Hell yeah! Or maybe it's time for that talk...

This is where the path really starts to deviate. I liked a lot of what happened until now in the other path, but I needed to change a few things to get to this point and have it make sense.

You climb the stairs and turn into the second door on the left, like you have a hundred other times when you've been over for video games or studying for finals or watching crappy anime; but this is the first time it's felt this daunting. When you enter her room, you stay in the doorway looking inside. Pearl has her vintage N64 connected and is setting up 2 player Mario Kart, but you're trying to figure out why she's standing in the middle of the room and not sprawled across her bed like normal, when you notice that entire room is covered in clothing. The chair, much of the floor, and ninety percent of the bed are covered in various piles of clothing. Looks like she’s cleaned out her entire closet and dresser. You didn’t even realize she had this much clothing. Given how much everything she wears looks almost exactly the same to you, you figured she had, like, five total outfits, max.

“Uh, sorry about the mess. Was planning on having most of this gone by the time you got here, but I kinda got carried away.” She stacks a couple piles on top of each other in an effort to make more space.

‘Mess’ is a bit of strong word; all the various pieces are in fact in neat, orderly groups, but they do make the typically minimalist room a little tricky to navigate.

“Since some asshole decided to completely upend what I like to wear, I gotta reorganize my whole closet. This is just the aftermath. Stuff I’m gonna hold on to is on that side of the room, the rest I’ll give to charity or something.” You notice the ‘keep’ section is less than half the size of the ‘not-keep’ section.

She doesn’t sound like she’s all that actually put-off. More like she might be looking forward to it.

“Oops?” you offer.

Pearl psh-es. “Tell that to my bank account when I empty it tomorrow trying to find the skimpiest possible clothing I can legally wear outside.”

"Wait... why aren't you angrier about that? I mean... I know I own your sense of style, but when I owned your hoodie and your sass, you were pissed."

She looks over at you a little sheepishly, "Do you... want to talk about that now? Or do you want me to kick your ass at Mario Kart like usual?"

You definitely would prefer to just pretend like nothing was wrong, but you realize you really need to fix this first. "I mean, want is a strong word... but we should probably talk about it..."

You head into Pearl’s room and decide to set the pizza upon a pile of hoodies near the centre of the bed. As you try to avoid the neat stacks of clothes, you feel your foot catch on something soft and silky as you move toward Pearl. After you set the pizza down, you untangle whatever it is from your foot and hold it up to reveal a pair of purple lace panties.

Pearl seems completely nonchalant as she grabs it back. “Shit, uh, sorry about that. Was wearing those earlier. Had to take them off. Long story.” She doesn’t seem the slightest bit embarrassed about you suddenly holding her delicates. She hastily leans down to pick up something else on the floor and -oh wow- that is a lot of cleavage. Staring right at you from your best friend’s chest.

Your brain nearly short circuits from what's happening. The same hunger that drove you to claim her sense of fashion, and then later her consent, is driving you to take more. You already took so much, what's one more thing? You **** yourself to look away from her unconstrained breasts as continue to call for your attention. The other thing on the floor turns out to be a bra to go with the panties and she turns to stash the undergarments. You take the moment to try and pull yourself together.

“So? Why aren't you - I mean... before, with the sass... you were very... but now...”

Somehow, she must have seen through your meticulously crafted composedness, as she gives you a weird look in response to your perfectly stable speech.

"Are you trying to ask me why I'm not more upset that you changed it so I’m only comfortable in the bare minimum amount of clothing possible?"

You just nod your head, hoping this doesn't set off a chain reaction.

"Can you answer me something first? You didn't own my fashion sense before yesterday, did you?"

Fuck. Fuck, shit, balls, fuck. This is definitely the part where she kills me. Maybe you should jump out the window. If you run down the stairs, Macy will probably just help Pearl.

"...no." You wince, and close your eyes, expecting **** at any moment. Instead, you feel Pearl take your hands and guide you to one of the cleared spots on the bed. You feel the bed shift as she sits next to you.

When you open your eyes, she's looking at you, half amused by your reaction. "Did you know that today I was more comfortable in my own skin than I’ve ever been? I mean, yeah, I looked like a slut, but because of that..." You see as she pauses for a moment to catch her thoughts. "I probably should be angry at you, and if you gave my fashion sense back, I probably would be. But today was so freeing!"

You thought you were caught off guard before, but now, you really don't know what to say.

"Oh... I... Yeah, I definitely expected more anger. Are you - I mean..." It's your turn to pause to catch your thoughts. You remember back to earlier in the day when you rehearsed how you would make this right. You take a deep breath and continue. "Pearl, I am super happy that you're not pissed, but do you actually want to dress like this? I could probably do something to make you equally as comfortable without having to **** you to completely abandon your choice of clothing."

This seems to catch Pearl off guard. You realize she didn't even think about going back to her old style - unlike when you took her sass away and left her with nothing, you actually put something in to replace her style; albeit a new style of dressing in the bare minimum amount of clothing.

While she thinks about what you asked, you go on. "What if... I took your - well - what if I claimed your sense of self." She looks up at you, shocked, angry, confused. "Wait! Wait! Only for a second, and not to change it! But what if I used it to make you tell me how you actually want to dress! Then I'd give it right back! I promise!"

She eyes you warily. "Why are you doing this? Yesterday, you claimed whatever you wanted. I had to practically threaten you just to get my sass back."

"Honestly Pearl, yesterday, I think I was drunk on the power. And I don't mean figuratively. Well, I do mean figuratively, but also... it felt like the more I used it, the harder it was to say no. Like a corruption. It's not an excuse! I still made the decisions I did. But today, when I woke up next to you, I... I felt worse than I've ever felt in my entire life. I'm happy - and I mean truly happy - that something I did yesterday made you feel good about yourself, but I was pretty fucking selfish last night."

Pearl looks at you with a softness that you hadn't seen before. Normally, it's angst, sass, and sarcasm. Last night, it was judgement, anger, and then unbridled lust. This is new. This is nice.

"And you want to take my sense of self? To see what I actually want to wear?"

You nod your head, looking into her eyes earnestly.

"Fuuuuck... I guess you don't actually need to ask anyways. Technically, you own my consent. But... I can at least say that I would appreciate it if you did that." She looks you in the eye intensely. "But please give it back right after."

Right. Her consent. That's another entire web you need to untangle. One step at a time.

"I will, I promise." You take Pearl's hand in yours. "Pearl, I claim your sense of self."