The Green (K)Night of Christmas

With one more week until Christmas, most of the elite Technocracy staff of Antwerp were focused on picking a gift for Secret Santa. Agent May, however, had made a problematic prediction of the future: the head of Levi (himself the head of Antwerp headquarters) rolling down the stairs on [insert date and time]. Figuring two heads are better than one, and four better than two, she informed agents Salisbury, Taylor, and Jane. In order to head off the problem, the four headed to Levi to discuss the prediction. Levi, however, was unworried and told them not to lose their heads over the situation - even though clone maintenance meant he would have no backup plan in place at the moment of decapitation. The four put their heads together and decided to have faith in Levi, rather than going over Levi's head, which would run the risk of Levi biting their heads off.

While everyone was preparing for Christmas, agents Taylor and Jane decided to clear their heads with some busywork, and attended a Camarilla party. It was there that they overheard a group of hot-heated vampires decide to take out their biggest foe in Belgium. Any concern that these vampires might have something to do with the threat to Levi, however, were quickly quelled when the vampires named their target: Stefanie the Bastet. With her "mage boyfriend" out of town that weekend, the time was apparently ripe to strike. Since agents Taylor and Jane knew that Stefanie would also be out of town for different purposes, they decided - after a brief tête-à-tête - that no heads up was necessary.

Agents Salisbury and Derde, meanwhile, headed to Zürich to get a head start on obtaining Secret Santa presents. While there, they encountered security in a bank building to be mysteriously absent, and a young girl heading towards the vault. Agent Salisbury engaged the girl in conversation, and the two discovered she was actually a changeling, and the doll she was retrieving actually a dragon chimera. Agent Salisbury was able to convince the girl that the best revenge on her psychiatrists and other authority figures would be to expose them to the truth of her chimera knowing no one would ever believe them, rather than having her dragon eat them.

With everyone back in Antwerp, it turned out the vampires had gotten in over their heads - while Franklin and Stefanie were absent from their home, the laser-cats weren't, and they had made quick work of the vampires - much to the delight of the more clear-headed vampires in the city, who had decided the best way to get rid of the hotheads would be to let them rush headfirst into danger.

A few days later, with a lot of surveillance and backup plans in place, the employees abandoned Antwerp HQ so Levi could face his fate. A disruption prevented the surveillance from recording the vital moment, but Levi appeared to be none the worse for wear afterwards, although the staff were unable to make heads or tails of the situation.

With the danger passed, all that remained was the Secret Santa: Jane got Taylor [gift here], Taylor got Salisbury every piece of Shadowrun writing in existence (and some not in existence), and Salisbury got Jane the Salvator Mundi. In another circle, [Sofie, Levi, and May gifts]. Levi was not all that happy with his gift - a replica of the girdle from the film The Green Knight, as a not-so-subtle joke about the crisis that wasn't. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.

I thought the conditioning was supposed to prevent reports like this - did it wear off early? - Nicole Taylor

I Googled for head idioms and copy-pasted. Improvise, adapt, overcome. - Franklin Salisbury