You Are What You Eat (Private w/ Brigid)

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Three students in one year with the Semblance to eat Dust. If that wasn't fascinating enough, each one produced different effects, even the two who's Semblance ran in their bloodline. Usually Bloodline Semblances functioned mostly, if not exactly, the same. They had the same principle of their capabilities of eating two different kinds of Dust, but what they could do was vastly different.

And then there was Brigid Laghairt. She could eat literally anything, from a pencil to a Huntsman's weapon, to of course Dust. Some of the things she claimed seemed to befuddle his understanding of the Conservation of Energy and Dust Energy Transference Laws. He had kept her after class to try and get to the bottom of it.

"Brigid, I just... You have to be mistaken. The amount of Dust you ingested must have been larger, or the drains on your Aura more severe. The coefficient of the mass of the Dust ingested cannot be smaller than the amount of Aura used divided by the energy output, it just doesn't make sense."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"I can prove it," Brigid argued, crossing her arms with a shit-eating grin on her face. She'd done it may a time by now so she wasn't above putting her money where her mouth was... not literally of course, she needed that money for real food. "Got any raw Dust here? Even the powdered stuff will do but I'd need some water to make it less gross. I hate eating powder...."

[Professor W B Copperfield]

He raised an eyebrow. "Of course I have Dust in here." He opened a drawer and pulled out a few small crystals of Ice, Lightning and Fire dust, each no larger or longer than a finger. "I won't believe this until I see it with my eyes."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"Well then watch and be amazed," Brigid said as she picked up the red fire Dust crystal and popped it into her mouth, chewing it and swallowing. A moment later she inhaled and spewed out a column of flame from her mouth that..... incidentally torched a stack of papers on Copperfield's desk. She covered her mouth in surprise and embarrassment. "I am so sorry," she said with an embarrassed blush and eyes full of regret.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

He folded his arms and watched, a single eyebrow raised with disbelief. He didn't doubt she could eat the Dust and do something, it was the amount of energy she claimed she could produce. He knew exactly the mass and quality of those crystals, and using his knowledg of Brigid's entrance exam plus the data he had gathered from Ela and Lin, the others withh Dust-Consuming-Semblances, he could easily estimate how much flame she should be able to produce.

When a column of flames came out his other eyebrow met the first. The amount of heat was sustantial, the column larger than he had expected, and-... And the stack of quizes from today were quickly becoming charcoal.

He sighed and pulled out a Water Dust Crystal. "I wasn't going to grade them anyway." He pinched the top of the Dust, exherted a little Aura and will, and used the fine stream of water to put out the fire. It made a mess on his desk, half-burned papers and black bits and water everywhere. "I'll, uh, get someone to clean that up later. Either way, I'm not super convinced. Try the Lighting one."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"I'll need a target so I don't destroy anything else," Brigid pointed out as she picked up the Lightning Dust crystal and examined it. She actually quite liked these ones, they felt strange the way they crackled on her tongue.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Fire was a fickle thing. It could bloom and look flashier than it really was. Lightning's energy output on the other hand was far easier to estimate. The crystal he gave her would make a nasty eletrical arc for a few seconds, but nothing like a 'bolt'.

Copperfield took a blank piece of paper and took a minute to make an impressive paper airplane, opened a window and stood infront of it, holding the paper airplane out. "Just say pull, and I'll send it flying."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"Pull," Brigid said before popping the crystal into her mouth and chewing it. She inhaled deeply while chewing and waited for Copperfield to be clear before exhaling the electrical energy in a directed bolt that torched the paper plane mid-air.... and left burn marks on the windowsill. She grinned at him triumphantly, sure that her display of power had been impressive.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

At her signal he sent a tiny gust of Wind along with the airplane. It glided neatly out the window, dancing gleefully on the wind with its new-found freedom. Until it was savgely struck down by a bolt of lightning that by all means should not have existed. The little paper airplane's dreams were scattered and torched to be blown away by the wind it once danced upon.

Copperfield frowned and rubbed a thumb on the blackened parts of the windowsill. He stood looking at the windowsill a moment longer, then to her. He scratched his head. "Do... Are you supercharging the effects of the Dust by using more of your Aura?" He tapped his chin before going over to the whiteboard and began wiriting out long equations a few steps above what he had been teaching in class. He hardly finished some of them, just scribbling squiggles and then the correct answering variable. He knew what the equations were, he didn't need to finish all of them.

After a couple of minutes of him figuring things out he turned back to to her. His eyes slowly narrowed as he tapped the marker against his head.

"You..." He finally said. "...Are weird. Good job."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"No, I just chew up the crystals, breathe, and stuff happens. It does require effort though, so I suppose it does use Aura, but it doesn't use that much so I wouldn't say I'm super-charging them," Brigid explained. She watched him curiously as he scribbled down equations and did the math to try and figure out how her Semblance worked. Then he finally called her weird as if he was stumped which prompted her to give a mischievous grin, taking that as a compliment.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

He narrowed his eyes at that mischievous grin. "I need to monitor your Aura when we do this, so I know just how much your using. You're probably lying to me." He pulled up his scroll and got the program going to monitor her Aura level. Her missing percentage, divided by the numbers of times she showed her Semblance off already...

He grabbed his chin with his hand again. "The... The only explanation I can give for this, Brigid, is that since this shows percentage and not a numerical amount, you simply have a larger amount of Aura than most people. Like a lot. Like me."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"More than most?" Brigid asked curiously. "I'd always assumed I had the same amount of Aura as everyone else. Does this mean I can cut loose without holding back? If so I could probably do something about the Grimm on Mount Glenn by myself...". (Answer VERY carefully because this will determine whether or not she does something abso-fucking-lutely stupid for plot progression or not!)

[Professor W B Copperfield]

"Well, everyone has different amounts. Mostly the same, like 98% or so of people have the same amount. But some people like me or supposedly you, have a bit more than usual. Or," He let out a breath, as if going over an old argument, "Our Aura is more resilient than others, not having more of it." He said in a rough aproximation of someone elses voice in an annoying tone. "And sure, cut loose, find your limits. But in a safe environment, and not by yourself. You might hit your wall faster than you thought. It took me a long time to get to where I am now."

[Brigid Laghairt]

"Okay, I guess I'll go to the training room after school tomorrow to see how long I can fight before running out of Aura," Brigid said, more to herself than to him.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

"Yeah, do that!" He encouraged her. "But really push it to the limit, just blow a ton of Dust and wreak some havoc, don't hold back. See how fast you can deplete yourself, and how fast you can recover. That'll be useful knowledge for the future." He smiled, remembering the last time he cut loose. He hadn't lasted long, but had dealt a lot of damage. But he was also being ravaged by a disease the entire time. He had hit a limit before in his life, but he had been far younger and less experienced than then or now. Still, knowing limits was needed. If he found his limit now... Well, he hoped he wouldn't need to find it.