I'll rekindle old friendships by hosting the strangest Boom call of my life

"You're telling me I can change anything I want, just by thinking about the girls, right? I don't have to be in the same room with them or anything?" I questioned Regina. I didn't want to fuck up and do this first one wrong... for all I know, I'd end up setting off some kind of chain reaction and doom the whole world. I had to play this cool and be knowledgeable before I started.

The genie nodded, keeping her cocky smile. "Yes, Tabitha. If you'd like, we can make changes from here, then have them all meet you here in this little apartment so you can confirm those changes. No need to tire yourself out going by their houses."

"A-At my apartment? No way! Muri muri muri!" I complained in an overblown, Japanese expression, swiping my hands through the air as though to physically disperse the noxious fumes left behind by that idea. "Listen... There's a couple of things I need to tell you first. These girls were all friends of mine once. They're co-workers now and... we're not really friends any more. But-"

"You don't need to explain these things to me. Really." Regina had ended up distractedly flipping through another of my books, this one decorated with an extremely busty nun French-kissing a female demon on the cover.

"Well, I'm going to anyway! We all founded this little game studio together, called Capricorn. Long story short, we're the creative team now, part of a bit of a larger employee body, and I feel like success changed all of us. We grew apart and now they don't even live around here any more. I'm the only one who stays in this little apartment in our home-town and never moves out, but point being, I can't just 'make them all come here' even if I want to. I'd be dragging them from across the world..." I sighed, remembering a simpler time where we'd all been closely working together at a small studio. Those were the good old days.

"'Can't?' Oh, but you could! You can make them all come live with you in your apartment, if you wish, or somewhere nearby, if that would be better. If there are no open apartments nearby, we can control someone to move out of theirs. It's all very simple." Regina sounded like she was getting tired of explaining these things to me.

"I'm not so lonely I'm going to drag Viviane here from Japan!" I complained, raising my voice. "Anyways, I don't need them all here. What I do want is for all of us to be friends again. Back in the day, we loved games! We'd play MMOs and MOBAs and all that stuff with our computers back to back, laughing and having a good time. Ever since Capricorn took off, though, we've grown further and further apart, but worse, we all started hating each other. I feel like we lost sight of what brought us together and it became about the work instead of liking what we do. If there was a way that we could all be friends again... I guess that would be worth using the ring on. Gina, Viviane, Rene, and Tabitha, all sitting around, renewing our First Fantasy 14 subscriptions together and partying up! We'd be friends again in no time. I just can't get through to them... But this ring makes that possible! If I can just get them to listen to me, we can start doing fun things together again!"

"You know you could just snap your fingers and make them your friends again, right? There's no need for whatever complicated scheme you're cooking up."

"But I refuse!" I responded forcefully, throwing out the perfect Japanese meme for the situation. The spirit of the ring just rolled her eyes, like she didn't understand why I was getting so worked up. "So, I don't want to mess with their minds or anything like that! Despite me calling them mean ladies earlier... That's just the way they are towards me now! They're actually sweet girls who are just really absorbed in the whole Capricorn thing. I'm doing this for the happiness of all of us, so I'm going to do it the right way! I just want to start off easy like... First, I'll confirm I can use the power. If that works, then I'll manipulate their minds juuust enough so that they want to play games. Once we play games, we'll be friends again! My plan is harmless! Heroic, even!"

"Listen, I'll appease you, but can you do me a favor?" Regina questioned, fluttering her long eyelashes and smiling. When I told her it depends, her face fell into a frown. "Can we at least do something sexy with your first wish? Because this is sounding profoundly boring, sweetie, and I've been hosted by a lot of people. You're wound tighter than the celibate monk I lived with a few decades ago."

I closed my eyes and frowned deeply as I strategized, crossing my arms across my cozy sweater and, for the first time, reflecting that I hadn't been wearing pants since Regina entered my apartment. My pale, plump legs were always on display, as long as it was just me in here. Such was the life of one who spends their days alone and can even answer Boom video calls with a bare bottom half, so long as they aim their camera right. I was at least wearing panties. I'm not that much of a slob.

If she wasn't bare naked besides a few lengths of chain, I'd feel more embarrassed.

I wondered to myself: how do the other girls answer Boom calls? Was there any chance that they weren't wearing pants? She smiled, seeming to appreciate the question, but simply shrugged her shoulders.

With that, a strange idea came to me.

"Okay... Let's try this. I want everybody to answer my Boom call in their underwear! That will be a good way to prove your powers," I resolved, wearing that creepy grin that my friends always teased me about.

Regina giggled, seeming to regain her good mood. "This is your idea of keeping away from anything perverted with your changes? Also, reminder: they're your powers now, not mine, technically."

"I never said I wouldn't be perverted!" I countered, gesturing towards my generous collection of erotic anime waifu statuettes, lined upon shelves beside my bed, the sheets of which were also decorated with anime girls. "I just said that I wouldn't be scummy. This is like... so much better than your average mind-controller would do to start out! I'm being kind and gentle to my friends!"

Regina gave me a diminutive pat on the head, flying upward slightly to reach the too-tall placement of my head easily. "I'm certainly not judging. In fact, why not have them show up naked? Why not also ask me to have them masturbate throughout the whole conference call?"

I covered my mouth with one hand and licked my dry lips while shaking my head quickly, wide-eyed. I don't think I did an especially good job hiding how I felt about that suggestion. Feeling nervous-- I wasn't the one who usually organized conference calls, especially not impromptu, ASAP ones with the entire creative team-- I returned to my desk and my big gamer chair, grabbed my headset, adjusted my camera to hide my pantsless lower body, then contacted them all. Annoyingly, I got one confirmation from Gina, one "really, Tabby?" from Viviane, and one dangling, unread message marker from Rene with no response at all. I sighed, figuring that I'd have to go with just Gina and save the others for later... I'd really been looking forward to seeing what kind of bra Rene wore under that Gacci pantsuit she splurged on!

The white-haired ring spirit looked up from the stack of retro ero games by my game center and smirked as I tried not to stare at the curve of her ass in crouching position. "Listen, I know you're trying to starve me for commands or something, but could I at least snap my fingers and make them all answer your conference call?"

"O-Oh, right! Do that," I complied, nodding so she knew it was okay to issue that command. I guess having this ring could be pretty nice after all, even in a daily convenience way. "Let's get this emergency meeting rolling!"

I heard the spirit click her fingers behind me. I cracked my fingers at the same time, then hunched over my keyboard like I was preparing to play the Legend of Leaguers world championship. It was time for me to take command!

I mean, restore my friendships!