Neopolitan

Neapolitan

Neo

### Occupation

Roman Torchwick's right-hand woman (formerly)Associate of Cinder Fall and Salem's Faction (both formerly).

The Curious Cat's vessel (formerly).

### Powers/Skills:

HushIllusion casting

Hand-to-hand combat skills

Superhuman agility

Superhuman speed

### Goals

Aid Cinder in her plans (formerly).Get revenge on Ruby Rose for Roman's death ((abandoned).

Kill the Curious Cat for possessing her (succeeded).

Find her true purpose in her life (ongoing).

### Crimes

TheftImpersonation

Murder

Psychological abuse

Torture

Enforced suicide

Conspiracy

Assault

Animal cruelty

Blackmail

“ [Your boss won't stay dead...but you will without this. If you want her name, you know what you owe me.] „ ~ Neo's text to Cinder Fall, blackmailing her with the Relic of Knowledge

“ I'm going to enjoy watching you break. „ ~ Neo, speaking to Ruby Rose through illusions of the latter's deceased allies and foes.

“ She wanted to do what ever she wanted. And right now that was helping Roman set the world on fire. (...) For once, she wasn't worried about anything. No one was ever going to catch Neo and Roman. „ ~ Excerpt from Roman Holiday.

**Neopolitan** (born **Trivia Vanille**), also known as **Neo** for short, is a major antagonist in the 2013 American animated science fantasy web series *RWBY* (appearing as a supporting antagonist in Volume 2, a major antagonist in Volume 3, a minor antagonist in Volume 6, a major antagonist in Volume 7 and Volume 8, and one of the secondary antagonists of Volume 9) and one of the two main protagonists (alongside Roman Torchwick) of its 2021 prequel novel *RWBY: Roman Holiday*.

Neopolitan was the mute henchwoman/partner of the notorious criminal Roman Torchwick until his demise during a fight with the trainee Huntress Ruby Rose. She subsequently swore vengeance against Ruby, forming a tentative alliance with Torchwick's former associate Cinder Fall to bring about her desire.

While she does not speak, her vocal effects are provided by Casey Lee Williams.

## Appearance

As a child, Trivia never got a say in her clothing; her parents always bought the most drab, ordinary clothing they could find for her. As a result, she once shoplifted for something in her style; subconsciously as her imaginary friend Neo told her what to pick. At the time her hair was pure brown, but after the events of *Roman Holiday,* it gained a natural hair pink to it; she had previously been using her semblance to do so.

Neo (themed after Neapolitan ice cream) has the appropriate trio of colors in her hair and on her outfit. Her hair is half pink and half brown, with white streaks in the pink half.

Neo's natural eye color changes between brown, pale pink, and white, and they can alternate coloration in differing combinations, with this ability apparently being entirely under her control. Because of this, she tends to temporarily have a condition known as heterochromia iridum, where the eyes of a subject have two different colors. In her case, it is complete heterochromia, where one iris in its entirety is a different color from the other.

Neo wears a white jacket with a pink interior, brown pants, and gray boots with very high heels. Under her jacket is a black corset, curved in the middle and at the bottom, exposing her hips. She also wears a multitude of necklaces, which hang haphazardly around her neck.

Following the timeskip after the fall of Beacon, Neo wears the same outfit. However, it is much more tattered, she also now wears Roman's hat.

In her current outfit, she still wears Roman's hat. However, she now wears his scarf as well as some sort of white corset with a leather trenchcoat with a little bit of pink with a small ice cream keychain on the back as well as white jeans and gloves.

Neo is also rather diminutive in stature, compared to the rest of the main cast, including Ruby Rose, the youngest known character, as shown in the height chart presented by Monty Oum. This is demonstrated in "No Brakes", when she stands off against Yang Xiao Long, as Neo is only able to reach her chin in overall height while wearing high heels.

## Personality

In her early years as Trivia Vanille, Neo was withdrawn due to being isolated from the world by her criminal parents who couldn't accept her heterochromia, semblance, or muteness. As a result, she created an imaginary friend named Neopolitan, who was her desired future self. As she grew up, Trivia grew to hate her family and constantly escape home with the help of her semblance. This lead her to meet Roman Torchwick, who accepted her muteness and saw how useful her semblance was; leading the newly self-christened Neo to form a partnership with him. At this point she had no love for her family, feeling happy they died in the dust explosion that destroyed her childhood home.

Roman was the sole person Neo put her trust and respect in, since he saw value in her. Their partnership was steady, unlike their alliance with Cinder's Faction, which they only agreed to under threat of Cinder's allies in a secret cabal. Proof of this is that Roman went into a rage against Ruby Rose for sending Neo flying into a flock of Grimm during the Battle of Beacon. Surviving that, Neo later returned the sentiment by seeking revenge against Ruby for her supposed involvement with Roman's death; to this end, she allied with Cinder again, as both wanted her dead.

Neo exhibits a stern, pragmatic, and businesslike demeanor at the White Fang meeting. However, when intervening to help Roman following his defeat, she wears a self-assured and authoritative smile, and she politely bows to Team RWBY, showing confidence on the battlefield. Neo's confidence is also seen in her fight with Yang, smiling throughout the entire fight, whilst quietly mocking and taunting her as well. She displays confidence before the fight, not only against Yang, but also Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna, as she reveals herself immediately to the trio, and is prepared to fight them.

Neo is also shown to have a sadistic and manipulative side, as seen in her smile when she prepared to stab Yang. However, she does seem to exhibit fear and hesitance when she knows that she is outmatched, fleeing if her opponent proves to be as such. It is shown when Raven Branwen appears and engages her on the White Fang cargo train. Neo also appears to have a vengeful side, as seen in her attempt to kill Cinder for her part in Roman's death, only stopping when Cinder reveals her full power and agrees to work with Neo to kill Ruby.

Neo does not trust anyone except Roman, but is willing to ally as long as there is a common interest or she has leverage over them. Hence why she agrees to ally with Cinder to kill Ruby (after being intimidated by her Maiden magic into not blaming her), but loses her patience when Cinder puts appeasing Salem first; thus she uses the Relic of Knowledge as collateral to make Cinder put their deal first. Ultimately, Neo learned Cinder couldn't be trusted as she kicked her, along with Ruby into a void.

In the Ever After, Neo took delight in realizing the absurd world had boosted her Semblance to the point she could create clones of whatever she wanted. Having chosen to use this new power to show Ruby her origins with Roman; while also creating clones of all Ruby's dead allies to mess with her. Even better was the idea of using the Tree of Ascension as a threat to unmake Ruby. However, Neo was shocked Ruby gave up so easily, unaware that she had just been the final straw to snap whatever was left of Ruby's will to live. The shock of getting her revenge put Neo in catatonia as she had no idea what to do next. The last bit of her mind reacted with fear to the Curious Cat possessing her.

After the Cat is exorcised by burnt Tree leaves, Neo manages to get perspective. After having her Jabberwalker clones kill the Cat in retaliation, Neo accepted that the current her no longer had a purpose and that there was a chance Ascendinh via the Tree could give her one. She politely bowed to Team RWBY and Jaune, accepting they were not at fault.

## History

### Past

Though much of Neo's past remained a mystery for the longest time, parts of the song "One Thing" reveal some hints to Neo's past: that she was once an outcast with no home, friends, or family, and that Roman befriended her and gave her her name. Afterward, she stuck with him out of loyalty and felt indebted to him for giving her a life.

In the novel "RWBY: Roman Holiday" her past is revealed including how she eventually meet Roman. It is revealed Neo's real name was Trivia Vanille, the mute daughter of a corrupt politician Jimmy Vanille and a neglectful mother named Carmel Vanille. As she grew up her parents refused to let her go in public outside rare occasions to where nearly no-one was aware of her existence due to her being mute and having heterochromia, whenever she was let out of the house they forced her to wear a brown contact over her pink eye. For many years her only companion was an imaginary friend who she called Neopolitan or Neo for short who represented who she wanted to be. Whenever she did anything that upset her parents she would blame her only to receive verbal abuse or even on rare occasion borderline physical from her father. Every instance both parents would say if she decided to speak they would forgive and not punish her but whenever she tried to explain she couldn't through writing they'd only get more upset. When Trivia started to learn of her Semblance of creating realistic and even physical illusions her parents would punish her for using it and demand she never use it, fed up with her lack of freedom she decided to sneak out on occasion ranging from harmless attempts to enjoy a the outside world even if only to go shopping to outright theft when she wanted to be rebellious. Each time she was either brought back to her father due to getting into a fight due to Neo manifesting to protect her from a bully to trying to sneak back while using an illusion as a disguise. In both instances she was locked in her room, each time with a more complicated lock to keep her in. One instance she tried to escape when her parents were out and due to her causing a fire she nearly died but she was able to survive, when her parents came back they berated her and when they saw Neo along with their daughter her mother smacked and shattered the illusion telling Trivia to grow up. Angry they sent Trivia away to a boarding school where she was constantly bullied by those around her including Melanie and Miltia Malachite, eventually she started to change her appearance via illusions to dye part of her hair.

When Trivia sees Melanie and Miltia sneak off at night she decided to follow them as to either expose them to headmistress, Lady Beat, or as to blackmail them later, there she saw them attack Roman Torchwick who she decided to defend and help hide when he was being outnumbered. After he offered to let her join him she hesitated and then jokingly challenged her to find him if she changed her mind. Not long after the headmistress decided to let her have the mission of spying on Roman to which Trivia decided she'd try to play both sides until she was sure of who she actually wanted to help. Later she finds Roman revealing she had placed a tracker on his hat, impressed he asks her name which she decided to adapt the alias of her imaginary friend: Neo. Agreeing to help train her the two bond, over the months they start off with small crimes and grow very close. Soon enough the two grow close becoming the only friend the other had and hints both had somewhat of a crush on the other. While Neo is trying to find out info on the headmistress she finds out the pins the students wear and most former students wear are hidden cameras to spy across the Kingdom of Vale which means that they know where Roman is. While she tries to warn him she quickly makes a break with the hard drive that contains all the info gathered. From there Neo visits a crime lord known as Hei Xiong offering him the hard drive in return for saving Roman only to nearly be captured to be used as ransom.

Eventually she is able to use another tracker she had placed in Roman's hat to find and rescue him by tricking Hei Xiong's men to attack Little Miss Malachite's Spider gang. Using that as a distraction Trivia steals an airship to take her and Roman to her old house for the night with a plan to leave and start their own crime ring. Both Jimmy and Carmel Vanille pretend to take them in but make it clear Roman will have to leave in the morning without her. Refusing to abandon his friend Roman makes it clear that Neo will leave if she wants and calls her father out for being a hypocrite along with corrupt, both realize they have been drugged with the tea they drank as they stand up. While Carmel rants about to Roman, Neo is taken by her father who admits he has been taking bribes while also hiding a stash of Dust from Hei Xiong to start his own illegal Dust trade. As Neo starts to regain feeling in her body she is locked in her room which was upgraded to the best money could buy. At first Neo panics but quickly realized the reason for the security, the stolen stash of Dust was in her room meaning her father was willing to risk his daughter's safety simply to make a profit. Within moments Roman was able to free Neo while after he knocked both her parents unconscious to which he locked her father in Neo's room. As Hei Xiong's gang and the Spider gang arrived trying to kill Roman and retrieve the hard drive. Neo was able to distract the gangs while Roman transferred the data to a local newswoman. Neo and Roman make an escape but not before arranging it where Hei Xiong goes after the stolen Dust while they arrange Little Miss Malachite to cause an explosion killing both her parents, Hei Xiong and forcing Little Miss to retreat back to Mistral due to authorities chasing her. Roman tries to comfort her over her parents being killed in the crossfire but Neo feels no regret and admits to herself as far as she is concerned Trivia Vaille died in the explosion permanently embracing the name Neo. As Roman offers her a chance to back out while admitting he would still gladly work with her, Neo kisses him on the cheek flustering him briefly. Neo then admits she has no desire to for power but rather just entertaining herself admitting she plans to stick with Roman at least for now due to enjoying being around him.

### Volume 2

In "Painting the Town...", Neo is seen at a gathering of the White Fang, accompanying Roman Torchwick as he addresses the group; providing them with new weapons his "associates" had acquired for him. She later saves and aids Roman in his escape following his defeat at the hands of Team RWBY.

In "No Brakes", Neo is seen on a train carrying large amounts of explosive cargo, once again aiding Roman. After Team RWBY boards the train, Neo ends up confronting Yang Xiao Long, allowing Weiss Schnee and Blake Belladonna to pass by Neo without consequence. However, after a brief and rather one-sided fight, Neo bests Yang and attempts to kill her via a dagger in her umbrella. However, before she can, Raven Branwen appears, prompting her to flee.

### Volume 3

In "Round One", Neo is later seen participating in the Vytal Festival combat tournament. She conceals her identity by changing her appearance drastically: she wears a predominantly black outfit and also changes her hair and eye colors. In the tournament, she competes as part of a team with Emerald Sustrai, Mercury Black and Cinder Fall. The team has no trouble during their first match, in which Neo is seen mercilessly stomping on a hapless opponent.

In "Beginning of the End", after Mercury fakes a broken leg, Neo and Cinder, disguised as paramedics, evacuate Mercury via Air Bus to an unknown location.

In "PvP", Neo invades an Atlas ship and dispatches the guards before freeing Roman from his cell, returning to him his trademark hat and Melodic Cudgel.

In "Battle of Beacon", while aboard an Atlesian Airship, Neo hands Roman a scroll with Cinder's virus on it. Roman plugs it in, infecting all of the AK-200 soldiers with a hostile AI. When Roman hears something crash into the top of the airship, he instructs Neo to find out what it is. Neo nods and leaves the room, heading to the airship's roof.

In "Heroes and Monsters", once she arrives there, she uses her power to change back into her original outfit and report to Roman with a text from her Scroll, before engaging in battle against Ruby. She easily dodges the swings of Crescent Rose and shatters in an illusion, before Roman intervenes in the fight. Together, the two gain the upper hand on Ruby, with Neo landing a roundhouse kick, sending her to the edge of the airship. As Neo slowly walks towards Ruby, dragging her blade and holding her at swordpoint, she is immediately thwarted when Ruby opens her parasol, causing the winds to blow her away from the airship, leaving her at the mercy of the raging winds - and the flying Grimm.

### Volume 6

Having survived the Fall of Beacon, Neo learned that Roman had died after Ruby sent her away. Angry that her only true companion was gone, Neo found Roman's bowler hat and donned it in memory of him. Wishing to avenge him, Neo decided to go after the two people that were involved in Roman's death: Ruby Rose (who kept her from protecting him) and Cinder Fall (who had them release the Grimm that killed him). This vendetta lead her on a two year long quest across the world. Neo paid Little Miss Malachite for information on Cinder Fall, who informed Neo that Cinder would return the next day for her own Intel.

In "The Coming Storm", Neo hides in waiting until Cinder concludes her business in finding Ruby's group are heading to Atlas; two birds with one stone. With that, Neo let Cinder know she was there, using her illusions to create a clone to fight her; while Neo waited outside. When Little Miss orders them outside, Neo dismisses the clone and attacks until Cinder unveils the full extent of her powers as the Fall maiden and convinces Neo to team up with her to get revenge on Ruby.

In "The Grimm Reaper", Cinder and Neo travel back to the Vault of the Spring Maiden where Cinder explains to Neo that Salem doesn't want Ruby dead, but tells her that since she is not an affiliate of Salem, Cinder convinces that Neo can kill Ruby if she takes Cinder to Atlas. Neo ponders on the idea, she shakes Cinder's hand, sealing the deal.

In "Our Way", Neo steals an airship and uses her powers to make it look like an Atlas military ship. Cinder is impressed by her abilities and believes they are a good team, even musing about killing Pyrrha and telling Neo that she still believes in destiny.

### Volume 7

In "As Above, So Below", Neo disguises herself as one of Jacques' servers. In the middle of the hallway she sees Ruby and company leaving the premises. Later, during Jacques' arrest, Neo skips away from the estate and back to an apartment complex where Cinder waits. Cinder then asks if she has what she needs, to which Neo silently replies with a smirk.

In “Out in the Open”, Neo and Cinder watch Ironwood and Robyn Hill expose the truth via scroll. Cinder vents out at the fact that Watts and Tyrian beat them to Atlas. Cinder then asks if Neo has the whereabouts to Oscar, to which Neo nods. Cinder tasks her to find the boy and to bring back the relic. Neo then shapeshifts into Ruby as a reminder of their agreement, but is chewed out by Cinder. Telling her to get her what she needs, then they can get what they want. Shortly after, Cinder leaves to locate the Winter Maiden.

In "With Friends Like These", Neo, disguised as Oscar spots Jaune, Ren, and Nora and smiles at them, disarmingly. Nora happily runs up to Oscar, about to give him a hug. Just before she can, the real Oscar's voice is heard shouting in protest. Oscar charges at his doppelgänger and sucker punches Neo in the face. She reverts back into Neopolitan. The Relic falls from her hip and is placed back into the possession of Oscar. Jaune, Ren, and Nora tell Oscar who she is, and the five engage in a standoff.

In “The Enemy of Trust”, Neo begins to battle against Oscar and Team JNR. Dodging and parrying the various attacks, Oscar and Team JNR eventually gain the upper hand and attack Neo, only for her to shatter into pieces. The Atlas military give chase to the four. While the four are running from the Atlesian military, Nora appears from behind Oscar, and hides him from the oncoming soldiers. Oscar checks his belt for the relic and is attacked by Nora. Nora’s eye color changes, revealing her to be Neo in disguise. Neo runs after and attacks Team JNR. Neo retreats from Team JNR, the Atlesian soldiers open fire on them. Now disguised as an Atlas soldier, Neo looks around to see if the coast is clear and walks away, smiling deviously.

On one of the rooftops, Neo presents the Relic of Knowledge to Cinder. Cinder says nothing and snags the Lamp from Neo’s grasp. As Cinder is walking away, Neo gives a look of frustration.

### Volume 8

In “Divide”, Neo and Cinder fly towards the whale Grimm. They use its ribcage as a landing zone, the two make their way inside, and Neo meets Salem for the first time. Salem expresses disappointment towards Cinder, but to the immortal woman’s surprise, Cinder presents the Lamp of Knowledge to her, and outright claims she was the one who stole it from Ironwood. Neo silently gives Cinder an angered glare, Tyrian then steps out from the shadows, insulting Cinder. Cinder retorts back saying both he and Watts were outsmarted by the very same general, and smugly tells Tyrian it is a shame Watts never made it back. Tyrian response to Cinder’s comment by telling her Watts was a necessary sacrifice. He looks to Neo and says he hopes she isn’t another. Neo becomes non-verbally enraged at the comment. Salem then asks who she is and Cinder answers for Neo. Stating she is a useful asset, hearing this causes Neo to get extremely frustrated that Cinder views her as a pawn. After a short reunion with Emerald and Mercury, along with Hazel. Cinder makes claims she will take the Winter Maiden powers for herself, but is shot down by Salem. Afterwards, Salem waves her hand, and her subordinates, and Neo leave.

In “Fault”, Neo alongside Cinder encounters Salem and the Hound. Cinder nervously asks what that Grimm is, and Salem cooly tells her an experiment. Neo watches as Cinder tries to get Salem’s approval for her to locate the Winter Maiden, but is immediately denied. Cinder tells her master she is doing nothing to help progress their victory in Atlas, but is soon shut down after the Hound roars at the Fall Maiden. After Salem leaves, Cinder defiantly goes behind Salem’s back, telling her associate that Salem does not know Ruby like she does, and decides to go find Penny. Emerald appears before Cinder and Neo, volunteering her services and promises not to tell anyone about Cinder’s mission. Emerald’s master angrily demands how much she overheard.

In "Amity", Neo arrives with Cinder and Emerald at Amity Colosseum. Where they being sabotaging Penny, Maria, and Pietro's plans. Cinder exclaims she hoped Ruby and the others would be there. She then boasts to Penny, telling her she is nothing but a tool to be used by them. Penny claims Cinder has no idea what she's talking about. Cinder summons a barrage of black glass swords and sends Penny flying into a wall. The two Maidens being their battle. Maria piloting a mech, shields Penny from the rest of the swords, but is rammed into by Neopolitan piloting an aircraft. Maria pins Neo to the Colosseum floor, but the mech's grip lets go when Neo puts the craft into reverse. Emerald uses her semblance on Maria and makes the aircraft invisible, allowing Neo to disable Maria's mech suit. Neo hops out of the pilot seat of the craft and forces open the cockpit to Maria's mech.

Maria impatiently demands what does Neo want, and the mute girl shapeshifts into Ruby. The young mute and the old woman being fighting. While Penny and Cinder continue to fight, Maria is proving herself more than a match for Neo, constantly dodging, and hopping around Neo's attack. When Penny and Cinder return back inside of Amity, Penny asks why does Cinder chose to serve Salem. To which the Fall Maiden proudly claims she doesn't serve anyone. Cinder tries taking the Maiden powers for herself but is slammed into a wall by Penny's ice swords. Cinder uses her powers to send Penny slamming back down to the ground. Maria loses her focus on Neo, giving the girl the upper hand. Drawing her sword from her umbrella, she slowly approaches Maria, humiliated by the fact an old woman bested her. However, as Neopolitan walks over to Maria, Penny uses her lasers to slam Neo into a wall, depleting her aura. Penny and Cinder have one last in Amity. Emerald uses her semblance on Penny to think she's fighting multiple Cinders, but Penny's uses thermal vision to detect Cinder's heat signature, and focuses her laser and knocks Cinder into a wall, depleting her aura, and knocking her unconscious.

Neo, Emerald, and an unconscious Cinder make their leave from Amity.

In "Midnight". After Cinder comes to, on the bridge of Monstra, Neo is present with all the other subordinates of Salem. Salem reveals to everyone Watts has been in contact with Tyrian, and tells everyone the Winter Maiden has been compromised. Neo and the rest watch Salem torture Cinder for disobeying her orders, but then stops. Saying she's been tearing Cinder down, when she should be building her up, Salem then gives Cinder the task of freeing Watts and finding the Winter Maiden. While Neo is kneeling, the Hound sniffs her, making the mute extremely uneasy. Oscar pleads for the rest of them to stop following Salem, telling them they're only bringing about the end of Remnant, but his plea falls on deaf ears, and is quickly silence by Hazel. Soon, after the Grimm geysers dismantle Atlas' shields, Monstra touches down onto the Atlas fields. Neo and the rest watch as Monstra vomits up a pool of Grimm.

In "Witch", After Oscar takes Hazel and Emerald to the room where the Lamp is kept safe, and reveals Jinn. Hazel and Emerald decide to defect from Salem's forces, however, the trio are unaware that Neo camouflaged herself to the look like the wall, and steals the Lamp.

In "Ultimatum", Neo is seen skipping merrily through the remains of Monstra, with the Relic of Knowledge in her possession. Later, as Ironwood gives his ultimatum to Penny and her friends, Neo texts Cinder blackmailing the Fall Maiden into giving her Ruby in exchange for the Lamp.

In "Risk", Neo reunites with Cinder and meets Watts on an abandoned street in Atlas.

In "Worthy", Watts tries to explain to Neo that revenge isn't what is important, only for him to be silenced by Cinder. Cinder tells Neo she should have upheld her side of the bargain and says she's sorry. After hearing Cinder promise to keep good on her word, Neo reluctantly gives back the Lamp to Cinder. The three make their way to the Atlesian Military complex, in where they massacre the unarmed faculty members. Neo and Cinder go to the Central Location to find Team RWBY, leaving Watts behind to hack into systems of Atlas. In Central Location, Cinder ambushes the heroes by causing an explosion on one of the platforms. As Cinder is proudly boasting to Team RWBY, Neo, disguised as a civilian, approaches Ruby from behind, and rushes in to kill the silver-eyed girl. However, as Neo slashes at Ruby, Yang intercepts Neo attack, but is knocked unconscious, and is sent plummeting into the void. After Blake tries saving Yang, however, is unsuccessful. As Blake attempts to save Yang, Neo and Ruby are seen fighting one another. Enraged at Neo, Blake uses her weapon's lasso to wrap around Neopolitan's arm, and slashes at her. Only for Neo to shatter into a million pieces. The enraged Blake sees Neo and Ruby fighting on the walkway platform.

In "The Final Word", Neo continues her fight against Ruby, gaining the upperhand. However, Weiss uses her glyphs to skate towards Neo and knocks her into a portal. Soon, Neo returns through another portal and strikes at Ruby, knocking her off the platform and onto a walkway one. Ruby tries grabbing Crescent Rose, but the scythe falls into the void. Later, Ruby defiantly tells Neo whatever she was after, she hoped it was worth it. Frustrated at Ruby, Neo deploys a blade from the tip of her umbrella, and attempts to stab Ruby. The silver-eyed girl falls and uses her semblance to fly over to the other side of the walkway, and pushes Neo off the platform. As Ruby goes in to grabbing the Staff, only Cinder to use a fire blast from behind Ruby, and causes her to fall off the platform and hang from Neo's feet. Neo reaches for Cinder's hand, but the Fall Maiden decides to take the Lamp for herself. Telling the mute girl she shouldn't have threatened her and tells Ruby she shouldn't have been born. Cinder uses the staff of creation to cause Neo and Ruby to fall from the platform. Neo plummets into the void below.

### Volume 9

As she fell into the void, Neo collided with Ruby Rose. Even though there was a good chance in her mind that they would both be dead soon anyway, Neo attacked Rose in a rage in the hopes that she would be the one to kill the Huntress with her own hands. As she grappled with Rose, Neo used her Semblance to transform into the people that Rose cared about the most—namely Oscar Pine, Yang Xiao Long, and Penny Polendina. Neo tried to choke Ruby to death from behind, but Rose was able to fling her away. Due to the freefall, Neo had no way of attacking Rose now that there was distance between them.

Having been separated from Rose, Neopolitan continued falling alone until she crashed like a meteor into an unknown desolate land. Neo was beside herself, turning into both Ruby Rose and Cinder Fall as her obsessive rage consumed her. She was soon interrupted by a strange, black humanoid creature unlike a Grimm that had arrived to investigate what had fallen from the sky. Neo turned to face the creature and used her Semblance to conjure several duplicates of herself at once for the first time. Pleasantly surprised at her Semblance's improvement, Neopolitan had her duplicates attack the creature.

## *RWBY Chibi*

*Main article: Neopolitan (RWBY Chibi)*
Neo also appears in the non-canon comedy spinoff series. Here, she appears as the loyal associate of Roman. However, she is cynical and communicates through signs, similarly to Wile E. Coyote.

## *RWBY: Amity Arena*

Neo appears as a unit in *RWBY: Amity Arena* called "Parasol Neo", being a lightweight melee fighter that, once defeated, reveals herself to be just an illusion and attacks for real with a full health bar. Additionally, she appears in the Team Attack "Partners in Crime", where she teams up with Roman, who pulls units into her to attack.

## *BlazeBlue: Cross Tag Battle*

Neo has been confirmed to be appearing as a DLC character in the crossover fighting video game *BlazeBlue: Cross Tag Battle*, making her the fifth *RWBY* character to be featured.

## Skills and Abilities

Neo's weapon of choice is an umbrella named Hush, containing a long, thin blade hidden within the length of the umbrella's tube, which can also project the blade from the top end of it, with the crook handle serving as the hilt. The canopy of her umbrella possesses high defensive properties, demonstrated by its ability to block an incoming blast from Yang Xiao Long's Ember Celica; also Cinder's fire blast. *Roman Holiday* revealed it was special order gift from Roman.

Neo is shown to be a highly skilled combatant, able to defeat Yang in a one-on-one fight, seemingly playing with her opponent as she was able to defeat her without taking anything more than a glancing hit. In close quarters combat, Neo utilizes her umbrella's open form in parrying Yang's attack which opened her up to counter blows. Neo also displays incredible reflexes and speed, dodging several of Yang's attacks with ease, even when holding her umbrella in one hand. This was further shown in "Heroes and Monsters" where she was easily able to keep up with and defeat Ruby almost singlehandedly.

Neo also showed herself to be very acrobatic and exceptionally skilled in hand-to-hand combat, relying on her agility to dodge and misdirect enemy movements and attacks, before retaliating with her own kick-based attacks, as her combat style is mostly relied on kicks, similar to that of Mercury's combat style. All of this was thanks to acrobatics, ballet and tightrope training she had in her school life as Trivia Vanille.

When it comes to hand-to-hand, Neo was shown to be evenly matched with Cinder Fall; with her umbrella to parry attacks.

#### Semblance

Neo's semblance, known as **Overactive Imagination**, allows her to create fake imagery out of a fragile pink energy generated by her aura. Neo uses it in quite versatile ways, ranging from misdirection, illusion and disguises. For example, Neo caused an illusion of herself and Roman to appear when Yang tried to attack them without the energy appearing; it shattered on impact. Cosmetic changes to her hair and eyes also do not cost her much aura, and thus no energy is seen.

After the Fall of Beacon, Neo trained her semblance to withstand blows that would shatter it, so she could hide how disheveled she's become since then. By this point, Neo's illusions are physically there, but can't take much hits.

Neo often disguises herself with Overactive Imagination for espionage tasks. Successfully breaking Roman out in Volume 3 and sneaking into the militaries of Minstrel and Atlas.

In the Ever After, Neo's rage made her semblance evolve to the point she could create clones of whoever she wished and speak through them if she ever heard their voices. Even buildings created by her semblance were no solid and sturdy.

## Trivia

* Her name and appearance reference Neapolitan ice cream, which is a combination of strawberry, chocolate, and vanilla flavors. These colors correspond to her color scheme.
	+ However, it is also speculated that she also alludes to Mary Poppins from the book of the same name, due to her umbrella and magic-like abilities as well as her semblance.
	+ From the 8th to the 11th of July 2014, Monty hinted at this long before the character's first appearance by tweeting pictures of Neapolitan ice creams.
* Neo alludes to Hecate, or Trivia, the goddess of a three-way crossroads.
	+ Her hair is composed of multiple colors, which could be a reference to popular depictions of Hecate where she has three faces.
	+ Her birth name was Trivia, which is the name of Hecate's Roman counterpart. Taking on her Neopolitan identity over her Trivia one can be reflective of how Hecate was reimagined into Trivia by the Romans.
	+ Neo's name calls to mind Neapolitan ice cream, which is a cross between three different flavors of ice cream, specifically chocolate, vanilla, and strawberry. This could reference the three-way crossroads that Hecate presides over.
	+ Her semblance is used to summon illusions, which may be a reference to Hecate being the patron goddess of witchcraft.
	+ Her partnership with Roman Torchwick may reference the fact that Trivia is a goddess of the Roman pantheon.
	+ Hecate is often depicted as carrying two torches, which fits with Neopolitan's partnership with Roman Torchwick.
* There has been some confusion regarding the spelling of Neo's name. Prior to 2019, it was spelled as one word, "Neopolitan", by the series' creator, the late Monty Oum, as well as on merchandise. In 2019, Rooster Teeth claimed that her name was spelled "Neo Politan" (her presumed first and last name), due to Neo's character files in the game *RWBY: Amity Arena* being named "Neo\_Politan", a fact allegedly confirmed by the *RWBY* crew (affectionately nicknamed "CRWBY"). However, with the release of *The World of RWBY: The Official Companion* book, the confusion was settled when her name was confirmed to be spelled "Neopolitan". Despite this, the crossover fighting video game *BlazeBlue: Cross Tag Battle* retained the two-word spelling.
* *Neo-* (νεο-) is also a Greek prefix, meaning "new". In English, "neo-" is also used as a prefix to denote something that is contemporary, recent, modern, or new. The word neapolitan itself derives from the Greek *Neápolis* (Νεάπολις), meaning "new city". Neo also means "young" and "immature" in Greek, usually in medical terms.
* Monty stated during the August 21st Rooster Teeth livestream that Neo's design is partially based on a presentation-play cosplay of Torchwick made by one of his friends.
* Neo, according to a photo Monty posted on his Facebook, is the shortest person of all characters in *RWBY*.
* Neo can change the color of her eyes at will, usually alternating between pink and brown. They can also turn white (completing the ice cream theme) although rarely; one turns white as she removes the sword from her umbrella, and both turn white when Raven appears. Later, she also changes her eyes to green as part of her tournament disguise and magenta as part of her paramedic disguise.
* Neo adopted her current name and entered a life of crime with Roman at 18; being roughly 23 at the time of Volume 7.
* Cinder says Roman was Neo's boss, but *RWBY Roman Holiday* reveals that they were equal partners in crime.
* When possessed by the Curious Cat, Neo is revealed to indeed posses a faint voice; as it echoes when the cat speaks.