#I sing the body electric

[mycherriesandwine222]

I sing the body electric baby

[inbabylontheywept]

Healing+Lightning=

Wizard Launcher

Avalahn was already halfway through the anti-lightning sigil when he realized that the hedge wizard's spell was continuing. Surprising. Dual element spells were rare enough amongst polished circle elves. For a backwood self-taught like the human in front of him, they were signs of a prodigy.

Still, it was hardly worth worrying about for someone with his centuries of experience. He simply relooped his hand instead of closing his fist, preparing himself to charge his sigil with a second element in turn.

Or, so he thought. His almost bored counterspelling was replaced by consternation.

The first spell he’d identified clearly enough. Aerothurgy of the third ring, a lightning blast designed to cripple warriors by overdrawing their muscles. Atypical for wizard duels, but perhaps the hedge wizard was trying to avoid lethal options. He would be disappointed if he expected the same courtesy from Avalahn himself.

But the second spell, he’d never seen used in a duel before. It was a biomancy spell, but far more intricate than the lightning spell. At least sixth ring. He’d seen something like it used to reattach severed tendons.

Why would he try to heal me, right after harming me?

The hedge wizard maintained focus as he traced the last symbols through the air, completing the cast. Avalahn closed his fist and finished his sigil, protected from the lightning part of the attack. If there was a look of trepidation on the hedge wizard’s face as he finished, Avalahn assumed it was fear from fighting a superior mage.

He assumed wrong.

There was a sound like the rigging of a ship tearing loose, like a mighty cord breaking under unimaginable strain. The hedge wizard howled in pain, but more important than that, he flew. Avalahn had no time to cast a physical barrier. He’d been prepared for lightning and thunder, not for the filthy half-feral man to cross the thirty foot gap between them in half a second. His brain was still trying to process how healing plus lightning resulted in a wizard launcher.

The wizard slammed into him at waist level, a dagger sharp shoulder aimed perfectly at his diaphragm. The sound he made as every fragment of air left his body was similar to the noise a rat would make while getting run over by an oxcart.

The two bounded down the road, a knot of limbs and robes. Avalahn may have been caught unprepared for the dive tackle, but he wasn't completely useless in a scrap. His reflexes were still top notch, and even when he couldn’t tell up from down, he could still cast a ward against blows.

The hedge wizard was definitely slower and smaller than Avalahn himself was, but if nothing else he was in his element. Avalahn managed to throw a few sharp elbows into his ribs, but when the scramble stopped the human was the one on top.

The sigil was not focused enough to full stop the first blow, but it softened it. His head still bounced back against the grass, but it was hardly the crushing blow that the hermit had clearly hoped for. The second blow was also warded, but still went hard enough to draw a trickle of blood from one nostril. He tracked the recoiled fist of the human wizard and was surprised to see a large rock clutched in its palm. He must’ve snatched it off the path some point during the tumble.

Clever little bastard.

He did have an ace of his own, a little trick built into every ward he cast. Wrapped in all of his defensive casts he always threw in an energy trap, a way to turn the enemy's strength against them.

Between the tumbling and the punches, the physical ward was practically shimmering with built up charge.

He released it with a snarl. The hedge had no time to react, one second he was trying to pummel Avalahn to death with a rock, the next he was physically thrown ten feet back. If he’d landed on his back, Avalahn would’ve had enough time to finish him off with an ice spear, but the stupid, grimy, wicked little beast landed on both feet and charged foward like a bull.

Centuries of knowledge, analyzed in fractions of a second. Spells, wards, sigils, none could be cast before the human crossed the gap.

Only one choice.

He swung a haymaker at the humans jaw. His mind worked faster than his arm could alter course and he watched in slow motion horror as the human twisted his head and ducked, taking the blow on the forehead instead of the chin.

Avalahn’s punch had more power than sense behind it, and decades of sedentary life had made him soft. He barely had time to wince at the boxer's fracture he gave himself before he felt the little man’s arms wrap around him, surprisingly from behind. He must’ve managed to slide under his leg.

As he reached down to break the vice grip that the human had, he realized that the humans fingers were twitching the same lightning spell that they had before. He’d been too busy fighting for his life to process what the hell that opening move was, but in that split second, he realized what was about to happen.

The human didn’t use lightning spells to attack directly. He used them on himself, as a way to overload his muscles and gain a temporary and painful burst of superstrength.

The healing was just used to fix whatever horrible damage he did to his own muscles in that moment.

The twitching stopped and he knew that the convocation was complete. He could only sit in silent horror as he felt every muscle in the humans body bunch together in one powerful pulse.

The arms around his waist crushed together like a vice, harm enough to snap at least two of his lower ribs. He felt his feet lift off the ground as the muscles in the humans back pulled taut, saw the ground rush up to meet him as he was flung carelessly over the human’s shoulder.

It wasn’t a clean knockout. It was a filthy, vicious, visceral knockout, and in the human’s eyes, that was far better.

The hedge wizard spent a few seconds on the ground, quietly contemplating his choice to pull every muscle from his hamstrings to his shoulders. He didn’t have enough mana to fix himself right as rain, but he could work up enough to at least get himself onto his feet again. He took a moment to drag the unconscious elf into the shade under a tree before rummaging around the finely tooled leather bag the traveler had brought. There was a bag of candied nuts that he helped himself to, as well as a small bottle of brandy, but the rest he left be. He liked his creature comforts, but he wasn’t a bandit. He’d just wanted to make a point about what happened to people that tried to barge through his woods, only to threaten violence when told to leave. He couldn’t tolerate bullies, but he especially couldn’t tolerate bullies blessed with magic.

Still, he felt a little bad for his petty theft, and slightly impressed with the physicality of the fight. He hemmed and hawed for a few seconds before fishing through the pack again, this time pulling out a quill and some parchment. Using one of the hardbacks in the bag as a desk, he wrote a small note to leave on the unconscious elf's lap.

Nyce heighmayker. You can travil thru, provyded you bary your shits. When you retern to your Very Fancy Sercil, try to reed a book on how NOT to get suplecksed. Haha!

Syned,

Tom Bug

Ps. Your desent enuf for a book wizard. I gess you can stop by agen, if you behayv. Bet your frends are pricks tho. Tell them to stay away or I will kill them with a rok.

[witherbee]

i made this in June of 2021 after spending a weekend at the shore with my college friends. it was the first time we’d been able to genuinely see each other—and touch each other!—since the pandemic had started. i reveled in their presence and our ability to be so close. i’m so grateful for touch and intimate friendships.

[jt1674]

[thebarroomortheboy]

The Twilight Zone | 3.35 I Sing the Body Electric

[immaculate-imperfection]

I just made a new wallpaper for my cell phone.

The words are a variation of two famous lines taken from Andrea Gibson's poem I Sing the Body Electric; Especially When My Power Is Out. The background is made up of still frames of the movie The Adventures of Baron Munchausen, directed by Terry Gilliam in 1988, of a beautiful, mechanical sun.

I wanted it to be a hopeful reminder to embrace change and growth even if it's painful. Maybe it can inspire you, too :)

[therobotmonster]

Proposal: The Perpendicular Remake

Ladies, gentlemen and honored members of the jury, I say to you the day of the reboot or remake is over. From now on, a new beast shall reign, one that I can only describe by example.

Fact: The soundtrack to 1980 dance-musical Fame is equally, if not more, suited to use in a movie about supervillains than one about performing art school.

It might be the atypical brainmeats, but you can't tell me that song isn't the most Megamindy thing next to the movie Megamind.

"I sing the body electric, I glory in the glow of rebirth, creating my own tomorrow, when I shall embody the Earth!"

Those are the words of someone who finally got that cosmic cube they've been wanting for the last three Christmases.

I'm not saying that theater kids are megalomaniacs. That's well documented in numerous tomes of almost unquestionable veracity.

What I am saying is that a film about maniacal villains using the soundtrack (in whole or in part, I can make anything fit), of Fame, with nothing else associated from that film, would be frikkin' awesome.

[razb-1]

This song is a true life story 🙌 

[sabbatiq]

verses i've stumbled upon one of these nights & they made me burst into tears next to my sleeping roommate

[sorteswhitmanae]

How do you know who shall come from the offspring of his offspring through the centuries?

I Sing the Body Electric 

[mayamantrin-artist-storyteller]

I Sing the Body Electric

Mixedmedia on paper 34"x22"

[fangednominals]

"And if the body were not soul, what is the soul?"

- Walt Whitman, I Sing the Body Electric

[jt1674]

[thebarroomortheboy]

In the scene where Veronica Cartwright is standing on the stairs in the family living room, behind her lining the stairway wall are several paintings of birds. She was filming Hitchcock's "The Birds (1963)" around this time.

THE TWILIGHT ZONE | 3.35 I Sing the Body Electric

[incorrectclassicbookquotes]

We had to read I Sing the Body Electric by Walt Whitman and in class today my teacher pulled up a bunch of pictures of Walt Whitman on Google Images one of which had the headline under it from NBC asking Was Walt Whitman Gay? I have the answer to that and the answer is no he was not. He was bi. Like the entire poem I Sing the Body Electric describes in nine sections how pretty Walt Whitman thinks both men and women are. He is basically hand feeding the audience that he likes both men and women in a sexual way. Stop thinking you can either be gay or straight there are way more sexualities out there than just two sexualities.

[mariamnamah]

ريحانة الوالهة

Poem by Rayhana al-Waliha, a Sufi mystic from Basra