SHIFT
Includes Mild Language.

Very Important Authors Note:

First: This story takes inspiration from Descartes' dream argument! It's 10000% OKAY if you know absolutely nothing about the dream argument! The dream argument is only important towards the beginning of the story. I tried my absolute hardest to explain it at the beginning of the story without it being overbearing or turning into a philosophy lesson. Also, I DID NOT follow the dream argument word for word! It's a fictional story so I changed it a bit so I could connect the universes better. I also made the reader misunderstand the dream theory so it would be more realistic. And if you don't understand what's going on please ask so I can change it to make more sense.

Second: This is a story going on in two different universes, the AOT universe, and a modern universe.

Third: If anything doesn't make sense, is spelled incorrectly, or is grammatically incorrect please let me know. I wrote this very fast and only reread it twice so their will probably be mistakes.

I also posted on Wattpad.

Thank you and enjoy ❤️

"Have you ever thought that everything you believed to be reality was just a dream? For example, right now! Even though this situation is more of a nightmare than a pleasant dream, it is possible that you could be dreaming! Isn't that exciting! Come on get excited!" A passionate professor exclaims from the front of the classroom with a wide smile and a gleam of pure love showed in her eyes for her subject. Unfortunately, this statement was met with blank stares from the students who wished they could actually be sleeping. The professor internally prays every class that at least one person is listening, and thankfully that one person is you.

Even though you would rather be in bed sleeping than sitting in a drab classroom with zombie-like students, the class was proving to be quite interesting. When you signed up for this philosophy class in the fall, you expected to be a quick boring class and thankfully, it wasn't. So far, at least. You felt bad for the poor professor, she was obviously very smart but lacked the audience to showcase her skill.

"This is useless, I can obviously tell when I'm awake and when I'm dreaming." A male student in the front of the class spoke up with an obvious dislike for the teacher's ideas, despite it being the first class.

"AHA! You think you can tell the difference between when you are dreaming and awake, but can you really?" The professor exclaims, the excitement in her tone frightening some of your fellow classmates. "How many of you have had a dream...that felt so real that you truly without a doubt felt like you were awake?" Several of the students started to raise their hands in the air and started to actually pay attention to the professor.

You were also in the bunch that raised their hands. Of course, you've had dreams that felt real! How many times have you slept through your alarm, dreaming that you were already dressed and out the door! Those extremely realistic dreams where you truly believe that you had left this place and entered a world where you were successful was one of your favorite things about dreaming. The worst part of the dreams was when you would wake up and realize it was all a dream. Was it possible that these dreams could be something else?

"Well, how do you tell if these 'dreams' are a sleeping experience or a wakeful experience? How do you trust your senses when some of your dreams feel so real? For example, Descartes' brings up in The Dream Argument: 'Anything that I can experience while I am awake, I can experience while I am asleep and dreaming.', therefore there is no experience that you can only have while you are awake!" The whole class looks in shock at the professor who is practically foaming at the mouth with all the attention she is finally getting. "Premise 4 states, 'So, the experience I am having right now could be a dream experience for all I know.'. So, the answer to that is that EVERY experience that happens while awake can happen in dreams, therefore, the experience of RIGHT NOW! How exciting is that!" You are amazed at this information but a little creeped out that the professor is practically screaming at this point.

"S-So, we never know when we are awake or sleeping?" A girl in the back raises her hand quickly while shooting the professor a confused look.

"And that's premise 5! Have you taken this class before?" She jokes before going back into her lecture, "Well, the response to that is that every experience while awake is equally able to happen in a dream. Like I discussed at the beginning of the class when I was talking about premise 3 and 4 if you were listening, even if you had real a wakeful experience you could not tell!"

So, these experiences you thought you lived through really could just be a dream? You were extremely interested in what the professor was saying now. Maybe there could even be a way to just dream forever...

The huge smile on the professor's face was suddenly wiped away once she heard the zipping of book bags and she snapped her head up to see that the class was officially over.

"Hold on, hold on! Tonight look at premises five, six and seven for homework! Tomorrow we will find out if The Dream Argument is true or false!" She shouted out to the class before they began practically sprinting out of the classroom.

You slowly gathered your things into your book bag and started to think about The Dream Argument. Everything that you've ever experienced could be a dream. You were a little skeptical that it could be true, but you were hooked on the fictitious idea that you could possibly wake up from the life you were living now.

'Could this whole existence be a dream?' You thought to yourself as you strolled out of the classroom, "So if this terrible life is a dream, could I wake up and be somewhere where I was actually happy? Somewhere with people I could talk to comfortably and a place where the weather was always nice. Somewhere where bad feelings don't exist and I can always be truly happy." These thoughts paused as you pulled out an umbrella and stepped outside the building to be treated with light rain.

The small town was plagued with an obscene amount of rain, even with it being the beginning of April. A town known for its beautiful flowers and vibrant colors began to be drowned out of its beauty and color. The town had changed so much from your years as a kid, it seemed like the possibility of the town was endless but now the town had turned into a retirement spot and most of the stores and buildings started to dwindle along with the number of jobs. Because of that, your mother struggled to make ends meet to the point where she couldn't just hide it like she used to.

You started to work a part-time job in February which helped out greatly. Instead of taking your money, your mother insisted you used it on your own necessities and saved whatever was left. Even though you felt like you weren't contributing much, the difference in having one less mouth to come home and feed every day was making a decent impact. You don't eat that much, do you? Unfortunately, not having a mouth to feed meant that your mother no longer cooked meals and you two never sat at the dinner table and talked. Along with this, you were always busy with work and school and she was always busy with work, so you two stopped talking like you used to. It turned into having a roommate instead of living with your mom. You would never admit it out loud, but you missed the relationship you used to have with her.

Those thoughts stopped as you turned into the local arcade which was always packed after everyone was let out of school. Like mentioned before, the town had turned into a retirement spot so there wasn't much for young people to do anymore except do drugs or go to the Arcade House. You opted for the arcade for now.

You walked to the front desk where the old grumpy arcade owner sat with his usual upset look. The owner was truly a mystery, an old man who retired in this town and then decided to open up an arcade despite hating kids. Not a choice you would have made. He had strict rules and forced everyone to sign in and pay a four dollar entry fee.

Without speaking, you signed in and handed the old man four dollar bills. He nodded at you sharply before inserting the money into his outdated cash register. You had visited the arcade so often that the old man should know who you are by now and that you won't cause trouble.

Despite the arcade being packed, your usual spot was wide open. Of course, it was, no one wanted to play your favorite game because most of them wouldn't play the game because they thought it was too girly. Oh please, Sailor Moon could kick all of their asses. You sat down at the colorful machine and fed quarters into the classic Sailor Moon arcade game. You took a quick glance at the clock on your phone and decided that you'll treat yourself and play all night long. Before you hit 'start' you heard a sudden roar of excitement from a bunch of students. You peeked over and saw a large group of students all huddled around a new game placed in the arcade. You heard the arcade was going to put new games in but you didn't know what kind of games they were going to put in.

"YOU ARE DOING TERRIBLE!" One of the student's screamed at what you were assuming was his friend. You leaned back and forth trying to see the screen or at least the name of the game but it was too crowded to see much. You managed to only read one word, 'Attack' and assumed that it was probably just a gory fighting game or something.

"I play better with Eren, LET ME SWITCH TO EREN!"

"No! I kicked your ass fair and square, two times! You're just a loser!"

You watched the confrontation only for a few more moments before deciding that it was no longer interesting. You started to play your own game and blocked their annoying argument out.

"It can't be that fun." You thought as you rolled your eyes at their immaturity. Though, perhaps you should check out the game before you left...

He woke up in his sleeping position with a start, realizing that he had fallen asleep on his desk once again. He groaned and rubbed his eyes tiredly before standing up to stretch. He glanced at the clock and groaned once again, he had too much shit he had to get done today. He would have had a decent day if those little brats hadn't given him a headache along with that unbearable woman screaming in his ear all day. And then those brats in his dream wouldn't stop screaming either. He paused his thoughts to think about his dream that he was wishing he would just forget.

He started having these shitty little dreams about a month ago and they didn't make any sense. These dreams would consist of him watching the life of this girl as she struggled to do basic daily tasks.

"She wouldn't last a day in the Survey Corps."He scoffed to himself. Though the girl herself was completely beautiful she lacked passion and an ounce of determination. It was sad to watch honestly. But the one thing he found more interesting than the girl was something that he discovered these dreams in.

There were no titans.

No one in the place she lived in even mentioned the existence of titans and the girl never mentioned it either. It was almost like they never existed in the first place.

Though the girl's life was mundane, it was completely fascinating to see humans walk around without any threat of titans.

Through his dreams, he started to learn more about this world, including its complicated and weird traditions. Half the shit he'd seen people worrying about was honestly ridiculous, who cares if someone is wearing the same dress as you? You all wear uniforms everyday anyways. Not only was that ridiculous, but these people have advanced father than he could imagine with their technology. Their exotic modes of transport and the obscene amount of computers everywhere was almost too much for him to comprehend. Luckily, he had learned the basics of how things worked by watching the girl but he still had no clue how everything worked.

Even though learning about their technology was inherently useless to him in his world, he learned things that actually benefited him through her classes. He learned more about math, history, literature and much more from being able to mentally sit in on this girl's insanely expensive classes. The one she learned from today especially interested him. This Dream Argument really scared the shit out of him but also interested him. It was ironic of course for his dreams to be talking about dreams. To him, it was easy to understand why he's been having this odd dreams.

Fighting Titans for all these years drove him insane.

He assumed for himself that his mind had made up a 'safe place' where titans don't exist, his problems are basic and apparently, he's a woman? He thought multiple times about talking to Hanji about his dreams but there was no possible situation he could think up where shitty glasses would actually believe anything he would say.

"I've really lost my shit now." He mumbled to himself.

His mind drifted back to the lecture where the professor spouted unbelievable information about dreams being real or whatever. That shit professor reminded him of shitty glasses, therefore probably just as crazy as she is. These shitty ideas were something just some wack job came up with because he had nothing better to do, there were more pressing matters to attend to. Like titans. Even, though titans don't exist in that place...

That place in his dreams couldn't be real anyway, the dreams started to collapse on itself recently. Not only by talking about dreams while he was dreaming but at the end of his most recent dream, those bratty kids mentioned Eren. He reassured himself that it was once again, his mind trying to create a 'safe place' inside of his dreams.

"There's no way this could all be a dream." He stated to himself and then rubbed his face once more before attending to his menial tasks for the day. He heard a knock on his door and rudely asked them what the hell they wanted.

"Captain Levi! You're needed for a meeting with the Commander!"

He couldn't worry about this shit today, he'd just have to find out if this dream theory was true during tomorrow's lecture. Maybe he could find a way to stop these dreams within his dreams. Maybe his dreams were trying to show him a way out.

Recap:

Reader learns about the dream theory, misunderstands, believes that her life could really be a dream. She is unsatisfied with the way things are going in her life and clutches onto the idea that she could leave this life and start another within the dream.

Reader goes to the arcade, one of the only fun places to go nowadays, and plays one of her favorite arcade games. A crowd is gathered around the new arcade game but Reader doesn't have the opportunity to see what the new game is.

Levi wakes up from his sleep. All of Levi's recent dreams have been watching Reader's life in detail. Basically, Reader's life is Levi's dreams. Levi thinks that he's gone crazy from fighting titans for so long, so he thinks his mind created a safe place for him while he is sleeping to cope with the tragedies. Because Readers world is a world without Titans.

Levi is able to learn things inside of these dreams and believes that the dreams are starting to collapse on themselves because of the mentioning of Eren. He believes that these dreams are trying to show him a way out of them.

Next Time: There will be Levi & Reader interaction and they both learn the 'truth' about dreams.

Thank you,