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A sign on the door says: *Shop Class Cancelled. Go back to bed.*

The computer components that were HAL have been disconnected and placed in the corner.

Mac sits at his desk, a pair of crutches leaning on the wall and a cast on his leg. His mood is somewhere between grumpy and guilty.

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The sign on the door doesn't surprise Nadia in the least. But going back to bed isn't terribly likely to happen, so she takes a deep breath and knocks.

Shop is her favorite class. She's not about to let herself be afraid of it.

[ooc: feel free to ignore her or tell her to go away if you're busy]

"Come on in," Mac calls out looking up from his desk.

Nadia took another deep breath and opened the door. "Hi," she said, just a touch shyly. "I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Mac gave her a small smile. "I'm fine. I just have to wear a cast and walk on some crutches for a few weeks. Are you okay? You were pretty out of it the last time a saw you."

Nadia rubbed her head, a gesture that was quickly becoming habitual. "I still have a bump, but I think I'm okay." She bit her lip for a second, then blurted out her next question. "What happened? I mean, I remember Hal going nuts, and the robots and everything, but I also remember Walter sitting on my bed without a shirt on, so I think I might be a little . . ." she waved a finger in the air. "Mixed up, still."

"HAL had a little... malfunction," Mac said gesturing over to where HAL's components lay in the corner of the room. "I have a pretty good idea of why it happened and unfortunately a good deal of it was my fault. I should have known better than to install an AI component to the Danger Shop program without putting in some safeguards."

There's a bitter look on Mac's face.

"I'll know more about what happened after I talk with a couple of people."

Nadia wanted to protest that Mac had no reason to expect HAL, who had been programmed by a student, to have homicidal tendencies . . . but she was quickly learning that her fellow students weren't exactly a group of innocent bystanders, so she couldn't quite make that rationalization.

"Have you ever had an 'AI' in the shop before?"

"No," Mac said with a sigh. "And I'm very sorry that you were hurt as a result of my carelessness."

Nadia smiled slightly. "Well, usually I get injured because of my carelessness, so it's kind of a nice change."

As far as jokes go, it's pretty lame. But at least she's trying.

"If you've never had an AI in there before, how could you have known this one would go . . . bad?"

Mac shakes his head. "Well in the future, we'll both need to be more careful. As for knowing that HAL would have gone bad? Let's just say I have 20/20 hindsight."

"At least now you know your students can handle a bunch of killer robots." Nadia looked down and rubbed at her head again. "Well, most of them can."

[ooc: sorry about the delete and repost, but it suddenly occurred to me that a nonnative speaker might not know the word "homicidal". Or at least wouldn't think of it quickly]

"You all did great," Mac said looking at Nadia seriously. "Considering what you all were up against we were very lucky. For a bunch of teenagers I have to say I'm very impressed on all of your skills."

It was really very nice of Mac to tell her that, even if she didn't believe him for a minute. "I ran out of bullets and got knocked out. I had to get rescued. No one else got knocked out and had to get rescued."

"Nadia, you're only what? Fifteen? Sixteen? Don't be so hard on yourself. Plus look at me? I'm an old man and had to be rescued by a 14 year old."

"I don't think you're that old," Nadia said automatically. Then she shrugged. "And that's just Pippi. She's the least fourteen fourteen year old ever." She gestured to the bits of computer in the corner. "What are you going to do with HAL?"

"I'm keeping him deactivated until I'm sure he's not going to be a threat to anyone," Mac replied. "Even then I'm going to make sure there are some safeguards built in."

"Good idea." Nadia looked around the office. "Um, I don't suppose you saw a metal meat tenderizing mallet in the classroom, did you? I've kinda grown attached to that thing."

Mac gives Nadia a slightly amused look and pulls out the mallet from his desk drawer. "Do I even want to know what you use this for?"

[OOC: OMG! MALLET MODDING!

Nadia let out a relieved breath as she accepted the mallet. "Smashing demons, mostly. Thanks!"

[ooc: so going home and making a "Mac modded my mallet!" icon]

"You're welcome, Nadia. You have a good day now."

[ooc: *gives points for alliteration*

"You too. And feel better."

[ooc: I was considering making it a "mighty meat mallet", but that got dirty mighty fast.]

[ooc: I fear you]

[ooc: as well you should.]

[ooc: why yes, I probably do have too much time on my hands. Why do you ask?]

[ooc: alternately, since photobucket hates me lately, check it out here]

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