Habitually Lost

Please remember, I will be posting a link to a Google form. Please use ONLY this for submissions. Do not send asks with submissions, even during the open submission time. They will not count. I reiterate this because I've gotten a few asks trying to suggest things in the last few days.

The most important thing you can do between now and tomorrow night is to go through our revealed song list (in the pinned post) to be absolutely certain your submission hasn't already been posted. You don't want to waste your submission and I don't want to have to scrub a bunch either.

Please also take a moment to review the rules for submission (also in the pinned post).

Everyone gets ONE submission. We are doing this on the honor system. Please just be cool and only submit one to give everyone a chance.

Narrow down your ideas before 9pm PDT tomorrow night when submission officially open!

The fire alarm went off at school today because of a mistake, but your teachers did the right thing to take you outside to be sure it was safe.

Some people use wheelchairs because their legs don’t walk very well. It can happen because they are old and tired, or because they got hurt, or because they were born that way.

Your Uncle Jerod talked to mom and dad, and wants you to call her Aunt Kari now. We will call her Kari too, and we can all practice together if it takes some getting used to.

Anticipate age-appropriate fears the child might have so you can assuage those that are not a threat.

Yes, Kitty died at the vet, but that doesn’t mean that it’s not safe for Puppy to go to the vet.

Yes, Peyton and Jo are getting a divorce, but they are both still part of our family and love you very much.

Yes, Grandma has cancer, but cancer is not contagious, so you are not going to get cancer by visiting her.

Anticipate fears that are realistic, and give the child clear direction about what to do, and what happens next.

If someone asks you to get in their car without permission, find Mom, Mama, or a teacher and tell them right away. We will make sure you are safe.

If Sparky’s sickness makes him hurt very badly, we are going to take him to the vet and she will give him some medicine, and he will die, but then he won’t hurt any more. Because Sparky is very sick, we are going to spend some special time with him over the next few days.

If the fire alarm goes off at school again, follow the teacher’s directions. If the fire alarm goes off and you are somewhere alone, go outside, and ask a grownup to call 911.

Reassure the child that they’re safe and loved, validate their feelings, and see if they have follow-up questions. Give them the option to take space to process, or to stay near you to feel safe.

I’m sad about Sparky too. Do you think we could make his favorite peanut-butter treats, while we are spending special time with him?

I understand why Grandma’s cancer makes you feel angry. It doesn’t seem fair that people we love get sick. Would you like a hug?

The problem with "shouldn't have to know that" is, well. That's a nice theoretical and abstract statement, but the reality is that sometimes they do have to know that.

We live in a fallen world, and what that means is that you cannot have everything be perfect because something has already gone wrong, and pretending it hasn't just makes it worse.

Children, ideally, shouldn't need treatment for injuries, because we would like them not to be getting injured. However, they will get injured, and then we should treat the injuries. That they "shouldn't need to" doesn't really buy you anything!

No, no, and NO.

AO3 does not live in “the cloud” because that is other people’s computers, and other people’s computers are vulnerable to censorship.

AO3 is on its own computers. It does still have to be housed somewhere, and I suppose a determined enough hater could try to find that place and go after it, but it’s a lot harder than sending spurious complaints to Amazon or whomever going “BadWrong things are hosted on your cloud service!”

AO3 is not “in the cloud.” AO3 is stored on physical machines that the OTW owns.