The flash panel of “Low-ink” continued to display on the machine. Shadowmind picked up the manual and started reading through the dogeared pages. “Low-ink warning light comes on with the machine has ink for 5 for fewer uses.” Flipping further through the pages. Printing over a person uses half as much ink as creating an independent Stripulacrum." Page 6, section 4, "What counts a person. Any object that person-sized mass." Another few pages, "Accidental objects left in the device while printing."
Shadowmind read over the worn pages back and forth, an idea forming in his head. "If I take what is written at face value, then this is a very useful machine. But I'm lacking in information. What I need is an exposition fairy."
"Beep," the machine let out a simple ping.
Shadowmind paced the halls of the strip club, thinking of who he needed at this exact moment. Strength wouldn't do anything to the teleportation effect of the exits. From the view above, this wasn't Earth. There had to be a reason he was brought here. A keycard with specifically his author tag was waiting for him.
"Did you really trap me here because you were low on ink?" Shadowmind asked the Strupulacrum Printer.
"Beep," another simple ping with no changes to the several before.
With another frustrated sigh, He checked the readout. There was enough ink for one Stripulacrum or two print overs. "I'm not using a print over until I know this thing doesn't just spew acid on whatever is inside of the chamber."
Shadowmind returned to exploring the hotel while he tried to come up with a plan. Across the hotel hallways, large and strange but not infinite. An eerie liminal space that felt like it wanted to be filled with people. The building hadn't changed in the slightest from what is had been in the last few minutes.
The vending machines where just as they were before. A full selection of anything you could need at prices, he couldn't afford. Checking his wallet, nothing changed, his debit card was still there, but carefully checking each vending machine, every single one only took cash.
Looking down at the few bills he had on him. "Yeah, I think I see where this is going." Shadowmind looked at this potted plant by the entrance to the vending machine section. It was almost as tall as person, but with plastic leaves. The decor was almost the generic embodiment of plastic plant decoration. Slowly Shadowmind dragged the plant across the hotel. While roating the plant around, Shadowmind spotted a hotel dolly cart. "That would of made this so much easier." The second half of the journey took a third of the time, as he calmed pushed the part with the plant on top of it.
Make a quick stop at the confidential breakfast nook, with was sadly lacking in any breakfast, Shadow unplugged the microwave and sat on the cart as well. Nearing the end of this detour, Shadowmind lugged the fake plastic plant, and tossed it into the Stripulacrum Printer. "So, I need a source of information, someone that can serve as a stripper, and someone I can overpower in case I've completely misread the situation, and this actually just makes feral zombie copies instead of stripper copies." Shadowmind wrote with the keyboard, Character: Tattletale, Source: Worm.
"Beep." The machine continued to provide no useful information.
"So, based on mass random guessing. My purpose here is to get the machine running; I was chosen because I was a horny author, and the reason the vending machines only take cash is that the only source of funding I'll be able to get from stripping once the club is considered open."
Shadowmind moved the dolly cart in from the machine door, then hit the started button. The machine whirred into life, with Shadowmind positioned himself on the other side of the door and slightly to the right, with the microwave held high and ready. The machine made a clicking noise, coming from one side to the other, and slowly rising higher. Another a few moments, the noises stopped, and the door swung open.
Inside was the woman, Lisa Wilbourn or more well-known as Tattletale. A purple and black bodysuit clung to her form that let the imagination fun while, but with plenty of suggestions. Her breasts were larger than those in her fanart, and her hair had an unexpected shade of green. Her face was maybe a year or two older than expected, either. Another difference is the shape of her breasts which were akin to implants rather than natural, and her purple-painted lips had a plastic-like reflection.
The villainess stood stock still, waiting for commands. "Master, how may I server." She looked at Shadowmind with bottle-green eyes.
"Tell me about yourself." Shadowmind said, the weight of the microwave getting heavy in his hands.
"I'm a fake potted plant, with the body, abilities and simulated mind of Tattletale, as well as all the knowledge and skills needed to be a stripper for your club. This is strange, because I'm not a full Stripulacrum, but I'm not a full person either. I'm a piece of plastic that has gained awareness because of the device." The once inanimate object took a moment to have an existental crisis over having the ability to have an existental crisis.
Once that over, the two explored the hotel together. Back at the hotel entrance Tattleplant, moved to the sign, and pointed something important out. "Master, it wasn't plugged in." Taking a second, to plug the sign. The lights turned out, before quickly showing only two digits lit up."
"Those are…" Tattleplant."
She was interrupted. "The exact amount of cash I'm carrying," said Shadowmind, before pulling out his wallet, to show it was true. "That's a lot of zeros to fill."