An avid student of politics and women's roles in society, Jonquil was a burgeoning suffragette and communist, all at the tender age of 16. Through her searching, she fell in with a young group of male college students at the local university. She was never very 'book smart', though she was pretty and engaging. Many of the men found her fiery temper charming, but did not take her seriously, which greatly agitated her. She met Thomas Messenger, the charming ne’er do well son of a privileged family, when out debating with the boys. He was taken by this audacious fiery woman who talked with men and held her own when backed into a corner. Using his wealth and charm, he quickly courted Jonquil. Within a month they were married and on their way to a new life in Chicago.
All was not well in the Messenger's new home, however. Thomas’s apparent passion for politics actually hid an unstable mind and growing addiction to opium. The disagreements grew into vocal fights at all hours until he finally broke and attacked her one afternoon, nearly beating her to death. In a fit of desperation, Jonquil fought back and managed to knock Thomas unconscious with a candlestick. She knew that no one would believe that he attacked her, and nothing would be done to punish him, Jonquil gathered her jewelry and ran. Terrified, lost, and heartbroken she stumbled up the steps of a boarding house ready to barter her engagement ring away for a place to sleep. The woman who ran the house, one Elizabeth Weatherly, took pity upon the beaten girl and gave her a place to stay and get back on her feet.
Jonquil soon realized that all of the other boarders were women who had run away from their husbands. Ms. Weatherly was planning to attend a speech by a radical woman anarchist named Volaitrine de Cleyre that spoke for women’s rights. Leaving Thomas meant leaving her old life behind completely, and feeling bitter for being the obvious plaything of an unstable man, Jonquil joined them. Voltairine gave words to the way Jonquil had been feeling through out her marriage and the anger she felt towards the patriarchal society that abused her. Jonquil approached Voltairine after the speech and asked how she could help the movement. She was sent all over Chicago to talk to other radicals until she finally fell in with a group heading out to create a Luddite society outside of San Francisco.
The group founded the commune of Paradise alongside Lake June, east of san Francisco. Jonquil lived there for many years until one evening in the winter of 1902 a man named Adam Finnan wandered into town. A pale, statuesque Irish man with odd iridescent spots on his hands and fiery red hair, he charmed Jonquil. As the young human showed the Irishman around town, Adam attacked and Embraced her. After the Embrace, Adam explained that he had been watching Jonquil and he thought the young woman’s passion for change and ferocity would be a great asset to Kindred Society. Her famous temper flared up, and drunk on her new power, she attacked her sire. Adam easily beat her down, holding her in the snow until the younger quieted. Very calmly, Adam explained that if Jonquil did that again, he would kill the newly Embraced Gangrel. Over the next decade, Jonquil grew to trust her sire as they wandered through the Americas and Ireland, planting seeds of rebellion and chaos.
In 1962, Jonquil began to chafe under Adam’s rule. She felt like she did when she was shortly married, drawn tight and with a hair trigger temper. One night, after a fabulous argument that turned into a fist fit, Jonquil left for San Francisco. She was looking to join with the hippies and radicals of Haight-Ashbury. Jonquil has been living in San Francisco ever since, always on the lookout for Adam and planting the seeds of rebellion in Kindred and Mortal society.
