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threelayersAlright, now that I've read Roman Holiday, several notes.
On Communication:
--Neopolitan rigidly prefers to use pantomime and text messages for all communication. She is seen in canon as being extremely unusual in her inability to talk, and receives minimal to no instruction on any other methods of speaking. She openly and actively prefers that people communicate with her the way she wants to communicate with them.
She does not simply prefer talking in text. She prefers to make people stop, wait for her replies and then take the time to read them. If this annoys them, she likes that fact.
--She is familiar with "Text to Talk" technology from Beatrix "Lady Beat" Browning at the academy where she started homing her skills as a criminal. She hates it. It does not sound like her voice and she detests using it. She would, however, be willing to use it for characters unable to read her messages or in situations where it's non-ideal (e.g. she wouldn't have a problem using it for illiterate or blind characters, and would not be annoyed in doing that for their sake.).
--Sign Language does not exist in Remnant, or if it does? It is never offered to Neopolitan, nor is the possibility of it even mentioned to her by a single character in the novel (which, as she is the daughter of one of the most wealthy people in Vale, is telling.).
(Within Deerington, Neopolitan has learned ASL to assist her in communication, but will still default to text unless requested.)
--She is incapable of any form of vocalization, and has been so since birth.
Neopolitan's Age:
We aren't given a clear-cut idea of Trivia Vanille's age. She is 12 in chapter 3, but a timeskip occurs between chapters 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6 leading to the events of Neo and Roman's meeting. It is implied that both she and Lil Miss Malachite's daughters have aged and are similar ages, but we're not clearly shown just how old they are, save that they are in a boarding academy and finishing school.
Further, we aren't given a figure on how many years it has been since the time of Roman Holiday before the events of RWBY, Volume 1. The only clear references are that Ozpin is alive and well, headmaster of the academy, and Glynda Goodwitch is the most well known Huntress in the city of Vale. Both of these things are to be expected, and as Glynda is depicted as middle aged to younger middle aged, we are left without clarity. A snarky comment of 'she's 18' is made by a corrupt cop at one point, but it is unlikely that he's making any real attempt at actual honesty there, so she may be 18 or less.
So we're left unsure, and in a lack of sureness I will stick with the current interpretation that she is 'of age' with the main cast of RWBY, and thus 19 at the time of her latest canon point, with an additional year and change in Deerington, resulting in her being 21 at the start of Deer Country.
Neo's Hair
She dies her hair pink, so we'll be starting to take dye into account.
Neo's Upbringing
Neo's parents are criminally compromised scum. Her mother is an operative of Lady Beat, who is in turn herself an operative of Lil Miss Malachite and the Mistral Spiders. Her father, Jimmie Vanille, was a Vale City Councilman and in the pocket of Hei Xiong (Father of Junior, the figure from whom Roman hires his initial thugs during the beginning of RWBY). Jimmie is deeply emotionally abusive of his daughter, becomes regularly furious with her over indiscretions, angry when she will not speak to him, openly refuses to read her messages under most circumstances and endangers her life and well being by housing a massive cache of fire dust under her bed for years. He emotionally manipulates her at key points throughout the novel, and is deep in his own self-interest, doing what he does ostensibly "for the sake of the family" and "to keep his daughter from ending up in a life of crime" but demonstrates that is far more concerned about the wealth and power that he's accrued, ultimately revealing the dust's presence when he tries to collect it as Roman and Neo arrive to escape Lil Miss.
He is not above drugging his daughter.
He is not above hauling his daughter around like a sack of wet potatoes.
He is not above locking his daughter in a room sealed by a security hand print identification pad and a hard light force-field.
He is not above making corrupt deals with business leaders and the police to make criminal acts on Neo's part simply go away.
He has committed countless acts of theft and fraud within the graft of Vale business.
Her mother is not above drugging her daughter.
She is fully aware from a relatively early age just what business the family is in, is complicit and a spy on her own terms.
She sends Neopolitan to the Browning Academy with the full awareness that she may very well be trained as an operative there, being willing to make her a criminal as well.
She only views Torchwick as a bad influence because he's not 'on her side.'
She is kinder to her daughter than her father, but no more willing to deal with Vanille's inability to speak than he is, and when we see her give up her front in front of Roman in the last chapters, the honesty of her love for her daughter is brought into question.
Neopolitan's Psychology
Within this horrendously abusive, morally corrupt environment, locked away from the public eye under normal circumstances, Neopolitan develops an aggressively disassociated perspective on relationships and is fully accustomed to the fact that "Nobody gets her." She is used to people making no effort to understand her, Lady Beat and Roman being the first to actually make the attempt (and ultimately she chooses Roman over Beatrix due to a far closer connection with him.). She watches people. She listens to them, overhearing the things they do not think they've let on. However, she is emotionally detached to them.
She is emotionally detached to the idea of Hei Xiong's assistant falling out of a helicopter to her death. She's emotionally detached to her father and mother's deaths along with Hei Xiong, all of which she engineered with her actions. She is emotionally detached to the idea of theft. Though she cries at times, these acts become less and less common and are more associated with the behavior of Triva Vanille, not the emergent personality of Neopolitan.
Neopolitan shows fictionalized signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), with her 'other half' visibly apparent due to her Semblance giving it form. By the end of the novel, however, it appears that any 'alternate' personality that exists is merged and fused and the last glimmers of Triva Vanille as a separate person are faded in favor of a fused Neopolitan, whose voice is no longer heard in her head.
Neopolitan is nearly completely amoral. This lack of a moral compass stems from as far back as Chapter 3. She's unconcerned about any harm she causes to others and shows very little empathy towards other human beings. The notion of Right and Wrong never enter the vocabulary of any major character in the novel. Only loyalty and "Honor among Thieves" exists, and are found more in Roman's vocabulary than her own.
She is not in it for the money. She relishes the mayhem she causes, and does what she does in the end out of an absolute loyalty to Roman Torchwick.
On Roman and Neo's Relationship
Oddly? We still have no absolute clarity, though the age disparity and his treatment of her are more as a kid sister than as a potential lover. Both characters are shown spurning the notion of romantic interest through the novel (Roman on several separate occasions), but when interacting with each other actively silence any notion of a partnership that is other than criminal and platonic.
I'm going to go with the interpretation that Neo & Roman were at no point romantically involved. Roman serves as the surrogate family Neopolitan never truly has at home, and is her only friend, her mentor and her only ally. They are not, however, lovers. In point of fact, despite both being aware of sexuality (And Roman briefly considering it for a hot second here or there), neither is an especially sexual character. It is not a high priority.
On Communication:
--Neopolitan rigidly prefers to use pantomime and text messages for all communication. She is seen in canon as being extremely unusual in her inability to talk, and receives minimal to no instruction on any other methods of speaking. She openly and actively prefers that people communicate with her the way she wants to communicate with them.
She does not simply prefer talking in text. She prefers to make people stop, wait for her replies and then take the time to read them. If this annoys them, she likes that fact.
--She is familiar with "Text to Talk" technology from Beatrix "Lady Beat" Browning at the academy where she started homing her skills as a criminal. She hates it. It does not sound like her voice and she detests using it. She would, however, be willing to use it for characters unable to read her messages or in situations where it's non-ideal (e.g. she wouldn't have a problem using it for illiterate or blind characters, and would not be annoyed in doing that for their sake.).
--Sign Language does not exist in Remnant, or if it does? It is never offered to Neopolitan, nor is the possibility of it even mentioned to her by a single character in the novel (which, as she is the daughter of one of the most wealthy people in Vale, is telling.).
(Within Deerington, Neopolitan has learned ASL to assist her in communication, but will still default to text unless requested.)
--She is incapable of any form of vocalization, and has been so since birth.
Neopolitan's Age:
We aren't given a clear-cut idea of Trivia Vanille's age. She is 12 in chapter 3, but a timeskip occurs between chapters 1/2, 3/4 and 5/6 leading to the events of Neo and Roman's meeting. It is implied that both she and Lil Miss Malachite's daughters have aged and are similar ages, but we're not clearly shown just how old they are, save that they are in a boarding academy and finishing school.
Further, we aren't given a figure on how many years it has been since the time of Roman Holiday before the events of RWBY, Volume 1. The only clear references are that Ozpin is alive and well, headmaster of the academy, and Glynda Goodwitch is the most well known Huntress in the city of Vale. Both of these things are to be expected, and as Glynda is depicted as middle aged to younger middle aged, we are left without clarity. A snarky comment of 'she's 18' is made by a corrupt cop at one point, but it is unlikely that he's making any real attempt at actual honesty there, so she may be 18 or less.
So we're left unsure, and in a lack of sureness I will stick with the current interpretation that she is 'of age' with the main cast of RWBY, and thus 19 at the time of her latest canon point, with an additional year and change in Deerington, resulting in her being 21 at the start of Deer Country.
Neo's Hair
She dies her hair pink, so we'll be starting to take dye into account.
Neo's Upbringing
Neo's parents are criminally compromised scum. Her mother is an operative of Lady Beat, who is in turn herself an operative of Lil Miss Malachite and the Mistral Spiders. Her father, Jimmie Vanille, was a Vale City Councilman and in the pocket of Hei Xiong (Father of Junior, the figure from whom Roman hires his initial thugs during the beginning of RWBY). Jimmie is deeply emotionally abusive of his daughter, becomes regularly furious with her over indiscretions, angry when she will not speak to him, openly refuses to read her messages under most circumstances and endangers her life and well being by housing a massive cache of fire dust under her bed for years. He emotionally manipulates her at key points throughout the novel, and is deep in his own self-interest, doing what he does ostensibly "for the sake of the family" and "to keep his daughter from ending up in a life of crime" but demonstrates that is far more concerned about the wealth and power that he's accrued, ultimately revealing the dust's presence when he tries to collect it as Roman and Neo arrive to escape Lil Miss.
He is not above drugging his daughter.
He is not above hauling his daughter around like a sack of wet potatoes.
He is not above locking his daughter in a room sealed by a security hand print identification pad and a hard light force-field.
He is not above making corrupt deals with business leaders and the police to make criminal acts on Neo's part simply go away.
He has committed countless acts of theft and fraud within the graft of Vale business.
Her mother is not above drugging her daughter.
She is fully aware from a relatively early age just what business the family is in, is complicit and a spy on her own terms.
She sends Neopolitan to the Browning Academy with the full awareness that she may very well be trained as an operative there, being willing to make her a criminal as well.
She only views Torchwick as a bad influence because he's not 'on her side.'
She is kinder to her daughter than her father, but no more willing to deal with Vanille's inability to speak than he is, and when we see her give up her front in front of Roman in the last chapters, the honesty of her love for her daughter is brought into question.
Neopolitan's Psychology
Within this horrendously abusive, morally corrupt environment, locked away from the public eye under normal circumstances, Neopolitan develops an aggressively disassociated perspective on relationships and is fully accustomed to the fact that "Nobody gets her." She is used to people making no effort to understand her, Lady Beat and Roman being the first to actually make the attempt (and ultimately she chooses Roman over Beatrix due to a far closer connection with him.). She watches people. She listens to them, overhearing the things they do not think they've let on. However, she is emotionally detached to them.
She is emotionally detached to the idea of Hei Xiong's assistant falling out of a helicopter to her death. She's emotionally detached to her father and mother's deaths along with Hei Xiong, all of which she engineered with her actions. She is emotionally detached to the idea of theft. Though she cries at times, these acts become less and less common and are more associated with the behavior of Triva Vanille, not the emergent personality of Neopolitan.
Neopolitan shows fictionalized signs of Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder), with her 'other half' visibly apparent due to her Semblance giving it form. By the end of the novel, however, it appears that any 'alternate' personality that exists is merged and fused and the last glimmers of Triva Vanille as a separate person are faded in favor of a fused Neopolitan, whose voice is no longer heard in her head.
Neopolitan is nearly completely amoral. This lack of a moral compass stems from as far back as Chapter 3. She's unconcerned about any harm she causes to others and shows very little empathy towards other human beings. The notion of Right and Wrong never enter the vocabulary of any major character in the novel. Only loyalty and "Honor among Thieves" exists, and are found more in Roman's vocabulary than her own.
She is not in it for the money. She relishes the mayhem she causes, and does what she does in the end out of an absolute loyalty to Roman Torchwick.
On Roman and Neo's Relationship
Oddly? We still have no absolute clarity, though the age disparity and his treatment of her are more as a kid sister than as a potential lover. Both characters are shown spurning the notion of romantic interest through the novel (Roman on several separate occasions), but when interacting with each other actively silence any notion of a partnership that is other than criminal and platonic.
I'm going to go with the interpretation that Neo & Roman were at no point romantically involved. Roman serves as the surrogate family Neopolitan never truly has at home, and is her only friend, her mentor and her only ally. They are not, however, lovers. In point of fact, despite both being aware of sexuality (And Roman briefly considering it for a hot second here or there), neither is an especially sexual character. It is not a high priority.
