#give her everything good the world has to offer NOWW

[fruutes]

guys I'll be honest this was just an excuse to intensely stare at her for 4 consecutive hours. Savored every second of it yes.

BOnus more human looking version just because I Can

Ok bye now guys I have to go back to my full time job of being feral about her and violently killing anyone who lays a finger on her <3

[rabble-dabble]

The Cancer King's Court ~ The Holy Prince

Eridan Ampora/The Holy Prince

This Eridan is, in fact, the Eridan from our timeline. 

After his death at the hands of Kanaya, Eridan mopes around the dreambubbles in a self loathing haze. Without Feferi or Karkat around to try and keep him afloat, Eridan is left to wallow in his own pathetic self pity. He takes every excuse to dive deeper into his own self loathing. Alternate versions of himself who have it better than him just go to show what a fuck-up he is, and those that don’t just reinforce his image of how miserable his life is.

He eventually runs into the Cancer King, who is absolutely pissed to see him. Karkat verbally tears Eridan to shreads, lambasting him for continually burying himself in his own self pity.

“you’re right, kar. god, you’re alwways right. i really am just a-”

“DON’T YOU FINISH THAT FUCKING SENTENCE, ERIDAN AMPORA. WHATEVER IT IS THAT YOU WERE GOING TO SAY, YES, THAT IS IN FACT, WHAT YOU ARE. AN ASSHOLE, A DOUCH CANOE, A RAGING BIGOTED VOLCANO OF BULLSHIT. THE PROBLEM IS THAT YOU CAN’T BE ASSED TO BE ANYTHING MORE THAN THAT.”

“I’M WILLING TO BET THAT YOU’VE SPENT YOUR ENTIRE AFTERLIFE WALLOWING IN SELF LOATHING, HAVEN’T YOU? IT’S ALL YOU DID WHEN YOU WERE ALIVE. IF YOU CAN’T MAKE YOURSELF SOMEONE ELSE’S PROBLEM, THEN YOU’LL JUST SINK INTO A HOLE UNTIL YOU CAN THROW YOUR PROBLEMS ON SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOULDERS. YOU’RE A PARASITE. YOU FED OFF FEFERI, YOU FED OFF ME, AND NOW YOU’RE STARVING BECAUSE NO ONE’S LEFT TO DEAL WITH YOUR BULLSHIT.”

“YOU COULD’VE MADE AN EFFORT, EVEN A SINGLE ATTEMPT, TO FIX YOURSELF UP AT ANY TIME YOU WANTED. I’VE MET PEOPLE WHO WERE ASSBAGS, WHO WERE JUST AS BIG OF SHIT STAINS AS YOU WERE AT ONE POINT, WHO HAVE BECOME BETTER PEOPLE. I’VE MET A VERSION OF VRISKA WHO TRIED TO CLEAN UP HER LIFE. FUCKING. VRISKA.”

“YOU’RE RIGHT, ERIDAN. YOU’RE A TERRIBLE PERSON. YOU’VE NEVER EVEN TRIED TO BE ANYTHING ELSE.”

Eridan stares silently. Karkat sighs and leaves.

Eridan wanders the Dreambubbles some more, Karkat’s lines repeating in his head. At first, it’s just another ember in his smouldering fire of self-loathing, but he can’t keep himself from chewing on it a bit more. Eridan’s conflicted thoughts come to a head when he meets himself from the New Timeline.

The Eridan from this timeline sold out his friends to The Condescension. He’s the reason she rose to power. And everything she’s done is on his shoulders.

When Eridan confronts his alternate self, he starts spewing all the same excuses that Eridan himself has used before. He didn’t have a choice, it’s his duty as royal blood, what did you expect him to do? When pressed, his alternate self admits to regretting what he did.

So, Eridan asks why he hasn’t tried to fix it yet? He’s a Grand Admiral in the Condescension’s navy. He has plenty of resources. He could easily fund the rebellion, work as a spy, plot some assassinations. He could try to fix this. Alternate Eridan refuses.

He’s always been the bad guy. Why pretend he could be anything else?

Eridan leaves in disgust. Karkat’s words finally sink in.

Even when given every reason in the world to change, Eridan couldn’t be bothered. Well, that ends today.

So, Eridan sets out to make amends. He visits the dreams of players still doing their sessions and gives them advice. He gives them hope, listens to their problems, helps them reach God-Tier and guides them away from the mistakes he made. He isn’t very good at it. Not initially. He finds himself listening to them as much as they listen to him. But, still, he grows. And, in doing so, he saves several sessions from the brink of disaster.

Eventually, Eridan meets Feferi. His Feferi.

The two awkwardly catch up, dancing around the obvious. They compare notes on the Dreambubbles and Eridan explains what he’s been up too.

Eridan bursts the bubble first. He asks her if she can forgive him.

…Feferi looks forlorn, devistated even, as she confesses that she doesn’t think she can.

Eridan quietly accepts this as he leaves.

He’s moping to himself in a memory of his old hive when the Pirate Queen knocks on his door. She comforts him and they try to make light of what terrible people they were. Again, they dance around the issue a bit, even humoring a bit of roleplay for old times sake, before they finally talk about the main issue.

Eridan laments how much it hurts to not be forgiven. Vriska can relate, but only to an extent. “I can live with Tavros not forgiving me, 8ut I don’t know where I’d 8e without Terezi. That sounds a 8it closer to what you’re going through.”

Vriska offers that, sense he’s making amends, maybe he could join the King’s Court.

Eridan turns her down. He wants to make amends on his own terms first.

So, Eridan gathers all the Players he’s helped and unties them against his alternate self. Playing on the flaws he knows his alternate self has, Eridan orchestrates his downfall, proving to himself that he’s outgrown the pathetic leech he once was. Eridan sees his new friends off with pride, inspiring them to join the Rebellion and fight fir the freedom of the Multiverse.

With that done, Eridan tracks down the Cancer King. 

“i'vve wwon back my honor. noww i wwant to wwin back my friend.”

Eridan is the King’s commander in chief against the forces of Her Imperious Condescension. He intends to undo the damage done by his alternate self and win back Karkat’s friendship in one foul swoop. Like Vriska, his opponents tend to underestimate him. They expect the same arrogant manchild he used to be, which he uses to catch them off guard. In fact, his effectiveness was so great, that it took Karkat awhile to realize that he wasn’t God-Tier and was, in fact, still dead. Karkat rectified the issue soon after, but it’s a testament to how far he’s come.

Eridan spends most of his time with Vriska. The two of them forming something of a support group about being “the reformed bad guys” of the group. It never quite reaches the outright moirail levels that she has with Terezi though. 

Gamzee holds him in considerably high regard for doing such a 180. It’s the reason he gave him and Vriska such lofty titles. Rose speculates if that has something to do with Gamzee’s unwillingness to face his own issues, but that’s for another day.

Like Aradia, Eridan never forgets the weight of what they’re doing. In fact, he refuses to associate with the ‘sacrifice’ side of the Court’s buisness. He understands the necessity of it, but he’s a reformed man. He can’t bring himself to sink back down there.

For a similar reason, he tries to let anyone know that he's The Holy Prince. He can’t stand to think about what the Players might say if they knew what their mentor was a part of.

Still, Eridan makes a point of befriending those he dismissed. He shares hunting stories with the Purrdator, he relates to the Bard’s loneliness. He even buries the hatchet with Sollux.

Eridan trusts in Terezi to keep Karkat on the straight and narrow, but he still worries about him. Eridan knows exactly what it’s like to bury yourself in your flaws. Luckily, he tends to inspire Karkat to be more merciful just by his example. The King even took the time to learn some of Eridan’s favorite board games. 

In the end, The Holy Prince is a loyal man who holds himself to a high moral standard. A competent commander and a friend to all his students. Eridan Ampora is someone Karkat is proud to call his friend.

god I love that you just submitted this because I SCREAMED when I saw it. 

also????? eridan being a source of advice for KARKAT????? YES PLEASE

anyways you said figure and I went OF ANGELS??? because hell yeah I'm gonna incorporate more aspect stuff. also eridan being a voice of reason is concerning and funny at the same time. i respect that you had vriska relate to him but even then like she has terezi which is SUCH a valid point!!!! eridan has to get there for a LONNNNNNNGGGG while but I'm actually glad that he’s working towards being better seeing he always had that potential but never took it. 

[topicprinter]

Hey - Pat from StarterStory.com here with another interview.Today's interview is with Ashley ‘JP’ Lockwood of Deskmate, a brand that sells affordable standing desks.Some stats:Product: Affordable standing desks.Revenue/mo: $10,000Started: January 2017Location: LondonFounders: 2Employees: 2Hello! Who are you and what business did you start?My name is Ashley ‘JP’ Lockwood. I am the co-founder of Deskmate. We are a standing desk startup on a mission to make the world work better.I met my now business partner, Arthur at the back end of 2016 during an incubator called Escape The City. Both working on separate projects and set up Deskmate as a side hustle to earn some extra money whilst we were living and working in London.We have two products, Deskmate, for large setups, desktops, keyboards, and Minimate, which is specifically for laptop only users. All of our products are environmentally friendly (cardboard) and take less than 10 seconds to pop up.We are proudly the cheapest standing desk available, globally. Which is pretty cool I think? We’ve sold over 5,000 units since launch, to just under 100 countries.Cool fact: Deskmate started on £300 and we launched in 3 weeks.imageOur first homepageWhat's your backstory and how did you come up with the idea?We were working from a coworking space and wanted standing desks. We asked the community managers if they’d considered them. Answers ranged from, ‘too expensive’, ‘space doesn’t allow them’, ‘why do you need one?’, I guess that was the lightbulb moment.The idea behind Deskmate was quite simple really, there was no affordable standing solution in the UK. We did the typical google search, amazon check and there was nothing there. We saw the gap and went for it.With regards to the standing desk and office furniture market, we had no idea. I’d recommend anyone launching a business in an area they don’t understand to research but not to overthink it. Learn on the job.I was personally from an e-commerce background, having launched an online shirt retailer at University. I then went into Fintech and left as Sales Director of a venture-backed startup. I’ve been working for myself for about a year and a half.Take us through the process of designing, prototyping, and manufacturing your first product.I had a family member working in cardboard production and we had a rough design. We sent it over and within a week we had a prototype.We launched without a website with a pop up at WeWork and sold 5 desks in the first 30 minutes.I had a friend, Tara, who was working as community manager who said we were too early stage to pop up. I left it with her but said if anyone cancels, we'd be happy to fill in. The next week a coconut water brand cancelled, we got the gig!That was idea validation, market testing and customer feedback all in one hit. We had no real business plan, cash in the bank or strategy, but we knew if could sell in WeWork, there was a market, at least in the start up space.We bought 250 white units and realised we didn’t get a logo printed. Here’s a photo of Arthur sticking the Deskmate logo manually to our first ever batch:imageimageDeskmate first pop up at WeWork - no website, stickers purchased on the internet and stuck on product 10 minutes before we startedDescribe the process of launching the business.We built version 1 of deskmate.co in 14 days on Shopify and launched a week later.Sales were slow to start and we didn’t have that much content to start advertising online, we took our own cameras wherever we went and shot the product. Not everything we shot was useable, but it built up over time.This was with no coding background and on a shoestring budget. As the units began to sell (slowly) we realised we needed some capital and formulated a business plan.We approached Virgin for a startup loan and raised an initial 12k. This is the only debt the business has taken on to date.Biggest lessons I’d give anyone is to only outsource if it’s absolutely necessary. We’ve used agencies, PR people and Sales execs before but until you absolutely know your product, you are the only one who should be selling and marketing it, especially if you are selling in a niche, like ours.Personally, I’d also recommend anyone moving from ‘side hustle’ to ‘full time start up’ to have a real plan and make careful considerations on the position of your team and co founders.We’ve had a few people come and go since launch, with me and Arthur consistent throughout. Startups are tricky, you have to be 100% committed and you need a thick skin.imageSince launch, what has worked to attract and retain customers?Deskmate is a really interesting product in that it has multiple customer channels and routes to market.We break our sales channels into three main sections;1 - B2C (direct to eccom)Driving customers directly to deskmate.co. Main traffic drivers are paid ads, PR, social media (IG, FB, Twitter) and blog posts.Google ads are challenging (CPC is high due to competitors price point being 10x higher), so we’ve worked hard on FB adverts, building content to help the top stage of the funnel understand who we are, what we do and how we can benefit.2 - B2B (business to business)Our direct to business sales mainly consists of outreach out to businesses directly that look to sell multiple units, directly to businesses.Main drivers for this are email marketing, LinkedIn, strategic sales calls and hustle! We use G sheets to track our leads and conversion rates.3 - Wholesale (retailers, partnership channels, amazon)These are third parties that either resell Deskmate or are able to promote the product to their network. Deskmate is available on Amazon, Wayfair (hopefully US) soon and we regularly offer the product on third party relevant websites.I have also had meetings with a host of other wholesalers who have said no: ASOS, Urban Outfitters, Argos, the list is extensive!Segmenting like this allows you to have a clear understanding of what's working and what's not.We also use different marketing techniques for each market, e.g. B2B is directed far more in relationship management, email marketing and targeted sales calls. B2C is more digital marketing, paid ad spend and content marketing.Within our marketing efforts we use digital advertising (IG, FB, etc), PR (via a programme called response source), SEO (blogs), and partnerships (Virgin, WeWork, Three), to attract customers.Via basic outreach, I have secured PR with Forbes, and other major newspapers in the UK. Be consistent with your outreach, create a positive message and be clear on what you are offering.We’ve partnered with the likes of Three, Virgin and WeWork to sell to their customer bases. We started our relationship with Virgin through start up funding. We used their network internally, asked for introductions and eventually find our way into Virgin Red, who are Virgin’s customer loyalty app. This was a slog and took around 3 months!Why? It’s great distribution and usually free marketing if you can get in there. My advice for any start up would be to think about their sales channels and how to sell to them before you start!How are you doing today and what does the future look like?Gross margin is around 65%, monthly traffic to the site is around 10k and our customer database (B2B + B2C) is 14k. Our sales funnel is long and takes time to educate people on the product. The business is tricky today and it will be tricky tomorrow, but our aim for 2020 is to break 1m units sold.Our Operations are lean, we manufacture, pack and ship from the same factory in the UK, meaning less time from production to customer and also means we can stay nimble on stock, test product ideas quickly and provide a great service to the end customer.Through starting the business, have you learned anything particularly helpful or advantageous?In hindsight, I would have started selling other products earlier, hired interns to help with admin and onboarded international shipping from the start.Deskmate has done well with our partnerships, considering we are a niche product in an emerging category. I think signing contracts with Three and Virgin are the two that stay front of mind.Our PR has always been strong, and I’d recommend any business with a unique idea or service to start reaching out to journalists right away. They don’t bite!What platform/tools do you use for your business?Slack - communicationWhatsapp - quick answersGmail - emailKlaviyo - emailsShopify - e-platformResponse source - PRGoogle Docs - to do lists every weekGoogle sheets - a great way to process orders with fulfilment centre if you can’t afford to right awayHave also used:Trello - better for larger teamsMonday.com - same as above, good programme thoughWhat have been the most influential books, podcasts, or other resources?The Subtle Art of Not Giving A FuckShoe DogStart With WhyAdvice for other entrepreneurs who want to get started or are just starting out?Don’t overthink your MVP, keep your business as lean as possible until you have validated your idea, don’t overspend on outsourcing, you can figure most things out yourself and call in as many favours as you can.Are you looking to hire for certain positions right nowWe are currently hiring a sales intern and a marketing intern. Drop us a note if you want to apply! hello@deskmate.co.Where can we go to learn more?www.deskmate.cohttps://www.facebook.com/wearedeskmate/https://www.instagram.com/wearedeskmate/?hl=enLastly, we are currently looking for a partner to expand our US presence. Previous background in e-commerce, furniture, and early-stage products preferable.imageIf you have any questions or comments, drop a comment below!Liked this text interview? Check out the full interview with photos, tools, books, and other data.For more interviews, check out r/starter_story - I post new stories there daily.Interested in sharing your own story? Send me a PM