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natalievoncatte · 8 months

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It took four calls before Lena answered. It crawled across her side table, vibrating angrily like some persnickety insect until she gave it the attention she wanted.

You could just turn it off.

“What do you want, Danvers?”

Alex’s voice was thick.

“We can’t find Kara.”

Lena let out a slow, long, theatrical sigh. “So now you’re accusing me of crimes over the phone. At least your ex had the courtesy to cuff me in person.”

Alex’s patience was clearly short enough, and wearing thinner.

“I’m not calling you to accuse you. I’m calling you to ask for help.”

“And why would I do that?”

“Because she’s burned out her powers and we can’t find her, Luthor. Supergirl is missing and she’s powerless.”

Lena licked her lips.

“Is this some kind of weird test to see if I’ll try to kill her? An entrapment scheme or something?”

“First of all,” said Alex, “fuck you.”

“Mutual,” said Lena. “What was the second part?”

“The second part is that I know you. I know you’re pissed off at her. I also know that you don’t react the way you’ve acted because your BFF lied to you, Lena. Just like I know that buying a $875 million company isn’t what friends are fucking for.”

“I’m sure I have no idea what you mean,” Lena snapped.

“Right. Help us find her.”

“No,” Lena said, coolly. “Goodnight, Director.”

Lena stabbed the end call key with her finger, resolving to herself that L-Corp was going to release a smart phone that made it more satisfying to hang up on people.

Then she very pointedly did not go out looking for Kara. Instead, she boiled water for tea, and spread open a technical journal on her lap.

After ten minutes, she had not drunk the tea, and her attention was sliding off the abstract like the wrong end of two magnets jammed together. Rubbing at her eyes, she decided she’d had too long a day for even light reading, and decided to enjoy a news broadcast with her tea.

Of *course* the lead story was Supergirl. She tried putting on the Lakehawks game, but that had been preempted for Supergirl coverage.

She turned to the science channel. Oh, of course they’d decided that tonight was the night to premier some ridiculous companion documentary for the World of Krypton exhibit running downtown at the convention center, and of course Lena works tune in right as Kara appeared on screen, grinning ear to ear as she charitably gave some literal kid reporter the interview of her lifetime, fielding softball questions about her dead planet.

“What do you miss most?” the kid asked.

Lena saw it, saw it the way only someone who knew Supergirl was just Kara Danvers, the nerdy, dorky, kinda basic goof in a pompous costume, could. The flash of real pain in the hero’s eyes, the softness in her voice, like she was apologizing for the honest of her answer.

“Red sunrises,” said Kara.

Lena threw the teacup across the room, and it shattered across the screen, leaving the dregs tricking down the surface. Lena wished the TV had been knocked out, but the screen was shielded by a transparent aluminum she’d invented herself.

So she changed the channel, just in time to get a face full of The Princess Bride, just as Buttercup was shoving a then-disguised Westley down the hill as he shouted the line the revealed his identity.

“Oh fuck you all,” Lena muttered, as she scooped her keys from the kitchen counter.

Lena decided it was a night for subtlety, so she took the BMW, driving with the top down and and her phone in her jacket pocket, so she could feel it if someone called.

Lena drove for the better part of an hour, reflecting on the absurdity of simply looking for Kara in a sprawling city; National City had about two thirds the population of Metropolis, but it covered nearly four times the land area and was surrounded by sprawling suburbs that extended the entire metro area to the size of a small state.

This was hopeless, unless Lena knew where to go.

You know what you have to do. You know what you’ve always had to do.

Kara answered on the third ring.

“Hi.”

Her voice was tiny and small, and Lena felt like she was clutching some small fragile thing to her cheek.

“Hey,” she said, with all the softness she could muster with the top down. She pulled to a stop on the side of Ocean Avenue so she could soften it further. “I heard what happened.”

“I beat the monster.”

“I know,” said Lena. “You always do. Where are you, Kara?”

There was a beat of silence.

“I don’t know who out you up to this, but you don’t have to do it, Lena. I know how you feel about me now.”

No, you fucking don’t, Lena thought, before she could silence her own frantic mind. If you knew you wouldn’t have lied to me.

“Tell me where you are.”

“I’m where I belong,” Kara sighed, the hint of slurring in her words hinting that she’d been drinking.

Then she hung up.

A wave of anger welled in Lena’s chest, and she clenched her teeth, seizing the shift lever to throw the car in drive and head home; Kara and her sister could handle their own bullshit.

She didn’t drive home.

Lena arrived at the convention center in a frantic five minutes, parking crazily in a towing zone. Finding a way in took another few minutes, and soon the flat soles of her tennis shoes were squeaking as they echoed across the polished granite floors of the lobby.

She found Kara in the exhibit, surrounded by quiet, dark displays as she stood in front of a bannered exhibit proclaiming “RAO, THE SUN OF KRYPTON”.

Kara ignored Lena as she approached, tipping back a sloshing, mostly empty bottle of Jack Daniels to take a hearty gulp.

“Kara?” said Lena.

Kara swayed slightly on her feet. She’d gotten a raincoat somewhere and put it on over her suit, cape and all, and even from a distance she stank of whiskey. She was staring at the display in front of her, an expansive orrery surrounding a lit model of Rao. Lena had never seen her so haggard, even her lustrous hair limp sallow.

“Hi,” Kara said, taking another drink.

“What are you doing?”

“Chasing a red sunrise.”

Lena approached slowly, until they stood side by side.

She stole a quick glance. Kara had a black eye and she was swaying slightly, and Lena wasn’t sure if it was from the booze or the fight. She started to take another drink.

Grasping the bottle by the neck, Lena took it from her. Kara didn’t resist as Lena tipped back a long pull on the bottle herself. It offended her palate in every possible way but one, but it was a good way to numb herself.

“Alex send you?”

“No,” said Lena. “She just had to tell me. She knew I’d send myself.”

“Why?”

“Because she’s a lot more observant than you are.”

Kara studied her for a moment, then reached for the bottle back.

Lena looked at it. “How much of this have you had?”

“Not enough,” said Kara, taking another drink.”

“If you insist on destroying your liver, at least let me give you something that actually tastes good.”

“It all tastes like paint thinner,” said Kara.

Lena sighed. “Get in the car.”

Kara shrugged and followed Lena out, flopping extravagantly in the passenger’s seat. Lena drove in silence, using the excuse that the wind noise made it too hard to talk.

When they arrived at Lena’s apartment, she practically shoved Kara inside, and poured the rest of the swill down the drain.

“Hey,” Kara muttered.

“There’s still some of your clothes in the guest bedroom. Take that damned suit off and put on something else.”

Kara complied, trudging into the bedroom. She emerged a moment later, looking small and sad with her hands tucked up inside an oversized hoodie, wobbling giving Lena a glassy look.

As she sat down, Lena handed her a glass of wine and perched on the edge of the couch cushion beside her, gently pressing an ice pack to her eye. Kara leaned into it and let out a soft, unsteady sigh.

“Pain hurts,” she observed.

“It’ll do that.”

Then she went quiet, sinking into Lena’s couch with Lena’s ice pack pressed to her face. Lena stepped into the kitchen and pulled out her phone. Alex answered immediately.

“I have her.”

“Thank God. I’ll be over to get her in a few minutes.”

“No you won’t,” Lena sighed.

Alex didn’t answer her for a too-long pause.

“Yeah. Call me in the morning.”

“Will do.”

Kara had found the wine bottle when Lena came back, and was taking a drink form it. Lena sat down next to her and took it, drawing on it hard before passing it back.”

“What now?” said Kara.

“Is the ice still cold?”

“Yeah.”

Kara curled up next to Lena, bringing her legs up, her toes wiggling in empty air. Lena sighed and found her a blanket, spreading it over her too carefully.

As soon as Lena sat down, Kara spread the blanket over her, too, and Lena noticed that her absurd body heat hadn’t abated from the loss of her powers.

“You have tea on your TV,” Kara observed.

“Yeah,” said Lena.

It took her a few minutes to find something on television that wasn’t Supergirl or The Fox and the Hound.

(Fucking seriously?)

Nature documentaries were Kara’s kryptonite, to turn a phrase, and soon she was sleeping on Lena’s shoulder, the ice bag fallen into her lap. Lena stared down at the soft features of the surpassingly lovely little goddess snoozing against her and couldn’t help it anymore.

She started to weep softly, her shoulders hitching as she struggled to stop it, knowing the attempt was hopeless.

It got worse when Kara began to purr, a deep and soothing rumble in her chest that seemed to seep into Lena’s bones. After a moment she realized that Kara was crying too; she’d woken up.

“I’m sorry,” she whimpered. “I’m so fucking sorry, Lena. I can’t… I can’t breathe I’m so sorry. I lost my red sunrise. I can’t lose you too. I’ll do anything. Please let me make it up to you I promise I will, please.”

Lena shifted to a more comfortable position, known this was it for the night, that something had shifted. No, shattered. She was tired of being angry, of being afraid, if thinking of could-have-beens and come-what-mays. Yes, Kara had lied. Lena had lied. They’d kept secrets and been stupid and and they’d hurt each other, but nothing in the world, no principles or closely held rules or petty anger would justify watching her suffer like this.

She was careful as she cupped Kara’s jaw, avoiding the injury, feeling a flash of rage at whoever had done this to her. (That his ass had been throughly kicked by an angry Kryptonian was irrelevant; her vengeance would not be forestalled.)

The kiss was quiet and gentle, at once too soft and quick, more request than declaration, and Kara swiftly answered with one so fierce and honest and hopeful that Lena didn’t care that Kara’s mouth tasted like whiskey and wine.

When it was over, Lena found herself whispering, “As you wish.”

#supercorp #supergirl fanfiction #supergirl #supercorp fanfic #lena luthor #kara danvers #kara x lena #karlena #supergirl fanfic #ficlet #literally made myself cry #angst #angst with a happy ending #happy angst #“hangst as it were #Kryptonians can purr #not canon compliant

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banannabethchase · 1 year

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Adam has a run in with someone from his past, and forgets something very important.

Warnings for: underage drinking, Hangst (Hangman Angst tm tm tm), and a lot of misery on the parts of all our boys.

Mini Playlist: Passion for Publication - Anarbor My Own Medicine - The Summer Set Push - Marianas Trench Heart to Break - Kim Petras

Matt Jackson is staring daggers.

“Um,” Adam says, trying to force the bile back down his throat. “That’s my locker.”

“I know it’s your locker,” Matt practically spits. “That’s why I’m here.”

Adam feels himself shrink away from the gaze.

“I want to know what you’re doing,” Matt says. “If you’ve got some plan here or something.”

“Plan – what do you even mean?” Adam sighs. “Look, can I just get my stuff? I don’t want any problems here, Matt. Just let me live.”

Matt steps to the side, but he doesn’t leave. He just keeps looking at Adam, for some god forsaken reason. As Adam grabs his Chemistry book, Matt makes a weird, frustrated noise. “Why are you hanging out with Moxley?” Matt asks. It’s harsh, but there’s something in it. It makes Adam look up at him. Those big, brown eyes look hurt.

“He’s – we’re – he’s my boyfriend,” Adam says. He shuts his locker, a little too hard, and turns. He wants to make his stare make Matt feel just as awful as Matt’s makes him feel. “Why do you even care?”

“Because you’re killing Kenny and it’s wrong!” Matt yells.

Adam glances around, but the hallway is moving along like his world isn’t screeching to a halt. “Why the hell does Kenny care?”

Matt comes at him, too close for Adam to be able to breathe right. “Because he still loves you.”

Adam stumbles backward. “He what?”

“You knew that,” Matt says, sounding almost more like he’s trying to convince himself. “He’s miserable, Adam, and you’re just showing off your new toy like it’s nothing.”

“He broke up with me!” Adam yells. “Why the hell does he get to be upset?”

Matt blinks. “What?”

Adam searches his face for some sort of answer. “Kenny dumped me,” Adam continues. “Told me he didn’t associate with losers, and said we were done.”

“No,” Matt says, shaking his head. “He. He told me…” He trails off, meeting Adam’s eyes. “I gotta go.”

“You – really?” Adam asks, but Matt’s already darting off, running in the opposite direction. Adam steps to his locker to find himself shaking as he tries to pull his phone out of his pocket. He wants to text Mox, maybe Anna. Somebody who can get his head on straight.

“That seemed messy,” comes a voice.

Adam looks up, and there’s Sammy…Guevara? He isn’t sure. He’s never associated much with people on the football team. “I really don’t want to do this right now.”

“Nah, man, it’s cool.” Sammy claps him on the shoulder. “Those soccer kids are dicks, aren’t they. You glad to be away from them?”

Adam can’t help himself from glancing over to the doorway Matt disappeared into. “Uh. Yeah. I guess.”

Sammy eyes him. “You good?”

“No, actually,” Adam says, trying to do his breathing. Four, seven, eight. Four, seven, eight.

Adam doesn’t like the way Sammy studies him, sizes him up, stares into him. “You need something to take the edge off?” he asks.

“Not at school, I don’t,” Adam scoffs, wishing he were at home with a couple cans of beer and his cozy bed.

“You doing anything tonight?” Sammy asks.

Adam shakes his head. “Uh. No.” Mox and Eddie have a match, and he still hasn’t gathered the courage to go watch, doesn’t know what he’d do with himself. He doesn’t even realize he’s about to fall deeper into a habit when he says, “No, I’m not.”

He reflects on that conversation hours later, while he’s in the former football captain’s frat house, surrounded by varying levels of debauchery and chaos. He won’t even consider going into the kitchen, where the older college students are doing various unspeakable things to themselves and each other. He realizes, draining his glass of jungle juice, that it’s not the kind of debauchery and chaos he’d come to love from Mox and Eddie.

“Page, you made it!” Sammy says, clapping him on the shoulder. “You having a good time?” He clacks his plastic cup against Adam’s and the alcoholic sludge splashes all over both of them. “Oops.”

“Uh, yeah,” Adam says, nodding a little absently.

“Wanna chug with me?” Sammy asks. He’s really close to Adam. It makes him feel a little queasy. “Come on, the first glass always sucks. Chris says it gets better the more you drink.”

With a shrug, Adam throws back the concoction and does his best not to gag, swallowing it with only a bit of a fight from his stomach. “That is so gross.”

“That’s how you know it works,” Sammy says with a wink. “Come on. Let me introduce you to people.”

Sammy introduces Adam as “The Big Bitch” from the soccer team to everybody, and Adam hates it enough that he drinks another cup of sludge about it. He loses track of names and faces, getting shuffled around to more people than he’s even met in his life, let alone in one night.

“Yeah, you should’a seen it!” Chris Jericho says, clapping Adam on the back so hard he stumbles. “This guy here runs so fast for a tall guy. Slide tackles like a motherfucker.”

“I didn’t slide tackle!” Adam says, horrified. “That’s against the rules.”

“So’s drinking underage, but you don’t see me judging you for it.” Chris is smiling when he says it, but it makes Adam want to throw up. He throws back his drink again, and things go blurry.

Adam finds himself, cup in hand, sitting at a table with his head spinning. He sits up, a little confused, and looks around.

“He’s awake!” Chris says. “Hey, you know Moxley, right?”

Mox. His Mox. “Yeah! Is he coming?”

“Why don’t you invite him?” There’s something strange in Chris’ voice. It doesn’t – he doesn’t sound very nice right now. Adam can’t quite understand it. “We used to hang with him, ‘til he got all boring.” His smile bites Adam, somehow. “You gonna make him fun again, Big Guy?”

Adam doesn’t want to do anything Chris recommends, but he does want Mox. Mox might help him understand what’s going on here. “’m gonna call him,” Adam says. His mouth feels like it’s full of dust. “I miss him.”

Chris laughs like needles into skin, throwing his head back. “Have fun with that.”

Adam pulls his phone out and pulls up Mox’s phone number, calling.

“Hey, Cowboy – whoa, where are you? I can barely hear you.”

“Mox!” Adam says. He already feels better. “Hi, Mox!”

“Where are you?” Mox’s voice asks.

“I’m at a frat house,” Adam says. “At a party.” He frowns, knowing Mox can’t see him. “It’s a party, but I’m not having fun.”

There’s a pause on the end of the line. “A frat house?”

Adam nods, then realizes there’s no way Mox can see it. “Yeah and I miss you.” He grins. “You could come to the party, too! We can hang out!”

“Give me the address.” Mox’s voice sounds different than Adam is used to hearing. Gruff. He has the strangest feeling he’s forgetting something.

Adam texts Mox the address. “I’ll see you soon?”

“Yeah,” Mox says, and his voice sounds even stranger now. Maybe it’s just the phone. “I’ll be there soon.”

Adam loses track of time and tries to have fun, but he can’t. He just wants to be close to Mox again, and he feels like time is making fun of him for how long it takes.

When he hears that voice, his Mox’s voice, he feels something inside him light up. He stands, and the room wobbles a little.

“Cowboy!” he hears Mox call across the house. He struggles to stand, but stumbles back onto the chair. “Where are ya? I ain’t waiting all night?”

“Here!” Adam says, and he stumbles again, falling back into the chair in a clump. “Uh. In the living room.”

Mox comes over, and is face is wrong. Adam thinks he sees a frown. “Adam?”

“Hi, babe, glad you made it!” He holds up his glass. “Cheers!”

Mox blinks. “Um. What is that?”

Adam shrugs. “Think it’s – think it’s vodka? I dunno. I think Sammy gave it to me. Or maybe Chris. He’s throwing this party.”

“I know,” Mox says, and he’s not touching Adam. Why’s he not touching Adam? “Are you, like…are you good?” He frowns. “I thought you – I thought maybe you needed help or something.”

“I’m totally good,” Adam says, but the word is interrupted with a hiccup.

Mox’s eyes dart around the room. Good. He’ll see that Adam definitely isn’t the drunkest one here. He’ll know this is normal. “Why’re you even here, Adam?”

“It’s a party!” Adam replies, throwing his hands in the air. The drink only splashes on him a little bit, on his sleeve. “See?” He points. “Those guys were on the football team, couple years ago.” Adam points to Chris. “It’s Chris Jericho, you know that?”

“Oh, I know him,” Mox says. He looks angry. “Wish I didn’t.”

Adam nods. “Yeah! And, like, they invited me at school, today. I figured, hey, why not?” He leans in and begins to whisper conspiratorially. “They always said they liked me better than Kenny and Matt and – and Nick.”

“Do you want them to like you?” Mox asks in disbelief. He gestures to the room.

Sammy and Tay are on the couch, making out, which Adam doesn’t think is so bad until he realizes they’re squishing up against two girls who clearly don’t want to be there. Chris is chugging from a funnel in a shirt that says, “Fuck Everybody,” and the funnel’s held by Jake, who Adam, legitimately, has never heard say a word about anything other than Chris Jericho or his hat. Two other guys, who Adam knows vaguely from school but isn’t aware of their names, are shouting at a couple of people about how much they love their son. He’s not positive, but he thinks they’re making some sort of joke.

“It’s a college party,” Adam says, trying to feel worldly, like he understands what’s going on. “Come on, Mox. It’s fun.”

Chris looks over at them. Adam’s about to wave him over, when something strange happens. Chris points to Mox and Adam, then throws his head back, laughing. Adam feels something twist in his chest, something sour like shame.

“You remember I don’t drink, right?” Mox says. He sounds strained. It’s weird. “Why’d you even – why did you want me to come here?”

“To see you!” Adam says. “I always wanna see you. You’re,” he hiccups again, “you’re my favorite, of everybody.”

Mox looks confused and uncomfortable and. And wrong. Something’s wrong. “Adam,” a voice that’s not quite Mox’s says, “I can’t do this. I can’t…I can’t be here.”

“Why not?” Adam asks, standing up and walking toward Mox. He trips over his feet, half stumbles into him.

“Sit down,” Mox says. “Adam, you realize Daniel is over there doing lines off of Chris’ stomach, right?”

Adam looks over. “Yeah! You like cocaine! You like to go to the library and take a cocaine and read!”

“I used to do that,” Mox hisses. “I stopped doing it because it was fucking me up.” He points to the room. “All of this was fucking me up!”

Adam frowns. “I didn’t know they were part of it. Did you do parties like these?” He runs the words through his mind again. Nothing’s coming out right. “Did you have party time – like here?”

“Yes!” Mox says. “With these people. I don’t drink because of shit like this!” He runs his hands over his head, begins pacing. “We talked about this, Adam, I – I promised Eddie I was done with all of this.” He rubs his hand against his jaw. “I don’t want to have to walk away,” His voice is small, his face broken. He looks nothing more than his seventeen years, young for the first time Adam’s been able to see him.

Adam does his best to steady, himself, but he sways when he stands. “I’m fine,” he slurs, and he’s doing what he can, he is, but he’s never had this much vodka at once and it’s making his head feel like slime. “You don’t gotta walk away.”

Mox starts walking backwards away from him, and it fills Adam with a cold dread. This is wrong. Something is so wrong. “Wait, where are you going?”

“I don’t want to be here,” Mox says, and he’s shaking his head. He looks wrong.

“But I – I thought you want to be with me,” Adam says. He can’t move. “I thought you wanted me.”

Mox wipes at his cheek. His eyes are shiny. “I want everything about you,” he says, and it’s so quiet that Adam can barely hear it over the music. “But I don’t want any of this.”

Adam doesn’t know how long it is before Mox – his Jon – leaves, and he’s confused. He’s so confused.

“Hey, saw that Killjoy left,” somebody says, clapping Adam’s shoulder. “Whoa, dude, are you crying?” Daniel Garcia pokes at his face. “Want to do a line of blow? That always makes me feel better when me and my boyfriend are fighting.”

Adam blinks, and Daniel is right, his face is wet. “I don’t – I wanna go home.”

“Party pooper,” Daniel says, and it’s weird to Adam that a freshman is so cool with all of this.

It’s weird, he realizes, that he would be cool with this.

Adam grabs his jacket, checks for his phone and wallet in his pockets, and stumbles out the front door. Nearly sobbing with relief, he fumbles his way down the porch steps without saying goodbye. He wants to find Jon. He wants to find his Mox. He also wants to stop crying.

“My Moxie,” he mumbles, tripping over uneven concrete, vision blurry, “Eddie’s gotta share the name.”

He follows the ice-damaged road until he hits the turn, and he sees somebody at the end on a bike, walking it over the stretch of potholes Adam remembers his truck bouncing on. Adam doesn’t call out to him. He doesn’t say anything. It’s not fair to ask this of Mox.

And then he’s the one who catches on a pothole, and goes down with a yell so loud he’s pretty sure it echoed.

The person on the bike stops, looks behind them, then makes their way toward him, calling, “Are you okay?”

Adam doesn’t respond. He doesn’t move. He doesn’t want to make Mox cry again. He’ll be okay. He wants Mox to get home safe.

“Adam?” Mox asks, dropping his bike and rushing to him. Adam dimly notes that Mox doesn’t trip on any of the potholes, and he’s a little bit envious. “What the fuck are you doing?”

“I had to leave,” Adam mumbles, and he feels a little like he’s choking. He touches his face – the crying is probably doing that. “You weren’t happy I was there. I was doing – I wasn’t being who I need to be. Not for you. Had to go.”

“By yourself?!” Mox grabs him by the armpits and hauls him up, and Adam is mildly proud of himself for being able to stand. “Adam, you could have gotten hurt!” He looks down. “Fuck. You did get hurt.”

“M okay,” Adam says.

“No,” Mox says, “you’ve got blood all on your pants.”

Adam looks down and, yeah, Mox is right. His favorite jeans have a massive tear and a bloodstain. “Oh.”

“We’ll walk to the end of the road,” Mox says. He grabs Adam’s hand. It feels like a lifeline. “When we get to a normal, paved road again, you’ll get on my handlebars, if you can stay there.”

“Going home?” Adam asks, blinking slowly.

Mox nods, one hand on Adam and the other on the bike. “We’re going back your house. Get you settled in.”

“Parents are gone,” Adam mumbles. “Did so good last time they gone they took a weekend trip.”

Mox grumbles something like, “Can’t leave your dumb ass alone.”

Adam manages to stay balanced all the way home, doesn’t fall over back onto Mox more than once, and they reach Adam’s house. Adam doesn’t even almost throw up. Though he does want to, at one point. He pulls his key out from the necklace under his shirt. “Key.”

“Give me that,” Mox says, and he grabs it from Adam and shoves it in the lock. “Come on, Cowboy, let’s get you cleaned up.”

Mox does a fantastic job, even helping Adam gently work his jeans down so it’s easier to take care of the bloody mess that used to be his knee. Adam barely feels anything but shame as Mox meticulously cleans the scrape. He watches with a detached interest as the hydrogen peroxide bubbles and fizzes.

Mox looks up at him, big blue eyes kind but tired. “You scared the shit out of me tonight.”

Adam nods, but the motion makes his stomach do something funny. Mox leans to the side. “You gotta throw up?”

Adam shakes his head. “I’m okay.”

“Don’t –“ He stops himself. “Baby, you are so far from okay.”

Adam shrugs. He could have told Moxley that. They’re silent for a while, Mox checking Adam’s leg for any further injury.

“You fix up Eddie’s scratches after matches?” Adam asks.

“Yeah,” Mox says. “All of us wrestlers, we gotta take care of ourselves, you know?” He looks up at Adam again. “Are you okay if I stay over?”

Adam blinks. “Why do you want to?”

Mox’s face crumples, but he’s still, somehow, smiling. Adam’s pretty sure he’s still too drunk to understand what’s happening. “God, you beautiful idiot,” he sighs. “Because I think I love you, and you left the party for me, and I’m worried you’ll bleed out or choke on your vomit if you stay here alone, okay?”

Adam loses his grip on the side of the bathtub and almost slides in. “You love me?”

“Kinda wish I didn’t, right now,” Mox says, sitting next to Adam, “but, yeah. You reckless dumbass. I love you. It’s why I had to walk away earlier.” He turns to Adam, those blue eyes honest and kind and…and all Mox.

“I’m sorry,” Adam says, voice as small as he feels. “I forgot – I forgot that part.” He kicks at the trash can.

“Water under the bridge,” Mox says, resting his hand on top of Adam’s leg. “You left. That means something.”

“You mean something,” Adam says, and he stops. That’s not what he meant. “I mean, to me. And I did a bad job of showing you that today.” He grabs at Mox’s face and turns it to his own. “Mox. I love you, too.” He tries to remember how eye contact works. “I’m so bad at it and I want you to know I am going to try better – do better. I want you to know I love you right.”

Mox laughs. “I know,” he says, and leans in, pressing a gentle kiss to Adam’s lips. “I want you to take a shower.”

Adam wiggles his eyebrows. “Try’na get me outta my pants?”

“You’re already out of your pants, dumbass,” Mox says. “But, no. It’ll help you sober up. You don’t want to go to bed hammered.”

“Done it before,” Adam says, shrugging. “But beer’s different?”

Mox studies him. “You – you’ve been drunk before?”

Adam nods, and a voice in the back of his head tells him to stop. He ignores it. “Drink some beers in the shower sometimes. ‘sno big deal.”

“Hey,” Mox says, “we’re gonna talk about this in the morning. You don’t need to talk about it now, okay? We’re gonna get you cleaned up a little more and then go to bed.”

Adam nods, and, later, when he feels clean and soft and warm, he curls against Mox in the bed, and wishes this could last forever.

“Rise and shine, fuckhead.”

Adam wants to die. Just a little bit. “Why?”

“Gotta make sure you feel the hangover,” Mox says, and he sounds way too happy about it. “Vodka’s a bitch, baby.”

“So are you,” Adam grumbles, rolling over. “Let me sleep.”

“Later,” Mox says. “Drink the Gatorade.”

Adam blindly reaches out for it, and wraps his hand around a glass. “Thanks.” He sips slowly, and, to be fair, it does make his mouth feel better. “You mad at me?”

“A little,” Mox says, and Adam appreciates the honest. “You were pretty fucked up last night.”

Adam feels his face burn red. “Yeah. I – yeah. I really am sorry.” He forces himself to look at Mox. “You were amazing last night. I didn’t deserve it.” He fidgets with the Gatorade label. “You shouldn’t have wasted your time on me.”

“You don’t get to decide that,” Mox says. “I chose to help you, because you’re cute and funny and, most of the time, you take care of me the way I need it.” He smiles, but it quickly fades. “But last night you were kind of scary and I almost was ready to end it. So we need to talk about this.”

Adam forces himself not to squirm. He doesn’t want to talk about it. “Okay,” he says, against every instinct in his body.

“I told you last night, I love you,” Mox says, putting a hand on Adam’s where it rests on top of the blanket, “but I’m not willing to self-destruct for anybody else. I’ve tried that before.”

“Me too,” Adam says, with a sigh. “So – are you…” He swallows, taking a deep breath. “Are you breaking up with me?”

Mox startles. “What? No. I mean, not unless you aren’t willing to work on this.” He laces his fingers with Adam’s. “I said I’m not willing to self-destruct. That means I’m not going to be around somebody who’s going to party and drink all the time,” he stares Adam straight in the eye, “even if I love them. So I need you to – and I hate the way I have to say this – decide. Do you want to keep partying, or do you want to keep this up?” He won’t look at Adam now, his eyes down at their intertwined fingers. “I’m not going to beg you either way. I want you to decide for yourself.”

“You,” Adam says, immediately. “I – you, obviously. Come on.”

Mox raises an eyebrow. “That was fast.”

Adam shrugs. “If I’m being honest, I don’t exactly like the parties or anything.”

“What about those shower beers you mentioned last night?”

Adam gets hot all over, throws off the comforter, leans his back up against the wall. It makes his head pound, but he needs some space right now, from the world and from Mox. “I forgot I told you about that.”

“But ya did,” Mox says, patting his thigh. “And that’s part of it. You know that’s, like, a terrible coping mechanism, right? It’s called a maladaptive behavior.”

Adam raises an eyebrow. “Not to be a dick, but is that something you learned on one of your cocaine fueled library escapades?”

“No,” Mox says, “that was afterwards, when I was in Psychology class last year. But, seriously, if you’re having issues, talk to your parents. Or to me. Or, hell, your guidance counselor.”

“Not my guidance counselor,” Adam insists, “I have Ms. Green.”

Mox wrinkles his nose. “Okay, not Green. But Mr. Pham or somebody.”

Adam considers it, and nods, almost automatically. “I know.”

Mox stares him down. “And if you do it again, and I find out, I’m telling your parents.”

“What?!”

“Jennifer loves me, what can I say?”

Adam falls back against the pillows, ignoring the headache. “Please don’t call my mom by her first name.”

“Oh, can I call Paul by his?”

“No!”

Head screaming, Adam grabs his dad’s old bike from the garage and he and Mox ride to pick up his car from Chris’ house. They manage to get in and out without consequence – it seems like the entire place is asleep.

“How early is it?” Adam grumbles. He pulls his phone from his pocket and glances down. “Oh. You woke me up at, like, seven on a Saturday morning.”

Mox shrugs. “I told you. I needed to make sure you felt the hangover.”

“I could leave you here to bike home,” Adam says, threat empty. “I could take off.”

Mox throws his bike up into the bed of the truck, then Adam’s. Like it’s nothing. Adam gets a little hot about it. Mox looks up at him grinning. “I really don’t think you could.”

#HangMox #Wrestling High School AU #in which Sara writes #wtf i like wrestling now???#SO MANY TAGS goddamnit #Hangman Adam Page #Jon Moxley #I'm tired

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reportwire · 1 year

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Argentina Survives the Netherlands’ Comeback to Keep Messi’s World Cup Alive

Lautaro Martínez scored Argentina’s winning kick in their penalty shootout against the Netherlands on Friday.Credit…Matthias Hangst/Getty Images LUSAIL, Qatar — Argentina almost did it the easy way. For a while, Lionel Messi and his teammates were coasting. They had a two-goal lead against the Netherlands, and just a few minutes to see out. They were comfortable. And then, all of a sudden, they…

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spaceexp · 4 years

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ALPHA collaboration at CERN reports first measurements of certain quantum effects in antimatter

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo. Feb. 24, 2020 The measurements are consistent with predictions for “normal” matter and pave the way for future precision studies

The ALPHA experiment in the Antiproton Decelerator hall at CERN. (Image: CERN)

The ALPHA collaboration at CERN has reported the first measurements of certain quantum effects in the energy structure of antihydrogen, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen. These quantum effects are known to exist in matter, and studying them could reveal as yet unobserved differences between the behaviour of matter and antimatter. The results, described in a paper published today in the journal Nature, show that these first measurements are consistent with theoretical predictions of the effects in “normal” hydrogen, and pave the way for more precise measurements of these and other fundamental quantities. “Finding any difference between these two forms of matter would shake the foundations of the Standard Model of particle physics, and these new measurements probe aspects of antimatter interaction – such as the Lamb shift – that we have long looked forward to addressing,” says Jeffrey Hangst, spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment. “Next on our list is chilling large samples of antihydrogen using state-of-the-art laser cooling techniques. These techniques will transform antimatter studies and will allow unprecedentedly high-precision comparisons between matter and antimatter.” The ALPHA team creates antihydrogen atoms by binding antiprotons delivered by CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator with antielectrons, more commonly called “positrons”. It then confines them in a magnetic trap in an ultra-high vacuum, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Laser light is then shone onto the trapped atoms to measure their spectral response. This technique helps measure known quantum effects like the so-called fine structure and the Lamb shift, which correspond to tiny splittings in certain energy levels of the atom, and were measured in this study in the antihydrogen atom for the first time. The team previously used this approach to measure other quantum effects in antihydrogen, the latest being a measurement of the Lyman-alpha transition. The fine structure was measured in atomic hydrogen more than a century ago, and laid the foundation for the introduction of a fundamental constant of nature that describes the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles. The Lamb shift was discovered in the same system about 70 years ago and was a key element in the development of quantum electrodynamics, the theory of how matter and light interact. The Lamb-shift measurement, which won Willis Lamb the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955, was reported in 1947 at the famous Shelter Island conference – the first important opportunity for leaders of the American physics community to gather after the war. Technical Note: Both the fine structure and the Lamb shift are small splittings in certain energy levels (or spectral lines) of an atom, which can be studied with spectroscopy. The fine-structure splitting of the second energy level of hydrogen is a separation between the so-called 2P3/2 and 2P1/2 levels in the absence of a magnetic field. The splitting is caused by the interaction between the velocity of the atom’s electron and its intrinsic (quantum) rotation. The “classic” Lamb shift is the splitting between the 2S1/2 and 2P1/2 levels, also in the absence of a magnetic field. It is the result of the effect on the electron of quantum fluctuations associated with virtual photons popping in and out of existence in a vacuum. In their new study, the ALPHA team determined the fine-structure splitting and the Lamb shift by inducing and studying transitions between the lowest energy level of antihydrogen and the 2P3/2 and 2P1/2 levels in the presence of a magnetic field of 1 Tesla. Using the value of the frequency of a transition that they had previously measured, the 1S–2S transition, and assuming that certain quantum interactions were valid for antihydrogen, the researchers inferred from their results the values of the fine-structure splitting and the Lamb shift. They found that the inferred values are consistent with theoretical predictions of the splittings in “normal” hydrogen, within the experimental uncertainty of 2% for the fine-structure splitting and of 11% for the Lamb shift. Note: CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature. The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions. Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 23 Member States. Related links: Nature: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2006-5 Standard Model of particle physics: https://home.cern/about/physics/standard-model ALPHA: https://home.cern/science/experiments/alpha CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator: https://home.cern/science/accelerators/antiproton-decelerator Measurement of the Lyman-alpha transition: https://home.cern/news/news/physics/alpha-experiment-takes-antimatter-new-level For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/ Image (mentioned), text, Credit: CERN. Greetings, Orbiter.ch Full article

#space #science

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sciencespies · 4 years

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ALPHA collaboration reports first measurements of certain quantum effects in antimatter

https://sciencespies.com/physics/alpha-collaboration-reports-first-measurements-of-certain-quantum-effects-in-antimatter/

ALPHA collaboration reports first measurements of certain quantum effects in antimatter

Credit: CC0 Public Domain

“Finding any difference between these two forms of matter would shake the foundations of the Standard Model of particle physics, and these new measurements probe aspects of antimatter interaction—such as the Lamb shift—that we have long looked forward to addressing,” says Jeffrey Hangst, spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment.

“Next on our list is chilling large samples of antihydrogen using state-of-the-art laser cooling techniques. These techniques will transform antimatter studies and will allow unprecedentedly high-precision comparisons between matter and antimatter.”

The ALPHA team creates antihydrogen atoms by binding antiprotons delivered by CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator with antielectrons, more commonly called “positrons.” It then confines them in a magnetic trap in an ultra-high vacuum, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Laser light is then shone onto the trapped atoms to measure their spectral response. This technique helps measure known quantum effects like the so-called fine structure and the Lamb shift, which correspond to tiny splittings in certain energy levels of the atom, and were measured in this study in the antihydrogen atom for the first time. The team previously used this approach to measure other quantum effects in antihydrogen, the latest being a measurement of the Lyman-alpha transition.

The fine structure was measured in atomic hydrogen more than a century ago, and laid the foundation for the introduction of a fundamental constant of nature that describes the strength of the electromagnetic interaction between elementary charged particles. The Lamb shift was discovered in the same system about 70 years ago and was a key element in the development of quantum electrodynamics, the theory of how matter and light interact.

The Lamb-shift measurement, which won Willis Lamb the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1955, was reported in 1947 at the famous Shelter Island conference—the first important opportunity for leaders of the American physics community to gather after the war.

Technical Note

Both the fine structure and the Lamb shift are small splittings in certain energy levels (or spectral lines) of an atom, which can be studied with spectroscopy. The fine-structure splitting of the second energy level of hydrogen is a separation between the so-called 2P3/2 and 2P1/2 levels in the absence of a magnetic field. The splitting is caused by the interaction between the velocity of the atom’s electron and its intrinsic (quantum) rotation. The “classic” Lamb shift is the splitting between the 2S1/2 and 2P1/2 levels, also in the absence of a magnetic field. It is the result of the effect on the electron of quantum fluctuations associated with virtual photons popping in and out of existence in a vacuum.

In their new study, the ALPHA team determined the fine-structure splitting and the Lamb shift by inducing and studying transitions between the lowest energy level of antihydrogen and the 2P3/2 and 2P1/2 levels in the presence of a magnetic field of 1 Tesla. Using the value of the frequency of a transition that they had previously measured, the 1S–2S transition, and assuming that certain quantum interactions were valid for antihydrogen, the researchers inferred from their results the values of the fine-structure splitting and the Lamb shift. They found that the inferred values are consistent with theoretical predictions of the splittings in “normal” hydrogen, within the experimental uncertainty of 2% for the fine-structure splitting and of 11% for the Lamb shift.

Explore further

New results show that matter and antimatter interact with light in precisely the same way

More information: undefined undefined. Investigation of the fine structure of antihydrogen, Nature (2020). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-2006-5

Provided by CERN

Citation: ALPHA collaboration reports first measurements of certain quantum effects in antimatter (2020, February 20) retrieved 20 February 2020 from https://phys.org/news/2020-02-alpha-collaboration-quantum-effects-antimatter.html

This document is subject to copyright. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study or research, no part may be reproduced without the written permission. The content is provided for information purposes only.

#Physics

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junker-town · 6 years

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Hue Jackson’s astoundingly bad tenure with the Browns will never be topped

Jackson’s time as head coach for the Browns is the worst ever and that’s something worth remembering.

The NFL is designed to make bad teams good and vice versa. Eventually, enough draft picks at the top of the order and enough cap space spent will turn around a franchise, and the lack of incoming resources will tear down the best dynasties. At least, that’s the idea. It doesn’t always work out that way.

There’s the New England Patriots, who continue to crank out Super Bowl runs, despite not picking in the top half of the first round once in the last 10 years. And then there’s the Cleveland Browns, who have defied the odds with 10 consecutive losing seasons.

Now at 2-5-1, they’re three more losses away from making it 11 in a row. It’s not the worst prolonged funk in NFL history, but it’s up there. The only team in the last 40 years to have a longer stretch of losing seasons was the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, who had a 14-year streak below .500 between 1983 and 1996.

So Cleveland’s sorrows certainly predate Hue Jackson’s arrival in 2016. But boy did he do an astoundingly bad job, even by Browns standards. Three straight losses to finish October — capped with a 33-18 loss to the Steelers — tied a bow on his brutal tenure and sent him packing.

He finished with a 3-36-1 record that was so awful that it’d be the worst 40-game stretch for a coach in NFL history even if he doubled his win total.

.@Browns fired head coach Hue Jackson after a 3-36-1 record. Jackson had the worst record in a 40-game span by a head coach in the Super Bowl era. pic.twitter.com/pDIefueW7j

— NFL Research (@NFLResearch) October 29, 2018

Mostly thanks to the 8-8 record he put up in his one season as head coach of the Oakland Raiders, Jackson has a .205 career win percentage. That ranks 178th out of the 179 who were head coach for at least 50 NFL games.

He’s ahead of only former NFL commissioner Bert Bell, who put together a 10–46–2 record with the Eagles and Steelers. Bell was also a team owner and chose not to fire himself.

Now Jackson’s gone, and Cleveland will probably improve just because there’s really nowhere to go but up, even though interim coach Gregg Williams is a mess in his own right. But let’s give Jackson the “One Shining Moment” treatment anyway and look back on a tenure so terrible it’s actually hard to believe.

Inevitability: 9.5

There was a fair share of pessimism when Jackson was hired in 2016 because of the Browns’ long track record of calamity. But Jackson’s decent run with the Raiders and relatively strong seasons as the Bengals’ offensive coordinator gave Browns fans reason to see the glass as half full.

That disappeared with one win in his first two seasons. After Jackson was somehow given a third season at the helm, everyone knew 2018 wasn’t going to magically turn him into NFL Coach of the Year. And if you weren’t already convinced it was going to be a bad year, the Browns’ appearance on HBO’s Hard Knocks pretty much sealed the deal.

In the first episode of the season, Jackson was already butting heads with new offensive coordinator Todd Haley, who was begging Jackson to make practices tougher:

Never forget the moment everyone realized Hue/Haley wouldn't work out...the first episode of Hard Knocks pic.twitter.com/GiVkFYQo28

— NFL Insider JKutz34 (@JKutz34) October 29, 2018

In the second episode, Browns quarterback Tyrod Taylor was coaching up Jackson on how to hold players accountable:

My favorite part of Hard Knocks this year was when Tyrod Taylor was teaching Hue Jackson how to coach pic.twitter.com/BKtHxPPugF

— Adam Stites (@AdamStites_) October 29, 2018

The obvious red flags that HBO’s cameras picked up in training camp carried into the regular season. Haley just flat out stopped caring what Jackson said.

Rapoport says Todd wasn't listening to Hue at all, just doing whatever he wanted.

— Andrea Hangst (@FBALL_Andrea) October 29, 2018

Jackson tried his best to throw Haley under the bus, but there was no winner of that slap fight. Both Jackson and Haley were fired by the Browns after Week 8.

So yeah, things didn’t work out. Shocker.

Hilarity: 2.3

If you’re going to be a clown show, at least be the smiling clown who does balloon animals and juggles. Nobody wants to see that horrible crying clown that mopes around with a painted-on frown.

Good football is fun to watch and so is the opposite. My favorite football moment of recent memory was Louisiana Tech’s 87-yard fumble that can only be properly appreciated when set to “Yakety Sax.” But the Jackson era in Cleveland didn’t even given us laughs. It was all just sad.

Interceptions are often funny, but when DeShone Kizer threw 22 as a rookie — the most anyone has thrown in a season since 2013 — you really just felt like someone should give the poor guy a hug. Kizer didn’t ask for that mess, he was just tossed into the blender and predictably chopped to bits.

So far in 2018, the Browns’ season has just been a frustrating series of missed opportunities and bad luck. Baker Mayfield is a quarterback Cleveland can actually feel optimistic about, but his rookie season has been dragged down by a weak receiving corps that’s not doing him any favors. There’s also the fact that officials have seemed to save their worst calls for Browns games this year.

The Browns’ 2-2-1 start to the year almost inspired hope that they were turning a corner. But the team has regressed and it’s back to being depressing.

The best thing about the Browns lately has been offensive line coach Bob Wylie:

The gut moving in synchronization with the snap count. This is art. pic.twitter.com/VxxPvNZdnt

— Joe Dolan (@FG_Dolan) August 22, 2018

But on the field? No, just look away.

Legacy: 9.9

Weird things happen in the NFL and it’s usually not wise to rule out anything. But I’m going to go ahead and say there’s no way we’ll ever see a worse tenure statistically than Jackson’s 3-36-1 run.

There have only been two 0-16 seasons in NFL history. Jackson had one a year after he started his tenure with a 1-15 season and he STILL kept his job. The utter lack of talent explained away his slow start, but the Browns should probably be good by now. Browns owner Jimmy Haslam tried his best to give Jackson a chance to turn things around and even had to be convinced by new general manager John Dorsey to fire the coach:

Detail on #Browns: Owner Jimmy Haslam was conflicted over blowing up another coach mid-season. Late last night he was leaning toward staying course. But Haslam spoke to GM John Dorsey, who said the Hue/Haley dynamic couldn’t continue. Some decision had to be made for the team.

— Charles Robinson (@CharlesRobinson) October 29, 2018

Reminder: the only coach who had a lower win percentage kept his job because he literally couldn’t be fired. And Jackson would’ve had half the win percentage had he not had a .500 season with the Raiders.

That’s not going to happen again. No way.

Jackson’s tenure with the Browns is the worst ever and it’s not particularly close. Nobody’s going to touch that and — even if it wasn’t particularly fun to watch — we can all say we lived through it. So thanks for that, Hue, I guess.

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universitybookstore · 7 years

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GOOD FRIDAY

(Riding Westward.) Let man's soule be a spheare, and then in this The intelligence that moves devotion is; And as the other spheares by being growne Subject to forraigne motion lose their owne, And being by others hurried every day, Scarce in a yeare their naturall forme obey : Pleasure or businesse, so our soules admit For their first mover, and are whirled by it. Hence is't that I am carryed toward the West This day, when my soule's forme leads toward the East. There I should see a Sunne by rising set, And by that setting endlesse day beget. But that Christ on this Crosse did rise and fall, Sinne had eternally benighted all. Yet dare I almost be glad I do not see The spectacle of too much weight for mee. Who sees God's face, that is selfe life, must dye; What a death were it then to see God dye! It made his own lieutenant Nature shrinke, It made his footstoole crack, and the sunne winke. Could I behold those hands which span the poles And tune all spheares at once pierc'd with those holes ? Could I behold that endlesse height which is Zenith to us, and our antipodes Humbled below us? or that blood which is The seat of all our soules, if not of his, Made dust of dust ? or that flesh which was worne By God, for his apparell, rag'd and torne ? If on these things I durst not looke, durst I Upon his miserable mother cast mine eye, Who was God's partner here, and furnish'd thus Halfe of that Sacrifice which ransom'd us ? Though these things as I ride be from mine eye, They are present yet into my memory; For that looks towards them, and thou lookst towards mee, Saviour, as thou hangst upon the tree: I turne my backe to thee but to receive Corrections, till thy mercies bid thee leave. O thinke mee worth thine anger ; punish mee ; Burne off my rusts and my deformity ; Restore thine image so much by thy grace That thou may'st know mee, and I'll turne my face.

-- John Donne

#books #poem #poetry #john donne #good friday #faith #christianity #music of the spheres #national poetry month

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utteeemieliz-blog · 6 years

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Is noone gonna talk about how many queer coded Heith scenes there were??? BECUASE DAMN BITCH. I ATE GOOD THIS SEASON.

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ladyarse · 4 years

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Mauricio Pochettino advised to wait for better job than Arsenal

Mauricio ‘won nothing’ Pochettino is reportedly being advised, by his friends, against taking the Arsenal job because he should wait for a better one.

That’s right.

The mates of a man who said he’d rather work on his pig farm in Argentina than manage a club that has won more in the last six years, when they were rubbish, than he has managed his entire career, think he’s too good for Arsenal.

Sun…

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#Mauricio Pochettino

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mrlawrenceamick · 5 years

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‘Like a rash’: Keown raves about exceptional Liverpool player despite Barcelona loss

Martin Keown picked out Liverpool defender Andy Robertson for special credit, even after he ended up on the losing team against Barcelona.

The Reds were defeated 3-0 away to the La Liga club in the first leg of a Champions League semi-final.

Barcelona’s clinical touch in front of goal was the main difference between the teams, as Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi (two) scored the goals to hand them control of the tie.

Jurgen Klopp’s side had glorious chances to score some away goals, but just fell short and now host the Spanish club at Anfield with a huge mountain to climb.

Pundit Keown singled out Liverpool defender Robertson for his display and he showed no fear at the Camp Nou.

The 25-year-old left-back showed a tireless work-rate to join in with attacks and was one of the team’s most creative threats.

“I don’t think you’ll see a better left back than Andy Robertson this season. He was like a rash all over his opponents,” Keown told the Daily Mail.

(Photo by Matthias Hangst/Getty Images)

TBR’s View:

Robertson has to be regarded as one of the best left-backs around right now and he didn’t look out of place on the elite stage in midweek.

The Scottish full-back was one of Liverpool’s standout players and showed the kind of form he has had all season.

He’s provided 13 assists across all competitions this campaign to highlight his attacking threat, but beyond that his energy and work-rate makes him essential to Klopp’s team.

Robertson has turned out to be a colossal £8million (BBC Sport) bargain from Hull City and the Merseyside giants would surely make a crazy profit if they cashed in on him.

The post ‘Like a rash’: Keown raves about exceptional Liverpool player despite Barcelona loss appeared first on The Boot Room.

from The Boot Room http://bit.ly/2UU6nW5

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spaceexp · 6 years

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ALPHA experiment takes antimatter to a new level

CERN - European Organization for Nuclear Research logo. August 23, 2018 In a paper published today in the journal Nature, the ALPHA collaboration reports that it has literally taken antimatter to a new level. The researchers have observed the Lyman-alpha electronic transition in the antihydrogen atom, the antimatter counterpart of hydrogen, for the first time. The finding comes hot on the heels of recent measurements by the collaboration of another electronic transition, and demonstrates that ALPHA is quickly and steadily paving the way for precision experiments that could uncover as yet unseen differences between the behaviour of matter and antimatter.

Image above: Jeffrey Hangst, spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment, next to the experiment. (Image: Maximilien Brice, Julien Ordan/CERN). The Lyman-alpha (or 1S-2P) transition is one of several in the Lyman series of electronic transitions that were discovered in atomic hydrogen just over a century ago by physicist Theodore Lyman. The transition occurs when an electron jumps from the lowest-energy (1S) level to a higher-energy (2P) level and then falls back to the 1S level by emitting a photon at a wavelength of 121.6 nanometres. It is a special transition. In astronomy, it allows researchers to probe the state of the medium that lies between galaxies and test models of the cosmos. In antimatter studies, it could enable precision measurements of how antihydrogen responds to light and gravity. Finding any slight difference between the behaviour of antimatter and matter would rock the foundations of the Standard Model of particle physics and perhaps cast light on why the universe is made up almost entirely of matter, even though equal amounts of antimatter should have been produced in the Big Bang. The ALPHA team makes antihydrogen atoms by taking antiprotons from CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator (AD) and binding them with positrons from a sodium-22 source. It then confines the resulting antihydrogen atoms in a magnetic trap, which prevents them from coming into contact with matter and annihilating. Laser light is then shone onto the trapped atoms to measure their spectral response. The measurement involves using a range of laser frequencies and counting the number of atoms that drop out of the trap as a result of interactions between the laser and the trapped atoms. The ALPHA collaboration has previously employed this technique to measure the so-called 1S-2S transition. Using the same approach and a series of laser wavelengths around 121.6 nanometres, ALPHA has now detected the Lyman-alpha transition in antihydrogen and measured its frequency with a precision of a few parts in a hundred million, obtaining good agreement with the equivalent transition in hydrogen. This precision is not as high as that achieved in hydrogen, but the finding represents a pivotal technological step towards using the Lyman-alpha transition to chill large samples of antihydrogen using a technique known as laser cooling. Such samples would allow researchers to bring the precision of this and other measurements of antihydrogen to a level at which any differences between the behaviour of antihydrogen and hydrogen might emerge. “We are really excited about this result,” says Jeffrey Hangst, spokesperson for the ALPHA experiment. “The Lyman-alpha transition is notoriously difficult to probe – even in ‘normal’ hydrogen. But by exploiting our ability to trap and hold large numbers of antihydrogen atoms for several hours, and using a pulsed source of Lyman-alpha laser light, we were able to observe this transition. Next up is laser cooling, which will be a game-changer for precision spectroscopy and gravitational measurements.” Note: CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is one of the world’s largest and most respected centres for scientific research. Its business is fundamental physics, finding out what the Universe is made of and how it works. At CERN, the world’s largest and most complex scientific instruments are used to study the basic constituents of matter — the fundamental particles. By studying what happens when these particles collide, physicists learn about the laws of Nature. The instruments used at CERN are particle accelerators and detectors. Accelerators boost beams of particles to high energies before they are made to collide with each other or with stationary targets. Detectors observe and record the results of these collisions. Founded in 1954, the CERN Laboratory sits astride the Franco–Swiss border near Geneva. It was one of Europe’s first joint ventures and now has 22 Member States. Related links: Journal Nature: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0435-1 Standard Model of particle physics: https://home.cern/about/physics/standard-model CERN’s Antiproton Decelerator (AD): https://home.cern/about/accelerators/antiproton-decelerator ALPHA: http://alpha.web.cern.ch/ For more information about European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN), Visit: https://home.cern/ Image (mentioned), Text, Credits: CERN/Ana Lopes. Best regards, Orbiter.ch Full article

#space #science

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