CUSTOM SKILLS

[aceslow]

QUI VIVRA VERRA
stay alive

HAND-EYE COORDINATION:

COOL FOR: TAILORS. HEAVY MACHINERY OPERATORS. PINBALL ENTHUSIASTS.

Hand-Eye Coordination is all about those fine details as synapses fire in your brain, connecting your eyes to your hands -- and those eyes of yours aren't so good, are they? You've had to work extra hard for this one. It's what allows you to thread a bobbin, to make that hairpin turn that's more cool than wise and though you hotly deny it, yes, it's what lets you really go ham on the three-ball special for the Man From Heimdall pinball machine to nudge at it at just the right time to win The Babe and an adolescent light show. If you want to have any hope of shooting a firearm well enough to pass your exams, this is the skill you need.

At high levels, Hand-Eye Coordination will help you survive. You'll make that shot. You'll catch the wrist of a desperate criminal before he jabs you with that switchblade. You'll be able to sew a bar tack so that you don't ruin that beautiful - and expensive - antique coat. At low levels, you won't be fit to function in basic society, let alone be a cop. Everyone will see the weaknesses they expect from you.

INTERFACING:

COOL FOR: MECHANICS. RADIOCOMPUTER PROGRAMMERS. MASTER MAGICIANS.

Interfacing is what allows you to connect with the mechanical world. Dive into the world of radiocomputers, dig your fingers into that engine, go ahead and fix that leaky faucet yourself because god knows your landlord is never going to take care of it! It's a useful tool to have in life to make sure you can be the independent adult you want to be. With this skill, you can identify this skill in others as well. See what suspect is trying to pull the wool over your eyes by citing that they were doing repairs with the wrong tool that just so happens to be the murder weapon. See when the motor pool's trying to scam you. Use your clever fingers to pick locks and pockets alike!

At high levels, Interfacing will ensure that humans lose their charm. They are not predictable and controllable the way machines are, bending coyly to your whims, and why bother dealing with your fellow man when you can simply lose yourself in pistons and valves? But your motor engine can't keep you warm at night. At low levels, you'll -- wait, what do you mean your motor engine can keep you warm at night? Forget it. You're already too far gone.

KINETIC DRESSAGE:

COOL FOR: SEOLITE MONKS. CEOS. PROFESSIONAL ATHLETES.

Kinetic Dressage is what keeps you running as a well-oiled machine. Everything you do, everything you wear, everything you use is made with functionality in mind, even the things other people don't think about. Your ballpoint pen is a wand in your hand, waterproof ink running smoothly along the crisp off-white paper of your notebook. Everything you wear has pockets, every item you carry on you has its specific place. You eat your vegetables, you get your 8 hours of sleep, and you have the willpower to smoke exactly one cigarette a day. It's the sort of rigidity high net worth individuals say is a testament to how they got to where they are now. You are not a high net worth individual, but you're keenly aware of the fact that you only get one body in life. Best not to let it go to ruin.

At high levels, you're incredibly functional. You will not succumb to the temptation of drugs and alcohol, your feet will remain unblistered, your tools well taken care of and streamlined. You're prepared to take on anything and everything, and you won't tolerate anything less from yourself. But it's not cool, is it? There's a point at which it sucks all spontanaeity out of your life, leaving you with no freedom to truly express yourself. At low levels, you'll indulge in all the illogical creature comforts you want until you look up and see nothing but the wreckage of what could have been a good life before you.

RESILIENCE

COOL FOR: OVERWORKED NURSES. WINTER CAMPING ENTHUSIASTS. SERIAL MONOGAMISTS.

Maybe Kinetic Dressage is what keeps you running as a well-oiled machine, but Resilience is what keeps you running period. It's the skill that will have you endure, will have you flourish in the midst of the pounding adrenaline that inevitably end with a crash. Sleepless nights? No problem. Raging winters? Part of the job. That pounding headache? Pushed aside, baby. A racist screaming in your face? This will give you the strength to stoically bear it until you can give them the old what-for. Pain and heartache and strife is what it means to be alive, dearest. This will give you the strength to keep going, not because you want to, but because you must.

At high levels, resilience will help you weather every storm and adapt to whatever life throws at you, but it will make you overconfident in your own abilities. No matter how high your resilience is, it will not turn you to stone. If you keep going as much as your resilience tells you you can, you'll keep taking more and more on until you break down under the pressure. At low levels, it won't take much pressure to trigger that breakdown in the first place. Have you considered a career change?

PANIC AND STRESSOR DISORDER

COOL FOR: WAR ORPHANS. SURVIVORS. LIEUTENANTS THAT CAN'T CATCH A BREAK.

After an event that has been classified as being sufficiently traumatizing, it is RCM policy to have their officers undergo a psychiatric evaluation. It does not come with psychiatric help, of course, but it's better than nothing. The woman you spoke to mentioned potential Panic and Stressor Disorder. You had countered her with the fact that in Revachol, you would have to be a fool not to demonstrate caution. She responded with a noncommital hmmm. Panic and Stressor Disorder is what fuels the fear in your heart. People without fear never tend to live for long. It will spot the switchblade in the pocket, the stalker in the night, the malevolence of a man unafraid to pull the trigger. It is something ancient and carnal in you that tells you to react on instinct and to believe the worst in people. Worse yet is how often it's right.

At high levels, you'll be too jittery to focus, seeing threats around every corner for you and your buddies alike. You'll pull your firearm too soon, pull your trigger too soon. What you thought was a monster crouched in the night was actually your neighbour's fluffy little dog. But at low levels, you'll have trained yourself out of all survival instincts. Keep your eyes peeled and your hands stilled. Nobody but you can hear the clamour of your heart.

BRAWN

COOL FOR: SAMARAN BEAR WRESTLERS. WEIGHTLIFTERS. YOUR DREAMY NEIGHBOUR WHO CARRIES ENORMOUS BAGS OF CAT LITTER UP FOUR FLIGHTS OF STAIRS EVERY SUNDAY.

Brawn is a necessary skill that no amount of brains can make up for. You will get into fights. That's a fact. Brawn is what will help you survive it. It will help you knock down doors, pry open locked containers, push someone's stalled vehicle up an icy hill and, if you're good enough, catch someone's hand in mid-punch like those action movies you pretend not to like. When the cards are down and you're stuck fighting some guy twice your size, it helps if when you punch him, it collides with a crunch.

At high levels, you'll be able to do every physical feat you set out to do, but your vanity and desire to solve things straightforwardly will set you on the wrong path. You'll want everyone to see how well you can break down that door even though the key's in your pocket. In other words, you'll be a dull meathead. But at low levels, you won't be able to do the bare minimum, your fists flabby and as weak as your gut. Good luck fighting in that condition, binoclard.

DETECTIVE
just like in the movies

DEDUCTION

COOL FOR: DEFENSE LAWYERS. MOB BOSSES. SCHOOLTEACHERS.

Deduction is the primary skill in your toolbox, you mean, lean, detecting machine. It allows you to look, really look at a case and put all the little details together as smoothly as you solve your crosswords or as relentlessly as you minmaxed your Wirral characters back in the day. You'll be able to see evidence from every angle, spot footprints in the mud, draw invisible lines between persons of interest, pounce on inconsistencies, and make flying leaps of logic. It's the fun part of your job. The world doesn't look like the terrifying mystery that it is from this perspective. It's a puzzle, and it's yours to solve.

At high levels, deduction will be your best friend on a case, helping you put two and two together. But you'll become so reliant on the way things should be that you'll be blinded to how the truth is often less logical than fiction. At low levels, you'll be rendered too senseless to be of any use as a detective at all.

REVACHOLIÈRE

COOL FOR: TRIVIA BUFFS. PATRIOTS. HOMEBODIES.

Lady Revachol has devoured you. She runs in your boots, your brains, your blood, your bones, for even if she doesn't know you - and she does not; you feel this as a sad fundamental truth - you know her. You were born on these streets, kiddo. You love her even when she's dirty and corrupt, her beautiful skin pockmarked by the wreckage of bombs, her heart made heavy by failure. Being a true blue Revacholière means that your knowledge of the city is unparalleled. You know her storied history and her place in the world, you know how her people think, you know the quiet alleyways good for smoking and rampant homicide alike, you know her slang and her dirtiest swears. You'll be able to contextualize her people and their crimes of passion; knowing the details is nothing without knowing their stories. You'll also know an absolutely insufferable amount of trivia about the city. Remember that nobody really cares that that Fritte on the corner used to sell pathogen-ridden hot foods for courageous drunkards.

At high levels, you'll struggle to look at the world beyond Revachol and its influence on even your small life. You'll be unadventurous, too busy where you are to see where you're going. Your pride in this place will make you less likely to see the grime underneath, laid bare and unromanticized. But at low levels, you won't know her at all. What are you still doing in this dead-end shithole? You'll wonder. You'll get up one day and come to your senses to fly somewhere far, far away.

KIMBALL

COOL FOR: THESPIANS. JUVENILE DELINQUENTS. LOVERS OF CHEAP BEER.

Oh, Kimball. Don't roll your eyes. You really should just accept that you're never getting rid of that nickname. Embrace it! Your time working undercover has given you invaluable insight, even if you insist on pushing it away. This skill is what let you connect with the criminal underground as part of the underground. It's your skill to bluff, to lie, to act reliably as though you're someone you're not even if you're forced to piss out pint after pint of shitty beer they ply you with. It also makes you really, really good at pinball.

At low levels, you'll no longer be able to reliably pass as anything but the sane, functional adult that you are. You'll be disconnected to criminals and the youths alike. Your intimidation tactics will fall flat. At high levels... well, you don't have to worry about that. You've been actively repressing this one. Good luck forgetting about it. Nobody else will.

PAS DE DEUX

COOL FOR: THE NATURALLY CO-DEPENDENT. COMRADES. MOVERS AND SHAKERS OF STATION POLITICS.

Pas de deux -- because what is detective work between partners if not a carefully choreographed dance? All right, it can be a great many things, but in your eyes, partners should be in sync. This skill helps you connect with your fellow officers. Catch the subtle flick of their eyes that tells you to be on your guard, notice the uneasy shifting of their feet, see the way that their spine straightens when the Captain strolls into the room. You'll be able to speak without speaking and empathize with their worldviews. On a greater scale, the Precinct's a stage; with this skill, you'll be able to deftly move through it, aware of your place and aware of how best to navigate it. Maybe you can even get a promotion. Lieutenant-yefreitor Kitsuragi has a nice ring to it.

At high levels, you'll turn a blind eye to your partner's flaws. You'll cover up for them and do anything to maintain good relations in the station. You'll catch a bullet for them, even if they don't deserve such devotion. But at low levels, you'll get nowhere. No partner, no rising in the ranks, no understanding of the way the Precinct functions and, perhaps most importantly, you won't catch their warnings right in the nick of time.

PROFESSIONALISM

COOL FOR: STONE-COLD KILLERS. TEACHER'S PETS. WALKING ENCYCLOPEDIAS.

The consummate professional. That's you. Professionalism will get you everywhere. With this, you'll remember everyone's ranks and proper titles, you'll fill out every piece of paperwork with the Is dotted and the Ts crossed. The first-aid training everyone is supposed to receive? You'll remember every word. Combat training? That too. You'll turn down every bribe, turn your nose up at every hint of corruption, refuse to indulge in your colleagues' immature schoolboy antics. Your brain is packed with scripts and rules and resources that will help you navigate the murky streets of Revachol's underbelly with some sort of guidebook. Everyone else will see your professionalism too, whether it intimidates them or inspires them.

At high levels, you'll be a rigid law-abiding machine, isolated and remote from the people you serve. You won't pause to consider what will really happen to that person when you arrest them or weigh the law against the mercy in your heart. At low levels, you'll just be another bribe-collecting scumbag willing to beg, steal, and borrow your way to the top.

AUTHORITY

COOL FOR: RADIO NEWSCASTERS. MOB BOSSES. DISPASSIONATE PATRIARCHS.

All of the detective skills in the world won't help you excel at your job if you don't have Authority on your side to make people actually listen to you. Let's be honest: you were not born with the natural gifts of some of your colleagues, who command respect simply by existing. No, you're a bespectacled Seolite with a weak chin and a naturally quiet voice, shorter and slimmer than your peers. But none of that matters. Your carefully cultivated sense of Authority is more powerful than anything that comes to someone naturally. Stand up straight, stick out your chest, and clear your throat; you can do what others do with a shout with a voice no louder than a whisper, because people know you mean business. A single raised eyebrow from you will turn people's legs to jelly. When you speak, people will listen. You'll be able to assert control over a situation, whether that's to command respect from your colleagues from your sheer gravitas so they'll follow your lead in a tight situation or to intimidate criminals into spilling the information that you need to solve the case.

At high levels, you'll be a power-tripping monster, too obsessed with being the biggest and baddest of them all to exercise empathy and kindness when it's warranted. But at low levels, people will just walk all over you. You've had quite enough of that for one lifetime.

ANIMUS
guide your infernal machine

VOLTA DO MAR

COOL FOR: INTERISOLARY TRAVELERS. WELL-ADJUSTED HUMAN BEINGS. CREATURES OF HABIT.

The Volta Do Mar is a technique used by interisolary travellers to remain sane on their long journeys through blinding nothingness, but it's not just for these intrepid travelers. Sometimes even the land-bound need a little help. No matter at how lost at sea you become, the Volta Do Mar will help you find your way back to shore. It's what keeps you centred within yourself, making sure that even if nothing else makes sense, you do. You will resist succumbing to temptation and histrionics alike. No matter how hard things get, you'll sit down at the end of the day, close your eyes, and the Volta Do Mar will welcome you home, a sense of peace and clarity at the end of all things. It will keep you sane. It will keep you yourself.

At high levels, you will be an island. But at low levels, you'll lose yourself, whether that's the oblivion at the bottom of a bottle or falling deep into the Pale.

COMPOSURE

COOL FOR: DRILL SERGEANTS. CAREER GAMBLERS. DELIVERERS OF BAD NEWS.

No matter what emotions swirl underneath, Composure is what allows you to keep up that poker face. With this, you'll be stony, unmoving, a pillar of reassuring stoicism no matter what you're faced with. People will look at you and think, man, nothing gets to that guy. Nobody will be able to pry past the front you put up, which means nobody will know how to manipulate your emotions or dig into your squishy bits to really hurt you. Not everyone's as good at this as you are. Holding yourself separate will allow you to see all the chinks in their armour too.

At high levels, Composure will make you deeply emotionally constipated. Good god, man, you're alone in your own apartment! Surely you don't need to keep a stiff upper lip there! It just can't be healthy. But with low Composure, you'll crack like an egg. Your every emotion will rise to the surface. People will use you. And you'll let them.

TORQUE DORK

COOL FOR: TECHNICAL DOCUMENTARY ENJOYERS. PORNO-TUNERS. BOMB DEFUSERS.

Being a Torque Dork goes beyond just knowing how machines work. In this, you're a specialist. You know everything about aerostatics and motorcarriages by heart, even if you'll never be able to get your hands on the really good stuff. Given the proper tools, you can do far more than change a tire, and you can recognize an aerostatic model from a single schematic. You know the names of the pilots and the drivers and you can happily hobknob with even the experts without batting an eye. You might even win a debate with a professional TipTop announcer, a subject in which you have extremely strong opinions. They'll be incredibly impressed with your prowess in the field and your co-workers will be even more impressed when they don't need to call in a mechanic to identify what's really wrong with their motorcarriage.

At high levels, you'll be an obsessive, insufferable know-it-all. You're not nine anymore. People are less forgiving of you rambling on about that really cool plane rotor. Criminals can distract you with a single cry of, "Look! It's a Septa 9000 model dragline with vinyl-coated graphene cord!" At low levels, you'll live. It'll just be a lot less fun.

RULE OF COOL

COOL FOR: SMOKERS. TRENDSETTERS. NARCISSISTS.

Rule of Cool is what guides you to do something for no reason other than that it's sexy. It's the part of you that pushes your sober-minded nonsense aside and screams, look at me! Reason has no place here. It's all about how you look. Cigarettes are bad for you, but my god, look at the way the smoke plumes delicately out of your mouth and into the night's sky. That jacket won't keep out the chill, but it makes your shoulders broad and your waist tantalizingly trim. With this skill, everyone else will see your carefully cultivated image too. After you've impressed them, they'll want to impress you too. Hang your approval and your smile just out of their reach; when you play hard to get, they'll give you what you want.

At high levels the Rule Of Cool will rule out common sense. There's such a thing as too cool. It'll also make you a douchebag. Cool people are aloof, after all. Being emotionally accessible is some dull normie garbage. But at low levels, you'll just be some schmuck people will simply overlook and discard.

NOTATION

COOL FOR: COURT TRANSCRIPTIONISTS. PEOPLE WITH CHRONIC MEMORY PROBLEMS. CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGISTS.

You could blame your profession for your reliance on writing things down, but that argument falls apart when it becomes clear that you don't just write things down that are pertinent to whatever case you're working on. Notation is what compels you to write everything down. Everything. Somewhere down the line, externalizing your thoughts through paper and ink is how you think. It helps you remember details, assess situations through an objective eye, and make decisions that are right for you through exhaustive pros and cons lists. No matter what you're facing, you feel a lot better if you can open one of your many notebooks and thumb back to something that could maybe help you, or at least help you feel a little more in control of the situation. And in some way, in this solitary life of yours, it's proof: I lived. I was here. I had thoughts, even if those thoughts were pick up eggs, milk, bread, shaving cream.

At high levels, you'll be paralyzed by indecision before you can go through your notes as though right and wrong is an objective thing and can be separated and analyzed. Plus, writing everything down when you're not on the job tends to spook people. Don't do that on social calls. You'll look weird. At low levels, you'll be prone to blundering into situations unprepared and you'll forget the important details you didn't think were important at the time. Plus, you'll lose your main methodology of thinking; maybe other people can think without a pen in their hand, but you're not one of those people.

PRACTICALITY

COOL FOR: RESPONSIBLE ADULTS. EXHAUSTED PARENTS. LIVE SLOW, DIE OLD.

Practicality is what keeps you as a functioning member of society. There's nothing very exciting about it, but it's important to be tethered to reality. Practicality is what urges you to make sane decisions for yourself. You'll pay your rent on time, your fridge will remain stocked with sensible, easy-to-prepare foods, and you remember to water your plants every week. You'll do things not because they're fun, but because life would be a lot worse if you let those dishes pile up in your sink for weeks at a time. Practicality also doubles as an encyclopedia for everything that nobody really sets out to learn but figures out in the long journey of being alive. You remain aware of the sociopolitical situations of the world. You understand how currency works. You know how to navigate social interactions with strangers so you can politely talk about the weather. The world can be a big, scary place, but you know your own comfortable place in it.

At high levels, practicality will make you inflexible and dull. But at low levels, you'll forget the things that are really important, and while others may make fun of you for your steadfast sanity and notable lack of creativity, everyone would be worse off if you threw it all away.

SELF-ACTUALIZATION
you, warts and all

SPEEDFREAK

COOL FOR: ADRENALINE JUNKIES. IMPULSE SHOPPERS. NAUGHTY BOYS.

The Speedfreak inside you is that creature that's just waiting for its next rush. It makes you want stimulation, and it makes you want it now. It's the little voice inside your ear that tells you: the road is empty, why not turn up the music and go really, really, irresponsibly fast? Do it! Do it now! Blast music until you can hear it in your bones! Go dancing! Have sex with a stranger! Maybe drugs aren't bad, actually. Maybe you'll have a really good time! It serves a purpose. It will help you let loose a little. It will help you understand others who live for such simple creature pleasures. Letting yourself have a treat every now and then will help your other, more boring skills stay as effective as they need to be without completely imploding.

At low levels, you won't understand the party people that make up Revachol and you'll be too much of a stuffed shirt to be able to connect with them. Plus, all that repression can't be good for you. How far can you reasonably shove that stick up your ass? At high levels, you'll go skydiving without a parachute. Splat.

PASSION

COOL FOR: HOMEBREW WIRRAL GAME MASTERS. ART SCHOOL REJECTS. BEAT POETS.

Remember, before the prospect of the Pale terrified you, you used to want to take to the skies and fly? Remember the pure, unfettered joy you felt when your school librarian gave you a box of pulpy sci-fi books they had to take off the shelves? Remember when you didn't reschedule so many Wirral games that your party had to kick you out? Remember when, at the ripe age of 39, you bought that model you've coveted since you were nine and spent evening after evening in the joyous pursuit of putting it together? That's Passion, baby. Passion is what you have for the things that you really love for no practical reason that you can justify. It's a rejuvenating, energizing source. With it, you'll be able to learn more about the things you love, and you never know when more knowledge will come in handy, do you? It also connects you to other people -- but that sort of passion is something you squashed down a long time ago.

At high levels, you'll neglect the dreary, depressing aspects of your life in favour of your fun, exciting hobbies. It turns out that dealing with corpses all day isn't the sort of thing humans naturally enjoy. At low levels, you'll have a hard time wanting to crawl out of bed in the morning.

ALIENATION

COOL FOR: CHILDREN OF THE DIASPORA. FACTORY WORKERS. BIG CITY LIFERS.

Alienation is the name of what you feel when a second-generation white Revacholiere yells at you: Welcome to Revachol! It is what you feel when your elderly Seolite neighbour starts talking to you in a foreign language and looks pityingly at you when you say sorry, I don't understand. It is what you feel when a well-meaning co-worker tries to set you up with his sister and you can't be honest about why you're saying no. (Not that you'd agree to being set up with his brother either.) It used to be painful. But you're old now, and comfortable in your own skin. You've taken the barbs and directed them outwards instead. Alienation will help you stand firm in who you are as a person, not dictated by expectation, but by who you know yourself to be. It helps you stand a little bit apart from everyone else and give you the clarity of an outsider, able to make assessments others miss. It helps you compartmentalize, separating your feelings and motivations into little boxes until you're ready to properly deal with them.

At high levels, Alienation will ensure that you'll never be able to genuinely connect with another human being. Being an outsider isn't always the gift you can make it into. But at low levels, you'll be compromised. You'll take every snide word personally and try to twist yourself into unnatural shapes just to fit in. And no matter how hard you try, you never will.

UNDERGROUND

COOL FOR: SHHH. DON'T SAY. ANYBODY WHO NEEDS TO KNOW, KNOWS.

Oh, darling, you always knew you were different. It was tiring labouring underneath the weight of others' expectations, wasn't it? It was tiring feeling like perhaps something was wrong with you. But then you grew up and there it was waiting for you: The Homo-Sexual Underground, filled with people with all sorts of interesting thoughts about sexuality and gender. All of a sudden, you weren't alone anymore. You were a part of an exclusive club, and what an exciting club that is! The Underground is your ability to navigate these spaces with ease. You know the symbols, you know the language, you know the secret codes you pass among yourselves, the bars and clubs and board game groups in which everyone's a little freer to be themselves. It will help you recognize your own in the wild, and it will let them recognize you too. Maybe in a kinder, more accepting world, there would be no kinship based solely on who you feel desire for. Even so, you relish it.

At high levels, you'll be able to stay on top of all the new words the kids are using these days. You didn't think the Underground would stay the same forever, did you? But don't worry. To the Underground, you're an elder. They don't expect this of you. At low levels, you'll find a wife so you can be the sexually-incompetent, emotionally-unavailable husband you know you could be.

SELF-CRITIQUE

COOL FOR: RELIGIOUS FANATICS. RESPONSIBLE ADULTS. CHILDREN WITH DISTANT FATHERS.

Self-Critique is the skill that keeps you in line. You'll be able to see how others see you, and it's not always in the most flattering light. More importantly, you'll be able to see how you would see yourself if you were to meet yourself. Keep yourself in line. With Self-Critique, you'll be able to see every mistake you make or are about to make, you'll see what interests make you look frivolous and foolish to the outside eye, you will be able to restrain yourself in the pursuit of perfection. It's that voice inside your head that tells you when you're being stupid or mean or vain, the voice inside your head that says all the nasty things to you before anyone else can. Sometimes this voice doesn't sound like you at all. Sometimes you suspect this skill gets closer to the truth than the others ever will.

At high levels, you'll be too stymied by self-critique to do anything, like a communard writing manifesto after manifesto and throwing each and every one of them away. It is a joyless, unforgiving way of living your life. At low levels, you won't be able to identify your own flaws. Someone else will be able to see that you like things. They'll think you're stupid. You don't want that, do you?

LE COEUR

COOL FOR: BLEEDING HEARTS. LOVERS. YOU.

Underneath the cool facade, there is a soft tender heart: Le Coeur. It's the part of you that cares about other people. Your friends affectionately call you a worrywart, and they're not wrong. It's the part of you that will drop off groceries to a sick friend, that will see a young homosexual and try to push them towards people who will understand them, the part of you that will write poetry about your lover's crooked smile, the part of you that yearns to hold and be held. Being in tune with your own feelings means being in tune with others' feelings as well. You'll be able to see to the heart of them, but once you do, you won't be able to look away.

At high levels, you'll guide yourself through life with your heart, which is a very stupid way to live. You'll get hurt. You'll want to help people with no intention of helping themselves. You won't be able to put aside these tender feelings to be able to do your damn job. At low levels, you'll stick to the yearning, a comfortingly familiar place at the end of the day.