OVERALL, quinn currently has a pretty strained relationship with her parents and brother. ever since she got injured and decided to take a sort of indefinite break/permanent departure from her professional snowboarding career, her family has been on her case to return home and take her place in the family business. her parents have taken issue with her hiding out in taos and sort of messing up the family image, and her brother basically resents her for being gone so long and letting him get dragged into the family business knowing he never wanted it. however, despite all of this, quinn is still very protective of her family and very loyal to them because of how supportive they were to her while she was growing up. she’ll always care about them, always love them, even if they haven’t had a real conversation that didn’t end in raised voices in almost two years.
BIOLOGICAL MOTHER : camille elizabeth duchesne ( née follette ) .
RELATIONSHIP : strained, distant.
HEADCANONS : her mom was very supportive of her career growing up as well, but having married into the duchesne family, image has been her life for almost 30 years now. she knows how finnicky it is, keeping up public support and ensuring the business thrives by making the smartest connections and implementing the best strategies. and unfortunately for quinn, staying in taos to just be a ski instructor doesn’t line up with any of the best strategies. they two don’t talk, not really. most of the messages from her parents get relayed to her through her brother, probably to keep everyone from yelling. quinn’s not sure she’ll ever live up to the expectations of the duchesne name, much less the expectations of her mother.
BIOLOGICAL FATHER : matthew henri duchesne .
RELATIONSHIP : strained, but a bit better than her relationship with her mom and brother.
HEADCANONS : while her father is also less than pleased about her staying in the u.s., in a little place like taos, no less, he was probably the most supportive of her snowboarding career out of the family. he was always making sure he found the best instructors, the best equipment, taking her to the best slopes. but her father is also a businessman, one that grew up in a family of businesspeople, and to see his daughter sort of throw that way by ‘settling’ for being a ski instructor in some random town in the states kind of frustrates him.
OTHER PARENTAL FIGURE(S) : jj keller, q’s former trainer .
HEADCANONS : quinn basically grew up with very few constants in her life . she was always meeting new competition, meeting new sponsors, meeting new assistants, trainers, etc. but ever since jj keller became her trainer when she was 12 years old, he stuck by her. while her parents were off around the world dealing with their business affairs, jj was the one watching over quinn and making sure she was training, yes, but also trying to make sure she wasn’t forgetting to be a kid. after a particular difficult training session, jj would take her to go see a movie or to get ice cream or milkshake. before taking her out on the slopes, he’d make sure her homework was finished. he was basically her main parental figure considering how little time she actually spent with her parents during competition season.
SIBLING NAME(S) : sebastien phillip duschene .
BIRTH ORDER : sebastien is younger than quinn by two ( 2 ) years .
HEADCANONS : the two of them were actually relatively close when they were younger. it wasn’t until sebastien reached his teen years that their parents turned their attention to him to be the face of the family. while quinn was spending her years on the slopes, sebastien was being molded into becoming the head of the family business, something that was meant for quinn had she been around. he began to resent her for it because while quinn had grown up comfortable in the spotlight, he was the type to sort of hide out during family events and be content with his books and his little science projects. and when it became clear that quinn wouldn’t be ditching her board anytime soon, he knew that he had to step up. they’re distant as hell but he’s the conduit through which her parents usually speak to her – partly because their parents were trying to patch things up a little bit between them but also because they were usually too busy to talk to her themselves and/or didn’t have time for a fight.
NOTABLE EXTENDED FAMILY : various distant cousins and uncles and aunts, etc.
HEADCANONS : there isn’t anyone of great importance tbh. but coming from such an old family means a lot of first, second, third, etc. cousins. as a child, her older relatives and family friends always doted on her because she was the oldest child and she lapped up the attention. over the years, she’s become more distant with them because they don’t necessarily respect her commitment/passion for her sport, and some of the more traditional relatives even question her parents’ ability to ‘control’ their daughter considering quinn spending the past two years “following the snow” or whatever. at least when she was training to be an medal-winning olympian they could understand it a little more but now that she’s just off gallivanting around the world teaching strangers how to board, they look down on her.
SIGNIFICANT OTHER : juliette ‘jet’ lavigne
HEADCANONS : she’s only ever had one serious relationship and it was with jet. and it was early on before all of the snowboard competitions took over everything tbh. while she was serious about jet, she was a lot more serious about her career than anything else ( especially with the pressure from her family to make something of herself considering she was basically ditching her family duties to do it ). prioritizing her career came at the cost of that relationship, and then she was either too busy training and competing or just wasn’t committed enough to be in another relationship.
FOUND FAMILY :
miles ‘hux’ huxley
HEADCANONS : quinn sort of views hux as a ‘dad-type’ figure but mostly she sees him as a confidant. he’s practically the only person in taos who understands her commitment and passion for the sport, and ever since that night two years ago when he’d had to kick her off the slopes for staying too late, the two have developed a protective kinship that quinn had never been able to have with her parents. there’s a level of respect there because both of them had once been pro-boarders and were now both living their life in taos.
fellow competitors
HEADCANONS : throughout her almost 13 years in the competition circuit, she’d made many acquaintances but few friends. as they all got older, the pool of competitors became smaller and smaller as only the elite and high-performing individuals would be showing up to the same competitions as her. however, she does have a couple of fellow women snowboarders who she considers family and they were some of the first people to check on her after her injury. during her recovery, though, she sort of pushed them away and while they have reconnected, it isn’t the same anymore since the others are still competing and quinn is... well, she’s just an instructor in a quiet small town.
