I wrote a children's book about a nervous eight-armed creature who tidies socks under beds, and now you can invite him out on the internet.
He has spent a hundred years practicing being invisible. One of his arms wants to wave hello. You put a century into your profession and one of your own appendages starts fucking with the job description. Poor guy.
The book is Octavitin: The Rules of Under, an illustrated read-aloud for ages six to nine. It's finished and seeking a publisher. The website[1]Ref. 1website octavitin.patpadgett.com is one page, with the first chapter and a small interaction. There's a printable set of rules too.
The interaction is a bell. Press it and you invite him out. You can also ask him to leave, and the second button matters just as much.
There is no bell sound. The script changes the images and caption, along with the status message. The page promises no sudden sounds, and I mean it literally. I am not making your speaker ring at bedtime just because I drew a bell on a button.
It moves focus[2]Ref. 2focus developer.mozilla.org, too. Invite him out and focus goes to the leave button. Send him away and it returns to the bell, without scrolling the page. A polite live region[3]Ref. 3live region developer.mozilla.org carries the status text (polite being a useful quality in something hanging around a child's bedroom). If I tell a child they can withdraw the invitation, I had better put that control where they can find it without hunting through my interface.
The footer says: "Illustrations are author-directed concept art rendered with AI."
Let the poor guy get back to his socks.