Like a Clap of Thunder

Gyges saw the world above the gorge. Filled with vast plains, imposing mountains, and vast bodies of water.

When he looked down at his feet, he could see the green covered earth. Coming up to his ankles were bright green bulbs. "Trees" a part of him supplied.

When he reached down to acquaint himself with the familiar figures, he found the smaller ones to be springy, bouncing in response to his prodding, while the larger ones seemed to snap at the slightest pressure.

*BANG* *Rumble*

His attention was quickly directed towards the source of the noise, and it wasn't hard to discern. For the past several days, he hadn't a moment of quiet, as he would constantly be assailed by the smacks, cracks, thuds, bangs, and booms of his other arms acting on every impulse. Focusing on the closest head, he could see, waiving in a clenched fist, was a large swath of earth, with snapped and broken trees sticking out between his fingers.

It was clear that one of his arms impulsively acted out on his desire to feel the trees and earth around him.

"Stupid!"

"Idiot!"

"Fool!"

"SHUT UP!"

But the arms weren't the worst part, no matter what he thought, did, or said, he would be drowned out by a chorus of himself, speaking inane

"Inane"

stupid

"Stupid"

and "completeLY UNNECESSARY THOUGHTS!!!"

He shouted, his emotions and impulses were so difficult to control. The experience of constantly being interrupted, no matter what it was, at every waking moment 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘢 𝘸𝘢𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘮𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘩𝘦𝘯 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘥𝘰𝘯'𝘵 𝘬𝘯𝘰𝘸 𝘴𝘭𝘦𝘦𝘱. What makes it worse is that it is you who keeps getting in your own way, in spite of the fact that almost all of your focus goes solely to controlling yourself. It is so fury inducing, that it invents the word maddening only to constantly attempt to one up itself.

* Whooosh* *CRACK* *Thud*

Great, and now he is fighting himself again. Ain't that just the pits.

----------------------------------

Once Gyges calmed himself down to a manageable level, he gazed down into the gorge below.

His brothers are several miles away, but with his height advantage and their immense size, it wasn't hard to peek at them over the horizon.

His luck became apparent, that he figured out the vaguest semblance of control, when look down at them.

His brothers clearly were still struggling with their own bodies, while no doubt born with comparable intelligence to himself, their own frustration and rage only allowed them to blindly whip their limps violently against the walls. Their strength guaranteeing progress, where their lack of control denies them efficiency. At this rate, it would take them weeks before they obliterate the walls enough to lumber a path up.

Gyges felt no golden heart pumping within his chest, but seeing them move around like mindless beasts, and knowing the self torment they can't stop putting themselves through. 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰𝐢𝐧𝐠 because he was still suffering through it himself, grew a need to help them, because chaos knows he wishes that someone would help him.

He looked down in self contemplation, and in a rare and unnoticed moment of clarity, all heads and arms moved together to express his melancholy.

With a snap of his head he began marching his body across the vast ravine, closer to his sibling's thrashing forms. Most faces holding a determined gaze, most arms a synchronous swing besides him.

Two minutes later he arrived above them. His gaze locking down on them, his goal clear, his execution... not so much.

With deep breath, all mouths opened, almost in sync with such a clear and simple goal. He knew if he were to succeed in helping them, he must gain their undivided attention, or else their distracted selves will end up drowning me out.

"𝐁𝐑𝐎𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐒!!!!"

He bellowed, voice echoing within the corridor, making it impossible to ignore by even the smallest of ears. For a moment The thrashing stopped, the movement stilling. For a moment only a fading echo remained of the cracking stone and thunder like fists, grinding it to pebbles, sand, and dust. Over a hundred eyes gazed up at him, almost two hundred ears ready to listen.

"𝐈 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐚 𝐬𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐚𝐛𝐢𝐥𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐰𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐡 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧."

His first step achieved, he continued to speak, if their attention became divided, he would be hard pressed to keep it.

"𝐈𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐰𝐚𝐧𝐭 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐬, 𝐩𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐟𝐫𝐨𝐦 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐨𝐰𝐧 𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐨𝐥, 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐧 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐰𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐟𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐬 𝐨𝐧. 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐜𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐢𝐬 𝐬𝐞𝐜𝐨𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐫𝐲, 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐠𝐭𝐡 𝐢𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭. 𝐘𝐨𝐮 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐩𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐩𝐮𝐭 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲 𝐟𝐢𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐢𝐧𝐭𝐨 𝐢𝐭."

Much like he was, and he was barely holding it together. This was his first speech, in fact, it was his first time communicating with anyone besides himself.

His words slowly lost their power as he figured out what to say. Each possible route becoming a mumbling face, whispering the paths where his speech could have branched. He wouldn't be able to continue without possibly losing their confidence in him, so he chose to sit down, and remain quiet. He would watch them try until he knew for sure what his next move should be. If he took further action while uncertain, he would likely fail with his level of control.

And so he sat down, waiting, watching them focus, while he practiced himself. remaining as still as possible, making subtle movements with two arms while stilling the others.

So a day passed. His control improved minutely, but when gazing down at his brothers, they clearly were struggling.

They went through attempting all types of movements.

The jumping jacks were off balance, in an attempt to swing their arms in unison they lost rhythm in their legs, causing them to trip.

One attempted pushups, but the asynchronicity of the movements caused them to only lightly wobble side to side above the cavern floor.

One attempted Tai chi, but poor footing had them swing themselves into a wall during a spin.

One even managed to get every arm paired off into fifty pairs, then pantomimed using a shake-weight in each pair, accidentally punching themselves in the faces for a few seconds...

That one was funny...

At this point it was clear that simply telling them to do something without telling them how, was a bad idea. He needed to provide more better direction or they might spiral into flailing soon.

What could they do?

It would have to be simple, so that it requires little focus.

It needed to be something he could do and demonstrate, so as to lead from example.

It needed... 𝘳𝘩𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘮.

THAT WAS IT!!!

"𝐥𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐛𝐞𝐥𝐨𝐰!" He bellowed out.

With a leap he crossed the edge and began to descend.

His arms reaching out into the stone, slowing his descent into the gorge. Accompanying him with the sound of grinding stone.

*THUD*

He reached the floor, kicking up a storm of dust beneath his feet, as he disturbed the mounts of pulverized stone.

"I know what to do!" Gyges proclaimed confidently.

"Do as I do." He clasped his hands in pairs.

Over a minute passed as his brothers tried to clasp their own hands. Often having to untangle and disengage from themselves to have all of the arms reach each other. They were disgruntled, and not second went by, where not one of their heads muttered out a curse. But they were focused and eventually the movement settled.

Over a hundred eyes gazed at Gyges expectantly, waiting for their next move.

Gyges slowly separated his two foremost palms, them swung them back together.

*𝘊𝘙𝘈𝘊𝘒*

Our first lesson begins with an exercise called clapping.