A World of Grime

Before the collapse

Cooking had never felt more isolating, Manuel thought, tossing a few cut pieces of chicken into the potato along with any remaining egg from before, watching the skin crisp up in the fatty butter-like substitute. When he'd finished, he plated it up, handing one to Oscar, who was still staring up, ignoring him. Manuel just shrugged, and bit into his potato, immediately burning his tongue, his mouth, and practically his entire face. "Ah Jesus!!" he flapped at his tongue, looking around in a frenzy, standing and grabbing himself a handful of water, scooping it directly into his mouth. Finally, he heard something from Oscar, a small chuckle at Manuel's expense. "Really?" Oscar stifled his laugh under a cough, and stopped for a brief second, before his face practically exploded again, this time in a fit of giggles, of which was so contagious, Manuel couldn't help but join in. When they had finally calmed down, Oscar smirked.
"Yo." Manuel looked up, "This's pretty good." Manuel smirked back, before continuing eating. "How'd you get so good at cooking?" Manuel choked on his food slightly, then put down his fork.
"Well, uh, you won't believe this, but I wanted to be a chef before all this happened."
"No way, seriously?!" Oscar continued eating, but Manuel had put it down to talk.
"Yeah, on my way towards a degree in culinary arts as well." he ate a small piece of chicken smothered in potato and egg yolk, with a tiny piece of skin on top.
"What happened?" Manuel just stared at him.
"This did." he waved his hands to the surrounding area.
"Oh, right." He was quiet for a little bit, before questioning, "Did you get the degree?"
"Meh, they don't matter now." there was a long pause. "But yeah, I did, it's in a drawer in my house." he laughed a little, before sighing into his food.
"How does a chef get into medicine?" Manuel pulled up his hands onto the bedside.
"Well, I had to do a lot of cutting in culinary, obviously, and as such, I had some pretty steady and nimble fingers. Quick too. Also, when you do anything involving multiple different kinds of large, small, razor sharp, or just odd knives, you're bound to get or at least see a few stab wounds or cut fingers." even thinking about it, he had to put his food on the side, losing his appetite. "So, when our world practically turned to dust, and a lot of the people around me were in need of medical help, not a person that can cook a mean salmon, I just had to learn, I wanted to help. So, I spent 6 years with a doctor learning everything I could, veins, arteries, the organs, how to stitch up skin and muscle, tendons, you name it, in those years, he taught me all I know now." Oscar had lost his appetite too, doing the same as Manuel, to which he grabbed both plates, emptying them into a small box for future consumption.
"So then what?"
"Well, I didn't know what to do! I went town to town searching for something to do, a way to earn or at least gain something from my life's work. I cooked and healed, until I heard of this place, 'The capital'" He used large air quotes, "I knew if I wanted to be something, I had to come here. And you know how well that went." Oscar nodded. "What about you? What did you do before this all happened?" Oscar looked down, turning a shade of red. "Oh, the memory loss, sorry-"
"Well, I, uh, I didn't do very much..." Manuel smirked, tilting his head.
"C'mon, there's gotta be something you remember about before all this, right? Even something basic like your job, or where you went to school?" Oscar put his fingers on his temples and closed his eyes.