Elder Blood Witcher

While Mathias was confronting his own fears, Quennie was dealing something else entirely... The black smoke had covered her and after blinking a couple times, she found herself standing in pitch blackness... There were occasional sounds of glass against wood, or unfamiliar whispers which she couldn't find the origin of.

This didn't scare her however, her own mind resembled something similar to this due to her attempts at mixing Death Magic and occlumency to create the ultimate defence. Her father had encouraged her efforts and she'd ended up with a defence that'd force attackers into a kind of limbo, where sounds, sight, touch, and even taste didn't exist.

Just the sensation of not having your body would drive most insane quite quickly due to how biological factors affected the brain, but even those with enough will power to resist madness or the urge to retreat didn't really have a chance at breaching the limbo.

Unless she was attacked by someone made of pure divine or life energy they'd be unable to breach the death defence without literally sacrificing themselves.

Unfortunately, while she was a prodigy in many ways, she was still just a child... The blackness she now found herself in had a few differences to her own defences, one being that she had a body, and she could vaguely hear small sounds occasionally.

Tyrael had warned them that Diablo had many strange abilities, taking the time to note that the title "Lord of Terror" shouldn't be taken lightly... Thus, she concluded that this was some kind of attempt at breaking her spirit, she could feel with her occlumency that it was tugging at her memories in order to make her a blank slate, more susceptible to the situation without the knowledge over what was happening.

Suddenly, she felt movement occurring around her, readying her magic to strike at whatever it may be...

*Thuk!*

Some kind of switch had been pulled hard, and light suddenly blinded her... She covered her face and stepped backwards, enveloping herself in flames to try and force away whatever was attacking her...

....

No attack came, causing her to slowly open her eyes, her breath hitching when she saw where she was... She was standing atop a stage, the stage of San's comedy club. With the introduction of of the light, she was now able to see that the audience was packed with unfamiliar faces aswell as familiar ones.

She was illuminated by overhead lights and felt her face pale as San's looks at her with his everpresent grin.

Sans "Heh, come on kid... You don't wanna disappoint your folks do you? We've been practising for months just for this moment." he says encouragingly, though to Quennie's ears it was a death sentence.

She hadn't prepared, well, even if she did she'd still not stand up here in a million years. Her heart was beating furiously in her chest and she shakes her head while using her hair to shield her face. "This isn't real... It's just a trick." she quickly mutters to herself, feeling her nerves settle slightly.

"Come on! Is this all the God-Kings daughter has to offer!?" a voice shouts from the crowd and causing more to murmur in agreement.

"Maybe she's adopted!? I heard she's just a bastard born from a mistress!"

"I never liked the looks of her anyway, should have known only the eldest was worth something!"

The insults kept coming, but the ones that struck the hardest were the ones commenting on how competent she and her mother was. It wasn't uncommon for her to overhear such things in the past, and she's striven to be better due to it... It was still a sore spot however.

She continued to mutter "This isn't real" to try and gain strength from it, but saying something and believing it wholeheartedly were two different things entirely.

Sans prodded her further, "Come on kiddo, I know you can do it, we all believe in you... Look, even your parents are here." he says, gesturing towards the back where her family had just arrived and all sat down with happy smiles.

She forced her legs to move towards the microphone and gripped it tightly in an attempt to stop her jelly-like legs from giving out. She coughs quietly into it to see if it's on and grimaces when it echoes around the room...

Quennie could barely think as everyone looked at her expectantly, the pressure felt real even if the world was not. She quickly recalled a routine that Auntie Quelana had showed them and attempted to replicate it... "I-er... M-my Auntie's h-home town is q-quite different from h-here... They had a s-saying... Set a m-man on fire for l-lif-..." she bites down on her lip as she realises she'd flubbed the joke. Even if that was an acceptable error, she could see that most of the people here had already heard this joke...

She glanced at her family at the back of the room and spotted that their smiling faces had slowly become more forced as the silence prolonged. "This isn't real." he whispers to herself, only afterwards realising she'd spoken into the microphone.

"Uh huh? Isn't real what!? Where's the punchline kid!?" someone shouts and is about to continue berating her when their trouser suddenly catches fire... She glances at the person responsible who nods at her encouragingly, her father had always doted on her, even if she felt unworthy of the attention... She was just the daughter of a mistress after all.

Quennie "I'm sorry!" she exclaims, closing her eyes in order to quell the inevitable tears building and running towards the backstage, people booing all the while.