there's a sickness inside you that wants to escape

For threads not requiring their own post.

Idle hands lead to idle thoughts, and too much free time has Zuko finding himself wallowing in thoughts about old failures. One notable one stands out to him today, mostly because it's one that he might be able to change. That's how he ended up in a clearing just far enough away from the house that he'd be certain not to cause any damage. (Self-repairing or not, it wouldn't say much for his control if the house was burned down on multiple occasions.) Here he could try something that he hadn't attempted since he uncle had last tried to explain it to him.

Bending lightning.

He could channel it, of course. That was one lesson he'd managed to take to heart. But he couldn't form it himself, and this was something that truly set him apart from the masters. His uncle had explained why this was the case, and his reasoning was sound. But hadn't he changed since then? Wasn't he more at peace with himself now? What was to stop him from properly completing the technique, even here where his abilities were dampened?

You will not be able to master lightning until you have dealt with the turmoil inside you, Iroh had said. You must let go of your feelings of shame if you want your anger to go away.

Had he let them go? Had he set aside his pride, as his uncle had encouraged? He'd lost the anger that had once fueled his firebending. That was why he and Aang had sought out information about the original firebending masters to begin with. They'd been shown their knowledge. He understood the very essence of fire better than he ever had before. So what was there to stop him? Lightning should come easy to him by now. He simply hadn't given it another chance once he'd become busy with teaching the Avatar.

His uncle had called lightning a pure form of firebending, one without aggression or rage, or even emotion entirely. That part of its nature was why his sister and father had managed to become so adept with it. It was hard to think of it as an evil technique, however, when Iroh had been just as capable of using it. As he'd said, it was a pure form. There was no good or bad nature to it. He was to separate the positive and negative energy, not leading but guiding it where he needed it to go.

Zuko stood from where he'd been sitting cross-legged on the ground, taking a deep breath as he'd been instructed to when he'd tried the same thing months before. This was his chance to show how much he'd improved - his opportunity to prove to himself how far he'd come during that time.

Separate the positive and negative. Guide them as they try to connect again, and --

There's a small explosion, and the prince is knocked back off his feet with a cry of shock and anger.

He laid on the ground, panting and glaring upward at nothing. Letting himself get too angry would only make the process harder, but it was difficult to hold it in. He had time, he reminded himself. It was just a matter of trying until he got it right.

[The picture is activated accidentally, as is clear from the tilted angle Zuko can be seen at. He's scanning over the page, obviously confused and pressing different functions randomly without much care for what they might do.]

...kind of book is this, anyway?

[He's also clearly talking to himself, not expecting anyone else to be able to hear.]

Little faces and lights? Are these even drawings? How am I supposed to--

[The teen hits something else, and the video is cut off.]