Windows Let You See Sunshine (draft)

[gotta move my shit inside. i thought it’d be warm enough to stream outside today but my fingers are freezer; and writing in gloves is NOT happening]

[it’s warm but the fucking wind chill]

[where the fuck is my mouse???]

hello! welcome! i’m Hale or HFE of HFEproductions (fae/faer, although i use more pronouns, which are in my carrd, which is in my about section on twitch. i believe it’s the last link listed).

remember to stay rested and hydrated!

so if you remember my first 4thewords stream, you’ll recall that it was severely lacking in accessibility settings, but i’m pleased to show you that that’s changed!

we’ve got site themes (including dark mode).

they’ve also got text size and line height sliders, a bunch of different serif and sans serif fonts.

the only thing that i know (i believe it was DigiDragon7) one of my viewers asked for regarding accessibility was letter spacing.

but! this is so much better. i feel much more comfortable recommending and streaming 4thewords now.

so if y’all would like to check it out, definitely do that! you get a 30-day free trial + there’s this in-game event going on right now called the Festival of Oge-Mai. it feels like every other month something’s going on, and i always feel like i have plenty of time to get all my event quests in, but i know i write rather frequently (and a lot).

plus talking with y’all should get get us through these last reenu that i need.

that’s what i’m working on, some festival quests.

i think in-universe it’s like a celebration of the community or something. i’m not super deep into the 4thewords lore. i guess they wanted something themed around their earth-floating monkey monster thing. and now there’s a little earth-floating monkey monster thing. we might end up fighting that on stream today, i got it in my battle list right now.

oh my god i’m so used to streaming in wavemaker that i keep going to my wavemaker tab when i duck out of stream manager XD

also stay hydrated and rested, everybody ❤

you get about 30 minutes to fight a reenu, which is plenty for me when i’m focused on writing.

i should prolly turn autobattle on

[brb bathroom break. I SWEAR I DIDN’T NEED TO GO AT ALL BEFORE THE STREAM]

i’m back

my dad and i are gonna be watching Star Blazers together later this evening. i don’t know exactly when he wants to do that, but it sounded like he wants to do it later tonight rather than right now, so i’ll be streaming for a bit at least today.

i am so energized to stream today oh my god. chilling yesterday did me a lot of good. just doing something else. breaking up your routine.

oh good we only have three of these to go! sweet.

and then it’s onto that last wignow and some kai

i don’t think it’s the last wignow i need overall it’s just the last i need for the quest i’m currently thinking of. it can be hard to keep track of what things you need for all your quests. i kinda wish there were markers for: 1) this monster / loot is for a quest you’ve taken and 2) this monster / loot is for a quest that’s available for you to take. that would me a LOT

i also got a new mouse yesterday ^-^ it was on sale

logitech 525

logitech mice are like the only mice staples sells apparently XD or at least the staples in my area. i thought about ordering one online but my old one started hurting to turn on and off, so i just wanted a new one. i’ll get a fun one from the internet next time maybe

everybody gets a referral code when they join, i guess, you don’t have to request it. i don’t remember exactly, maybe they wait until you make a payment or something

but anyway, mine is SMWGE07249

and i can DM that to anyone of y’all if you’d like, i’ll also throw it up on twitter somewhere

so how it works is, you put in the code when you sign up, you run through your free trial, you make a payment (4thewords is $3/month if i recall correctly, i’ll check in a sec), and then we both get free crystals (the premium currency).

so yeah they give you more crystals when you make bigger purchases, but the smallest one is enough to get you your site subscription

they also redid the cosmetics store, which i didn’t actively notice until i read the latest update. “like, oh! you’re right! the cosmetics store isn’t a complete dumpster fire anymore!” it’s paginated!! it runs much more smoothly now it’s fantastic. like literally everything about this update is great.

DieDoktor mentioned that the green theme was nice to look, so i’m gonna pop into that real quick, but if anyone has any objections, let me know; we can keep going with this one or another one

i can’t wait to blow all of your minds with my art “process”. i wanna make sure PJ or Hachiko or Digi can be there too. some experienced artists needs to experience the horror XD

also people in general just need to know that pixlr exists

like if i’d known there was a free browser-based alt to photoshop in high school (hell just any alts to photoshop) i would’ve stuck with digital art in my teens / earlier adulthood. instead of stopping completely for so many years.

and i realize that i don’t *need* elf boys to do an art stream, but i just wanted to judge how interested y’all would be in that. like i established myself as a writing streamer for a reason, and i wanna make sure people get what they came / subscribed for, ya know?

oh! another thing i’ve been doing lately! reading The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty

it’s the first in the Daevabad Trilogy. a theif discovers she’s half djinn! and has to flee to the titular city of brass (at least that’s what i think the title refers to) with a magical new not-friend-but-becoming-a-friend. a city where the prince is embroiled in the plight of its half-djinn population.

it’s fantastic! i was hooked from the first page. the set up doesn’t overstay it’s welcome. you get enough info to work off of, and stuff happens!

it doesn’t drag on, is what i’m saying XD

okay i just double-checked and she’s not half-djinn, she’s half daeva. in-universe, djinn is the human word for daeva. she’s half fire elemental but her heritage manifests as healing cuz her family’s a long line of healers that were once wiped out (she’s the last of them)

but yeah if you really love fantasy novels (especially ones on the longer side), definitely check out the City of Brass! and yeah it’s long but it’s also a fast read. i’m already a fifth of the way through the text after only one reading session. it knows exactly long to pace itself for me XD

i guess i could write a story too today, huh?

that would be nice

so i’ve thought over STAR Blazers (not to be confused with the old-timey anime my dad will be watching later tonight) some more and i definitely need to pull back. i don’t think we’re properly feeling the weight of Solnishko’s trauma. He’s acting fine. he’s acting like he just happened to be there in that cabin, and that’s not what i’m going for at all. and emphasizing that while also having the heist subplot i was introducing + all the other characters feels way too crowded.

like 2016(?) HFE had it right: keep it focused

and that’s what i want to work on regarding STAR Blazers.

i guess i’ll show you how project creation / file creation works on 4thewords.

[so you can make a new file directly in the project menu or you can just make a new unassigned file]

[alright the first sentence curse, let’s go]

Kim hit their fist on the wall. The lone cabin out in the middle of nowhere, what seemed like prime fuel, was actually made of metal. It was just painted to look like logs. Optical fuckery.

But when their fist hit the wall, they realized it was cold. Freezing, in fact! In the middle of June? What the fuck??? New Hampshire was cold, sure, but not in June! New Hampshire was firmly and bitterly embroiled in summertime. It got even Kim blasting the A/C on max.

Something was wrong.

[hmm. so it doesn’t look like it scales the paragraph spacing when you change the line height. this makes everything look like all the same paragraph ]

[pizza bagels :3 ]

Kim clicked their lighter. To them, it seemed like even the flame was unsteady.

They surveyed the cabin. No windows, and only one door.

Kim’s spine felt very, very cold.

They kicked in the door. Damn near broke their paw doing it, too. Kim could hear Ben nagging them now. With Rosy parroting him.

But also heard a gasp.

Kim snapped their gaze up from their throbbing paw.

The kid was as scrunched up as he could get. A raccoon with scars webbing the right side of his face. All he had on was a set of scrubs.

Someone wanted him to freeze to death! Is what Kim figured.

Kim burst right over there despite the pain in his hind-paw. They crouched low on their creaking knees and held out one of their fore-paws.

“Let’s get you out of here, yeah?” they said, in a soothing tone they’d fought their smoky rasp for.

The kid glanced up at them, then back to their fore-paw.

He took it.

Kim led him out of that hell. But with a snap of a twig followed by a pained noise the kid so desperately tried to hide, Kim realized he didn’t have any shoes. Not even socks, for crying out loud! Kim felt awful.

Kim carried him back to the truck. He was light as a feather. This was very, very bad. Kids were supposed to be chunky, so they could grow.

[okay i’ll stream for another half an hour, then i’ll be doing father-son (and maybe mom) things]

[okay i basically gotta get in 10 words per minute, i can do this. piece of cake haha. oh boy…]

The kid all but fell asleep when Kim got to the car. They wrapped him up in a battle-hardened jacket from their firefighting days. They wished they had a proper blanket for him instead. They wanted to wrap him up in a blanket burrito and never let go.

But first.

Kim hauled out their fire kit.

[irsea look so cute. like awww i have to slay so many of you XD well currently only five but we’ll see how high the body count rises]

[some days you just really wanna make your own pokémon spin-off]

[the problem with pokémon and digimon is that the critters don’t stay cute. you can be cute and tough. just keep them cute! just look at me, i’m adorable, and there’s nothing tougher than surviving a household that hates you XD ]

[BUT ANYWAY, back to beating this earth-floaty monkey things]

Kim breathed in the flames. The assurance this hell could never hurt the kid again… That it was obliterated by Kim’s fire…

It brought them peace. For now.

Kim turned their back on the flames.

[alright y’all i’m gonna end the stream here. my parents finished the other thing they were doing. depending on how many episodes we end up watching, i might stream later tonight]

[raccoon jesus loves you ❤ thank you for coming to the stream! let’s find someone to raid!!]