Raven took a long drink of coffee.
"Natalya, are you sure you're ok?" asked Nero, concerned.
"Yes. Fine. Absolutely fine."
"You haven't blinked in the last 5 minutes."
"Blinking's overrated."
"This is your seventh cup of coffee today, dear."
"I didn't sleep."
Nero sighed, "I'm sorry I didn't think this through."
"Didn't think what through?"
"You know what." Nero sighed again, "I mean, it wasn't going too bad until this simulator. Only 7 injuries. That's pretty good. And they were generally just minor ones when people tripped in the dark."
"Except for little Joshua."
"Look," Nero replied in exasperation, "it was just one foot, he's got another one, I don't know why everyone has to keep going on about it!"
"I'm still not sure of what you were trying to achieve by making simulators based on horror games," Raven said.
"It was supposed to make people work better under pressure, help them build up their nerves. Basing them on horror games was just to make sure we knew they'd find it scary without having to bother thinking of anything ourselves."
"We should have stuck with Slender. It was simple and didn't have many chances for injuries."
"Except for people tripping over things. And when Adé broke his hand trying to sucker punch slenderman."
"I knew there was a reason I liked Adé."
"He certainly has… moxy. But people stopped getting scared after a while. They'll probably stop getting scared of this one too… eventually."
"Max, 3 people are in counselling. Even Francisco admitted he had nightmares. You sent me in there to prove it wasn't too scary. And I haven't slept in 50 hours."
"I didn't realise that Five Nights At Freddy's was so bad. I mean, it was a little nerve racking, but when I played it I got through it eventually."
"The first time you played it you screamed and hit yourself in the face trying to cover your eyes when Freddy got you."
"I didn't know the game started when the man was still on the phone!" Nero protested, "I said I got through it eventually."
"But you weren't there in a dimly lit room with real gigantic animatronic animals hunting you down to murder you without anything to protect you. I'm never looking at a teddy bear the same way again, Max."
"OK, fine, I'm pulling this scheme."
"Good."
"It's not like I have much of a choice."
"It's still good you're not going to continue."
"I still don't know how Nigel managed to set the place on fire."
"I don't know how Argentblum managed to get through it without breaking a sweat."
Max nodded in agreement, "at least one good thing came of it."
"What good thing?"
"I can now make Malpense cry just by saying 'Pirate Cove'. I've been incorporating the phrase into my lessons."
"That's cruel," admonished Raven.
Max shrugged, "It's kind of in the job description. And Malpense is a little shit anyway."
Raven couldn't argue with that.