User:Unhearted/Sandbox
From Unofficial Handbook of the Virtue Universe
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OVERVIEW
Young but never naive; Marie Brenner had transferred to Steel Canyon University in Paragon City, majoring in art. A pallet left to discover; she was a painter that had drawn the attention of her Psychology professor, Doctor Dane Robinson, a man with superior powers. At the end of her freshman year at Steel Canyon, Marie came to Dane’s home late in the evening, nervous and glowing with an unspoken secret. Sitting Dane down, Marie confessed her love and told him they had made art of their own. Marie was nine weeks pregnant. Though Dane seemed put off, Marie misinterpreted it as shock and after a quick kiss, left him with his thoughts. Two days later, Dane Robinson filed for a transfer to an out of country psychology program, packed his home and left. Marie was left bewildered and despite multiple attempts at contact would never see Dane again. Despite appearances, Marie held her head high and continued the courses of her sophomore year and ignored the whispers. Later in the year, Marie fell into premature labor just short of Halloween. Though birth was difficult and traumatic to the young mother, as she heard her daughter’s first cries in her new world -- she realized she had created the most beautiful artwork she ever would.
 Like most ‘mutants’, Lilah’s life began with no suspicion to any super-powered abilities. Though her father was a psychic, her mother was simply an artist with a hopeless romantic’s heart. After her birth, Lilah’s grandmother made the move from Tennessee to move in with her and her mother, lending a helping hand so that Lilah’s mother could finish college and work to provide for her daughter. Though some could argue that Lilah’s grandmother, Eloise, did the majority of the upbringing -- Marie was in no way out of the picture. Any free time she had was spent solely upon her daughter, trashing the ideas of a personal life beyond being a single, working mother who still had academic goals. Their home was a two bedroom townhouse, kept tiny and neat. Three generations of women lived there together, sharing life. As Lilah grew older and learned the story of her mother and father, she developed a sense of resentment toward him and dismissed the notion of ever seeking him out, somberly thinking at too young of an age that she was far better without him in her life. She had what she needed, her mother and grandmother. Often times considered a bit too serious for a child, Lilah was a healthy child and followed in her mother’s footsteps with a penchant for art. An eye for color, it began with crayons and steadily progressed to paints. Art was her best subject while she barely maintained a ‘C’ average in others. It was not for the fact that she was considered a slow learner -- but yet that her teachers were constantly having to chide the girl for not concentrating upon her schoolwork. Even homework was at times disregarded in favor for doodling or painting. Life was just a palette waiting to be discovered. Lilah would soon find out that life, though beautiful and rich in color -- could also be dark. Upon the night of her Sweet Sixteen, Lilah’s mother and she were returning from a small, localized ice cream shop when hit dead-on by a drunk driver. The accident took Marie’s life instantly and Lilah in critical condition. She suffered several broken bones and a trauma-induced coma. Eloise, Lilah’s grandmother, was told that Lilah regaining consciousness was unlikely and if she did -- she could now be mentally impaired. Three weeks after the night, Lilah surprised all doctors by making them eat their own words. Painfully aware of where she was and why she was there, Lilah was unable to see. Whereas any other in her situation would have panicked, she remained calm. Lilah and her grandmother would later hear from doctors that Lilah’s blindness was due to retinal damage and was something she would now have to live with. Upon her awakening, Lilah grieved the loss of her beloved mother and made a slow recovery.
  The girl who had been sociable and quick to make friends became introverted. She kept to herself, returning to the routine of life a different person. Her soul had aged years beyond her pretty face, a new solemnity to flatten her lips. Eventually, her friends gave up on trying to pull her out of her shell and though Hellos in passing were given, Lilah grew apart from her social circle. She became engrossed in learning to deal with her lack of eyesight, something that greatly frustrated and at times, left to bouts of self loathing. It was through the stress of this time the dormant part of her biological father's psychic powers came into the light, quite literally. It had manifested itself through her eyes. Lilah could process colors and light to view the world as a strikingly different place. Soon after the passing of her grandmother, Lilah sought out her father only to be turned away with little to no warmth or excitement. This only further strengthened the walls she'd built around her heart. After graduating highschool and beginning college, Lilah had managed to begin her life anew and began rebuilding her social life. Grief still overwhelmed her and she turned to her art, diving deep into it's depth. Rather than drowning in it, she learned to swim. Her first big piece that rewarded her with attention to her work. It also became her first tattoo when an admirer of her artwork happened to be a fellow artist -- a tattooist. He suggested she had the 'eye' for tattooing with her bright colors and beautiful lines. After offering to tattoo her painting upon her arm, Lilah began working for him under an apprenticeship in a tattoo parlor located near the boardwalk in Talos. Lilah became quickly sought after by both men and women desperate to have her artwork on their skin, though she was picky on what she would and would not do. Most of her designs are custom work and from the beginning, there has never been a complaint or question about her ability to bring others skin to life. To this day, a couple years later -- Lilah still considers that her breakthrough moment. Read more about Aglow!
→Powers:  Her sight is not limited to single wavelengths, but an on-going multitude of varying wavelength and frequency. Think of this like technicolor; every color is more rich, more vivid, more vibrant. Aglow acts as a prism, absorbing the visible light around her and projecting it into the optic spectrum; i.e, the refraction and dispersion of light that causes rainbows. Pupiless, her polarized eyesight gives Aglow’s eyes the effect of appearing to glow. This is an example of harvesting the light source around her. Left undirected, the light will radiate from her body in all directions, producing a simple, steady glow or ‘leaking’ of multi-colored light. By conscious control over the light she produces, she can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration. She is immune to the potential injurious effects of her light transducing abilities. The ability to control, direct and manipulate light and color in such fashion is a both conscious and subconscious act of mind. Considered a psychic, Aglow’s powers are limited to psionic use only. She cannot read minds nor does she have any sense of clairvoyance or precognition. At times, unconsciously may she project her own thoughts or illusions; this most commonly occurs when she’s sleeping and not actively shielding herself. Psychokinesis is the ability to move (lift, agitate, vibrate, spin, bend, break, or impact) visible life forms or objects and control photonic energy (lightwaves/particles). The duality of psychokinesis and Aglow’s illuminating abilities, she can conjure various forms of photonic energy, including blinding flashes and concussive photon pulses. At rest, these plasmoids of energy float around her in what she endearingly refers to as ‘drunken fireflies’. Simpler hypnotic patterns made out of her rays of light can produce trance-like effects in her targets. A display of chaotic pulsing strobe effect of sparkling lights and colors severely upset other people’s equilibrium and bursts of light which causes temporary blindness with it’s brilliance. Directing her blinding light from her eyes, she can generate bright bursts of multi-colored psychic energy, approximating laser beams, with which she can cut through virtually anything. The mental manipulation of light also gives her the ability to bend the light around herself or others to grant a degree of stealth and invisibility. This can further lead to protective shields, however the latter is excruciating upon her endurance and often leaves her drained and void of regenerating.
Disorientation from explosions, collisions or large crowds render her momentarily useless. In these times, her light will flicker and waiver, displaying a growing weakness the longer she remains unsteady. Her inability to act when faced with her phobia of the dark is also an issue, making Aglow her own greatest weakness and enemy.
Special abilities include (more rarely) causing precision bursts of light inside a human brain, simulating the effects of a massive stroke and creating a protective force fields with laser light that can deflect or vaporize oncoming objects.
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