[color=pink][b][u]Drumbumette Upgrades[/u][/b][/color] ---------- Snare Soldier speaking. Until the middle of last year, every Drumbum around the world was a male animal. We finally found a group of females willing to do what we do, and thus happily declared them the first ever Drumbumettes. That was virtually just a fluke, though, but it illustrates just how depressing CNG and IC2 were, wanting a world where variety was treated as a sin, and breaking out of one's daily routine was also treated as a sin. It's not sinful to do those things. I say this, though, because all nine female units of Drumbumettes come from the same state: Texas. Moreover, all nine units of Drumbumettes used to be human beings until CNG unfairly took their humanity away and made them animals, although doing so in the hopes it would appease the media and women's rights advocates, because March is Women's History Month (similar to how February is Black History Month). While the nine units do perform as all-female marching bands and/or drum and bugle corps, they like it better when they get to perform alongside the male Drumbums from the same state. The only difference is that while the first two of these combinations are lions and tigers, the third group of three were all unicorns, and every unicorn was female. To compensate for this as a result, all the male Drumbums selected to be the performing counterparts to the unicorns are all anthro Clydesdale horses. (There are three units of lionesses, three units of tigresses, and three units of unicorns.) However, we're focusing on the Drumbumettes, so let me add this detail: you'll find one of each animal in each of these three colors: turquoise, pink, and purple. They all go for the typical circus-style uniform that has gold or silver highlights, such as epaulettes, stripes across the chest and down the pant legs, etc. They all wear a shako with a different design as the gold logo, and while some have plumes on the shako, some do not. CNG had made some of them half-naked as a result of them watching "The Adventures of Drummer Dog" (because it was a children's show portraying animals this way; the legs and feet were exposed, but the top half of the body had clothes of some sort on it), so they had experimented with what that might look like. However, to tell them apart from the males, they added an extra feature to it to make it look like it was a skirt of some sort. While the experiment didn't quite turn out the way they thought it would, it at least made it easier to tell them apart. (They eventually switched back to the full uniforms.) The Drumbumettes also pad (go barefoot, or hoof in the case of the unicorns) by habit, but they will wear marching shoes when necessary, especially if the foreign culture they are visiting frowns upon bare feet. ---------------- Today I had the pleasure of having the Drumbumette Tigresses wearing purple keep me company as my fellow Drumbum Rats and I went down to Texas, volunteering to help with the crowd control because the annual Houston Rodeo was coming up (and we'll highlight that for you in a future journal entry, so stay tuned). While there, we got to know the units more closely, and we decided that each unit should have an appointed majorette in charge, as well as one for the whole species, and one that might even preside over the whole group of Drumbumettes (although she still wouldn't outrank me because I founded the organization). "It's a big responsibility," I said to them, "but I know you're all capable of handling it. Each of the male units has an appointed leader, as well as one that presides over the whole group. Timpani Tiger is the head of all Drumbum Tigers, for example." Timpani Tiger was present, so he said, "As a result, I do outrank all of you, but I thank you for not complaining about it." "You're welcome," said Emily McMantis; she was the chosen chief drum majorette in charge of the tigresses wearing purple, and accomplished prodigy on the snare drum in her own right. (She preferred her battery snare drum to concert snare drums and military field drums, but she was classically trained on all the percussion instruments in her own right.) "We're too busy playing our music to think about it anyways." She did some stick twirling as a nonverbal way of promising me this, and she then played a drum solo entitled "5 + 2 = 7." (I kid you not; that's the title.) ------- Three other Drumbumette Tigresses that had become household names because they were potential candidates to these leadership positions included Darci Lynette (who regularly plays tenor drums, or quads; sometimes quints), Julie Robertson (who also plays a snare drum), and Jessica Peterman (who plays the flute). Each one showed me her skills with her instrument, and I was very pleased. Each one also recommended Emily to be appointed leader of the Drumbumette Tigresses as a whole, and possibly all the Drumbumettes as a whole. "Do you do double duty that way?" Darci asked me. "I do," I said, "but in most cases, you'll usually just see me performing with the rats I lead here. Plus, the word Drumbum isn't limited to just percussion; I just wanted a rhyming word. To be a Drumbum or Drumbumette just means you keep in shape both physically and mentally. For us, though, we have an unfair advantage because the aftereffects of CNG and IC2 are keeping us all in perfect shape, even if we were to break out of our healthy diets and eat us a scoop of ice cream. I don't mandate you parade around in the swimwear; I just do because I am a bodybuilder, and I wanted to see if I could combine disciplined military drumming with bodybuilding. Surprisingly, it worked." "Thanks for clearing that up for us," Jessica replied. "No problem." ---------- A lioness in pink by the name of Amanda Morrison had been appointed head of all Drumbum Lionesses on top of being in charge of her own unit in pink, while a unicorn in purple by the name of Carly Irene Davidson was originally nominated head of the Drumbum Unicorns. However, she instead recommended one of the unicorns in turquoise have the position to maintain a color balance, and we agreed. (She's asked to keep her name anonymous for now, and we agreed to honor her request.) These were other potential candidates for the position as well, and so we asked them to join Emily as the other Drumbumettes all voted on the matter. (None of the rats or any other Drumbums present voted in order to maintain an interest of fairness.) It took a long time to count all the votes, but the C.I.D.F. helped us with that. ------ When came to make the announcement, we had Miles Grandridge, the appointed leader of all Drumbum Minotaurs, perform the timpani drum roll, and his fellow Minotaurs provided the cymbal crash for effect, as well as a trumpet fanfare common to all Drumbums, all on cue. "And so your votes are in, and we can now reveal the winner," I announced. "The elected head of all currently serving Drumbumettes...is...Emily McMantis!" Loud applause from everyone followed as Emily stepped forward, and she then took a modified Drumbum oath, both orally and with another drum solo (the solo was just a habit; it wasn't part of our Code of Honor to mandate solos like that). Upon the end of her solo, all nine units summoned their instruments and played the fight song for the University of Houston (because it was the first thing that came to mind); Miles improvised a timpani part for the music that otherwise wasn't used. (Do you blame him? I don't. I would not want anybody to be left out.) ----------- Later, Super C came to congratulate them and officially induct them as allies to the G-52s (although without having to take the oath). He also congratulated them on a successful case of playing music as a morale booster, not a drainer, because the supernatural behaved itself for once and left the humans alone. That's a big relief to all of us, really. ---------- The next day, the Drumbumettes helped welcome all our foreign friends in the G-52s and their allies that were coming into Houston for the big rodeo. ----------- [color=cyan][b]THE END[/b][/color]