Coming Down The Chimney

@Nightstripe

It was a wonderfully crisp night as a certain drow walked down the darkened, shady streets towards the neon sign denoting Club Jasmina from the other stores around it. Normally he went to places like this with only one purpose in mind: getting wasted beyond belief and maybe grinding on someone attractive. But tonight, Sid had other things in mind.

Other things indeed.

These other things mostly just consisted of giving a gift to the person he'd been set up with for secret santa, although he honestly thought the other person (what was her name? Mina?) might have been better off sticking with close friends for gifts. Not to be rude or anything, but she hadn't exactly made herself easy to shop for, leaving the slip she'd mixed into the hat for choosing either mostly blank or answering with 'I don't know' s.

How do you shop for someone like that?

In typical Sid fashion, he just went with the first thing he thought of--something he'd like if he were to get something for Christmas.

Inside of the festively wrapped box he had tucked under his arm were a selection of Sid's favorite drugs.

All gotten through Cabel, all guaranteed to give a high to even the most prudish, unsure person.

Look out Santa.

Sid walked down the steps into the club proper, settling himself down on one of the stools.

The atmosphere as he entered the club as electric. It was more alive than he'd been anticipating. Sid wasn't exactly what you would call a regular of Club Jasmina, but he considered himself a patron of all the clubs in Manta Carlos, even if he didn't go there every Saturday night. He was a club-hopping pro at this point. It was a point of pleasure in his mind that everyone was ready to party once he walked in.

He saw quite a few familiar faces in the undulating mass that occupied much of the dancefloor. He waved to them and offered them a smile, though he knew they wouldn't respond. The music was too loud, and the dancing was too...

Well.

He turned to the bar as the proprietor moved towards him. He offered her a smile. "I see you know me by reputation." And also because they both had gotten slips with each other's names on them. Semantics. They weren't important.

With a chuckle, he placed the box on the table. It was wrapped nicely and deliberately--immediately giving away the fact that he 100% had not wrapped this gift on his own. "Happy Crimbus."

@Nightstripe

When she mentioned his odd pronunciation of 'Christmas', he tilted his head in honest confusion. Was that not what it was called? It was his understanding that the holiday was known as Crimbus, but according to this woman, it wasn't. But he'd been pronouncing it Crimbus for a long while, and no one had ever corrected his usage, so apparently it was fine. People could still understand him, and that was what was important.

Sid let a smile grace his features as she opened his gift. "Yeah, just call me Santa Claus because I know exactly what everyone wants for Crimbus--er, Christmas?" Pronouncing it that way felt weird. He'd just say Crimbus from now on. It would probably be fine.

At her behest he gave the swelling dance floor a wistful glance before making his way to the back room with the proprietor. His eyes ran along the walls and the appliances, taking them in without really wondering about what they were there for. He wondered if he cared. He realized he didn't, and his eyes went back ahead.

The silence of the room after the thrumming of the dancefloor was a bit of a shock, and it made his body tingle. When he saw the festive gift, he swooped closer and tore off the paper. "Aw sweet, my favorite part!" This wasn't true. His favorite part was more giving gifts than getting them--which was always a weird thing when it came to him and drow culture, all about taking, but he preferred giving to getting.

He pushed that out of his head as he made it rain festive paper and opened the box, a grin on his features as he looked at--

What....?

It was a drawing of him as a kid. He recognized himself, hair streaming in white waterfalls down past his shoulders, his bangs pulled back from his face. His face was stony, joyless, weathered in the way a child definitely shouldn't be, with jet black armor molded to his tiny body. It wasn't that clear in the picture, but his memories remembered that armor, remembered the raised pattern of spindly spiders. An inky black cloak hung on his shoulders. As he stared at this picture, his chest would palpitate, his breath would become harsh and quick, as if he was struggling to breathe, like something was pressing hard against his chest.

He put the picture back in the box, face down, eyes closed. He regarded the other things there. Piercings, an applicator, and he felt a moment of relief.

Scarlet eyes found the dagger and color drained from his face.

He recognized it well. It was his sister's, the one he'd begrudgingly called his favorite, who trained him. The last time he remembered seeing this dagger was when it showed up on his bedside lamp, he'd used it to kill a beast after almost vomiting when he had to touch it. The handle, he'd remembered, felt sticky. He knew why.

His father wasn't beside his mother when he next visited her antechamber.

He knew why.

He squeezed his eyes shut and closed the gift. The drow's skin was normally gray. but it somehow looked... paler and clammier than it usually did. He gave Mina a forced, shaky smile. "Th-thanks!"

@Nightstripe

"P-please, don't actually call me Santa Clause," he stammered, trying to regain some semblance of control over himself. He wasn't supposed to act like this around other people. No one was supposed to see him as anything other than an unflappably cool guy. He didn't want people to see him with eyes wide and shoulders shaking, feeling uncomfortably memories burning into him. "Just Sid. Just, call me Sid."

The drow closed his eyes, tried to count to ten, do those things that Clary and Lei did to calm down. But every time he closed his eyes he saw home, blood, and the familiarly bitter taste of spiders laying cloyingly on his tongue.

He remembered it.

"No, I--" He stepped back. "I'll explain favorites to you later, alright?"

Sid stepped back away from Mina, back towards the door. "I have to go now, o-okay? I'll see you later."

He had to get out of this room. It felt like he was being suffocated.