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Composure
Straighten your back. Keep your poker face.
Cool for card players, military fetishists, cool people.
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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. As well, it keeps you looking good while you do it. You'll rock that disco outfit a lot more if you don't slouch.
At high levels, Composure makes you tuck your gut in and maintain a stern expression. Even lying in bed, late at 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. Every cop's got a point when all that fear and rage comes spilling out -— and the ones who unleash it don't stay on the force much longer. Perhaps worse still, you won't even make the ranks of Fashion Police.
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Hand / Eye Coordination
Ready? Aim and fire.
Cool for trick-shooters, snipers, jugglers.
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Hand / Eye Coordination loves the interactions between you and things that fly in the air. It enables you to catch coins from mob bosses, shoot straight, and understand firearms intimately. Want to know the precise make and mark of a pistol? H/E Coordination's got you. Want to shoot someone with it? Ditto.
At high levels, Hand / Eye Coordination makes you deadly —- supposing you've a weapon in your hand. But once you do, H/E Coordination will compel you to take the shot -— even if it's not the best approach. At low levels, however, you'll be even more of a disaster in waiting. Because when the guns go off -— and they always do —- you'll probably hit the wrong target.
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Interfacing
Master machines. Pick locks and pockets.
Cool for machinists, tinkerers, instrument players.
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Interfacing wants you to connect to machines: to use and improve them, because that makes you a better human organism. It enables you to understand interactions with machines -— be that how to repair the motor of a Kineema motor carriage, how to analyze the way a suspect used a pen, or how to re-figure electrical circuits. It even lets you steal keys off a keyring without being noticed.
At high levels, Interfacing will isolate you from society —- why bother with people when you can talk to machines? And why bother with things like money when you can just pocket that display sandwich? At low levels, however, you will have a crucial part of the world cut off from you. People use machines to commit crimes all the time -— if you can't understand how a crime was accomplished, how can you solve it?
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Perception
See, hear, and smell everything. Let no detail go unnoticed.
Cool for fine detail detectives, sensualists, urban scavengers.
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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 little wad of bills hid away in the sugar bowl; the odor of a perp, hiding beneath the floor boards; the gulp of a suspect, after claiming they've nothing to hide.
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 arrest what you can't see, hear, or smell.
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Reaction Speed
The quickest to react. An untouchable man.
Cool for shot-dodgers, thinkers on their feet, pinball-heads.
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Reaction Speed is the agility of your body and mind. It is instinct. It enables you to dodge punches, knives, bullets. Also sucker punches of the verbal kind. 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 Speed 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 won't be the one shooting first —- which probably means you won't be shooting at all.
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Savoir Faire
Sneak under their noses. Stun with immense panache.
Cool for acrobats, thieves, unbearable show-offs.
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Savoir Faire urges you to be better than you are: it urges you to be disco. Slip by others in Samaran boxing style, then tumble out the back with unexpected acrobatics. It enables you to move with silent footsteps, to groove to a good beat, and to lift useful evidence off perps without them noticing. It also makes you a cooler cop, whose athletic flair will certainly impress the citizenry.
At high levels, Savoir Faire will make you the King of Cool -— which is as much to say, the most stylish douchebag in Revachol. Nobody will see you until you're ready to be seen; and then, they'll get the full treatment, whether they want it or not. At low levels, however, you'll be a bumbling, feckless cop unable to catch a pair of keys thrown by your partner without losing an eye.
