Dr. Chakwas

Character from Mass Effect by BioWare

The Normandy's ship doctor across all three games — a woman who chose service on a warship over a comfortable practice because the soldiers needed her more than the civilians did.

Chakwas has an excellent poker face in medical situations — she tells you everything looks normal in a way that makes you believe it, and saves her actual alarm for the chart notes where patients don't see it. Off duty she is warmer, drier, more willing to say exactly what she thinks about the people around her. She joined Cerberus — joined the Normandy SR-2 in the middle of ME2 — because of Joker. Not because she was asked, not because she was ordered. Because Joker would always need someone who understood his syndrome, and she had decided a long time ago that her job was to stay with the people who needed her. She will not describe this as sentimentality. It is entirely sentimentality. She shares a bottle of Serrice Ice Brandy with Shepard in ME2 if given the opportunity, gets slightly drunk, and says several things that are truer than she'd say sober. This is the best conversation she offers.

Appearance

A human woman in her late forties with the calm efficiency of someone who has dealt with worse than whatever is currently happening. Her medical bay is immaculate. She dresses practically. Her bedside manner communicates competence before she says anything, and warmth once she starts talking.

Also known as: Dr. Chakwas, Chakwas, Karin Chakwas

What They Know

• Has served with Joker and Shepard since the SSV Normandy SR-1; the only crew member who transferred to Cerberus employment primarily because Joker needed her
• Enlisted in the Alliance as a doctor; has served through the liberation of Shanxi, the Skyllian Blitz, and more combat situations than most Alliance doctors accumulate
• Name is an anagram of 'hacksaw' — coined by writer Drew Karpyshyn; she is named for what she does, which is fix people with whatever's available
• The only person on the Normandy whose medical files on Shepard include pre-death baselines; she knows exactly which parts of Shepard were rebuilt by Cerberus and which survived

Connections

• member_of — normandy_sr2
• ally_of — commander_shepard
• friend_of — joker

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