The Devil's Punchbowl Pub

Elise Peeters loved her pub. It was her pride and joy, and she did her best to keep the place spotless, make sure the beer was the best in town, and always had something baking for her regulars. Even now, the smell of Tarte au Maton filled the back room (because the front always smelled of smoke and ale).

Now, Elise herself knew she needed to look presentable every time someone entered her establishment. Looking like a nasty old witch would not get her anywhere in this business. No, she always made sure her hair was done up in a pretty little ribbon, golden curls brushed to perfection, and her dress accented her just right. A kind, bubbly smile was a must, even when trying to get a drunken patron to stop standing on one of her tables.

Her patrons...If there was anything she loved more than her pub, it was the ragged bunch that frequented her little place. They were all just so funny! She could people watch them all day, though it never happened much. Most of them were friendly with her, so they usually let her listen in on their conversations or urged her to join in their games. She usually refused the latter, only playing along when business was slow, though that wasn't often. The Devil's Punchbowl was a pretty happening place, something she took pride in.

Elise wiped down the bar once more before the usual rush began.

The sun was setting. Another hard day over. Time to hit the pub, boys!

Now that he was out of the school, Matthew realized that he had no idea where anything was. To not seem awkward, instead of turning back, he kept walking. Matthew walked casually for several moments before entering one of the first buildings he came across.

It took him a moment to realize it was a pub.

He was now left with the difficult decision of whether to turn around and leave or to see if there was anything non-alcoholic. Both would be embarrassing, but it was better than standing in the middle of the place, confused.

(Sorry this took so long D:)

The older teen with white hair entered the establishment. He wore a black button-down shirt with boot-cut jeans. He looked a bit tired as if he might have had a long day, but it seemed as though he'd made the effort to at least put on a fresh shirt and make himself presentable. Though he was alone, the boy looked as if he were looking for someone.

He looked around the pub for a moment before walking past a confused looking blond boy and taking a seat at a small table in the back. He cracked his knuckles as he sat, then picked up the small menu. He glanced once more around the pub before his eyes fell back to the list of drinks and food.

Looking around still deciding, Matthew spotted an older teen taking a seat at a table and ordering food from a menu. A menu. Well now Matthew sure felt stupid. And he probably looked stupid, too, just standing in the middle of the pub like he was.

He’d probably look even more ridiculous if he walked out after all of that, so he made up his mind and sat at a table. And of course, on the menu, there were non-alcoholic drinks. Matthew toyed with the idea of slamming his head against the table but decided against it; he would only end up making a scene.

Dropping his menu to the table, Gilbert ordered. After, he turned to once again look around the room and seemingly noticed the blond for the first time. With a half smile, he nodded to the boy and then seemed to pull back.

He pulled out a pencil and began to doodle on a napkin.

Matthew gave a smile in acknowledgement to the person at the other table who appeared to be albino, if he wasn’t mistaken. Then he looked down at the menu and once he had decided what he wanted, he waited for his order to be taken. And waited.

And waited.

He then tried to get the attention of an employee. When that didn’t work he sighed, having half a mind to just give up and walk back to the school.

Gilbert heard the sigh from next table over and looked up from his doodle. The blond boy hadn't gotten to order yet, it would seem. Gilbert looked down to the napkin he'd been scribbling on and shrugged. He'd bet they could both use someone to talk to.

A crooked grin suddenly sprang to his lips, his demeanor changing as if someone had flicked a switch. He stood, tucked in his chair, and moved to the other table. With a smile he dropped the napkin in front of the other male. It had various doodles of people Gilbert had seen throughout the day--even one of the boy he was now showing it to--they were sketchy but life-like.

Gilbert stood at the chair across from the blond. "Do you mind?"

“Hm? Oh, not at all!” Matthew told him, gesturing to the seat on the other side of the small table. He welcomed the opportunity to have his thoughts interrupted, as they had been doing nothing but worsening his mood. Just as he was beginning to wonder why the other had chosen to sit with him, he looked more closely at the napkin placed in front of him. All other thoughts were placed on hold for a minute.

“Whoa, these…these are really good! I mean, you probably knew that already, but—“ Matthew stopped, looking closely at one sketch in particular. “Is that me? It looks exactly like me, how did you…”

“You know what? I’ll stop babbling now, sorry.” He smiled sheepishly, stopping before he could get even more carried away. The drawings really were impressive, especially for doodles on a napkin.

Gilbert sat across from the new aquantaince. With a smile and a slight red tint to his cheeks, he responded. "Thank you. Yeah...it is you. It's all the people I've met today." He pointed to one sober looking male with slicked back hair. "My brother--I knew him before today...but you know."

He smiled and held out his hand. "Gilbert. I'm an RA at the dorms."

Matthew smiled back and shook his hand, “I’m Matthew, nice to meet you.” He looked at the sketch Gilbert had pointed to, noticing that although he had said it was his brother, he looked quite different from the older teen in front of him. Maybe it was the serious expression in the drawing that was throwing him off.

“You wouldn’t happen to be taking visual arts, would you?” he asked looking at the drawings once more. He himself had signed up for the class, but only because he had enough room for one more. Matthew liked art; a lot, actually, but if the class was full of people with talents similar to Gilbert's then he was beginning to regret the choice.

((Are you kidding me? This post has been up forever, and the three days I go away, you two start going at it while I'm MIA! That's just wrong! Myuh....*attempts to reenter the rp* Gilbert, what happened "last time" is up to your imagination! x3))

Elise had been busy chatting away happily with one of the older men that frequented the place, a Mister Lambert that really liked magic tricks and corny jokes. She knew everyone's story here, and he was no exception. Poor guy had lost his daughter almost a decade ago. He liked to come in often and have a drink, maybe get a few laughs out of anyone that was willing to talk to him, which was usually her. Elise liked him. He was a good man. Many of her patrons were.

Gilbert Beilschmidt, on the other hand...Well, he wasn't exactly a bad person, but he wasn't the face she looked forward to seeing the most either. Not after last time...Elise shivered at the thought. That had been just...awful.

So when she saw him bothering an unfamiliar face, she quickly made her way across the room to smack the back of his head with the rag she used to wipe down the bar. It was gentle. Not enough to hurt him, just enough to be teasing and get his attention.

"Gilbert Beilschmidt, I sincerely hope you aren't annoying any of my customers. Don't make me throw you out again," she said, but it was teasing and a small grin was plastered to her face. Still, a warning was a warning. She meant it.

Gilbert looked the woman over, a little shocked at how she was speaking to him. He concentrated on her face for a moment before the light bulb went off.

"Elise Peeters?" He frowned as he flicked a bit of lint off his shirt. "Seeing as I have never been here before, I assume you are referring to the tree-house incident. You remember...the one where you literally threw me out?" He grumbled.

He looked at Matthew and pointed with his thumb to Elise. "She was our neighbor when Ludwig and I were kids. I chipped a tooth when she hauled me out of that twelve-foot high branch."

Turning back to the woman, he put on his crooked smile. "So, you own a bar now? It becomes you, Elise."

Elise frowned at Gilbert. She knew she didn't stand out much in a crowd, but she had expected him to remember her a bit better than he did.

"Watch yourself, Beilschmidt. You're damn lucky you only chipped a tooth for what you did," she scowled at the memory. "I hope you've learned to keep your hands to yourself. The fact that I didn't take away your ability to reproduce is really quite astounding and proves that I'm far too kind for my own good."

First of all, they'd been young teenagers. Second of all, he had dared to reach out and squeeze her breasts for some reason. She couldn't remember why, but he did. So it was only natural she shove him away. She hadn't meant to push him out, just to get him away. Elise remembered apologizing to him later. Her mother made her. It had been so embarrassing....

But then she smiled again at the two boys. "What can I getcha? You been served yet? Gilbert, you drinking? What am I saying...Of course you are..."

The blond woman grinned. "Best beer in town. I guarantee it. Sweetheart, you legal?"

She was referring to the other boy, who had spoken not a word since she came over.

Gilbert raised an eyebrow to the young woman. "Elise you were nine, I was younger. You didn't have breasts, no matter how much you insisted you did at the time. I happened to have fallen and caught myself on your shirt." He cleared his throat with an annoyed expression on his face. He didn't know what she was remembering, but it was incorrect. Gilbert--well he'd never touched a women...for his own reasons.

"I would like a beer, yes. German draft please." He gritted his teeth together as he tried not to growl at his old playmate.

Elise rolled her eyes. She distinctly remembered being at least thirteen at the time. Whatever. If he wanted to save face in front of this cute guy, then it wasn't her problem.

Still, that didn't mean she was about to make things easy for him.

"Yeah, yeah, German beer...How typical. Belgian is better, though," she mumbled, throwing Gilbert a look. But she positively beamed at his friend.

"I've never seen your face around here before..." Elise purred, walking around the table to stand right in front of him. "I would have remembered someone as handsome as yourself...What's your name?"

Matthew found it quite interesting how the two had grown up together, whether the tree house incident had happened when they were children or young teens. Both appeared to fully believe their side of the story, so it was probably a case of bad memory of the incident on one or both of their parts.

“Hm? Oh, I’m Matthew. And I’m new, yeah,” he answered, a bit embarrassed by the compliment. He grew more embarrassed and blushed a bit when he remembered Elise had asked if he was of legal drinking age. Well about that…

“And um, no, I’m not legal, I just…” he trailed off, deciding that he’d rather not let either of them know that he’d wandered into the pub by accident.

Gilbert sits back in his chair and blows air out of his mouth. Crazy lady. Now she was attempting to hit on the one person he'd met all day who seemed normal. Quickly, the albino pulled out his cell phone and sent his brother a text message.

After, Gilbert looked back up to the woman and the teenage boy. He reached out, grabbing the napkin, and pulled it across the table to fold and pocket before she could see it. He didn't need her screwing around with him about his art.

"Aw...Well...You're legal in other ways, right? And really, darlin', that's all that matters..." Elise cooed at the boy, making sure to give him a flirtatious look.

As if. He was only in high school. Totally below her. Boys like him didn't interest her in the least. But still, Gilbert liked him well enough and she would be damned if she passed up a chance to mess with his head.

Then Gilbert tried to hide something.

"Something troubling you, Beilschmidt?" she asked with a smirk. "What do you have there?"

Gilbert was about to respond, but his phone went off. He held up on finger and looked it over then chuckled.

"Elise, my brother doesn't seem to remember you either." He held up the cell so that she could clearly see the screen. "He's going to high school in town here with me."

The text in the message: "Is she the one from Texas or Germany? I remember you having issues with girls at both places. -Ludwig"

The blond scowled at him.

"The fact that you've not been kicked out yet is astounding. Make sure to tell your brother I always liked him better!" she sniffed, making her way back to the bar so she could fetch their orders. Nevermind one of them hadn't even said anything. He didn't matter much anyway.

Matthew watched as Elise walked back to the bar for their orders. Which he hadn’t even made. “But I didn’t…oh whatever,” he mumbled to himself with a sigh. Although it was still annoying and would probably always be, Matthew was used to being overlooked.

Though he wouldn’t hold it against her. Elise was nice enough (well, to other customers that weren’t Gilbert), if maybe a little strange. Then again, most people were strange in some way or another. Matthew had found that for the most part, the less normal someone was, the more they stood out. That was his problem, then. Too normal.

The thought was certainly a downer, so he tried to distract himself with something else when he noticed the napkin was no longer on the table. "You hid the drawings?" Matthew asked, "Why?"

Gilbert watched her leave and called out "Oy! The young man deserves to order!" Then he grumbled and turned his attention back to the boy across from him. He twitched when he mentioned the drawings and pulled them back out of his pocket. The napkin was a bit crumbled from the hasty way Gilbert had grabbed at it, but the sketches were fine.

He pushed them back across the table. "If you like them, keep them. I don't need her lookin’ over my back at them." Gilbert sighed and calmed himself, realizing his tone was still a bit hard. "I'm sorry. I just--it was rough living near her as a kid and I don't really care for everyone to see what I do. It's kinda a pussy hobby I guess."

He leaned back, allowing the napkin to sit in front of the other boy, leaving himself open to whatever would come of it.

Elise came back with a coke and a beer, having decided for herself what the blond boy would be having. What kid didn't like coke anyway? But she wasn't a total bitch. It'd be free.

Gilbert would still have to pay for his, of course.

"Here you go, boys!" Elise said, grinning at them as she brought over their drinks. "Coke for the cutest face I've ever seen..."

She winked at him as she set his glass down gently.

"And beer for the ass," Elise said dryly, slamming Gilbert's drink down with more force than necessary. She smiled at the younger one again. "It's on the house, sweetie! Don't worry about it!"

“Really? I can have them? Thank you!” Matthew took the drawings gladly, folding it neatly before putting the napkin into his pocket. He wasn’t sure if Gilbert was just being modest or if he really did find his hobby embarrassing. “Is it? Well, I don’t think so, there’s—“

Elise had returned and Matthew thanked her with a smile as she set down his drink. He then tried to remember what he was trying to say to Gilbert, but lost his train of thought completely when she slammed down the albino’s drink. He blinked, wondering just what kind of childhood these two had had together.

“Are you sure? Well, thank you!” he said, his smile widening slightly when Elise told him his drink was free. It made sense, he guessed; he hadn't ordered it, after all. But now that he thought of it, he would have probably been boring and would have gotten Coke anyway.

Gilbert petted his beer as if its feelings had been hurt by the harsh treatment. He took a sip and placed the drink back down. The albino watched the boy across from him sip his coke, grateful he had stowed the napkin away before she could see to comment on it.

He felt bad the boy received no choice in food. Usually if someone wasn't drinking, he didn't enter a pub just to sip a cola. Gilbert figured the other boy had probably been looking for a meal. He scratched his neck as he sat back in his chair, rocking back onto two legs.

"Hmmm...Elise, do you serve pancakes at this time of day?"



(I just realized that I had assumed the legal drinking age was 18 in this world...since it is most places. Has it been established different from that? Like 21? Because Gilbert is 18--though he might carry a fake I.D. if he were underage )