Donut Family
AU
[Rebecca Sugar, Ian Jones-Quartey, herself, Paul Villeco. Or Together Breakfast!©]
This episode was an...interesting way to show off the temple, but we never really had much relevance to it yet, so I'm basically ignoring that part of exposition. Steven can be awed later. Or maybe even has been awed. Who knows. Instead I'll be giving you guys an inside look of the Old Wash! Links for (crappy)visuals will eventually be in my profile!
-Steven has random 'm's and 'a's in his texts because he utilises the feature to hold down the button for punctuation, and doesn't have patience half of the time. Greg uses no spell check or punctuation, but spells out most things, Lars is 'txtn lngo 2 max', and Sadie had auto-first letter caps and spell-check but doesn't punctuate bottom marks-periods & commas-while spell-check usually does top-apostrophes-for you.-
Tid-Bit Notes: Hooray for decent humans and their easy going natures. -artisticRadifyer
Ch. 4 Together Breakfast
Steven woke up to a note on the kitchen's microwave that he was on his 'own' for at least the some of the morning. "Everyone's out? Guess I'm makin' us all breakfast."
He got out heat-up waffles, popcorn, whip cream, a tub with only a few strawberries left, syrup, and, just for Lars, one of those mint, leaf things people put on dishes to make them fancy. As he checked everything over, he found there wasn't nearly enough food for everyone. He shot a text into the group chat his Dad, Lars, and Sadie decided to name SDSL, to gain info on their whereabouts.
[Lars and I are at the store]
[str]
[What I said]
[wat she said]
[Good!a! You can get food!]
[im out by the temple actuly]
[y]
[Why]
[WHHatm?]
[Why?]
[i took a picture of something and garnet says she has to burn my phone now]
[But you havve the best picturse?m!]
[n a lot of wrk stuff 2]
[It'd suck to lose those planograms]
[how r u txtn? if shes tryna burn ur fon]
[im trying to upload everything to yall for work]
[The PIICTURES?!a]
[i dont think i have that much time steven]
[she warned me not to look at what i took a pic of anyway]
[says it has one of those spells on it]
[The ones that compel you to touch them help them possess you right]
[Gollum's ring spell]
[pls dont kill us w/ ur fon]
[yeah]
[planogrm003292-png]
[planogrm003293-png]
[planogrm003294-png]
[planogrm003295-png]
[done]
[say bye to my phone]
[WAIIITIT!]
{*Audio Daddio* has left the conversation}
[NOOoooo!a!aa!]
[?]
[What Steven]
[He needs to knoww where to go for breeakfastt!m]
[He'll probably just go home thought]
[Though*]
[tho*]
[But?m?]
[Well be there too Steven it's not like we can stay here people gotta eat]
[We will*]
[I'll start somea!a!]
[sys]
[Ditto stewing]
[Steven*]
Steven had done this in the past. He'd pull together at least all three of his caretakers for breakfast and no matter how many random things were thrown into a stack of waffles or pancakes, they'd end up cleaning the plates-whether is was by washing them or eating them, together.
He heard someone knock on the kitchen door a bit later, and let Sadie followed by Lars walk in laden with groceries. The two placed them on the window counter and began loading up the pantry, fridge, and freezer that sat next to each other on the opposite side of the kitchen. Steven checked outside to spot his dad in the distance on the path for the Wash.
"We've got more food!" Sadie called to Greg.
"I'VE GOT THE BREAKFAST PLAN!"
"We're not that far away, Steven."
"But Dad is!" Steven pointed, "And you just took his line?"
"...Do you yell just to hear him say that every now-and-then?" Lars asked.
"Uh, that's part of the reason? He doesn't yell at me like I've seen other people do at their kids—"
"Hypocrites," Lars mutters.
"You're one to talk, Lars."
"—and I try to see if it will ever change!"
"He should get a Dad of the Year award for handling kids the way he does." Sadie said.
"He...does handle the Wash nicely." Lars admitted.
"Is anyone coming over soon?"
Steven pointed at the calendar on the fridge, "PeeDee!"
"Oh, so now I've magically got two rapscallions tomorrow?" Lars said, "Perfect."
"He's not a bad kid." Sadie defended.
"He's trying to be an adult too quickly."
Steven put in his opinion, "Adults are cool!"
"Whoa, Stew-Ball!" Greg ruffled Steven's hair, "There's no rush. You'll get there eventually, but do NOT rush it."
"What," Lars snarked at him, "You wanna be a kid again?"
"Not necessarily. I wouldn't have you three to keep me company, and I was always in place. I didn't get to 'be a kid' until I was Lars' age, travelling and singing and basically being a toddler with not much supervision."
"Really."
"That's how Mr. Universe, the rock-star, was born!"
"...Why aren't you a rockstar anymore?" Steven asked.
"Because—"
Jenny appeared in the curtained doorway to the rest of the wash, "Morning, Mr. Universe, Sadie, Lars, Steven. Does one of you know when breakfast starts?"
"We just came in with groceries," Sadie answered, "so it'll prolly be about an hour."
"Oh! I've gotta show you the plan, Jenny!"
"I'm gonna go..." the girl yawned and turned to leave, "—get ready for the day, Steven... I'll see it when it's all ready."
"Ohkay..."
"Well, I'm gonna go call the phone company while I wait." Greg went out to his van.
Lars questioned the morning, "...Why did Greg start these things?"
"Because Steven can work a microwave and has imagination?" Sadie handed the taller companion a box, "Lars, here."
"How do you get extra stuff when I'm not looking?!"
"Also, they are usually pretty good." Sadie continued her explanation.
"Fine, don't answer me."
"I can do more than only use the microwave!" Steven retorted.
"Not unless we're helping, remember? Last time you tried to do it by yourself, the entire kitchen was a mess and—"
"The outcome of that was good, though!" Sadie tries to imitate Greg, "'It's just more fun if the mess is made by more people; then no one can really complain during clean-up because they had a hand in it,' Greg Universe, Holder of the Dad of the Year Award."
Steven was hopeful though, "When I'm good enough can I try to surprise you guys?"
"Lars could be the one to help you surprise us." Sadie suggested.
"Uh...sure. Whatever."
"Kool! Ohkay, so, look at the plan!"
"That doesn't look too bad. Sweet and salty— Why do you keep putting these on here, Steven."
"They make food in movies fancy!"
"I told you—"
"They still do it though!"
"Ugh..."
"Then what do I do instead?! Next time!"
"A Garnish is like, like, the strawberries are already one. It's not a type of food, like the leaf. It's a small compliment to the rest of the dish; you wouldn't leave cherries off of a sunday right?"
"Who would do that?!"
"I don't like cherries..."
"You would draw them if you were told to draw a banana-split-sundae! Right, Sadie?!"
"Yes! Calm dow—"
Greg cut in as he entered the kitchen again, "Stew-Ball, standing in your chair will only get your pants dirty when you sit again."
"Sorry."
"What are you guys getting Steven worked up over?" the father asked as he put the notes from the phone company on the fridge.
"Garnish can be cherries! And strawber—"
Lars overran Steven, "They can even be that little umbrella you put in lemonade, croutons on a salad, there's a lot of different stuff."
"An accessory to food?" Greg clarified.
"Yeah."
"Hm. Sprinkles on donuts?"
"Sure."
"Creamer in coffee."
Lars was getting annoyed, "We're getting into debatable territory."
"Ohkay, ohkay. Lets start Steven's—"
"Together BREAKFAST!"
"We're right in front of ya, Buddie."
"I know! That's what's so awesome I have to yell it!"
Sadie giggled at Steven's reference, "Pffhaha!"
"Wait, I'm gonna go wash my hands!"
"Why don't you do it in here?" Greg asked.
"I'm NOT using dish soap!" Steven left the kitchen and went left in the hallway outside it. He rounded the immediate corner and passed by a multitude of different colored curtains which helped differentiate each room. Coming to the last one of white cotton, he popped the curtain twice while asking loudly if anyone was in there. No reply came forth so he flipped the curtain to beeline to the sink. The only bathroom to the Old Wash was a three-fourths one shared by a minimum of four people at a time; but this morning there was seven.
Someone popped the curtain, "Clear?"
"I'll be out in a sec, Sour Cream!"
"Mmk."
Steven finished and exited to see the white-haired teen leaning against the wall next to the kitchen window that used to be a viewport for washing cars. It extended down almost the entire wall before the hall turned to the right. That turn is where the doorway to the kitchen lay, and passed it are a few more rooms assigned to the permanent residents. Steven's curtains were a bright pink at the end of the hall, as he requested during the remodeling.
Next was a wider room that used to be Greg's for a small time before he opted to stay in the van; declaring it unfamiliar enough he couldn't sleep. Through much deliberation, Lars and Sadie settled on a split of the room: all of Lars' things were placed higher on shelves, and Sadie's things lower in dressers. A curtain hung in the middle for privacy, and most of the time it stayed shut.
Laundry was not enough to fill a whole room for a compact 'community' home, so the next is a jack-of-all-trades. It does have the original purpose for washing and drying clothes, but it also has a desk—a file drawer keeps anyone who uses it regularly, separate—for a study area, a shelf the router for the wifi sits on, and even a storage cabinet of blankets, bean-bags, towels, pillows, two blow-up mattress, and five tents.
The guest rooms can either be three or two, depending if they want the separating curtain in the middle of the bigger one as Lars and Sadie do. The bigger of the 'two' rooms had a bunk-bed-couch; and the bottom couch would have a pull-out-bed as the top was a simple bed. The other had only a pull-out-bed couch. There was a mirrored, low-and-wide, blank dresser in the bigger, and a tall, skinny, blank dresser in the smaller. The bigger which could split had the addition of a hammock which could be hung diagonally across its empty side of the room.
All beds for every room were aligned or flushed to the wall, any other furniture could be situated on the curtain walls as long as the curtain could be freely moved. The curtains themselves held to the ceiling by T tracks rather than rods. Though, because of this method, doors could literally be almost any side of the room and everyone seemed to silently decide by example to only use one or two ways to enter a room; normally a corner.
Steven, not knowing why his mind decided to contemplate the layout of his home, re-entered the kitchen to begin helping make breakfast. By the time it was done, the other residents which stayed in the Wash the night before had trickled in the kitchen to help make and then eat breakfast.
"Hey, Buck, Sour Cream, Jenny! Tell me this: What in this Together Breakfast was a garnish?" Steven quizzed.
"Uh..."
Bonus:
"Greg."
[texting noises]
"Greg."
[texting noises]
"Greg."
[texting noises]
"Greg, if-"
"Aaaaand, DONE! Everything is on the cloud and I sent the others hard copies of the important stuff, so don't worry about it Garnet."
"I wasn't going to."