2009-01-28 Give it time, the day's still young.

[Pillaroforder]

A proverbial trinket for a treasure. Just like Manhattan (according to an urban legend).

[Slamlander]

But it's a toss up, both are good.

BTW, Graybeard is correct. I've been to loads of curio shops nad they are usually packed to the rafters. This guy has lots of shelves laden only with dust.

[mindstalk]

Hmm, elf fan boys. Surely Meji has some personal experience with them, as the only half-elf.

Also, wow, the elves must really be stuck up. Or else there's more than art in those plays.

...And why would Sarine be walking around with one? Elven equivalent of a portable DVD player?

Cliched though it be, the hood seems to work well for Sarine. Clearly he hasn't noticed she's a frigging elf.

[wrog]

...And why would Sarine be walking around with one?

probably not a coincidence that she doesn't want to talk about it. I'm guessing she lifted it from the archives on her way out of Praenubilis figuring it would come in handy...

[Sareth]

Last panel: The resigned look on her face, along with her comment... Win!

[runic]

give it time

sarine's been reading the forums? or is she also aware of her success rate lately?

[Viking-Sensei]

Also, wow, the elves must really be stuck up. Or else there's more than art in those plays.

...And why would Sarine be walking around with one? Elven equivalent of a portable DVD player?

I suspect, if the answer is explained, the two of these probably relate to one another. Elven plays that reflect the pre-Errant War innocence of the elves and regard such current taboos as falling in love with humans and having their children would most likely be strictly off-limits for the humans in any sort of cultural exchange (don't want to perpetuate any bad rumors, you know) - and that would be exactly the sort of thing Sarine might carry around with her all the time. Before her time with Jon and Meji, she was primarily alone, by herself, brooding... and if I had an equally compact portable player, that makes that much more sense.

[Initial B]

If Sarine starts giving away national treasures like that, she'll never be able to go back to the Elves. Perhaps she figures that when everything is said and done, she wants a piece of Elven culture to remain alive in the minds of the remaining humans.

[Graybeard]

If Sarine starts giving away national treasures like that, she'll never be able to go back to the Elves. Perhaps she figures that when everything is said and done, she wants a piece of Elven culture to remain alive in the minds of the remaining humans.

She's ALREADY unable to back to the elves, and decided centuries ago that she didn't want to anyway.

I assume that this crystal is her private property that she's been lugging around to keep her entertained on the road, just as V-S posits. One man's (or elf's) national treasure is another man's (or elf's) childhood toy, now outgrown. Anyone who's immune to nostalgia -- and Sarine has room in her psyche for exactly one bit of nostalgia, and that room is fully occupied -- can do things like that. Most elves (as in, every other elf we've seen) have no such immunity, and wouldn't need a law to keep them from giving those crystals away; being tight-fisted with them would just come naturally.

Sarine is amazing. And that's one of the best lines by any character in months.

[Sareth]

I too believe it likely to be her private little entertainment collection. Having been deployed for over three years, all told, living out of two duffel bags and a back pack which had so much military gear I had to be VERY choosy about what I tried to bring along. I ported around a collection of over 200 books that had been scanned or put into HTML format so that I could keep them on a thumb drive. I'm guessing that Sarine has that crystal for exactly the same reason.