Kessia City

The Standridge Hill Stone Circle is a famous landmark on the outskirts of Kessia City.

### Notable places

* Angela and Mallory's apartment
* Buy Bright
* Loose Change
* Rale Valley Mall
* Rusty's Tavern
* Schuyler Adamson University
* Standridge Hill Stone Circle

### Associated characters

* Angela Warrant
* Cory Frost
* Eli Drake
* Kara Balmer
* Mallory Drake
* Vivian Feliz

**Kessia City** is a location in *Magical Girl Policy* and the main setting of the series. It is the hometown of several major characters, including Cory, Eli, Mallory, Angela, Vivian, and Kara, with many more residing here as well. The effects of the Standridge Hill Stone Circle give the city rather unique properties, a major consequence of which being that it is where the Spirit Guard and Platicore's monsters do battle.

## Description

Kessia City is located somewhere in the western United States, but the state it's in has not been specified. It is considered a large city. It has a relatively temperate climate, as it does not snow in the area. It boasts the well-known Schuyler Adamson University, the state's biggest shopping center Rale Valley Mall, and is the birthplace of several popular music groups.

Due to the powers of the Standridge Hill Stone Circle, Kessia City has acquired several unusual traits. People with strong Investitures and thus high empathokinetic potential are unconsciously drawn to the area, leading to the city having an extraordinarily high concentration of such people. This makes the city's residents the target of Platicore's Investiture-draining monsters, which are in turn fought by the Spirit Guard. Due to the Circle's perception filter, these battles between real-life monsters and superheroes are considered an ordinary occurrence by most of the populace and are mostly unknown to the outside world. This filter is also apparently responsible for atypical hair colors being commonplace in the area, with residents even creating names for each color.

## Notable places

* **Angela and Mallory's apartment:** A modest apartment complex near SAU, with Angela and Mallory living in Apartment 5. Their two-story abode is quite small and has an unusual layout as a result. The living room has a decorative stone that can be used to warp to and from the Standridge Circle, so the Spirit Guard sometimes meet here. Mallory originally lived here alone, but Angela moved into the other bedroom after the loss of her scholarship during her freshman year made her unable afford SAU's dorms. Angela's room is large enough to accommodate one more tenant, but Rob turns down the offer to move in after joining the Spirit Guard.
* **Buy Bright:** A chain of electronics stores. One such store serves as the site of the Cell-celia battle.
* **Loose Change:** An arcade near SAU where Eli initially works. The Spirit Guard fight Polygal here.
* **Rale Valley Mall:** The largest shopping center in the state. Day LaMode is fought here.
* **Rusty's Tavern:** A bar owned by Rusty that is popular among college students. Trace is a regular customer.
* **Schuyler Adamson University:** A large university typically abbreviated to SAU. The majority of the series' notable characters study, work, and/or reside here.
* **Standridge Hill Stone Circle:** An ancient stone monument in a park on the outskirts of the city. Its hidden powers are credited as the cause of many of Kessia City's oddities and are of special importance to the Spirit Guard. Its most frequent use is as a travel hub for the team, as the structure can be used to teleport between linked stones hidden around the city.

## History

### Background

The area that would become Kessia City was home to the Atsah tribe thousands of years ago. The Atsah, heeding the visions granted by the Empress posing as their gods, learned empathokinesis and used this ability to build the Standridge Hill Stone Circle. The Circle would've been used by the Ardent Empire to warp to Earth and conquer it, but the Empire died beforehand and only a gravely wounded Platicore made it through to Earth, where he entered a millennia-long hibernation. The Atsah eventually died out and left no records, making the tribe's existence and the secrets of empathokinesis lost to time.

Thousands of years later, a highschooler Angela Warrant touched the Standridge Stones and triggered an empathokinetic pulse called the Hero's Call, signaling the Guide Kunapipi to travel to Kessia City with her assistant Noriko Yukimura so they may aid the new Champion. The pulse had the side effect of rousing Platicore, who began creating monsters to drain Investiture from the city's energy-rich residents. When confronted with one such monster, Angela activated a Spirit Stick she retrieved from the Standridge Stones to gain the power to defeat it. Angela, under the guise of Spirit Guard Valor, would then defeat monsters wherever they appeared, and the Spirit Guard team would later be joined Mallory Drake, Vivian Feliz, and Kara Balmer.

Robert Dreese came to Kessia City from Deepwater so he may attend Schuyler Adamson University like his late parents had, sharing a dorm with Cory Frost and Eli Drake.

### Week 1

During the debriefing following the Day LaMode battle, Kunapipi tells the transformed Robynne that it would safest for Rob to tell her Uncle Taylor about her situation while he's in Kessia City and thus under the effects of the Standridge Stones' perception filter. To this end, the Hush Corps rig a lottery to win him a trip to SAU's homecoming football game in 28 days. In addition, Rob's class schedule is rearranged so she may take summer courses, as returning to Deepwater during breaks like she had initially planned would risk a monster appearing in Kessia City while she's away.

### Week 5

During the debriefing following the Cell-celia battle, Kunapipi tells Robynne that the Hush Corps are ready to contact Taylor as soon as the next day. Taylor is then set to arrive that Thursday.