Judgment Day Prologue A: Cheryl Mason

My second XNA art, friends...it took a few hours yesterday, just as long as my first work, "The Warmth of Love". This was more challenging because the image I pictured in my mind I couldn't quite pull off with the XPS, mostly because I'm still getting the hang of the program. I hope everyone likes the results, epecially you, sweet Ygure. And yep, what you see *and* read here is basically a setup for the epic "Judgment Day" story I'm still writing, the first of two works to establish the most important players in that story, Cheryl and Rebecca.

About this work. The biggest pain was getting all the models (including the setting) to blend together naturally, and I hope I pulled it off. Cheryl's gun was a single independent model, and it took as much time to get it comfortably in her hand as it did to help her lean against the subway wall naturally. At first I feared the gun might be too big, but nope. (Just like reality, a lot of ladies can handle a big gun like the old, reliable Peacemaker!) Posing Cheryl in her deceptively casual lean was much easier in comparison, but I also wanted to convey through her raised shoulders and experssion a quiet, lonely anxiousness. I did do my best with the lighting, but I need feedback to be sure I did right. I wanted to deepen the shadows, but I also didn't want to lose any details in the scene, either. I'm hoping I got the balance right along with the framing, expressing Cheryl's isolation and loneliness.

I wanted this work to symbolize where Cheryl Mason is just before the start of "Judgment Day", in fact, as a young woman so alone because of her fears and doubts of herself and the solemn hunt she's undertaken to find the remnants of The Order, the doomsday cult her mother Dahlia Gillespie once led in Silent Hill.

Name: Cheryl Mason, aka Heather Mason
Age: 29 years old...but in truth, she's much older.
Biography: Born Alessa Gillespie in 1969, a girl with amazing supernatural powers, her mother Dahlia subjected Alessa to a monstrous ritual in which the girl would be impregnated with a demonic 'God' in 1977. However, for reasons still unknown, Alessa's being was divided in two -- half of her transformed into a newborn baby found by Harry Mason and his wife Josie on the side of a road outside of Silent Hill. The town of Silent Hill was also accidentally transformed by Alessa at the same time because of the hellish pain and fear she suffered. As Alessa was kept barely alive by The Order -- she wouldn't give birth to 'God' until she was whole again -- Harry raised her other half, Cheryl Mason, alone and with love and devotion after Josie passed away. Everything changed in 1983 when Harry and Cheryl were lured to Silent Hill, and Harry lost his adopted daughter. With the help of police officer Cybil Bennett, Harry found Cheryl as she and Alessa experienced fusion and became one soul again. Although Harry couldn't stop Alessa from finally giving birth to 'God', which destroyed Dahlia, he still killed the monster to keep it from growing stronger and changing the world...Alessa used her extraordinary power to reincarnate herself into a newborn baby as she died, and Harry helped her escape Silent Hill. He named the newborn girl Cheryl, knowing she was at least in part the daughter he loved. 17 years later, living under the name of Heather Mason, The Order found her again. Led by Claudia Wolf, the cult used nightmarish creatures they summoned to capture the teenaged girl so they could make her the mother of their 'God' again...they also murdered her father Harry in revenge. Heather returned to Silent Hill to fight the cult and stop them, and stop herself from giving birth to 'God' -- on both counts, she succeeded. With Claudia dead and the cult defeated, she embraced the name her father gave her, Cheryl, and tried to look forward to a future where she could find her happiness.

But. Two things happened when Cheryl Mason returned to Silent Hill. She remembered her previous lives. And she realized she still possessed her incalculably powerful abilities.

A few years ago.

I wanted to be happy, but...I don't deserve to be. I'm a monster. What else can I call myself? I destroyed Silent Hill long ago, and I did it unconsciously, without even meaning to! How can I have anything in common with anyone? How could I ever find happiness? I drifted from one place to another, from one job to another, over the years since I graduated from high school...since dad died. I could never connect with anyone. Not even Douglas. Not even Cybil.

Oh god, I've been so alone.

My happiness doesn't matter, anyway. I realized The Order was still out there. I know what they want. They must still want me to be their Mother of God, so they can destroy the world and remake it into 'Paradise'. That can't happen! It won't, but only if I find them first, hunt them down and stop them once and for all. I learned Karate when I was younger, when I was causing trouble in school and dad thought martial arts would help me learn how to control myself. It isn't too late to learn more. I'll need a gun, too. But something reliable. I found out I was a natural at using a gun the hard way long ago. And...oh, I'm so afraid, but...I've got to risk using my powers, find out what I can really do. If my powers can help me bring an end to The Order finally, then maybe they won't be so bad.

I'll do anything to stop The Order...even give my own life.

Maybe...maybe I have to die to end this, anyway...?

Ever since, Cheryl Mason trained and explored herself and her powers...and then she began her lonely journey to stop a terrible, malefic evil.

Her journey's final destination will be Black Falls, Vermont...there she will find her destiny, too...

Giving credit where it's due!

XNALara created by Dusan Pavlicek.
Models:
Revelation Heather Mason by undeadmiko
Colt Single Action Army (Peacemaker) by DamianHandy
[Silent Hill 3] Subway Station by shprops4xnalara