Magical Girl Policy

*For the canceled series originally titled* Magical Girl Policy*, see* MGP Alpha.

## *Magical Girl Policy*

Cover illustration featuring the main protagonist as Robert Dreese (back) and Spirit Guard Serenity (front).

### Illustrator

* Amenoosa
* Badgertastic
* Benji
* Carrinth
* Dizzyornot
* DracoDragite
* Grimay
* Ian Sampson
* Pianno-Ribbon
* Pip
* Railgun04
* Rezuban
* Taralynn Andrews

### Genre

* Comedy
* Magical girl
* Transgender

### Release date

December 28, 2012 - Present (last updated June 20, 2022)

### Related media

* MGP Vignettes
* *MGP Alpha*

*Magical Girl Policy*, abbreviated MGP, is a written web series by Taralynn Andrews hosted on her website, Taralynn's Desk. It has accompanying illustrations by several artists, most prominently Grimay. There is also a series of short side stories called MGP Vignettes. Following the cancellation of the original series, MGP was rebooted in December of 2012. Described by Andrews as "a TG comedy with real reactions", the story primarily follows Robert Dreese, a freshman at Schuyler Adamson University, who quickly discovers firsthand that Kessia City is the site of battles between real-life monsters and the Spirit Guard, a team of cheerleader-themed superheroes. He later learns he has been chosen to become Spirit Guard Serenity, but he doesn't want to be a hero nor deal with the side effect of being stuck with a female body. He eventually relents, and the renamed Robynne's life is turned upside-down by the pressures and complications of both superhero work and a change in sex.

## Plot

*For a complete synopsis, see Magical Girl Policy/Plot.*

Robert Dreese, a young man from the small town of Deepwater, goes to Kessia City to attend Schuyler Adamson University, and becomes fast friends with his roommates Cory Frost and Eli Drake. The day before classes are to begin, the trio are at the Loose Change arcade when Rob follows some strange chilling sensations and inadvertently provokes Polygal, a monster that drains a spiritual energy called Investiture from people but is unable to do the same to Robert, causing him to glow with a strange light that apparently marks him as "special" and an "ally of theirs". They are saved when the Spirit Guard, a team of cheerleader-themed superheroes, show up and defeat Polygal. Rob is suspicious of the heroes he's never heard of, since the knowledge of monsters and superheroes existing has somehow been contained to just the Kessia City area and their battles are considered an ordinary occurrence to residents, but is convinced to give them his phone number so they can contact him once they look into the meaning of his glow. A few days later, Rob is summoned to meet the Spirit Guard at the Standridge Hill Stone Circle so the heroes can share what they've learned. Robert, worried about what the Spirit Guard might do to him since they were very concerned about his glow and his research into them has turned up barely any useful information, convinces Cory and Eli to record the meeting from a distance.

Robert goes to the Standridge Circle and finds the Spirit Guard as well as Kunapipi, the expert they asked about his glow and a Guide, a servant of the order deity Fate that aids Champions, people like the Spirit Guard who are chosen to be heroes. The wallaby works as a counselor at SAU under the guise of a human called Ms. Kuna, who Rob had happened to speak to earlier. They tell him all about the Spirit Guard and their connection to the Ardent Empire, a kingdom on another plane that wielded empathokinesis, an emotion-based power system used by the Spirit Guard and monsters today. The Standridge Circle was originally a gateway between the Empire and Earth, but in order to protect Earth from threats like Platicore, a former servant of Fate who will stop at nothing to destroy her, the Empress, the Empire's final tyrannical monarch, and the Other Power, a seemingly incomprehensible presence that leaves death wherever it goes, a group led by the Princess sabotaged the gateway and stranded everyone on the Ardentia homeworld to die in the Ardentia Civil War, though a gravely wounded Platicore managed to get to Earth just beforehand and in the present has awoken from his hibernation to create monsters. The Scholar created the Spirit Sticks, five empathokinetic foci said to be powerful enough to defeat even the Other Power, and the Shrine Maiden asked the godly High Spirits to reincarnate the Princess and co. as humans when their powers would be needed to protect Earth. The Spirit Guards are said reincarnations, and Robert's particular glow marks him as the Shrine Maiden's successor and the one chosen to become Spirit Guard Serenity, which is proven beyond doubt when he can reach into the center Stone and retrieve the Spirit Stick stored within. Rob turns down joining the Spirit Guard, with his refusal stronger after being told that entering his Spirit Guard form will likely force him to live with a woman's body in the Shrine Maiden's image as a consequence of erroneously being her reincarnation. The Spirit Guard are similarly uncomfortable with the situation, but don't know how to modify the Spirit Sticks and fear that, like when previous members were discovered, a monster that requires Rob's help to defeat may soon appear. While Rob argues with the Spirit Guards, Cory and Eli are caught by Noriko Yukimura, a ninja that's part of the Spirit Guard's Hush Corps support team. When Rob had asked Cory and Eli to spy on the meeting, he hadn't considered the Spirit Guards might reveal something as sensitive as their secret identities: Valor is Rob's classmate Angela Warrant, Tenacity is Eli's sister Mallory Drake, Felicity is Cory's crush Vivian Feliz, and Charity is Eli's crush Kara Balmer. Eli and Mallory argue over this secret she's kept from her family, but she convinces him to not tell their parents, fearing the reaction of their overprotective father. Robert, Cory, and Eli swear to keep the team's secrets, so the meeting ends.

Despite Robert's refusal to become Spirit Guard Serenity, the Spirit Stick that allows him to do so can't be returned to the Stones and teleports about to be near its owner, constantly nagging at his empathokinetic sense. This sense is what led Rob to Polygal before and is an ability all of the Spirit Guards have, but his is unusually keen since the others couldn't detect anything prior to their first transformation. He offers to use this to help the team track down a strange empathokinetic hum that appears around Rale Valley Mall, but is asked to leave with Cory and Eli in case it's a monster. On the trio's way out, they are found by the hum's source: the monster Day LaMode. The Spirit Guards struggle against the sheer numbers of LaMode's mannequin drones, with Tenacity breaking off from the group to fight LaMode herself, who tries to capture Robert for Platicore. Tenacity gets brutally beaten, so Rob decides he's the only one who can save her life and makes his friends leave so he can transform into Spirit Guard Serenity and kill LaMode himself, as he could never live with himself if his inaction causes a death. Rob, as Spirit Guard Serenity, handily defeats LaMode.

After the heroes regroup and the critically wounded Tenacity is operated on, Serenity goes to Kunapipi's office to debrief and sort out the complications the transformation will have on Rob's life. Several changes are made for the safety of Rob's identity: Rob assumes the name "Robynne Darling", is moved from her old dorm to one with Vivian, Kara, and Noriko, gets a different class schedule to allow summer courses since it's risky for a Spirit Guard to leave Kessia City for long, and will get her documentation worked on by Nick and Will Siekert of the Hush Corps. Rob won't be able to hide her transformation from her Uncle Taylor, so the Hush Corps will rig a contest so he wins a trip to Kessia City for the Homecoming football game in 28 days, as Kunapipi believes the apparent filtering effect of the Standridge Stones that is responsible for residents not being alarmed at the Spirit Guard will help Taylor believe Robynne is his nephew when he meets her in person. Once Robynne gets the chance to be alone in her new room, her inability to safely answer her uncle's phone call when she needs him most tips her over into the emotional breakdown she nearly had in front of Cory, Eli, and Angela over everything her transformation has taken from her. Rob is visited a short while later by Vivian, who helps her feel a bit better by getting her to vent about the whole thing. At around the same time, Trace, Platicore's assistant who even while invisible was detected by Serenity during the Day LaMode fight, takes interest in the new Spirit Guard for having a more brutal fighting style than the others and decides to investigate her in her spare time, even if the Disconnection Effect will make identifying her difficult.

Robynne is very uncomfortable with her new body and the attention it draws, but eventually works up the courage to return to class. She finds herself making unlikely friends with Stacy Ambrose, a cheerleader she'd accidentally kicked a rock toward as Robert who is now very excited about her new classmate. Since Rob's new voice prevents her from safely speaking to her online friends in the Mayhem Templar guild in the MMORPG *Aspect Realms*, she joins the nerd club SFEERS after Cory and Eli recommend it for having a guild of its own: the Knights of the Spherical Table. Her empathokinetic sense picks up unusual textured auras that can affect the emotional state of others on a few people: SFEERS president Fretribution, cheerleading captain Cammy DeCroix, and Cory and Eli's new roommate Dale Bridges, with Cammy's aura so potent it causes part of Rob's to start pointing to the captain's position. Cammy wants to get a handle on SFEERS due to its rapidly increasing size giving it a large number of votes on the unusually powerful SAU Student Association, but is loath to do so herself, so after spotting Robynne at the SFEERS Club Week booth, she tries and fails to recruit her to the cheer team. Angela notices this attempt and reveals to Rob the falling out she had with Cammy and the theory that the captain may somehow be reincarnated from the Empress. Rob doubts the theory, but is in agreement with the rest of the team that Cammy is dangerous regardless and has to be stopped. Not having many viable options, it's decided that Robynne will accept Cammy's offer to join the cheer team to spy on the captain, taking Vivian along so she won't be alone. Though everyone knows Robynne will hate infiltrating the cheer team, Rob will put up with it if it's the way to stop Cammy from continuing to hurt people the same way Evelyn Gray ruined Robert's time in high school. Cammy is furious when Rob finds her and presents her demands if they're to cooperate, such as getting out of working for the cheer team's Promotion Squad, but ultimately agrees to the terms and signs Rob and Vivian on.

Over the following weeks, not much progress is made on the cheer mission. Robynne, Cory, and Eli happen upon the monster Cell-celia in a Buy Bright store, this time unusually disguised as a human and sporting a virus-like ability that automatically and sneakily drains Investiture from phone users. Serenity's solo ambush attempt gets turned on her, and it's not until Charity and then Valor show up that the fight is won. During debriefing, the team agrees that Platicore seems to be experimenting with Investiture collection methods in hopes of evading detection by the Spirit Guard, so they consider nightly patrols of the city for more proactive monster hunting, but planning this is put off for now since Rob will be meeting with Taylor later in the week. Even after hearing that Mallory decided to tell her parents she's a Spirit Guard after all and got a favorable outcome, Rob is terrified of the possibility of not being recognized by Taylor, especially since the routines and burdens of her new life have made her unable to recognize herself.

In blatant disregard of the agreement they made, Cammy gets Robynne roped into a genuine promotion assignment, which the team believes is Cammy's way of testing Rob's loyalty and is thus a major opportunity to advance as a spy. During the job, Rob runs into her guildmate NightKnight, who inexplicably sports a different appearance and aura from when they last met, and she learns he's also a member of the Spirit Guard investigation group called the ConSpiriters. All of this, as well as Stacy telling him that Rob, Cory, and Eli, were at Buy Bright just before the monster attack, is very concerning for the Spirit Guard, so a Spirit Guard team meeting is held. With Dale, Fretribution, and NightKnight set to attend that night's *Mega Mash Family Battle* tournament, the Spirit Guards want to take the opportunity to compare the three's textured auras using each of their EKPs. In case someone at SFEERS events might recognize Angela and end up alerting Cammy, preparations begin to create "Alison Ward", a goth alter ego for Angela that will be associated with her online handle, Conviction. The plan for Taylor's upcoming arrival is also touched on: Angela and Mallory will pose as representatives from the contest he had won and lead him to his hotel room, where Robynne will be waiting, with Noriko also on standby.

## Setting

*Magical Girl Policy* is set on Earth in the modern day, though an exact timeframe has not been given. This vagueness is apparently intentional, as Andrews has stated that MGP uses parodies of brands in place of real ones in order not to make the story come off as progressively more dated throughout its run, citing *Aspect Realms* as an example: the MMORPG is clearly evocative of the real-life *World of Warcraft*, but doesn't necessarily have to match the state of its ever-changing counterpart. MGP's version of Earth appears to be largely the same as the real one in regards to history, but there are supernatural existences and abilities that are hidden from the world at large. One such secret is Fate, a godlike being likened to a sentient force of the greater universe. Fate works to uphold order throughout the cosmos, but prefers to act indirectly since she also considers free will precious. She creates animal agents such as Kunapipi to serve as her representatives. One notable type of agent is a Guide, who is assigned to a place to find and aid Champions like the Spirit Guard. Champions are people chosen by Fate and are often granted special powers by her or some other deity in order to accomplish their mission. Champions and related matters have been concealed from most of the population due to abilities like the Disconnection Effect and the work of Kunapipi and obfuscation teams such as the Hush Corps.

In MGP, there exist several supernatural ability systems that can be likened to magic, but the one given focus in the story is empathokinesis, the process of applying emotional energies to affect the world. It is powered by Investiture, a spiritual and emotional energy source inherent to all living things, and is often aided by a type of tool called an empathokinetic focus. Sentient beings such as humans possess larger Investitures, with some having especially complex ones that might indicate high empathokinetic potential and emanate in the form an aura, which can be detected by one with EKP. Empathokinesis is used by the Spirit Guards as well as Platicore and the monsters he creates, but is otherwise a very obscure practice on Earth.

Most of the story takes place in Kessia City, a big city in the western United States, with a large percentage of the characters living, working, and/or studying at Schuyler Adamson University. Due to the passive effects the ancient Standridge Hill Stone Circle emits over the area, Kessia City is home to several unique phenomena that are treated with unusually little intrigue by most residents and are mostly unknown to outsiders. People with large Investitures are unconsciously drawn to the area, who then become the targets of Platicore's Investiture-draining monsters, who are in turn fought by the Spirit Guard. SAU has some oddities of its own, such as a student association with unusually large power over school policies, and an extremely big cheerleading team that itself possesses much power due to student organizations having to rely on its Promotion Squad for advertisement.

A secondary setting important in the backstory is the Ardent Empire. The Ardent Empire was a kingdom once spread across several universes and characterized by its discovery of and advances in empathokinesis. Its technology and society was guided by empathokinesis, and the Ardentia having EKP led to social norms over the appropriate use of certain emotions. Even its religion, the Church of the High Spirits, was intertwined with empathokinesis. The Empire was once favored by Fate, and Champions and Guides were famous figures there. It created warps to other worlds to spread knowledge of empathokinesis, but it eventually got high off its power and turned to conquering all it could reach. The Empire fell during the Ardentia Civil War thousands of years ago, when Platicore led an army of rebels against the Empress's military over only the privileged having access to empathokinetics education. The Empire planned to relocate to and conquer Earth, but was sabotaged thanks to the efforts of the Princess and her friends, dooming the Ardentia to die as their homeworld was overtaken by the Other Power, an incomprehensible presence that leaves death in its wake. The Princess's team set the foundation of what would become the Spirit Guard, who are the team's reincarnations. The Spirit Guards' appearances and abilities are inherited from their Ardentia predecessors, and along with Kunapipi they occasionally receive visions of the Ardent Empire, apparently meant to impart information for future use.

## Conception and creation

Dissatisfied with her work on the original *Magical Girl Policy*, Taralynn Andrews restarted the series in December of 2012. The most immediate change was a shift in setting from high school to college, as Andrews felt the original setting had become an obstacle to how she wanted to write the story. While several characters and ideas were carried over from the first MGP, now dubbed *MGP Alpha*, many were retooled to varying degrees. In addition, the background plot that was getting built up by *Alpha* was replaced entirely. In general, the rebooted MGP is slower-paced and more serious in tone than its predecessor.

The core premise from *Alpha* remains the same: a boy ends up joining a team of magical girls, but upon doing so ends up with a female body, and then has to deal with the unwanted complications of both superhero work and a change in sex. By twisting magical girl staples around this idea, a setting was created that would allow this to occur in an otherwise realistic world.

The goal of MGP was to deconstruct tropes associated with magical girl and transgender-themed stories, applying realistic reactions and consequences to a boy suddenly becoming a monster-fighting magical girl in a contemporary world. To this end, Rob's continued struggles with this transformation make up the bulk of the narrative, and attention is given to how it affects everyone around Rob as well. By Andrews's admission, giving Rob things to complain about is the backbone of her writing.

## Release

*Magical Girl Policy* has had an irregular schedule for chapter releases, with Andrews aiming for, at various points, one every two weeks, three weeks, one month, and two months, interruptions and hiatuses notwithstanding. Currently, MGP has no set schedule, but usually alternates with *Villain-in-Distress* as Andrews's project of focus. 2015 and 2016 saw the release of "MGP Vignettes", short side stories created as monthly Patreon rewards, but Andrews stopped them after feeling she had exhausted ideas for them. The main chapters are available for free on Taralynn's Desk, while the vignettes are on Andrews's Patreon page and may be downloaded only by patrons. The majority of chapters allow comments from readers, and until August 16, 2021, most chapters contained an afterword with commentary from Andrews, usually on the creation of the chapter.

On August 14, 2021, Andrews announced on Discord that, alongside fixing links as part of the transition to her new website, she would revise certain MGP chapters, mainly to rectify typographical and continuity errors. Another concern of hers was character names, citing Lilly Winters sometimes being spelled "Lily" as an example. Vivian's last name was changed from "Joy" ("Joyce" in Chapter 2) to "Feliz". In addition, Andrews's author commentaries that had been at the end of most chapters have been removed, with Andrews planning to relocate them to Patreon, as she felt they worsened the flow from one chapter to another. The first round of editing all 56 existing chapters concluded on September 22. With the number of remaining issues making the revision project larger than expected, Andrews announced on September 6 that it will continue, but be secondary to writing new MGP content until Chapter 60 is completed.

### List of chapters

* Chapter 2 (February 21, 2013)
* Chapter 3 (April 24, 2013)
* Chapter 4 (May 30, 2013)
* Chapter 5 (July 21, 2013)
* Chapter 6 (August 10, 2013)
* Chapter 7 (September 13, 2013)
* Chapter 8 (October 24, 2013)
* Chapter 9 (March 9, 2014)
* Chapter 10 (May 14, 2014)
* Chapter 11 (July 1, 2014)
* Chapter 12 (August 7, 2014)
* Chapter 13 (August 26, 2014)
* Chapter 14 (September 16, 2014)
* Chapter 15 (October 16, 2014)
* Chapter 16 (November 18, 2014)
* Chapter 17 (January 13, 2015)
* Chapter 18 (February 5, 2015)
* Chapter 19 (March 10, 2015)
* Chapter 20 (April 7, 2015)
* Chapter 22 (May 26, 2015)
* Chapter 23 (June 11, 2015)
* Chapter 24 (June 23, 2015)
* Chapter 25 (July 14, 2015)
* Chapter 26 (July 26, 2015)
* Chapter 27 (August 18, 2015)
* Chapter 28 (August 31, 2015)
* Chapter 29 (October 20, 2015)
* Chapter 30 (December 2, 2015)
* Chapter 31 (January 26, 2016)
* Chapter 32 (February 26, 2016)
* Chapter 33 (April 16, 2016)
* Chapter 34 (April 26, 2016)
* Chapter 35 (April 30, 2016)
* Chapter 36 (June 5, 2016)
* Chapter 37 (June 30, 2016\*)
* Chapter 38 (July 21, 2016)
* Chapter 39 (September 5, 2016)
* Chapter 40 (October 27, 2016)
* Chapter 42 (December 31, 2016)
* Chapter 43 (February 14, 2017)
* Chapter 44 (March 13, 2017)
* Chapter 45 (June 9, 2017)
* Chapter 46 (August 6, 2017)
* Chapter 47 (October 31, 2017)
* Chapter 48 (December 25, 2017)
* Chapter 49 (March 7, 2018)
* Chapter 50 (May 29, 2018)
* Chapter 51 (March 3, 2019)
* Chapter 52 (June 19, 2019)
* Chapter 53 (October 27, 2019)
* Chapter 54 (April 30, 2020)
* Chapter 55 (August 18, 2020)
* Chapter 56 (February 3, 2021)
* Chapter 57 (January 9, 2022)
* Chapter 58 (June 20, 2022)

## Gallery

The cover illustration for the series, with Robert in the back and Spirit Guard Serenity in the front.The first logo for the series, reused from *MGP Alpha*. It features Ardentian symbols associated with the Spirit Guard. It originally appeared in Chapters 1-20, but was replaced by the second logo in August of 2021. Chapter 20 still using the old logo appears to be an error.The second and current logo for the series, which first appeared in Chapter 21. It features Rob's Spirit Stick.Robert and Kunapipi at the Standridge Hill Stone Circle, a key location in the series.Robert, as Spirit Guard Serenity for the first time, fights Day LaMode.Jodi and Cammy spot Robynne near the SFEERS booth outside Schuyler Adamson University's Billot Building.Robynne bargains with Cammy to get on the SAU Cheerleading Team and spy on her.The main members of the Spirit Guard, from left to right: Serenity, Felicity, Tenacity, Valor, and Charity.