Erinnerungen „Tomb Story”
Put your feet up and drink some tea, here is a lot of reading material.
At the age of ~8 years I've already watched my brother at his computer for hours. One day there came an exciting game with (original quote by my mum) „a woman with pistols and big breasts”: it was Tomb Raider I. My 17 year old brother bought it at the release (I guess). Somehow it was interesting for me to have a female character in a game, after I had only known of heroes like Commander Keen or Duke Nukem. At first I just played the training level because I was „afraid” of the real game for some reason.
When my brother got a new computer, I got his computer; I was ten years old. I experienced Photoshop 3.0, but I also played Tomb Raider by myself finally. At the same time my buddy and neighbor Julian borrowed the game for PlayStation. I, as a steady gamer, knew the first 3 levels inside and out and helped him because he got stuck in the first levels. From then on he was infected by Lara too. I felt so awesome drawing Lara Croft in school or running around with pistols and backpack, while others had no clue. xD
During the next wonderful Christmas season, my buddy and I looked forward to the announced second game; we had already played the demo with the Venice level 1000 times, of course. One evening, we just stood around in his room and waited for his dad to come home with the game. Sadly I had to go earlier that evening and could only watch the first level. The following evenings, we played the game on a cuddly, self-made sofa of blankets and pillows (aka „bravery sofa”) with a delicious bag of chips. Those were the days...
One day, the big game Tomb Raider III was announced; I had collected every little snippet of magazines about it. For Christmas, together with game no. 3, I got a PlayStation. My buddy and I played TR3 together as well and spent many evenings with it. That was amazing. The posters in my room grew and I got my first collectibles.
Drawings and posters... Lara was everywhere... (2000/2001)
I had no clue what I had gotten into when I wanted to make my own comic about Lara Croft in 1999. I was 13 years old and had already drawn pictures with an old Photoshop and mouse on my computer, and had just made up pictures for my first Power Point presentation. Spontaneous and without a „script”, I had drawn at my own whim until the beginning of 2001, when I had about 1000 sheets. Speech balloons, sound effects, even a soundtrack; the presentation had it all, and a lot of illogical and perverted moments.
This is me in 2000 at the age of 13. My shirt: „Life sucks”. WHOO.
I can remember well how I had always shown the new scenes to my brother and my buddy Julian. My computer was so overstrained with the sound and music files that you sometimes had to wait 1-2 minutes for one sheet. I had never shown this presentation to anybody else – not even my mum can remember it - so it will be kinda a premiere!
The presentation is called „The journey to the Tibetan mountains” and starts with Lara waking up in the morning and getting a call. She gets the mission to get the so called „Tibetan queen.” Known since Tomb Raider 1, Lara doesn't want the money but the adventure. She even announces it and makes a speech because she wants to display the treasure.
Who has actually called Lara? Whatev.
Lara flies into Tibet alone, with only herself and the pilot on board. Like always there are complications, and Lara is damned sure that the plane will crash while Jack the pilot seems to be rather overstrained. In a totally risky move, Lara and Jack jump off the plane before the crash and survive, although badly injured, and pass out. Sadly, Lara doesn't wake soon enough, and is unable to save Jack from the snow leopard.
Why should it be different – Lara stands in front of said cave and enters it, but she doesn't anticipate that an old „friend” would suddenly point his pistol at Lara and shoot, grazing her arm; luckily Lara has a big medipack. Shortly after that, the enemy notices that he just shot a woman and is ashamed. „Yes, a woman; her name is Lara Croft and she is an archaeologist!” answers our now healed heroine self-confidently. She offers the stranger to join her in her search for the Tibetan queen.
Later, they encounter a big closed door. Nothing can escape Lara's eagle eyes and she sees that her new buddy is playing with an artifact, which turns out to be the key to the door. Behind the door is a wonderful, warm jungle. They wonder why the sun shines in there, then they find a quiet place quickly to take a break. Oh, well, HE takes a break, Lara is unstoppable and wants to comb the jungle. Well, and what will happen if you leave your sleeping partner alone? Of course, he will be attacked by a big cat again but this time Lara is faster with her Uzis!
When it gets darker, the confused man awakes. In the meantime Lara has made a fire and they start to chat. The man introduces himself: „My name's Pierre. Thanks for saving me!” Later they fall asleep.
It is already bright as Pierre wakes up, but he cannot find Lara. Pierre discovers a sea back there; Lara dives in it and discovers an artifact again. When she gets out, Pierre seems to be jealous and attacks Lara because of the artifact. „Give it to me, stupid cow!” he screams as he pulls on her arm, but he calms down quickly. Can Lara trust him?
It's gonna be creepy as the jungle slowly starts to turn dark. The attack of a big green snake is too fast and too dangerous as it attacks Pierre quickly, squeezes him to death, and pulls him into the bush. In the end, Lara can just barely escape.
Lara arrives at a cave with a waterfall and encounters a door. OMG! She gets attacked, by a man again. With a fast move she throws him over her shoulder, and offers to help him up shortly after that, asking for his name. „I'm Larson, you hottie!” are his first words, and you can clearly see what he thinks about her. Why are so many guys running around in a Tibetan cave?! Whatever. Again Lara sees that Larson also has found an artifact which is lying on the floor. It's a gold idol. Larson starts to flirt with Lara again (!?!) but she puts him in his place.
*SLAP* Sometimes I drew these particular pictures only because I had awesome sounds for it...
Lara and Larson compare their found artifacts and soon she also tells him that she is searching for the Tibetan queen. And again Larson tries to flirt with her without a reason but she pulls out her gun. Now at this point that scumbag should get the idea. In their little fight they don't notice that their found artifacts, the sea star and the gold idol, are together in the floor, contact each other and suddenly begin to glow. A kind of portal opens by the artifacts, and Lara and Larson get pulled into it before they awake outside in the snowy landscape again. It's storming, but Larson quickly finds a hideout. When they calm down, the artifacts start to follow them. Suddenly they lie in the hideout in front of them, glowing and sparkling. Then, they get attacked by a snow leopard again, which Larson shoots down immediately. Lara puts the artifacts into her bag and they go on with their search for the Tibetan queen. But where are they even at?
Somewhere outside in the mountains they find a functional snowmobile – sure! Larson wants to be a hero and gives Lara his vest, because we all know that Lara always wears too little clothing. Lara huddles against Larson, his belly gets warm and fuzzy and he drives into a snow hill – BAM. After they come around, they're inside a little cave. They're in front of the Tibetan gate! Lara decodes the secret cryptograph: „If you and the sea star dare it, you'll be one step forward.” While Lara takes a dive to insert the sea star into a shape, Larson gets attacked by a guardian, a big cat, as the door opens. Larson screams for his life and Lara comes to his aid. He is badly injured but Lara patches him up.
Inside the cave Lara hands an M16 to her brave warrior. He is super excited as Lara hands him the ammo for it. Totally in trance he shoots down an attacking big cat (where are they coming from?!) and is stunned about the power of his new toy. Lara admonishes him, but her pervy fosterling hallucinates again: he imagines Lara in underwear all the time and passes out afterwards. Shortly after that, he confesses his love to her: „Stop, Lara. I need love, and you are my love!” Lara has to calm down Larson: „Calm down! It's fine! But not now! We are not on a love boat.” How promising.
The two are amazed as they reach the dark world (the floating islands from Tomb Raider 2). They stand in front of a closed door again, and on it the Tibetan Queen is pictured. They notice hidden platforms, deep down below, hidden in the dark next to a small bridge. They go down, but where to?
„LARA! I can't stand it! I need you! I want you! I totally have a crush on you! HONESTLY!” Larson screams as his hormones (and probably mine, too) go wild, imagining Lara in underwear again. Larson takes the chance and hits on Lara again but...
I had a preference for awkward situations.
After Lara's defense, they discover some kind of hole in the wall, hidden behind ivy. As Lara crosses the abyss excitedly, she slips off and falls down – oh no, does the story end here? Has Lara saved the game? Larson grieves for his bride, but suddenly a figure appears on the other side and ghosts come up to Larson – they are friendly and carries him to the other side. A woman stands in front of him, with a dress and a scepter; she looks like a queen. Larson questions her: „Uhh, who are you? And where is my friend Lara?!” The queen explains that ghosts have caught Lara and she is inside a protective shell. But soon the queen shows her true colors and yells: „You are here because of the Tibetan queen! I won't allow that!” She is the owner of the Tibetan queen and shoots an energy ball at Lara's protective shell, she breaks out of it and lies on the floor weakly, as does the queen. Larson helps Lara and very feebly, they begin to shoot their last ammo into the queen. After the hail of bullets even a magical queen has no chance and gets engulfs by the afterworld. It starts to rain and it gets dark, and suddenly Lara's burns disappear.
Lara apologizes to Larson for being such a meanie to him, after that they enter the queen's garden, apparently the winter garden of the queen. But suddenly Lara turns pale and has her legs turn to jelly. Lara is cold as ice! Larson also becomes weak and falls to the ground next to Lara. Both are passed out.
...TO BE CONTINUED!
Many many thanks to my dearest friend Mike, who helped me here.
If you want to publish this text or parts of it elsewhere, please ask cybie for permission previously!
As every year there is also the TRForge advent calendar contest. Achieve the matching challenge to every calendar door and collect points, to get the chance to win a great prize in the end! You can find more infos here: contest, or you can click on Lara at the calendar page.