Nanites Ate Our Clothes

This is a mildly erotic science fiction tale, of a nudist world created by a scientific malfunction.

--

The new nude world began by accident, and good intention.

--

Shalina couldn't quite believe her eyes. Sat on a make-shift bed in the middle of sports hall surrounded by hundreds of others seeking refuge, she knew this moment might come. But that didn't make it any less surprising to see, as half the clothing on those around her spontaneously crumbled away. Some hurried to find cover as parts of their bodies became exposed, others accepted the inevitable. In every direction naked and half-naked bodies were appearing.

Then she felt a tingle. How? She thought her blouse was cotton. But apparently not, like so many others around her, the fabric of her top began to fray, and dissolve away, and in just seconds time she found herself topless. Another of the victims of this most unexpected turn of events. Comfortable as she was with nudity, at any other time in her life she might have panicked had she found her breasts suddenly exposed to the public world. But today, it really didn't seem to matter anymore. There were hundreds more breasts around her; who would care anymore? Until alternative fabrics could be found, this was the way of the world now...

--

Two days earlier

"Scientists hail this game changing innovation," announced the news reporter, a diminutive black woman walking around a gleaming lab with metal desks and bright lights overhead. She thrust her microphone towards one of those hailing scientists. "Tell me Doctor Juma, what will this mean for the world?"

Shalina listened with interest; she knew what this was all about, who didn't, but was none-the-less fascinated by this moment in history unfolding.

"Well Grace, as you say, it really does change everything," the middle-aged, dark-skinned, lab-coat wearing intellectual began. "With plastic pollution found in our oceans, our soils, and even the most remote parts of the world, we knew we had to find some way to tackle the material at the global level. We've been working on nanite technology here at the University of Dodoma for over ten years, and one of the things we've been looking at is targeted material collection. Initially we were planning to use this technology to assist in mining, allowing the tiny robots to harvest every minute deposit of a selected material, without having to dig out all the surrounding unwanted minerals. But then one of our research assistants had an inspiration; what if we could also use it to tackle the global plastic pollution problem? We could program the nanites to target different materials, and in a matter of months rid the entire world of that unwanted and dangerous waste."

"And now you're putting that plan into action," interjected the reported. "As we'll see live with our on-site reporter, Santiago Domínguez, who is right now at the European nanite seeding site just outside Madrid. Santiago."

The shot switched to a handsome thirty-something Spanish man, with a stubbly beard and a mess of head hair. He was standing next to another lab-coat wearing scientist outside a large industrial complex.

"So Professor Palomo," he addressed the tall voluptuous woman, "today the nanites will be released, and with targeted programming will eradicate the world's waste plastics, wherever they're found, in just four weeks?"

"That's correct," she replied cheerfully, "we've been able to target the nanites to only destroy waste plastic by having them check for UV damage before starting consumption. So anything more modern won't be targeted. And as you know, as a precaution the world has spent the last year marking any plastics we want to keep, such as those used in buildings and infrastructure, transport, clothing, and such, with a special spray coating, so the nanites know not to consume them. It's been an incredible global effort!"

"It really has, I spent last night re-spraying my apartment just in case. Wouldn't want half my home to dissolve!" Santiago replied with a light-hearted air. He'd need that humour soon...

"So we're right about ready to start the deployment," Professor Palomo continued; when we release the nanites you'll be able to see a slight shimmer in the air, but they're quickly dissipate, and then you'll only know they're at work as plastics start to vanish. I picked up some litter this morning so we can see them in action right away."

With that the Professor walked to a nearby computer terminal, and tapped in some instructions. A great whirring could be heard, and as promised a shimmering cloud came pouring out of the huge storage vats behind her.

Santiago continued his reporting. "So if we take a close look here at Professor Palomo's litter," he waved the camera to come close to a small pile of plastic bottles and scrunched up carrier bags, "we should see them disappear almost right away as the nanites spread out around us, right?"

"That's right, in fact you can see it now."

The camera pushed close, and as promised, what was a pile of rubbish quickly vaporised into nothing at all.

As the camera pulled back neither the reporter or scientist were continuing their commentary. Instead they were frantically brushing at their bodies, as if trying to remove some irritant.

"What's happening?" Santiago shouted, alarmed, as his trousers, and underwear, melted away, revealing a flailing penis suddenly liberated as the reporter moved frantically.

"This wasn't supposed to happen," came the panicked scientist's reply, her own lab coat swinging erratically, intact, but beneath, the dress she wore was vanishing, flashing her increasingly naked body beneath the coast as she too tried to brush off an invisible attacker.

Shalina stared open mouthed at the TV, she had not expected that!

The news report cut to the studio, where two anchors, unexpectedly on-screen also looked on dumfounded. One of them snapped to attention, realising they were on air.

"Well, ugh, sorry about that, umm, unexpected display," he stumbled. "We'll check back on Santiago later, when he's umm, well, dressed again."

His female co-host chipped in, "a little update on what's happening now, we're getting reports of similar incidents in proximity to all the nanite release sites globally. And..." she took a moment to read something on the monitor in front of her, "and we're being told now to stay indoors, and await instruction. That's stay-"

She abruptly paused, and then both anchors started brushing at their arms. As they did so their dress and suit respectively dissolved away. As their naked torsos appeared from behind the vanishing garments, the TV channel switched to a test card, with a loud beep sound accompanying.

Shalina switched off the irritating noise and rushed to her window, wondering if the same thing was happening nearby. But outside everyone was just going about their business as normal. Clothed, as normal.

Then Shalina's phone beeped. She reached to her pocket and opened a message that had just arrived. But was momentarily distracted when out of her peripheral vision she noticed everyone outside had stopped, and were also reaching for or looking at phones.

She quickly focused back at the small screen in her hand.

"This is a message from the government. Take action now.

The nanite release has malfunctioned. The nanites are targeting synthetic fibres, such as nylon, polyester, acrylic, and other plastic based fabrics. Please be advised to change into non-synthetic fabric clothing immediately.

The virus cloud has not reached this region yet, but is expected to within 48-72 hours.

We are setting up a sealed refuse at the Central Sports Hall, we advise all residents to assemble there, where we will await a resolution to this incident. Food and bedding will be provided. Bring cotton based clothes long enough to last at least a week.

Act now."

Shalina re-read the message several times, absorbing what was happening. Then turned to look at herself in the large mirror on one wall. She was only half dressed anyway, having pulled on her yoga pants ready to head to her mid-week yoga class, before the news report had caught her attention.

Momentarily distracted by her own boobs, she cupped them, gave them a squeeze, and then let them fall back down. The self-critical part of herself always thought them a little saggy, but the self-loving part knew that they were perfectly normal, and indeed pretty damn great. "It wouldn't be so bad to have to show these off," she thought to herself, as she squeezed her large dark nipples absentmindedly.

"Are you feeling yourself up?" her flatmate interrupted her boob-distracted internal thoughts.

"I... Well, I was just thinking it wouldn't be the end of the world if I ended up naked. I've got great boobs."

"Ha, well, you certainly do," replied Catherine, who was both slimmer and much flatter-chested than Shalina. Catherine had always been a little jealous of her flatmate's impressive boobs, which she was fortunate to get a frequent view of, due to their shared casual attitudes to nudity. "But it is actually the end of the world though. At least some sort of disaster movie happening. Just like the doomsters predicted, nanite clouds, maybe not such a smart idea."

They exchanged worried looks.

"Best start packing then," Shalina decided, bringing herself back to the issue at hand. "These wont do for a start," she declared, as she peeled off her tight yoga pants, revealing her even tighter bum. She wondering back to her room naked, to begin inspecting her wardrobe.

Alas for all the campaigns highlighting the issues of micro-plastics from clothing, that Shalina was well aware of, her wardrobe was still packed full of synthetic fibres. After nearly an hour digging through her garments, she had only been able to put together a single outfit that she thought was safe - Although she wasn't entirely sure as she habitually cut out the tags from her clothing because they irritated her. So she didn't really know what anything was made of.

All she had to wear then, was a pair of denim shorts, held up with a bright blue belt, and a pale green casual blouse. Along with the choice of several pairs of socks. She never wore underwear anyway, so there wasn't anything else to pick from there.

She donned her outfit, which would need to last her who-knows-how-long, and after a bite to eat, she and Catherine headed for the Central Sports Hall as instructed.

--

Shalina and Catherine had been camped out in the middle of the shorts hall for a couple of days, and got to know many of their neighbours. Just an hour earlier, the town mayor had announced the hall was to be sealed, with the entire community now safely inside. No one knew how long they'd be stuck here. Shalina was a bit fed up with it already; she wasn't accustomed to having to stay dressed all the time for one, and she was already tired of her single outfit.

That issue would soon be resolved.

The first hint something had gone wrong came when Catherine started to complain about something irritating her back. She was fidgeting about for a couple of minutes, and after much fussing eventually decided it was something wrong with her bra, which she carefully unhooked and pulled out from beneath her dress.

Except only half the bra came out.

"What the heck?" she blurted out in shock at her own apparent strength. "I didn't just rip my bra in half did I??" Putting down the single cup, she proceeded to feel around for the other half, but found nothing.

"Uh, Catherine," Shalina alerted her, "I think your other half has a problem too."

Catherine looked down, and was shocked to she her half-bra was dissolving away into no bra at all. "Oh shit, they're in here!"

Before they could do anything to warn anyone, screams started. Looking around there were suddenly boobs and bums all over, bare arms and legs, suddenly exposed tummies, and a lot of pubes and private parts that had never known such a public display.

While taking that all in, Shalina's top had dissolved away, leaving her large boobs on display, as had Catherine's dress, leaving her slim body bare, aside from a small pair of panties with a little bow on the front.

Shalina was left in her shorts, but not for long, as she suddenly felt them falling down to the floor.

"Damn it, I forgot about the belt," she exclaimed, as the plasticy material vanished, leaving her somewhat too large shorts free to fall away quicker than she could grab them.

Shalina was naked, every part of her light-brown skin free to be seen by all around. While she took in the sights of many other naked and half-naked people, she noticed plenty eying up her own body. She felt quite pleased to be drawing soo many eyes, and took her time getting round to recovering her shorts.

--

With the authority's plans to protect everyone from the nanites having clearly failed, people soon found their way out of the sports hall and headed home. It was quite a surreal sight, as the crowd of people, many naked or half-naked filed out into the city. After the initial commotion most people just accepted they were stuck like that for the time being and stopped bothering to try and cover anything. Including Shalina who gave up trying to stop her shorts falling down and decided to just walk home naked, holding them.

Catherine didn't need to, but watching her friend strutting her naked stuff down the city streets, she decided to slip off her panties too, and enjoy the moment naked in the streets.

They were joined by a gaggle of people they had befriended in the shelter, that also lived in their neighbourhood. Only about half of them had lost clothing to the nanite cloud, but by the time they got back to their apartment buildings nearly the entire group had decided to strip off, in solidarity with their less dressed companions, and just enjoying the surreal experience of being part of a suddenly naked city.

--

Within a few weeks the nanites finished their job and shut down as they were programmed to do. All the world's waste plastic had been vaporised. But not to plan, so had all the world's artificial fabrics - Several years latter it was discovered this was the work of a rogue member of the scientific team who had programmed the nanites. They had decided the problems of synthetic fabrics should not be allowed to continue, and had taken the opportunity of the once in a lifetime global cleanse, to rid the world of them along with the plastic-waste.

The legacy of those few days was monumental for the world. All the plastic waste was gone, but so too were humanity's inhibitions. Natural fibre production wasn't able to catch up with demand for some time after the incident, leaving a global clothing shortage.

Many people just adapted to that new reality, and casual nudity suddenly became common and accepted. Within a few years most countries had declared themselves officially clothing optional, and on summer's days it was more unusual to see someone dressed than naked.

Shalina and Catherine embraced this reality with relish, with Shalina switching from never wearing underwear, to pretty much never wearing clothes at all. She never did get tired of showing off her rather brilliant boobs, and the world never got tired of seeing them.