#The Morgernstern Project

[seraphblvdes]

BASICS

FULL NAME: Clarissa Adele Fairchild Fray

ALIASES: Clary, Fray, Rocket

MUTANT NAME: Undecided

DATE OF BIRTH: August 23rd, 1996

HOMETOWN: Brooklyn, New York

CURRENT LOCATION: Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters

RELATIONSHIPS

PARENTS: Jocelyn Fairchild Fray, Valentine Morgernstern

SIBLING(S): None, Jonathan Morgernstern

OTHER: Luke Garroway (family friend), Dorothea Rollins (family friend)

MUTATION

EMPATHY and AURA READING

Clary sees emotions in different colored auras surrounding a person, like yellow for happy, red for angry, blue for sad. She’s still learning what each of the colors on the spectrum mean, but everyone has their own shades of each color so it’s hard to explain, that’s part of the reason why she took to art and started painting. When she physically touches someone, Clary can actually feel what they feel, which she struggles with a lot. She only touches people she’s close to. Clary has yet to learn how to ‘turn it off’ or suppress the power, but seeing auras has become so normal to her that it doesn’t affect her every day life, but it does feel invasive. 

HISTORY

Clary always knew that she was different, but didn’t know how different she was. Like Clary, her mother Jocelyn Fray was a mutant but because the mutation felt like a death sentence, she didn’t tell her daughter what she was. Instead she convinced her to keep quiet about the thing that made her different, and the only person she could really talk to about it was her best friend Simon Lewis, another mutant.

As a creative outlet, Clary took to art and started painting what she saw. Jocelyn encouraged the art with one rule, Clary could never actually draw a person with their aura. Most of her artwork is based on what she sees. She finds inspiration in every person she meets and the unique color palette of their aura. If she meets a person with a lot of shades of purple in their aura, she might draw lilac flowers.

When Simon was recruited to go to Xavier’s School for Gifted Youngsters, he refused to go unless Clary went to. They were partners in crime, her best friend for as long as Clary could remember. She didn’t want him to leave her behind either, especially when she had the chance to go meet others like them. She was shy at first, but started to come out of her shell as she learned more about her power.

Clary has seen first hand how a simple act of kindness can change someone’s aura for the better, so she tries to be nice to everyone. She makes friends with everyone she meets and takes it personally when others don’t like her... and she can’t help but take on a ‘project’ when she sees someone with a negative aura. Clary has a heart of gold, cares way too much and loves nothing more than making people smile.

CONNECTIONS

ALEC LIGHTWOOD - friend

ANTHONY PARKER - two sides of the same coin

BENJI COOPER - friend

CADEN BLOODSAW - teacher + mentor

HALE ASHWOOD - groot to her rocket

ISABELLE LIGHTWOOD - close friend

JEREMY GILBERT - boyfriend ♡

LIV PARKER - roommate + best friend

MACK McKNIGHT - friend

MAGNUS BANE - close friend

SIMON LEWIS - bestest friend

STEVE HARRINGTON - friend

TEAGAN BYRNE - teacher + mentor

[theclockistickingwrite]

“Get To Know the Author” Tag

@megross tagged me in a thing :) 

Favorite Book(s): WHAT KIND OF QUESTION IS THIS??? 

I have so many. In terms of stand alone books: The Night Circus by Erin Morgernstern, The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman, and The Book Thief by Marks Zusak 

Do you write with pen & paper or on the computer?

Computer. My hand can’t keep up with my thoughts. 

What genre do you write?

Hmm....generally fantasy. It depends on what I’m writing. My longer projects tend to be fantasy, but I like experimenting with magical realism and realistic fiction when it comes to shorter prose. My poems are almost exclusively all about my life and always fairly terrible. 

Do you listen to music while you write? 

No, not really. I try, sometimes, but I always end up ignoring the song and getting lost in the story.  Do you want to write for a career, or is it more of a hobby?

Career.  Who is your favorite character you’ve ever created?

His name is Aaron Tala and he came entirely out of nowhere. He was supposed to be a random nondescript character that was only mentioned once, but he has evolved into one of the most important characters in my novel. He’s been through hell and he still genuinely just wants to help people. He’s a badass who deserves the entire world. I love him to death. 

Tell us about your current project! 

My current project is something that I’ve been writing for 2 or three years now. It’s an epic fantasy novel that’s basically an odd commentary on colonialism, although it didn’t start out that way. There is magic,telepathy, torture,an assassin, and a cast of characters who I love so very much. @megross and @bibliophile-scientist can attest to how much this story has evolved and changed while I’ve been writing it (the first draft was VERY VERY different). I’m still trying to figure it all out. It’s well over 400 pages at this point ant still not done. 

I tag @wymanthewalrus and anyone else who has ongoing writing projects they want to talk about :) 

[oldbeavers-blog]

John Von Neumann

(b. Dec. 28, 1903, Budapest, Hung.—d. Feb. 8, 1957, Washington,

D.C., U.S.)

John von Neumann (originally named János Neumann)

was a Hungarian-born American mathematician. As an

adult, he appended von to his surname; the hereditary title

had been granted his father in 1913. Von Neumann grew

from child prodigy to one of the world’s foremost mathe-

maticians by his mid-20s. Important work in set theory

inaugurated a career that touched nearly every major

branch of mathematics. Von Neumann’s gift for applied

mathematics took his work in directions that influenced

quantum theory, automata theory, economics, and defense

planning. Von Neumann pioneered game theory and, along

with Alan Turing and Claude Shannon, was one of the

conceptual inventors of the stored-program digital

computer.

Early Life and Mathematical Career

Von Neumann grew up in an affluent, highly assimilated

Jewish family. His father, Miksa Neumann (Max Neumann),

was a banker, and his mother, born Margit Kann (Margaret

Kann), came from a family that had prospered selling farm

equipment. He earned a degree in chemical engineering

(1925) from the Swiss Federal Institute in Zürich and a

doctorate in mathematics (1926) from the University of

Budapest.

From 1926 to 1927 von Neumann did postdoctoral work

under David Hilbert at the University of Göttingen. He

then took positions as a Privatdozent (“private lecturer”)

at the Universities of Berlin (1927–29) and Hamburg

(1929–30). The work with Hilbert culminated in von

Neumann’s book The Mathematical Foundations of Quantum

Mechanics (1932), in which quantum states are treated as

vectors in a Hilbert space. This mathematical synthesis

reconciled the seemingly contradictory quantum mechan-

ical formulations of Erwin Schrödinger and Werner

Heisenberg. Von Neumann also claimed to prove that

deterministic “hidden variables” cannot underlie quantum

phenomena. This influential result pleased Niels Bohr

and Heisenberg and played a strong role in convincing

physicists to accept the indeterminacy of quantum theory.

In contrast, the result dismayed Albert Einstein, who

refused to abandon his belief in determinism.

In 1928 von Neumann published “Theory of Parlor

Games,” a key paper in the field of game theory. The nominal

inspiration was the game of poker. Game theory focuses

on the element of bluffing, a feature distinct from the pure

logic of chess or the probability theory of roulette. Though

von Neumann knew of the earlier work of the French

mathematician Émile Borel, he gave the subject mathe-

matical substance by proving the mini-max theorem. This

asserts that for every finite, two-person zero-sum game,

there is a rational outcome in the sense that two perfectly

logical adversaries can arrive at a mutual choice of game

strategies, confident that they could not expect to do better

by choosing another strategy. In games like poker, the

optimal strategy incorporates a chance element. Poker

players must bluff occasionally—and unpredictably—in

order to avoid exploitation by a savvier player.

In 1929 von Neumann was asked to lecture on quantum

theory at Princeton University. This led to an appointment

as visiting professor (1930–33). He was remembered as a

mediocre teacher, prone to write quickly and erase the

blackboard before students could copy what he had written.

In 1933 von Neumann became one of the first professors at

the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS), Princeton, N.J.

The same year, Adolf Hitler came to power in Germany,

and von Neumann relinquished his German academic

posts. In a much-quoted comment on the Nazi regime,

von Neumann wrote, “If these boys continue for only

two more years . . . they will ruin German science for a

generation—at least.”

Though no longer a teacher, von Neumann became a

Princeton legend. It was said that he played practical jokes

on Einstein, could recite verbatim books that he had read

years earlier, and could edit assembly-language computer

code in his head. Von Neumann’s natural diplomacy helped

him move easily among Princeton’s intelligentsia, where

he often adopted a tactful modesty. He once said he felt he

had not lived up to all that had been expected of him.

Never much like the stereotypical mathematician, he was

known as a wit, bon vivant, and aggressive driver—his

frequent auto accidents led to one Princeton intersection

being dubbed “von Neumann corner.”

World War II and After

In late 1943 von Neumann began work on the Manhattan

Project at the invitation of J. Robert Oppenheimer. Von

Neumann was an expert in the nonlinear physics of

hydrodynamics and shock waves, an expertise that he

had already applied to chemical explosives in the British

war effort. At Los Alamos, N.M., von Neumann worked on

Seth Neddermeyer’s implosion design for an atomic bomb.

This called for a hollow sphere containing fissionable plu-

tonium to be symmetrically imploded in order to drive the

plutonium into a critical mass at the centre. The implo-

sion had to be so symmetrical that it was compared to

crushing a beer can without splattering any beer. Adapting

an idea proposed by James Tuck, von Neumann calculated

that a “lens” of faster- and slower-burning chemical explo-

sives could achieve the needed degree of symmetry. The

Fat Man atomic bomb, dropped on the Japanese port of

Nagasaki, used this design. Von Neumann participated

in the selection of a Japanese target, arguing against

bombing the Imperial Palace, Tokyo.

Overlapping with this work was von Neumann’s mag-

num opus of applied math, Theory of Games and Economic

Behavior (1944), cowritten with Princeton economist Oskar

Morgenstern. Game theory had been orphaned since the

1928 publication of “Theory of Parlor Games,” with neither

von Neumann nor anyone else significantly developing it.

The collaboration with Morgernstern burgeoned to 641

pages, the authors arguing for game theory as the

“Newtonian science” underlying economic decisions. The

book created a vogue for game theory among economists

that has partly subsided. The theory has also had broad

influence in fields ranging from evolutionary biology to

defense planning.

In the postwar years, von Neumann spent increasing

time as a consultant to government and industry. Starting

in 1944, he contributed important ideas to the U.S. Army’s

hard-wired ENIAC computer, designed by J. Presper

Eckert, Jr., and John W. Mauchly. Most important, von

Neumann modified the ENIAC to run as a stored-program

machine. He then lobbied to build an improved computer

at the Institute for Advanced Study. The IAS machine,

which began operating in 1951, used binary arithmetic—

the ENIAC had used decimal numbers—and shared the

same memory for code and data, a design that greatly

facilitated the “conditional loops” at the heart of all sub-

sequent coding. Von Neumann’s publications on computer

design (1945–51) created friction with Eckert and Mauchly,

who sought to patent their contributions, and led to the

independent construction of similar machines around

the world. This established the merit of a single-processor,

stored-program computer—the widespread architecture

now known as a von Neumann machine.

Another important consultancy was at the RAND

Corporation, a think tank charged with planning nuclear

strategy for the U.S. Air Force. Von Neumann insisted on

the value of game-theoretic thinking in defense policy. He

supported development of the hydrogen bomb and was

reported to have advocated a preventive nuclear strike to

destroy the Soviet Union’s nascent nuclear capability circa

1950. Despite his hawkish stance, von Neumann defended

Oppenheimer against attacks on his patriotism and

warned Edward Teller that his Livermore Laboratory

(now the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory)

cofounders were “too reactionary.” From 1954 until 1956,

von Neumann served as a member of the Atomic Energy

Commission and was an architect of the policy of nuclear

deterrence developed by President Dwight D. Eisenhower’s

administration.

In his last years, von Neumann puzzled over the

question of whether a machine could reproduce itself.

Using an abstract model (a cellular automata), von

Neumann outlined how a machine could reproduce itself

from simple components. Key to this demonstration is

that the machine reads its own “genetic” code, interpreting

it first as instructions for constructing the machine

exclusive of the code and second as data. In the second

phase, the machine copies its code in order to create a

completely “fertile” new machine. Conceptually, this work

anticipated later discoveries in genetics.

Von Neumann was diagnosed with bone cancer in

1955. He continued to work even as his health deterio-

rated rapidly. In 1956 he received the Enrico Fermi Award.

A lifelong agnostic, shortly before his death he converted

to Roman Catholicism. With his pivotal work on quan-

tum theory, the atomic bomb, and the computer, von

Neumann likely exerted a greater influence on the mod-

ern world than any other mathematician of the 20th

century.