The "A.D. Doug's Real Life" Universe is a universe that Loki was drawn to while Time Slipping due to destruction of the Temporal Loom.
History[]
Life Before Loki[]
Around the 1990s, A.D. Doug married a woman. Doug earned a Ph.D. to maintain his job teaching theoretical physics at the California Institute of Technology. Outside of his day job, Doug's true passion was writing science fiction. Doug wrote two novels, The Sons of Yoren and a sequel, The Zartan Contingent, but they struggled to garner much sales. Doug repeatedly attempted to place his novels on the shelves of bookstores around Pasadena, California.[1]
Visited by Loki[]
Search for the TVA Personnel Variants[]
In 1994, A.D. Doug attempted to check out his own book at Vraton's Book Store but was caught by one of the employees and was told to leave. Upon returning to his workshop, Doug was startled by a Time Slipping Loki, who informed Doug of his predicament. Despite Loki believing that what he told Doug sounded outlandish, Doug believed him. He told Loki that in order to get back to the point before the Time Variance Authority Office's destruction, he needed to control his Time Slipping. Loki protested by saying he couldn't control it and that where and when he went was random, but Doug countered him by pointing out that Loki always time slipped to the variants of people he wanted to see, meaning he must've had some control over it.
Doug theorized that if Loki focused on what he truly wanted, he'd be able to control his time slipping. Believing what he truly wanted was to save the TVA, Loki honed in on that thought and attempted to Time Slip but failed repeatedly. Unable to Time Slip on command, Loki asked Doug to come up with another idea. Doug then suggested that if Loki could gather variants of all his friends with him at the point of the Temporal Loom's collapse in the same spot, then they could use their collective Temporal Aura as coordinates to get back to a time before the collapse of the Loom. However, Doug realized that his plan would be impossible without a TemPad, so Loki suggested that Doug make one and handed him a copy of the Time Variance Authority Official Handbook so that Doug knew how to do so before time slipping away again. Doug spent over a year developing the TemPad, which resulted in him losing his job and his wife leaving him. However, he eventually finished and jumped to meet Loki in another universe.[1]
Destruction of the Universe[]
The universe collapses around Loki
- "Who are you to say we can’t die trying. Who are you to say we can’t die fighting. You’re replacing one nightmare with another. I grew up in apocalypses Loki. I’ve lived through enough of them to know that sometimes it’s okay to destroy something.”
”If… if there’s a hope you can replace that thing with something better." - ―Sylvie Laufeydottir and Loki[src]
Loki took Don, Verity Willis, and Frank Morris to A.D. Doug's workshop in the 1990s. With all of the variants gathered, Loki traveled to another universe to recruit Sylvie Laufeydottir and complete the collective Temporal Aura. Upon speaking with Laufeydottir, Loki realized that he had gathered all of the variants so that he could get his friends back, not to save the universe or the TVA. Returning to this universe with Laufeydottir, Loki told all of the variants that they needed to return to their original times, believing it was wrong to interfere with their lives. Arriving through a Timedoor, Laufeydottir told Loki that universes were dying and that they needed to reverse it, inspiring Loki to continue with his original plan. However, it was too late by that point, and Loki watched on as the universe and the people in it began to be spaghettified.
Loki reverses time
Screaming out in distress, Loki was able to time travel to moments before. Realizing this and the fact that he controlled his Time Slipping, Loki then traveled back to the moment Laufeydottir arrived in this universe. There, he told Doug that he was now able to control his Time Slipping and revealed that the key was focusing on a who rather than a what, the who being his friends. Loki used his newfound power to travel back to the Time Variance Authority Office before the Temporal Loom collapsed.[1] Loki used his Time Slipping abilities to spend centuries attempting to stop the Loom from being destroyed, but he continuously failed, so he decided to return to this reality and consult with Laufeydottir. Arriving at the point in time when the universe was about to be destroyed, Loki used his control over time to put this world in a timeless state before Laufeydottir could die.
Loki consults Sylvie Laufeydottir
With this universe now in a timeless state, its landscape began to reform around Loki and Laufeydottir. Loki then informed Laufeydottir that the Temporal Loom was a failsafe created by He Who Remains to stop the creation of realities that branched off from the Sacred Timeline. Loki then told Laufeydottir that he believed the only way to stop the destruction of the Multiverse was to stop her from killing He Who Remains by killing her. Laufeydottir refused to give Loki her blessing to murder her, instead giving a speech that inspired Loki to make a difficult choice. Loki then Time Slipped out of this universe, causing it to begin to collapse around Laufeydottir again.[2]
Residents[]
Landmarks[]
Behind the Scenes[]
Although originally believed by the Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki to be the same universe as the other branches stemming from the Temporal Loom explosion, The Art of Loki: Season Two confirms they are all different universes.[3]
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