#AtoZChallenge A Speculative Fiction Short Story from a Dreamer #WEP

 Another round of the A to Z Challenge is here! My theme is:

A speculative fiction short story from a dreamer

The story outline started with a dream I had. (I'm the dreamer.) It's a dystopian setting that, in my dream, was in a future not far away. There will be an actual dream sequence as well, thanks to one of the prompts I've been given for this month. (Because trying to write a short story on the fly sounded like a *good* idea. I might be a little nuts. 😵🤪 )  

I collected all the prompts I was given (comments, tweets, dm, email, and WEP). And let me tell you, I went down some research rabbit holes. 📚🐇💻

• J's dystopian dream
• wormhole
• time/space travelers arrive on a planet that has been settled by space pioneers or an alien race
• time travel (x2)
• another species on Earth suddenly got the upper hand
• an alien who's on the run from an overlord race prepared to take over earth and who falls in love with a baker who just happens to be working undercover for the Dept of Homeland Security
• a storm system that isn't exactly weather
• 'Implants'? Memory implants, for example. Or vitamin implants.
• something underwater for your setting
• pansexual couple hooking up for the first time
• tardigrade (Tardigrades, known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals.)
• shapeshifting
• electricity isn't working, something crucial for the protagonist isn't working but something they never thought they needed, does? 
• girl's name: Jade
• dream of things like grass, and running through fields.
• Guinea Pig World ruled by Biggles
• chimera hermaphrodite or sexual organ ambiguity main character
• An alien society (or character) that travels only within mind-space dimensions
• Palio di Siena, in an alternative universe where the occupants of the Contrades are the animals after which each Contrade is named
• "The main theme of the song revolves around the post-war period and the diversification brought about through war and destruction" (ipl). "warns against a coming apocalypse while cataloging horrific visions" (Rolling Stone) "But this rain was abstract rather than literal. “It’s not the fallout rain,” Dylan said." (Rolling Stone)

I have a rough outline. I do hope to do this story justice. Though putting all of this together is going to be really interesting. There's going to be some anthropomorphism/ personification. (And poor Siena, Italy is going to be a very bizarre setting for a scene in a future that I certainly hope never happens.) 

I had never heard (or heard of) Bob Dylan's song before. So I had to listen to it a few times and then hunt down interviews and such to make sure I really "got" what it is about. WEP takes place during Q,R,S this month, so look forward the darkness I'll have to go with that prompt.

Get ready for a story that's really gonna be a ride and make you ask, "WHAT was J thinking?" 😆

(And yeah, this definitely stays true to my "what-are-they" branding.)