A special project for a special person and a special story!
Six months ago today, @scorp2510 posted the story KIA - Killed In Action, kickstarting the series Between Stars and Silver Rails.
A month later, I found out about it by some incredible stroke of luck and I fell deep. This VLD/HSR crossover was eveything I dreamt of, and even more I didn't dare hope for. It didn't even take me a week to take on a project for a fun typeset and bind for the first story of the series that was completed, File Code: HSS-CR-Δ-07.
Today, it's been officially six months, and the series is now over 360k words long, with 12 works (6 one-shots, 2 complete multichapter stories, 4 running multichapter stories. Also, some Easter eggs on my part, as a fun addition.)
I am 9 chapters late in reading, 5 chapters late in writing, as my current life does not really allow me to sit down and read/write. But I am stubborn, and I refused to not celebrate this milestone.
It is thus time for me to reveal another project that was in the works since the story was completed, but that I could only complete yesterday (right on time!): Marion's Adventure Book.
Marion is Scorp's Honkai: Star Rail OC, a sweet boy with the heart in the right place but clumsy morals. He's a Memokeeper who relies a lot on art to gather memories, and, most of all, who has synaesthesia.
The bind itself is Japanese stab binding with my faithful Dubletta Purple Blue, with a scrap of flower-patterned lokta paper that Scorp had admired on another of my binds not long ago, and the inside is golden chiyogami brought back from Japan by a friend. Everything was laser printed on sketchbook paper to keep the idea of Marion's drawing book. Lots of colours for a colourful child!
The typeset was a little of a challenge: since Marion has synaesthesia, colours are very important for him. I thus decided to put all the names of colours... in their colour. Except, here's the caveat: I'm kinda colourblind. A little. So there was a lot of trial and errors. And whining about colours to my ever-patient partner.
Additionally, Marion's story is not (surprise surprise) only a happy, carefree one. At some points, Marion is at risk to lose his colours: for this, I chose to desaturate the colourful chapter title pages as the story went, until the colours came back. I also toyed around with adding some effects on words, that seem very logical intradiegetically but were hell on the printer. It still sort of works. Another win for FAAFO.
I wanted to keep the feeling of a children story, with pastel painting and fairytale elements, even if it's not all fairytales in Marion's troubled life. I went for a very round font, easy to read and with childbook feels (Comic Neue), that I pimped a little by adding touches of: - Century (for a formal but elegant style, when talking about Marion's Knight and his companion) - Coral Pixels and Aardvark Cwm Type (for a glitchy feel, when talking about the distortion or fragmented things) - Christmas Garden (for an elegant, flowery twist on the Garden of Recollection) - Austie Bost You Wear Flowers (for cute flowers in chapter titles), - Asian Girl and 2 Much Coffee (for handwritten things.)
The spacing wasn't easy. I usually make my typeset in a very classic way: no big line breaks, everything justified and square. Here, I went with something looser, to go with the representation of Marion's free spirit through Scorp's words and formatting.
Two mishaps, alas: a small guillotine accident that cut off the page numbers, and... falling short of the paper I decided to print on, which led to me having to switch and the 20 last pages being a slightly creamier colour.
Honestly, considering everything, I feel like I'm lucky it wasn't worse. Looking back, this is way too thick for an efficient stab binding, even with boards. And yet: it still works.
So, there: Happy 6month-versary, KIAverse, Seventh and Marion! And thank you, @scorp2510, for filling my life with this incredible universe of yours!
