A/N: Hello everyone! As I write this, it's 8:30 pm Pacific Standard Time on April 16th, 2019. That date is sorta-kinda significant to me now, as April 16th, 2018 was when I launched the Discord server for REMCOM. It's been an interesting year, to say the least, and so I was given the suggestion of marking the date with a writing contest and have the winning submission become a bona fide chapter in RU. The only hitch was that I started this contest eight days ago, which… didn't give people much time at all to come up with and write something.

The good news is that I got submissions. The better news is that I got two submissions. So rather than pick one and tell the other, "you were good, but not good enough," one is getting posted below while the other will be included in the next chapter.

Additionally, there was a second part to the writing contest where I asked people to write about how the story/server affected them personally. I got several submissions for that prompt as well, they are all wonderful, and they are all posted immediately following the (very much canon) chapter below.

Cheers


Author: SirMandokarla

Sun struggled helplessly on the ground, writhing in a desperate and futile effort to escape.

His attackers laughed, knowing they had the advantage.

"Give up!" their leader cried. "Submit and I may be merciful!"

Others looked on, laughing at the Faunus boy's defeat. None offered help or even a sign of pity. Scarlet lay on the ground, motionless, and Sage was barely visible beneath a swarm of the smallest monsters.

Sun had to gasp for the breath just to beg, "please… I give up."

It took him a few moments, panting for breath and disoriented, before he realized he was free.

Breathless, the Huntsman pulled himself to his feet, unarmed and surrounded.

A few of the monsters, more vicious than the others, crept forward to attack again, but their leader held out a hand.

"Hold," she commanded. "I believe Mr. Sun has something to say."

"Don't do it!" Neptune shouted from somewhere out of sight. "Sun, don't you dare!"

"I'm sorry, Nep," the defeated blond called back. "I have to."

There was a chorus of evil laughter as Sun nodded and did as he was told.

"I, Sun Wukong," he declared loud enough for everyone to hear, "am a fart-brain who needs his ears checked twice a day to make sure nothing's leaked out. Roar is much, much better than me because she's the best, and I hereby surrender team SSSN as her sl-"

"And her warriors!" one of the victors chimed in.

"And her warriors," Sun agreed, "slaves for the day."

The entire lot of them cheered and the leader, a twelve-year-old girl with bright purple hair, was lifted into the air and cheered as a hero.

As more of the children gathered into a crowd to celebrate, Sage finally became visible again, looking a little tired but none the worse for wear. Scarlet needed a hand up, though, having been soundly tickled into exhaustion during the war. Sun looked around and saw Neptune taking a break from organizing the town's defenses to glare at him.

Sun shrugged and grinned helplessly, and Neptune just shook his head and waved his hand before going back to work, probably hoping he wouldn't get dragged away by enthusiastic children if he kept busy with the adults.

It wasn't long before little Aurora marched up to Sun, arms crossed imperiously and head held high.

"Lady Roar-"

"I'm Queen Roar now," the girl said, nodding at her decree.

Her subjects dutifully cried, "hail!"

Sun grinned. "Queen Roar," he agreed, bowing low. "How can Team SSSN serve you today?"

Aurora didn't hesitate a second. She pointed at the ground and nodded to both Scarlet and Sage. "Kneel."

Sage gave Sun an incredulous look, but Sun just nodded and knelt as ordered, so his two teammates did so.

"Up!" the girl cried, and for a moment Sun thought it was an order for him, but then the children swarmed forward. Eight climbed on Sage and another five on Scarlet, but Aurora stood in front of her minions and stopped them. Sun craned his head and watched as Aurora primly walked around behind him, then scrambled onto his shoulders, getting her perch ready before summoning the rest of the children to take their positions.

The kids had barely taken hold of Sun's arms to climb up before they all heard a voice even more commanding than Aurora's ring out.

"Aurora Bennez, what do you think you're doing?"

Sun turned towards a tall woman with light armour and a pistol in her hands striding towards them with the crowd parting around her. Almost as one, all the children let out fearful and disappointed groans.

"I'm Queen Roar now, mom," Aurora said stubbornly, using Sun's head as a podium.

"No," Aurora's mom said, stopping a meter away from the team and their passengers. "You are-"

The woman paused, eyes catching on Sun's tail, then quickly scanning the other two Huntsmen.

"-not," she finished. "Everybody down. Now! It's time to gather up. The airships will be here soon."

The children complained, but quickly got off, all except for Aurora. Sun knelt on the ground, waiting for the girl to get off, but she simply didn't move.

"The airships aren't here for ages," the girl argued. "I want to stay with Sun! He's nice, and ticklish."

Sun laughed. "The kids have to gather up, Ro-"

"I will speak with my own daughter, thank you, boy," the woman interrupted. "Aurora, you know better than to play with travellers. Get down. The children will be on the first airships out, and you need to be ready as soon as they land."

Sun reached up and lifted Aurora off his shoulders, putting her down in front of him and patting her on the shoulder. Aurora looked back regretfully, then dashed forward and hugged him. Sun smiled and returned the hug cautiously. It was hard to really enjoy it with Aurora's mom glaring daggers at him the entire time.

As the pair left, Sun heard Aurora saying, "he's really nice, really!"

"Oh, thank the gods," Scarlet said, pulling Sun's attention away from the pair and all the kids who had run off. Scarlet rolled his shoulders and cracked his back with a sigh. "Those little monsters are worse than the Grimm any day. I'm just glad the lady saved us."

Sage said nothing, too busy glaring after the retreating woman. Scarlet caught the look, followed it, then glanced at Sun.

This didn't happen that often. What were those looks for?

Neptune strode up to the group and put an arm around Sun's shoulder. "Almost done," he said. "Let's check on Aoi, then head the…"

He trailed off, catching Sage and Scarlet's expressions.

Sun nodded. "Yeah. Sounds good. C'mon."

He turned and led the way towards the edge of town, where the last Grimm attack had hit. There weren't many people in that direction, except for a few carrying the last medical supplies to the town center, where the airships would be dropping. There were gouges from claws and bullets in the ground and one house had its wall caved in from where Huntress Rivas had thrown a Beringel before… well, before the fight went downhill fast.

"Did you see the way she looked at him?" Sage muttered to Scarlet. "We just saved their town! You'd think-"

"Guys," Sun interrupted, looking back at Scarlet and Sage with their heads together. The Faunus boy forced a grin. "Don't worry about it. Look on the bright side. None of the kids had a problem with me."

"We've been spending the whole month running from one fire to another," Neptune added. "Oper- Marina's got us saving half of Mistral. Doesn't matter how they feel about it, we're helping people. Right, Sun?"

Sage grumbled something Sun didn't quite catch, but at least Scarlet took the hint and kept trying to settle Sage down. The big guy was as sensitive about this kind of stuff as Blake sometimes.

"Do you think Rivas will go out with the first airship like she's supposed to?" Sun asked Neptune when they reached the door to the makeshift hospital by the town wall.

Something crashed against the wall and a man in medical scrubs came out the door fast enough to push both Huntsmen aside.

"Nope," Neptune answered, wide-eyed.

"She definitely threw that," Sun whispered, peering through the door from the side. "How did she throw…" his eyes settled on a bed lying against the wall by the door.

He and Neptune exchanged glances, then let the oblivious Sage and Scarlet go in first.

"Would have been a shame if that guy were just trying to help you," Marina said from within.

"I'm busy!" Aoi snapped, then apparently noticed Sage and Scarlet, because she asked, "what do you two want?"

That sounded like Sun's cue to come in and save his team, so he edged his way into the building and waved. "We just wanted to see if you were ready to get out of here," he said.

Aoi Rivas was laying on a medical bed with both hands in great big casts. "Marina" was sitting beside her wearing her incognito gear. The XCOM Operative looked like any other person in a Mistral outskirts village, wearing once-fancy clothes with just one less patch than would probably make the shirt and pants unfashionable for the area.

The Huntress glared at the four of them. "You should know the answer to that!" she said. "I'm not leaving until the airships are here, got it? If the Grimm come back, that's on me."

Marina nodded indulgently. She'd probably been dealing with this for the last half a day. "The airships should be here soon," she said. "Once we're gone, I've got a nice little surprise for the Grimm that Aoi helped me put together. Better yet, I've got a few clues to send to some of my travelling friends."

She gave an incredibly obvious and unnecessary wink that even Sun thought was a bit much.

Neptune rolled his eyes and looked around, checking to see if there was anybody else in the building. Apparently Aoi had chased off the last of them, though, because the entire place was empty. Everybody had headed for the center of town.

"Anything about ADVENT?" Neptune asked.

"Maybe," Marina said with a coy smile. "We'll have to ask them after-"

"Of course it's about ADVENT," Aoi snapped. "Those slimeballs set this whole thing up, and you can tell the Guild that. When I get up north, I'm going to punch Cinder in the mouth so hard she craps fibreglass cast for a year."

"Which might work if Cinder were in northern Mistral right now," Marina said exasperatedly. "Why don't-"

She was cut off by the town siren going off.

SSSN exchanged looks, but Aoi Rivas moved fastest, leaping to her feet and pointing one cast-encased hand at Sage. "You, big boy. Help me get my bracers on."

Sage opened his mouth, looking at the casts, then the bracers by Aoi's medical bed. "Uh…"

Aoi growled. "On my legs, obviously. Now hurry!"

Sage helplessly grabbed the bracers and, at the Huntress's loud orders, started strapping them to to her shins.

"Not on the front, big boy! You want me to slice off my feet? Abs, help him. We're getting out of here three minutes ago."

Sun nodded and knelt to do as ordered, getting a supportive thumbs-up from Neptune.

After a minute of strapping and adjustment, Aoi kicked her legs a couple of times and grimaced. "Bit tight, but it'll do."

"Almost like they're designed for your arms," Marina observed.

Scarlet gave the operative a look. "Ever think about dialing back the sarcasm in front of the angry professional Huntress?"

Marina made a show of considering for a second, then said, "yeah… naahh."

"Right," Sun said, gesturing towards the door. "I'm glad you're having fun, but we've got a town to save."

Without another word, he and Neptune led the way out the door with Sage and Scarlet right behind them.

Aoi Rivas came out right beside Sage and Scarlet, and since the door wasn't nearly big enough for so many people to get through at once, she opted to cut her way through the wall. An X carved in the wall, then blew outwards in the time it took to take two steps. SSSN stopped to stare and Aoi just glared at them, then leapt onto the roof to get a better look at the area.

Sage leapt up, too, then Neptune, but Scarlet looked around first and put a hand on Sun's shoulder.

Sun looked around and spotted Aurora's mother running through the street, looking everywhere.

"That can't be good," Scarlet said.

Sun made to call out, but a voice behind him called out first.

"Hey, lady! Airships are the other way!"

Marina ran up beside them as both Huntsmen started towards the armoured woman. Aurora's mother saw the trio and barely slowed.

That did it. Sun put on a burst of speed and caught up with her. When he got close, moving at a dead sprint, he called, "hey! Who're you looking for?"

"Auror-" the woman said, before spotting him and cutting off. At least she stopped. Along with Sun's heart.

"What happened?" he asked. "Where'd she go?"

"I don't know, you Faunus idiot!" the woman yelled. "I-"

"Alright, lady," interrupted Marina as she caught up. "That's the way to make friends. Now maybe try telling us where you last saw whoever it is. Do you know they're in this area?"

"Yes!" the woman snapped, ignoring Sun in favour of talking to Marina. "We were arguing about this one and she ran off!"

Sun looked at Scarlet and didn't need to say a word. The other boy raised one of his pistols, fired a grappling line into one of the roofs along the street, then hauled himself up into the air. Then Sun pulled out his Scroll and dialed Neptune.

"It's a good thing you told us," Marina was telling the woman. "Now maybe leave it to the professional-"

"You think I'm going to leave this to him?" Aurora's mother asked incredulously. "Or you? You don't even have a weapon!"

Neptune picked up and Sun said, "keep an eye out, Aurora's gone missing, probably on the west side. Scarlet's doing a flyby. That's all we know."

"Right," Neptune replied, all business. "Grimm are coming in from the west, a couple minutes out. We'll keep an eye out... Guys, Aurora-"

Sun hung up. They'd call again if they needed to.

Marina pulled out an XCOM pistol, one of the fancy kind that Sun had never actually seen her fire.

"I'm plenty armed-"

Sun ignored them and pushed forward, beckoning them as he took off at a run. Marina wasn't wrong, but he wasn't about to send Aurora's mother away when-

"Hey," he called back. "What's your name, Aurora's mom?"

She didn't say anything at first, but he said, "I'm gonna need something to yell if we find her."

"Celeste," she yelled, then went silent and kept running. They covered two blocks before Scarlet came down at them in a dive, hitting the ground across the street and dusting himself off.

"Sun!" he called out. "I couldn't find her. She could be in a building or she could be outside the wall."

"The wall."

They all turned to Celeste, whose knuckles were white on her pistol. "She wanted to see you fight," she accused Sun.

"Then Sun and Scarlet go to the wall," Marina cut in. "The Grimm are coming. As for you and me, Celeste, unless you like being eaten, we should check the buildings and let the Huntsmen do their job."

"I'm going to find my daughter," Celeste said, eyes like steel. "If that means going beyond the wall, you won't stop me."

"You'd be sur-"

"Alright," Sun agreed, holding out a hand and nodding towards the wall. "Come on, I'll-"

Celeste recoiled and Sun gave a quiet sigh. "Scarlet, can you get her over the wall?"

Scarlet nodded and reached out a hand for Celeste. It was a little annoying how she took Scarlet's hand without any issue, but there were way more important things now.

His Scroll rang. Not a call, but a short text.

"G 1 min"

"I've gotta go," he said, turning to Marina.

Marina made a shooing motion with her hands. "I'll check the buildings closest to the wall. Somebody's got to."

Sun nodded, drew his staff, and vaulted up to the roof of the nearest building. With a quick wave back to Marina, he ran across the roof and vaulted again, clearing the wall and making the long drop to the other side.

Scarlet and Celeste weren't far from where he landed, but neither of them had any idea where to go, either.

Without another option, Sun called Neptune. The other end rang for about half a second before his best friend picked up.

There was the sound of guns firing and a yell of, "now? Sun, tell me you found her! We need to get out of here. The airships are coming and the Grimm are here."

Sun looked around and saw, to the north, a small fleet of airships. They'd arrived just in time.

"We haven't found her, Nep," Sun admitted. "Can you give us a signal so we know where you are?"

"Yeah, I- oooh crap! Hurry!"

The sign came a second later as a lightning bolt arced into the sky, sending Sun and Scarlet running with Celeste in tow.

"Aurora!" Sun yelled as he ran, and the others shouted along with him, calling into the trees, "Roar! Aurora, where are you?"

Another pair of lightning bolts shot into the sky, guiding the three and, hopefully, Aurora, if she was outside the walls.

Sun almost ran into the little girl, in fact. Neptune, Sage, and Aoi came into sight just as Aurora pushed through a thicket and right into Sun's path. The Huntsman had to skid to a stop and call for the others.

"Celeste, stop! Scarlet, get the others, we need to get back to the wall."

A Nevermore screeched overhead, punctuating the order.

An explosion made a counterpoint as a Beringel seemed to decide a repeat performance of the previous day was in order - it flipped heels over head and slammed through three great trees nearby, coming to a stop close enough for Sun to draw a pistol and put a shot into its gaping mouth.

Aurora looked up at him with her mouth similarly agape, and Sun grinned down at her.

"Hey, Roar," he said, ignoring the gunfire barely a hundred meters ahead. "Your mom and me came to find you. We've gotta get to the airships before everybody leaves."

The little girl nodded fervently and Celeste scooped her up in her arms.

Sun looked to check the others were falling back, even Aoi, then let Celeste get ahead of him and ran hard. A mid-sized Nevermore flew overhead and Sun leapt into the air, jumping from tree to tree until he made it high enough to knock the Grimm out of the sky with a well-placed staff to the beak. As he and it fell, he filled one of its wings with bullets. Not enough to kill it, but enough to slow it down. Then he landed and kept running.

There were more Grimm in the forest, ones he'd spotted on his way down, but other than hoping they didn't run into them, there wasn't much to do yet.

Sun checked behind him again. Neptune was still falling back, not as fast as Celeste was running, but it didn't look like he would be cut off.

As the wall came in sight, though, Sun realized he'd spoken too soon.

A flock of Nevermore were already darkening the sky over the village and Sun could hear gunfire in the distance as the airships fended off the little vermin. Worse, there were Beowoulves ahead, trying to scale the wall on both sides.

Celeste shifted Aurora to one arm and, still running, shot the closest Beowolf in the back. The shots obviously hurt, but they didn't kill it. It fell backwards and it, along with three friends, turned on Celeste.

Sun vaulted over the two humans, kicking the closest Beowolf in the face and smacking the next with his staff. Then he broke up his staff, shot both the nearest ones just to get their attention, collapsed the guns into sticks, and quickly beat the stuffing out of the first one he'd hit. By the time the other three were on him, he was ready, and it only too a few seconds to kill the others.

His Dust levels were good. The Beowolf bodies were fading away. Neptune and company were still in sight, still under control as they fell back. The only problems were the Grimm on either side, blocking off the path to both gates, and the fact that Celeste was busy staring at him instead of moving.

"C'mon," he said, beckoning them. "I can get you both over the wall, I just need a second and you need to be ready."

Aurora reached out, but Celeste held tight and shook her head.

The air was filling with noise, the roaring of Grimm, gunfire from inside the village and from Neptune's group, Dust explosions, and the faintest sign of yelling in the distance.

Aurora squirmed and kicked free of her mother, dashing to Sun's side, but Celeste just stared.

"I have a Semblance that can let me take you both up at once," Sun explained. "I'm not going to take her away."

"Maybe…" Celeste said, "maybe you should. Or we should go around. Take us around to the gate. I'll fight my way there myself, if I have to."

"Mom," Aurora said, reaching out in the same way Sun was. "C'mon. He's nice, really."

With the Grimm coming in from both sides, Sun was forced to start shooting just to slow the monsters down. "Celeste, we don't really have time for this."

"I can wait," the woman insisted, and she started shooting, too, targeting the nearest Beowolf, then the next. "One of your friends can take me. I'll watch you. If you- if you hurt her, I'll shoot you."

The rest of team SSSN had picked up speed, now running more than fighting. There was an incredible rolling rumble and the world itself shook under the force of a blast of gravity Dust, but even Aoi couldn't do something like that often.

"If we wait until they're at the wall, we'll be overrun!" Sun snapped. In desperation, he handed Aurora - a tiny little twelve-year-old girl - one of his pistols and knelt. Three clones appeared, one picking up Aurora, the other himself, and the last held out a hand to Celeste. Aurora, brave little girl, was shooting under the guidance of the clone carrying her. Barely focusing past the three clones, Sun said, "I don't care what you think of me or why you're so scared, but either you trust that your daughter knows good from bad or we're both going to die here, because I'm not leaving you."

Something shifted. Maybe it was what he'd said, maybe it was something Aurora did, maybe it was just how close the other Hunters were getting and how fast. Whatever it was, Celeste took a step forward.

It was enough for Sun. At this point, he'd take any chance he could get and hope Celeste didn't fall on the way. His clone took Celeste's hand and lifted her up, then leapt for the wall.

Sun guided the group of them. First Aurora's clone kicked off the head of a Beringel, then braced against the wall so that Celeste's clone could jump off its shoulders. Meanwhile, Sun's clone raced partway up the wall, threw Sun unceremoniously upwards, then stopped and grabbed Aurora's clone to throw towards the top of the wall. It all ended up looking haphazard and losing on of Sun's clones, but Aurora's clone caught Sun at the top of the wall and Aurora made sure to help pull him up.

Barely seconds later, Neptune, Scarlet, Sage, and Aoi made it to the top of the wall and the tide of Grimm behind them slammed into outside of it.

Sun's clones disappeared and the boy let his head drop back as he let out a sigh of relief.

"That," he said as Aurora hugged him, "was something."

"It's not over yet." Neptune pulled Sun to his feet. "Sage, get the lady. Scar… uh, never mind, I think Aurora's with Sun."

Aurora nodded imperiously, apparently completely unworried about all the Grimm below or the ones flying over the wall towards the few airships still in town.

"Alright, Aurora," Sun said, hefting the girl onto his shoulders. "Hold on tight, alright?"

Aurora nodded and wrapped her arms around Sun's chin.

"Neptune," Sun called. "Marina's still looking for Aurora. Grab her, will you?"

Neptune did a heroic job of not blushing, just nodded and said, "y-yeah, I can do that."

Sun laughed. "Good luck, bro."

Then he leapt and his team and Aoi came with him. From roof to roof with Aurora squealing in delight as if they weren't running for their lives, they cleared the distance to the city center in less than a minute, pausing only so Aoi could cover Neptune clambering back onto the roof with Marina in his arms.

Not that the XCOM operative looked much like a princess, shooting over Neptune's shoulder at anything she could see.

At the city center, Celeste scrambled from Sage's back and Marina primly let herself to the ground, shot one more Nevermore with her arms still around Neptune's neck, then pocketed the pistol and hurried to the airship.

"I wanna stay with you," Aurora complained as they all boarded the ship.

"The fighting's over," Sun said gently as he let the girl down. "You have to go make sure your mother is alright. I'll be right here, Roar, don't you worry."

Aurora nodded, then hurried over to her mother.

"Fight's not quite over yet," Marina said, sidling up to the team. "Hey, Aoi, get over here! This is gonna be right up your alley!"

Aoi grumbled something and pushed through the crowd of people to the edge of the airship. Already, the town was fading into the middle distance, only a few Nevermore trying to keep up with the ship.

Marina did a little dance in place, then pulled out a tiny device that looked like little more than a button.

"Without any ado," she said, and promptly pressed the button.

The town exploded. Or imploded. Whatever it did, one second it was there, the next it was gone, probably with all the Grimm inside along with it.

"Well, with that job subtly handled," Marina remarked to nobody in particular, "I have some news to get to Argus. Take a few days off, boys."

From the middle of the crowd, Aurora cried, "take that, you monsters! Nobody messes with Queen Roar and team SSSN!"

The Huntsmen laughed and, practically in unison, leaned into the railing.

"Kid's got a point," Aoi grunted, watching the explosion fade in the distance. "You pretty boys ever want a sponsor, look me up. I'll be nice."

She headed off into the crowd and SSSN all traded looks. Then, as one, they shook their heads and laughed.


A/N: Alright, so that's the (100% canon) minichapter written by SirMandokarla. If you dig their writing style, I've got them listed under my favorite author's tab (at least I should. It's not showing up for me, oddly enough). There's a bunch of stories about Star Wars and Warframe you can check out.

As I mentioned in the opening A/N, the other half of the server contest was to write a small something about how the story and/or server had a personal effect on the submission writer. The four responses I got were all excellent, and I've decided to post them all below. So without further ado…

Enjoy.


Community, by Icario

What this community has done to make a positive impact on my life after one year?

Simply put, me is not the bad kind of growth you hand holding degenerates, so if you please allow me i would like to explain a bit although it's going to get quite personal… Kind of a given really.

I like to doodle, those who stumble onto Discord server would've probably seen one or two of what've been doing and it's easy to notice that i'm quite the amateur still, drawing has been a hobby since i was a little kid. Probably started when one afternoon i watched Star Wars and would later see my father play the first Half Life in his computer, that game scared me to bits thanks to the headcrabs and the zombies but i was also fascinated by it. So, said afternoon i took out a sheet of paper, managed to get my grubby little hands on a pencil and started drawing for the first time. A rather simple scene, looking like it was a screenshot from Half Life but with stormtroopers being mowed down by an unknown rebel with a blaster.

From that day, I've drawn. Helped me to vent out my emotions when i had trouble processing them, especially since 2004 where least to say some bad stuff happened to my family. But sadly that came to a stop when all my failures started mounting up on me, the frustration from being a school failure, feeling useless at home since I wasn't needed for anything, bad relationships with family members and drama in my group of friends… I just felt useless, like nothing would be lost if one day I would just disappear and fade away, things could even improve without me around even.

That was until pretty much last year, I stumbled unto Amish's work RWBY Within by sheer chance alone, only thing i'd ever saw of RWBY was the usual gifs from some of the fights back then and the only fanfiction i've ever read properly at that point was canceled, but i did love XCOM quite a lot so i was curious. Clear to say i was hooked into it, read through the whole thing in a week, when i learned that a sequel was already on the works and with several chapters already in i was more than delighted. It also made me start watching RWBY, so that's a plus.

It would take me until May to join the Discord after forgetting it existed in the first place when it was first announced, wouldn't be until August of the same year where i would post my first piece of fanart for the fic, a simple scene from the Battle of Beacon doodled on a crappy notebook with a shaky camera with an even shittier resolution courtesy of my phone. The response was weird, just expected it to just fade away since there was another artist in the server who had done an amazing job designing "Avenger-chan", but somehow people did like the small battle.

Although it would take to break my years long art-block until another user was asking around on help designing a character for a fic said user was the author of. I guess that rekindled the flame.

So much so that for the first time i had the courage to try drawing for the first time characters like Ruby, Weiss, Penny, Sienna Khan and many of the characters from the RP server sister to the main Remnant Unknown server. Up to that point the only things i've drawn were dudes in armor, just armor or if it was something different it was never finished so finally getting around to doing some of the characters i love from a series i would've never started watching without all of this…

There's this saying that most creators when they look upon their past works one only sees mistakes and it's quite the truth but, when i look upon the past work i've done for the people of this server or just for myself because i thought the idea was fun at the moment i feel proud of them. Because at that point i wasn't the only one that liked it, maybe it was one of the jokes i add in the background, maybe it is the scale or just seeing an idea we talked about in the server come to paper. But just knowing that someone other than myself might have liked it and hopefully brighten up their day just a bit, it makes me happy.

PS: Also, Striped Sweater best ship. Fite me


Uncomfortable, by Ramboing

So first off who am I? My name is Ramboing. Some know me as the Chief Scientist on the main Discord Server or Lord and Master on the RPGCOM server. I've been reading the REMCOM series since at least February 2018 and joined the Discord server mere days after it was announced. I've seen the server start out with only three others and then balloon to the 100+ that is today. I say all these things not in any way to brag, but to show exactly how much this story and this community has been a part of my life for the past year and how much it means to me. But over the past year, I've been reluctant to be open about myself. Yeah I've told some about bits of my life (perks of internet anonymity) but nothing about me as a person.

I think that on the anniversary of the Discord server, it is the best time to be honest about myself.

When I first tried to write in response to this competition, I had a difficult time trying to put into words what this community, this REMCOM group has done for me and what it makes me feel. As I've sat down trying to think about how to even begin such an insurmountable task, there is just one feeling that I can't shake off. One feeling that I believe best summarizes what this community makes me feel:

Uncomfortable.

Ever since I started college and became independent (and if I'm being honest lonely) I have been grappling with some issues that I never had before. Feelings of self doubt and anxiety began to creep up my freshman year of college. I feared trying new things, reaching out to others and overall just failing in anything. I had this bubble of comfort which I never wanted to leave. Even a simple task like joining a new Discord server for a fanficion was something I struggled to do.

But it was that act which I think changed me for the better. This community has helped me in so many ways, to embrace things I was too scared or embarrassed to do. They encouraged me to take a giant leap and lead an RP group for this story we all know and love. They pushed me open myself and try writing, helping me write my first story: the TFTA Chapter Coffee with CFVY. And at the very least, the people here have given me an outlet I never had before. This community has forced me to pop that bubble of comfort and leave myself exposed and… uncomfortable.

So thank you. Thank you DrAmishMD for creating this story and fostering the community I am proud to be a part of. Thank you to all the members on the Discord server for being the ship-crazy/lewd driven shitposters I know and love. And thank you to the people of the RP server for going along for the ride so far and letting me be your Head GM. Thank you all for making me uncomfortable in the best way possible.


*Insert Clever Title*, by Raven, the Amber-Winged

The day is the 15th of April, and tomorrow (or today, depending on your timezone and the time this piece will take to write) is the anniversary of this server, and also roughly nine months of my own stay here if I'm still awake enough to be able to count. So, what did this community bring into my life in those nine months?

First of all, while it may seem strange, it brought itself. This community is the single largest one I've ever been a part of, gathering people from quite a few places around the globe, allowing me to be exposed to many different perspectives and opinions, and that's not even starting on it being the only English-speaking one, which has its own separate bunch of advantages.

Secondly, it provided (and continues to provide) me with much-needed encouragement: to write and to draw (the push to continue trying that comes from having an example of someone doing it better does indeed outweigh the minor self-esteem drop), even to speak with people (even more so because this community is an English-speaking one, talking in other languages never being something I was overly enthusiastic to try).

Thirdly, the REMCOM community serves as a constant reminder that REMCOM exists, as silly as it might sound. Being a (somewhat) active member of it prevents me from dropping the fic as I've done with some series in my life, and missing out on it is not something I'd be happy about.

So, thank you, Amish, for making the existence of this community possible in the first place, and thank you everyone else!

P.S. - I'm checking this peace with Grammarly, but some parts of it (especially phrasing) are still almost guaranteed to suck, so I apologize for subjecting you to this.

P.P.S. - Alien Alloys for best ship, you heretics


Finding Peace in the Chaos, by Joey245

When I first started reading a little fanfic called XCOM: RWBY Within, I had no idea how much of an effect it would have on my life.

Hi there, my name is Joey245, or "Joey" to those not on the internet. I'm 26 years old, graduated with a degree in Mechanical Engineering, am on the Autism Spectrum, and am a big fan of both RWBY and XCOM. I love the characters and the imaginative world that Monty Oum and RoosterTeeth worked so hard to create, and I love the well-balanced, dynamic systems that Firaxis and Long War Studios created. Seeing a well-written, imaginative fic that introduced both these two seemingly disparate universes, I fell in love with it immediately, and have read the entire thing front-to-back at least a dozen times by now. This love continued into the sequel, Remnant Unknown, which continues to be an amazing experience that flips the table on "XCOM but with RWBY" to instead create a story that's largely "RWBY but with XCOM."

So when I saw in an author's note on the newest chapter that DrAmish had set up a discord for fans, I figured I'd pop in, see what people were saying, but not really contribute that much myself.

Oh how glad I am that I was proven wrong.

See, April of 2018 was one of the toughest periods of my life. Despite my best efforts and searches, I had been without a job for almost a year at that point. Sure, living with my family meant that I didn't really have any financial obligations, but it was still painful to watch as everyone went off to work, school, or day program, leaving me with nothing but an empty house, video games, and a sassy cat. What hurt the most about that time was how...isolated I felt.

I may get physically exhausted by social interactions, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy having friends and hanging out with them. Most of my friends had been through school and a service group - after having been out of school for two years, almost all of them had gone off on their own paths in life, and it just wasn't the same. I can't even remember meeting face-to-face with anyone during that time that wasn't my mom, dad, either of my brothers, or my job coach. And of course, I had things I wanted to talk about, but none of the aforementioned people were all that interested in the things I was.

When I first joined Amish's discord server back on April 23rd, 2018, I didn't know what to expect. I didn't expect to be welcomed so warmly. I didn't expect to find friends with common interests in such a short amount of time. And I certainly didn't expect to almost burst a lung laughing at silly posts and wacky conversations, some of which would involve the author himself. And yet...that's exactly what happened.

For the first time in a long time, I felt like I was interacting with people.

Things escalated pretty quickly within the server in a good way. I went from being a casual observer of the story to being able to have input in the story being told, being able to publish what is essentially fanfiction of a fanfiction. I got invited to a fan-run RPG, and went from being yet another player to being the main player of freaking Ruby Rose herself. And as I hunted and looked for jobs, the people here never stopped encouraging me, never stopped believing in me.

This server gave me exactly what I needed, exactly when I needed it.

So...thank you. Thank you to DrAmish, thank you to all the friends I've made on the server, thank you for letting me be me.

Vigilo Confido, my friends. Now let's keep moving forward.

-Joey245


A/N: And that's a wrap. Thank you everyone for enjoying this story with me, regardless of whether you're a member of the Discord server or not. I am working on the next chapter, and I am hopefully aiming for an April upload date. May or may not happen, as I'll be moving from a condo to a house on the 19th. Crazy adulting stuff, man. Growing up is weird.