Buzzing

Nowhere near a success, but at least the Task of the Year is on my mind! Color legend: Non-dream Dream Lucid Lucid #53: The Cestus I am in a bathroom, looking for a stall to use. I do not feel desperate, but I am not being very careful as I swing one open. Inside I find a guy standing there peeing right into the drain on the floor. I bleat, "Sorry! Sorry!" as I try to hurriedly close the door. But unfortunately, the stall door has completely disappeared, leaving me no escape from this excruciating situation. I am embarrassed for him peeing into the drain like a barbarian and I am embarrassed for me throwing open the door like an idiot. I stand there marinating in the awkwardness for a moment before it becomes so painful that I have a false awakening into... ...the same bathroom. I do not buy that I woke up in a bathroom, and I become lucid. The bathroom is empty now and I am standing by a sink looking into a mirror. I note that the stall doors are all closed again and that I badly need a shave. I cannot handle the idea of leaving a bathroom without washing my hands, so I am glad that the faucet works. I do not see soap anywhere but fortunately I manage to get over this. I head outside into the hall and it looks like the hallway of a dark hotel, deep blue carpeting and flickering fluorescent lights. I can go left or right and I choose left. When I head to the left, though, I see a writhing black cloud of smoke at the end of the hall. It looks like the smoke monster from Lost. I mutter, "I will pass..." and head back the other way down the hall. The electric lights flicker for a moment and then the whole scene starts to darken and press down on me. I rub my hands together and the details feel real, down to the deadlift calluses at the pinky, ring, and middle finger joints. When I do this, there is an electric crackle and the lights come back on. I walk for a long way down the hall but somehow it just seems to get longer and longer. I want to either find a DC for basic Task of the Month or get to Rome for the Colosseum battle Task of the Year. I start to feel fretful that I am going nowhere and the scene fades to black. I feel it coming, though, and I relax and prep for <PERSON>. Another scene begins to form. I am walking through a concrete structure that looks like a parking garage or the innards of a stadium. I am wearing something like a cestus, a nasty-looking, studded leather wrapping around my hand. This is not the Colosseum, but I feel like I can turn this into the "Europe" Task of the Year. I am armed and the location seems like something I could massage into the Colosseum with a little effort. But I notice that I feel like I am no longer able to breathe. The breath simply does not feel like it is coming anymore. I know it has to be an illusion but the sensation is terrifying. I try to relax and wait for this to play itself out but some part of me panics and I wake up.