Not sure if any other doll collectors do this, but I came up with backstories for most of my dolls. I'm planning on writing fic for them later. But just in case I don’t get around to it, I wanted to share what I had anyway.
There’s a bit of a fantasy element imbued into it (obviously, because dolls aren’t sentient), but this is just what I like to imagine.
We’ll start with Jackson, Holt, and Frankie first. Because if I do my entire collection straight out of the gate, this post will get way too long. XD
Anyway, writing under the cut.
Disclaimer just in case: Most of the human names are ones I made up for the sake of storytelling.
Jackson Jekyll:
Jackson was given to a child named Lacey for Christmas, amongst a few other toys. He was neither the favorite nor least favorite toy of the collection, and he spent a fair amount of time both being played with and being left in the toybox. Lacey was a gentle child when it came to their toys, so there wasn’t much he needed to worry about in terms of treatment. As Lacey grew into adulthood, Jackson was moved to a shelf. He sat at the top of the shelf, content with living a quiet life of just watching the sun rise and set from a nearby window. Occasionally, he might steal some of Lacey’s books to read, but otherwise his life was pretty uneventful. He never went outside and Lacey hardly interacted with him anymore (Not that he really minded that. He was perfectly content being alone really). He didn’t question it when she picked him up one day and took some pictures of him, only to put him back on the shelf later.
A few weeks pass, Jackson is taken from his spot on the shelf, shoved into a packing envelope, and is mailed across the country. In that moment, his life changed forever.
When Jackson first arrived in Jester’s home (Jester is me btw), he was at first dazed, frightened, and confused. Unlike Lacey, Jester was loud and overexcited. Instead of being left alone on a shelf, Jackson was now being brought place to place alongside the new human. He was now seeing and experiencing the outside world, rather than just observing it from a distance. Over time, Jackson came to enjoy his new, more adventurous life. Still, he has moments where he would like to return to the quiet and just stay inside, watching sunrises and sunsets from the window.
Holt Hyde:
Holt once belonged to a fellow collector, Agnes. Agnes was very particular about how she wanted her dolls to be kept. She had several completed sets, all kept in glass cases in a room with no windows so as to avoid sun damage. Most of the other dolls in the collection were fine with this. They were well taken care of and Agnes visited them on a frequent basis. However, Holt was a troublemaker by nature. He longed to see the world outside the doll room, and being cooped up in one place forever was not the way he wanted to live (even if leaving the doll room meant his lifespan would be dramatically shorter).
Holt attempted to break out of the doll room on multiple occasions, including opening the glass case from the inside and jumping out. He once got so close as to opening the front door of the house and nearly stepping outside. But before he could really feel the rays of the sun, Agnes found him and dragged him back inside. She scolded him, not understanding why he would want to ruin his good condition just to go outside. Being somewhat of an old doll, Holt was more fragile than he preferred to think himself to be. Still, he tried to explain to her that in his mind, a life with no experience was no life at all.
Holt was put back into the glass case after that, but Agnes thought over his wishes. After some time, she decided that perhaps it would be best to let him go. After saying goodbye to his closest friends in the collection, Agnes packaged Holt up carefully in a box and sent him away to Jester’s home.
Now, Holt’s had the chance to experience the sun, the moon, and all the wonders of the world outside. He’s quite sociable, so he’s made good friends with the other dolls in the collection. At times, however, he gets jealous of the favoritism Jester expresses towards Jackson. He also gets fed up if kept in one place for too long.
G3 Frankie Stein
Frankie was bought brand-new, straight from the original packaging. Jester told Jackson and Holt ahead of time that Frankie would be coming home, but also warned them that this Frankie would be different from the one they knew in their memories. Still, they were very excited to see them.
In my mind, when dolls are in their box, they enter something of a sleep mode. So when Frankie first woke up, the first faces they saw were Jackson and Holt. They introduced themselves enthusiastically, and that’s when Jackson and Holt found out that this Frankie had no memories of them (because as of the day I’m writing this, Jackson and Holt don’t exist in G3 yet). Jackson and Holt were a little disappointed, since they both remembered Frankie. But this Frankie had the same sweet earnestness that the Frankie they remember had, so they couldn’t be too mad.
Frankie is very wide-eyed and curious, and was very excited about getting to explore the world. So Jackson and Holt accompanied Frankie on their first ever trip outside. It just so happened at that time that the sun was going down as they were going out. And so Frankie’s first experience outside was watching the sunset.
Jackson, Frankie, and Holt took a little extra time getting to know each other. But over time, Jackson and Holt fell in love just as hard for this new Frankie as the one in their memories. And Frankie loved both of them just as much.
