While Breda went on her chaotic escapade, Merri was tending to Arc. She could not claim to be a doctor, but her knowledge of the human body was an order of magnitude above the rest of the common folk, particularly when it came to its relation to Xan.
After washing off Arc's head, taking particular care to clean the ear canals, Merri laid him belly down on his bed over a piece of cloth. Arc offered little in the way of resistance, which both made Merri's job easier and worried her to a certain degree.
In truth, there was little to nothing for her to be worried about in this regard. Arc was fairly aware of what Merri was doing for him and was cooperating to the best of his abilities, but the level of his cognitive abilities was still largely unknown to the world.
Once again he cursed Kelvin, had he not shouted and instead simply drawn attention to Arc's ability to walk unsupported things would have no doubt gone completely differently. Now, he was stuck being manhandled by the adults again.
Still fuming, Arc was oblivious to the swab that Merri had coated in the gel and was bringing towards his ears. He was only alerted to its presence once it entered his ear. With this, Arc discovered a 'new' feeling. What cold feels like.
More accurately would be what something close to freezing feels like. And it was in his ear.
It would appear that Merri had forgotten that the gel was recently removed from cold storage and had not had enough time to heat up. Normally this would not be an issue, rarely was it ever used immediately after completion. The gel being too cold was not something Merri had ever considered.
Arc's ear was not quite as ignorant to this matter, and moments later Arc found himself screaming from the biting cold. If it weren't for his pain tolerance, he might have outright fainted.
The tired Merri took little time to remedy this situation, speaking in a calm voice in order to try and calm Arc down as well. Her level headedness was truly something to be admired in this scenario, quickly ascertaining the problem and then devising a solution. She took some of the lukewarm water from the scrubbing she had just given him and dripped it into his ear. The freeze went away, but the shock of suddenly being exposed would not leave for some time.
It was fortunate, then, that Merri made sure the gel would be cool at its coldest.
It still did little to help his aversion to it though. Arc was finding it harder and harder to trust those around him, from the start he was fed the gourmet equivalent of shit and things had barely gotten any better from there.
'Why must I be cursed to suffer so?'
He could not help this question from forming in his head. After all, in his eyes he was essentially grown up.