Laplace's Angel (Hurt People? Hurt people!)

Run Your Diagnostic Tests it's Positive

     Wesley and Dr. Gordon had finally fallen into something resembling a routine. Wesley was actually getting pretty good at locating people who needed to be tested, and Dr. Gordon would ferry those files to John and the rest of the people who lived in the warehouse, Dr. Gordon would be on call as a Jigsaw surgeon, and the two of them would monitor tests.

     Wesley had snuck out at one point and gotten Dr. Gordon a mug from a shop downtown that did custom designs. It read ‘World’s Okayest Doctor’, and Lawrence pretended to roll his eyes, but he totally used it every day.

     Wesley was in the middle of a file on some guy named Eric Matthews when a box was dropped on the table in front of them.

     “Is that what I think it is?” Wesley asked, staring at the box.

     “I looked ridiculous buying this, just so you know,” Lawrence replied, gesturing at the lego set.

     “Dude,” Wesley said. “This is the best thing I have ever seen,”

     “Yes- well,” Lawrence said. He was avoiding eye contact, “You mentioned enjoying the movie.”

     “We’re so constructing this shit after you get back, it’s gonna be awesome,” Wesley said while picking up the box and looking at the scene the set was for.

     “Are you sure, there’s a lot of surgery involved in this coming trap, it could take a while,” Dr. Gordon said.

     “I’m sure, we’re gonna do bonding and shit,” Wesley nodded. Lawrence snorted.

     “I’ll leave you to it, then,” He said, stretching a hand out and ruffling Wesley’s hair. Wesley ducked with a squawk and batted the hand away.

     “Doc, I don’t care how many Lego sets you buy me I’ll still bite you if you fuck up my hair I’m too lazy to brush it again.”

     “Just have that file done by tonight so I can take it to John tomorrow,” Lawrence replied.

     “Aye aye, bossman,” Wesley said, saluting and putting the lego set in their lap. The game revolving around Matthews had the potential to be a long one if he didn’t fuck it up, and if the others were up for the challenge. From what Wesley had heard about John Jigsaw’s other employees, things were good, but it wasn’t always smooth sailing. There had been some near misses, even before the doctor had joined the ranks, but apparently, they had a cop who’d flipped and saw the value of Jigsaw’s work. Detective Mark Hoffman was in charge of keeping the cops out of their shit.  Doctor Gordon had a grudge against Hoffman, for whatever reason. Said he was too into the whole ‘violence and punishment’ part of the job. Seemed above Wesley’s paygrade.

     Did Wesley get paid- Did Doctor Gordon get paid? If not, they should really unionize. What the fuck, John.

     Fuck, right. Eric Mattews. Narrowing down people for his test, pathing out possible future tests.

     Usually, John worked out the finer details of the tests. The why behind each one. Mr. Jigsaw was ridiculously good at planning out every possible outcome, so he usually made the contingency plans of the subject passed, failed, was rescued, relapsed, or was a possible candidate for recruiting. But his health was going, and it was falling onto his apprentices to begin planning things. He’d still look over things, give criticisms, comments, whatever. He spent most of his time at the warehouse with Amanda and Hoffman and Veronica teaching them the ins and outs of engineering shit.

     Wesley much preferred stalking people to building dubiously escapable death machines. Veronica, a younger apprentice apparently around Wesley’s age had been excelling in the design department and had been really kicking things up a notch in the traps. Wesley had nearly vomited again watching the footage of a trap where a man had to pull out his teeth or die via an electric shock. Something about the shock device hit a little too close to home.

     But even Lawrence got a little green in the face when traps involved cutting off a limb, so Wesley figured it was fine.

     Either way, Wesley was now planning out a web of possible tests and victims. They wanted to use one of John’s old housing developments for this one, lots of room for lots of tests for lots of people. The people Eric framed were a given, but Daniel Mattews was a key piece of the Eric Matthews puzzle, so he’d need to be a victim, or at least look like one. He wouldn’t be safe in a house full of people pissed off at his dad and looking for someone to blame though, so they’d need people inside. Mark was their cop ad was off the table, Wesley wasn’t gonna fucking do it, they weren’t letting Lawrence go in either, so that left Veronica or Amanda. Maybe both.

     The actual traps seemed like a them problem, Wesley was just here for the outline and players. Daniel needed to get out of the house safe, and preferably close to where John would be. Safe. There was an opportunity for a joke here. John had a thing for doors that lock on a timer, so he could totally make a door that unlocked on a timer.

     Oh, Wesley was a fucking genius.

     Wesley spent the remainder of the night webbing out the traps should Eric fail, and should Daniel survive. It was stupidly arduous- fucking arduous, Wesley was spending too much time with the doctor- but they got it done, slapping a sticky note on the manilla envelope telling Doctor Gordon that the file was ready to be handed off to John. Wesley was tired out of their mind, but the grind never sleeps. The grind, however, does rest its eyes for a moment after writing the word ‘escapes’ as ‘escacacape’ three times.

     Wesley woke to an old jacket that wasn’t theirs around their shoulders, and a note in place of the file telling them how terrible sleeping on a desk was for their posture. Bold words for a guy who had them plunge their grody hand into their side to look for a foreign object he’d placed in them. 

     The doc was out for the day, it seemed. That just meant Wesley had time to scoot all of his furniture an inch to the left. They should also probably do their job, but that sounded like pussy shit. Furniture time