Brainstorming/ramblings

Call it what you will.  Feel like I need to take a break from The Iron Brotherhood series when I finish Tyler's installment to avoid burnout.  Trying to think of a short project to work on so it doesn't get shelved for too long.

This idea for the next Shrimp of the House installment has been front and center lately:

https://www.patreon.com/posts/29097587

I have to admit I've been pulling up the set and making some changes in preparation.  I aged the characters a few months back when I was playing around with the idea.  And I've decided the two pieces I discussed in the previous post should be combined - the story of Allison shrinking Aiden for a video channel feels like a B-story that needs a stronger A-story for time transitions.  I think including the second story of pranking Jackson will end up making this one of the longer stories in the series.  It's not bad per se, but it might create too much of a break from TIB.  Still....

Another idea that I seem to be unintentionally moving closer to is one I had about the time I started Li'l Bro way back when.  It would be called Burn Pit, and it would focus on a career military man who retires and takes up weightlifting to fill his time and help him cope with the quietness of civilian life.  When he experiences unusual growth, his doctor realizes he has the same condition as a handful of others who are suffering from an unknown, crippling illness.  It seems they all served together briefly at some point in his career, and it's likely a unique set of chemicals released in a burn pit altered their bodies.  The difference is his weightlifting, so he finds purpose in getting the team back together and trying to turn their condition around by introducing them to weightlifting.

Problem with this one in my mind is that I envision a subplot where his service has led to his family crumbling, and he only realizes how bad it is when he leaves the service.  This seemed to make more sense two years ago, but now, I can't see how it can play out without fizzling out.

A silly little one I've been thinking about briefly is a possible story called The Ant Serum.  This is in the vein of Transforming Tyler about a college student who signs up for a muscle growth experiment.  Unfortunately, he can't eat enough to fuel the growth, so his body compensates by cannibalizing itself.  He gets more muscular, but he also gets smaller.  because he's obsessed with the muscle, he doesn't fret over his smaller frame.  The story won't see him get too small - maybe only down to 4' or so.  Like with Transforming Tyler, it's a hybrid of the micro and the muscle growth, but the hang-up for me is that I really can't find that one "unique" thing that makes it worth pursuing.  Then again, it could just be a silly, short without anything deep to it...

I don't know.  Like the title says, I'm just rambling.  If you have any thoughts, let me know.