Deerington App

[threelayers]

IN CHARACTER

Character Name: Neopolitan

Canon: RWBY

Canon Point: Volume 7, Episode 13 (Aired 2-08-2020, so will be 1 month by the end of the App cycle when the character would be accepted.)


In-Game Tattoo Placement: Flaring on the back along the inside of her shoulder blades.

Current Health/Status: Alive and well.

Age: 19

(I will note that the series never gives the age of most of its cast, other than the academy students. Neo is drawn with a comparable, if short, physique to that of the primary cast, and not the younger and underdeveloped characters like Oscar, making it likely that she is intended to be around the same age as the primary cast, so about 19-20 in Volumes 6-7.)

Species: Human


Content Warnings: Violence, Criminal Activity, Death/Minor reference to Vore.


History: https://rwby.fandom.com/wiki/Neopolitan (On the one hand, the wiki is reasonably thorough. On the other, I prefer to do my own writeups.)


Neopolitan is arguably one of the more mysterious characters when it comes to their past in a series that is known for dolling its secrets out slowly. Next to nothing is known of her by anyone but her closest associates. Based upon what is seen, however, quite a bit can be gleaned of her past by inference.


Neopolitan, or Neo as she's known to closer associates, was the criminal partner and right-hand 'trigger man' for Roman Torchwick, a leader of a gang of thugs and troublemakers operating largely out of the vicinity of Beacon during the events of the first three volumes of RWBY. She was shown to have a long-standing rapport with Roman, indicating that she had been in his employ and service for a significant amount of time, long before he became associated with Cinder Fall and tangentially with the inner circle of Salem through her.


Her background prior to her life of crime is largely unknown, as is her training in combat and breaking and entering. Her confidence and skill speak to years of time spent working with Roman, rather than a short period, but more than that is left up in the air. Vague hints based upon her state of dress and condition in Volume 6 show that she had little contact with others outside of Torchwick and may have had a rough upbringing, coming to view him as one of her sole compatriots and trusted associates.


Torchwick's gang, during the events of the prelude to RWBY, became tied to Cinder's Faction in her effort to bring down Beacon and acquire the mystical powers of the Fall Maiden, one of four powerful seasonally-oriented women whose powers were passed on with each Maiden's death. The act, predicated on a desire for survival by Torchwick (as indicated by his banter shortly before his death), brought them into contact with the Faunus revolutionary organization, the White Fang. Neopolitan served in the background, out of sight, until repeated failures by Torchwick's grunts and the White Fang operatives necessitated bringing in his best, at which point she worked alongside him until his death when he got eaten by a giant griffon Grimm and her near death in the Battle of Beacon.


In the aftermath of the Battle, Neo acquired Torchwick's signature bowler hat from the wreckage of General Ironwood's fallen ship, disappeared and went deep underground while plotting elaborate plans for revenge against both Cinder Fall, for using and discarding the, and against Ruby Rose for her direct involvement in Roman's death. She tracked Cinder Down through a mutual underworld contact, Lil' Miss Malachite, an underworld crime leader and information broker in Mistral. After a short but violent confrontation, Cinder used the power of the Fall Maiden to cow Neo into momentary submission and convinced her to join forces in order to hunt down their mutual foe, Ruby Rose, claiming that she was the more direct hand in Roman's death.


With the use of her Semblance, which allowed for the creation of optical illusions, Neopolitan was able to allow both she and Cinder to infiltrate the city of Atlas at the same time as teams RWBY, JNPR, Oscar Pine, Qrow and the former hutswoman known as the Grimm Reaper. She personally infiltrated the Schnee mansion after the election of Jacques Schnee during a gala to track down the location of Ruby Rose and an ancient relic currently in their respective protection. Upon the orders of Cinder, she refrained from engaging Ruby in battle during the subsequent attack of Grimm on the city of Atlas and instead engaged team JNPR and Oscar in a one on one confrontation that lead to her stealing the relic of knowledge and returning it to Cinder, who had herself failed in her object to steal the powers of the Winter Maiden. The two departed the conflict afterwards, presumably in continued search of a way to gain vengeance against Ruby or more power for Cinder in her own personal plans.


CRAU History and Impact: N/A

Personality:
The first thing anyone who ever tries to talk to Neopolitan ever learns is that she doesn't speak. It's not 100% clear if she is physically disabled and incapable of speaking, psychologically scarred and unable to do so, if her Semblance has caused some side effect that keeps her from speaking, or if she simply has mastered the art of making no sounds and does not wish to do so. There is, however, implication in Volume 6, episode 5, the coming storm, that of these the reason is most likely some variation of being unable to speak or make sound vocally, as she neither grunts nor makes any vocalized sound in the fight with Cinder, even when injured, and in the aftermath of the fight makes a hand gesture to herself when Cinder offers to talk, to which Cinder sighs and says “Right.” She never speaks, regardless of the reasons why, and it is something of a signature of her behavior that she finds other ways to communicate non-verbally, as she shows neither sign nor inclination towards any form of sign language or the like.


This is not to say that Neo is uneducated or stupid, or that she does not understand what is being said around her. While not necessarily the most brilliant of individuals, she has been seen texting to Roman, and others have said that she has communicated with them off-camera, implying that she's willing to use text-based communication to report more complicated information. She simply defaults to not wishing to even bother with the attempt with anyone in person to person interactions, preferring to use an illusion via her semblance or facial expressions to convey her thoughts on the matter. With Roman Torchwick this is more than enough, and he seems to be capable of completely understanding everything she is getting across through their non-verbal communications. With everyone else, this results in frequent miscommunications as they only partially understand her at best, and many choose to ignore her, or as in the case of Cinder, treat her as little more than a very skilled tool.


She is a business-like woman who is intensely professional in most of her interactions. She takes her job as a hit-woman for Roman very seriously, and performs her tasks with the utmost skill, and the confidence of someone who is not only one of the better fighters in the series, but who knows very clearly her limitations. She is capable of gauging opposition quickly, sizing them up with more accuracy than most of the veteran combatants in the series, and reacting to them accordingly. Where she is certain of her success, she proceeds with an almost playful and childishly disarming confidence forward, taunting others through her maneuvers and facial expressions and exerting herself only the minimum necessary. When faced with clearly superior numbers and abilities, she avoids confrontation as much as possible and seeks ways around those who oppose her, or to find alternate ways of survival. Her reaction times to changes in combat situations are nearly lightning quick, and she recognizes changes in capabilities very swiftly, reacting accordingly (such as when she attacked Cinder Fall, able to hold her own until Cinder displayed powers she would not have been aware of from prior encounters, in the form of the Fall Maiden's magic. The sudden invocation of that power immediately changed her reactions to Cinder, and her whole game plan).


While she takes the job seriously, and treats everything with absolute professionalism, she does not do so towards people or anything unrelated to her work. She frequently skips and seems to find amusement in many things, usually of a sarcastic fashion. Neopolitan is seen rolling her eyes, mocking others and being generally dismissive towards anyone that she interacts with regularly. She respects nobody but Roman Torchwick, who is the only person she never mocks in the course of the series, and who in turn is openly respectful towards her (rather than reacting out of fear as with Cinder, or loathing as with his grunts). Everyone else is treated as a plaything, or something to be toyed with, teased and confused, usually as if they were stupid in Neo's estimation. This even goes for superiors who aren't Roman, such as Cinder. She seems well aware that Cinder is using her as a tool, and cares little so long as she gets what she wants in the end. Meanwhile, she rolls her eyes at every failure of her current employer. Towards those that she has less respect, she can border on the sadistic, as she is seen grinning when on the verge of stabbing others such as Yang.


There is the Neopolitan that everyone sees, and the Neopolitan that only Roman Torchwick knew. The two are, on the surface, similar but they are by no means identical. The musical theme associated with her (commonly used as a way to provide small backdrop information about characters in the series) implies heavily that Neo had a rough youth because of her inability or unwillingness to speak to anyone, and that to her Roman Torchwick was quite literally her only friend. Everything seen in the series bears this up, as she spends nearly two years on a very elaborate plan to get revenge on both of the women she held responsible for his death, even after nearly dying in the battle herself. Roman was quite literally the only person that she did not mock derisively in her mannerisms or facial expression, and the only superior she never once argued with when receiving orders, carrying them out with ruthless efficiency and even just a small semblance of glee. Roman, and service to him, was her world and when he died, her world was shattered and taken away from her, leaving her with only one mission in mind, everything being tied to or secondary to that mission. It is unclear if these feelings were purely platonic (being close to big brother/little sister or father/mother) or romantic. Neither is or was an especially affectionate person, and their relationship could be interpreted either way, but what was clear about it was that her loyalty to him was unwavering and he was the single most important person or thing in her life.


In the aftermath of Torchwick's death, only one thing matters to her: Vengeance. She is single-minded in its pursuit, and even willing to risk her life for that. Whether she has chosen to put aside her desire for vengeance against Cinder permanently or only temporarily is unclear. However, her primary focus of vengeance is on Ruby Rose, who was present at the time that Grimm killed Torchwick, and who she clearly holds responsible for his death. She's willing to do any job, so long as it furthers her chances of getting to Ruby and killing her. Until then, she will go to any length to survive, to keep herself around until a day when she gets the chance at that revenge. Everything else tends to be the icing on the cake. She'll amuse herself in the interim and do what she has to, but her mind is always laser focused on what it wants.


Abilities/Powers/Weaknesses & Warping:

Semblance: A unique power singular to each individual in the RWBY universe which could be discovered by wielders of their aura. It is a physical manifestation of Neo's soul as a manipulation of her Aura. Her Semblance, nicknamed “Overactive Imagination,” involves the creation of visual illusions. These illusions, by Volume 6, are highly detailed and can encompass large structures such as a VTOL aircraft, though creating an ilusion of that size drained her in canon. Normally, her illusions were used to create physical disguises for herself or quick facsimile duplicates to confuse an opponent and misdirect an attack, generally short-lived in nature.

Warping: My recommended warp is that her illusions can only be crafted to create a disguise for her person. Larger illusions are impossible without a stabilizing gem and would be very draining regardless. I'd prefer she keep her ability to create illusory disguises, but if this needs to be further warped, I'd suggest that she be unable to hide her heterochromia iridis (different colored eyes). Please specify if the further warp is needed.


General Aura Use: The Aura is, in RWBY, the physical manifestation of one's soul, and is likened to 'Chi.' Almost all combatants possess an Aura and show a familiarity with its use. Highly skilled users of Aura can create physical barriers and project this force as a shockwave on occasion. Neo is not shown to using a variety of Aura-based abilities other than her Semblance, but has basic defensive and recuperative abilities due to the hits she takes in combat not being fatal. For her, it would partially mitigate damage and result in an accelerated healing rate over normal humans.

Warping: While her Aura isn't very powerful, I'd prefer that it feel weakened to her, that her healing factor be reduced and the harm she feels from hits be greater than it should be. Basically, yeah, it's there, but it's definitely not what it should be and the monsters of Deerington largely ignore its presence. If we need numbers 'she only heals twice as fast as normal humans and is only a little tougher at taking hits than someone of her stature should be.'


Combat Skills/Physique/Breaking and Entering/Infiltration & Exfiltration: Neo is shown to be an expert both at hand to hand combat with her combat umbrella, Hush, and also at assessing the capabilities of others. She's shown to be better than nearly anyone in the series at gauging an opponent at a glance, getting a measure of them, and determining if they're better, about the same or weaker than her. She reacts in combat with ease and can engage multiple skilled and dangerous combatants with combat-oriented Semblances without concern. She is physically shown to be at the peak of human conditions as an acrobat, but is not shown to be supernatural in her physical capabilities at all. She's an experienced spy, infiltrator and criminal with ample skills in breaking and entering in a modern setting that includes computers, though she is not shown to be a superior hacker on her own. Her skills are more in the B&E end of the picture.

Warping: There shouldn't need to be any warping. She's just an extremely good thief and fighter at the peak of human conditions (favoring agility/reflexes over strength/stamina), with a real knack for knowing if someone's better than her.


Dust Use: While not shown to use Dust-based equipment much, she may be assumed to be familiar with the many uses of the magically infused substance known as 'Dust,' which is a propellant, spell focus and material component in many weapons and explosives in the Remnant world of RWBY. She will not enter the game with any Dust in her possession.

Warping: Again, she knows how to use Dust, but has none, so it shouldn't require warping. She'd have to ask Sodder for some if she was ever going to use it.

Inventory:
-Hush: Combat Umbrella with a concealed blade. It's shown to be sturdy enough to serve as a shield against bullets and spells while being physically durable enough to function well as a spear with a hook on one end. When opened, it has been seen to serve like a makeshift parachute, breaking very short falls.

-The Clothes on her back

-Roman Torchwick's Bowler Hat

-Her “Scroll,” a hand-held device that measures connected user Aura levels and which allows intercommunication between users on the same Scroll Network similar to a cellphone. As there are no scroll networks in Deerington, it only lists her current Aura level and any stored information.

-Credentials to falsify her identity as a servant in the Schnee Mansion

-Pocket B&E kit with lockpicks


Writing Samples:

Sample 1: TDM w/ Winter & Ruby

Sample 2:

One moment, she'd been catching a catnap before her next assignment, and the next she was waking up in a strange bed. Neo had gotten past the initial moment of panic at the strange surroundings and taken an immediate stock in her surroundings. Thoughts of who might be responsible had flooded her mind, but with the exception of Cinder doing something stupid like sending her away instead of simply liquidating her as no longer useful, none of them made sense. A glance through the blinds of her apartment out into a chilly Maine Spring told her little, other than that this town was a little backwards in terms of its technology. Other than that, it could have been any of a hundred small frontier communities lying to themselves in the belief that they could establish a foothold away from the protection of the capitols, all of which one day or another died at the hands of the Grimm.


She looked around her room, lifting the jar of sweets to inspect it with a raised eyebrow. A sniff of the contents told her little, other than that they were candy. Popping one into her mouth, she shrugged. If they'd wanted her dead, she'd be dead already, or they were idiots to have thought they had her under their thumb. If they were drugged? She'd dealt with that level of stupidity, and she could deal with it again. For now, she was hungry, and so she popped another in her mouth and flopped onto one of the convenient little armchairs, looking over the letter.


Blah, blah, blah. She didn't even care if any of it was true. This was a distraction, and she didn't need distractions. Why would she care one fig about what this Sodder wanted. Her hands wandered amongst the items in the basket and she happened upon the fluid alongside her scroll. Of course the latter had no network connection. That was just her luck. But this fluid seemed to connect. She began to scroll through the messages idly right up until she saw one by Blake Belladonna. That caused her hand to pause and she reached out to tap it once before her smile grew very very slowly.


She was here.


Oh, well, now, that changed things didn't it? Perhaps she would thank this Sodder after all, because now she didn't have to worry about some fool chit of a power-mad girl with an axe to grind telling her when and where she could have her revenge. Now? She had all the time in the world, and Ruby was right where she wanted her. Neo grinned to herself and looked over the various messages, starting to make mental plans. Maybe being trapped in this wretched little city wouldn't be so bad after all...

OUT OF CHARACTER

Player Name: Latroma

Player Age: Over 18.

Player Contact: latroma or PM


Other Characters In Game: Vira-Lorr & Larxene

In-Game Tag If Accepted: Neopolitan: Latroma

Permissions for Character: here

Are you comfortable with prominent elements of fourth-walling?: When in Deerington... do as the Deer? (In other words yes. Go for it.)

What themes of horror/psychological thrillers do you enjoy the most?: I have a love for almost all things horror in different ways and forms. However, psychological trauma generally and eldritch abominations tend to spike my interest more than most.

Is there anything in particular you absolutely need specific content warnings for?: Unbirth, Infantilism, Genital Mutilation/Torture, Issues related to Pregnancy/Infants

Additional Information: Nope!