#(( i wanted to make a post though bc it's important to wesley's cfp lore!!! & bc im making a masterpost so lol this Has to be on it ))

[luminarot]

the park takes who it takes - but what happens to those left behind?

wesley never wanted to be the sacrificial lamb. he wanted to convince his mom to leave, but when she wouldn't, he resigned himself to protecting his family any way that he could - and at any cost. whenever henry crane started getting violent, wesley would try to draw attention away from his mom and brother; stepping directly in the line of fire, speaking up when he should've been silent, taking beatings for them so that they had a chance to hide away. this made henry hate him even more, seeing wesley as defiant and ungrateful. then again, it never took very much to make him mad.

in wesley's canon verse, the violence eventually leads to him being murdered by his father at twenty-one; in this verse, however, wesley doesn't make it that far. instead, nineteen year old wesley takes a trip to the amusement park with his brother, and he never comes home.

his death was, of course, just one of many tragic accidents caused by park negligence and poor safety procedures. henry, however, very much believed that wesley deserved it, and he wasn't shy about saying it to the media. he also lashed out at jacob ( and wesley, though he wasn't there to hear it anymore ) for wasting "his" money and slacking off when they could've been working - nevermind the fact that it was money wesley had saved up, or that he'd made sure to do all the chores before they left that morning.

jacob is devastated by the whole thing, drowning in his grief and blaming himself for the way wesley died. he doesn't know for sure that the seatbelt would've held if they were both strapped in like they were supposed to be, but he still feels like he delivered his brother to his death by leaving so abruptly, leaving space for wesley to fall through. the whole thing is such a shock that he hardly knows how to cope with it. and the more he struggles, the angrier his dad gets, because henry always hated any sign of weakness. as far as the patriarch of the family is concerned, everyone is better off without wesley; jacob should just get over it.

meanwhile, wesley's mother has shut down completely, burying the last fleeting glimpses of a person alongside her oldest son. This, too, angers her husband, who sees her disassociation and silence as a burden; it's an embarrassment, and an overreaction, another case of dramatics when there's no one around to watch the scene.

two years pass this way - and then one night, all that rage finally reaches a breaking point. it was always going to, but this time, wesley isn't there to take the blows; this time, henry beats his wife until she stops breathing. jacob runs off in the chaos to get help, but by the time paramedics arrive on scene, elizabeth crane is long gone. she's buried in a small plot next to her son in the back of the cemetery, far away from the more lavish headstones and mausoleums that would later make a venue for halloween parties.

henry crane is sentenced to life in prison, where he rots without remorse for his actions. jacob bounces around in the foster care system until he gets a scholarship and uses it as an opportunity to get the hell out of asphodel heights - and, eventually, to make a better life for himself far away from all that pain.

but of course, wesley doesn't know about any of this for a long time. although he often worries about his mom and brother, he doesn't have a way of knowing what's going on outside the park until chester and violetta start visiting - but even then, he won't ask them any favors. if the news ever reaches him, it's either due to the living's insistence ( insisting on wanting to help him ) , or someone who knows casually lets it slip into conversation. either way, he'll be devastated.