Caretues

The term Caretue is a combination of the words caretaker and Virtue.

Caretues are born from souls who were obsessed with caring for others, for a specific cause, or for the world in general, even at the detriment of themselves or others. These souls end up wandering into the Guardsplane to create new Caretakers.

The Guardsplane is a seemingly serene paradise, filled with soft light, and colorful mists and clouds. This location is a layer of existence 'within' the Nothingness, though it is neither a Miran nor its own Story. It also has plants and animals which appear to be made of clouds/mist/stardust.

However, the danger of the Guardsplane is in staying or otherwise being persuaded by the inhabitants to stay forever. Besides the Caretues and aformentions plants and animals of the Guardsplane, other entities known as Shells exist here. These creatures are monochrome and eyeless versions of animal species and other creatures from various Stories. These seem to be what’s left of those who choose to stay and die in the Guardsplane. When a living being gets to this point, the Caretues do their best to ignore them and even shoo them away from their current Guests.

The Caretues appear to be something like angels, though that is only because ‘angel’ is the closest term to describe their appearance. Their physical form can vary wildly, from at least mildly humanoid, to animal-like, to completely abstract. All Caretues have a special mask that floats in front of where their ‘face’ would be, and it is this mask that emotes and speaks for them. They also have ‘halos’ above their heads, though it may not always being a simple ring of light. Younger Caretues have simple halos like the classic ring of light, while older individuals will have more elaborate haloes, which will grow more fanciful with age. They may or may not have wings like classical angels as well. Caretues with wings seem to be particularly powerful, with more wings (in pairs or not) indicating more power and might.

Caretues are obsessed with caring for others, believing they are giving characters a “better life” than what they would have experienced in their home Stories. They will target particularly miserable people or those who are destined to die horrifically. Due to the persistent number of characters taken by Caretues across many Stories, the Janitor Menagerie only interferes with abductions of main characters, or otherwise side characters that may have some sort of effect on the Story.

However, despite their obsession with caring for others, a Caretue's 'care' is not always a positive thing. In fact, some cases involved a Caretue giving a more 'twisted' form of love, which can range from being rude on purpose, being controlling over their Guest, and being outright abusive, with the worst of the latter being described as "BSDM gone horrifically wrong". In general it seems that most Caretues have a positive and 'normal' version of the word care. The ones who are more negative tend to be shunned by most other Caretues.

A being taken into the Guardsplane by a Caretue, and then cared for by that Caretue or other Caretues, is referred to as a Guest. Caretues can take the mist and clouds of the Guardplace and shape them into whatever the Guest wants. This includes but is not limited to: food, furniture, buildings, various objects, entire locations, and even temporary living beings. Guests cannot be hurt by anything in the Guardsplane, and indeed the Caretues will take various measures to ensure any and all Guests are not harmed. Guests usually do not end up interacting with one another, being kept separate by their Caretues.

Guests can ask to leave whenever they want, and Caretues will ensure to make this very clear to all Guests. However, most Guests do not want to leave once they realize they can have every need and desire satisfied. As stated previously, if a Guest dies in the Guardsplane, they turn into a Shell and are prompted ignored by the Caretues, being nothing but a former shell of the Guest they were caring for. Shells disappear on their own, usually within a few decades or so, though Caretues seem to be able to eliminate them immediately if they find a Shell particularly annoying or threatening to another Guest. Caretues almost never mention this fact, and only bother to emphasize that a Guest can leave whenever they want. They will only admit the truth if a Guest asks about it.

Caretues have great healing magic, as well as magical abilities related to light, sound, and warmth. They seem to also be highly skilled in alchemy, which seems to explain their ability to transform the mists and clouds of the Guardsplane into whatever a Guest wants. Caretues seem to ‘feed’ and derive pleasure from the act of caring for a Guest, as well as the Guest’s reactions to being cared for. This is usually euphoria and enjoyment of having their needs and wants fulfilled, but in some cases it may be fear or obedience for the more abusive Caretues. They feel this is their only purpose in life and see no point in doing anything else. They don’t feel bad or guilty when a Guest dies, they just feel annoyed at the resulting Shell, since most Caretues see it as ‘taking away’ from their caretaking.