Gap Year

Gap Year is a tie-in to the Outliers and Outsiders series of games, set between At The Break Of Dawn and The Crystal Tower. It can be considered a miniseries of illustrated novellas, or one illustrated novella in three parts. It is more than a companion piece, but rather a core part of the series in terms of story, bridging a gap in the timeline and setting things up for the next game. It’s a story of the magic and the mundane, of magical girls and global pandemics, of a lot of things… but I’ll let it speak for itself.

All three parts are now complete and are available to read individually. A revised, combined edition is planned but does not currently have an ETA.

Part 1: Social Distancing

It’s been less than two weeks since the fight with Delora and the magical accident or whatever you call it that left Gina stuck in her Amazonian magical girl form and her life turned upside down… although if she was being honest with herself, it had been upside down since the beginning of 2020. Sakura has a lot more optimism than her, and an idea on how to fix things which just sounds like a bad idea. But it’s not like she has a better one.

Part 1: Social Distancing is set in late 2020 and follows on immediately from At The Break Of Dawn, setting up a few plot threads for later and bathing in 2020 ennui.

Part 2: Pandemic Time

Coming up on a year since the beginning of the pandemic, months since all the magical girl craziness started, things are both slowly going back to normal and quickly getting more insane. Gina would be lying if she said she knew what the future would hold for her. Truth be told, she didn't really have plans before all this, either. For now, though, she'll take the mess of uncomfortable feelings, mild annoyances, and potential world-ending threats one day at a time.

Part 2: Pandemic Time is set in early-mid 2021 and continues directly from the first installment. It continues the same arcs while focusing in a bit on Gina's relationship with Sakura and introducing something vague, foreboding, and totally not the beginning of a myth arc.

Part 3: New Normal

Going into a summer like she’d never experienced before, things really seem to be picking up for Gina. Or, at least, picking up the pace. She’s in a real relationship with Sakura now, something new to both of them, in a way. They have some leads on how to fix things, although she’s not sure if she’s really comfortable with how deep they’re falling into the criminal underworld. But they’ll figure it out. Maybe things will turn around, or at least settle into a new kind of equilibrium.

Part 3: New Normal is set mid-late 2021, picking up immediately after the second installment. It continues developing the relationship between Gina and Sakura and concludes the main story arc of Gap Year as things slowly settle into a semblance of normal for the duo and the world.