Huey Laforet

"He is pure in every sense of the word. Because of his mental purity, he also holds a great deal of wild passion within him. Of course, he himself would deny this."

- Dalton Strauss on Huey in 1703

Huey Laforet (ヒューイ・ラフォレット Hyūi Raforetto) is the father of Chané Laforet and Leeza Laforet and the ancestor of Luchino B. Campanella. He becomes an immortal aboard the Advena Avis in 1711.

In 1931, Huey is imprisoned by the Bureau of Investigation for terrorism against the United States government. He is later sent to New York and, from there, transferred to a secret cell in Alcatraz. He escapes the island prison in 1934, and prepares alongside Salomé Carpenter to conduct one of his largest experiments ever in New York in 1935.

In a 2002 phone call to the Copycat, Huey alludes to the experiment as a failure.

Appearance
Huey has glossy black hair and golden eyes, his face beautiful and even-featured. His androgynous voice and facial features have led several people to mistake him for a woman at first glance. When not affecting emotion, or thinking of Elmer, he wears a faint, mechanical smile that is patently false.

Many of his descendants bear a striking resemblance to him and have his eyes, including Chané, Leeza, and Charon Walken. Elmer C. Albatross notes that traces of Huey are even evident in Luchino's facial features.

In the 1710s, Huey wears a blue vest over a white shirt and black pants, and ties his long hair with a red ribbon. During his incarceration in the early 1930s, he wears a simple white prison uniform and has his hair trimmed. When his left eye is stolen in 1934, he initially covers his eye socket with a white bandage wrapped and later with a black eyepatch.

Personality
Most who interact on a superficial level with Huey come to believe that while he's rather 'strange', he’s someone that has a rather enthralling personality.

The people that Huey deals with the most are his subordinates: the members of his various armed groups and/or cult  and his interactions with them are pretty much what would define his public persona. These tend to be a mix of those he’s recruited or those who have decided to become followers, as well as those he’s created, and his two actual daughters, as well as multiple homunculi.

In general, Huey keeps a pleasant, rather polite façade when interacting with others. In many cases, he does tell people what they want to hear when it involves his feelings towards them (namely, that they are actually important to him). Though Huey does not truly “love” his daughters, they are still willing to risk life and limb and will do anything he asks.

Despite the fact that Huey tends to not let on that he truly does not care about people outside of their use to him, he is rather up front about his status and goals as a researcher. He makes it no secret that by observing people for a long enough amount of time, he’s can figure out what they want and how they will act to get it. However, it’s also clear, even when he talks to others, that they are there to help him achieve what he wants. (It is simply that he does not tell them that is all they are, especially not his daughters, whom he thinks of as little more than useful guinea pigs.) Though he says that his goals are to find out as much as possible about humans (whom he refers to as “raw materials,” showing just how removed from people he is), Huey's underlying motivation involves finding a way to "meet" the deceased Monica Campanella again.

In order to achieve this, Huey's main concerns are his experiments and seeing how people act in various situations, as well as how useful they are to him. Judging people’s “worth” as raw materials is something he tends to do in a rather short amount of time, though he is, of course, not infallible. When things happen or people act in ways that surprise him, he honestly does not let on; he takes these in stride and continues to plan and change existing plans, taking them into consideration. Even being stabbed in the back (thereby killing him) and having his eye gouged out does not truly faze him; his reaction to these are to smile and reflect that he could resume his experimenting, because of the fact that the people who did these things to him acted in ways he did not expect.

However, Huey does seem to believe that his subordinates will remain loyal, at least in a sense, to him—mostly Chané and Leeza. When he’s around only a select few people, mainly those who know about his past (such as Elmer and Victor Talbot), he’s much more open; he’ll speak to them about his feelings, both on how he sees people, as well as his thoughts about the events that shaped him in the early 1700s. Elmer in particular is someone that Huey is close to, even considering him “human” instead of mere experimental material. Because Elmer has been his friend for more than 200 years, and, as such, knows his feelings, it’s safe to say that there’s actually a level of trust there that Huey has with no one else. Interestingly enough, the reason that the two of them are friends is because Huey felt actual compassion for Elmer, something that he honestly doesn’t, for anyone else. In more recent events, in the Prohibition Era timeline, he befriends Isaac Dian as well, because Isaac reminded him of Elmer.

Since his mother and later, his lover Monica Campanella were killed, Huey has held some level of guilt (made clear when he speaks to Victor in 1931, saying that his mother was the one who was killed instead of him during the witch hunts, and that he was “unable to save” his wife) about both of their deaths, letting neither go in the 220 years since he’s become immortal. However, he also wonders, when speaking on this, if there is anything that can truly be a worse memory for him, and if there’s a concrete method to know this for sure. Even when thinking on his worst memories, he still has the personality of a researcher, or at least acts as though he thinks that way.

Back in his teenage years, his personality was slightly less reckless in regards to obtaining information. He was more cautious, but also more willing to take matters into his own hands. He had a deep love for alchemy and knowledge, wanting to learn all he could. He was not as callous, and was even willing to open up to those around him who made a significant impression, even falling in love with Monica. Huey was also more inclined to express surprise during this time, such as when he found out about Monica's relation to Boronial Campanella. However, Monica's premature death seems to have hardened him to the core and now the only person who Huey even has a remote bond with is Elmer, who remains his friend into the 2000s. Though he is more open with the other immortals, it is not nearly to the extent of his openness with Elmer.

Chronology
To be revamped and expanded.

Childhood
Huey was born in the summer of 1690 and raised by his mother in a small, rural mountain village (his father dying rather early on), and, for the most part, had a normal childhood until the influence of the witch hunts reached the village.

On Huey's tenth birthday in the summer of 1700, his mother was taken away from their home by the 'inquisitors'. The next time he saw her, she had very obviously been tortured by those interrogating her. At her trial, Huey's mother declared that she was still innocent, and that everyone else in the village who accused of her of witchcraft was actually guilty of the crime, which can be proven if she is successfully killed. Huey witnessed his mother's execution by drowning. Hysteria seized the villagers and they began to accuse each other, and even some of the people who had comforted Huey during his mother's imprisonment ended up being burnt at the stake. Huey was taken in by Dalton Strauss, who happened to be there at the village during this time.

1705 - 1711
Five years later, Huey had moved at some point to Lotto Valentino, Italy, in a vacant storehouse that belonged to a merchant who, due to the nature of his business, only came home 3-4 days per year. Huey attended classes specializing in alchemy at the Third Library. During this time he was extremely antisocial, hating everyone and himself, sincerely wanting to see the world destroyed. He was extremely intelligent, especially when it came to alchemy--knowledge he used to start a gold counterfeiting operation in order to further his goals. His life changed greatly with the arrival of a new student to the school, Elmer C. Albatross, as well as his increased interactions with classmate Monica Campanella, a mostly-typical fifteen-year-old girl with a crush on Huey. At this time, the town was threatened by the fear of the serial killer, the "Mask Maker," who was eventually revealed to be Monica herself.

Advena Avis
In 1711, Huey boarded the ship Advena Avis with twenty-nine other alchemists. Aboard the ship, alchemist Maiza Avaro summoned a demon in order to find the secret to immortality. Considered the most frightening of the alchemists on the ship by at least one person, it is clear that Huey has changed quite a bit. Now, he seemed to act without caring about danger or any of the issues involved with summoning a demon-- to him, it was simply 'interesting', nothing more. This went along with the obvious disconnect between himself and the other alchemists on the ship; he tended to keep to his own then, and even disagreed with them on certain things (such as sharing of the formula to the elixir of immortality; whereas Szilard Quates wished to have that knowledge become public, and the rest of the alchemists wanted to have it known only by Maiza, Huey abstained from taking a definite stance on it, citing the fact that they all had plenty of time to decide as his reason). Even when Szilard began killing the other immortals on the ship, rather than getting involved, Huey simply watches from a distance.

After the Advena Avis incident, not much is known about Huey's activities; however, it is known that he has two daughters, Chané and Leeza, with his alchemy teacher from the 1700s (and fellow immortal), Renee Parmedes Branvillier. By the 1930s, Huey would establish multiple armed groups under his personal command.

Imprisonment
Huey was imprisoned in Alcatraz for terrorism in the 1930s after a large shipment of his weaponry was intercepted. His arrestor, Victor Talbot declared that Huey's arrest had another reason; he was attempting to prevent Huey's influence from reaching his contacts along with keeping him out of Nebula's reach.

One of Huey's groups of followers, the Lemures, endeavored to free him by whatever means necessary – which culminated in them hijacking the Flying Pussyfoot without his permission. Their negotiation attempts failed. In 1934, Huey escaped Alcatraz with Leeza's assistance and returned to New York. There, he planned to unleash the "water" of consciousness on the water supply, using the Runoratas' upcoming casino party to distract the authorities.

Relationships
Chané Laforet - Chané is Huey's eldest daughter. She is extremely loyal to him, even willing to give up her voice for him, without prompting—all because she believes it will make him happy and prove her devotion to him.

Leeza Laforet - Leeza is Huey's youngest daughter and the host of the homunculus Hilton. Just like her older sister, Leeza is completely loyal to her father and would exact revenge on anyone that threatens him and his honor.

Monica Campanella - Monica is Huey's lover in the 1700s. She had a crush on the aloof Huey ever since their student days in the alchemy academy in Lotto Valentino, Italy. The two gradually grow close after they learn each other's secrets and decide to merge Huey's counterfeiting operations with Monica's Mask Maker activities. Despite Huey's constant aversion from  Monica's public displays of affection, he eventually confesses his feelings to Monica. After watching a play revealing Huey's past, Monica allows herself to be captured by the Dormentaires for her crimes in order to save Huey's reputation. This causes Huey to frantically search for her, but sadly, his efforts are in vain. Right before he finds her on the Dormentaires' ship, Monica is stabbed by Fermet and he watches her body fall to the sea.

Elmer C. Albatross - Huey's friend since the 1700s; he is the only person Huey considers a friend and a human being instead of a test subject. In the anime, Elmer is seen making Huey actually smile a genuine smile. When they first met, they were off to a bad start, Huey finding Elmer even weirder than he was. However, after the events of the Mask Maker, the police's conspiracy, and Nikki's kidnapping, the two formed a solid bond of friendship that has arguably been Huey's most defining trait as an actual human being. Huey has a better concept and understanding of Elmer's character than most can actually see, and they are able to understand each other on an intellectual and emotional level. The sole reason that Huey does not lower his questionable actions to the point of being murderous and deadly to bystanders is because it may effect Elmer in some way, and that miniscule possibility is enough to dissuade Huey from such actions, despite his preference to a direct and convenient approach.

Luchino B. Campanella - Huey and Monica's descendant. He is convinced Huey is the one responsible for Monica's murder and vows to take revenge, until he is corrected by Elmer.

The Lamia, the Larva, the Lemures, Time, and Rhythm - Huey serves as the overall head of at least five groups: the Lamia, a group of homunculi that he created; the Larva, the group in charge of the Lamia; the Lemures, a cult that worships Huey; Rhythm, the research institute responsible for the creation of Huey's homunculi, the subsequent experiments performed upon them, and the development of new technology; and Time, which leads the mass production of weaponry.

Claire Stanfield/Felix Walken - Claire and Huey meet in 1935. Prior to this, in the 1920s, Huey sought him out to recruit into his ranks, but he had fled with the circus by the time he reached New York. Initially, Claire asks Huey if he is Chané's brother. Huey calmly corrects Claire's error and introduces himself as Chané's father. Claire introduces himself as Felix Walken (as he changed his name to Felix Walken after the Flying Pussyfoot incident). Claire thanks Huey for bringing Chané into his world and reveals he was planning on marrying Chané. When Claire hugs Huey, the latter shows a rare sign of surprise.

Renee Parmedes Branvillier - Huey's teacher in the 1700s and the mother to both of his daughters. His relationship with Renee is a strange one, as she orders The Former Felix Walken to steal one of Huey's eye's. He steals her right eye in turn.

Abilities
To be reworked.

As a natural genius, Huey is one of the most intelligent and broadly skilled characters in the series. His independent and swift pursuit of knowledge led him to easily excel in school as a teenager, and at just fifteen years of age was manufacturing near-perfect counterfeit gold in a solo underground operation. He is an inventor, an alchemist, and a scientist all at once: as an inventor, he created Goose's fist gun and once constructed a Japanese lantern entirely based off second-hand information alone; as an alchemist, his skill-set has come to include the creation of homunculi; and as a scientist, he is knowledgeable in a variety of sub-disciplines relevant to his work.

Huey has several organizations and individuals that work directly for him, including the militaristic Lemures cult, the Larva and Lamia homunculi, his personal research institute Rhythm, and the manufacturers Time. A skilled manipulator, Huey is able to foster others' devotion to him by simply ensuring they hear what they want to hear; and as a skilled actor, he affects emotion and charisma while suppressing his true feelings.

However, not all of his followers are enamored by him: Tim holds him in contempt; Rail loathes him for the suffering he has caused; several of the Lemures care about him only for his immortality; and Sham's loyalty to him has utterly waned by 1935. Such antipathy only matters to Huey insofar of how interesting it is.

In terms of athleticism, Huey was fairly nonathletic prior to meeting Monica and becoming a Mask Maker. Under her watchful eye, he learned to be acrobatic and agile in her mode as was necessary for scaling and moving between buildings. The acrobat skills from his Mask Maker days have remained with him into the 1930s, as seen when he descended via windowsills from a roof to the ground without trouble in 1935.

Huey was the only immortal whom Szilard was wary of, and even he thought it best to actively avoid Huey rather than attempt to devour him. Sylvie Lumiere also described Huey as 'frightening' even before he gained immortality.

As a true immortal, Huey cannot age or die from disease or wounds.

Quotes
"We're a team, right? So even if you're broken, and even if your true face is revealed and the world turns against you, I'll make you a new mask." - To Monica Campanella

Family Tree
Vertical dashed lines indicate a break of multiple generations.

Trivia

 * The name Huey means "Heart", "Mind", "inspiration" and "Intelligent" in English.
 * Huey's surname Laforet means "forest".