Diana meanwhile was abusing her pen in a different way, mostly by smacking it on the table she was hunched over repeatedly. At first, she was excited to have some data to look at finally. Something to study. Unfortunately, if science was that easy anyone would be able to do it and new discoveries would be made all the time. No matter how many times she looked at it there was nothing there. With her power affecting her analytic ability she could practically predict the near future, yet even with that there was still nothing. Mage blood was just blood as far as she could tell. It was a shame she didn't get a blood sample from that shitty blood mage before offing her because there might have been something weird in that. This is why she didn't like killing mages. They were unique and irreplaceable, unlike most of humanity.

By the time she heard the door open behind her she was just bored. This was the fifth time she was working through the huge pile of data she gathered to make sure she hadn't missed anything, and it was just starting to get completely uninteresting. She had her elbow on the table with her head resting on her hand. Her legs were crossed at the knee and her chair was being pushed onto one of its legs, just barely able to stay upright by some miracle. The only sound in the room was a rapid clacking from her banging her pen on the table repeatedly. Her eyes looked dead even by her standards and she was considering ditching this read through for lunch. Vieri was a welcome distraction.

She boredly looked over her shoulder and yawned, slowly working her chair back into place so she didn't fall on her back. With her power active like this she could make out every detail, even the ones she normally ignored. Even without it she'd be able to smell the fear, but with it that feeling was all the more clear. The pencil, the stare, how stiff he was, it was all abundantly clear to her. Diana frowned, but didn't see much of a reason to say anything. It was irrational, that much was obvious, but she still couldn't pick out where it was coming from. Part of her wanted to believe it had nothing to do with her this time and he just found something troubling from the experiment, but given his behavior the past few weeks that seemed unlikely.

"Yeah, sure," she said casually, standing up. "Here or somewhere else? There's no one here, I kicked everyone out hours ago," she yawned, with no obvious sense of urgency. "Did you manage to find anything interesting in all that research?"

No, it probably wasn't about the data, at least part of her hoped it wasn't. It'd be exciting, sure, but something was weird and she didn't understand. Diana let him approach her on his own terms, for now at least, and was pleased that he came on his own instead of making her stab him in the forehead with a fork again. She didn't get it, she figured it'd pass eventually because it always seemed to, but it's not like she wanted him to stay in this state forever. It just made things awkward.

He was doing that thing where he tried too hard to look tall. She always got the impression that he was bothered by how much taller she was than him, but it wasn't something she consciously thought about too much. It's not like she could help being born this way. But it was especially weird this time because he was talking differently. Diana couldn't place how or why it felt so weird, but it was definitely different and she had no idea what he was trying to do. This wasn't him getting flustered, or even reacting with any particular fear (that would normally just make him shout loudly), or any of the other Vierisms she was used to. Well, she could at least deal with the one she did understand. With a frown and a raised eyebrow, she plopped back into her chair, one arm on the back one arm on her lap, her legs crossed at the knee and all the weight put on the back legs of the chair again.

"You said he was blackmailing you and he was getting ready to attack you. It seemed like a reasonable time to intervene, and I figured if you didn't want me to you'd tell me to back down."

She didn't look annoyed, but she didn't think that quite covered it either. It was an explanation, not a solution and she had to keep reminding herself that Vieri was the worst mind reader ever and had no ability to handle pressure. If he was flustered or upset, it was starting to look like she wouldn't be able to count on any kind of rational thought or leadership and that was something she had to keep in mind. Diana looked up and rubbed her chin. Fortunately, this particular issue seemed to have an obvious solution.

"So what you're saying is that I should save it for when no one else is around? Because you can't let someone blackmailing you go, no matter who it's from," she put her arms behind her head and started rocking back and forth. "But I can do that. However, if they start fighting you I'm going to intervene because there's already infighting at that point."

The weird question and sudden change in demeanor made her stop rocking and stare. She couldn't tell what the hell just happened, but with her power active like this it was real easy to see that something was different. Vieri had been nothing but confusing lately.

"Yeah," she said blankly.

Diana wasn't sure how to answer that question. Yeah, of course she was fine. Why wouldn't she be? She wasn't even acting any differently and was just going about her business as she always did. What was he even talking about? That answer just seemed so weak, but she wasn't sure what else to say.

"I already told you, I'm fine with maiming or killing your enemies. It doesn't bother me."

How? It fixed the problem perfectly. She could understand being worried about what other people might think of their infighting. Vieri seemed to make a hobby of looking as weak as he possibly could, so adding onto that pile could cause problems. That much she could understand. So what the hell was he even talking about when he said that didn't fix the problem? Was this going to be another one of those arbitrary Vieri feeling moments that wasn't going to make any sense, even to him? It sure sounded like it, but she supposed she should let him finish talking.

If she could read tone she might have been happy that he was finally starting to figure stuff out. Unfortunately, she couldn't so all she heard was more wishy-washy nonsense that didn't even make any sense. He asked her to deal with his enemies. He knew what she did, she had shown him their eyes in the past, she had put their bodies on display in the past, there was no way he didn't know even if he was the world's worst mind reader. There had never been any problems before now, beyond some discomfort because some of it was kind of unpleasant to anyone with a natural human reaction. That was exactly why it was effective. Yet, somehow what he was saying here was worse than when he normally rambled about morality. Diana could still tell he was afraid, but she wasn't very good at differentiating levels of fear. Sure, she could tell the difference between nervousness and pure terror, but anything less obvious than that and it started all looking the same. The way he was talking sounded like the kind of bullshit people spewed when they were begging her for their lives or otherwise trying to appease her before saying or doing something stupid. All this unnecessary flattery like that'd do anything at all to someone like her. What was even going on? The worst thing she ever did to him was mock his combat abilities so he'd fight harder, and even then she only did that because she knew he'd prove that what she was saying was false in the next 30 seconds. She even backed off when he just seemed too tired to make use of that tactic properly anymore. Why was he acting like she was somehow a threat to him?

"It really isn't though," she raised an eyebrow. "Everyone dies; it's inevitable. While we've been having this conversation, as brief as it's been, several dozen people have died. One person is so statistically insignificant it's not even worth thinking about. No one's going to notice if one person does. You haven't noticed the effects of the people dying right now and you won't in the weeks to come. You probably won't even know they happened and once their friends and relatives inevitably die, no one will even remember they existed," she rocked back and forth in her chair, not the slightest bit bothered by what she was saying. "It's nothing to worry about. I know it's a natural human reaction because death and facing your own mortality is just unpleasant, but look at it logically here. It's fine. You worry too much about unimportant things and it's clearly causing problems for you. Relax."

It was rare for her to feel enough to care about much of anything, but in those few moments reminding herself that it was just her brain being stupid typically made her feel better. She could only hope that the same would work for him because she wasn't sure what else to do. Everything about this was stupid and it felt like they'd talked about this several times already. She felt like she was understanding what he was saying, it was just stupid, but he just kept saying it and she didn't know what he wanted from her anymore. Would he be happy if he let traitors or people that tried to take advantage of him escape unscathed? She somehow doubted it.

"So why didn't you just tell me to back down before I started hitting him? You know I would have listened, I always have," she said flatly.

No, that was a stupid question and one she already knew the answer to. It's because he was weak. It was becoming increasingly obvious to her that the only reason he could actually run his organization like this was because she was good at being scary and always acted on her threats. And his threats for that matter.

"Nevermind, it's not important," she waved her hand dismissively. "What's important is what you want me to do now. You said he was blackmailing you. If you're worried about looking weak because of infighting, what do you think letting a blackmailer getting away with that is going to do? Hell, you were clearly upset and scared back there, what do you think letting your underlings treat you like that is going to do to your image? He's been doing it for awhile you know. You're going to have to put him in his place at some point. I went pretty easy on him all things considered, but that was too far? If I can't even smack around a few points that aren't even going to cause lasting damage then how do you expect to deal with...well anything?"

Well, at least shouting and glaring was more familiar. Normally she'd take this as a sign that everything was fine again, make fun of him a little, and go back to what she was doing, but could she really say everything was fine this time? It seemed likely he was feeling better if he was able to act like this instead of a scared puppy, but this time the problem was less that Vieri was acting weird and more that he was content letting someone blackmailing him off the hook just because he liked him. That really wasn't going to fly if he wanted to keep this organization afloat and it was going to create a lot more work for her if he tried to keep things this way.

While he was standing and she was sitting, Vieri was a lot taller than her. Most of Diana's height was in her legs. This was why she sat down in the first place, so he could stop feeling so damn insecure about it and hopefully say what he needed to say. The height advantage he had did absolutely nothing. Even getting that close to her with the sparks running through him did absolutely nothing. She didn't even flinch, her legs still crossed at the knee, one arm resting in her lap, the other resting on the back of the chair. The most movement it got out of her was her expression flattening into something that looked almost bored, and her resting her head on her fist.

"Do you really think you can intimidate me? That you're trying right after saying you wouldn't do anything to your friends is probably one of the stupider things you've done in awhile, but even if you hadn't, I already knew. I know you well enough. And you know, everyone around you is starting to get to know you too. They know you're not going to do jack shit to them," she rolled her head on her hand a bit to give him a clear shot at her other cheek and looked him in the eye as well as she could from this angle. "So if you're going to start dishing out threats I hope you're prepared to follow through with them."

Diana didn't budge when he started swinging; she didn't even flinch. Half of her expected him to chicken out at the last minute, so the sudden pain in her jaw actually came as a surprise. Given her chair was already on its back legs, it didn't take much force for it to topple and for Diana to go tumbling backwards and onto the floor, the chair clattering loudly on the ground next to her. All things considered, landing on her head like that hurt more than the punch itself. She blinked, laying there for a moment, before getting up, setting the chair back up and assuming the exact same position she was in before, save she was looking at him instead of turning her cheek towards him.

There wasn't much need to survey the damage. There was a bit of blood from her teeth cutting into her cheek, but that was about it. Didn't even need to spit out any teeth, no need to snap her jaw back into place, and it probably wouldn't even bruise that much. Disappointing to say the least. Diana didn't look the least bit upset when looking at him though, just bored as she tended to when he was ranting about this stuff.

"You know, I expected you to chicken out completely, but this is somehow worse. Not only were you hesitating, but now you can't even keep that self-righteous charade about not hurting your friends or whatever you had going before. The hell are you even doing Vieri? You know that in order for people to actually respect you, you have to be worthy of respect yet? What makes you think you are in your current state? All you do is let people get away with anything while burying your head in paperwork like an ostrich buries its head in the sand. Are you just trying to hide from all your problems or something? What happened? You used to be completely fearless, but lately it's all I've been able to see on you."

Diana just stared. The more he talked the less he made sense. Why was he acting like all of this was somehow weird and different? It's what had been going on ever since she got her powers and left that room she was locked in. It's not like she had any idea what she was supposed to do or how she was supposed to interact with other people, so she watched him. Sure, he tried to do things diplomatically, but it's not like that ever worked, so he turned to violence and threats pretty quickly. So she did the same thing. Any time she raided a store for goods or otherwise needed to threaten someone, she gave them a chance to be reasonable. If they refused, then she just took what she wanted through force. It was the same thing.

Hell, he even encouraged it. She was more than willing to get him large stacks of money so that he could pay people to work for him instead of threatening them. There were advantages to doing it that way even. But then some asshole was going to go out and steal money or try to take advantage of him or whatever, and that was the point she stole their eyes. He often asked her to do so. He could say that he didn't do it to his friends, but he was here basically threatening her too. At least, there was the implication that he'd do something if she didn't cooperate.

Which is more than she ever did to him. She still had no idea why he was so afraid. She never even as so much aggressively raised her fist to him. Sure, they fought sometimes, but only when he wanted to and she only went along with it because it'd help blow off steam. Diana certainly never seriously fought him. She never threatened him, never intentionally embarrassed him, went along with his schemes, only pushed him when he needed it. Violence was never something she resorted to, and even here she had no intention of doing so no matter how much he tried it on her. It was weird to hear him of all people say something like that. It didn't make any sense. He had no reason to be afraid.

Hell, she was pretty sure if her and Tristan walked into the same room again that everything'd be the same as it always was. He crossed a line and he seemed to be aware of it. That was pretty normal from what she could tell. He was doing the same thing here, though she didn't quite understand what line she crossed. He wasn't doing a very good job of explaining it. That was beside the point though. Everything she did she learned from watching him. She wasn't sure what changed and was coming to the conclusion that there was just something else happening that he wasn't saying. Not that she was accusing him of lying or hiding something from her. It was possible, but it seemed more likely to her that he just had no idea. He kept bringing up this extraneous stuff, and it seemed like her job to drill down to the heart of it.

"So why should I listen to you?"

Diana expected something along the lines of 'because we're friends' or whatever, probably said in a less cheesy way because this was Vieri and that she was even thinking about it like this would embarrass him, but that answer wasn't good enough at this point. It was fine when he seemed happy, she'd go along with anything at that point, but that wasn't the case anymore. All she could see on him was fear and it'd been that way for a little while now. At this point it seemed like she couldn't listen to him anymore or nothing would even change. Certain pieces of what he was afraid of were starting to come together though. The organization was unstable. People didn't respect him. Everything was moving too slow. People were terrible. These were all things she could fix, and as it stood, she was going to take it upon herself to do so. It seemed to be the only way for him to be happy and fearless again.

Vieri shouting wasn't anything special anymore, so no matter how loud he got she didn't even flinch, just staring passively until he finished his rant. She had no idea how this went from Tristan being the victim to her being the victim, but she had long since accepted that she couldn't follow his logic or train of thought half the time. She wasn't even sure how to respond to that.

"Vieri, my power heals all wounds, except for the rare few where the body is attacking itself. Do you think I'm just spontaneously going to get cancer or something? Because that's not how cancer works."

The rest made even less sense. Tristan didn't take a swing at her. How was blackmail and her getting hurt even connected? Whatever, he was probably just saying stuff at this point. He could scream at her a bit longer if it made him feel better, it's not like she really cared, but it seemed unlikely that it was going to change anything. Her mind started to wander, trying to pinpoint the exact moment he started acting weird.