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Janus has a collection of dolls in his room. They sat on a shelf with a glass cover to protect them from Remus’ random fits of passion and goop.
They were not random dolls of little girls in dresses or toys but dolls of each of the sides in a variety of styles and conditions. He kept them carefully, rarely handling them and fixing them up when he could but they still broke and repaired themselves without his input.
The dolls were made to reflect the state of the sides, how stable they were and how close to completely falling apart they may be. And being in Janus’ room it was his job to monitor them. He’d been made as the caretaker after all this was just another tool for keeping an eye on them.
Roman’s doll was a poseable figure with visible cracks all over the plastic. The clothes were high quality, the joints smooth, and a variety of accessories covering him making him look like an art doll. Janus had tried so hard to repair the damage but it kept coming back only getting worse after his comment which he now deeply regretted. His doll was always the most intermittent on repairing and breaking as the ego and one of the more sensitive sides, still his doll stayed standing despite becoming much more damaged then the others.
Patton’s doll was by far the most fragile, a porcelain figure Janus had taken to keeping in an extra case after finding out he could unintentionally damage the dolls. The clothing was clearly based on his usual outfit, the main difference being a little blue bucket hat Janus had made for it on a whim, other than that there was graying to the whites of his socks and hoodie that Janus had never figured out. It had recently gained a large facial crack, too big to be filled in normally so Janus was forced to leave it alone and deal with Patton directly, it would heal with time but for now it was a reminder of the necessary pain he’d had to put the other through.
Logans was clearly a miniature medical model though a lot prettier than what Janus remembered seeing in their health classes. The parts were mostly removable except for the brain which didn’t budge when Janus had finally given into his curiosity. Fully put together it looked identical to the real side; no stylistic choices, no fancy pieces, just pure accuracy and practicality. It broke differently than the others, more a slow peeling than splitting though whether that was because it was made of rubber and paint or because Logan unraveled more than he cracked Janus didn’t know. He’d been keeping a closer eye on it recently after realizing how much he’d been neglecting the side, just another sin to fix before he’s forced to admit it.
Virgil’s was by far Janus’ favorite, for all their angsty personality and harsh words their doll was this cute little plush with a grumpy expression. The fabric was a lot softer than the actual plushies Thomas had put out making it more like holding a plush animal than one based on a person. Janus had had to manually change its clothing after seeing their updated outfit as it didn’t do so itself, its little sweater matching the real one again and bringing more color to the shelf. Theirs also broke in a different way as well this time definitively because of the material, small little tears and loose threads appearing and disappearing often. As of recently Janus had found himself taking it out more to just hold it close, to pretend that Virgil is his again and there was never any bad blood between them.
Remus’s doll had to be kept far away from the others. It was this creepy little puppet looking thing that often oozed this weird slime that threatened to consume the others if he was kept too close by. Janus had found that just having it sit on a shelf separated by an inch would stop it from doing that but it was still annoying. The doll itself was a lot more cartoony than what Janus had expected with a comically large grin and simple button eyes but it gave off the feeling of unease Remus would love all the same. Out of all the dolls it faced the least amount of damage, only a couple of tears and loose seams over the years that righted themselves before Janus ever had the time too. Sometimes though he wonders if Remus is doing that on purpose as he can mess with how they work, unfortunately he hasn’t had enough time to sit with the thought to consider the implications of such an open side actively hiding something from him.
His own doll was a Victorian age style but made out of plastic instead of porcelain which felt fitting in his opinion. It matched him pretty well except for the fact the scales were painted on instead of being bumpy and rough, his clothing and looks translated nicely to the little figure though something about it always bothered him. Often he shook the sense of unease off and continued about his day; others he’d look between it and his mirror trying to find anything different but came up empty. The damage on it was something he didn’t often notice as he tried to avoid looking at it whenever possible but sometimes he’d check it just to make sure he wasn’t on the edge of losing it, it cracked much like Roman’s and Patton’s but in a much more subtle way there were no big splits and no holes just tiny little surface cracks that looked deceptively shallow.
Normally he’d fix them up periodically but he’s been so busy after his introduction to Thomas, he’d have so much to catch up on when he had ‘free time’ again. It eased the tension for a while after they’d all been patched up like the simple act of Janus repairing the dolls lifted some of the stress off their shoulders, he felt lighter after too so he wasn’t going to question it.
Remus had asked about them once, picking his own up and shaking it around just to see if it’d do anything. It didn’t, much to his disappointment, but that's when they figured out they could damage them and ruin the day of whoever's doll it was. He’d spent the rest of the day moping and upset for no particular reason and didn’t feel better until Janus sewed up the cut. Since then he’s been banned from touching any of them, one of the few bans he actually listens to.
They were likely a lot more complicated than Janus gave them credit for but that didn’t matter as long as they worked.