Neighborlee: a small college town in Cuyahoga County, Ohio.
Some speculation has been made on whether a large number of "you don't see this" and "you won't remember anything" spells have been employed regularly on the town since its founding in the late 1700s. Odd events happen regularly in Neighborlee, and yet the locals have developed what is known as the "Ho hum, so what else is new?" attitude. Since most of the odd events are either benign or beneficial, the ability to overlook blatant instances of magic at work is understandable. The locals don't want to mess up a good thing by raising a ruckus or looking too closely at the sources or sponsors of such activity.
The truth is that a number of residents of Neighborlee are very aware of the ongoing weirdness, and they have dedicated themselves to keeping the ordinary folks from being hurt when unusual activities get out of hand, or when outside, inimical forces try to tap the magical energy resident in the land and air and water. Or, as has happened regularly through the town's history, nasty beings from other dimensions have tried to use Neighborlee as the gateway from their dimension to Earth, and from Earth, to all other dimensions and realms. See: previous entries on realms and dimensions. These folks call themselves the Guardians. They are led by Angela, a woman who has spent so much time exposed to the magic of otherness and all the energy pouring from other dimensions through Neighborlee, she has become inherently magical herself. Her age is unknown, and indeed she can't remember where she originated or how long ago. She has been wounded in the battle against inimical magical beings and forces, but endures and keeps watch on the people of Neighborlee. She is an advisor to the Guardians, most of whom are among a group who call themselves the Lost Kids.
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Side Note: Lost Kids are children between the age of six months and two years who are found apparently abandoned in isolated areas in and around Neighborlee. No one ever claims them. They end up in Neighborlee Children's Home. A small percentage of them develop what one member of the Guardians refers to as semi-pseudo-superhero powers, meaning their gifts are sometimes only half-baked and nothing close to glamorous. For example, one Lost Kid has the ability to fix anything mechanical, and is even able to make machines with missing pieces operate as if brand new. Another Lost Kid can "kinda-sorta" fly, requiring her to take a running start and leap, and then she can glide for long distances, or else levitate up and down, but not fly in the sense that Superman does. Some of the Lost Kids "messed up" as they are willing to admit, and got their odd powers noticed. Some were noticed by the right people, a group known as Hoax, Inc., who snatched up these children and spirited them away to a place they called the Sanctum, to train them to use their half-baked powers for the good of all. Mostly to find and protect other Lost Kids. However, some children with powers were found by the wrong sort of people, who spirited them away to either drain them of their gifts or brainwash them and breed them to use them in a world conquest scheme. The Guardians, and their allies, Hoax Inc., don't know the name of this group of nasties, but refer to them as the Rivals.
Neighborlee is a thin spot, where Fae pass through to start their travels on Earth. Some Fae settled down in the surrounding countryside where they could have access to the energy regularly seeping through the "cracks" in the barrier between realms and dimensions, and thus replenish their energy, much as childcare workers are able to do with the inherent magic in all children. Angela stands guardian over quite a few of the thinner spots in Neighborlee, pulled together into one place, where various "reinforcements" have been placed around the thin spots to keep the nasties from other dimensions from bursting through. These reinforcements are built into the fabric of a large, old, four-story-tall Victorian house known as Divine's Emporium. Magic is woven into its walls, and those who are observant--most of them with powers that make them Guardians--have observed that quite often, Divine's Emporium is much larger inside than it is outside. Divine's has been the sight of more battles to burst through from one dimension to another than Angela and her team of Guardians care to remember.
