Thomas and Aris's internal nerd club within the Gladers is so important to me, not even joking.
Look, they're dumbasses. No denying it. But they aren't stupid. Thomas and Aris are two of the minds behind the Maze. You think that's some noob shit? Nah, fam. I mean, LOOK at this thing.
Don't forget, that's only one of its forms. The damn thing moves. Daily. Three solid years, none of the Gladers solved this bitch. Obviously Teresa and Rachel did their parts, it was a team effort, but still, that is a huge project with a fuckton of moving parts, both literally and figuratively, and they cannot be idiots and create something like that. These guys are nerd4nerd all the way.
Considering how many moving parts are in the Trials, it's a fair bet that they're all scientific jacks-of-all-trades. Maybe they have a little more expertise in one field or another, but all four of them probably have a working knowledge of several different fields all at once. Engineering, biology, virology, chemistry, you name it, they know something about something.
I've had a convo or two with @fluffypotatey about the Swipe and the potential side effects, how it might colour outside the lines of what memories it's supposed to erase, but no matter what, you're not getting rid of intelligence like that. Maybe they need a little cajoling to knock 'em loose, but those smarts are still in there. At the start of TDC, Janson mentions they lost the Right Arm's stolen Berg because someone had removed its tracking system. Who do you think did that? Who would be that familiar with WCKD tech to do it without breaking anything else important?
These nerds would come up with some convoluted code and leave a bunch of false trails for WCKD to find, and they're like, "aha, a clue!" and think it's going to be some piece of the Right Arm's plan, but turns out it's just these two clowns fucking with them, and it's all stuff like, "Thomas ♡ Newt" and "Teresa sux" and "AD Janson is 57 rats in a turtleneck" and "Ava Paige can kiss a Crank" and "Come back with a warrant".
Thomas finds a string of hexadecimal code on a piece of paper hidden in one of his boots, and it's a note from Aris that just says "Hi, Thomas!"
Aris spends three hours searching the entire camp, including inside vehicles, clothes, and supplies, for a cipher that says "Hey, buddy!"
Who is doing it like them?
