"I don't actually know what would typically be fair for something like this."

"...Admittedly, I don't necessarily have too much of an idea either, but I know some things.  Regardless, that's probably a matter for your boss.  You know when they'll be around?"

"In a sand or so."

"Mhm."

Well, she can occupy herself by re-designing bicycles, in the meantime.  Or maybe tricycles, or quad-cycles, but still, wheeled, geared, pedal powered people movers.

Has she seen people with hand-pulled wagons-or-similar?

Yup, people have wheelbarrows and animal-drawn carts and stuff.

...English or Chinese wheelbarrows?  Now that she's thinking about them.

More like Chinese ones.

Well, that's...good.  Vaguely annoying, honestly, but much better that they have it than she need to introduce the idea.

She could invent tires, though.  And possibly the modern suspension.

Eventually another person shows up.

"Who's this?"

"I didn't get her name. Some kind of eccentric inventor," says the printer.

"I'd hardly claim all the credit for what I'm designing, there's a whole history of invention that I'm pulling from, but that's a decent gloss.  Mira Grant; pleasure to meet you both."

"I'm Parsley," says the first printer.

"Prism," says the boss.

"What does Mira Grant mean?" asks Parsley.

"It doesn't, really; my home nation's primary spoken language and associated culture mostly doesn't name people after recognizable things, though as with all things English-language, it's riddled with exceptions.  I suppose 'Grant' - grant," she names several different meanings, "- has a meaning, but that's more often a verb than a noun."

"You have a different native language? Say something in it," says Prism.

"Sure, I can do that."  She stops doing the translation thing.  "This is a test; this is only a test.  The Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device is functional under temperatures of up to 3000 Kelvin.  According to all known laws of aviation, there is no way a bumblebee should be able to fly.  But bees fly anyway, because they don't care what humans think is impossible.  To be, or not to be, that is the question; whether 'tis nobler to face the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune, or to take up arms, and by so opposing, end them -"

She resumes translating her words.

"How's that for some random English?"

"Wow, wild," laughs Prism. "Are there lots of you, do we need to start making English letters?"

"I'm the only one of me I know is anywhere around here, and given how weird the way I got here was, I wouldn't expect to see anyone else from the same region unless someone actually shows up.

"So I wouldn't think there's much of a market for English type."

"All right. And you're here because you're an inventor, I guess?" says Prism, glancing at the double-sided printing spec that Parsley has handed him.

"Yeah, I'm looking for a way to get some of the conveniences of back home re-invented, and while that's probably a lifetime's work or more to get it done properly, I'll settle for hot and cold running water, and indoor lighting that doesn't involve fire.  I'm here in particular because I figured y'all'd have some of the relevant skillset to build industrial mechanisms, or know who would have it, since the printing press is fiddly."

"And you... want to hire us?" Prism asks.

"...I think hiring you or working with you would definitely help me?  I'm not sure how much additional help I am to the field of printing, though, so I'm...

"Kind of expecting that you wouldn't necessarily be invested or interested in the wider project?  I dunno.  Of the many things I've cursorily studied, business negotiation is not one of them."

"We don't have to be interested in whatever your thing is for you to hire us to do stuff," says Parsley. "But we need... to get paid..."

"And there's my problem: I don't have startup capital.  Which is hopefully where the rotary printer and ancillae help us both out: you get an increase in throughput, I get seed money because you're using my inventions to increase throughput.  ...Should see if we can develop a faster-drying ink, really...my brain for some reason suspects that there's alcohols involved, but damn if I know what fluid this thing uses.  At least I know a local chemist.  Maybe he'll help."

She has a highlighter, apparently.

"Oh, and the ballpoint pen.  Could probably re-make that easily."

"I don't think we have seed capital amounts of money even if we start taking in twice as much work," Prism says, as Parsley goes and gathers up all the dry pages on the racks and starts printing a new batch.

"How much does one of those cost you to make?"  She gestures at a press.  "And given that the limiting factor on throughput is drying...Well, I might need to get Wheat involved and invent fractional distillation or something, but if you had an ink that dried as fast as you could print it, you'd be getting way more than twice the work done.  And this dries fast enough to write with.  Let alone however my pens work, since they definitely do work and I've never had to worry about smudging them or the like.  Plus the idea I had for casting type with existing presses, which would allow you to do work with fancier type even if the drying doesn't pan out very well."

"If we had twice as many orders we'd... get more drying racks," says Parsley. "We don't."