The Naked Envoy

By the time they broke for lunch, they realized their afternoon would be lighter than usual because of their super productive morning.

They were chatting happily as they stepped into the elevator, blissfully unaware of the shocked expressions of the other riders.

They decided to hit the in-house cafeteria and got in line. Mary Sue was getting the majority of attention, so she stayed close to Maggie. The woman's aura of tranquil bliss seemed to radiate outward, calming those nearby.

The cafeteria workers were stunned by the five naked ladies and had a little trouble focusing on their orders, but the group took this in stride and joked with them.

They found a table by the window, which by unspoken rule usually went to the sales team. However, today they were giddy rebels, so there they sat, enjoying the sunlight.

A short time later, Shelaine arrived with four of her team, including Ted, all carrying their trays. Unfortunately, the tables sat six, so they were out of luck.

"Oh my God! You've infected the others with your disgusting perversion?" the sales team leader gasped indignantly.

Magdalena aimed a pitying look at the tall blonde. "Shelaine, this is the behavior that keeps you from finding true happiness and real friends. Open your heart. Yes, it can be a little scary, but the rewards are amazing."

The ladies at her table were all nodding in agreement, aiming hopeful smiles at the tall beauty.

Shelaine's mouth was opening and closing silently, and two of her sharks snorted at her shock. Her eyes snapped to the guilty culprits who tried to fake looks of outrage, but she knew they'd turned on her. She saw Ted was watching her thoughtfully, waiting for her response and looking a little sad too. That was too much.

With a furious snarl, she spun and stormed away, dumping her food in the trash and tossing the tray at the stack. It bounced off and clattered noisily to the floor, but she was already out the door.

The remaining salespeople looked back at the ladies sitting at the table. One saw the opportunity to become the next alpha. "You're sitting at our table."

Linda snorted. "You were supposed to leave that mentality behind when you graduated high school. Grown-ups learn to cooperate and show consideration."

The man began to snarl.

"Peter! Don't be a dick!" Ted said, interrupting his rude response. "There's an open table by the wall."

Glaring at Ted, Peter moved away with the other two.

Ted looked back at the ladies. "Sorry about them. I see space for one more. May I join you?" he asked hopefully.

Katherine gave him an assessing look. "You're a little overdressed for this table, but I suppose we can make an exception." The others giggled as he grinned and sat across from Magdalena.

"Thank you kindly," he said with a nod to the group.

He turned his smile to the woman before him. "You are making quite an impression on those around you."

"I surround myself with deeply beautiful souls," she sighed, and Mary Sue leaned against her shoulder affectionately.

"Is this the fella you have a date with?" the statuesque blonde asked Maggie quietly.

"Indeed, he is," she replied with a sweet smile.

Mary Sue looked at Ted closely, then nodded. "Good choice."

Ted felt a blush running up his cheeks. He did his best to ignore it, and the knowing grins on the faces of his lunch companions as they all began to eat.

"Shelaine is an unhappy person, and I don't believe you've seen the last of her. She's tenacious."

"For all the wrong reasons and targeting the wrong causes. I fear she may never find love," Magdalena sighed sadly.

Mary Sue made a sweet sound and took Magdalena's hand in hers.

Ted watched this with interest and saw the twinkle in the eyes of the other ladies. "While you've become surrounded by love."

"He's most perceptive, for a man," Katherine said in her Irish lilt and with a smile to take the sting from her words. He nodded his thanks as the others chuckled.

Linda sighed. "Speaking of the ill wind, she's back, and she brought reinforcements."

Ted turned to see Shelaine approaching with a righteous grin on her lips and the Head of Human Resources following close behind. He knew the HR Chief was a stickler for rules, and Maggie's crew were likely breaking a few.

"See! Exactly as I told you!" Shelaine exclaimed, then glared at the group who were giving her sad looks. Ted could see her jaw flex as her teeth clenched in frustration.

Gwendolyn was the company's HR Lead and had personally interviewed all of the people sitting at the table before her. None of them struck her as the rebellious type. Most were timid and compliant. She stepped closer and looked at Magdalena in surprise. She was the least problematic of her charges. "Magdalena? Why are you naked? Did you really make the other women join you?"

Maggie smiled sweetly. "Hi, Gwen. I don't believe I forced anyone into something they weren't comfortable with." The others agreed and voiced their denials. "They seem far more comfortable now than they did when they arrived fully dressed. As to why I'm not wearing clothes, they just aren't necessary. I woke this morning feeling better than I ever have. I was filled with happiness I just couldn't contain and comfortable in my own skin for the first time in my life. I couldn't cover that up! I want everyone to feel as good as I do!"

"I do!" Mary Sue exclaimed joyfully.

"I do, as well!" Katherine chimed in.

"For the first time in my life, I feel like I matter and I'm valued! These ladies are amazing!" Lita gushed.

Linda was beaming a smile at the others. "It's true! I was feeling so blue when I arrived this morning, but now I feel... blissful!"

Magdalena was crying happy tears as she realized they were sharing in her happiness. She looked to Gwen and saw the longing in her eyes. Before the woman could react, she stood to take the woman's hands in hers and looked into her eyes. "Everyone deserves to feel loved and valued. That's the message my mind and heart were singing to me this morning. I can't express how happy it makes me knowing they feel it too. I hope you can feel this way too."

Gwen passed her eyes over the naked but blissfully happy women of many shapes and sizes, from Magdalena's short, round squishiness, Lita's boyishly slim physique, to Mary Sue's Amazon proportions.

She was very self-conscious about her own body as she had a thick torso and legs with a small chest and a minimal ass.

Pitching her voice for only Maggie's ears, she leaned forward. "Everyone's so-"

"Perfectly themselves. You're perfect too, Gwen! Love it! Celebrate it! No one should be judged against arbitrary standards. You're a beautiful and caring person. That's all that matters," Maggie sighed.

Gwen's eyes teared up, so Magdalena pulled her into a hug.

"Ooooh!" Gwen said in surprise, but instead of feeling awkward about clinging to the naked woman, she began to feel... happy and... energized! She looked into the eyes of the other ladies and saw their compassion and joy. They were all delighted she was sharing the bliss of simple acceptance. She wrapped her arms around Magdalena and held tight. This was right. This was what human interaction should feel like.

When the shorter woman relaxed her grip, Gwen was a little reluctant to let go, but then she realized each of these women would gladly welcome her into their arms as well. That feeling of belonging surprised her with its intensity. She felt wanted and loved, and that meant everything.

"What the hell just happened?" Shelaine snapped as she stared at the peaceful smile on Gwen's face. "You have to penalize them for... this! There are RULES!" she exclaimed with vague hand gestures at the nakedness on display. The ladies in question burst into giggles, and Gwen found herself joining in.

Magdalena approached Shelaine, who stumbled back a step. "Here's a simple rule to guide you through your day. Be kind. The rewards you'll reap will surprise and delight you."

Shelaine's eyes were looking a little wild as she felt her reality slipping. She would not be given life lessons from a fat little troll! She scowled at Ted, but he just grinned and shrugged.

With a throttled scream of frustration, she spun on her heel and rushed away once more.

"I don't understand why she's so resistant to the message of love and acceptance," Maggie sighed, and Gwen shook her head sadly.

Ted leaned forward. "How would she maintain her self-appointed position of superiority if everyone accepted everyone else as equally wonderful?"

Maggie shook her head. "That sounds exhausting!"

There was a commotion at the cafeteria doorway, and they spotted Shelaine leading a man in an expensive suit towards them.

"Told you," Ted said with a smirk.

"Oh, heavens! That's Mr. Jeffreys, the company president. He's here for a board meeting today," Gwen said in surprise.

They saw the man seemed more than a little annoyed with Shelaine as she guided him across the chamber.

"See! This is what's happening in your company head office!" the sales team lead asserted as she pointed at the naked ladies.

The silver-haired man passed his eyes over the smiling women and looked to Shelaine. "Who are they?" Then he held his hand up to stop her and turned to his HR Lead. "Gwendolyn, can you tell me what's going on?"

Gwen nodded. "These ladies are the Sales Support Team. They perform administrative tasks for the sales team to improve their effectiveness."

"Did someone tell them they had to be naked to do this?" he asked, and the ladies laughed happily, bringing a smile to his face.

Shelaine didn't want this to get off track, so she butted in once more. "It's Magdalena's fault!"

The President scowled at Shelaine then looked to the group. "Which one of you is Magdalena?"

"I am, Mr. Jeffreys," Maggie said with a bright smile.

Shelaine saw the man's smile broaden and realized Magdalena might take control of him too. "No! Don't let her speak! She twists everyone's minds!"

The President had just about enough from his sales team lead. "You dragged me from a board meeting to deal with some critical crisis. Then, you point out the person you claim is the source of this crisis, and now you're telling me I can't speak to them to determine what the crisis is?"

"Are you blind? Can't you see she's naked?" Shelaine cried incredulously.

The older man's expression closed up as he locked eyes with Shelaine. No one talked to him like that. "Take the rest of the day off, without pay, and get your head on straight. I'll expect to see a written apology in my email tomorrow morning. No sooner. No later. Am I understood?"

Shelaine's mouth was doing that fish impression thing again without a sound. She nodded shakily. With a troubled look at the others, she turned and rushed from the cafeteria.

The President turned to Maggie with a smile. "I was about to ask you why you chose to grace our presence without clothes?"

Magdalena nodded and took him through her morning epiphany and how it changed everything for her.

The older executive nodded. "I can see how that would have been a profound realization for you, but why are your coworkers also naked?"

"Each made their own decision to express their freedom from an arbitrary social standard. As a result, the magnitude of happiness we experience just keeps getting stronger!" Maggie explained, and the ladies all nodded and grinned in agreement as they shared their excitement. Magdalena looked to each of them as she shared their joy and fed it back to them.

Gwen sucked in a surprised breath as she was feeling it too. She needed to be like them and began undressing hurriedly.

The President's eyes widened as he watched his head of HR strip before him. Soon she was as naked as the others, and her face showed a beatific expression.

She turned to face him. "It's true. Tossing off those shackles is an intensely gratifying experience. I feel... lighter of spirit. More at peace with myself." She giggled and looked so relaxed.

The executive looked to Ted. "You've been with them for a while. Are you going to strip as well?"

Ted chuckled. "I might, just to keep from being a party pooper, but I don't currently feel any compulsion to do it... if that's what you're asking."

"It was," Jeffreys said as he looked back at the ladies. "I've never seen anything like this before. I'm not sure Shelaine wasn't right to be a little concerned."

Magdalena aimed a sad look at the President. "Is acknowledging and rejecting an unhealthy system of self-perception something to be alarmed about? It's a major enlightenment for anyone who's suffered beneath its cruel yoke. You'd have to expect a burst of joy as a result." She smiled at her friends. "Sharing that wondrous sensation and wanting others to experience it is also a natural reaction."

Linda took up the thread. "We haven't lost our marbles. We're actually better at our jobs when we're happy. We got through so many requests this morning!"

"That's true! I completed my backlog from last week and got the fulfillment teams updated so they could proceed with the orders," Katherine explained.

"When we're happy, we share that positivity with those we work with. Everyone we talked to today can tell you how much better they felt afterward," Mary Sue said and got a proud smile from Maggie.

Lita took a turn. "The sales team will have a new catalog by tomorrow morning because I was able to negotiate with the printer to shuffle some projects around and reprioritize this. Unfortunately, the sales team, aside from present company, don't go out of their way to make friends with the other departments, so they get few favors. But everyone loves Ted."

The ladies burst into giggles as Ted's face reddened again. Magdalena hugged him, and his grin got wider, but his blush wasn't fading any time soon.

The President looked very pleased with how smoothly the department seemed to be working. "Okay, it's unorthodox, but it seems to work. I'm smart enough not to interfere with happiness." He fixed his eye on Gwen, and she nodded as she tried to hide her smile. He looked to Magdalena. "I'm glad you found your answer for happiness, and I'm glad you shared it."

Maggie hugged him, and he couldn't keep a smile of his own from his lips as he headed back to his board meeting. He did feel lighter, and this added a spring to his step.

With the departure of the President, the group suddenly realized they had an audience. As the cafeteria was a popular spot for lunch, it wasn't too surprising. With the drama Shelaine caused and the fact that the ladies were nude, this was the most interesting thing that had ever happened at their office.

Some of the ladies from the accounting department worked up the nerve to approach. "We heard what you told Mr. Jeffreys. We want to be happy too!"

Magdalena and the others stood and pulled the coworkers, male and female, into their embraces, and as each one stepped back, their faces wore broad smiles, and their eyes were filled with peace.

Two of Shelaine's sharks thought they'd get to grope Mary Sue, but Ted saw their unease increase as they got closer and closer to the blissfully smiling woman. They finally chickened out, left the line, and scurried away.

Ted found himself unbuttoned his shirt, tugging it off, and pushing his pants down. As he stepped from his underwear, he looked over to see Magdalena and Mary Sue grinning at him. He couldn't deny the joy he was feeling as it passed from body to body.

He understood now. It was coming from Magdalena's and moved through everyone in the cafeteria. She was the originating source, but now, everyone in the room was part of it, amplifying it, including him.

Magdalena walked over to him and held his eyes. "You feel it too."

"Yes. How can I be feeling your happiness?" he asked in awe.

She stepped forward and rested her cheek against his chest. "It's not just mine anymore." She felt her team's emotions pooling with hers, and her love for them bloomed suddenly. Gasps could be heard throughout the room.

There was an exodus of people from the cafeteria as they sought their friends and coworkers who'd missed the opportunity to feel so good. Others would likely be leaving early today to find their loved ones.

Gwen left as well, pretending not to hear the secret confessions of those leaving early.

"I'm adding a plus one to our date tonight if you don't mind," Maggie said softly.

Ted blinked in surprise at the shorter woman then felt Mary Sue's shock as well. He looked up and caught her blush as his face heated up. "O-okay."

"See you at five?" Maggie asked.

He grinned. "With bells on!"

"As long as that's all you have on," Mary Sue added, then covered her face with her hands in embarrassment at her boldness. The team burst into happy laughter at the innocent's attempt at sexy talk. Maggie squeezed her in a hug, and Mary Sue blinked away embarrassed but happy tears. She saw Ted's flirty smile and felt better.

The lunch hour was over, and they headed back to their desks, giving hugs to any who approached them along the way.

They had a visit from the warehouse team in the afternoon when word reached the building across the street where everyone's good moods were coming from. The twelve members of that team left with grins on their faces and joy in their hearts, some indicating they were cutting their day short to go surprise their spouses at work. Laughter filled the hallway as they left.

When five o'clock rolled around, the ladies shut down their laptops in unison as they'd completed their tasks and got a start on the following morning's as well. They'd had a few more visits in the afternoon, and Ted called Magdalena to let her know he'd had a fair number of visitors as well.

They met in the main floor elevator lobby and headed outside to the employee parking lot, where they faced a bank of cameras and news correspondents from several local news channels. Magdalena giggled with surprise and excitement, and her friends stood beside her as they faced the cameras.

Gwen stepped out a door to the left of the main entrance and descended the stairs before noticing the activity. She stood next to one of the news vans and heard an argument break out between the techs.

"Whaddaya mean the blurring won't work! This is live! We can't show nudes on the five PM news!"

"I'm telling ya it was workin' fine a minute ago, but it's not working now!"

"Fix it, goddammit!"

"I'm trying, but it keeps telling me it's not broken!"

Gwen giggled and moved to the next van and heard similar comments. Then, turning to face the stairs, she strode boldly forward and eased her way through the bunched reporters who quickly moved back when they discovered her lack of clothes. She climbed the stairs and smiled at Magdalena. "They're broadcasting us without hiding our nudity." She turned to see the reporters arguing with their camera operators.

Maggie laughed delightedly and clapped her hands. The others felt that burst of humor and looked to her as she wrapped her arms around herself and closed her eyes in bliss.

"Can you feel them?" she asked in wonder, and they nodded. Out there, the ones who left work early to find their loved ones were sharing their happiness with them, causing it to surge back to Magdalena. Everyone currently linked to her network of joy felt these surges rebound back outwards, amplified by her. The energy level in Magdalena was growing quickly, and she felt herself quickly building up to some critical threshold.

One of the reporters worked up the nerve to get closer. "Trish Dalton, ABC 10NEWS San Diego. Can you tell us who you are and why you're all naked?"

Maggie was riding a high and was only partially aware of the people before her. She felt the loving touch of Ted and Mary Sue as they came forward to gently support her on both sides. Ted nodded to the other woman who faced the reporter with a beatific smile.