#like a reason the g/oolings break up so harshly

[erigold13261]

Wait… if Neon J keeps his head… is he still married to Martha? (Failed Revolution AU ask)

No, unfortunately he is not. Even OG Neon still had his head when he got divorced by Martha. In both versions of their relationship Martha cheats on Neon and have a kid out of the affair. The difference is how they deal with the aftermath. [Trigger warning for child death, implied child abuse, and talks of alcohol abuse]

The OG versions of them have Neon spending more time with the navy and inadvertently neglecting Martha, Aria (their daughter), and the 1010 dolls. This is just a trauma response to bad things happening where he tries to work a lot and keep his mind away from the bad things. Trying to push bad thoughts away and pretending to be happy.

This just causes Martha to keep seeking out other men for comfort and love, and taking her anger and frustration out on the 1010 dolls whenever Neon is not home. Eventually leading her to divorce him, taking full custody of Aria, and asking for a pretty high child support price from him.

It is this fact that Neon is giving child support that causes him to get the radar head. It helped him get his life together enough to make more money and keep paying child support, and even other things Martha requests (they are still in contact but not face to face, and Neon has barely ever seen Aria other than the occasional picture Martha will send in a letter or something).

With the Failed Revolution, Neon reacts differently to the affair. He still stays with Martha, but realizes that he needs to be there for her more (this is because he has a different relationship with his parents). He takes more time off from the Navy whenever he can to spend time with his family. Martha does not continue to cheat, she is actually quite loyal now to Neon, and does not hurt or abuse the 1010 dolls. She doesn't fully love them as she still sees them as machines, but she is not bad to them.

The difference here is, BECAUSE their relationship is good, instead of sleeping on the couch like the OG Neon was, Failed Revolution Neon was asleep in his bed with Martha. So when a fire started because Martha left the stove on, Failed Revolution Neon was not close enough to stop it before it got out of hand.

Martha and Neon were able to get out fine enough, but Aria breathed in a lot of smoke, while the dolls were trapped in the basement. The dolls were fully destroyed and Aria ended up dying later on from smoke inhalation. This is what lead to Neon and Martha's divorce, why Neon is trying his best to not get attached to 1010, and why 1010 do not have any memories of Martha or a childhood.

Understandably, this Neon is not as happy as OG Neon, and without the pressure of supporting a daughter and ex-wife, Failed Revolution Neon had no pressure to get the full cyborgification surgery. He did get upgraded limbs and internal organs, but was adamant about keeping his head.

And unlike OG Neon, who used to drink a lot as a teen and in the navy then later become a full addict after the divorce but forced to go sober because of his cybernetics, Failed Revolution Neon was the type to never drink, only started drinking after the death of his kids and the divorce, and he still drinks up to the present day with no real sign of slowing down (at least not while working with NSR).

This is actually why he and Mama don't get along. Mama just sees him as a bad influence, and later on doesn't trust him because of the cybernetics/1010. And Neon can't form a real bond with Yinu like OG Neon can because whenever he sees bits of Aria in Yinu, he is hit by a wave of grief, regret, and sadness, causing him to try and keep his distance from Yinu and Mama (and later on that day probably drink more than he can handle, causing 1010 to deal with the burden of caring for their shitfaced captain).

I will say this, I don't think there is a single AU I have that has Neon and Martha work out. Depending on the AU, whether it be Martha as the biological mother of that AUs version of 1010 or Neon as the creator of 1010, they almost all have Martha as a bad mother (either from abuse, neglect, or straight up abandonment). Martha is just not the type of person who should be having kids. She is decent to Aria, but not as good of a mother as she should have been (and the men she does date after Neon are not very good, again, this applies to almost all AUs of Martha).