Frozen Mountain Testing [Private, Ela Motley]

[Professor W B Copperfield]

"Hhmmm..." Copperfield tapped a pencil against his chin as he looked over his clipboard. "Let's try... 1000 grams of Earth Dust, Ela."
He got up from his stool in the corner of the training room and produced 4 plastic vials of powdered earth dust, measured to 250 grams each, from a heavy secure box next to him. He brought them over to her before retreating back to the box, pulling 4 more vials out and walking a little bit away from her. He carefully poured them out into a pile and with a simple touch and spark of Aura, the brown glowing powder transformed into a rock shelf roughly 3 meters high and 15 centimeters thick. It was spikey and jagged at edges, but it was strong stone and would do fine.

Ela Motley was a student of his, with an incredibly curious Semblance. Her whole tribe out in the deserts of Vacuo had this Semblance, though for each person it was slightly different. She and her people could eat Dust and their Semblance would absorb it, readying it for special effects. Ela could breathe ice and form rock armor around herself to take damage before her Aura Shield did. Copperfield was a Dust and Semblance specialist and scientist, though mostly taught lectures now at Beacon Academy. He wanted to know just what she could do, how, if at all, the Semblance was better than using Dust in it's raw form, and what different amounts of Dust did for her. Would more Dust create exponential, linear, or logarithmic gains? Unfortunately, to test the strength of armor, he had to blast it off of her.

Giving Ela some time to digest the Dust and get ready, he went ahead to test the force it would take to break this rock shelf. He took a force sensor patch and slapped it against the rock shelf, the adhesive sticking to it well. It would transmit the pressure on it in real time and keep a record on the training room computer for further analysis. The professor was completely in control and knew how much force he was pushing, but having exact numbers would help calculate percentages. Copperfield went to that computer and ordered in a training dummy, placing it right behind the rock shelf. This would somewhat simulate an opposing force to keep the rock up, like how Ela's rock armor would be. Like any good scientist, he needed to eliminate all factors until he was left with the only variable that mattered. How strong Ela's armor was, used through her Semblance, compared to the rock you'd normally get from the same substance.

Copperfield stepped exactly 10 paces away from the rock, turned, and began using his Semblance. In a good punch he could shatter it easily, but that wasn't the point here. So instead of blows with the same force as speeding trucks, he gave gentle pushes instead to the rock shelf, gradually increasing the force. Cracks appeared slowly. He checked his watch when the first large one traveled across the rock, noting the time. Continuing, he watched as the edges slowly crumbled away, and the rock break off from the floor it had attached itself too. He noted that time as well and paused for a moment. "Alright, not how much to crush it?" He asked himself.

With incresingly hard blasts from his Semblance, the rock shattered into gravel on the third blast, the dummy falling backward and banging hard against the floor. Copperfield dusted his hands off before turning to Ela with another force sensor patch. "Alright, ready kid? Moment of truth."

[Ela Motley]

These tests were always...something, usually it was simple things like testing how much armor she could generate or if she could mix new dust types into her semblance, or even if she could ingest new dust types after more training with her semblance, her tribe's older warriors could wield more than two after all, well she didn't even like using one of her dust types, so it was unlikely she'd ever really develop any other dust compatibility.
Then Professor Copperfield broke his thinking silence, right, the test they were going to perform today, her nerves came back, sure she had been attacked many, many, many times before and her armor had always held up and protected her.
But this time she and it were up against a Professor, in a stress test, Ela would lie if this prospect alone did get her heart pumping already.

Ela yet looked a little confused as she looked at the professor.
"1000 grams, that's a lot, are you..."
Ela was about to protest yet then saw him creating a shelf and starting to bombard it, yep, she'd definitely need all the dust she could get, so leaning back Ela began to quickly ingest one vial after the other, it didn't take long for her to finish up due the nature of her semblance, yet she was still coughing a little afterwards, grabbing a nearby bottle to swallow down the last bit of dust, it would be bad if a coughing fit broke her concentration during this.

As she heard the shelf crumble, under another blast of Copperfield's, well now it seemed to be her turn, Ela sighed as she grabbed the sensor patch.
Clenching her fist, Ela quickly generated her armor, it still took her a couple seconds and while that would normally feel like forever in a fight during a test, this really wasn't that bad.
So, quickly, Ela was fully armored up, grabbing the patch she simply stuck it to her shoulder, patting it a few times to make sure it would stick, once she was sure it would Ela turned to Professor Copperfield.
"I am ready now, Professor."
Ela got into a protective combat stance, lifting her arms to protect her face and chest, spikes coming from her boots, penetrating the ground to firmly plant herself in place with a resounding CRUNCH.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield shook his legs and arms loose as Ela armoured up. He watched her slap that patch on and nodded. Spikes shot into the ground and he wondered for a moment if that would help the integrity of the armor. It wouldn't, being less able to flex and reduce to force on her. Somewhat like the rock shelf that he had made. As it transformed, it had stuck a portion of itself into the ground before the expansion had an easier time going up than down. Her slightly more curved form might also shed force, but with quick estimated measurements using a pencil, an outstretched thumb and looking through one eye, he did quick calculus and geometry in his head before jotting down approximate adjustments on his clipboard.

"Alright, grasshopper. Lets see how hard you rock." He smiled at his own pun before he began the pulsing blasts of force. dull at first but increasing and increasing, building and building. It went from gentle breeze level, to standing infront of a jet engine level, to small cars going the limit, to a truck speeding down the highway.

[Ela Motley]

Well here goes nothing, literally, Ela could not feel the first few blasts hit her as the stone armor she wore muted her sense of touch and the gentle pushes as such did not register, but Ela could see them ramping up power, slowly but surely, tiny specs of dust were being chipped of her armor creating uneven surfaces which in the long run would mean that the rock would get more brittle.

But now she could actually start to feel the blasts, they felt more like Grimm rushing at her, trying to get through her and her much more squishy teammates, but as usual she stood her ground, even though that was getting harder.

With the increasing strength of the blasts, a single crack appeared on Ela's arms, the outer layer now starting to falter, Ela had to put much more effort into maintaining her armor, the blasts were really tearing at it now, luckily it still did not reach her skin.

With a crack, Ela was pushed a few inches back, the spikes at her feet had broken and left Ela to withstand the knock back by herself, the young woman now having to lean forward to leverage her weight against them.
Cracks were now appearing in the armor with every blast, but her armor was still holding, yet the question was for how long given the fact that Professor Copperfield wasn't letting up.

Clenching her teeth, Ela could feel the armor at her arms starting to tear, part of the rock returning to its grainy form as another blast pushed her back a couple feet now.
She looked at Professor Copperfield, some worry reflecting in her eyes now.
"Mr C, how strong are these blasts by now ?"
Ela asked before she felt the wind getting knocked out of her as the next blast felt more like a truck hitting her square in the chest, Ela reeling over back, a wheeze forced from her which got worse and turned into coughing as she inhaled some dust, coming from her rock armor now back in its grainy form.
Her armor was strong, sure, but it didn't completely absorb this sort of impact.
Ela had to recover for a few seconds, getting her coughing under control and then steadying her breathing.
"I apologize for that. I believe I got one more hit left in me."
She assumed her stance once more, even making sure the sensor patch was still on, which thankfully had not budged.
"Please proceed Professor."

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield had to laugh when she asked how hard the blasts were and he hit her with his usual force when he dealt with Grimm. It knocked her over and the armor was chipping and cracking, but it wasn't broken. Already he could tell her armor was stronger than the basic Earth Dust, but he wanted the numbers.

"No apologeze needed kid." He tilted his head back and forth, thinking as he observed how damaged her armor was. A few more hits like that, maybe even one more, and it'd shatter. "I'm the one that's sorry for this. This next one is sure to break your armor, so go ahead and repair your armor as much as you can. I want to see if you can withstand this." He'd give her time to regrow her armor before he mustered up his Semblance, his will, and gave one hell of a blast forward. This would send cars flying, pillars crumbling and could flatten large Grimm to about half their size, and smaller Grimm to no thicker than his checkbook. Was this overkill? Maybe. But he wanted to see what Ela could handle. Knowledge is power, and knowing her limits would empower both him and her.

[Ela Motley]

Regrow her armor, but would that not skew the test results ?
Maybe, but Ela trusted Professor Copperfield's judgement.
"Right."
She looked a little confused at all this, also a little disgruntled, he did apologize but considering he had just laughed at her getting knocked back and getting a mouth full of dust that felt a little less genuine.

Ela took a deep breath, also grabbing her nearby water bottle and just took a swig from it as she was passively repairing her armor, it wasn't a difficult process, so she had to put very little focus into it.

Soon Ela was done and assumed her stance again, arms lifted in front of her face and her body leaned forward, this time leaving out the ground spikes, they had been practically useless against the stronger blasts, maybe she should think of a way to make them more useful as preventing knock back was useful but not worth the cost of her armors integrity.
"I'm ready."
Ela said, yet felt a little unsure as Copperfield seemed a little different from before, what was he doing ?
Then it hit her, literally, he had been preparing a blast much stronger than the ones before, while the last one had winded her and knocked the air out of her chest, this one actually hurt, she could feel massive pressure upon her entire body as her armor creaked and cracked, as if it was protesting against this abuse, Ela could relate, she was gritting her teeth as she tried to keep her stance up, but she was crumbling much like her armor, Ela had dropped to her knees as the armor around her arms had fallen away.

As the blast was over Ela was panting, still on her knees, now lowering her arms, which were stinging a little, but that revealed that the rest of her armor was still intact, sure it was damaged, with the armors helmet having sustained a big crack revealing the top of her head giving her hair some freedom. The armor around her torso was also damaged, but besides a few cracks in the upper layer, it held up.
"Ouch."
Ela rubbed her arms a little, trying to get the stinging sensation to stop, now also dropping the armor from around her face as she had to catch her breath, she left the other pieces for Copperfield to examine though.
"I'm happy none of the Grimm I fought so far hit as hard as you, Professor."
She chuckled as she got up, dusting herself off as she looked at the armor, still hanging onto her.
"Well, it held up better than I expected."
She poked at the stone, then looking to the professor for his analysis.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Well, she didn't go flying. That was a plus. She stood her ground and took the massive blow. She had her arms raised defensively, and they covered most of her torso and head. When the blast hit her it cleared off all the armor that was exposed and heavily damaged her torso and head, which essentially had double the protection. She was a strong bulwark for sure, and it was evident how much her Semblance augmented the Dust's capabilities. He'd need to check her Aura levels and take her usual Aura usage into account, but he wasn't sure how much her Aura shield backed up her armor, or if it was simply a result of her Semblance.

She was a little hurt, he noted, as she rubbed her arms. She'd be fine, nothing she hadn't felt before. He smiled. "I'm happy none of the Grimm I've fought so far took as many hits as you, Grasshopper." Except for one or two big ones, but those were unique and hardly worth mentioning. She wouldn't be fighting anything like those in her life, he hoped dearly.

He walked by her, patting her on the shoulder approvingly as he made his way to pick up the pressure sensor. Sometime later and while letting Ela recoup, he checked the data he received through their tests. He made notes and calculations, all of those last ones in his head, doing calculus on the fly, then input the data into a graph maker. It confirmed what he was looking for. The last data point, the one where he blew Ela's armor away, wasn't available. He had broken the sensor. But based on the pressures from the other points and how much power he had put into those compared to what the last one was, he could give a close estimate.

"Well Ela," He said from his spot against a wall on a computer. "You're a damn strong kid. The strength of your rock armor is a few hundred percent above the regular Earth Dust wall, easy. Still figuring out the exact number, but it's easy to see that if you have the time and the Aura to spend in the field, it's better you make the shield than otherwise." He looked up from the screen. "You want to test out your ice breath? You hardly use it, right?"

[Ela Motley]

Ela was more than happy with these results, especially since Professor Copperfield seemed pleased too, well good to know she was tougher than the Grimm even an experienced Huntsman like the Professor had faced, but this did confuse her, why would the Professor have the strength to generate an attack this strong if he had not faced anything as though as her before ?
Surely most Grimm would long be paste on the floor by now, unless ?
Well, maybe the Professor just liked pushing his own power to it's limit too, he was a scientist after all, with that thought in mind Ela sat on a nearby log, taking a few seconds for herself, to just let her arms relax and also take just a bit more dust, if they were to continue the experiment she should be topped up, washing it all down by now emptying her water bottle, good that she packed a second one.

As Copperfield spoke up Ela was just doing some arms stretches, most stinging usually went away a bit faster when she exercised the muscles in a more healthy manner than what ever had strained them in the first place, it was doing wonders as Ela could feel her arms loose tension, sighing a little as she was feeling better and ready to take on what ever the Professor had planned.

But first, results, oh wow a few hundred percent ? She had expected a minor increase, but not this much considering how she had started out.
A smile was upon her face, she had improved her armor a lot ever since she first used it.
"Thank you Professor, your expertise is appreciated as always. I'm glad to know I could improve a bit more since last time."
Well that was nice, but he was right in asking to continue, especially with her ice breath, which as he stated she could really improve on.
"Sure, I still have dust for it, considering I have not used it in a while. Is there a specific target you have in mind, Professor ?"
Ela asked, as she looked around, maybe he had a target prepared that she had missed ?

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Ela was a strong kid. After graduation, if she stuck to it, she'd be a terror to those Grimm and anyone who got in her way. She was large and imposing which went a long way for making people listen and respect her, and she had the power to back up her assertions. Bonus, she was kind andd respectful whichh meant she didn't have that large of a chance to go bad and become a bully. If she did, in the coming years, he might have to be the one to stop her. He just proved, at least to himself, that he would be one of the handful of people that even could. But he didn't want to dwell on her turning to the Dark Side.

"Sure, I still have dust for it, considering I have not used it in a while. Is there a specific in target you have in mind, Professor ?"

He smiled maybe a little too wickedly and walked infront of her. He rolled his neck and buttoned up his large leather duster, Fire and Ice Dust woven into it for protection. "I'm the target, kid. See what you can do to me. I'll be fighting against it, and after we do a stress test, maybe I'll start moving around and you'll try to catch me. What do you say?" He began hopping up and down lightly, stretching himself out for what was about to come.

[Ela Motley]

Ela was taken aback by this, why was Professor Copperfield so enthusiastic about being hit by her frost blast ?
Why did he even want her to hurt him in the first place ?!
She had her armor, which was perfectly fine to test, but all the professor had was his Aura and his coat, the latter didn't even look that warm nor resilient.
The discomfort was easily readable of her expression alone, with her crossing her arms and just thinking for a bit.
"Professor Copperfield, with all due respect but I really don't think that's a good idea, this test is meant for me, your scientific expertise is required to measure my results, not serve as a testing dummy. Perhaps we could simply use the facilities holographic Grimm, or if those don't fit the criteria, we could pay the Emerald Forest a visit, a place bustling with Grimm."
Ela made the other offers in hopes to dissuade Mr Copperfield from using himself for rests, she was aware that he had done so before, due to his solitary lifestyle, but she was not about to encourage it nor was she comfortable potentially hurting someone, regardless of this being Mr Copperfield who she held in high regard, making the prospect of hurting him extra uncomfortable.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield thought about what she suggested. Sure, test dummies or live Grimm in the forest. But she hardly used this power of hers, and freezing up when something was about to bite your head off wasn't good. Also, he wasn't entirely sure how to measure and test her frost breath. Temperature? Wind speed?

"I could set up instruments to measure things about your frost breath, things that would be good to know, sure. But testing this on live Grimm could be dangerous, and won't yeild us much results beyond the fact that it works. Against me, you have a target that can react and defend against your breath but won't punch back. But, if you really don't feel comfortable practicing against me," He rolled his shoulders and began stepping back towards the control area, "I guess we can use test dummies."

Using the control panel he set up a test dummy in the form of a human warrior wearing armor, a civilian wearing street clothes, and a large figure meant to be a Grimm. He also pulled out some other instruments to measure temperature and wind speed, small fans hooked up to tiny computer modules, and hooked them up to the test dummies. He was aware that the severe cold of the frost breath might freeze or slow down the fans, but it would be interesting to know what other possible use this breath had. When you were in the thick of things, you had to know every possible use of your arsenal.

"Alright, we're all good. I'm turning off the AC in here, so it's all you Grasshopper."

[Ela Motley]

Well that was a relief, he did have a point that using him a test dummy would wield the best results, but Ela just could not bear to attack her mentor like this, so being able to try this out on some lifeless training dummies was much preferred.

As Professor Copperfield was setting up the dummies, Ela made sure that she had enough dust, one of these blasts would eat half of her supply of ice dust so to deliver maximum output she would stock up on a full course.
So she simply sat down, eating her dust and going over how her ability worked, she had used it last to kill an Alpha Grimm about 3 months ago, while her ability was strong she still had only incapacitated the Grimm not killed it outright, good thing that her weapon made easy work of its half frozen torso.
She really hated using it on anything other than Grimm.

But test dummies were fine too, especially since it would help her and Professor Copperfield gather more data on her ability and how it interacts with dust.

As the go was given Ela walked up to the dummies, since they were neatly organized in a line Ela put herself in the middle of them, about 30 feet away, this way she should be able to hit them all with the full brunt of her attack.
"Right, I'll start with the test then.
Ela turned to the Professor before her attention was back on the dummies.
As the girl then partially stretched her hands forward, a white light was gathering between her palms as the surrounding warmth was seemingly being sucked away, as the glow intensified and frost was gathering on Ela's palms and the surrounding ground, this all happened in the span of about 3 seconds, As Ela stretched her arms out fully and the blast was fired.
It was as if Ela had unleashed a blizzard within the small room, cold air was shot in all directions enough to where Professor Copperfield could feel his unprotected face sting with the cold.
Yet the main highlight was the cone of frost and frigid air being shot at the dummies, it was huge, spanning 60ft and left nothing untouched.
The floor was ready to host an ice skating tournament and the dummies had been destroyed, the hard light being unable to resist the blast, in their place where ice shapes resembling their silhouettes yet with jagged and coarse detail instead of the smoother dummies.
Ela lowered her hands, sighing as she watched the blast, considering she had used both hands Ela was now out of Dust again, even her Aura had taken a good hit having to block the slight recoil of her own attack plus the Aura it consumed.
"There, did the devices record anything ?"
Ela asked, half expecting a no, but this was Professor Copperfield, he had surely prepared proper equipment.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

The teacher watched his pupil prepare herself, and give the training room the best she had. The large cone of ice and cold was impressive and the instruments he set up recorded some data but he was mostly intrigued by how cold everything else had gotten. The cold stung, even at this distance and he was left gazing around the room, one hand holding his chin in thought.

Ela said something to him. "Huh? Oh, uh, yeah they did. Incredibly below freezing temperatures, and not all that different going down the line. And wind speed only picked up until the electronics failed." He stated as if it wasn't really that important or note-worthy, stood up and began pacing the room with his hands and fingers out, feeling the air.

"You cooled down the entire room..." He though out loud as he paced. "So that either means that you draw the heat from the area around for the blast- no, that would only work if the heat went somewhere, like a blast of fire. And the ice itself wasn't cooling down the room, it happened before..." Copperfield looked at her over his shoulder. "I see the problem, kid." He turned and walked over to her, pointing at the frozen dummies. "See all the havoc you wrought? That's not everything you can do. Not even close." He started to chuckle. It was sort of a nervous giggle, actually. This kid was a powerhouse. Kinda like he was in his school days.

[Ela Motley]

Ela watched the professor work with limited interest, she honestly did not expect these results to reveal anything she didn't know yet as she had done little to no work on this part of her semblance, so why would there be any developments ?

But the tone in his voice made her pipe up, wait, what was this ?
It was rare to hear the professor excited, let alone...nervous ?
What did he figure out to make him react like this ?!
Ela stepped back a little as the professor told her that this wasn't everything to her cold blast, that she could do more ?!
Not even close ?!
Ela felt her heart pound, the visage of frozen sand and a destroyed tent came back to mind as the beat of her heart got faster.
"I-i think...we sh-should stop testing, I-i I don't feel..."
Ela felt herself faltering, as panic and grief took over, she didn't want to be stronger, she wanted this power kept in check, not make possible collateral damage worse!
Ela by now had set down on one of the training benches, simply taking a few seconds to breathe, as she would have probably fallen otherwise.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield continued to chuckle. He was pretty sure the ice blast didn't operate how she thought it did. It wasn't like opening a refrigerator and blowing out cold air to freeze things, it was- ...Ela didn't seem well. She moved towards one of the benches and didn't look well while doing it.

He rushed to steady her, arriving just as she sat down. She didn't want to continue. He put an arm around her and gently grabbed her wrist, checking her pulse. "We don't have to test anymore, not if you don't feel good. Let's get you some water and back to your dorm, hm?" Maybe she pushed too much out. He could feel her Aura still standing, so she didn't put everything into that blast... but something about it took a lot out of her. "We've done enough. I'll compile the numbers together for you later, ok?"

[Ela Motley]

Ela had to take a few moments to gather herself, simply sitting there as Professor Copperfield tried his best to comfort her, she was thankful of course but had to just stay quiet for a bit to concentrate on her thoughts.
But she really couldn't reach a conclusion within her that made her feel better, her thoughts just kept circling back to the events of the past that Ela still blames herself for and the possibility of worse things happening, how could she be a huntress if her own ability would cause damage to friend and foe alike ?
Yet, one thought did make its way to the front, she had no answer herself, but that's what teachers are for, right ?

Ela took a deep breath, she luckily didn't start crying yet, so this wasn't too embarrassing.
"No, I'm..."
No, she wasn't okay, she needed help.
"I don't like this power."
Ela slumped forward a little, sighing deeply.
"I don't want it to get stronger, I'm scared that I'll hurt my friends."
Ela explained, she sighed once more, feeling a little better of getting this off her chest and maybe Copperfield could even help her find a solution.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield was silent for a moment. He looked over at the icy destruction she had wrought, then back to her. He leaned back, keeping his arm around her. How to best explain what he wanted to her...?

"Ela, I understand that that power of yours is scary. It's powerful as it is now and if I'm right about my assumptions, you only know about half of what you're actually doing. But..." He swallowed and thought some more.

"You... you know what a gun is. You do one little action, and bang. Something has a hole in it. It's scary. It's loud. It kicks in your hand and damages what it points at. You freeze up at the sight of one because you know it's dangerous. But when you learn how to use one, what makes it work, how it functions, how to better handle and direct that energy, how to control and manage that trigger, it's safer, isn't it? It doesn't become less dangerous, but we understand how to manage it and not hurt ourselves or others, right? Semblances are just like that."

"When I discovered my Semblance, I blew a tractor off my uncle and through a wall. It was powerful and a bit scary. But my uncle taught me that it would never go away. I would always have that gun, and I needed to understand it and master it or I would inevitablly get someone close to me killed." He leaned his head back against the wall. "Looking back, I've gotten a lot of people close to me killed in fights. Fights I took on because I knew how powerful I was and that I could take the enemy on. But... I'm pretty sure if I didn't, a lot of other people would have been hurt. And I don't... I don't regret any of it."

"Now this power of yours, it's yours. Your choice. I think you should learn more about it and learn how it works. But it's up to you. It's a big deal, but you should take some time to think about it. Alright?"

[Ela Motley]

Ela sat there and simply listened, still bowed forward, her hands resting in her lap, she was right to have trusted Mister Copperfield, he had an answer for her and a good one at that, she was stuck with this power for her whole life, she could simply not use it, but a thought that was worse than her flashbacks had made itself known in her mind, Copperfield mentioned how people by his side had died even though he held this much power and while he said he didn't regret it, which Ela doubted, she had no idea how it would feel to have something as horrible as a friend dying happen, because she hesitated to use a power that could have saved them.

The thought of Lin being hurt crossed her mind after which she shook her head, her long hair flailing around a little, as Al Ela straightened up, once again towering over her teacher, even as they sat, slapping her cheeks for just a second, before she turned to him, her eyes held that spark the professor ignited back when they first met.
"Thank you, professor, but my mind is already made up."
She said to him in the most confident tone she could muster after being shaken up like this, though she was genuine.
"I'm sure that under your guidance and my own training, I could figure out some good...firearm safety, even it takes a while and my distaste for this gun I wield."
Ela got up, yet still turned to Copperfield, straightening her outfit a little before then offering her hand to him.
"And I'm glad if you would have me for another round of training, I have some time today, so I should use it."
While Ela was honest, she was also forcing herself just a little, she knew if she slept on this like the professor had suggested to her, her thoughts would simply start to spiral more, she was taking the testing with Copperfield as a good excuse to calm herself and work out some stress via physical exercise.
"IF your no doubt busy schedule allowed it."
She had to add it, otherwise it would have felt too forced and even rude toward Copperfield, yet Ela was mentally slapping herself for even allowing herself to be alone, if the professor was busy she'd have to seek out Lin.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield gave her a sad smile as she started speaking. He could her the 'but' coming a mile away. He hoped she would change her mind, learn to use what was at her disposal but... It wasn't his choice to make. He could offer advice and teach but he couldn't make her choices for her. He briefly wondered if he should be harder on her, reaffirm how important this was, but then all he could see was his instructors back in Atlas. He wasn't them. He'd let his students make their own choices.

He took her hand and stood up. It was still a little strange to have to look up to look someone in the eyes, but he was getting used to that person being Ela. And then she said that she had time for more training.

"So... You do want to learn how to use it?"

[Ela Motley]

Ela looked a little confused, why did Mister Copperfield sound so surprise...actually she knew exactly why he did, she was very easy to discourage and Copperfield wasn't dealing with for the first time.
Ela sighed internally, yeah, this was on her.

She scratched the back of her neck a little, as she smiled at him somewhat sheepishly.
"Yes, I think it would be best if I were to learn to control this power, even if I run the risk of making it stronger, simply learning to release it in more controlled bursts should wield the result I desire."
Ela explained her thought progress to him, this was of course the short version, while containing the destructive potential of her frost blast was the main goal, she still very much needed to use this opportunity to work through her resurfaced stress, she didn't mention this of course, Copperfield was many things, but psychology was not in his repertoire.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield blinked. "Really? Well, normally kids your age when frightened of their gifts try to bury it and..." He trailed off into quiet mutterings before clapping his hands. "Glad you have more sense than the majority of your peers. If you trully want to bury a power, you have to master it first and know all it can do. Only then can you keep it buried forever if that's what you really want. Now, let's see..."

He looked out at the frozen training room. He thought he knew how the Ice half of her Semblance worked. It wasn't just spewing the dust and having it explode, it was far more indepth than that. But he had to have more data to definitively say that. Better to have her keep practicing and get a handle on it's basic functions as she understood it.

He waved his hand and with his own Semblance and melted the ice, fire making the air dance as it covered the area with heat like a record-setting summer day. He then moved over to the control room and set up six dummies, line up in a triangle like bowling pins.

"Alright, I know you hit big with it so lets try some restraint. Try freezing the closest pin to you and keep as many as you can behind it normal."

[Ela Motley]

Ela pouted a little at the first comment, she knew he had a point, but it still made her a little flustered.
"I am 23's old..."
Ela muttered to herself, she was quite a bit older than most of her peers, guess that made all her issues also more embarrassing, she sighed and simply went over to the vials and ate some more ice dust, shivering a little at its temperature and taste, bitter and cold, like coffee she left standing too long, just another reason to dislike her ability.

As Copperfield called her up, Ela was just done gulping down the last vial she needed to refill.
"Restraint, right."
This time, Ela stretched out only one hand, she took a deep breath.
The warmth around the room began to be sucked away again, yet this time only about half the training area felt the resulting cold as the frost gathered at her palm, Ela tried her best to focus, she tried her best to keep the charge smaller, but in her hesitation it actually grew bigger, the cold spread into the whole room again, Ela could feel her Aura being chunked by the drain as with an exhausted grunt she released it, the blast ripped through the air like before and with a glassy shattering sound the hard light constructs were destroyed.
Ela had to take a second to pant, this attempt had taken more out of her than it normally would.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Copperfield stood back and watched. The room got colder, again, more information for his hypothesis, and... it took... longer than before. She was trying to restrain herself, take careful aim, rein in the power and only hit a

The air in the room shattered like frozen glass and massive spikes of ice were where the pins had been set. He took a surprise step back.

Well, that wasn't restraint at all. That was bigger than before. And Ela was left panting, exaughsted after that blast. He rubbed at his chin with his hand.

"Strrrrrrriiike!" He called. "Knocked 'em all dead. But we're playing by golf rules, we want the least amount of points here." He set up another set of pins in another location now. "When you're ready, lets try again." He had his own thoughts on what went wrong, but so would she. He'd let her try again before he gave her advice.

[Ela Motley]

Once she recovered Ela would take in more ice dust, the cold substance really made her wish for some warm coffee, perhaps she and the professor could get one, once they were done here of course.

For now...
The following blast had Ela try and hold back again, only outstretching a single finger, which merely the blast fizzle and die out as a small sprinkle of cold air.
With a few more duds, using more and more fingers, Ela realized she needed the whole hand.
As soon as she tried that, the blast was back to its old strength and blew away the test dummies.
Of course, it was not going to be as easy as simply using fewer digits.

The tests continued, Ela blasting away dummies after dummies and Copperfield having to unfreeze the training room a couple of times.
Yet as her frustration and exhaustion grew, Ela was thinking, was this training worth it ?
This power only seemed capable of destroying, which granted was useful against the Grimm but...
Her thoughts drifted to her friends and family, to Lin, how enamored her little sister had been when Ela first showed her this part of her semblance, when she defended Lin against some Grimm, how Lin had not been deterred and showed her that usual excitement she always had when faced with something new.
How, even back when Lin had not even awakened her aura and semblance, she wasn't scared.

She...didn't have to wield this power to destroy, she could use it to protect.
A smile was on Ela's face as the next blast released.
It was as big as the ones before it, but the sound of shattering glass was missing.
As the mist lifted the hardlight constructs were still frozen, yet they weren't shattered, the ice was simply restraining them.

"...I did it.
Ela grinned, pumping her fist with glee, as she fell backwards, Ela's dust reserves were easily recovered but her stamina and aura were running low, plus she was freezing, unlike the professor Ela had very little to block out the cold off her own attacks, Ela was exhausted...but happy.

[Professor W B Copperfield]

Time and time again, Copperfield watched and took small notes. All the teaching advice in the world wouldn't help her discover this power on her own. She knew how to control it better than anyone. He was gleaning the physics side of what was happening, how exactly she was creating such blasts of ice. But that didn't matter at all towards their goal of control.

Time and time again, Copperfield set up the pins and watched her blow them away.

But one didn't break. The teacher wondered for a moment if he had finally gone deaf. The mist cleared and the pins remained standing, frozen in blocks of ice. She did it.

Copperfield walked over to her from the small booth and stretched out a hand to pull her back to her feet. "You did it. Good work, grasshopper." He gave her an approving nod and a smile. "Next we work on shapes. For now..." He shivered and patted himself. "I need some warm coffee. Want any?"

[Ela Motley]

Ela took his hands, taking a few seconds to just steady her breathing, but there was the invitation she had been waiting for, coffee!
Her tired expression almost immediately lifted, perhaps she wouldn't need the caffeine ? Maybe not, but she definitely did need something warm.
"I've been eating ice dust for the better part of..."
She looked at her scroll, to get a sense of time.
"...2 hours, I'm freezing."
Ela chuckled as she began to move out of the training room, flinging an unused towel over her shoulder as she emptied her last water bottle, walking slow enough to where Copperfield could easily follow her.