Varian grit his teeth, resisting the urge to scream in frustration as another one of his compounds failed to do anything against the amber. He settled instead for chucking the remainder of the flask against the wall, watching it shatter in satisfaction before turning back to his work table.

“This time. This time- one of these has to work.”

He didn’t see you as you stepped slowly into his lab, either that, or he simply didn’t care. You swallowed. Food and money had been tight since Old Corona evacuated because of the rocks. Since you stayed behind to take care of Varian. But you had finally managed to barter through enough ingredients from a neighboring town to put together a meal.

The hard part was getting Varian to listen.