Another week, another lull. The standard capacity of Wonderland fluxed every time a Beacon Beauty went up on stage; sometimes it only took a day or two for another flower to grace the stage, sometimes a week, sometimes more. The inconsistency kept things interesting, at least that's what Queen told everyone that asked. "Well, that and you try convincing school girls to show off every other day." Today was relatively full, only a few tables left unattended. Supposedly, tonight was a different kind of show, and whispers of what it could be pervaded the club, whether another concert, a glorified live solo show, a fashion boutique, or whatever else. As they always were, the voices became silent as the speakers rose.

"Going to be honest with you, I'm not 100% sure on this one, seeing as she needs a handler." Queen had a hint of confusion in his voice. "Yeahhh... That's the word. It'll definitely be a show, that's for sure. And to prepare, this time we've upped the production value! Smoke and mirrors, everyone!" Billows of thin white clouds poured from smoke machines placed every now and then along the run way, filling the state area with a haze. Spotlights illuminated it in an almost ethereal way, making the floor not quite of this world.

"Now, I've been told that everything's been planned out and should go as intended, but if not, I have at least one backup plan. Hopefully we don't need to pull out the apology, so sit back and enjoy the best Atlas has to offer. I hope."

Queen turned off the mic and turned to an odd looking man with thick glasses, mottled pink hair, a young, round face, and a white coat sitting next to him. Still hesitant about his plans, he asked, "So you're sure you've got this all down? She's ready to go?"

The pink haired man grinned a slightly unnerving grin and replied with, "I assure you, I've gone through this with her a million times to get it down. I've accounted for everything. We'll have no problems."

Queen looked through his window overlooking the club, still unsure. "Eh, we'll see what they think. Definitely something new, so novelty might win out."

"Mr. Queen, I assure you she'll be fine. I spent a lot of time making this work."

"I know, Pygma. I'm still a bit unsettled about how you managed to turn a genius intellect, hundreds of millions of government funded lien, and an entire lab of technicians into a way to make a strip show."

Pygma snorted. "Once the lights goes out, I'm free to do as I please with what I've made. It's my tech, so I can play with my toys all I want, and I assure you I do it by myself."

Queen cringed for a second. The man before him was... frankly somewhat infuriating, being a condensing jackass with a huge brain, but he was also just sort of creepy. Pygma was one of Atlas' best and brightest, fueling their technological side of production at the ripe old age of half of his. He was also, as was evidenced by what was to come, a deviant in every sense of the word. As the music started, both turned to face the stage, waiting for the show to begin.

"MR. VICTOR "RED" QUEEN, CULTIVATOR OF BEAUTIFUL FLOWERS AND PURVEYOR OF FINE DANCE, I HAVE AN OFFER FOR YOU!"

Queen had been caught off guard to say the least when he was approached by who he soon learned was a brilliant scientist and engineer. The loud mouthed Pygma had basically burst in past closing, flaring his hands up declaring his offer, which was tonight's show. It was a strange conversation.

"BAH, I love a man who knows business! I'll lend her out for free out of the kindness of my heart."

Queen concluded that Pygma would be absolutely insufferable in large doses, but the offer he made was something he didn't want to pass up. He was still really unsettling, and a bit too casual about his... request.

"It's settled then! My only request is that you don't say my name; I like to have fun off the clock, but I don't think the bigwigs would appreciate this and I'd prefer not to have it traceable. Blah, blah, black market backhanded dealings blah, blah, lies. Really, what I have here is the basics, so it's not like I've stolen secret tech."

The spotlights fell upon an encroaching mist, leaving an unearthly haze of transparent cloud. There was a another light seemed to make the stage the slightest bit brighter, and a strange flicker warped over the area. Glitchy, poppy, bright music seemed to explode from the speakers, drowning the noise of the crowd in saccharine. Suddenly, a form appeared at the end of the stage; the silhouette, using the loose term, was identifiable as a female, but shadows weren't supposed to emanate a low green-blue light. The curtains also lay still, undisturbed by the figure's sudden appearance as if she wasn't there.

"I still have reservations about this," Queen said, looking at Pygma.

Snorting, Pygma replied, "Then just wait! I'm sure the audience will love this! Since I made her for the CCT's AI program, everybody's told me they think she's cute! I designed her that way. The bosses at Atlas made me make a bit less fun, though, so now we're here." The man tapped on a case that had at one point held the various bits and bobs that projected the model of the well known and well loved CCT AI onto smoke. "She's a familiar face and kind of a celebrity; Alice will do great!"

"A-Alice?" Queen said, growing more unsettled. "What, you named it?" Having the creator of a high end piece of technology tell him he made it for slightly fetishistic reasons was weird, but naming it like a daughter... And with that name...

"Well, SHE is supposed to be the face. And, minor mind blow here, Alice comes from how, "AI," kinda looks like, "Al," –lowercase, by the way– and then that lovely shade of Alice Blue I made her eyes. Really, just a stroke of–"

"You're not naming that thing Alice," Queen sternly demanded. Pygma opened his mouth, but was interrupted with a venomous, "Not Alice."

"I can see from that glare that that's non negotiable in this situation..." Pygma shrugged, pretty nonplussed, "The other was, "Eliza." Lily for short. Kinda that white glow."

"Fine with me." Queen turned back as people acclimated to the strange sight before them. "Wait, does Eliza really shorten to Lily?"

"It does when I created her, and when people say Eliza isn't a color."

Eliza stood up on stage, holding her pose while the music ramped up. As Pygma designed her, she looked bubbly even from a distance. As the beat hit, she spiraled, her skirt flowing out in an ethereal way, the hologram hitting the haze and displaying the slightly unsettling amount of work that went into a normally stationary display's clothing physics. She began stepping down the stage, her non physical form making her lighter than air as she pranced along. As she got closer and closer, the crowd began to notice just what exactly was going on, and who exactly was up on stage, performing just like any other of Queen's flowers. Eliza, the usually prim and proper CCT AI never shown in a context outside of tech support, was on a dance floor, only held together by the projection hitting haze. It was definitely a second or two before people realized everything, but they seemed at the very least intrigued.

Eliza became fully visible slightly earlier than the other girls on account of being luminescent. Well known by most, she had a prim and proper bun in addition to well groomed (or would, if she was the one that maintained it) dark hair, tinted a bluish green by her projection. She had a shockingly realistic face, youthful, peppy, and ready to help with her bright blue eyes that seemed to shine just a bit brighter. Her skin was less discolored, Pygma having spent, "Copious amounts of extra time on that. Gotta make her ready!" and leaving her with normal, pale, soft looking skin. She giggled without noise and loosened the tie around her neck, harming her professional appearance she was made to have. Though now slightly lax, she wore a posh uniform not unlike an upscale Beacon Academy outfit, being a jacket over a vest over a button up. Though her tie was disheveled, she maintained a proper appearance with a long, loose fitting skirt that reached her knees. In Pygma's words, she had, "Dark stockings all the way up. Easier to make look legitimate than skin, plus stockings, man! It took a few revisions, but they can come off." Indeed, her legs were entirely covered by black leggings, hiding her legs and falling into tall heels that didn't look like they were meant for a office setting. Overall, she looked exceptionally cute and friendly, more than happy to serve any request.

"I still can't get over that..." Queen muttered. "She looks real."

"I'm a master of my craft. An artist with unseen tools!"

Eliza traipsed forward, looking decidedly more schoolgirl than tech assistant. Whether some holdover from her original design document or a heavy handed edit to her programming, her step was almost childish with the casual nature it held, unbound by supposed worries. Skipping along, she hit the main stage with weightless leaps before taking a cutesy pose stylishly displaying her figure. For a program projected onto fog, she carried a defined look about her, almost indiscernible from a beautiful human woman. The only thing betraying her appearance was her whitish glow, light breaking through the club and drawing all eyes. As the music's faint, barely distinguishable lyrics picked up, so did her beat; Eliza bounced around, quickly flashing between poses while miming the words as if she were singing.

"You made her sing?" Queen continued to be creeped out by the man beside him's fetishes.

"Oh, of course! Lip syncing was one of the most important things about her! And practice makes perfect." Pygma smiled to himself as he continued looking at his creation. "You have no idea how long I spent on her face."

"Let's keep it that way..."

Eliza spun her way to the front of the stage, standing inches away from the intrigued crowd and reaching the end of the billowing smoke. Her legs faded slightly, instructing the room on her status as a hologram as she edged the stage, taking more adorable poses lined with bright, toothy smiles that sang happiness. The club was amazed at how emotional the image on stage was, as she was capable of communicating joy as well as any of the other dancers. After blowing a kiss in an almost over dramatic way, Eliza made her way to the center most pole, grappling on to it with her hands.

"Broken record I know, but people feel more comfortable when she interacts with stuff," Pygma said, a step away from patting himself on the back. "The illusion of touch/sound took a few revs, but now she can pretty much recognize physical objects and act as if she can touch them. Had to analyze the layout of the stage, but she knows where the poles and edges are."

"So you're the bastard that makes those automated phone lines where the AI types on a nonexistent computer..." Queen was beyond impressed for what felt like the wrong reasons. Eliza could interact with objects, which would be amazing were it not for the fact that she was on a stage floor faking contact with a stripper pole.

"It's all a big lie, but the research shows that people want to think they're doing something other than just calculating. Oh, oh! Check out the hair moving, I'm super happy with that!"

Eliza spiraled around the pole, Pygma gloating over the fact that her bun, loose tie, and skirt all acted as if they were legitimately affected by gravity. "She's programmed, so she's on a routine, but yeah, that took fine tuning. I've been saying that a lot, but A. physics are hard, and B. gotta go realistic, otherwise it falls apart." The hologram completed several revolutions before Eliza splayed out, her grand presentation revealing the true idea of her being on stage.

"Okay, that's pretty good..." Queen said, remarking on how Eliza's skirt seemed to shrink dramatically as it twirled in the nonexistent gravity. Hopping off the pole, Eliza spun one more time towards center stage, revealing that her skirt now rested centimeters under the point where she would be revealed. "Still friggin creepy..."

"My only regret is that real skirts can't do that." Pygma looked upon his design with want. "Fantasy truly is better."

Eliza pinched the hems of her skirt and mock curtsied, still denying any looks that would allow one to determine how detailed her model was. With a bright sunshine of a laugh, the projection began to take more poses showing off her cute features. Changing very quickly from adorable to alluring, her body became more and more suggestive, focusing in on the features yet to be seen in full. She traced her glowing silhouette, highlighting the intricately modeled body that had been given to her. None of the crowd asked why or for what purpose, and instead were content to enjoy the unique show.

After tracing up and down her leg, Eliza beckoned towards the crowd, waving her arm to obstruct her face. The area around her hand flickered and distorted, the air itself seeming to warp and break. The music started to crackle slightly, as if harmed by the strange occurrence going on between the hologram's fingers.

Queen spied the strange phenomenon from his office window, as confused as the crowd before putting the pieces together. "Is that... Is she artifacting? Like with those old video tapes?" He glanced over to the beaming Pygma.

"Folks in the dev team called it her Semblance." The pink haired man chuckled. "Yeah, it ended up as a bug in the early stages, but we thought it added some personality, so learned how to make it work. Some people throw fire, this little lady can glitch reality; it's all pretend of course, but makes an excellent effect. I put it to good use... here!"

As Pygma motioned towards Eliza's act, the hologram pulled her hand to her chest, the air leaving digital cracks on the fog like a faulty display. The artifacting spread to her clothes, seemingly infecting everything underneath her jacket. When the effect dispersed, Eliza's under layers were gone entirely, and her bust seemed just the slightest bit more prominent just her jacket. Deep cleavage shined a pale white as she squeezed her now prominent breasts together, showing off what was no doubt countless hours of jiggle physics work. She giggled as the crowd gradually caught up with what just happened, then made for the poles.

"The best use," Pygma said, staring at Queen's disconcerted but impressed face.

Eliza's step broke as she moved forward, her body seeming to glitch forward in a burst of effects. A rough facsimile was left behind as the main projection reached a pole and grasped on, pulling her body of light close. Her face turned from childish to sultry, reflecting a lustful demeanor as she began stroking the pole and wrapping her body around it. The shift in her face brought about more forceful movements, Eliza caressing the pole before rubbing her face in it, her projected skin pillowing as if it were real. Her breasts wrapped around it next, the window left by the jacket leaving copious amounts of skin to press together to give the notion of other things between her breasts. Reversing her body, the AI straddled the pole and bent down, spreading her legs and widening the gap in her skirt. Confusingly, even to the people only a few feet from her, there was just a black void where her lower body would be underneath her skirt.

"I left that in as more a joke to myself," Pygma grinned. "You have no idea how many conversations I took part in that focused solely on how/if to model her panties. Assuming you haven't been snooping at the CCT, there's just that void." He laughed to himself as Queen processed this information.

"Gotta say, that's actually interesting. I assume you–"

"I made a few updates over the years, yes. They're striped, but nobody would ever know before tonight."

As if to make up for the bottomless void where her lower half would be, Eliza reversed once more, sticking her dimly glowing butt towards the crowd as she held on to the pole. As the audience relayed their confusion, the artifacting started around the edges of her skirt. With a hearty wiggle, Eliza's cover started to break away until it didn't cover much; a decent portion of her perfectly modeled ass hung out from underneath her now insufficient skirt, showing off a pair of white and blue striped panties that seemed to cling exactly to every curve. She bent over as the music ramped up, letting one side of the room look up her skirt and take in her body.

"Man, I am a genius," Pygma stated, clapping for himself.

Queen tried not to think about how creepy it was that the man next to him spent his spare time giving a projection an ass. Suddenly, he realized that he probably went further. Pygma had promised no nudity on stage, but he was not going to ask what the pink haired man's plans were after leaving with his creation. He probably came to Wonderland just to show off his fetish and get his rocks off when other people liked it. Queen kept silent; he didn't care for how deplorable the man next to him seemed to be.

Eliza strolled casually over to the other side of the stage and repeated the process of showing off her panties preceded by a dark void underneath her skirt. After a few spins and caresses of the pole, she returned to the center of the stage and began twirling, her hands again fracturing the air around them and making the music break. The artifacting ran its way up her arms and infected her jacket, causing it to crackle and fzt as the sleeves began shortening.

"Oh, I spent a lot of time on the face here," said Pygma in an alarmingly excited tone.

Acting surprised at developments she caused, Eliza looked at the creeping effects going up her arms. Alarm became visible on her face as her clothes shrunk further and further, her eyes widening as she became sleeveless. Near luminescent blush painted her face as the glitch stretched across her chest, wiping away her only remaining top as it passed; the CCT AI stood up on stage, face scarlet while her arms crossed over her breasts, now covered only by a minuscule blue and white bikini that left little to the imagination, as well as the micro skirt not even fully hiding her panties. Her preprogrammed routine made her look humiliated up on stage, and the crowd loved it. Gradually, Eliza grew more comfortable with her body and lowered her hands, hesitantly presenting herself while her face disagreed with her actions. Her state of dress was rejected by her emotions, and she looked defeated as the crowd stared at her.

"There it is, there it is, there it IS!" Pygma declared, excitedly bouncing his legs. "That's the face I love!"

While he'd admit that the look of hesitation at being nearly naked on stage that painted Eliza's face was disconcertedly arousing, Queen was a bit too busy being creeped out at Pygma's tastes. The man treated his creation a bit too much like a sexual predator would a child, and Queen could only imagine how many more fantasy routines he had programmed for outside of the club. He was grateful for the novel and frankly great show, but he'd be glad to be rid of the man sitting next to him.

"And I know we agreed no nudity, but you'll appreciate this."

"..."

As the crowd ate up Eliza's hesitation, she grew a bit bolder. Following her programmed routine, her hands drew to her breasts and again started to glitch out. When she removed them, biting her lip nervously in the process, her bikini was replaced by artifacting that acted as a censor; she repeated the process for her lower half, replacing her clothes with broken physics and messy imaging, leaving herself completely naked but not showing anything.

Completely exposed but protected by her "Semblance," Eliza presented her body in a variety of highly suggestive poses, evocative of every magazine, clip, and pin up imaginable, a few bringing to mind a woman accompanied by a man and the actions that followed. All the while, shame and nervousness defined her face. The CCT AI presented everything for her loving crowd, just as she was made to do. Finally, she stood straight up and bowed in a manner befitting of the perfect docile maid. She turned around and began nervously stepping back down the catwalk.

"I love my job," Pygma grinned, beyond self satisfied. "I looove my job."

"..." Queen had stopped responding, waiting for the time where he could be away from the creep next to him.

Eliza strolled down the catwalk, gradually losing more and more of her glitchy cover, eventually only protecting her digital essentials by the time she was mostly out of decent sight range. The artifacting shrunk until it was only blocking the view of her intimates, the rest in glorious high definition just like a human. She turned around one last time, then was overwhelmed by glitches, disappearing entirely. The last remnants of the fog dispersed, the projection faded into nothingness alongside it.

And thus ended the fourteenth night of Club Wonderland's new line up of dancers