Strange horizons

I dreamed I was in the halls of some kind of school facility, a kind of dim peach coloring, where they had lines on the floor, as if on a road, to direct the flows of traffic. I noted my one friend from South Jersey, who is more or less a hermit who wanders the Pine Barrens. In the dream, he was wearing a blue shirt and had cut his beard and hair, and resembled nothing less than a kind of prep-jock. It was off-putting. He was passing by me in the opposite direction, followed by another friend from South Jersey. I wanted to ask them what was up, and what the changed look meant—perhaps it was genuine, but perhaps it was some kind of subversive nod to "mainstream" culture. They seemed very assured, but I couldn't stop, as I was caught up in the flow of foot traffic, and made my way outside.

*

I dreamed I was on the street near my old sensei's house, which overlooks a part. My son and I were there, and it was as if we were in a real-life video game. We came across a small vehicle like a go-kart that was shaped like a cartoon triceratops, blinking bright yellow and green with hints of orange. We both managed to get into it, and drove down into the park.

In the park was a towering dinosaur, like the boss at the end of a video game level. It seemed to also be a triceratops, but a gigantic one, and it was trying to stomp our little car and destroy it with it's tale. As it did so, it sang, in a loud, growling voice:

This REF-U-GEE is so slow,
This REF-U-GEE is so sad,
This REF-U-GEE is something,
something I never had

As it said this, it would attempt to devour the go-kart entirely. Why it was using and emphasizing the term "refugee," which I figured was directed at us, I have no idea.

We drove around the park in mad circles, being swept up by the attacks, knocked hither and thither but seemingly no worse for the wear. We were somehow supposed to take out the legs of the "boss" and destroy it.

Eventually, I think we succeeded.