"And also between giving up and picking your battles." Severus shrugs just a little with his face, saying, "Maybe serve as tester when I have something safe for human testing, as my usual subject," he gestures to himself, "is no longer suited, possibly acquire a few ingredients, but mainly," he turns hot-coal eyes up to Rus in a set, white face, "understand that they--and their influence, and their memory--that they can be fought, and know that you can and you will."
"Fasces," Severus points out. "Bunch some--twist or braid it--and it'll hold fast."
Severus, who has long and painful experience of being bullied himself, considers feeling sorry for him. And decides not to waste his energy.
"Just so--O Best Beloved," he murmurs with a smirk that shows a flash of incisor.
Severus looks amused at him--not quite looking down his nose, but refraining to do so in a way that shows he's courteously refraining. "Although everything you say is true, I'm afraid you've grossly misunderstood the situation. You seem to think we dislike the crumbs you're offering because we're hungry and they're crumbs, and that you can trade on our hunger. Far from it." His eyes glitter blackly at T1, and his lips curl up slightly. "We dislike them because we're not hungry, and they're unappetizing little crumbs. We came looking for a pleasant evening; you came looking for profit. You want to use us to your own advantage. Well and good; that's not offensive." The blackness becomes icy. "But don't mistake him for a week-kneed fool impressed by flattery, or me for some spineless gutter shill you can flourish with impunity. I suppose you're used to dealing with people who suspect at heart that they deserve no better than your crumbs and are lucky to get them--lose those habits. He likes crowded pubs and he wanted to play darts tonight and I'm rusty, so we may be persuadable. But we don't need your contacts, because we're not starving for your game, and if you want his talents or my cooperation, you will by god make the humiliation and the waste of the evening worth our while."
After a second he remembers that Rodolphus likes being mistaken for a fool, and that Seth was supposed to be relatively spineless, and with great effort refrains from either sneaking a guilty look at Rus or slamming his head repeatedly against the table.
True O King! >^.^< LOL. Mine disliked my apple and carrot carvings. HEEEE! Thank you! He tries to be more Sev and less Snape a lot of the time, since he can, but I do love to hear we can still give him the IC voice. ^_^ Doesn't it? I know I'm going to have to see it, but I'll have to go with fellow Holmesians I can cry with. I have hopes for Jude Law, though.