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*Observations subject to change as I work through the novels and straighten my brain out. I'm new.
Character Associations:
Claire Stanfield: AKA The Rail Tracer AKA Vino AKA Felix Walken. Circus guy turned assassin, adopted into the Gandor family as the fourth brother, childhood friend of Firo. He becomes a train conductor to reach his targets easily. Falls for Chane (embarrassingly) and meets up with her again in Manhattan - they eventually become an item. Thinks everything is part of the world he created and that if he wakes up it'll all cease to exist, therefore he doesn't care about immortality. Very perceptive, kinda crazy, really bad at proposals.
Goose Perkins: Leader of the Lemures and follower of Huey. The guy who calls the shots. Never made it as a soldier and has something of an inferiority complex because of it; decides that the events on the train are a "test".
Huey Laforet: THAT GUY. Chane's father. Has a thing going with immortality and experiments. P.S. He's immortal, and one of those who drank the elixer back in 1711 on the Advenna Avis. Has numerous groups of followers. The Lemures are one. The Lamia is another, comprised of a bunch of homunculi. Also has connections to Nebula.
Jacuzzi Splot, Nice Holystone & Gang: Chane meets up with them following the Flying Pussyfoot train incident when she is found floating in the river with some of the cargo. She is accepted into their group as being "like one of them", a gesture she cannot understand. They are currently staying at the Genoard manor as "housekeepers" thanks to strings pulled by Fang and Luck. Other notable gang members include Nick (the man with no presence) and Donny (the Mexican giant). When Chane is kidnapped by Graham Specter under the belief that she is Eve Genoard, Jacuzzi goes to negotiate her release.
Lemures: Followers of Huey. They're like a cross between soldiers and the mafia and first appear in uniform.
Liza Laforet: Chane's little sister that she isn't aware of having. Both wants to kill Chane and wants to live together with Huey and Chane as a family. Is the host of homunculous Hilton, super fiercely loyal to Huey, involved with the Lamia.
Miria Harvent: Half of the pair Miria and Isaac, a happy-go-lucky couple of thieves who also happen to have gained immortality. Chane befriends her later when she stays for a while with the Jacuzzi gang. She finds her easy to talk to as she's very accepting of Chane's predicament, additionally they have both lost someone important to them who they want to get back (Isaac had been taken into police custody).
Neider Schasschule: Some loser who betrays Huey and turns him over to the feds to be put on trial. He gets left behind in an abandoned factory that serves as the Lemures headquarters. Had been planning to join the Russos on Dec. 30. with some others and had apparently been leaking info to Placido Russo (their leader)? He is "the last person Chane killed without emotion" (as of 1935).
Spike: Member of the Lemures and one of the blacksuits. Is a good shot with a sniper rifle and prefers to attack from distant shadows. Wounded Chane's shoulder. Managed to survive falling from the train but is now blind.
Tack Jefferson ("Tim"): Huey (with Chane) goes looking for him in place of Claire Stanfield. The genius younger brother of Tick who hates his family and searches for happiness.
Upham: Member of the Lemures and one of the blacksuits. Neider tried to get him to join up with the Russos, but he helps report him to Goose and escapes the fate of the other traitors. On the train, he meets two immortals. Later shares "half" of his experiences with an information broker - or rather, an actor playing the role of a broker, in easy earshot of the playwright.
Victor Talbot: 1711 immortal and part of the Bureau of Investigation. Chane knows someone in the bureau is immortal and might try to devour her father, but it is never stated if she knows the person's identity.
Timeline:
[1922]
- Huey says that he will give Chane a portion of his knowledge that she must not reveal to anyone or use for her own purposes. Because of the burden, he allows her to ask for anything she desires, to which she responds that she wants him to take her words away [so that she can never betray him].
[September 1925, Docks]
- Accompanies Huey in enlisting Tack Jefferson (Tick's younger brother) as a strategist. Huey had originally planned to track down Claire Stanfield, but he had already left the area.
[1931]
- [December 19th, 1931] Meeting in the abandoned factory, where Neider (and co.) is outed as a traitor. Chane slices off his arm and the facility is sealed off and later explodes, they then head to Chicago's Union Station with Chane in the passenger seat.
- Arrived at the train station claiming to be the Chicago Paysage Symphony Orchestra, demand permission for some of their members to stay in the freight hold with their instruments; the cushioning in the instrument cases are stuffed with ammunition and hidden compartments beneath the instruments contain weapons - the permission slip is fake, but because it's close to boarding time, the cases aren't checked thoroughly; split into 3 groups of ten per class; radios/telegraphs concealed in luggage; Chane, Goose, and some of the others proceed to first class; even if this plan had failed, they had multiple back-up plans.
- Chane saves Mary from a white suit, she was to be one of the Lemures' hostages; Mary mistakes her for the Rail Tracer.
- After Mary is returned to her mother, Chane goes to stand guard on the rooftop, anticipating a white suit attack from above. She determines to stop them on her own, as she's already aware the others are traitors - who want Huey's abilities. There, she encounters Nick and Nice close to the locomotive (there's smoke), but her attention is on Ladd Russo who provokes her. After he stomps on her throwing knife, she pulls out two others (not for throwing) and pursues him across the top of the train.
- Spike is also on top of the train and spots Rachel rescuing the Beriams. She shields them by taking a shot in her leg. When he returns to Goose, he's given orders to kill Chane on sight. Later, after Ladd jumps, Spike ends up firing on Chane and injuring her shoulder. He is unable to land a shot on the Rail Tracer, however.
- One of the black suits rushes towards the conductor's car in an attempt to escape - runs into Donny and Jacuzzi.
- Goose also makes it topside and engages Jacuzzi with a flamethrower. A rope containing Isaac and Miria and Czes knocks him off balance and damages the hydrogen tank on his back. There is much headbutting and a hand-firing weapon and surviving the explosion of the bomb Nice gave him. Goose is eventually tossed off the train as well.
- During their fight, Chane falls off the train, climbs back up using knives, manages to knick Ladd's ear (also almost Claire's ironically, from inside the conductor's car).
- Chane continues to engage Ladd Russo, but is interrupted by the Rail Tracer. He tells them to think of him as the talking air, and that he will finish off whichever of them survives. After learning Chane's motives, the Rail Tracer offers to help her. He accurately predicts that Ladd will jump off the train (which he does to save Lua). Afterwards, he gives Chane several options. She can hire him, flee, or marry him. When Spike attacks, the Rail Tracer goes after him, asking Chane to carve her reply into the top of the train, which she does. She is also instructed to jump off at an upcoming bridge in order to escape capture, which she also does. (Claire later removes the top of the train car as his first "love letter".)
December 31st, 2:00PM. Pennsylvania Station, New York. - Train arrives at the station with all of the cars switched out.
- After the Flying Pussyfoot incident, Chane is found floating in the water near the bridge, after which she joins Jacuzzi and co. at the Genoard residence...
[January(?) 1932]
- [Novel] Chane returns to the train station alone in an attempt to save her father. He mouths her a message "do not worry" and in her moment of hesitation, she loses her chance to rescue him and questions that choice. Jacuzzi (and Nice, etc.) arrive with the intention of helping her.
- [Anime] ...Where she can be seen reading the newspaper and an article about her father. Jacuzzi asks her if she's related to Huey Laforet and she answers that he is her father. The two have a short, awkward conversation but his talk of friendship startles and confuses her, prompting her to walk from the room, leaving a note "I don't understand you people."
- Meanwhile, Claire has already cornered Nicholas, the information broker, to determine Chane's whereabouts. After a conversation over lunch with Rachel, he sends a package addressed to Chane to the Genoard residence containing a white dress specially fitted with straps for her knives. At Nice's prompting, Chane tries it on, still confused about Claire's intentions. She eventually heads out for some fresh air at which point she is confronted by Graham Specter and kidnapped, believed to be Eve Genoard.
- At an abandoned warehouse, Graham and the others await the arrival of Jacuzzi and their ransom money, believing "Eve" is so frightened that she can't speak. Finally, Chane draws one of her blades and attempts to get away, at which point Graham realizes she isn't Eve at all and begins to get excited. Before the fight can get very far, Jacuzzi arrives and begs them to let Chane go in exchange for himself (because if they turn him in, they can get quite a bit of reward money). The rest of the gang arrives to bail them out, including an "unfamiliar voice" which turns out to be Claire. Chane goes at him with her knife, but Claire asks to be heard out, declaring his love and proposing to her in a straightforward (and unromantic) way and promising her that a world will only expand, not be destroyed, by letting someone else into it. Graham and Claire face off, with the former finally retreating. When asked if she could ever love him, though still confused by Claire, Chane agrees.
[1933]
*Events are at one point described as happening a year / a year and six months after the train incident.(?)
**She has accepted Jacuzzi's gang as "friends" and opened her heart by now. She and Claire seem to be able to communicate, or rather he claims that he can hear Chane's voice. This confuses just about everyone else. Chane is also seen to smile. A little.
***Note: Maria had lost utterly to Vino previously.
-Chane helps with pruning the gardens at the Genoard Manor. Awakening after a dream about her last encounter with her father (at the train station), Chane notices Tick and Maria at the back door of the manor and goes to confront them and protect her companions. She fights against Maria, but upon hearing Jacuzzi's scream, rushes into the house where she finds Tim, Adelle, Dallas, and members of Larvae trying to offer the gang immortality. She engages Adelle, but is interrupted by Maria returning and more rings of the doorbell (Tick, and later Ennis). (Miria and Isaac are also present, having run off after Firo knocked down their dominoes but that's another story.) Thus, she learns that Dallas is immortal (she thinks a complete immortal although he's only an incomplete one) and she labels Tim as an "enemy" for wanting to use her friends to increase the number of enemies to her father. Though the situation escalates, Adelle and Maria are disarmed by Ronnie Schiatto, and Nice produces a smoke bomb which everyone uses to disperse. Chane hesitates to leave but eventually goes to aid the others in their escape. They meet up in the (Graham's) abandoned warehouse where the gang has been doing some of their business. The gang is now in trouble with the Gandor and Martillo families for doing business on their turf, and wanted as "bait" by Larvae.
-Jack goes to find Claire to get him to come help and though he finds no reason to help the delinquents, his concern for Chane is real. He finds out about the mark Adelle left on her cheek. At the warehouse, Nice teases Chane about her boyfriend coming to save her which causes her to blush.
-YOU ARE HERE, AMIGO!
- [Incomplete] Mist Wall incident in which the gang faces off against the Lamia. Claire and Christopher take it outside where Chane watches his back and deflects chakrams coming from seemingly nowhere. A woman's voice (Liza) asks her what she would do if Huey ordered her to kill "that man". Claire tells her she has no reason to worry, that she can still follow orders and be with him - to give it her best and that they can go on loving each other (since he "can't die" anyway). After an explosion he asks Chane to leave and check up on her friends, at which point he admits he was going easy on Christopher because he wanted to fight alongside Chane for as long as possible. Liza informs Huey that she got to see Chane and asks if she can kill her, to which Huey replies "no, not yet".
[1934]
(Alice in Jails/ Ch.2 Back)
-Chane befriends Miria, they bond over both having someone important in police custody.
-Chane waits at Madison Square Park for Claire and is approached by Spike (now blind), whom she thought dead. He is accompanied by the real Felix Walken (who has sold his name to many people), who knocks Chane off balance when she tries to attack Spike, and they demand to know what Huey plans for NY.
-About ten men arrive as backup, among them an extra pair of feet, Claire, who had been present unnoticed the entire time. He waxes about how Chane looks so beautiful sitting there deep in thought that he couldn't bear to interrupt.
[1935]
-Makes plans to kill Ladd; wonders if Graham will team up with him; wonders if she should ask Claire for help. In the end she decides she must do this on her own to "regain the fangs she had lost, to face Claire as an equal, and, more than anything, to continue being useful to her father." As she resolves to return to the way she was before, she hears a creak of the floor and makes plans to attack. The intruder, however, turns out to be Huey. He informs her that Neider is still alive.
-Meanwhile Claire manages to meet not only his future father-in-law, but mother-in-law as well and thanks them both for bringing Chane into his (always his) world.
Personality/Abilities/Observations:
Apparently has "a shadow cast over her face as if she has never smiled". Huey also highlights this when he wonders aloud if Elmer could make her smile and whether she will ever find happiness.
Her eyes are compared to Claire's. "In the midst of his terror, the older conductor realized that his coworker's eyes were rather similar to those of their ally, Chane the fanatic."
Claire also makes this comparison, saying... "You and I have similar eyes. You don't know where you should release your emotions, so you pile it all up inside yourself."
[Mind]
She doesn't understand kindness towards strangers and things like friendship. They confuse her. She fears letting new people into her "world" - the place where only she and her father, Huey, had existed until now.
On some level: fears that someone else could become more important to her than Huey is. She very much wants to preserve her world that is just her and her father.
She rarely shows emotions outwardly, however she experiences quite a few conflicting feelings internally.
She spends time considering her options and questioning her choices.
Very much self-reliant. Thinks of herself as alone in the world. She doesn't mind this, as it's the way she's lived most of her life. Will use others but does not trust or put her faith in them. She trusts no one. (Except that by 1934/35 or so she feels that she could trust Claire and ask him for help...except that for other reasons, she doesn't.)
Mistakes peoples' intentions for trying to get close to Huey. Thinks their kindness is a tool to this end.
[Communication]
Though she cannot speak, she is still capable of communicating and may use things like notepads to talk with others. Her hand-written notes are very politely written and she seems to plan ahead. May also nod or shake her head, but most of what she wants to convey is said through her eyes and minute expressions. Claire seems to be able to understand her just by looking at her and frequently carries on conversations as if she's speaking out aloud, much to onlookers' confusion. She says at one point, later, that she feels a sort of "joy" when she is able to successfully communicate what is in her heart with others.
Only says what she feels is NECESSARY through notes. Her lack of conversation also serves as a wall. She PURPOSELY never learned sign language to better protect her father's secrets.
{Anime-verse} Can speak with Huey telepathically*.
*I will likely be disregarding this unless it comes up later because otherwise it'd render a whole lot of things that happen in the novels as kind of unneccesary.
[Battle]
Her senses are very well trained and she's good at noticing things and sensing others' true intentions. Her eyes are also very good and she is able to figure out battle patterns almost immediately after an attack (case: Graham's use of his wrench and pliers).
Can sense strong presences (kind of a more mundane version of sensing a person's "chi" I guess). "She was suddenly struck by an unpleasant sensation. It was as if a terrifying creature was spying on her, sending chills down her spine. [...] Chane could tell instantly that this was the man who had killed two of Goose's men in the dining car."
In battle she moves without hesitation; keeps multiple knives with her of varying types. Throwing knives, a knife in her boot... Later the dress Claire gives her has a sheath made into the back for her to keep a knife in. Her favorites are a pair of unwieldy-looking 8" hunting knives. She is very swift, capable of dodging bullets, multiple chakrams flying at her. She can even rebound off a door knob - it's pretty cool. She prefers fighting aggressively at close quarters. However the more she starts to waver in the emotional department and the more she overthinks and questions things, the more easily distracted she becomes and she can start making mistakes.
She has good speed, reflexes (uses rolls to right herself, kicking, etc). Plans her attacks and angles ahead of time and tries to ignore taunts (but sometimes fails even when very cliched taunts are used).
When Huey is directly involved she WILL become reckless and attack when outnumbered, but when on her own and away from her direct goal she seems to consider the chances of her winning. For example, she determines early on that if she engages the Rail Tracer in battle, she will die.
Chane "isn't the type to disarm corpses". She also isn't one to kill someone unawares and in cold blood without getting information from them.
[Family]
Cherishes her name because it connects her to her father; will not use a pseudonym. It also connects her to her mother...who apparently left her infant daughter with Huey after very little discussion. She doesn't really feel any curiosity about her mother, though, since she never really knew her and Huey's her world anyway.
Knows very well that she is Huey's "guinea pig", and says she is all right with that. Also knows she is not "normal". Throughout the series there is a sense that Huey is idly observing her and that he may have something in mind, such as when he answers Liza that she cannot kill Chane yet, and when Renee says to Claire something to the effect of "he agreed to let me have one of them, so then, perhaps the other one...?" IT'S KIND OF AWFUL. Basically Huey shows up and she's immediately overjoyed and ready to do anything for him. That's the gist of it.
[Knowledge]
-She knows that she is a "guinea pig" to her father and accepts that.
-She knows Huey is immortal and that he is deceiving the Lemures. She also knows an immortal can be devoured. She knows she is mortal and that she will out-age her father (physically) and eventually die.
-She DOES NOT know about Szilard Quates and the incomplete elixer. And assumes Dallas to be a complete immortal like her father.
-She knows there is an immortal within the Bureau of Investigation who could be a danger to Huey, but not necessarily his identity.
-Tim doesn't recognize her when they meet again, although he thinks her eyes are familiar. Adelle doesn't immediately recognize her either, but after a while determines her features to be like Huey's.
Selected Passages:
"You are my daughter, my protector, and guardian of my knowledge. That is the reason you were born, after all." - Huey Laforet
Volume 2 (Untuned):
"Chane was wearing a military uniform. Known as a 'fanatic', she was the organization's greatest assassin. She was also a devout follower of Huey Laforet. It was said that the assassins of Asia dulled their senses with drugs, but Chane's senses were frozen by her devotion. It would not be surprising for her to have even forgotten that she was a woman, or even a human being."
------
"As he passed by the coupling between the freight hold and the passenger cabins, he noticed a young woman on the other side of the train. She wore what looked like a work top as well as women's trousers.
'A practical outfit. It's similar to how Chane dresses normally.' Was the first, uninteresting impression she left on Goose."
THOUGHTS OF A BLACK SUIT: "Master Huey never takes hostages, and he would never kill a kid just to use her as a warning. I think Chane knows that too, but she's just going along with this because she wants to rescue Master Huey.
And I know the truth--there's a big difference between Chane and Goose. Chane worships everything about Master Huey, but all Goose wants is Master Huey's so-called "blessing". 'Course, I guess that goes for the rest of us, too. And that includes me"
"How could he think about getting rid of Chane, just because she's in the way? She's the most loyal of all of us."
SPIKE: 'Can't believe she can hold up for so long.' Spike marvelled at Chane's amazing endurance, but the red shadow she was facing down was amazing in its own right.
------
"You and I have similar eyes. You don't know where you should release your emotions, so you pile it all up inside yourself."
He laughed abashedly.
"The only thing in this world I can't do anything about is this idiot called 'me'."
This was why Claire had turned all of the bloodlust borne of tragedies and hypocrisies towards himself. He had sealed the bloodlust emanating from his eyes within himself throughout the course of his life.
"You managed to nick my ear. Even though it was just a coincidence, you left proof of your existence to me, the centre of the world. So I want you to join me on the side of the dreamer… on the side of the ruler of the world. I'll welcome you with open arms."
He fingered the injury inflicted upon him through the wall, and prepared to sprint at full speed towards the front of the train.
"You can throw the knife at me if you want to, but you won't hit me."
With this, the man began to dart across the rooftop, soon disappearing over the side of the train.
------
Volume 14: (A lot of direct PoV in this volume.)
"You're right... You're so strong, Chane!"
Chane couldn't bring herself to agree.
Was she truly strong? She'd never thought of herself that way. In fact, she thought to herself that people like Miria, who could cry freely when they lost those they held dearest, were much stronger than she.
[1935-A; Chapter 5]
Even so, Claire could understand more or less what she wanted to say just by looking at her eyes and expression. Chane found this a little strange, but not unpleasant.
In fact, when the words in her heart reached someone, the same emotion welled up in her as when her father praised her.
Joy, pure and simple.
Chane wouldn't force herself to deny that emotion. That would be inefficient. If she couldn't honestly analyze her heart, then she would be of no use to Huey.
Character Associations:
Claire Stanfield: AKA The Rail Tracer AKA Vino AKA Felix Walken. Circus guy turned assassin, adopted into the Gandor family as the fourth brother, childhood friend of Firo. He becomes a train conductor to reach his targets easily. Falls for Chane (embarrassingly) and meets up with her again in Manhattan - they eventually become an item. Thinks everything is part of the world he created and that if he wakes up it'll all cease to exist, therefore he doesn't care about immortality. Very perceptive, kinda crazy, really bad at proposals.
Goose Perkins: Leader of the Lemures and follower of Huey. The guy who calls the shots. Never made it as a soldier and has something of an inferiority complex because of it; decides that the events on the train are a "test".
Huey Laforet: THAT GUY. Chane's father. Has a thing going with immortality and experiments. P.S. He's immortal, and one of those who drank the elixer back in 1711 on the Advenna Avis. Has numerous groups of followers. The Lemures are one. The Lamia is another, comprised of a bunch of homunculi. Also has connections to Nebula.
Jacuzzi Splot, Nice Holystone & Gang: Chane meets up with them following the Flying Pussyfoot train incident when she is found floating in the river with some of the cargo. She is accepted into their group as being "like one of them", a gesture she cannot understand. They are currently staying at the Genoard manor as "housekeepers" thanks to strings pulled by Fang and Luck. Other notable gang members include Nick (the man with no presence) and Donny (the Mexican giant). When Chane is kidnapped by Graham Specter under the belief that she is Eve Genoard, Jacuzzi goes to negotiate her release.
Lemures: Followers of Huey. They're like a cross between soldiers and the mafia and first appear in uniform.
Liza Laforet: Chane's little sister that she isn't aware of having. Both wants to kill Chane and wants to live together with Huey and Chane as a family. Is the host of homunculous Hilton, super fiercely loyal to Huey, involved with the Lamia.
Miria Harvent: Half of the pair Miria and Isaac, a happy-go-lucky couple of thieves who also happen to have gained immortality. Chane befriends her later when she stays for a while with the Jacuzzi gang. She finds her easy to talk to as she's very accepting of Chane's predicament, additionally they have both lost someone important to them who they want to get back (Isaac had been taken into police custody).
Neider Schasschule: Some loser who betrays Huey and turns him over to the feds to be put on trial. He gets left behind in an abandoned factory that serves as the Lemures headquarters. Had been planning to join the Russos on Dec. 30. with some others and had apparently been leaking info to Placido Russo (their leader)? He is "the last person Chane killed without emotion" (as of 1935).
Spike: Member of the Lemures and one of the blacksuits. Is a good shot with a sniper rifle and prefers to attack from distant shadows. Wounded Chane's shoulder. Managed to survive falling from the train but is now blind.
Tack Jefferson ("Tim"): Huey (with Chane) goes looking for him in place of Claire Stanfield. The genius younger brother of Tick who hates his family and searches for happiness.
Upham: Member of the Lemures and one of the blacksuits. Neider tried to get him to join up with the Russos, but he helps report him to Goose and escapes the fate of the other traitors. On the train, he meets two immortals. Later shares "half" of his experiences with an information broker - or rather, an actor playing the role of a broker, in easy earshot of the playwright.
Victor Talbot: 1711 immortal and part of the Bureau of Investigation. Chane knows someone in the bureau is immortal and might try to devour her father, but it is never stated if she knows the person's identity.
Timeline:
[1922]
- Huey says that he will give Chane a portion of his knowledge that she must not reveal to anyone or use for her own purposes. Because of the burden, he allows her to ask for anything she desires, to which she responds that she wants him to take her words away [so that she can never betray him].
[September 1925, Docks]
- Accompanies Huey in enlisting Tack Jefferson (Tick's younger brother) as a strategist. Huey had originally planned to track down Claire Stanfield, but he had already left the area.
[1931]
- [December 19th, 1931] Meeting in the abandoned factory, where Neider (and co.) is outed as a traitor. Chane slices off his arm and the facility is sealed off and later explodes, they then head to Chicago's Union Station with Chane in the passenger seat.
- Arrived at the train station claiming to be the Chicago Paysage Symphony Orchestra, demand permission for some of their members to stay in the freight hold with their instruments; the cushioning in the instrument cases are stuffed with ammunition and hidden compartments beneath the instruments contain weapons - the permission slip is fake, but because it's close to boarding time, the cases aren't checked thoroughly; split into 3 groups of ten per class; radios/telegraphs concealed in luggage; Chane, Goose, and some of the others proceed to first class; even if this plan had failed, they had multiple back-up plans.
- Chane saves Mary from a white suit, she was to be one of the Lemures' hostages; Mary mistakes her for the Rail Tracer.
- After Mary is returned to her mother, Chane goes to stand guard on the rooftop, anticipating a white suit attack from above. She determines to stop them on her own, as she's already aware the others are traitors - who want Huey's abilities. There, she encounters Nick and Nice close to the locomotive (there's smoke), but her attention is on Ladd Russo who provokes her. After he stomps on her throwing knife, she pulls out two others (not for throwing) and pursues him across the top of the train.
- Spike is also on top of the train and spots Rachel rescuing the Beriams. She shields them by taking a shot in her leg. When he returns to Goose, he's given orders to kill Chane on sight. Later, after Ladd jumps, Spike ends up firing on Chane and injuring her shoulder. He is unable to land a shot on the Rail Tracer, however.
- One of the black suits rushes towards the conductor's car in an attempt to escape - runs into Donny and Jacuzzi.
- Goose also makes it topside and engages Jacuzzi with a flamethrower. A rope containing Isaac and Miria and Czes knocks him off balance and damages the hydrogen tank on his back. There is much headbutting and a hand-firing weapon and surviving the explosion of the bomb Nice gave him. Goose is eventually tossed off the train as well.
- During their fight, Chane falls off the train, climbs back up using knives, manages to knick Ladd's ear (also almost Claire's ironically, from inside the conductor's car).
- Chane continues to engage Ladd Russo, but is interrupted by the Rail Tracer. He tells them to think of him as the talking air, and that he will finish off whichever of them survives. After learning Chane's motives, the Rail Tracer offers to help her. He accurately predicts that Ladd will jump off the train (which he does to save Lua). Afterwards, he gives Chane several options. She can hire him, flee, or marry him. When Spike attacks, the Rail Tracer goes after him, asking Chane to carve her reply into the top of the train, which she does. She is also instructed to jump off at an upcoming bridge in order to escape capture, which she also does. (Claire later removes the top of the train car as his first "love letter".)
December 31st, 2:00PM. Pennsylvania Station, New York. - Train arrives at the station with all of the cars switched out.
- After the Flying Pussyfoot incident, Chane is found floating in the water near the bridge, after which she joins Jacuzzi and co. at the Genoard residence...
[January(?) 1932]
- [Novel] Chane returns to the train station alone in an attempt to save her father. He mouths her a message "do not worry" and in her moment of hesitation, she loses her chance to rescue him and questions that choice. Jacuzzi (and Nice, etc.) arrive with the intention of helping her.
- [Anime] ...Where she can be seen reading the newspaper and an article about her father. Jacuzzi asks her if she's related to Huey Laforet and she answers that he is her father. The two have a short, awkward conversation but his talk of friendship startles and confuses her, prompting her to walk from the room, leaving a note "I don't understand you people."
- Meanwhile, Claire has already cornered Nicholas, the information broker, to determine Chane's whereabouts. After a conversation over lunch with Rachel, he sends a package addressed to Chane to the Genoard residence containing a white dress specially fitted with straps for her knives. At Nice's prompting, Chane tries it on, still confused about Claire's intentions. She eventually heads out for some fresh air at which point she is confronted by Graham Specter and kidnapped, believed to be Eve Genoard.
- At an abandoned warehouse, Graham and the others await the arrival of Jacuzzi and their ransom money, believing "Eve" is so frightened that she can't speak. Finally, Chane draws one of her blades and attempts to get away, at which point Graham realizes she isn't Eve at all and begins to get excited. Before the fight can get very far, Jacuzzi arrives and begs them to let Chane go in exchange for himself (because if they turn him in, they can get quite a bit of reward money). The rest of the gang arrives to bail them out, including an "unfamiliar voice" which turns out to be Claire. Chane goes at him with her knife, but Claire asks to be heard out, declaring his love and proposing to her in a straightforward (and unromantic) way and promising her that a world will only expand, not be destroyed, by letting someone else into it. Graham and Claire face off, with the former finally retreating. When asked if she could ever love him, though still confused by Claire, Chane agrees.
[1933]
*Events are at one point described as happening a year / a year and six months after the train incident.(?)
**She has accepted Jacuzzi's gang as "friends" and opened her heart by now. She and Claire seem to be able to communicate, or rather he claims that he can hear Chane's voice. This confuses just about everyone else. Chane is also seen to smile. A little.
***Note: Maria had lost utterly to Vino previously.
-Chane helps with pruning the gardens at the Genoard Manor. Awakening after a dream about her last encounter with her father (at the train station), Chane notices Tick and Maria at the back door of the manor and goes to confront them and protect her companions. She fights against Maria, but upon hearing Jacuzzi's scream, rushes into the house where she finds Tim, Adelle, Dallas, and members of Larvae trying to offer the gang immortality. She engages Adelle, but is interrupted by Maria returning and more rings of the doorbell (Tick, and later Ennis). (Miria and Isaac are also present, having run off after Firo knocked down their dominoes but that's another story.) Thus, she learns that Dallas is immortal (she thinks a complete immortal although he's only an incomplete one) and she labels Tim as an "enemy" for wanting to use her friends to increase the number of enemies to her father. Though the situation escalates, Adelle and Maria are disarmed by Ronnie Schiatto, and Nice produces a smoke bomb which everyone uses to disperse. Chane hesitates to leave but eventually goes to aid the others in their escape. They meet up in the (Graham's) abandoned warehouse where the gang has been doing some of their business. The gang is now in trouble with the Gandor and Martillo families for doing business on their turf, and wanted as "bait" by Larvae.
-Jack goes to find Claire to get him to come help and though he finds no reason to help the delinquents, his concern for Chane is real. He finds out about the mark Adelle left on her cheek. At the warehouse, Nice teases Chane about her boyfriend coming to save her which causes her to blush.
-YOU ARE HERE, AMIGO!
- [Incomplete] Mist Wall incident in which the gang faces off against the Lamia. Claire and Christopher take it outside where Chane watches his back and deflects chakrams coming from seemingly nowhere. A woman's voice (Liza) asks her what she would do if Huey ordered her to kill "that man". Claire tells her she has no reason to worry, that she can still follow orders and be with him - to give it her best and that they can go on loving each other (since he "can't die" anyway). After an explosion he asks Chane to leave and check up on her friends, at which point he admits he was going easy on Christopher because he wanted to fight alongside Chane for as long as possible. Liza informs Huey that she got to see Chane and asks if she can kill her, to which Huey replies "no, not yet".
[1934]
(Alice in Jails/ Ch.2 Back)
-Chane befriends Miria, they bond over both having someone important in police custody.
-Chane waits at Madison Square Park for Claire and is approached by Spike (now blind), whom she thought dead. He is accompanied by the real Felix Walken (who has sold his name to many people), who knocks Chane off balance when she tries to attack Spike, and they demand to know what Huey plans for NY.
-About ten men arrive as backup, among them an extra pair of feet, Claire, who had been present unnoticed the entire time. He waxes about how Chane looks so beautiful sitting there deep in thought that he couldn't bear to interrupt.
[1935]
-Makes plans to kill Ladd; wonders if Graham will team up with him; wonders if she should ask Claire for help. In the end she decides she must do this on her own to "regain the fangs she had lost, to face Claire as an equal, and, more than anything, to continue being useful to her father." As she resolves to return to the way she was before, she hears a creak of the floor and makes plans to attack. The intruder, however, turns out to be Huey. He informs her that Neider is still alive.
-Meanwhile Claire manages to meet not only his future father-in-law, but mother-in-law as well and thanks them both for bringing Chane into his (always his) world.
Personality/Abilities/Observations:
Apparently has "a shadow cast over her face as if she has never smiled". Huey also highlights this when he wonders aloud if Elmer could make her smile and whether she will ever find happiness.
Her eyes are compared to Claire's. "In the midst of his terror, the older conductor realized that his coworker's eyes were rather similar to those of their ally, Chane the fanatic."
Claire also makes this comparison, saying... "You and I have similar eyes. You don't know where you should release your emotions, so you pile it all up inside yourself."
[Mind]
She doesn't understand kindness towards strangers and things like friendship. They confuse her. She fears letting new people into her "world" - the place where only she and her father, Huey, had existed until now.
On some level: fears that someone else could become more important to her than Huey is. She very much wants to preserve her world that is just her and her father.
She rarely shows emotions outwardly, however she experiences quite a few conflicting feelings internally.
She spends time considering her options and questioning her choices.
Very much self-reliant. Thinks of herself as alone in the world. She doesn't mind this, as it's the way she's lived most of her life. Will use others but does not trust or put her faith in them. She trusts no one. (Except that by 1934/35 or so she feels that she could trust Claire and ask him for help...except that for other reasons, she doesn't.)
Mistakes peoples' intentions for trying to get close to Huey. Thinks their kindness is a tool to this end.
[Communication]
Though she cannot speak, she is still capable of communicating and may use things like notepads to talk with others. Her hand-written notes are very politely written and she seems to plan ahead. May also nod or shake her head, but most of what she wants to convey is said through her eyes and minute expressions. Claire seems to be able to understand her just by looking at her and frequently carries on conversations as if she's speaking out aloud, much to onlookers' confusion. She says at one point, later, that she feels a sort of "joy" when she is able to successfully communicate what is in her heart with others.
Only says what she feels is NECESSARY through notes. Her lack of conversation also serves as a wall. She PURPOSELY never learned sign language to better protect her father's secrets.
{Anime-verse} Can speak with Huey telepathically*.
*I will likely be disregarding this unless it comes up later because otherwise it'd render a whole lot of things that happen in the novels as kind of unneccesary.
[Battle]
Her senses are very well trained and she's good at noticing things and sensing others' true intentions. Her eyes are also very good and she is able to figure out battle patterns almost immediately after an attack (case: Graham's use of his wrench and pliers).
Can sense strong presences (kind of a more mundane version of sensing a person's "chi" I guess). "She was suddenly struck by an unpleasant sensation. It was as if a terrifying creature was spying on her, sending chills down her spine. [...] Chane could tell instantly that this was the man who had killed two of Goose's men in the dining car."
In battle she moves without hesitation; keeps multiple knives with her of varying types. Throwing knives, a knife in her boot... Later the dress Claire gives her has a sheath made into the back for her to keep a knife in. Her favorites are a pair of unwieldy-looking 8" hunting knives. She is very swift, capable of dodging bullets, multiple chakrams flying at her. She can even rebound off a door knob - it's pretty cool. She prefers fighting aggressively at close quarters. However the more she starts to waver in the emotional department and the more she overthinks and questions things, the more easily distracted she becomes and she can start making mistakes.
She has good speed, reflexes (uses rolls to right herself, kicking, etc). Plans her attacks and angles ahead of time and tries to ignore taunts (but sometimes fails even when very cliched taunts are used).
When Huey is directly involved she WILL become reckless and attack when outnumbered, but when on her own and away from her direct goal she seems to consider the chances of her winning. For example, she determines early on that if she engages the Rail Tracer in battle, she will die.
Chane "isn't the type to disarm corpses". She also isn't one to kill someone unawares and in cold blood without getting information from them.
[Family]
Cherishes her name because it connects her to her father; will not use a pseudonym. It also connects her to her mother...who apparently left her infant daughter with Huey after very little discussion. She doesn't really feel any curiosity about her mother, though, since she never really knew her and Huey's her world anyway.
Knows very well that she is Huey's "guinea pig", and says she is all right with that. Also knows she is not "normal". Throughout the series there is a sense that Huey is idly observing her and that he may have something in mind, such as when he answers Liza that she cannot kill Chane yet, and when Renee says to Claire something to the effect of "he agreed to let me have one of them, so then, perhaps the other one...?" IT'S KIND OF AWFUL. Basically Huey shows up and she's immediately overjoyed and ready to do anything for him. That's the gist of it.
[Knowledge]
-She knows that she is a "guinea pig" to her father and accepts that.
-She knows Huey is immortal and that he is deceiving the Lemures. She also knows an immortal can be devoured. She knows she is mortal and that she will out-age her father (physically) and eventually die.
-She DOES NOT know about Szilard Quates and the incomplete elixer. And assumes Dallas to be a complete immortal like her father.
-She knows there is an immortal within the Bureau of Investigation who could be a danger to Huey, but not necessarily his identity.
-Tim doesn't recognize her when they meet again, although he thinks her eyes are familiar. Adelle doesn't immediately recognize her either, but after a while determines her features to be like Huey's.
Selected Passages:
"You are my daughter, my protector, and guardian of my knowledge. That is the reason you were born, after all." - Huey Laforet
Volume 2 (Untuned):
"Chane was wearing a military uniform. Known as a 'fanatic', she was the organization's greatest assassin. She was also a devout follower of Huey Laforet. It was said that the assassins of Asia dulled their senses with drugs, but Chane's senses were frozen by her devotion. It would not be surprising for her to have even forgotten that she was a woman, or even a human being."
"As he passed by the coupling between the freight hold and the passenger cabins, he noticed a young woman on the other side of the train. She wore what looked like a work top as well as women's trousers.
'A practical outfit. It's similar to how Chane dresses normally.' Was the first, uninteresting impression she left on Goose."
THOUGHTS OF A BLACK SUIT: "Master Huey never takes hostages, and he would never kill a kid just to use her as a warning. I think Chane knows that too, but she's just going along with this because she wants to rescue Master Huey.
And I know the truth--there's a big difference between Chane and Goose. Chane worships everything about Master Huey, but all Goose wants is Master Huey's so-called "blessing". 'Course, I guess that goes for the rest of us, too. And that includes me"
"How could he think about getting rid of Chane, just because she's in the way? She's the most loyal of all of us."
SPIKE: 'Can't believe she can hold up for so long.' Spike marvelled at Chane's amazing endurance, but the red shadow she was facing down was amazing in its own right.
"You and I have similar eyes. You don't know where you should release your emotions, so you pile it all up inside yourself."
He laughed abashedly.
"The only thing in this world I can't do anything about is this idiot called 'me'."
This was why Claire had turned all of the bloodlust borne of tragedies and hypocrisies towards himself. He had sealed the bloodlust emanating from his eyes within himself throughout the course of his life.
"You managed to nick my ear. Even though it was just a coincidence, you left proof of your existence to me, the centre of the world. So I want you to join me on the side of the dreamer… on the side of the ruler of the world. I'll welcome you with open arms."
He fingered the injury inflicted upon him through the wall, and prepared to sprint at full speed towards the front of the train.
"You can throw the knife at me if you want to, but you won't hit me."
With this, the man began to dart across the rooftop, soon disappearing over the side of the train.
Volume 14: (A lot of direct PoV in this volume.)
"You're right... You're so strong, Chane!"
Chane couldn't bring herself to agree.
Was she truly strong? She'd never thought of herself that way. In fact, she thought to herself that people like Miria, who could cry freely when they lost those they held dearest, were much stronger than she.
[1935-A; Chapter 5]
Even so, Claire could understand more or less what she wanted to say just by looking at her eyes and expression. Chane found this a little strange, but not unpleasant.
In fact, when the words in her heart reached someone, the same emotion welled up in her as when her father praised her.
Joy, pure and simple.
Chane wouldn't force herself to deny that emotion. That would be inefficient. If she couldn't honestly analyze her heart, then she would be of no use to Huey.