Separate of Arc's obsession over adulthood, Merri was struggling to answer a few questions internally.
The biggest of which was why this child was the way he was. Merri most certainly did NOT have experience with children (though she would very much like to) so she could never be certain about matters involving them, but even she recognized there was just something off about Arc. This wasn't something like "He is just a quiet baby" but more along the lines of "He doesn't act like a Baby should act at all".
He didn't cry, even when he experienced things that would be painful even for adults. That could feasibly be explained away as some side effect of his birth, but compounded with other happenings it just doesn't seem to make sense.
He doesn't soil his diaper dearly as often as she thinks a baby should. He rarely babbles, every single time he speaks it seems to be an attempt at either copying someone else or legitimate communication. She has never seen him play of his own volition, only when egged on by one of the adults or Ering. For that matter, he always seems to either be asleep or mobile.
And it isn't that playful mobile either.
If she didn't know any better she would claim that he was almost ... practicing.
In fact that was what she felt he was always doing, practicing.
It was like he was a man trapped in a baby's body. A disciplined man at that.
His glare was by far the worst though. Whenever she had a conversation in front of him or addressed him directly he would always have this stare that just didn't fit on her image of a baby's face. It was far to serious and intent.
After thinking about it for a while, she finally pinned down just what about Arc it was that made her uneasy.
It was his maturity.
Babies are, essentially by definition, immature beings. They stumble and sleep around all day, dirtying their undergarments and spilling their food and drink all over the place. They care little for social convention and frequently perform possibly the most immature act of all, mimicry. No one blames them for that, that is how they learn after all.
Arc doesn't have that level of immaturity. In fact, she was sure she had met people in the past that she would consider less mature than Arc. Arc seemed mature enough to actually plan things through.
Despite being spot-on, she momentarily pushed all of these thoughts aside, instead opting to do something she might otherwise never have done.
Finished with applying the gel to Arc's ears, she began to slather the now lukewarm semi-fluid over his sternum. It wasn't to concentrated or thick, it does have to touch the skin to have an effect, but this was on the level of an overdose for someone of Arc's size and age.
Yet there was no effect.
No coughing, moaning, fever, vomit, chills, or seizure. Nor were there any of the other minor indicators of a Xan overdose to the Nexus.
As far as Merri knew, there were only two reasons that a person who had just received an otherwise lethal dose of Xan would show no side-effects. These situations were that the either the Xan was being directed away through the target's own conscious efforts, or the Xan was being absorbed by some other means.
Seeing as Arc had never learned a technique to redirect Xan, the only conclusion she could come to was that something, or someone, was absorbing it in his stead. She could easily rule out someone else absorbing the Xan, she was confident that no one could stay this close for so long without Kelvin being aware.
That only left the possibility for something to be absorbing this Xan. To Merri, this was a staunch indicator that her charge had something seriously wrong with him.
It was both a blessing and a curse then that Arc's ability to drain Xan from his surroundings vastly exceeded that of his contemporaries. A curse in that he would remain treated as naught but a baby, but a blessing in the fact that he was about to receive a major unforeseen boost to the amount of Xan he has access to.