Standridge Hill Stone Circle

Robert and Kunapipi at the Standridge Hill Stone Circle.

The **Standridge Hill Stone Circle**, often referred to as the **Standridge Stones** or **Standridge Circle**, is a location in *Magical Girl Policy*. It is an ancient rock monument on the outskirts of Kessia City. It is a famous landmark and has a park surrounding it. To the world at large, the Circle is merely a mysterious construction built during an era where humans had only simple tools, but it secretly has several empathokinetic properties that give it special significance to the Spirit Guard.

## Description

The monument consists of a circular formation of eleven stones of about six feet called the "eye", which is pointed toward a spherical boulder of about seven feet. This boulder is supported by three smaller stones and called the "iris". Many of the outer stones have fallen over throughout the years. When their empathokinetic functions are activated, the stones glow. An eye's stone has a blue glow when activated via knock or a harsher red one when activated via Kunapipi's incantation. When retrieving a Spirit Stick from the iris, the stone glows blue and forms an Ardentian symbol corresponding to the associated emotion of the focus's intended owner. The stones constantly emit a distinct hum that can be detected via empathokinetic perception, each one differing slightly in pitch.

## History

### Background

During the Ardentia Civil War, people from the Ardent Empire fled to distant worlds using powerful empathokinetic foci called gateways. After one side claimed a gateway, they would warp away and destroy it so their enemies as well as the Other Power couldn't follow. With the Ardentia homeworld's destruction inevitable, plans were made for the Empire to create a gateway to Earth so it may conquer the planet and make it the new seat of the Empire. By this point, all of the waystones required for the gateways to work were destroyed, so a new type of gateway that didn't use a waystone was designed. This new gateway can directly connect to its partner, so in order for the Earth half to be built, the Empress projected visions to a Native American tribe called the Atsah, posing as their gods and teaching them empathokinetic techniques to construct what would be known as the Standridge Hill Stone Circle. In order to protect Earth from threats like the corrupt Empire, the Princess and her comrades set in motion a secret plan to sabotage the relocation. The Scholar leveraged her reputation as an empathokinetic genius to convince the Empress to appoint her head of the relocation project. The Standridge Circle was completed around the time the war's final battle for the gateway began. The Scholar needed uninterrupted access to the gateway for the plan to work, so with the Knight's help, the Empress was convinced to let his team and the Princess's collectively serve as the last line of defense. Impatient Ardentia were turned away on claims that the warp was not yet ready, though the lie was eventually discovered and added to the chaos near the battle's end. The Scholar successfully sealed the Spirit Sticks to be used by the team's eventual reincarnations in the iris and severed the connection to Earth, dooming everyone to die with the Ardentia homeworld. At the last moment, however, a gravely wounded Platicore managed to break through the Mender's barrier over the gateway and warped to Earth, going into a millennia-long hibernation to recover.

Throughout the following millennia, the Circle's purpose and creators were lost to time. It became a landmark of Kessia City and a park was established around it, but its powers over perception made the mysterious structure the subject of unusually little research. Its powers saw people with high empathokinetic potential unconsciously drawn to the area, including those who would become the Spirit Guard. Angela Warrant touching the Stones signaled Kunapipi to arrive at Kessia City to act as the soon-to-be hero's mentor, but this also woke Platicore from his hibernation. Angela eventually used a Spirit Stick retrieved from the iris to transform into Spirit Guard Valor and fight Platicore's monsters. Over the course of a year and a half, Mallory Drake, Vivian Feliz, and Kara Balmer joined the Spirit Guard in a similar manner. They learn of the Circle's origins through visions of their past lives. Angela believes the Circle is of special interest to Platicore because his monsters consistently appear within an eleven-mile radius of it, but their apparent refusal to target it directly has her theorize its power repels them in some way.

At an unspecified point after Mallory joined the Spirit Guard, Angela used an ability inherited from the Princess to access the unclaimed Spirit Sticks and inspected the associated symbols so she may recognize future Spirit Guards by the symbol that appears on their Ardent Resonance. Sometime prior to Kara joining the Spirit Guard, Angela also set up the warp system that the team would use as a form of transit around Kessia City. Using the strength and earth powers of her Spirit Guard Valor form, she carved a set of rocks, linked them to the Circle's eye, configured them to activate when knocked on to the beat of a corresponding song in Lyric Victory's *Satisfaction Guaranteed* album, and placed the rocks in strategic places around the city. The activation codes were chosen because Angela predicted all of the Spirit Guards would be girls around her age that would've been familiar with the incredibly popular boy band growing up.

### Week 1

In the present day, Robert Dreese meets with the Spirit Guard and Kunapipi here to learn why he glowed when attacked by Polygal. He learns about the monument's past and is instructed to reach into the iris, retrieving a Spirit Stick that can only be obtained by the reincarnation of the Shrine Maiden and final member of the Spirit Guard. Robert refuses to transform into Spirit Guard Serenity, as it would force him to discard his identity and live the rest of his life as a woman.

After eventually transforming, Rob is taught the activation codes for the Stones' warps, but is warned it'll take some memorization for one who wasn't a fan of Lyric Victory, and is later given the album to listen to. It is also decided that it'd be best to tell her Uncle Taylor about her transformation and Spirit Guard business while he's in Kessia City due to the Circle's perception filter.

### Weeks 2-4

On the way to visiting Angela after the SFEERS opening social, Robynne senses something like a song within the iris, which is supposed to be empty now that the Spirit Guard is fully assembled. She also senses something watching her, but loses track of both when her concentration slips. She and Angela decide to investigate it later so as not to alert the watchful presence.

## Functions

### Teleportation

The Standridge Circle's original purpose was to serve as a gateway between the Ardent Empire and Earth. Connecting directly through a partner structure rather than an object called a waystone is a design advancement unique to the Standridge Circle. With the Circle's partner gateway in the Empire destroyed, this functionality is reduced to each outer stone allowing teleportation to and from a paired stone of similar shape elsewhere when passing into one. Spirit Guard Valor used her earth-based abilities and super strength to carve said smaller rocks, then placed them throughout Kessia City and had them activate when knocked on to the beat of a corresponding Lyric Victory song. An alternative activation method is an incantation of some sort, as demonstrated by Kunapipi, and the stone has an atypical red glow with increased intensity when this method is used. The Spirit Guard and their allies use the Circle as a travel hub and one of their main forms of transit. The warp is seamless; a person can reach through a stone to have part of their body appear out of the other end. The warp automatically deactivates after a short time, but one may manually do it when touching the stone. The warp will fail to activate under certain circumstances, generally when one who has not used a stone prior is near, but as this is not always the case, it is believed the empathokinetic scan involved is more complicated than that when determining whether it is safe to warp. A similar system of knock-activated teleportation stones serve as entrances to Platicore's lair.

#### Warp destinations

Each stone activates when knocked on to the beat of a song in Lyric Victory's *Satisfaction Guaranteed* album, with stone's number in the sequence matching its corresponding song's position in the album.

1. Kunapipi's office at Schuyler Adamson University. Its associated song is "One Look At You".
2. Inactive.
3. By Adamson's View Golf Club, relatively near Buy Bright.
4. The living room of Angela and Mallory's apartment. Its associated song is unclear; Chapter 37 inconsistently uses both "Emotion Sickness" and "We're Back and Bringin' It".
5. Inactive.
6. A train yard near Rale Valley Mall, against a fence.
7. The living room of Vivian, Kara, Noriko, and Rob's dorm at SAU. Its associated song is given as "You're My Life" in Chapter 17, but "Crime in Progress" in Chapter 37. This warp was described as the third in Chapter 37, but Chapter 48 lists it as the seventh.
8. In the glen of a greenbelt next to a residential area near Buy Bright. Its associated song is "Bombshell".
9. Under the Fifth Street overpass, relatively near Buy Bright.
10. Unspecified destination.
11. Inactive.

### Storage

The iris in the center acts as an interdimensional storage unit that is shared between both halves of the gateway. The Spirit Guard's Spirit Sticks are left here until they are needed, at which point a person with a matching Investiture may reach through the stone to retrieve their respective focus, as each one was prepared for the reincarnations of the Princess's team. As the leader and Princess's reincarnation, Angela can access any of the unclaimed foci, and may even instantly summon or return one. Robynne senses something else within the iris, but it seems to be something the Spirit Guard cannot reach.

### Empathokinetic beacon

The Circle's energy works to draw those with large amounts of Investiture to the area, which has led to Kessia City possessing a large concentration of such people. This eventually leads those who would become the Spirit Guard meeting each other, but also makes the city prime hunting ground for Platicore's Investiture-draining monsters. Kunapipi theorizes that it is also has some correlation with the unusual hair colors that are commonplace in the city, with the locals noting that people who live in the area for long enough may have their hair change colors.

### Perception filter

The Circle's energy alters people's perception and dulls curiosity on subjects related to the Circle, theorized to have been originally designed to prevent the Earthlings from investigating the tools of their would-be Ardentia conquerors. In the present, it reduces the amount of scientific intrigue that such a mysterious structure would normally bring. It is believed to be the root cause of the city's hair color oddities, as even photos of people may display different hair colors if they are observed within the area. In addition, it works in conjunction with the Disconnection Effect to hinder investigation into the Spirit Guard, as witnesses give conflicting information on the heroes' appearances, and most Kessia City residents treat the Spirit Guard and monster attacks as something almost normal, causing the whole situation to be largely unknown outside of the city.

## Trivia

* In Chapter 3's author commentary, Taralynn Andrews reveals how she conceived of the Standridge Hill Stone Circle:
	+ It was added in order for Kessia City to have something special about it.
	+ It was made by combining aspects of the henges in the United Kingdom with the large round stones created by Native Americans, with Andrews expressing fondness for the former. The former influence can be seen in the eye, while the latter is apparent in the iris and the structure being built by the fictional Atsah tribe.
* The original version of Chapter 48 depicted the warp stones functioning differently than they normally do, stating that one doesn't actually teleport until their whole body has passed through the stone. This was corrected when the chapter was revised on September 5, 2021.