October 28th, 1988:
Marie Brenner, age 20, welcomes a newborn baby girl into the world and experiences a moment of panic when the bundle doesn’t make a sound as both mother and daughter experience a surreal moment of awareness. When Lilah Shay was born, she didn't cry. She stared.
December 2nd, 1988:
Eloise Heinrich joins the young family and three generations of women are now housed under one roof. Marie returns to work, dropping her hopes of finishing her education.
October 19th, 1989:
A week shy of her first birthday, Lilah still has not taken her first step.
October 28th, 1989:
Lilah celebrates her first birthday and is given a child’s version of easel and paints. She paints her first picture, the first of many to become framed and hung upon the walls in honor of her young creativeness. Marie worries that her daughter has not yet taken her first step.
October 29th, 1989:
Her favorite toy was out of reach. Lilah Brenner takes three steps and picks up a paintbrush. Neither she nor her mother looked back.
September 1st, 1993:
Lilah Brenner is a Kindergartener. She tells her mother and grandmother she doesn’t want to go back, that she would be more than pleased to stay home and paint all day.
September 3rd, 1993:
Art time is her favorite. She can ‘tolerate school’ Lilah tells her mother. Her teacher is fascinated by her god given ability. She asks to keep a painting for herself and Lilah happily obliges her whim.
October 28th, 1993:
Lilah turns five. Her favorite part is going for late evening ice-cream and milkshakes. This becomes a yearly tradition.
June 7th, 1994:
Kindergarten Graduation. Lilah’s teacher tells Marie that she worries about Lilah’s socializing skills and she needs to ‘step away from the easel and play’. Marie grits her teeth and takes the advice with a grain of salt. Her daughter walks across the stage with a diploma in her hand.
September 5th, 1994:
Lilah starts First Grade. She spends recess with her face shoved in a sketchpad and lead smudges on her face. She begins keeping a visual diary. She draws herself, complete with freckles. She erases them and returns to class when the teacher’s aide calls. Her teacher pushes her to make friends.
December 15th, 1995:
It’s her First Communion. She gets to pick out a pretty dress and veil and walk down the aisle between pews filled with people she doesn’t even know. For the first time, Lilah learns to wear a vague semblance of a smile. Her eyes are too serious. She doesn’t listen as she should as she stares up at Mother Mary and sighs at her beauty when light streams in through painted windows.
January 1st, 1996:
Her mother is on the phone and she’s never seen her mother look more lifeless. Her eyes were blank, her face seemed grey, and her smile was forced when she looked to Lilah. Nana fussed over the buttons to her coat and ushered Lilah outside. She unwraps her scarf, she was already cold.
January 2nd, 1996:
Marie tells Lilah about her father. Lilah decides she’s better off. Life returns to normal. As normal as they could get.
April 13th, 1998:
‘Lilah has a gift’ teachers and the school tell Marie and Eloise. Lilah’s paintings decorate the classroom as reminders. Her grades are good but could be better, they say. ‘They’ say she needs to make more friends. ‘They’ see Lilah’s smile on the face of her mother and grandmother; small, practiced, and determined.
December 31st, 1999:
She stays up til midnight to see the ball drop and announce the New Year 2000. Lilah counts down to ten with her Nana since her mom is at work. The clock hits midnight and firecrackers pop in the night. Lilah kisses her Nana goodnight and goes to bed. Nothing felt different.
October 28th, 2000:
Lilah is twelve years old. Her mother is working again and Nana holds off on birthday dinner to wait for her. The knowledge of her mother’s sacrifice hits her like deadweight. When Marie comes in the door, she is greeted by the nimble form of a 12 year old. They eat dinner and go out for ice-cream afterwards.
September 3rd, 2002:
Lilah is a freshman in high school. Over the past two years she’s made a new friend or two. One moves away in the beginning of the school year, the other is charcoal. She forgets about her paints for a little while and explores her new love. She’s a nice enough girl but too quiet, her classmates say. She’s fine with that.
October 26th, 2002:
It’s homecoming. Lilah picks a modest buttercup yellow dress that compliments her eyes and skin. She paints her freckles away with makeup and meets her date at the door. In her wake are two generations of happy smiles and an unfinished drawing. Her date later points out that she has paint underneath her fingernails. They laugh.
October 29th, 2002:
Lilah celebrates her 15th birthday with her first kiss at a classmate’s Halloween party. She dresses up as Supergirl and he’s Elvis. Right now, she feels more like a princess.
March 2nd, 2003:
He breaks up with her and she picks up her paintbrush. There are better things in life. Balancing is one of them. Lilah divides her time between friends and passion for art. Her mother and grandmother breathe a sigh of relief.
July 4th, 2004:
She tries to capture fireworks in her painting. She paints skies of purple and blue, golds and silvers splashed upon the canvas. It turns into a grade: A. She’s recognized in the local paper for her gift and they all celebrate. The painting is framed and hangs somewhere in townhall. Lilah never sees it again.
October 28th, 2004:
Marie and Lilah go out for ice-cream as they always do for Lilah’s birthday. She’s 16 and they are in the car on their way back home. She begins to see the effects of life in the creases of her mother’s eyes, in the lines shadowing her smile. Her mother loses her smile and Lilah loses her sight. The Newspaper printed the next day tell us the story: Mother killed by drunk driver, teen in hospital.
October 29th, 2004:
Her condition is serious but stable. Eloise doesn’t leave her grand-daughter’s side and scowls when the doctors tell her that Lilah may remain unconscious for some time. Head trauma, they all croak. Lilah heard every word and hoped it was true.
November 25th, 2004:
It’s Thanksgiving and she’s awake; has been for a day. Lilah struggles to see but can feel them all staring at her. She can hear the murmurs about her eyes. She wants to scream she’s blind, not deaf. Instead she continues to blankly stare.
November 27th, 2004:
She doesn’t cry as they lower her mother’s body into the ground. She thinks she hates the smell of the wet earth.
January 4th, 2005:
Lilah mentions she can start to make out colors. Her eyes are growing brighter, /glowing/. The doctor suggests she sees a psychiatrist. Her grandmother laughs and escorts Lilah out of the hospital. She’s going home.
April 22nd, 2006:
Her eyesight is better but her eyes have blanched to an unholy whiteness and they glow. Pink. Her new doctor referred her out and it took months for it for them to understand what both Lilah and her grandmother have figured out by now: she’s a mutant. A latent, psychic gene triggered by PTSD, otherwise known as Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; a common trigger for powers to manifest. Lilah decides that one) she doesn’t like Supergirl, and two) she wants to meet her father.
July 29th, 2006:
Dr. Dane Robinson meets Lilah Shay Brenner for the first time. She comes to his home and is met at the door. He doesn’t seem surprised by her being there or her eyes. He turns her away. Lilah walks away, more satisfied than ever. Little does she know, she gets her mutant gene from him. And he knows everything there is to know about his daughter.
October 28th, 2006:
She’s painting again, this time in a whole new light. It’s the two year anniversary of her mother’s passing; she no longer recognizes it’s her birthday. She learns to glow and light pours from her fingertips onto the canvas.
June-September, 2007:
Lilah Brenner graduates high school and wears a small smile that doesn’t quite meet her ethereal eyes for the class photo. She enrolls in college, hoping to major in art. She dyes her hair and washes away the strawberry blonde in favor of a brighter, peach color.
March, 2009:
Lilah is offered to showcase one of her paintings in an off campus gallery Amateur night.
Eloise Brenner, Lilah’s grandmother, passes peacefully due to old age.
A traumatic experience brings Lilah out of the dark. She realizes she’s been spending too much of her life in the shadows. She pushes herself to do things. She drops out of college, pursues other dreams, and endeavors to do things her mother did not get the chance to do.
She registers as a hero under the name ‘Aglow’.
March 2009 – June 2010:
Aglow garners some attention for her heroic efforts and bright ways. Her shining moment comes when her actions save the life of a fellow hero.
July 11th, 2010:
The well known hero ‘Tremor’ approaches Aglow. She learns of the Peacekeepers and expresses interest in joining them for their cause. However, she hesitates.
June 2010 – January 2011:
Aglow continues to hero. She continues to discover her limit and abilities.
Lilah meets the digital heroine known as High Score after Casey threw a street thrug through the window shop of the tattoo parlor she was working at.
Lilah quits her job as a part-time tattooist to become a freelance artist. She moves into a new loft sized apartment and adopts a Holland Lop bunny named Boomer. Her social life is sparse so she makes an effort to reconnect with friends and ‘get out’.
Mid-Late 2010 to early in 2011 - Lilah enters in an unusual and short-term relationship.
July 11th, 2011:
Aglow seeks out Tremor and tells him she would be honored to become a standing member of the Peacekeepers. She is welcomed into the family soon after.
July - December, 2011:
Galaxy City is lost.
Aglow is an active member in The Peacekeepers. She reunites with Impact and they strike up a relationship that does not become public until October, when Lilah celebrates her birthday for the first time since her mother's death.
Aglow saves hero Red-Havok's life.
She celebrates Thanksgiving with Formspring members Kazeno, Skull Sovereign and the Noisebomb.
Boyfriend Impact takes Aglow to meet his mother and family over the holidays. Lilah becomes a source of comfort for a cousin of Impact's when the family discovers she has powers, too.
Aglow begins to form a relationship with her Father.
