((Inspired somewhat by Mr. Nice Guy's thread, but taking it in a different direction))
Jon lay his head on his pillow. The room was dark, and he knew it wouldn't be long before he fell asleep. Making sure to not be too loud, he said the name of the person whose dream he wanted to enter.
"Zoe Gibson," he said with a smile, then, "One sheep, two sheep, three sheep..."
By the time he hit ten sheep, he was completely asleep.
What Jon doesn't know is that just on the other side of the wall from his room, his sister was conducting an experiment in a phenomenon known as lucid dreaming. She and Athena had been experimenting somewhat with it as part of Athena's attempts to unlock real witchcraft. Hoping to find insight into dreams. Jon never much cared for the spiritual side of Zoe's goth phase and to be fair after the somewhat hostile response her going goth got from her mother, Zoe hadn't really been open about it. She is asleep when Jon enters her dream, but sitting on her nightstand was a soft scented incense stick to keep her mind in focus, and a dream journal to record what she remembers from her lucid dreams. If she found any magical insight at all from them.
Jon felt himself become thrust into Zoe's dream, finding himself in a candlelit palace, specifically in a great hall with many assembled guests. Most of those guests seemed to be vampires or other creatures of the night, but occasionally a sparkling fae creature nervously looked to avoid the more bloodthirsty guests.. His sister was seated on a throne elevated over the room but it took him a moment to recognize her there.
She was dressed in silk finery of black and red with a bat motif all across her dress and corset, and her hair was jet-black and down to her waist. She looked positively bored watching a little jester try to entertain her. The jester is doing his best, juggling his own head, a chainsaw, and a flaming torch but to no avail. Zoe was essentially omnipotent here. Being queen sucks. She asked people for magical secrets but her own subconscious mind didn't seem to know any. She was literally about to give up on the whole lucid dreaming experiment when she looked up to see Jon.
Jon looked completely out of place. Dressed in his more modern jeans and tee-shirt. He stood out like a sore thumb in the gothic hall, though none of the guests seemed to notice. He took their lack of notice as a cue that maybe nobody would notice him. He walked over to Zoe... and on a whim, he tells her "You are not the queen, but a lowly servant!" He seemed proud of himself for saying that, for screwing with his sister's dream and taking power.
Zoe looked quizzically at Jon. Somehow knowing he wasn't a figment of her subconscious but some sort of invader. If she was merely dreaming like anyone else her dream would have instantly shifted, her subconscious adapting the post-hypnotic suggestion directly into itself. Taking his words and making it a part of herself... But no. She had the power of her conscious mind behind her. That made her grin slowly at her older brother. "Why are you not bowing?" She said in the most regal voice she could demand.
The entire court looked at Jon in shock. This commoner was standing up to the queen? Like he was her equal? The Jester pointed and laughed, his head held under his other arm. Jon looked around the room embarrassed. Why had he forgotten to kneel! She's the queen! Why would he have thought to say such words as her not being the queen... His projected dream-self at the whim of Zoe's entire mind bombarding him... not incorporating it into his psyche elsewhere just yet. But his dream-self only halted and knelt down shivering and grovelling in fear.
Zoe smirked slightly. "So Jon... Why don't we start from the beginning, and you tell me just what you're doing inside my dream." She said as the great hall faded away, replaced by Zoe, still dressed in finery, talking to Jon across a metal table. In an interrogation room.
