Quistis’ adoptive family. It didn’t work out. Why? We get NOTHING except one line. Were they cruel to her? Did they die? Did she kill them in some sort of blue magic explosion?
I know back in the day, it was super popular for everyone to say she had been molested. I’m not sure if that got spread around because of a couple of popular fics or if it’s just because so many people have grown up on Lifetime movie tropes and that’s a biggie.
Personally, I don’t see that happening. I think she was abandoned at Garden, yes, but I don’t think she was taken there in the back of a squad car by a kindly officer that pitied the poor dear. The abuse thing was so overdone in some older fic that even thinking about it makes me roll my eyes.
I think she was possibly adopted to fill the void left behind by a deceased child, but the grief-crazed parents couldn’t get past the loss of their actual child, so she was just dropped there. They send cards on holidays, and money as she needs it, but they’re essentially absent. She works so hard to be perfect to get her parents to notice her, but they don’t care. Their real child is gone, and nothing the prodigy of Balamb Garden can do will ever make them see her. That’s why the “Maybe they’re right.” line bugs me so much. She’s not bummed about losing her job. I think she was actually sort of relieved that she could have a chance to be normal. But she’s bummed because she’s heard nothing except comparisons to this dead sibling (a brother, I think, which fuels her desire to mask her genius at cards with a male mask.) from her folks, so she starts to lose hope that she’ll ever be good enough for anything or anyone.
Or she was responsible for the death of either a sibling or a parent. A car accident, a near drowning, electrocution, something traumatic happened that caused her blue magic abilities to spring to life, but since she couldn’t control them, whoever was around at the time ended up getting destroyed by her mad magic. Maybe her brother was drowning in the pool (because her folks have money. They’d almost have to be rich to be able to afford to adopt a child.) Maybe this brother was the child the parents wanted, but because they thought they were barren, they adopted Quistis, then later that year, surprise! Mom got knocked up anyway. But something bad happened, Little Timmy fell into the pool while chasing the cat around the yard, and Big Sister Quistis tried to fix it, but in her panic, she actually ended up frying the kid instead of saving him, so her folks shipped her off.
So that’s a couple. I have more, lots, lots more, but then again, I’ve also spent a decade and a half wondering what the hell happened, so that’s no surprise.
