Chane Laforet

Chané Laforet (シャーネ・ラフォレット Shāne Raforetto) is the mute eldest daughter of Huey Laforet and Renee Parmedes Branvillier and the older sister of Leeza Laforet.

Chané participates in the Lemures' hijacking of the Flying Pussyfoot at the end of December 1931 with the aim of freeing Huey from prison, though she does not approve of taking hostages. In the wake of the plan's failure, she joins Jacuzzi's Gang and grows to deeply care for her new companions, fighting for them as fiercely as she does for her father.

Shortly after reuniting with Huey in 1935, Chané meets Leeza for the first time—the younger sister she never knew she had. In February, on Huey's orders, the sisters patrol the three-day party at Ra's Lance while he prepares to execute an experiment intended to affect a large swatch of the New York population. During the mission, Chané seeks to kill Nader Schasschule in the hope that doing so will return her to being an emotionless tool.

Chané eventually marries and starts a family with Felix Walken, whom she first met when he was still "Claire Stanfield." Both of them are alive and in their nineties in August 2002, by which time they have two teenaged great-grandchildren.

Appearance

Chané is a beautiful pale-skinned young woman who bears a striking resemblance to her father Huey Laforet as she inherited his short black hair, golden eyes, and lean build; her features, however, are more angular than Leeza Laforet's and her muscles more pronounced.

During her childhood, her hair was a little longer than shoulder-length and had bangs; as a young adult, she keeps her hair short like her father's and her bangs splayed on both sides. Chané is first seen wearing a black Spanish-styled spaghetti-strap dress with a small black rose on the left strap, long black gloves, and ankle-length black boots.

When she is mistakenly kidnapped by Graham Specter on January 1932, she is wearing a custom white dress and matching boots that Claire Stanfield gifted her.

Personality

As Huey Laforet's guinea pig from birth and his daughter—being herself to be his 'only family' until 1935—Chané is devoted to him and wishes to protect him despite knowing he is an immortal. Her devotion is tantamount to fanaticism throughout her childhood and into her early adulthood. For much of her young life she sees herself as and is content to be a mere tool for her father to use, never seeking or craving his affection as Leeza Laforet will later do.

Chané's encounters with Ladd Russo and Claire Stanfield during the Flying Pussyfoot incident left her off-kilter. However, after joining Jacuzzi's Gang and getting to know Claire that she begins changing as a person—in living apart from her father, her world expands beyond him. For the first time, here is a man who sincerely loves her; for the first time, she is among people who offer her kindness and friendship without expecting anything return; for the first time, she is among friends who care about her for her sake and not as a means to her father.

While Huey is never far from Chané's mind over the next few years, she grows to love and care for her friends as fiercely as she cares for Huey and she grows as an individual. Her devotion begins losing its fanatical edge: although she had objected to taking hostages during the Flying Pussyfoot hijacking. She at that point in time was still able to kill without emotion or hesitation for her father's sake; in going three years without killing anyone and coming to trust in Claire and her friends, she finds she is no longer the 'emotionless tool' she once was.

As Chané still considers herself lacking true purpose without Huey and worthless if she cannot be useful to him, she does not consider this character growth to be positive growth. On the other hand, she believes she has grown soft and weak. Early 1935 finds her in inner turmoil over how dull her "fangs" have become. This makes her full of self-doubt over whether she will be able to kill (or whether she will be killed by) Ladd Russo. This would also fill her with chagrin that she is coming to 'rely' on Claire (and that she likes trusting in him). Huey's return in the midst of her internal conflict fills her with joy, but fuels her determination to regress as a human and return to being the emotionless tool she believes her father needs her to be.

Chané usually communicates via the written word or through gestures, having never learned sign language. When acting as Huey's silent, watchful tool, her countenance is expressionless and indifferent—something which often led others to perceive her as frigid or distant in the years leading up to 1931. While many still find her 'hard to read' or her changes in expression exceptionally subtle, she has become more expressive away from Huey and more of a brooder. She is at her most outwardly emotive when alone; in 1935 she paces to and fro in her apartment, stabs her table in irritation (an apparent longstanding habit), and is visibly weary and melancholic in a way she would never be with another person.

Chané is fiercely loyal and protective of the people she cares for, willing to sacrifice herself and more than herself for their sake. One cannot know to what extent this is in her nature and to what extent it is the result of her calculated upbringing, though her upbringing is entirely responsible for warping her sense of purpose and self-worth. For most of her life, her purpose "in life" wasn't merely to be useful to just anyone. Her sole purpose in life was Huey, the only person for whom her life had any value, and she realized she was most valuable to him as a tool rather than a daughter. For most of her life, she has measured her worth in terms of how useful she can be to Huey specifically.

While Jacuzzi's gang and Claire have proved to her that relationships are not inherently utilitarian— she's aware they value her for who she is, and loves them for it. By 1935 she still cannot value herself in the same way. Her desire to protect her friends is no doubt genuine, but it stems from her deeply-rooted need to be useful to those she cares for and need for a purpose in Huey's absence. Her turmoil in 1935 is not only incited by her fear of being unneeded by Huey, it is co-morbid with a terrifying sense that she's losing her very identity.

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