Scary Solar System Part 1 (Patreon)

 Traveling the Solar System is not for the weak of heart. One night in  Bangkok might make a strong man crumble, or so the song goes, but a  month on Jupiter will literally crush you.

But I'm getting ahead of myself.

I'm called Maxiz Malik and I'm a thief. THE Thief.

I  made a name for myself on Mars where I showed the denizens of the red  planet that even if ya bolt something down, I can still lift it. Then I  stole the one thing I prolly' shouldn't of and made the galaxies biggest  spoiled princess madder than sin. When Luccana gets mad, she gets even.  Sent this headhunter after me, a guy everyone calls Exile. He has a  trail of blood behind his reputation that stretches for miles. I wasn't  about that. I steal, I don't kill. So I ran.

And boy did I run.

Ended  up on Jupiter. Hella big planet, hard as dumb for anyone to find any  one person in the mess. Things seemed alright for a while. Took up  residence anywhere I could. After a few weeks I started to notice my  clothes didn't fit right. I knew this was a possibility when I landed  but I didn't think it'd happen this quickly. Ya see; anyone who has  lived on Jupiter for any decent stretch of time is...how do I  say...small? The gravitational force of the planet is crushing. On Mars I  was nimble, could bounce around like a damn Kangaroo on speed but  here...ugh. I hear its like two and half times that of Earth, I wouldn't  know, never been to the blue ball. Hear its a dump.

Regardless, I  shrank-- a lot. I'm about one third my old height, which means I fit in  pretty good with the locals now, which makes hiding easier. I heard it  was completely reversible though, if ya aint got Spaceoid Bloodtype R,  which I unfortunately do. Words cannot describe how much this irks me.  Imma be stuck this damn height for rest of my life. Not only is it  embarrassing, its frustrating. Sure, if I lived on Jupiter until the day  I died, they'd bury me in on one their tiny graves with a tiny  headstone and a nice tiny funeral. Problem is, I can't stick around. Saw  one of Exile's boys talking to some patrons at my favorite bar  yesterday. I'm boned with a capital B.

I booked the first Aether  Express to Venus. Maybe a few Venusian hookers will make me feel like a  full grown man again, who knows?

Only time will tell. This is Maxiz signing off.

((Had  this little idea bumping around in my head for a hot minute, the  drawing had been siting waiting to be used for a while. Decided to go  ahead and premier it here first. Its a set of short stories following  Maxiz as he tries to evade Exile across the Solar System. As he'll be  traveling to Venus next, I'm certain you guys can guess what sort of  transformation he'll go through there. Let me know what you think about  this silly little short.)