Five Weeks (open)

She threw back her head and laughed.

"Horrible? Dear Christ, no! There were times where we weren't sure we'd eat, there were times that were hard, but it was fucking awesome. There was so much less to worry about, there wasn't any question that people were loyal friends, there was never a wonder who is trying to steal your identity or information. There was hard work - which we all did - and there was family and that was pretty much all there was. It was fucking beautiful."

Victor smiled. "Other than the not knowing if you'd eat, that sounds pretty nice. But that whole food insecurity thing is a pretty big deal. And also easily propagandized which is probably where I get my impression of that era and location."

She frowned.

"They actually down-played it quite a bit. It was rough."

"My grandmother told me even in the seventeen seventies her family was suffering a lot, especially if there was a bad growing season. And the tenancy system made it hard to rent enough land to grow food and make a living on. "

She nodded.

"There was that. And there was a whole different thing going on, too. In Scotland - I imagine Ireland was much the same - the head of the Clan, the Laird, had the responsibility of feeding his tenants and his people. So in my case, with my dad - he would grow food and as tenants moved in and land became sparse, he had to feed the people who lived on his land before he could even feed us or himself. In return, when they were able, the tenants would bring food or money or goods to the Laird, as rents weren't necessarily all about money, not in that time."

"In Ireland it was more the Lord or by that time it was often just wealthy men, the Landlord who typically resided in London or somewhere else, would rent parcels out to tennants, and he'd have a local manager there who was in charge of collecting rent. Often you couldn't afford enough land to grow food for you and to pay your rents, so the men were often working other jobs on top of tending their land. And of course the whole thing was riddled with oppression and abuse. More so because of the Irish being Catholic."

She smiled.

"It wasn't much better for the Scots, being primarily Protestant. The other really bad thing was that there was so much in-fighting...constant Clan wars that started over the most ridiculous of things and just seemed to go on and on and on for decades."

"Yeah, the Irish didn't have that infighting problem, well other than the Catholic/Protestant split, but I think that came later. The British were too busy killing everyone for anyone to fight with each other."

Victor leaned back in his chair and smiled. "We sailed to Ireland once to visit my mother's family. She was Scotch Irish, but the Scotch went back a few generations, so was mainly Irish. Pulled into a little harbor, barely big enough for a proper Yankee merchantman, oh how Mother enjoyed coming home successful and well to do. Especially with father having fought the British in 1812... The English weren't too happy to see us either just on principal, but oh what a great summer that was."

She smirked a little.

"To be fair, I'm pretty sure that the English weren't happy about anything, ever, period."

"Screw 'em. Our two 'signal cannons' were two more cannons than their garrison had. We spent a month buying up every bit of local goods and produce for sale, at fairer prices than the English buyers were paying, spent American gold and silver like it was going out of style, and I'm pretty sure several new brides came back with the crew. "

She smirked at that.

"My dad would die if he realized that there were not one, but two Englishmen that have been in my bed. I've screwed them. For the record, they weren't that good."

Victor laughed. "Well, it happens sometimes"

Her nose wrinkled.

"Well, I'm just say'n. The English tend to be incredibly arrogant about a lot of things and that is one area where they're just sorely lacking, in my not very humble opinion. They might need to scale it back a bit."

"They screwed and conquered much of the world. They must be doing something right."

She snorted.

"They raped and pillaged half of the world. Because they couldn't do it without being utter asses about the whole thing."

"They learned from the Vikings?"

"They poorly attempt to emulate the vikings. Big difference."

Victor coughed and giggled "Mortal tremere"

Her lips twitched.

"Can't argue. Most of the Tremere are English."

"Ah ha! I knew it!" Victor was trying hard not to laugh at this point.

She smirked.

"Honey, our big base of operations is in Vienna."

"Of course it is. To be close to the superior Germanic civilization that sprung up in that region."

She laughed.

"No. Because Tremere had a big old house in Vienna and wanted to move everybody in. So he did."

"It was a center of European culture for centuries yano"

She smiled.

"I know. But that had nothing to do with it. It was Tremere, as a Mage, wanting to be all elitist in his big, dreary house."