Brainsurge's Questionnaire

Paul lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.  The city itself has a great blend of academic aptitude and technological innovation, which is the perfect environment for aspirations and inspirations.  Paul specifically is a student at MIT, which gives him access to great amounts of resources in the vein of his goal.

Paul lives in a dorm room on campus, with a few other nerdy roommates that rarely leave their rooms. His room is his haven and laboratory, with shelves covered in various technology-focused textbooks.  Next to his bed is his desk, with 4 monitors and a beefy PC.  The desk itself is fairly neat, with only the necessities.  There is also a workbench in the room, covered in loose wires, tools, and other pieces of tech.  Here is where Paul tinkers with his gadgets, and is the birthplace of his glasses and his watch. 

Paul's money comes from student loans and grants he has applied for, which pay for a majority of his rent and basic needs.  Paul also has a side hustle in repairing devices, such as phones, watches, computers, etc.  This is where his money comes from that he has to spend on a short-term need.  Aside from this, Paul spends a lot of his spare money on parts of his computer, and other various technology pieces that he can use to create other gadgets.  He is always looking for his next great gadget idea, and is constantly scouring eBay and other similar sites for deals on bulk electronics to tinker with.

Paul is tired of living in a world where his strengths are not appreciated, and his physical appearance bars him from many opportunities.  Paul wishes to create a world in which his powers are the greatest, and he can rule over the population as a god.  His idea is to place all of the world a Matrix-esque virtual world in which he can manipulate the fabric of reality as he pleases. 

He will create a large system that harvests the energy that people create, and use it to power the virtual world they would all be hooked up to.  People who die would be blended up and fed to the people who are alive to sustain them.  The entire process would all be automated through machines and AI.  To keep the project sustainable, new life would have to be created, which would be automated by machines, and the babies would then be immediately hooked up to the machine and born into the virtual world.

Paul was bullied throughout his entire academic career.  In elementary school, he was never invited to people's birthday parties.  In middle school, he was shoved in lockers and made fun of.  In high school, the popular girls would lead him along, only to crush his heart and make fun of him.  This all lead to Paul believing the world was mainly ruled by people who were physically capable, rather than being intelligent.  He is a self-declared "incel" who blames others on his shortcomings, instead of looking inward.  He decided that one day, everyone who had slighted him would pay, and he would get his revenge.

1. Sarah, the Childhood Friend: Sarah and Paul have known each other since they were kids. She's a kind-hearted, understanding person who has grown up with Paul, going to the same schools as him. Sarah tries to support and uplift Paul, often attempting to introduce them to new friends and friend groups. However, Paul's frustration and social anxieties sometimes strain their friendship, especially as Sarah finds it challenging to relate to their perspective on relationships.  There have been multiple times where Paul has blown up on Sarah, and the two had ceased communicating for a while.  Paul would eventually come back, but would never really learn from his mistakes.

2. Alex, the Roommate: Alex is a roommate with a shared interest in technology. They both study the same major and have bonded over their mutual passion for computers and programming. Alex often tries to encourage Paul to engage in more social activities, offering advice and trying to build their confidence. Despite good intentions, Paul's deep-seated beliefs about societal biases and the perceived futility of social interactions can make it difficult for Alex's advice to land home.

3. Dr. Martinez, the Therapist: Dr. Martinez is Paul's therapist. They meet weekly to discuss Paul's struggles with loneliness, societal expectations, and personal anxieties. Dr. Martinez aims to help Paul navigate their feelings of isolation and resentment, providing coping strategies and a safe space for expression. However, progress is slow, as Paul often finds it hard to fully embrace the therapeutic guidance due to a deeply ingrained skepticism about change and the external world.

Paul’s childhood was full of ridicule and bullying, all the way from kindergarten to graduation. He was always a smaller kid who lacked social skills but excelled academically, and found himself ostracized from the main groups. Even trying to fit in with the other rejects he could not find a place where he belonged. He was an only child to two very smart scientists, both of which had very little time to actually spend with their kid. Paul spent most of his time in his room, tinkering with the odd electronic toys his parents would give him on his birthdays and holidays. The only person who gave him any time of day was a friend of named Sarah, a childhood friend he has drifted apart from over the years. Aside from her, Paul has only known torment and harassment, and this lead him to form his view of the world he has today. 

The closest thing to love that Paul has experienced is that with Sarah. There were a number of other girls throughout his school life that he had crushes on, but they’d all end in some form of rejection or ridicule. Girls would lead him on at times to use him for his smarts, only to turn around and join in the harassment against him. As much as Paul liked Sarah, he couldn’t bring himself to go any further than just being friends. He felt as though even if she is nice to him, she is the same as the other girls in his life that would trample all over his feelings. This lead to a very toxic friendship between the two. At times, Paul would blow up on Sarah and declare that the two of them were no longer friends, only to come back a few weeks later with an apology. 

Paul Kennedy’s greatest fear for most of his life was to fail at becoming a smart man, but this has now warped into a fear of failure of any kind. The way he got through his many years of bullying and torment during his school life was by convincing himself that he would eventually be greater than everyone who had ever wronged him, and he would rise to the top with just his brains.  The thought of not being able to accomplish scared him, because then he would have no real purpose in this world. Given his recent revelations about himself, Paul now seeks to never again lose a fight, no matter the situation. Starting off his career as a sort of gadgeteer, Paul realized how weak he was, and that it was his gadgets that made him have any power at all. After being electrocuted, the powers from his gadgets a on somehow found their way to become innate abilities he now has full control over. From there, he realized that he will not ever find his place in the world by only banking on his intelligence only: he must also be able to handle himself physically. He left MIT to go on a self-discovery journey and to gain the powers he so desperately needs. 

Before his metamorphosis, Paul’s most prized possessions were his numerous gadgets he created through the years. He saw them as a timeline of his improvement as a gadgeteer, and his two latest were the magnum opuses of his efforts. Since Paul’s resignation from MIT and abandonment of his previous life, he now only treasures the electric scars he has all over his body. He sees them as a mark of progress; they signify his awakening from his old self to his new self. The scars, though they are still fresh as of now, remind him that his old way of thinking would have eventually plateaued, and he would be stuck at whichever height he made it to. From here on, Paul now vows to push beyond his previous limits. He knows through his new form of progress that he can make it to the top, and be known not as a failed child prodigy, but instead a success story of a person who found their way after great tragedy.