So not an obvious way to see effects without setting some off. Before asking about doing that she'll do one last scan to see if dust is conceptual magic, which is to say whether the exotic effects resonate with particular concepts or if they work more mechanically like magecrafting does describing precisely what it will do.

Little of column A, little of column B. Dust appears to be more heavily weighted on the conceptual side, though. 

"Have you started yet?"

"I have, my magic doesn't do anything visual when doing scans by default." What concepts are the various colors associated with?

"Huh. Well, I'll grab you a scroll and start configuring it. Carry on." She departs down a nearby aisle, staying in view of Riley as her eyes flick across the shelves. 

Red is "fire", bright orange seems to be "heat", dark orange is "rock" or "earth", yellow is "electricity", dark green is (curiously) "plant", pale green is "wind" or "air", blue is "water", light blue is "ice." There are a couple rarer flavors on the shelves as well: purple is associated with "gravity" and white with "light" and "construct." 

"I think I can answer one of your questions." She passes on the associated concept for each color.

"White has two? 'Construct,' interesting," Robyn calls from the aisle. "That makes sense, I suppose. You can use white Dust to make hard light constructs, like glowy weapons and barriers. It's a key part of Atlas' defenses against Grimm." 

"At this point I think I need to get into destructive tests. To start with I'd like to try triggering a grain or two of each type of the powdered form."

Robyn traipses back, carrying a small handheld device. "Your scroll, O inquisitive one. I can get you some Dust to sample, sure." She hands over the device and waves her own scroll over a panel near the Dust powder, pressing her palm to it when prompted. As she collects small vials of each color, she continues, "I should warn you that powdered Dust is ridiculously volatile and explosive. One of my Academy buddies sneezed into a patch of rock Dust once and got pelted with gravel. Nearly lost an eye. Would have, too, if not for her Aura. This much shouldn't be too dangerous, but still. I recommend wearing goggles." 

"Thanks," she pockets the device for the moment. "I have a helmet in my bag. I assume we should be testing elsewhere?"

"Probably wise, yeah. There's an arena not far from here that we use for training, it can take a beating and has some safety zones." Robyn leads the way. 

Riley follows. Absently she runs a scan on the scroll in her pocket. Does it use electronic components she would recognize?

The circuitry is markedly similar in composition and function, with a small smattering of "exotic effects." The main difference seems to be in the power source - a small reservoir of crystalline Dust - and power distribution, which uses Dust as well, but to channel instead of generate power. 

She pulls it out and tries to find the 'on' button.

Yep, there it is. Biggest button, engraved with a stylized crystal. A small section of the cylindrical device extends outward from the side, trailing a cheery "welcome" screen.

She goes through the welcome flow running a continuous scan the whole time. Her focus is on recording how all the electronics work. She's not specialized in reverse engineering electronics but others are and she can send her data to them.

The user interface is intuitive enough that she can get through most of the "setup" before they arrive. This particular scroll is not connected to any grid, and it complains a bit about that but otherwise gives Riley no trouble. Robyn watches with idle amusement, offering an occasional suggestion to clarify the process. 

The arena is a large, recessed area, crisscrossed with slits that suggest a modular floorspace. Most of it is a plain, utilitarian white. Robyn leads the way to the center and fiddles with her scroll; blocky shapes rise from the floor, and form a small enclosure out of thin glowing walls. 

She puts the scroll back in her pocket and sends a message to a research team to look at her data. It's dust time. "How much dust do you need for a noticable effect? I was thinking of triggering a couple grains at a time to start with." She gets out a flattened helmet from her bag without looking back demonstrating very flexible joints in the process, then snaps it into shape and puts it on. There's a faint hissing sound.

"Oh, you'll notice. Even a grain of Dust powder can produce a sizable effect, relatively speaking. Candle flame, pebble, loud pop of air, static zap, ice cube..." Robyn nods approvingly at the helmet. "Huh, how'd you get so flexible? More otherworldly magic?" 

"My first specialty was in bioengineering. I've tweaked just about everything about my body until I liked it. No magic required though with the technology we have the lines can get blurred. Let's start with the fire dust then. Seems like that's probably the most straightforward."

"I know a few people with shapeshifting Semblances, but the degree of precision that involves, I don't even know if they could manage everything..." Robyn shakes her head. "It's probably low down on the priority list, but I want that too." She hands over the vial of red Dust. "Have fun." 

"Most people just use standard tweaks but increased flexibility is widely available." She taps a single grain of the red substance into the testing area then caps the vial and steps back. Then she starts a wide range of scans and triggers the dust.

And lo, there is fire. A brief puff of heat and flame, approximately candle-sized, engulfs and replaces the Dust grain. 

She looks over the data. Is there anything left over or was it fully consumed? How hot was the flame? How long did it last? On the magic side what was the magic like. Did the energy come from the grain or did it also come from elsewhere. Supposedly dust only works inside the atmosphere are there any hints as to why that is?