
With high Poise, you'll always be hard to notice - attendings and residents won't realise you're there until you make a scene. With low Poise, you'll become the centre of everyone's attention - whether you want to be or not.
PERCEPTION - See, hear and smell everything. Let no detail go unnoticed.
Good for: Sensualists, Fine Detail Surgeons, Urban Explorers.
Perception wants you to be open to the world – with eyes, ears, and nose working at full capacity. It enables you to take in what others don’t notice. The way a doctor's cologne sticks to a nurse; the look in a patient's eyes when you give them a prognosis; the sound of a pager from across the hallway.
At high levels, Perception takes in every final detail of the physical world – enough to overwhelm all but the strongest mind. However, with low levels, you are going to miss out on everything. After all, you can’t treat what you can’t see, hear, or smell.
REACTION TIME - Think fast. Don't get blind-sided.
Good for: Thinkers on their Feet, Tennis Players, Bullet-Dodgers.
Reaction Time is the agility of your body and mind. It is instinct. It enables you to dodge sucker punches - both physical and verbal - and improvise on the spot. You’ll be more streetwise, never lost for words or lacking a witty comeback. Your mental alacrity lets you connect little details on the fly, working in tandem with your Intellect skills.
At high levels, Reaction Time makes your twitch-reflex freakishly good. However, when your body acts before your mind, innocent situations can turn bad fast. You’re high strung, overly alert. At low levels, though, you'll freeze when things get dire, unable to adapt.
DEXTERITY - Master the art of operation. Cut and stitch expertly.
Good for: Surgeons (obviously).
Dexterity desires control over your movements. It is the greatest tool a surgeon can have. It enables you to perform running whipstitches, use just the right amount of pressure with your scalpel and yes, even hold that retractor perfectly still - that's important, too.
At high levels you’re a panacea of manual control. Fine adjustments and intricate repairs are done with barely a sweat broken. You close wounds like the human body is David and you are Michelangelo. But the pursuit of flawlessness is its own prison. You'll chase perfectionism even if you can never achieve it. At low levels of Dexterity, your hands betray you. You'll pop gloves, stab people in the eye when you're stitching up their legs and drop whole organs. You are butterfingers.
COMPOSURE - Keep your poker face. Maintain the illusion of calm.
Good for: Card Players, Soldiers, Politicians.
Composure wants you to not crack: or, at least, it wants you to not crack in front of other people. It enables you to put up a strong front. It keeps your emotions hidden from the world and helps you to read the body language of others – to sense the cracks in their own composure. Even if you're completely freaking out on the inside, no one on the outside will notice anything is wrong thanks to composure.
At high levels, Composure makes you maintain an impassive expression and straighten your back. Even lying in bed late night when no one else can see you, you’ll have to keep it up. You’ll never be able to stop. With low Composure, though, you’ll always be the first to crack. You'll start screaming and crying at the slightest inconveniences.