Jonquil's page

Jonquil, almost involuntarily, tightened her grip on the mug she was holding when Juan commented on her legs. Two hairline cracks formed from the pressure of her fingers on the mug and tea began to ooze from them slowly. Her lips curled in derision, she said sweetly "And if you don't stop talking about me like a peice of meat, you'll find yourself without a heart."

She stood and gently placed the cracked mug in the sink, forcing herself to be calm and finding a modicum of peace in the simple act of moving. A sticker a former tenant slapped on the cupboard caught her eye. "Ignore your rights and they'll go away" was emblazoned in white on a red feild. With a smile, she turned back to the group. "Your right, Lens. Cops who don't protect and serve, and are a little too rough with the local populace, create protests. Protests can easily turn into riots. Riots scare Americans very badly. We could very easily destabilize this region even more with just one riot, becuase it speaks so loudly. I know some people that would be more than willing to whip a crowd into a frenzy, and with our special talents, it could become even easier."

As she spoke, Jonquil began to pace. Her peice said, she suddenly stopped moving and leaned against the counter once more, her fingers tapping impatiently. "So, who wants to get beat up by the cops?" she said with a grin.

Jonquil rolled her eyes in Isaac's general direction as he slipped into the living room. She walked back into the kitchen and poured herself a mug of tea, savoring the warmth and smell. Perched on the window ledge, she said to Isaac when he reappeared"Nothin' new on my end, but things seem to be moving along nicely."

The others began filtering in, each going through the motions of liking their present company.

"Survival of the fittest, Sergei. If the mortals can't make it, then they don't deserve to. Culling the flock, trimming back the deadfall, all that jazz. You're right about them craving comfort and safety. Perhaps if we were to start leaving clues for the mortal police that one of the LA gangs has started moving in, trying to open up new territory a small panic would start," she mused to Sergei after he came in.

Ignoring Lens and his usual entrance, Jonquil slid open the window behind her. A blast of cool night air and the sound of traffic filled the momentary silence nicely as she rearranged herself so that her long legs stradled the frame.

Yeah, I know. I just thought of it as a a holdover from Charm School training that she just can't get out of her system. And it smells nice!

The red kettle was busily rattling on the stove in the kitchen when Jonquil's sharp ears heard the stairwell door open and soft footsteps descending down the hall. Quickly, she began pulling out battered mugs and all the necessary fixin’s for tea. Making tea was one of the many habits she picked up from Adam that she just couldn’t let go of. Wake up, feed, and when you can, have tea. “Somethin’ warm to make ye feel alive, even if ye just hold the drink till it’s colder than ye are,” he said once when they were slumming in London, ever the philosopher.

The knock came just as she was pulling out a wooden box brimming with tea bags out of another cabinet. She trotted to the door and pulled it open, not bothering to unlock it since it wasn’t locked to begin with. Whatever was hunting the Kindred could get past a bolt lock without a second’s thought and she was confident that she could handle just about anything else. Wrinkling her nose to the scent of the smoke, Jonquil waved Isaac in as the kettle began screeching. “I do not understand why you insist on smoking those things,” she said as she turned to go back to the kitchen, “Find an ash tray, would ye?”

Whee! I was worried that this had died.

Oh, one more thing:

I would like characters to have been active for 50 years or less. I don't think this is going to affect anyone but Jonquil at this point. As for her, this can easily be resolved. In your background, you said that she spent "about a decade" from 1902 learning under her sire and then described a scene in which he threatened to beat her to death (presumably at some point during this time). Your background picks up at 1962, when she "began to chafe under his rule."

Would you be okay with the following alteration: Her sire carried through on his threat, beating her clear into torpor, possibly more than once, and kept her in the death-like sleep for several decades. In 1962, she finally had enough and took off. Work for you?

Yep, it does. In fact, it works a little better considering.

Still here!

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.

Here she is! Can you check her over to make sure she's done right? I'm a little rusty with old character creation.

And I promise to have her backstory up by tomorrow at the latest.