Great... For Lena

For the presentation, a crowd larger then even Rojas in her wildest dreams could have hoped for had arrived. There were the tech journalists, the Catco and Obsidian North employees like Kelly, Kara, Nia and William, there were business friends and rivals, there was a rather happy looking Lena. There would be plenty of people unknown to Andrea, those who had beta-tested the devices and new people who had joined very recently. Thanks to the VR lenses, everyone would have a perfect view of Andrea atop of her platform, no worse then those streaming via the Catco site.

As the seconds counted down, literally in the corner of their view, Lena found Kara and whispered “Everything is set, this will be a day we and poor Andrea will never forget.” then with a wink, slipped into the crowd so Andrea would not see them together.

When the numbers reached 0, Andrea appeared before them and the presentation started. For the many many people new to the dream, it was the sight and smells as if really in the field that Kara and William had first felt. For the journalists, a helpful text emerged on their edge of view, filling in their thoughts so they could concentrate on the show, an innovation that earned some goodwill. For William and Kara, it was nervously waiting to see if things would work as intended.

Andrea’s performance was better then the practise one, she had honed the speech and she seemed to respond well to the crowd, drawing confidence from the audience reaction and from the numbers of subscribers rising on the edge of her vision. When it came to exploring other places, this time it went straight to the beach and to disappointment of one or two people, she wasn’t in underwear this time. Instead she was in a fetching one piece bathing suit, black of course, exposing a bit of cleavage, her arms and her pale legs but little else, and shades which she pulled down to peer over the top of them.

“One can go into these dreams in the clothing you entered in with or you can change into something to suit the situation. A suit may not be the best for a beach so the dreams can change to the outfit that suits your setting, I did think it would be unwise to choose a nude beach to show off this setting.”

It drew a few laughs, mostly from those who knew of the test run, then the speech went on, Collective Dreams smoothly handling the changes of background and Andrea’s clothing with no hint of clothing trouble to be found. For the journalists, they sensed being at a great new discovery, the start of the latest advancement in the fourth industrial revolution, for the businesses rivals it was either worries they might be left behind or the eye for an opportunity at getting in as a partner and how they could combine their product with such a world. For those that came for **** and humiliation, this was frustrating, Rojas was about to become world renowned as an innovator and tech genius. Meanwhile Lena just smiled to herself, this was impressive but the best was yet to come….

They got to the end, Andrea’s big innovation set to roll out over all over the front pages, to become the new technology that would change the world. When they changed to a lovely sunset view over Central City, some attention wandered to the scenic view but Rojas closing statement was aimed towards the journalists, the edited clips to go on news and the tech nerds

“There is a prize for all the budding programmers and inventors out there. I want this to be more then an Obsidian North Project, I want this to be something for all. For people of creativity and skill to create on this platform, to help find new ways of making life better using Collective Dreams. We will be releasing ways of helping shape the device, to make the world a better, happier place. With the Dreams of the Collective, we can do anything and for those who help advance things, we wish to hire you and reward the best of you. We can forge a brighter, more united future where everyone’s dreams come true and where people can show everything they have to the world.”

The fireworks began, a spectacular show as the sky changed to night so the patterns created could best be seen, the appropriate appreciative ooh’s and applause followed. The light from the blasts in the sky seemed to perfectly fall on Andrea, a confident, hands on hips posing CEO who clearly knew she had got one over on her rivals and ensured her place in the world, her smile reflected the confident, even commanding, stance.

What most noticed though was not quite the pose. For one or two, it would be the way the lights fell on her skin, the different shades altering perception and making something artistic that they could use in the dreams or their own projects, inspired by Rojas as their muse. For others, it was the fact her clothes had vanished, only her earrings left on her, that of the famed businesswoman they were now seeing everything she had. A body that had always been well dressed but bar a few lovers, none of which were in the room, had never been seen fully by others.

Rojas has always projected authority and confidence, a commanding presence in her stances, her words, her carefully controlled reputation and image including her clothing. Yet to see beneath that took something of that majesty away, she was still a fit and well groomed woman but whenever they would think of her now, it would be of the naked sight before them. Her small breasts starting to show some signs of her middle age as they jiggled in the breeze, her trim stomach showing a woman who had worked on her appearance and her brown bush doing little to cover her most secret delights.

People reacted differently to this surprise, there were gasps, cheers, some turned away, others were open mouthed in shock. One quick witted figure used the power of the collective dream to open up a mirror behind Rojas, showing her exposed back, with pale mark where her bra had once shielded her bosom, and her flat bottom. Several then took screen-shots, for research and journalists purposes only.

It would be one journalist that stepped forward from the crowd

“Lois Lane, Daily Planet. A most impressive invention but why did she overshadow it by going naked. Are you now a nudist Miss Rojas?”

For Andrea, the moment of her dreams could not have gone better. Despite the earlier unfortunate incident, she knew the problems were fixable and with no faked crowd, far less likely to happen. She had faith in her own considerable abilities to show her wonderful idea and see a successful launch, the numbers of subscribers she could see was high (she had decided not to have comments shown as she suspected not all of them would be about the product).

The size of the crowd lifted her, she could see the great of Central City and elsewhere seemed to be, not only the tech journalists but major ones from rival broadcasters. Business allies and business rivals, her own staff like Nia and she was pleasantly surprised to see Lena, she didn’t recall inviting her once friend but maybe today Lena would be impressed and wounds could heal. Plenty here were, she was sure, hoping to see her fail but she knew she wouldn’t, she would leave her fans delighted, the neutral bowled over at the future and her rivals in despair at how far she had got ahead of them.

Her revisions to the speech she felt were paying off, she was more confident that it flowed better and with the confidence came a better performance. Watching the audience, she knew the sights and smells were wowing them as it had Kara, even the unusually hard to read Lena seemed a little impressed. She knew (perhaps helped by having a peek at what they were having written) that the journalists would be telling everyone this was something everyone would have to have, she could sense the money making opportunities from other businesses would seek to join the coming thing early, in one or two tech rivals she spotted a look of alarm.

She had taken inspiration from her “bikini” accident, turning the memory into a private joke for Kara and William while allowing her to turn the moment from embarrassment to something more positive for her. It worked as a sell, not only the place of your memory and dreams but changing to suit the scene would make people feel natural. Even in a dream, going to a fantasy restaurant in t-shirt and jeans would make one feel out of place and even sour the dream, going in the right attire and one could have a merry time.

By the time of the fireworks, Andrea felt on top of the world, one that her Collective Dreams would soon dominate, allowing for the greatest of riches, data and control. She watched the fireworks for a moment, enjoying the view of the sky then turned her eyes towards her large audience who… were not reacting in the way she expected. Shock? Perhaps to a degree but earlier on, not now. Talking and whispering? Not a surprise, people were going to discuss the major event they had just witnessed, she wanted them to talk.

It was the way none of her staff could look her in the eyes, it was the flickers of amusement on Lena’s face, it was the full on stares, the gawking, even some laughter. What could be so funny about the fireworks? Why did some of her rivals look like the cat had got the cream in her moment of triumph? Something was wrong but she didn’t know what until a black-haired reporter from the Daily Planet asked the question.

In disbelief she looked down, expecting to see a black dress and then to kill William or Kara for leaking to someone the earlier incident. She was already coming up with a reply in her head to this joke when the truth hit home. In front of her eyes was pale, floppy, skin from her shoulders to her painted toenails.

She was naked. Nude. Without a stitch to her name. Starkers. In front of her staff, the media, Lena, her rivals. Her eyes caught the numbers watching on streams and she screamed, the numbers seemed to be rocketing by the second. All those people seeing her bare body exposed, that she had kept in good shape and looked good offered her no comfort.

Her brain then sounded the alarm, that she was still standing there mouth open and nothing covered. Her left arm flew to cover her exposed sagging breasts, to shield the nipples from further purple scrutiny, her left hand plunged between her now closed legs, her body bending over to try to show as little as possible to the world, unaware of the mirror behind. For those used to seeing Rojas at their boss or their rival, confident, poised, in complete control and able to command, this was a complete reversal as she squealed and squirmed beneath their gaze.

With Lois having asked the first question, more comments come flying from the crowd, some from journalists and some perhaps less about informing the public

“How can we trust such a device if it will strip our clothes?”

“What a nice pair of apples”

“Is this a shameless publicity stunt to ensure attention? Because let me tell you, the whole world will be seeing this.”

“How do you think people seeing you naked will shape your image? Will the board support you on this?”

“Is this an Eve scenario in the device?”

“Will people be able to imagine others naked in Collective Dreams? That seems an invasion of privacy.”

“Whenever we are in meetings, all I’m going to be able to see if Rojas pussy in front of me. Going to make work really distracting.”

“I know the first memory I’m going to be going over again and again and again.”

“Best birthday present ever.”

As questions were asked, all Rojas could focus on was trying to get the device to either close or at least give her clothes but the device wasn’t responding to her command,. What it did, ever so helpfully do was add an alert pinged to everybody’s device, that Q&A would go on till nobody had any questions and Rojas would have to answer them all in a policy called "Nothing to Hide"

For the mortified Rojas, wishing to be anywhere but in her own device so people could stop seeing her birthday suit, it was going to be a long session...