!Shapeshifter
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agk's diary 
9 January 2025 @ 03:17 UTC
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written on X61 with hp vf15 monitor, Model M keys
in the kitchen when I should be sleeping
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I picked up my three and a half year old daughter
from school. At school she was a baby when she
played with a girl whose name she doesn't know.

In the car, she barked a magic word Dr. Faustus
said to summon Mephistopholes. I obliged her by
gibbering "bleagh-bleagh-bleagh...." She banished
me with the other magic word, then summoned me
again, the strategy Faust used to tire the devil
and bend it to his will.

At her friend's house, she grabbed a sled and took
off running to the big hill. She was speeding down
it before anyone could stop her. What a fun thing
to repeat.

At dinner she was a worm. She went to her job, 
helping the people by eating dirt and pooping it
out. When it rained she went up and a bird ate her.
She thrashed about in the bird's stomach til it 
vomited her out, then wiggled back into the dirt
to her home, where her mama worm was watching her
baby worm til she got home from work.

I love being a worm grandma, Evy said. Can I watch
your baby worm next time?

Then daughter tried to postpone bedtime by becoming
Faust again, summoning our roommate with the magic
word. It was not to be. I brushed her teeth and she
became a cat, then fell asleep with Evy, lest Raw
Head and Bloody Bones turn her into a spot for 
disobediently staying awake.

I peeked. No spot, just a sleeping child,
temporarily reverted to its natural form.