The Olympic Crux

[Jollyrei]

So it's three weeks until the Olympic Crux event. Thessela has been training hard, mostly aclimatizing herself to the heat here in LA.
I could tell that being sequestered in the athlete's village wasn't doing her spirits much good. As near as I could tell, she was wondering what all the other girls were doing, how their training was going. Without telling me exactly what the training regimen was, Tree had mentioned that Barb's training had taken an interesting new twist, and that he was annoyed at the arrival of his sister at the dude ranch. I also knew that a lot of the other top seeded athletes were there.

Nobody knew anything about what Madiosi was doing with Porzia. It was like they had disappeared on holiday. Madiosi, I knew was very particular. He would hide Porzia away for a while, especially with the doping scare going on, and then suddenly would release a sexy press release to wow the press. He did know how to promote his girls.

I decided I should probably shake Thessela out of any sense of complacency and possible boredom resulting from too much hanging around (literally) our apartment. Girls occasionally like surprises and grand gestures, I reckon. So I shackled her wrists together, and hiked her up into the hills. We got to a forested part, and there was my surprise, just in from France.
It came with a personalized titulus and everything. The sight of a real cross, erected with her name on it seemed to have a rather awakening effect. Excellent mental conditioning for the event, I thought. I wasn't quite aware of the depth of the emotional and psychological effects, though. I don't pick up on these things immediately sometimes.

She was quiet and fidgety on the way back to town. We got back to the apartment and I said:
"You can keep the cross, after the games."
"That would be nice," she said. She seemed a bit non-committal or preoccupied.
"Look, Thess, Tree says we can go to the dude ranch to finish training."
"Jolly, could you..."
"It would be good final acclimatization. The ranch has all sorts of facilities and you could see Tash, and maybe Barb..."
"It sounds nice, but right now I think..."
"...and there's lots of opportunity there for..."
"Jolly!"
"Yes? What is it?"
"If you want to go to the ranch, I have no choice, but I don't want to talk about it anymore."
If you come with me, I want to discuss something else," she said.
I am always in favour of frank and open discussion.

 

[thehangingtree]

So it's three weeks until the Olympic Crux event. Thessela has been training hard, mostly aclimatizing herself to the heat here in LA.
View attachment 388694 I could tell that being sequestered in the athlete's village wasn't doing her spirits much good. As near as I could tell, she was wondering what all the other girls were doing, how their training was going. Without telling me exactly what the training regimen was, Tree had mentioned that Barb's training had taken an interesting new twist, and that he was annoyed at the arrival of his sister at the dude ranch. I also knew that a lot of the other top seeded athletes were there.

Nobody knew anything about what Madiosi was doing with Porzia. It was like they had disappeared on holiday. Madiosi, I knew was very particular. He would hide Porzia away for a while, especially with the doping scare going on, and then suddenly would release a sexy press release to wow the press. He did know how to promote his girls.

I decided I should probably shake Thessela out of any sense of complacency and possible boredom resulting from too much hanging around (literally) our apartment. Girls occasionally like surprises and grand gestures, I reckon. So I shackled her wrists together, and hiked her up into the hills. We got to a forested part, and there was my surprise, just in from France.
View attachment 388736 It came with a personalized titulus and everything. The sight of a real cross, erected with her name on it seemed to have a rather awakening effect. Excellent mental conditioning for the event, I thought. I wasn't quite aware of the depth of the emotional and psychological effects, though. I don't pick up on these things immediately sometimes.

She was quiet and fidgety on the way back to town. We got back to the apartment and I said:
"You can keep the cross, after the games."
"That would be nice," she said. She seemed a bit non-committal or preoccupied.
"Look, Thess, Tree says we can go to the dude ranch to finish training."
"Jolly, could you..."
"It would be good final acclimatization. The ranch has all sorts of facilities and you could see Tash, and maybe Barb..."
"It sounds nice, but right now I think..."
"...and there's lots of opportunity there for..."

I am so relieved to hear Thessela
"Jolly!"
"Yes? What is it?"
"If you want to go to the ranch, I have no choice, but I don't want to talk about it anymore."
View attachment 388799 If you come with me, I want to discuss something else," she said.
I am always in favour of frank and open discussion.

I am most relieved Thessela is being well trained and a most professional way...

We do need to call Madiosi and find how Porzia is doing...

 

[thehangingtree]

Tree comes down to cellar to get me. He tells me it is time for my session. I’m in no mood to carry his fucking oak beam and I will not do the gallows again. He is in a surly mood and says “You will do what I tell you to do or you sit here until you get shipped to LA. Do you understand?”

“Yes” I pout. Satisfied he opens the manacles that hold my arms above my head and I groan as I lower my arms saying “Damn, my shoulders hurt!”

“Not as much as they will when you are nailed to cross. It won’t be like the tethers you qualified with. You will find pushing to relieve them with a spike through your feet is something you’ll avoid unless you absolutely have to” Tree explains as he helps me to my feet. He tells me to walk up the steps to the back door. I look down at the shackles and the iron ball chained to them and realize they are staying attached to my ankles. I pick it up and walk up the steep stairs. Outside I am met with the already building mid-morning heat of the Arizona desert. He tells me to drop the ball and head out of town opposite of where the gallows stand. As heavy as the ball is it is easier to carry than to drag with the irons around my ankles.

The fucker Tree follows me in Polaris UTV that is only idling to keep up with me. I try to introduce some ‘small talk’ into this bullshit he is putting me through. I ask him “I heard you were going to hang Joan for what she did to me. Did you do it?”

“Yeah I hanged her! She really isn’t too happy with me. I really wouldn’t care she hanged you until you were dead except I am getting paid to get the ‘Gold’. After that, if I was you I would avoid her” Tree replies to me. “I’m not going to stop her. I will hang her if she does but you won’t be around to see it.”

“Tree, you are a hopeless romantic! I can’t wait to see what she’ll do to me for revenge. Do you care to tell me what you have in mind for me?” I ask.

“You’ll find out” he replies.

I’ve dragged this fucking ball way out of town. The damn tourists have to wear western garb but I am sure have been photographed by ever asshole with a cellphone. Tree’s response ‘I’ll find out’ pisses me off! Goddammit I am not enjoying this. I am tired and hot and have no idea what this prick has in mind for me but I suspect know it is no good! I am getting hot, tired, dirty, and (surprised) a tad petulant. I turn to Tree and drop to my knees. I look back at him and say “I don’t mind training but it would be nice to know what the hell this training is for.”

He responds by ramming a front tire of UTV into my side.



“Ow, damnit, that hurt Tree!” I howl!

“Look, you can bitch all you want but you will do what you are told or I’m done training you! Do you understand?” he says to me gruffly.

I get up and struggle forward. It had to be several miles up the rock strewn path to the top of tall plateau. There I find a pit. Tree locks an iron collar and chain to my neck before pulling my wrists behind my back with heavy manacles. He picks up the iron ball into the pit. To my surprise it splashes in water in the hole. He jerks me forward and orders me to hop into hole. I pause and he shoves me forward and jumping in is no longer up to me.

While a groundskeeper shovels in gravel I ask Tree “How does this help me train for the games?”



I’m buried up to knees with rock then Tree dumps a wheelbarrow some pungent warm slurry into the pit up to my navel. I bitch “Tree is this shit?”

“It’s compost.”

“It stinks like shit!”

“Shit composts” Tree flippantly says as the groundskeeper buries me up to the bottom of my ribcage with rocky sandy soil. As he takes the chain from the iron collar I asked again “I’m in this fucking pit. Would you please tell me how this trains me for the games?”

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“You know I am!”

“Can you move?”

“A bit”

“It’s a bit like being crucified without the pain. You will find the ground will leach the moisture from the pit and you won’t be able to move as much- just like when you are crucified. I can’t simulate the pain of being nailed to a cross but this will teach you what unending immobility, boredom, heat, and hunger will feel like.”

“So how long am I here?” I ask.

“72 hours” he tells me. “I’ll see you at sunset.”

“What about water?”

“At sunset” he says before he drives off… -Barb

Tree

 

[Thessela]

Oh wow!
I saw that cross, with my name on it!
It made me feel week, excited, strange inside.
"Jolly, could you..."
He can be a bit slow sometimes

(I really like it Jolly!)

 

[thehangingtree]

Oh wow!
I saw that cross, with my name on it!
It made me feel week, excited, strange inside.
"Jolly, could you..."
He can be a bit slow sometimes

(I really like it Jolly!)

He is just a respectful Canadian gentleman...

 

[Wragg]

Tree comes down to cellar to get me. He tells me it is time for my session. I’m in no mood to carry his fucking oak beam and I will not do the gallows again. He is in a surly mood and says “You will do what I tell you to do or you sit here until you get shipped to LA. Do you understand?”

“Yes” I pout. Satisfied he opens the manacles that hold my arms above my head and I groan as I lower my arms saying “Damn, my shoulders hurt!”

“Not as much as they will when you are nailed to cross. It won’t be like the tethers you qualified with. You will find pushing to relieve them with a spike through your feet is something you’ll avoid unless you absolutely have to” Tree explains as he helps me to my feet. He tells me to walk up the steps to the back door. I look down at the shackles and the iron ball chained to them and realize they are staying attached to my ankles. I pick it up and walk up the steep stairs. Outside I am met with the already building mid-morning heat of the Arizona desert. He tells me to drop the ball and head out of town opposite of where the gallows stand. As heavy as the ball is it is easier to carry than to drag with the irons around my ankles.

The fucker Tree follows me in Polaris UTV that is only idling to keep up with me. I try to introduce some ‘small talk’ into this bullshit he is putting me through. I ask him “I heard you were going to hang Joan for what she did to me. Did you do it?”

“Yeah I hanged her! She really isn’t too happy with me. I really wouldn’t care she hanged you until you were dead except I am getting paid to get the ‘Gold’. After that, if I was you I would avoid her” Tree replies to me. “I’m not going to stop her. I will hang her if she does but you won’t be around to see it.”

“Tree, you are a hopeless romantic! I can’t wait to see what she’ll do to me for revenge. Do you care to tell me what you have in mind for me?” I ask.

“You’ll find out” he replies.

I’ve dragged this fucking ball way out of town. The damn tourists have to wear western garb but I am sure have been photographed by ever asshole with a cellphone. Tree’s response ‘I’ll find out’ pisses me off! Goddammit I am not enjoying this. I am tired and hot and have no idea what this prick has in mind for me but I suspect know it is no good! I am getting hot, tired, dirty, and (surprised) a tad petulant. I turn to Tree and drop to my knees. I look back at him and say “I don’t mind training but it would be nice to know what the hell this training is for.”

He responds by ramming a front tire of UTV into my side.

View attachment 389267

“Ow, damnit, that hurt Tree!” I howl!

“Look, you can bitch all you want but you will do what you are told or I’m done training you! Do you understand?” he says to me gruffly.

I get up and struggle forward. It had to be several miles up the rock strewn path to the top of tall plateau. There I find a pit. Tree locks an iron collar and chain to my neck before pulling my wrists behind my back with heavy manacles. He picks up the iron ball into the pit. To my surprise it splashes in water in the hole. He jerks me forward and orders me to hop into hole. I pause and he shoves me forward and jumping in is no longer up to me.

While a groundskeeper shovels in gravel I ask Tree “How does this help me train for the games?”

View attachment 389268

I’m buried up to knees with rock then Tree dumps a wheelbarrow some pungent warm slurry into the pit up to my navel. I bitch “Tree is this shit?”

“It’s compost.”

“It stinks like shit!”

“Shit composts” Tree flippantly says as the groundskeeper buries me up to the bottom of my ribcage with rocky sandy soil. As he takes the chain from the iron collar I asked again “I’m in this fucking pit. Would you please tell me how this trains me for the games?”

“Are you uncomfortable?”

“You know I am!”

“Can you move?”

“A bit”

“It’s a bit like being crucified without the pain. You will find the ground will leach the moisture from the pit and you won’t be able to move as much- just like when you are crucified. I can’t simulate the pain of being nailed to a cross but this will teach you what unending immobility, boredom, heat, and hunger will feel like.”

“So how long am I here?” I ask.

“72 hours” he tells me. “I’ll see you at sunset.”

“What about water?”

“At sunset” he says before he drives off… -Barb

Tree

I suspect crucifixion smells of shit, too.

Good training, Tree. Very nice indeed to see Barb in such capable hands.

Takes a great deal of the weight off my mind.

My round, Phlebas and Hondo.

 

[Barbaria1]

72 hours!!! In this shit? Oh Shit! I may come to rue the day I hired this asshole! Somehow I need to keep reminding myself that he is supposed to know what he is doing. I never imagined, though, that training would be like this!

Wow, Tree ... you really have gotten good at writing my "voice"! You really nailed it this time. Oooops, did I say that?

 

[thehangingtree]

I suspect crucifixion smells of shit, too.

Good training, Tree. Very nice indeed to see Barb in such capable hands.

Takes a great deal of the weight off my mind.

My round, Phlebas and Hondo.

Thank you my good man. Between Barb and my sister Joan I am losing friends very quickly!!!

 

[Barbaria1]

24 hours have passed now since that bastard Tree threw me in this stinking pit of what he called compost, but which I can say with absolute certainty now is just plain shit. I am cramped, the stuff clings like suction. Every move of my legs, every effort to maintain circulation, comes with that sucking ooozing sound and feeling that drains the life out of me. And what ever happened to that promise of water by sunset? The asshole never returned. I spent the whole night immobilized and dry as a bone, while he probably sat in an easy chair and guzzled Seagram's on the rocks, or worse yet, dragged that cum-Canadian Thessela off to the Tree bed. I am going to kill him or her, or both, if I ever get out of this goo. This is not training! What a farce! There is no shit up on a cross. Gravity takes care of that. When you are on a cross, you are up in the air. So why am I here, Tree, you dumb shit? Where the fuck are you? Why can't you hear me complaining? Have you got that old 1960s stereophonic record player turned up again ... playing some silly ass ballad from before I was born? Tree! Damn you. GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE ... NOW!!!!!!!!!

 

[Hondoboot2]

View attachment 389281 24 hours have passed now since that bastard Tree threw me in this stinking pit of what he called compost, but which I can say with absolute certainty now is just plain shit. I am cramped, the stuff clings like suction. Every move of my legs, every effort to maintain circulation, comes with that sucking ooozing sound and feeling that drains the life out of me. And what ever happened to that promise of water by sunset? The asshole never returned. I spent the whole night immobilized and dry as a bone, while he probably sat in an easy chair and guzzled Seagram's on the rocks, or worse yet, dragged that cum-Canadian Thessela off to the Tree bed. I am going to kill him or her, or both, if I ever get out of this goo. This is not training! What a farce! There is no shit up on a cross. Gravity takes care of that. When you are on a cross, you are up in the air. So why am I here, Tree, you dumb shit? Where the fuck are you? Why can't you hear me complaining? Have you got that old 1960s stereophonic record player turned up again ... playing some silly ass ballad from before I was born? Tree! Damn you. GET ME THE FUCK OUT OF HERE ... NOW!!!!!!!!!

Oh, but this is training Barb, you must unlearn what you have learned. Control. Control. You must learn control.
I believe there is a method to Tree's madness

 

[thehangingtree]

Oh, but this is training Barb, you must unlearn what you have learned. Control. Control. You must learn control.
I believe there is a method to Tree's madness

Really??? Buy him round, Ulrika!!!!

 

[Jollyrei]

Oh wow!
I saw that cross, with my name on it!
It made me feel week, excited, strange inside.
"Jolly, could you..."
He can be a bit slow sometimes

(I really like it Jolly!)

Okay, I may be slow sometimes - I do rather like to know what's going on. It's nice when things are clear.

I get there in the end, and I am very attentive to detail.

Anyway, after a time or two while, during which a number of important things were discussed and explored in some detail, I made a couple of calls and we had our tickets for the train to Missouri, or wherever Tree's ranch is. It'll be nice to get away for a few days.

I wasn't quite expecting Thessela's enthusiastic reaction to her own monogrammed cross, but I can't say I regretted, well, anything really anymore. The cross had to come along, obviously. It would be a good training apparatus and keep Thessela focused on the event. The Amtrak from LA Union Station was on time.


I have to say these Amtrak trains are nicely equipped. There was a sort of thing that I took to be a gymnasium car. We were able to get in a good training session right there on the train.
Thessela did a few hours on the ropes, until we were asked to leave by a nice Japanese lady who wondered why she was hanging like that in her specially chartered Japanese Embassy car. The tatami mats should have given it away, I suppose. Still, we got the training in, and that's what counts.

We retired to our cabin. I do like train travel. It's so "old world" and relaxing. Thessela seemed happy enough, although the weather was a bit weird.

Climate change I suppose. (Should it be snowing? Where is this train going? Missouri is south, isn't it?)

 

[Barbaria1]

Thessela did a few hours on the ropes, until we were asked to leave by a nice Japanese lady who wondered why she was hanging like that in her specially chartered Japanese Embassy car. The tatami mats should have given it away, I suppose. Still, we got the training in, and that's what counts.

I hope the Canadian Olympic Team paid the nice Japanese lady for all the sweat and blood spattered on her tatami mats!

 

[shastar]

View attachment 389396Thessela did a few hours on the ropes, until we were asked to leave by a nice Japanese lady who wondered why she was hanging like that in her specially chartered Japanese Embassy car. The tatami mats should have given it away, I suppose. Still, we got the training in, and that's what counts.

I hope the Canadian Olympic Team paid the nice Japanese lady for all the sweat and blood spattered on her tatami mats!

No, they paid her with free seats for the Olympics...

 

[Jollyrei]

View attachment 389396Thessela did a few hours on the ropes, until we were asked to leave by a nice Japanese lady who wondered why she was hanging like that in her specially chartered Japanese Embassy car. The tatami mats should have given it away, I suppose. Still, we got the training in, and that's what counts.

I hope the Canadian Olympic Team paid the nice Japanese lady for all the sweat and blood spattered on her tatami mats!

Blood?! Good lord, what do you take me for?
No, no, I don't recall any blood.
As to the hanging around, the Japanese lady was quite sanguine. You'd think she'd seen a few odd things in Japan. Go figure.

 

[thehangingtree]

End of second Barb is half-buried in the dessert…

Tree warned me the ground the pit would leach the moisture out of the crap he buried me in. About the only thing down there that I can move are my toes and fingers and that’s only because I carved out a small pocket for them before the shit hardened. Tree is only giving me water three times a day- once at predawn, again around noon, and again around sunset. Then it is ten hours overnight without anything. I wonder how he gets up that early. Maybe he hasn’t gone to bed yet.

I hear the UTV coming up the hill. He steps out and brings me a liter bottle of cold water. I gulp it down greedily. He lets me catch my breath before asking me how I am doing. The question hits wrong and I angrily say “How the fuck do you think I am doing? I’m hot, I’m tired, I am fucking bored, this fucking pit stinks, and I am damn hungry!”

“Good, the training is every bit what I hoped for” Tree says.

“Would you mind turning the headlights off? I can’t see you!



He does and comes back. I ask him how the fuck this is supposed to help me being crucified. He says “You summed it up. I can’t let you know the pain of the cross- it’s impossible- but you are learning the other things you will have to deal with. Did you take a dump?”

I can feel my face blush and I hiss “I’m not telling you! What difference does it make?”

“You did, didn’t you?”

I am furious. I practically yell at him “Yeah, dammit I did! I’ve got a load of shit packed in the crack of my ass! Does that make you happy?”

“Does it make you miserable?” he replies.

“Fuck, yes, I’m miserable!” I scream.

“Good, then I am happy!” he says as he turns to go to UTV and leave me for the night.

“Tree, how much longer?”

He pulls out a pocket watch and says “About 40 more hours.”

Shit I’m not even half-way done!!! –Barb

Tree

 

[Barbaria1]

forty more hours! What the Fuck! Geeze! This is insane. Wait until I get out of here. This guy is going to get fired so fast it will make his head spin. The very idea that this miserable shit pit prepares anyone for Olympic excellence is ludicrous! I should have checked his credentials more closely. I checked his record as an attorney. It was miserable, but I reasoned that hardly mattered since I wasn't accused of any crime and was not going to Admi's court. This is the Olympics. I needed someone with real Crux experience. That he has, but I am now learning that his "expertise" has little to do with training for competition. What it means is that he is good at sharpening nails! Oh how blind I was! Oh, how I could use a glass of wine. Oh, how I could use a nice bath! Tree! You are fired! Now get me the Hell out of here, NOW!!!!

 

[thehangingtree]

View attachment 389433 forty more hours! What the Fuck! Geeze! This is insane. Wait until I get out of here. This guy is going to get fired so fast it will make his head spin. The very idea that this miserable shit pit prepares anyone for Olympic excellence is ludicrous! I should have checked his credentials more closely. I checked his record as an attorney. It was miserable, but I reasoned that hardly mattered since I wasn't accused of any crime and was not going to Admi's court. This is the Olympics. I needed someone with real Crux experience. That he has, but I am now learning that has little to do with training for competition. What it means is that he is good at sharpening nails! Oh how blind I was! Oh, how I could use a glass of wine. Oh, how I could use a nice bath! Tree! You are fired! Now get me the Hell out of here, NOW!!!!

Be careful what you wish for... Chancellor Emeritus Despard Wragg and Joan Tree are practically dying to take over your 'training'. They are busy now fucking like bunnies right now....

More story...


Tree calls Madiosi to find out how Porzia’s training is going. Madiosi says “Oh, shit, I forgot about her!”

He hangs up and dashes off to the boiler room in the subbasement of his stately mansion where he has left her bound to a thick beam for almost four days with no food or water. He sees she looks alright and says as if he planned this “I think you are ready for a break…”



Tree

 

[Hondoboot2]

View attachment 389433 forty more hours! What the Fuck! Geeze! This is insane. Wait until I get out of here. This guy is going to get fired so fast it will make his head spin. The very idea that this miserable shit pit prepares anyone for Olympic excellence is ludicrous! I should have checked his credentials more closely. I checked his record as an attorney. It was miserable, but I reasoned that hardly mattered since I wasn't accused of any crime and was not going to Admi's court. This is the Olympics. I needed someone with real Crux experience. That he has, but I am now learning that his "expertise" has little to do with training for competition. What it means is that he is good at sharpening nails! Oh how blind I was! Oh, how I could use a glass of wine. Oh, how I could use a nice bath! Tree! You are fired! Now get me the Hell out of here, NOW!!!!

Don't quit now Barb, remember, no pain, no gain.

 

[thehangingtree]

Don't quit now Barb, remember, no pain, no gain.

Good man, but let her 'stew' tonight. Are you comfortable?

"Oh yes, Tree! I'm sure Barb would enjoy this air conditioning!"

Yeah, well, she can dream on...



Ulrika, would entertain Hondo? There's a little gift on the table for him...