"Well, I wasn't thinking about it quite like that," he explains. "Or perhaps a bit--it's complicated; I may not even really have a basis for it. It's that my wandless magic as a child was temperature control, and it was really a tantrum thing," and sometimes a self/mother defense thing, "but it's meaningful for me now. Possibly that would be a better question; if it's meaningful for you in retrospect." He slants an inquiring look at Rus.
"Absurdity is useful that way," he assures him, eyes crinkling.
He nods. "Thank you. I won't forget."
"To cynical and unappreciative sharks who wanted not only to make a profit off your efforts but one to the tune of, what was it originally, ninety percent?" he scoffs loudly, moving as if to take his shoes out of range. "No respect for talent, just money. Not the sort of people that one ought to bother with."
It's about then that there's a floppy sort of fast shuffle, and blunt beaks pecking at their legs. Severus looks down at the penguins with an avuncular smile, and kicks the one pecking him against the wall.
I just feel sorry for her mom now. Awww. Not too bad for car related. though. (nods) Strikes are scary, but there needs to be some mechanism in place to guard against fourteen-hour days, wages below the poverty line, firings without just cause, and various forms of harassment. My mom worked that side of labor law; she was in on the big nurse's strike we had here a while back. Execs think they can take advantage of worker dependencies on salaries, and even more advantage of people like teachers and nurses who feel like doing good work is its own rewards. And they often can. So there has to be a mechanism. :( It's not that he thinks Rus is setting him up, although he does do Rus the credit of remembering that the man is Slytherin. Luke probably wasn't being devious, either. It just creates a situation of being in debt which he dislikes and mistrusts and which has burned him before.