Comments
Loading Dream Comments...
You must be logged in to write a comment - Log In
Wide-angle cinematic 35mm film still of a 1st-century Roman villa banquet room (triclinium), highly detailed, 16:9 aspect ratio. On the left side, on a slightly elevated marble platform, sits Petronius Arbiter, an elegant, middle-aged Roman aristocrat in an immaculate white toga, watching the commotion with a calm, wry, and amused expression. On the far right, standing in the archway, are two deeply shocked 22nd-century Catholic nuns—a stern older Mother Superior and a frightened young novice hiding behind her. They wear traditional black and white habits, with subtle glowing holographic futuristic wristbands. In the center, a chaotic banquet table is filled with silver goblets and fruit bowls. A spilled terracotta wine jar leaks dark red wine onto the tiled floor. On the floor in front of a couch, a young Roman girl in a light tunic sits looking at the nuns with curious fascination, while another girl beside her whispers in her ear. On a reclining couch near the center, a young 19th-century gentleman (young Mihály Munkácsy) in a tailored dark Victorian suit and bowtie sits awkwardly among loosely draped Roman revelers, clutching a wine glass in utter disbelief. Beside him, a young Roman nobleman is frozen mid-motion, holding a cluster of purple grapes halfway to his mouth, staring at the nuns in open-mouthed astonishment. Atmospheric warm torchlight mixed with soft sunlight filtering through open columns, realistic textures, cinematic color grading, depth of field.
(The blue Temporal Tethers on the wrists of the two 22nd century nuns flash as they materialize by the banquet table. The Abbess looks around in horror.)
Abbess:
— Heavenly Father, what is this place?! Customer service promised the year 212. We paid for the symposium with Origen and Pope Zephyrinus in Rome.
STTS Navigation AI (quietly from the wristband):
— Destination recalculated. The term “Origen” caused a syntactic conflict with the requested “entertainment event” parameters. Autocorrect: “Orgy”. Have a nice time in Nero’s Rome!
(The 18-year-old Mihály Munkácsy, who has been peacefully studying the Roman lighting conditions, clenches his goblet tightly and does not say a word, only staring with wide eyes at younger nun, Sister Agnes.)
Petronius Arbiter (slowly sips his wine and surveys the nuns):
— The use of color is brave, but the cut is unforgivably stiff. And who wears wool in such heat?
(Somewhere in the young Munkácsy’s mind, the first, unfortunate foundations of what future art historians would call the 'Unbearable Era' are already taking shape.)
