Rite of Spring

[thehangingtree]

On a trip paid for by the University of the Virgin Martyrs Professor Barbara Moore has visited London and Paris. With all expenses paid she has had a quite lavish time. She now travels by train to Rome where she will see many historical sites and perhaps find some more ‘entertaining’ company.

The train’s porter comes by and asks if there is anything Barbara needs. Almost sullenly she says “I could use a bottle wine and a good fuck. Can you help with that?

He smiles and says “The wine will be here momentarily. As for intercourse with a passenger both the railroad and my wife would strongly disapprove.”

That has been the problem with this trip so far. I get ogled by every guy but getting laid has been challenge I have not expected. I must admit, though, my time in Anjou with Messa and Judith was enlightening!

The train arrives late in the evening in Rome. I am half drunk and order enough wine to finish the task before going to bed. The next morning I am barely up early enough for breakfast… late traveling and a bit of wine, you know… but before noon I get to Fontana di Trevi. It is a warm day and I strip and enjoy the cool waters.

The locals call for me to stand and show off my body. Maybe it was last night’s wine or the warm air but I accommodate the lecherous bastards.

What a glorious way to finish the morning!

-Barbara Moore, being a heathen…

 

[Barbaria1]

He smiles and says “The wine will be here momentarily. As for intercourse with a passenger both the railroad and my wife would strongly disapprove.”

Spoilsport ... bet his wife is a pig!

The locals call for me to stand and show off my body. Maybe it was last night’s wine or the warm air but I accommodate the lecherous bastards.

When in Rome, do as the Romans suggest?

 

[thehangingtree]

Spoilsport ... bet his wife is a pig!



When in Rome, do as the Romans suggest?

She has obviously not read ahead nor the fine print!!!!

 

[thehangingtree]

What the hell is going on? I am arrested by some Carabinieri bitch who locks my wrists in handcuffs and marches me naked from Fontana di Trevi.

I of course demand to know what she is doing to me and though I don’t speak much Italian I think she says I am being arrested for lewd public behavior in a historic Roman artifact.

I was just cooling off!

She takes me on a winding route but we do end up at Carcere Mamertino. I have bought tickets for the tour here. Maybe I can turn them in for bail money.

The damn cop says “You can sell your tickets after your trial… If you are still alive.”

I detect hostility in her voice. My mugshot is hardly a complimentary picture.

I am beginning to think things are not going well for me.

-Barb Moore

“Hang her…
Hang her…
String her up and hang her.”

 

[Barbaria1]

I detect hostility in her voice. My mugshot is hardly a complimentary picture.

They forgot to tell me to smile. Or was it that I didn’t understand Italian. Sounded to me like a lewd remark. And since when are mug shots taken in the nude anyway. Something is rotten here!

“Hang her…
Hang her…
String her up and hang her.”

And these guys are definitely not Italians! Either I’m dreaming or somewhere I took a wrong turn and ended up in Rome, Arkansas!

 

[thehangingtree]

Be calm, Barb. Help is on the way...

Barbara Moore has been arrested for lewd and obscene behavior at a historical artistic site in Rome. This seems bizarre to her as she has seen fashion photos with nude women posing in the Fontana di Trevi.

I am in a cell in Carcere Mamertino. I don’t think this is one of the historic cells that my tourist tickets would have shown me on my tour. I am naked in this baron cell with a bunk with a mattress but no bedding covers. The toilet is a stainless-steel tank that has no seat… I thought Europeans were more advanced than this. I have no privacy here. You would think I have killed someone!

Some guy shuffles up to my cell. He doesn’t look like a native and he doesn’t smell like one either. He drags the powerful odor of a cheap distillery into the room that overpowers the centuries of prisoners’ sweat and excrement that perfumes the room.

“What… or who… are you” I demandingly ask.

“You wanted an American counsel. They don’t fuck around with lewd women dancing naked in their artifacts so they hired me” he replies. “My name is Tree.”

“You are going to be my attorney? Are you any good” I ask.

“I have won a few” he replies
.
“I didn’t ask you that! What is your win-loss record and do you understand these barbaric laws?”

“I’m not that good on criminal cases but I was flying here so they could hire me cheap” he replies.

“Look, I am facing the death penalty here. You may have noticed I am held here naked as I was born.”

Actually, Tree has noticed and was flying to Italy to see Barbara’s execution when the State department called and hired him to represent her in court. He vows to do his best!

“Listen, Barb- if I may be so direct- the…”

“’Barb’ is my name so continue on” I reply. “Can you get me out of this mess?”

“I think I can spare your life which alone will be a grand achievement” he says. “Tell me- did you piss in the fountain?”

“What the hell are you talking about? No, I did not piss in the fountain! I was JUST COOLING OFF” I yell at him.

Tree wonders how good Barbara would look when she is really hot…

But that is not for this story!

 

[Barbaria1]

Be calm, Barb. Help is on the way...

Easy for you to say ....

“You wanted an American counsel. They don’t fuck around with lewd women dancing naked in their artifacts so they hired me” he replies. “My name is Tree.”

Oh Shit. I’m doomed!

“You are going to be my attorney? Are you any good” I ask.

“I have won a few” he replies

A quick check of a recent issue of the Crux Chronicle, which my jailers had left me to use for toilet paper, confirmed that his current record was less than encouraging: 2 acquitals, 97 death sentences by hanging or crucifixion, and 5 mistrials due to defense attorney drunkenness and flatulence (in all five cases the courtroom had to be cleared and fumigated), I concluded after reading this information that I was in very deep shit!

“Look, I am facing the death penalty here. You may have noticed I am held here naked as I was born.”

Actually, Tree has noticed

Which was good news. He wasn’t totally drunk ... yet!

he says. “Tell me- did you piss in the fountain?”

Does it matter or are you just curious?

Tree wonders how good Barbara would look when she is really hot…

Idiot!!!

 

[thehangingtree]

Barb seems distraught about something...

 

[Madiosi]

Barb seems distraught about something...

Maybe concerning the predessors in her Cell impressed. I ask me, how she can readed in the candle light the inscriptions of Vercingetorix, Thusnelda, Zenobia, Simon bar Giora and Jughurta. Ok, probably inscriptions in picture writings.
Barb, know you the execution method for the guests inmates of the Mamertinum?

 

[thehangingtree]

My trial starts and unlike in the United States a defendant is assumed guilty unless she can prove her innocence. I am brought naked except the handcuffs locking my hands behind my back. They are removed and I am placed in the defendant’s cage. In front of me my attorney Tree argues my innocence.

The odds are stacked against me as there is both video and photographic evidence of me frolicking in the Fontana di Trevi as naked as I am now. Tree argues there have been more than a handful of art photographs of nude women in the fountain. That argument is shot down as those pictures were taken with permits issued and I did not have a permit. The prosecutor demands I am found guilty of lewd and obscene behavior at a historical artistic site in Rome. I have as much chance of getting out of this as I would have in ancient Rome.

Sure enough I am found guilty. I am hauled back to a cell in Carcere Mamertino. My first cell was damn luxurious compared to this rat hole. Tree comes by to visit me. I ask him what happens to me now. His reply is of little comfort to me. Tomorrow I will be sentenced. I could be condemned to be hanged, ordered crucified for twelve hours, or sent to the convent of the Order of Penance and Punishment for five years.
I am not pleased with the options.

Tree caps off the bad news saying I get to choose what punishment I will receive…

-Barb Moore

 

[Wragg]

Oh Barb....

I could be condemned to be hanged, ordered crucified for twelve hours, or sent to the convent of the Order of Penance and Punishment for five years.
I am not pleased with the options.

Now look at you...



And the print wasn't even that fine!

"Dress to impress" it said. Only Barb could read that as "Undress to impress."

 

[Barbaria1]

I am not pleased with the options.

Tree caps off the bad news saying I get to choose what punishment I will receive…

Well, when in Rome, do as the Romans ...

Now look at you...



And the print wasn't even that fine!




"Dress to impress" it said. Only Barb could read that as "Undress to impress."

Well, I found it difficult to make out with my dark glasses ... the light in Rome is awfully bright.

 

[thehangingtree]

I am so screwed! I know the convent is located in Cruxton. Five years in what is really a prison being subjected to what the nuns want to dish out isn’t going to work.

I’ll observe some mistreatment and I will be locked in the bowels of their dungeon if they don’t slay me first.
Then there is being hanged. It has a very definitive ending. It will be over quickly as will I be!

Then there is crucifixion. It is twelve hours hanging nailed to a cross. Tree assured me almost half survive… almost half.
Can I even stand the chance of suffering just to die slowly?

I cannot stand the thought of hanging stretched on a cross before a crowd of people gleefully watching me die!
I am so fucking screwed!

-Barb Moore, convict

 

[Wragg]

Tree assured me almost half survive… almost half.

Cheer up, Barb...

The other half almost survive.

 

[Barbaria1]

I cannot stand the thought of hanging stretched on a cross before a crowd of people gleefully watching me die!
I am so fucking screwed!

How about a private execution? Not nearly as much trouble. No need to clean up after the crowd when it's over!

-Barb Moore, convict

I hope that shot is not going on the front page of the next issue of the Chronicle!

Cheer up, Barb...

The other half almost survive.

That makes me feel so much better. Thanks, Wragg.

 

[Jollyrei]

“I could use a bottle wine and a good fuck. Can you help with that?

So many options for fun and relaxation on the train. I may never fly again.

 

[Barbaria1]

So many options for fun and relaxation on the train. I may never fly again.

Flying can be fun too ...

 

[thehangingtree]

It is sentencing day for Barbara Moore. She has a surprise visit by the French woman Messaline who has come by to prepare Barb for her sentencing.

I really don’t need help getting ready to be paraded naked into court to choose what sentence I will get but she is nice to help and it is good to have her to talk to.

“What should I choose? I have the choice of being hanged, five years in a convent, or being crucified for twelve hours” I tell Messa.

“You would look beautiful being brought to the gallows to be hanged” she replies.

“Of course once you get on the gallows they will have you stand before the crowd while they read your conviction and your sentence.”

“Then they will put you on the stool and fasten the noose around your neck and you have to stand there until the top of the hour. It is all for the show.”

“As the time arrives they kick the stool out from beneath your feet and you are hanged. It is a short drop hanging so you don’t die right away. You will put on quite a dance as you dangle by your neck.”

“You take more than ten minutes to die.”

“And you will probably pee as you fade away.”

“On the plus side your hanging is a fairly quick way to die. On the negative side you will be executed” Messa notes.

This is not very encouraging...
-Barb Moore

 

[Barbaria1]

“You would look beautiful being brought to the gallows to be hanged” she replies.

Hope I don’t trip going up the stairs...I can be kinda uncoordinated at times

“Of course once you get on the gallows they will have you stand before the crowd while they read your conviction and your sentence.”

At least the Italians speak fast. I won’t have to endure that annoying Arkansian drawl ...

“Then they will put you on the stool and fasten the noose around your neck and you have to stand there until the top of the hour. It is all for the show.”

Yeah, on naked display...all about shame and humiliation... I get that!

“As the time arrives they kick the stool out from beneath your feet and you are hanged. It is a short drop hanging so you don’t die right away. You will put on quite a dance as you dangle by your neck.”

That is the worst part ... everyone clapping, cheering and jeering as I twist, turn, bounce about and shake my boobs and ass

“And you will probably pee as you fade away.”

Tree would see that that ... it’s a fetish of his ...

“On the plus side your hanging is a fairly quick way to die. On the negative side you will be executed” Messa notes.

Geeze Messa ... that’s hardly a brilliant or reassuring observation!

 

[thehangingtree]

“Then there is the five years in the convent. You must know the convent is more like a prison that is run by nuns. While you will be out in five years you know with your attitude you will be in trouble all the time” Messa says.

“I don’t have an attitude” I protest.

“You do too! I can see you before the sister of disciple within your first week there” Messa counters.

“You know what happens then… You will receive a scourging” Messa says confidently.

“Do you think you will enjoy being whipped?”

“No, but that leaves me with being crucified for twelve hours” I say. “Tree tells me most survive.”

“If fifty-one percent survive that means ‘most’ survive. It also means forty-nine percent die and it takes longer than being hanged” Messa notes. “Besides the crowd is only interested in seeing you nailed to the cross and raised.”

“After the first hour they get bored and thirsty and head for the pub. You will still have eleven hours hanging naked from the spikes whether you live or not” Messa adds.

“So what should I select” I ask.

“Courts work different from yours in the states. You choose but you don’t know what you have selected” Messa replies.

“I don’t understand” I reply.

“You will learn later today” Messa says. “You are a goddess. You will do fine no matter what you choose.”

It is only the final preparation. Messa pulls my gown down- I go to court naked- and binds my wrists behind my back.

She strips me bare and as a nude convict I am ready for my sentencing…

-Barbara