I, Kevin “Snake” Snackenbridge, am rockin’ it. It took most of three days to get the tail working. Well, 3 days of drumming and working on the tail. In the best news I got since the world ended, I can still sit down on my old stool with the new tail. Gotta sit a bit far back, though. I spent most of the first day drumming on the stool. Every hour, on the hour, which incidentally, I can tell perfectly with my head-gnome, I stopped and spent 15 minutes working on getting my tail moving.

The second day, I spent with the heavy escrima sticks and the taiko drums. Just learning to hold them and hit things with them is pretty tough. Still stopped every 15 minutes. Had to go back to the old drumset after 16 hours, because I was running low on Thaums. Guess I wasn’t deep enough in flow with the taiko.

Third day, I was able to get the tail working near the end of the day. And it took 17 hours to run out of juice before I went back to my comfort-set.

Fourth day, I spent 6 hours at the drum set, using the tail to run a crash cymbal every 4 beats. By the end, I could actually hold the stick, and hit on the beat. No flow at all, but I was getting better. Then I started working on the same thing on the Taiko set. Tried for 12 hours, and then I had to zip back over to the kit, so I could practice instead of sleep.

Day five, I went back to the taiko drum, and so long as Mr. Stupid (that’s my tail) wasn’t asked to do anything smart, I could drum with 3 taiko drums and the big sticks. Learning to move with the taiko sticks was new for me. I have the 10 drums, and I’ve been working on rhythms that let me hit multiple drums at the same time. Sometimes I hit two sides of the same drum at once. Sometimes, I hit two drums. Turns out that I can get a better jump if I use my tail as another push. Maybe only a few more inches, but it feels great. I drummed well enough through the night on day 5 that I kept my thaum levels up, and didn’t have to switch back to my comfort kit.

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Day six, I had to spend another Thaum to put wheels with adjustible brakes on all the drums. So I could move them where I wanted. Practiced this funky combat drumming thing all day. By the end of the day I was able to hit three different drums with these weird hard, heavy, long sticks at the same time. Most of the day was spent running that at 20%. I set up different sets of drums. Right hand pair, left hand pair, tail pair. Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum, Dum. Pretty nice 5/5 time. Even if it’s not fancy, I got a smooth ability to strike all three synchronized. And yes, the tail can strike over my head with the drumstick. I tested it.

The most amazing thing to me is that I’ve been drumming pretty solid for 2 weeks. No sleep. One monkey fight. Like three hours of talking with Fern-idand. You know what that does for skillz? I’m better than I’ve ever been. No breaks for eating, shitting, sleeping. Kinda miss the sex, but I wasn’t getting much before the split. 6’2” was precisely average male height in 2055. 154, on the other hand, was not the average weight at my height. So… Skinny glow-in-the-dark white guy. I mean … I got some from the goth chicks at concerts, but haven’t really had anything long term since Matilda died in ‘49.

Anyhow. Not about my sex life or dry spell. I’ve been drumming for 2 weeks almost solid. I’ve been on my feet for the last 4 days. First, I’m not tired. Second, I can run a 4-way polyrhythm better than I ever have in my life. And third, I have a tail which can run a fifth line. It may not be hell, but I’m still comin’ for you, Peart. Even you never managed 5.

Oh ... I only remembered today. The dead monkey and his brain goo disappeared sometime between day 2 and 3. Maybe day 1. I wasn't really watching. Or listening. Forest said something about reclaiming the matter for thaums if left alone for too long. Dude talks a lot.

Anyhow, today is monkey hunting. I’m nervous. But I’m pretty good with the sticks. I’ve got 3 sticks in 3 limbs. I’ve got some nasty wrist and elbow motion with the stick, and if the little shit holds still, my tail can RG5 his head over the fence. Grand slam, muthafucka. Turns out I can hit so hard with a windup on the tail that I dented one of my drums, and even dented the wood corner post on the house. Torque is my bitch. Not that I can aim, mind you, but if I hit, it’ll be devastating.