literen | FANMIX * living in the state of dreaming * Avengers * Inception!AU

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Title: living in the state of dreaming
Fandom: Avengers
Subject: Inception!AU
Notes: Made for

waywardmixes's fifth challenge: alternate universes. Just, urgh. This mix. Every month I do something crazy and overly complicated and promise myself that next month I'll keep it simple and easy, and then I see the new theme and just can't help myself. This is a mix for an AU in which the Avengers are members of a team trying to pull off an inception on Loki. The mix is divided in two parts, one about assembling the team and one about the job itself. The songs are intersped with quotes from both Inception and Avengers, some a bit altered to fit the AU. Some spoilers for those who haven't seen both movies, since I've borrowed plot elements here and there. Warnings for minor character death.

THE JOB Odinson Inc. "Dreams feel real while we're in them. It's only when we wake up that we realize that something was actually strange."	The State Of Dreaming (Marina and the Diamonds) I live my life inside a dream Only waken when I sleep I would sell my sorry soul If I could have it all Yeah, I've been living in the state of dreaming Living in a make-believe land	Inception: using dreams to plant an idea into someone's mind. Thor Odinson, newly-appointed CEO of Odinson Inc., puts together a team of dream-sharing experts to perform inception on his brother Loki. Everyone on this team is a reject in his or her own way: they use dreams not only to get a quick paycheck, but also as an escape from a reality that doesn't accept them.
Steve Rogers started off as an extractor working for the military, specializing in extracting military secrets from the dreams of the enemies of his country. He's a living legend, the only person who ever performed a successful inception. However, following an accident where he lost all of his team, Steve left the army. Thor finds him in his small apartment in Brooklyn, brooding over the past and still blaming himself for the deaths of his subordinates. Steve is at first reluctant, but Thor convinces him to come out of retirement for one final big job.	THE EXTRACTOR Steve Rogers THOR "I want you to perform inception on my brother." STEVE "I'm sorry, I can't. THOR "People say that you have the best team in the business." STEVE "Had the best team."	Never Gonna Stop (Milow) It's like trying to fly trapeze It's like has-beens, gonna-bes Ill at ease and hard to please It's how Paris how Cologne How even Zurich feels outgrown It's in the way you could have known Can you make some room for me It's in trying to close the door it's never gonna stop I miss you even more and it's never gonna stop
What If (Emilie Autumn) What if I'm a snowstorm burning What if I'm a world unturning What if I'm an ocean, far too shallow, much too deep What if I'm the kindest demon Something you may not believe in What if I'm a siren singing gentlemen to sleep Sleep...	Natasha Romanoff is a master forger. She doesn't just look like other people: she embodies them, copying everything from the smallest twitch of their eyebrows to the inflection of their voice. Formerly with the KGB, she's now a con artist and uses her peculiar set of skills on unsuspecting marks. Nat isn't sure that inception is even possible, but she likes the challenge of having to impersonate multiple people in the same dream. She also has a large list of contacts that Steve can tap to fill the remaining spots on his team.	THE FORGER Natasha Romanoff NAT "Can't this wait? I've got a general with more rubles than brains about to give me the coordinates to his bank accounts."
Clint Barton's job is to collect informations on the mark, to find weak points and to come up with an attack plan. He's a brilliant strategist but very peculiar, often acting in a childish manner that makes him look as if he's not taking his job seriously. He moves constantly, never staying in one place for more than it's strictly necessary. Unlike the others, Clint jumps at the idea of performing inception. Steve isn't sure that he trusts Clint, but Nat is one of the few people who worked with him more than twice, and she swears up and down that he'll be up to the task.	THE POINT MAN Clint Barton CLINT "Rogers? You're still working with that stick in the mud?"	No Roots (Amy MacDonald) I got no roots they're not set in stone I got no place that I call home I'm just a low low lonely soul And the time will come when the day is done And the fighting's over the race is run I don't know what I'm looking for
THE CHEMIST Bruce Banner BRUCE "I have it under control." STEVE "I'd hate to see it out of control."	Trouble Is A Friend (Lenka) Trouble, he will find you no matter where you go No matter if you're fast, no matter if you're slow The eye of the storm or the cry in the morn You're fine for a while but you start to lose control	Bruce Banner is a former university teacher whose experiments on dream-sharing compounds got more than a little out of hand. Prolonged exposure to strange chemicals left him slightly unhinged: he's fine most of the time but when he's under deep stress an alternate personality will come out. This violent other can be very dangerous, which is why Bruce doesn't like to be around other people. He's hiding in a small village in Asia when Steve approaches him about the Odinson job. Steve assures him that he'll be perfectly safe, and the number of zeroes in the advance check that Thor writes is not to be scoffed at.
Tony Stark is a visionary. He can build the most intricate dreamscapes, buildings with hundreds of floors, endless mazes and more paradoxes than you can count. At least he does when he's sober, which is sadly only a fraction of the time. Moreover he's a womanizing jerk and has the biggest ego of anyone that Steve ever worked with. Stark is rich enough that he doesn't care about the money, but he has a policy of accepting only the jobs that intrigue him, and what's more intriguing that inception?	THE ARCHITECT Tony Stark STEVE "Now all we need is an architect." BRUCE: "We need to get a good one if we want to pull this off." NAT: "We need the best." STEVE "No. I'm not working with him. I don't even know where he is." BRUCE: "Stark is in Mombasa."	Drunk (Ed Sheeran) I wanna be drunk when I wake up On the right side of the wrong bed And every excuse I made up Tell you the truth I hate What didn't kill me It never made me stronger at all
Chocolate (Snow Patrol) This is the straw, final straw in the Roof of my mouth as I lie to you Just because I'm sorry doesn't mean I didn't enjoy it at the time You're the only thing that I love It scares me more every day On my knees I think clearer	Loki Laufeyson, adopted son of the CEO of Odinson Inc. He used to be very close to his brother, but his relationship with his father was strained at best. He started resenting Thor after finding out that he was adopted, feeling that Thor is the favorite son while he is just a spare. Their father recently died, leaving his financial empire to Thor, and now Loki is blaming his brother for everything. He doesn't believe that Thor is capable of running the company. At first Loki tries to contest the will and to have Thor removed as CEO but, when that fails, he tries to have Thor killed. His first attempts are a failure but Thor is sure that Loki will try again soon.	THE MARK Loki Laufeyson LOKI "I remember a shadow. Living in the shade of your greatness."
Thor Odinson is an idealist. He wishes things between him and Loki would go back to the way they used to be when they were boys, without any bad feelings between them. Instead of taking revenge or going to the police, Thor decides to hire a team to perform inception on his brother and plant an idea into his mind, the idea that he can be happy even without running Odinson Inc. He's aware that this plan is very risky, but he's willing to try anyway. After Steve has assembled his team, Thor insists that he'll go with them, and dismisses all of their warnings about the potential risks. If Loki might be in danger, Thor wants to be there to keep an eye on him.	THE TOURIST Thor Odinson CLINT "Wouldn't it be simpler and easier to, y'know, kill him?" NAT "Clint..." THOR "No! I don't want to hurt my brother." CLINT "He tried to kill you. Multiple times." THOR "...He's adopted."	Pretend (Lights) It would be nice to start over again Before we were men I'd give, I'd bend, let's play pretend Yeah when fights were for fun, we had water in guns And a place we could call our own How we lost hold of home I guess I'll never know
FIRST LEVEL Asgard STEVE "We need to go deeper."	Waking Dream (Natalie Walker) I cannot stumble here I am safe inside my head When I wake up I'll forget I'll come back to my mess I will not leave Stay asleep Step further in My ecstasy	For something as complex as their plan, Tony says that they're going to need at least three levels. The first level is going to be Bruce's dream. They start with Loki's childhood, and Thor says that when they were young their mother used to read them bedtime stories from a book of Norse tales. Tony creates the golden citadel of Asgard, where Thor is an exile and Loki inherits his father's throne. Natasha plays the role of Loki and Thor's mother: she pretends to give Loki advice but actually she's manipulating him. All of Loki's decisions as king prove unpopular and he starts to feel the burden of the throne, while at the same time questioning why he wanted it in the first place.
Leaving Bruce behind, the team moves to the second level: Clint's dream, New York city. Tony warned them about building a real city in a dream, but the plan required that they build Loki's flat and the offices of Odinson Inc. In this dream Loki is supposed to be part of a superhero team, fighting crime under a secret identity, but the team quickly realizes that there's something wrong when Loki turns out to be a supervillain. That's not even the worst part, though, because everyone on the team is losing their grip on reality. They need to constantly check their totems or they'll start believing that they're actually superheroes. They are about to give up on this part of the plan and go straight to the third level, but then there's a big hole in the sky and the aliens start attacking.	SECOND LEVEL New York TONY "Never recreate places from your memory. Always imagine new places. Building a dream from your memory is the easiest way to lose your grasp on what's real and what is a dream."	Invasion (Eisley) And they will try to make us forget ourselves One by one, one by one Call me crazy but they are after us One by one, one by one Ooh, something's not right I can feel it inside Something's not right
Brother (The Organ) Oh, where does it end? Sometimes it hurts when you Care about me But it's going to hurt more when They take you away from me We have got to take cover, brother Here we go again Oh midnight knocks! Oh explosions! Maybe it's all made up in our heads	It's not just aliens. Now it's aliens and nazis, chasing the team through the streets of New York. Natasha puts two and two together and realizes that it's Steve's subconscious acting up against them, because of the guilt and regret that Steve is still carrying. She confronts Steve, but he insists that they go ahead with the plan. It's their only choice, because if they die they'll be trapped in limbo. Thor barely manages to shield Loki from an incoming bullet and he's badly hurt. Loki's facade falls and he reveals that in his own twisted way he still loves his brother. He teams up with the others and they try to make their way past the projections.	~~THIRD LEVEL~~ the projections NAT "The truth is that at any minute, you might bring a tank through the wall. The truth is that your girlfriend is bursting through your subconscious. And the truth is that as we go deeper into Loki, we're also going deeper into you. And... I'm not sure we're going to like what we find."
THE SHADE Peggy Carter PEGGY "Maybe I might even, when this is over, go dancing." STEVE "We'll have the band play something slow. I'd hate to step on your feet."	New York (Sara Lov) I had a dream you went to New York You found new friends You had New York I wasn't there, but I came to visit We sat on the bridge and talked of the difference We spoke of the long ago Promised each other we'd never get old But that was a whole life ago And now I'm on my own	Peggy Carter, Steve's former girlfriend and the personification of his guilt, finally shows up in person to confront Steve. She blames him for the mistake that left them and their team trapped in limbo for almost seventy years, stuck in the trenches of World War II. It was Steve who realized that they were dreaming and led the team in a 'suicide mission' that resulted in them waking up. Sadly Peggy kept thinking that they were still asleep and, trying to wake them up, shot everyone and then jumped off a ledger.
Thor's condition is getting worse and worse. Natasha convinces Loki that the only way to save his brother is to go deeper in the dream. Tony helps carrying a wounded Thor into Loki's dream, while Natasha and Clint barricade in an empty building and try to protect the unconscious bodies of their friends. They know it's just a matter of time before the aliens get to them, but they hope to buy just enough time for Bruce. However, because of Peggy's interference, the layers of dreams are falling apart at the seams. Back in the Asgard level, Bruce is attacked by warrior projections. He loses control and snaps: his other self fights them off, but he's forgotten all about the kick.	THE DREAM IS COLLAPSING NAT "This is just like Budapest all over again." CLINT "You and I remember Budapest very differently."	Some Die Young (Laleh) Some die young But you better hold on So many things I need to say to you Please don't, don't let me go And we said we would die together
In The End (Snow Patrol) Will you dance with me Like we use to dance And remember how to move together In the end, in the end It's time for us to lose our weary minds There's nothing more to life than love, is there?	Steve tries to fend off Peggy's attacks, but the street collapses under his feet and he falls into limbo. Peggy tries to convince him to stay there, saying that they can be happy together again. Steve refuses and confesses that he was the one responsible for her murders and suicide. He implanted in her mind the idea that the world they'd been living in for the past seventy years wasn't real, so that she would accept that they all had to die to wake up. However the idea took hold in her brain and, once back in the real world, she kept believing that she had to die in order to wake up.	TRAPPED IN LIMBO PEGGY "I'm the only thing you still believe in." STEVE "I wish. I wish more than anything. But I can't imagine you with all your complexity, all you perfection, all your imperfection. Look at you. You are just a shade of my real girlfriend. I'm sorry, you are just not good enough."
Loki's dream is the large country home where he grew up as a child. It's raining, there are projections outside, and Thor is running out of time. Thor tries to follow the original plan and tells Loki to go and find their father, but Loki is more concerned about saving Thor. He says that he only ever wanted to be treated as his brother's equal and apologizes for his appalling behavior. Thor assures Loki that their father loved him in his own way, and that he'll always be Thor's favorite. Thor succumbs to his wound and dies, and Peggy's projection shows up and shoots Loki. Tony jumps out of a window and follows them into limbo, where he finds that Steve is dancing with Peggy and is oblivious to everything else.	THIRD LEVEL childhood home LOKI "At the end, he called me to his deathbed. He could barely speak, but he took the trouble to tell me one last thing. He pulled me close, and I could only make out one word: disappointed. He was disappointed that I couldn't be like you." THOR "No. He was disappointed that you tried."	The Undercurrents (Maximo Park) Tires rush through, rainwater fresh Sounds like a shell, held to an ear Same as the house where I was raised Safe in a heaven single-glazed And if you say my time was never spent I'll point you to the places that we went I won't forget the way you forgive me
THE KICK wake up TONY "Come back to reality, Steve."	The End Of The World (Lenka) At the end of the world I will hold you so close So we won't notice the destruction Of all we used to know	Tony sends Thor and Loki back to the third level and then confronts Steve, telling him to check his compass. The compass is Steve's totem, and he realizes that he's still in a dream. Steve says that he and Peggy already spent a lifetime together, and that now he needs to return to the real world. Peggy attacks Steve and is shot by Tony. All of the team members ride the synchronized kicks back to reality. Steve and Tony jump off the roof of the ballroom, Thor and Loki jump out of the window, Clint and Natasha blow up their building and Bruce brings down the whole Asgardian royal palace. The team leaves before Loki wakes up completely, leaving him to mend things with his brother.