I had a dream that Pam could shape-shift into any form she wanted. I carried her around in a little keychain thing. She were in suspended animation when she was in there.

I was at a subway station with someone and we were waiting for the next train and it was late at night and it’d been forever and we were worried the train wouldn’t come. Suddenly, I was like “Hey, I have this friend who can change shape. Here she is!” and I opened up the keychain and Pam came out.

I was like “Pam, can you turn into a mist or something and waft down the tunnel and see if the train is coming?”

While she was gone, my other friend was like “Man, some friend you are! Making your friend sleep in a tiny keychain until she’s useful to you!” I was like “What, it’s suspended animation – she doesn’t even notice the time pass.”

She came wafting back and turned back into a person, and she was like “Yeah, the train will be here in like 20 minutes”. I was like. “Cool. Get back in the keychain now,” and she was like “Do I have to?” and I was like “Pam! Sodium!”

Apparently, she was deathly afraid of metallic sodium, and I coated the keychain with it. (it disrupted her special shape-shifter metabolism). So when I showed it to her, she was like “Okay, okay, I’m going!”

Sheesh, I’m a jerk!

(note: In the webcomic “Magpie Luck”, the main character is a time traveler whose best friend is a sentient gas she keeps in a bottle she wears on her belt. I bet this is where the idea came from)