Standard Disclaimer: Project Sutra is based on the ROM RP from the Pebble Version forums. All characters are property of their respective owners. Permission to use all characters and situations has been given by said respective owners. I've taken some liberties with some/all of the characters to fit with the story. This work is copyrighted to the author, and in no way is it to be sold, altered, or stolen. This Project is directly connected to ROM: The Comic with is also an original work of mine hosted on www.pebbleversion.com/ROM

Author’s Notes: Hello there, and thank you for reading my story, if you are reading this, then that shows that you are obviously a person of the highest calibre, and great sophistication, with highly refined taste, and are able to appreciate superior culture.

Special Notice: Thanks to Josiah, Opal and Immortal Servant, who provided valuable assistance in fixing some grammar errors and typos in this story as well as prereading each chapter at least twice. Also, thanks to the many writers out there whose work helped inspire my work.

 

ROM Comics Presents

A work by Samantha 'Shauni' Lowe

Based on the RPs ROM: Realm of Monsters, ROM: Zodiac legends, ROM: Shadow of Souls and ROM: New Horizons

Project Sutra: Burned, Broken and Forgotten

****

Life will never be the same again... I have been tossed over and again not once or twice but hundreds of times. The Almighty creator has been at his best testing me every now and then as if trying to confirm whether I shall be able to hold onto the responsibility I have been assigned with. I shall not fail under any circumstances. This is my destiny... the goal of my life which I have chosen on my own.

But desire is the ultimate cause of all unhappiness.

****

Project Sutra

Chapter One: Enigmas wrapped within riddles

****

Sakura sighed as she turned the stroller into yet another path through Orca National Park. 

"Come on Shauni, be a good girl and go to sleep....mommy's tired…"

She looked down at the contents of the stroller. A small 6 year old child looked back at her with lively green eyes and giggled.

Sakura sighed again, would Shauni ever go of to sleep?

Her eyes preceded her up from the stroller to the path, and stopped on a girl sitting on a bench. She had her long raven hair pulled back into a high ponytail. She looked rather morose, and her chin rested on her chest. She’d been there the last two times past the lake, too.

Sakura and her daughter rolled up and stopped. If she was doomed to wander the park tonight, she might as well try to do something better than just kill time. This girl looked like she could use a friendly face.

“Hello,” ventured Sakura. The girl didn’t respond. “Hello?”

The raven-haired girl looked up, revealing startling, clear blue eyes. The girl was simply beautiful, the kind of beauty that seemed warm and approachable rather than haughty and remote.

She looked over Sakura and the stroller, and seemed to shrink a bit. “Uhhh… Hi.” Here voice was shaky and broken.

“It’s a nice evening, don’t you think? A bit sticky.”

The girl seemed distracted. “Yeah.” She eyed the stroller again. “Taking a walk?”

“Yes.” She smiled and shrugged. “My daughter doesn’t want to go to sleep.”

The girl seemed to grow more morose at Sakura’s words; she didn’t respond for a while. “Oh. Is it working?”

“Not at all.” Sakura laughed, and the girl managed a chuckle. “How about you?”

The teenager looked down again, and sounded dispirited. “I...I....nothing.....” Her fine eyebrows knit in tension.

Sakura studied her carefully. “Its like that is it....”

The nodded. “Dont worry about it...its not your problem.”

“Shouldn’t you be getting home soon? Wont your parents be worried?”

The girl stiffened visibly, and closed her eyes for a moment. “Uhhhh… I guess. Yeah.”

Suspicion started to grow in Sakura’s mind. “Are you going to be all right?”

The teenager looked up sadly “Peachy....”

The girl was still sitting there, hunched over on the bench. “I dont mean to interfere, but if its got you this worried maybe you need to do something positive, to either resolve the issue or at least get your mind off it. Its not nice to see such a pretty face holding a frown”

The girl sighed. “Yeah, your right” She straightened up a little. "Sitting here isn't going to help. I guess… guess I should go home and deal with it.” Her expression hardened. “Running away isn't the answer.” She stood up.

Sakura smiled. She seemed like a good girl, despite her rough manners. “That’s the spirit.”

The teenager smiled in gratitude. “Thanks, lady.”

“Not at all. Whatever it is, dear, good luck.” The girl smiled again, and headed off.

Sakura watched her leave. In contrast to the way she had sat on the bench, she walked gracefully.

Sakura shook her head slowly; the girl seemed like a living, walking contradiction. She wondered if she’d encounter this raven haired enigma again.

Daring to hope, she looked back to the stroller. Two tiny, alert eyes regarded her, and blinked once. She sighed in resignation as her own shoulders slumped, and she wearily started to roll the stroller down the path once more. She wondered who was going to be the first to pass out.

****

"Time is a great healer, I'm sure you'll get over this in time. Please, dont do this"

It's funny, how not having something good can hurt more than having something bad.

It's even funnier that I didn't know I had something good until it was gone. I had it good, better than I ever will again, and now, no matter what happens, no matter how well I do, that something is gone, and its absence will cause me pain for as long as I live.

Time only lets your learn to live with the pain, you never heal.

"Its already been so long though."

****

Sutra ran with all the speed her feet could muster. Inspired by the advice of a passing stranger, she had her second wind, and would face her problems head on.

Sutra's problems were never normal for a girl her age, at the age 10 both her parents had been killed in a car accident. She had been raised by her older brother who was 7 years her senior. Now she was 17 and looking after him.

He had recently started drinking after loosing his scholarship to University. Sutra had to deal with her normally gentle brothers liquor induced mood swings.

Last night had proved to much for her, her brother had smashed up her computer in a blind rage...Sutra's only portal to human interaction was the internet, she was somewhat of a loner in reality.

She reached the two bedroom apparent neither of the siblings could bring themselves to call home.

Sutra stopped at the door for a moment to compose herself, taking in a deep breath.

She twisted the door open and entered the darkness that greeted her.

"Emiel" she spoke softly

Silence

"Emiel...its me, are you home?"

Silence

She began to investigate the rooms one by one, finding each one cloaked in an eerier darkness.

She eventually came to her room, the only one left to investigate.

She slowly opened the door and peered in. The crack of light lit the destruction Emiel had left there hours ago.

She sunk into the room, switching on the light.

A gasp escaped her, the room was an even greater mess than she had left it in her brothers rage.

She surveyed what remained of her belongings.
Her computer monitor was smashed into the floor, and her base units hard disk and CD burner were mangled in its remains.

The rest of the base unit was just an obliterated mess on the floor, covered party by two halves of a key bored, and what looked like a mouse cord...with no mouse on the end.

If it was just this she may have been able to understand, but all of her posters had been ripped down, her books torn into peace's, her CDs thrown about the place, scratched beyond use. Her bedding had been shredded also, and there was even a hole in the wall, most likely due to a leg.

Sutra did the one things she could do, she calmly walked into the room and began to go threw this mess, looking for anything that could be salvaged.

She considered for a moment doing the same to Emiel's belongs, but brushed the thought aside when she found a book.

She pulled the book to her, a soft smile covering her face

"Thank god you survived...all this is bad enough...but if he had destroyed you as well...I would have never forgiven him"
She opened the pages of the book, it was a note book, full of written down ideas, programming code for computers, sketches and stuck in pictures.

The book was very old and well worn on its spin. A mixture of journal and scrap book.

It looked like the makings of a great project, lovingly put together over a long time.

She flipped to the back of the book, there was a safe key tapped into a concealed pocket.

She brought out the key and clenched it tightly in her fist.

"Thank god I back up all my work...if I had lost this...I may as well have not lived the last two years..."

****

"But you have been seeing other people, that's good, meeting someone new will help. Just give them a chance, dont let yourself become obsessive like this"

I'm afraid you misconstrue my actions. I assure you that our unorthodox meeting was quite unintentional, and that it was but an unfortunate happenstance that caused me to collide with them. A series of unrelated events, nothing more than coincidence, and not a happy coincidence at that. I dont want to meet other people

"I dont want anyone. I wont replace him with anyone"

****

A rather pretty, if dishevelled, young girl with short brown hair held back by a hairband and stylish metallic glasses stood behind the counter of the library .

Her face twisted up as she looked at Sutra into an expression of… something. Sutra never did see what the expression was becoming, because the girl was simultaneously flipping paperwork around herself. Apparently even though Sutra was stood right in front of her, this girl was not aware of her prescience.

"o...where is it, where is it!"

"What's the matter Yoiko?"

The girl suddenly jumped in surprise as the voice came from behind her, sending all the paperwork flying out of her arms and falling to the ground in messy clumps.

"Um, good afternoon Yoiko"

"S-Sutra! Ah! You scared me, um...what can do for you today?"

The girl smiled weakly and began to turn red, clearly embraced.

Sutra was a bit freaked by Yoiko’s behaviour. She was acting so panicky… and, well, un-Yoikoish.

The girl was the stereotypical Liberian, calm and quite. Today she was a panicky mess

"What's going on? What's got you so worked up?"
"Hum, o, the department is having an upheaval...I need to find the paperwork for last years book perchance..."

"....but you cant find it?"
"No..."

"Would you like me to help you look?"
"No no, that's ok, your off duty, I'll manage, you know me, scatter brain that I am, Ive just forgotten where they are"

Yoiko began to laugh nervously

"Well...if your sure, anyway, I came to get some stuff out of the safe, can you let me threw?"
Yoiko stopped laughing and composed herself
"Sure Sutra, just go threw, just try to avoid standing on the paperwork...all over the floor..."

Sutra smiled weakly, bowed to Yoiko, and set of behind the counter to the staff only area.

She came into the room, a little less cluttered than the main desk, but this was after all Yoiko's room, so it was filled with paperwork as well.

Trying to ignore the mess, Sutra walked to the back of the room towards a safe imbedded into the wall.

Taking her key, she placed it into the lock and turned it.

There was a loud creaking of protest from the safe as she forced the door open.

She looked inside, a genuine smile forming on her face.

She reached into the safe and pulled out a laptop.

"Everything on my home computer is backed up on here...it wouldn't do to not have a backup with 'brother dear' around"

She walked towards Yoiko's desk and sat down, placing the laptop on the table.

After plugging it in she loaded up the machine

"What are you doing in there?" Yoiko yelled in to her from outside

"Just going to work on ROM for a while, my home computer is....broken"

"O, still working on that computer game of yours?"
"yep, I had a great idea today"
"And what's that?"
"I finally came up with a name for the villain, I even managed to get some code sequences to program his AI from Greg"
"That's good, so, what's this great name you came up with?"
"Moen"

"Moen? What kind of name is that?"
"Think about it, MO-EN"

There was silence for a moment

"O I get it! Mokando Endan!"

"Yep, you got that right, our 'wonderful' boss and slave driver!"
"That's perfect, he would make a perfect villain!"

Yoiko began to laugh, a true laughter

Sutra smiled happily for the first time all day, Yoiko always made her laugh.

She had a little surprise for Yoiko as well, she had based a character in her game on her.

"I also have another character lined up to program tonight as well"
"O, and who that possibly be?"
"Well, she's kinda a book worm, mostly charm, a little bit of a scatter brain, but has a great sense of humour"
"Ok...she sounds nice"
"And her names Yomikko"

"'Yomikko? Kinda sounds like Yoiko doesn't it "
"That's the point! She's based on you stupid!"

"Wow! your putting me in your game...wait, who are you calling scatter brain! Only I get to call myself that!"

Sutra and Yoiko both explode into laughter.

After a while the sound of laughter faded as Yoiko returns to her paperwork, there was no noise in the department of the old school apart from the light tapping of a keyboard in Yoiko's office. Yoiko found it soothing and finally found her missing paperwork she was looking for, now all that was left was to find her budget from last year...

****

"Perhaps a change of scene would be good, go on holiday, leave behind your worries. Just dont do this"

Travel is supposed to be broadening. It is not, really. Mostly, travel is loneliness, separated into intervals of too many people going in other directions. Loneliness, taken to extreme, leads to sadness. Sadness, taken to extreme, leads to depression. Depression, taken to extreme leads to shortcomings....then back to travelling.

"Travel, where? I’ve travelled, I still feel the same."

****

"I'm home." came the slightly miserable announcement at the entrance. Sutra was not having a good day. First Mr Mokando Endan, her 'lovely' boss at the school, had found out she was using the office safe for personal goods and was ordered to remove the laptop, then she ran into some boys she really didn't like and then Mu-mu, the neighbours randy dog, made romantic advances towards her leg. After dealing with them it started to rain. It wasn't a good day at all.
Once a good ways inside, she shook her jacket and umbrella to get off some excess water then headed toward the kitchen.
"Hi Auntie Corinne. What's for lunch?" she said.
"Sutra, home already?" Corinne sounded surprised, she had expected Sutra to stay at the school after her shift to work on her 'hobby'.
"Ummm..."
"Why don't you take your bath, and lunch will be ready."  interrupted any kind of reply from her Aunt, who then started to prepare lunch.

Sutra's Auntie Corinne came to there flat once a week to prepare them a meal, she wanted to make sure they ate well at least once a week.
"Ok." she grabbed one of the clean towels then headed toward the bath.

Already in the bathroom, a figure climbed out threw the open window and landed ungracefully in a heap on the floor outside.

"Damn. Where is it?" the boy said as he looked for something, only to realise that it he must have dropped it when he tried to open the window. Silently, he tried his best to get in the window back inside the bathroom. Once in, he started to search the room for 'it'. It seemed that 'it' was on the other side, near the door. He tip toed over and then bent down to pick it up...

*Yawn* 'I must be more tired then I thought' Sutra thought while preparing for the bath, making sure she had a clean pair of clothes to wear afterwards, she walked over to the door.
'The bath'll help, I'm sure of it.' then she opened the door, only to see a person bending down.
"THEIF!!!" she screamed and then found the heaviest or biggest item she could find and struck the figure over the head with it. This heaviest or biggest item turn out to be a cosmetics try, its contents now all over the floor from its sudden upheaval.. She was just turning to go into the house to call the police when something started to nag at her. Turning back she put on some clothes and turned the figure over. It was too dark to see. She didn't realise why the boy looked familiar until she turned on the lights. When she turned around again to take a better look but saw the face of her brother.

"Emeil? What the hell are you doing??"

Emiel sat up and began to rub his head where she had struck him
"dam it Sutra, I was sneaking out, I just came back in cos I dropped my keys"
"Why the hell are you sneaking out??"

"I'm going to meet Lain at the bar"
"Again? But you went out last night! And today's Tuesday, Auntie is here, she's made our dinner"
"That's why I'm sneaking out"
Sutra walked over to him and lent forward, as Emiel breathed out she pulled back in disgust.

"You already smell of whisky, where did you get that bottle?"
"Actually it was three bottle, and its none of your beeswax"
"I bet you haven't even been sober since last night have you!"
"That's got nothing to do with you!"
"Do you even know what you did to me last night?!?"
"What the hell are you talking about??"
Sutra grabbed her brother in rage and dragged him out of the bathroom with the strength female fury had given her.

She pulled him all along the corridor and past her Auntie in the kitchen.

She opened her bedroom door and thrust Emiel into her room.

He's eyes almost exploded in shock at the sight, it was a wreck

"What happened?? Where we robbed??"
"You happened Emeil! You did this!"

Auntie Corinne had followed Sutra and Emiel and was also taken aback by the sight.
"Emiel...YOU did this?"
Emiel was silent, the shocked had sobered him up.

She slowly began to nodded.

"That's enough....you two cant go on like this, Sutra, your moving in with me until Emiel cleans up his act, pack your things, where leaving right now."

Within almost 20 minutes Sutra and Auntie Corinne had left, Emiel had remained unmoved as he stared at the mess.

He eventually walked downstairs and ate what his Auntie had left him in the microwave.

He returned to Sutra's room after it, with cleaning utensils, a hammer and nails and a bucket.

He began to correct his mistakes.

****

"Well, when all else fails, show a little leg. Guys can't resist a little leg..."

"You cant stop me"

"ha! I knew you weren't listing to me! I'm tying to help you here, why wont you let me in?"

Why cant you see past your Technicolor view of the world, there are drab Grays and violent blacks all around you, not everything is rainbow, why cant you leave me in my bland existence? You cant help me, so why bother trying?

I dont like colours anymore anyway.

"I dont have an answer you will like"

"Denial was not just a river in Egypt"

I'm not in denial.

"Why dont you talk to me? Talking always helps. Please, stop what your doing and just think"

Theirs always a storm. The occasional crash of thunder always hinders conversation. Rain is something that doesn't exactly provide particularly fond memories either. Besides, I dont feel like talking anyway. I just hope theirs a flood so I'm washed away.

"I dont need to"

****

Author’s Notes: Comments are welcome

Tasteless? Unoriginal? Uninspired? And dare I say it “has potential”?

Please e-mail comments to shauni_san@hotmail.com

Sakura is pronounced "suh-KOOH-ra." When pronouncing Japanese names, no syllables are supposed to be stressed. That can be a little hard for some

native English speakers, so instead the first syllable can be stressed for nearly the same effect. It means cherryblossum, which is one of my favorite flowers.

Sutra, as in an actual sutra is literally, "thread" or "string." A scripture containing the teachings of Buddha. In reference to thread; literally the sacred thread that is worn by the twice-born; also the sacred thread of oral tradition that links back to the oldest roots of the faith.
The Sanskrit word sutra literally means an idea expressed as a concise, clear statement. The sutra texts, express a variety of world views.

Also of note, "Yoiko" means "good girl" in Japanese.

Sutra and Emiel have no nationality so no country will be stated where they live.

Chapter 2