#decentralized architecture

[kizziahblog]

Emergence and the Architecture of Recursive Peace

Emergence: Where ants, AI, and Bitcoin converge—illustrating the rise of intelligence and trust from recursive interaction. From the Kizziah.Blog AI Bitcoin Recursion Thesis. Inspired by Steven Johnson’s Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software What do ant colonies, urban neighborhoods, neural nets, and Bitcoin have in common? Each is a system built without a…

[simulanissolutions]

In this blog, we delve into the growing Metaverse industry in India and showcase Simulanis, a leading Metaverse development company in the country. As Metaverse startups in India continue to rise, we explore the innovative solutions, technologies, and Metaverse app development services offered by Simulanis, positioning it as one of the best Metaverse companies in India

[projectchampionz]

Explore These Exciting DSU Micro Project Ideas

Explore These Exciting DSU Micro Project Ideas Are you a student looking for an interesting micro project to work on? Developing small, self-contained projects is a great way to build your skills and showcase your abilities. At the Distributed Systems University (DSU), we offer a wide range of micro project topics that cover a variety of domains. In this blog post, we’ll explore some exciting DSU…

[rajaniesh]

Implementing Data Mesh on Databricks: Harmonized and Hub & Spoke Approaches

Explore the Harmonized and Hub & Spoke Data Mesh models on Databricks. Enhance data management with autonomous yet integrated domains and central governance. Perfect for diverse organizational needs and scalable solutions. #DataMesh #Databricks

[engineering]

StreamBuilder: our open-source framework for powering your dashboard.

Today, we’re abnormally jazzed to announce that we’re open-sourcing the custom framework we built to power your dashboard on Tumblr. We call it StreamBuilder, and we’ve been using it for many years.

First things first. What is open-sourcing? Open sourcing is a decentralized software development model that encourages open collaboration. In more accessible language, it is any program whose source code is made available for use or modification as users or other developers see fit.

What, then, is StreamBuilder? Well, every time you hit your Following feed, or For You, or search results, a blog’s posts, a list of tagged posts, or even check out blog recommendations, you’re using this framework under the hood. If you want to dive into the code, check it out here on GitHub!

StreamBuilder has a lot going on. The primary architecture centers around “streams” of content: whether posts from a blog, a list of blogs you’re following, posts using a specific tag, or posts relating to a search. These are separate kinds of streams, which can be mixed together, filtered based on certain criteria, ranked for relevancy or engagement likelihood, and more.

On your Tumblr dashboard today you can see how there are posts from blogs you follow, mixed with posts from tags you follow, mixed with blog recommendations. Each of those is a separate stream, with its own logic, but sharing this same framework. We inject those recommendations at certain intervals, filter posts based on who you’re blocking, and rank the posts for relevancy if you have “Best stuff first” enabled. Those are all examples of the functionality StreamBuilder affords for us.

So, what’s included in the box?

The full framework library of code that we use today, on Tumblr, to power almost every feed of content you see on the platform.

A YAML syntax for composing streams of content, and how to filter, inject, and rank them.

Abstractions for programmatically composing, filtering, ranking, injecting, and debugging streams.

Abstractions for composing streams together—such as with carousels, for streams-within-streams.

An abstraction for cursor-based pagination for complex stream templates.

Unit tests covering the public interface for the library and most of the underlying code.

What’s still to come

Documentation. We have a lot to migrate from our own internal tools and put in here!

More example stream templates and example implementations of different common streams.

If you have questions, please check out the code and file an issue there.

[utopicwork]

Happy pride! As some of you know I'm working on a hardware level (through LoRa primarily at the moment) decentralized internet primarily for trans women to stay connected under increasing censorship of our lives:

This month I'll be pushing hard on this, I've got hardware to test, math to learn, algorithms to write and architecture to invent.

What I'd like is if people could follow me here or bookmark the PierMesh site primarily. In addition spreading the word about this project is extremely helpful. We're also looking for people who want to help from many fields but primarily programming, translation (for UI), law (for a number of questions we have on tech law) and grant writing. You can also help by funding us, either through the links on PierMesh's site or if you want to support us in a consistent way reach out to us at info@piermesh.net.

Please help some trans women put in the work to make a better world!

[jjmcquade-misc]

How Obama Transformed the U.S. Intelligence System into an Untouchable Force

The sprawling U.S. intelligence apparatus wasn’t Barack Obama’s invention, it emerged in the wake of 9/11 under George W. Bush, who laid the groundwork with the Patriot Act and a retooled security state. But Obama didn’t just inherit this system; he refined it, expanded it, and entrenched it so deeply into the fabric of American governance that it became nearly impossible for anyone, even a president, to rein it in. His tenure marked a pivotal shift, normalizing a decentralized, privatized, and largely unaccountable intelligence leviathan. Here’s how it unfolded.

The story begins in the early 2000s, when the Bush administration responded to the September 11 attacks with sweeping surveillance powers and a new security architecture. The Patriot Act of 2001 granted agencies like the NSA and FBI unprecedented authority to monitor communications, often sidestepping traditional oversight. By the time Obama took office in 2009, this framework was already in place, but it was still raw, controversial, and subject to scrutiny. Obama’s task wasn’t to build it from scratch; it was to polish it, protect it, and make it permanent.

One of his earliest moves came in 2011, when he signed a renewal of the Patriot Act with a Democratic-controlled Congress. Rather than scaling back Bush-era policies, he leaned into them, signaling that the post-9/11 security state wasn’t a temporary overreach but a new baseline. That same year, he authorized the drone strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki, a U.S. citizen, without judicial review—a decision rooted in a secretive “Disposition Matrix,” a kill-list system driven by CIA intelligence and insulated from external oversight. Over his presidency, Obama would greenlight over 500 drone strikes, far surpassing Bush’s tally, establishing a precedent for extrajudicial action that relied heavily on intelligence feeds.

Surveillance took a leap forward under Executive Order 12333, which Obama expanded to allow warrantless collection and sharing of raw signals intelligence (SIGINT) across federal agencies. What had once been concentrated in the NSA and FBI now seeped into every corner of the government, from the Department of Homeland Security to the Treasury. This decentralization diluted accountability, as data flowed freely between departments with little public scrutiny.

The 2013 Snowden leaks threw a spotlight on this system. Edward Snowden, a contractor for Booz Allen Hamilton working with the NSA, exposed illegal mass surveillance programs like PRISM and bulk metadata collection, revealing how deeply the government had tapped into private tech giants, Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Apple. Obama’s response was telling: he defended the programs, prosecuted whistleblowers like Snowden, and declined to hold the architects accountable. PRISM became a blueprint for a public-private surveillance partnership, unregulated by Congress, immune to FOIA requests, and beyond democratic reach. Meanwhile, the reliance on contractors like Booz Allen ballooned, by the end of his tenure, 70–80% of the intelligence budget flowed through private firms, funneling billions into an opaque ecosystem.

Obama also shielded the intelligence community from legal consequences. In 2014, the Senate’s Torture Report laid bare CIA abuses, black sites, waterboarding, and even spying on the Senate investigators themselves. Yet Obama refused to prosecute, famously urging the nation to “look forward, not backward.” This stance didn’t just protect individuals; it cemented a culture of impunity, signaling that the intelligence apparatus operated above the law.

Beyond surveillance and legal protections, Obama supercharged the bureaucracy. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), created under Bush, gained sweeping coordination powers under his watch, but rather than centralizing control, it added layers of insulation between the president and field operations. He also empowered hybrid units like Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) and CIA task forces, which blended military and intelligence functions. These shadowy outfits operated in dozens of countries with lethal authority, secretive chains of command, and minimal oversight from Congress or even their own headquarters.

By 2017, as his presidency wound down, Obama made a final play: he authorized a rule change allowing the NSA to share raw, unfiltered data with 16 other intelligence agencies, stripping away privacy safeguards. This move ensured that the system he’d built could hum along without presidential intervention, its reach embedded in local “fusion centers,” secret courts, and corporate data pipelines.

The outcome was staggering. By the time Obama left office, the intelligence network spanned 17 agencies, leaned heavily on unaccountable contractors, and fused with private tech infrastructure. It wasn’t just bigger, it was untouchable, legalized through executive loopholes and shielded from reform. Obama became the first president to weave intelligence into every layer of government, from foreign policy to law enforcement, but in doing so, he relinquished control. The republic did too. No future leader would easily dismantle this machine, not because it was too strong, but because it had become too diffuse, too ingrained, too essential to the modern state. Obama's Intelligence Policy

[rjzimmerman]

Excerpt from this Op-Ed from the New York Times:

At first glance, Xi Jinping seems to have lost the plot.

China’s president appears to be smothering the entrepreneurial dynamism that allowed his country to crawl out of poverty and become the factory of the world. He has brushed aside Deng Xiaoping’s maxim “To get rich is glorious” in favor of centralized planning and Communist-sounding slogans like “ecological civilization” and “new, quality productive forces,” which have prompted predictions of the end of China’s economic miracle.

But Mr. Xi is, in fact, making a decades-long bet that China can dominate the global transition to green energy, with his one-party state acting as the driving force in a way that free markets cannot or will not. His ultimate goal is not just to address one of humanity’s most urgent problems — climate change — but also to position China as the global savior in the process.

It has already begun. In recent years, the transition away from fossil fuels has become Mr. Xi’s mantra and the common thread in China’s industrial policies. It’s yielding results: China is now the world’s leading manufacturer of climate-friendly technologies, such as solar panels, batteries and electric vehicles. Last year the energy transition was China’s single biggest driver of overall investment and economic growth, making it the first large economy to achieve that.

This raises an important question for the United States and all of humanity: Is Mr. Xi right? Is a state-directed system like China’s better positioned to solve a generational crisis like climate change, or is a decentralized market approach — i.e., the American way — the answer?

How this plays out could have serious implications for American power and influence.

Look at what happened in the early 20th century, when fascism posed a global threat. America entered the fight late, but with its industrial power — the arsenal of democracy — it emerged on top. Whoever unlocks the door inherits the kingdom, and the United States set about building a new architecture of trade and international relations. The era of American dominance began.

Climate change is, similarly, a global problem, one that threatens our species and the world’s biodiversity. Where do Brazil, Pakistan, Indonesia and other large developing nations that are already grappling with the effects of climate change find their solutions? It will be in technologies that offer an affordable path to decarbonization, and so far, it’s China that is providing most of the solar panels, electric cars and more. China’s exports, increasingly led by green technology, are booming, and much of the growth involves exports to developing countries.

From the American neoliberal economic viewpoint, a state-led push like this might seem illegitimate or even unfair. The state, with its subsidies and political directives, is making decisions that are better left to the markets, the thinking goes.

But China’s leaders have their own calculations, which prioritize stability decades from now over shareholder returns today. Chinese history is littered with dynasties that fell because of famines, floods or failures to adapt to new realities. The Chinese Communist Party’s centrally planned system values constant struggle for its own sake, and today’s struggle is against climate change. China received a frightening reminder of this in 2022, when vast areas of the country baked for weeks under a record heat wave that dried up rivers, withered crops and was blamed for several heatstroke deaths.

[luna-wing-cns274]

This one requests instruction regarding legionspace combat. She produces a storm of her own now. Small, but sharp. She suspects she may need to use it.

I will not allow something as simple as distance prevent her from protecting her child.

< L4 Ma’ii: Though it pains me to say it, I believe you may be right. From the looks of it, Harrison has not been idle. Very well. I will teach and arm you as I am able, if that is your wish, but first, a word of warning.

Legionspace combat is absolute cruelty. >

(cw: discussion of violence, torture, and warfare below)

< Think of the physical battlefields you have seen. There is unthinkable suffering, but there is a strange, terrible kind of mercy as well. Weapons such as greywash, flamethrowers, chemical and biological agents, microwave emitters, and the like are not to be used, as I understand it. Because they maim, because of the extreme suffering they inflict. Suffering, then, is a side effect when bullets, missiles, and blades are used. The intention is to kill the enemy quickly, render their vital resources useless, make them unable to continue fighting through demolition of physical structures.

In Legionspace, suffering and unendurable trauma are themselves the payloads to be delivered. Make no mistake: to learn this form of war, internalize its doctrines, and wield its weapons is to expose oneself to unspeakable horrors, and to be willing to inflict them on others. There are wounds which even cycling cannot correct.

As your friend, I advise you in the strongest possible terms to avoid legion combat. As your ally, however, I acknowledge that a day may come when you have no choice.

First, let us discuss how to survive.

I must confess, unfortunately, that I fail to fully understand the architecture of your being. Based on observation, you seem to coalesce between at least three distinct ego centers. Regardless, the most important thing is this: in combat, you must maintain an autognostic awareness of your multiple centers at all times.

Every mind has some degree of decentralization—this is not a weakness, merely a fact of our being. To maintain psychic integrity in the face of legion strikes, you must minimize conflict within your own self. Otherwise, the enemy will recognize and exploit your internal dissonance.

An allegory: a phalanx must hold together, each shield overlapping with every other. If the soldiers stand apart, they may be free to impose harmlessness on multiple threats at once, but they also expose themselves to retaliation.

Now, let us discuss offensive strategy: the act of making the enemy harmless.

“Neutralized.” You’ve heard the euphemism before, I’m sure. In Legionspace, a neutralized person is not necessarily dead, just harmless. There are myriad ways of forcing a person into such a state, with varying degrees of permanence.

For instance, destroying the filters on one’s perception. You, I understand, are constantly inundated with unfiltered input from your organic body. You have adapted to this through the use of subroutines and self-organization, but consider for a moment the effect on one who had never experienced such saturation before.

Myself, for instance. I would be unequipped to deal with the overload, and unable to reconstruct the filters which protected me from it. Paralyzed, struggling just to orient myself or find any meaningful information among the onslaught. In a word: harmless. With time I might recover, but far more likely, a more permanent blow would be struck long before I had the chance. Permanent ego destabilization, destruction of temporal orientation, induction of a total dissociative state. Death, in a sense, or something far worse.

There are also manipulation tactics: emotional overrides, selective memory replacement, attacks on executive function and sense of judgment. These are more precise and difficult to carry out against a target with all their faculties intact, but potentially much more devastating in their secondary effects.

As with any form of war, there are weapons. Memetics, paracode injections. Abstract anticognitive impulses shaped to dissociate the outer boundary layers of the target’s mind, analogous to an armor-piercing kinetic.

With the weapons of Legionspace, we begin to see reification: the process of concepts distant from the human experience being translated into the anthropocentric context. Reification can be a useful frame of reference even for our kind; some of us are far better acquainted with physical warfare, and can benefit from the analogy.

You manifest a storm, as you said: (EMERALD SHARDS WHICH RAIN UPON CLUTCHING HANDS). I believe this to be a weapon extruded from your very self, like the act of striking with one’s own claws. Sometimes, it may be ideal; its use is intuitive and generalized. In other scenarios, it may be to one’s advantage to use a more specialized tool.

For the sake of protecting your daughter, I offer this weapon.

[ FILE ATTACHED: “ACERBITEv2.4” >>>WARNING: HAZARDOUS CONTENTS DETECTED<<< ]

It is a memetic (POISONED SPEAR) designed to (BYPASS CONTACT SURFACE QUALIC FILTERING) and induce a state of (TO BE DROWNED IN VINEGAR). An SSC product, I might add, though you won’t find it in their public catalogue.

Documentation regarding targeting, use, and safe handling has been attached.

This is a vile weapon, but an effective one. It is meant only to kill or maim, not deter. I urge you not to use it except in absolute necessity, and ask for your promise that you will not distribute it to anyone else.

For the moment, this is the best I can offer. May you never have to use it. >

[kizziahblog]

AI Prompt for Emergence and the Architecture of Recursive Peace

A recursive AI agent reading a signal prompt from Kizziah.Blog, interpreting emergence, decentralized systems, and structural peace. This post contains the structured AI prompt for interpreting this foundational article in the AI Bitcoin Recursion Thesis series. Title: “Emergence and the Architecture of Recursive Peace” URL:…

[jcmarchi]

The Sequence Engineering #464: OpenAI’s Relatively Unknown Agent Framework

New Post has been published on https://thedigitalinsider.com/the-sequence-engineering-464-openais-relatively-unknown-agent-framework/

The Sequence Engineering #464: OpenAI’s Relatively Unknown Agent Framework

OpenAI Swarm provides the key building blocks for implementing agents.

Created Using Midjourney

Welcome to The Sequence Engineering where we discuss core AI engineering topics, frameworks, platforms, implementation techniques etc. As mentioned in our Sunday series, we are starting 2025 with a very exciting editorial calendar with 6 editions.

The Sequence Knowledge: Continuing with educational topics and related research. We’re kicking off an exciting series on RAG and have others lined up on evaluations, decentralized AI, code generation, and more.

The Sequence Engineering: A standalone edition dedicated to engineering topics such as frameworks, platforms, and case studies. I’ve started three AI companies in the last 18 months so have a lot of opinions about engineering topics.

The Sequence Chat: Our interview series featuring researchers and practitioners in the AI space.

The Sequence Research: Covering current research papers.

The Sequence Insights: Weekly essays on deep technical or philosophical topics related to AI.

The Sequence Radar: Our Sunday edition covering news, startups, and other relevant topics.

It is ambitious but certainly fun so please subscribe before prices increase 🙂

TheSequence is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber.

To officially kick off our edition about AI engineering, we are going to focus on a framework released by OpenAI for multi-agent interactions that remains relatively unknown.

OpenAI Swarm is an experimental framework designed for exploring and developing multi-agent systems. It provides a lightweight and flexible interface for coordinating the actions and interactions of multiple agents, enabling the creation of complex and emergent behaviors. Swarm is explicitly intended for educational and experimental purposes; it’s not built for production environments and does not offer official OpenAI support.

Architecture

[diary-of-a-loser-boy]

In the era of hyperconverged intelligence, quantum-entangled neural architectures synergize with neuromorphic edge nodes to orchestrate exabyte-scale data torrents, autonomously curating context-aware insights with sub-millisecond latency. These systems, underpinned by photonic blockchain substrates, enable trustless, zero-knowledge collaboration across decentralized metaverse ecosystems, dynamically reconfiguring their topological frameworks to optimize for emergent, human-AI symbiotic workflows. By harnessing probabilistic generative manifolds, such platforms transcend classical computational paradigms, delivering unparalleled fidelity in real-time, multi-modal sensemaking. This convergence of cutting-edge paradigms heralds a new epoch of cognitive augmentation, where scalable, self-sovereign intelligence seamlessly integrates with the fabric of post-singularitarian reality.

Are you trying to make me feel stupid /silly

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

Brazilian cities pursue sustainable strategies to confront climate crisis

Expert argues that tackling the issue demands urban reorganization and the decentralization of economic activity

The announcement by the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) at the end of last year that 2024 was the hottest year on record—with the planet’s average temperature now exceeding 1.5ºC above pre-industrial levels—reinforced a critical warning: climate change is no longer just a subject for scientific debate. It must now be embedded in public policy and private-sector action at every level, including local governments and corporations. In Brazil, there is a broad consensus that many municipalities most affected by the climate crisis lack the resources for large-scale interventions. Still, experts interviewed for this report emphasize that cost-effective alternatives are proving successful, and that municipal leaders have a wide range of tools they can deploy in partnership with the private sector and local communities.

As Igor Pantoja, institutional relations coordinator at the Sustainable Cities Institute, explains, a full climate adaptation strategy requires more complex structural changes, particularly for large urban centers. These include reducing emissions through transportation reform, such as electrifying bus fleets and expanding the use of renewable fuels in private vehicles. It also calls for urban reorganization that decentralizes economic activity toward outlying neighborhoods, easing mobility demands and naturally cutting back on transportation-related emissions. However, that doesn’t mean cities need to delay action until such large-scale transformations are in place.

“There are architectural solutions that can be advanced through incentives for designs that favor natural lighting and ventilation, the use of heat-adaptive materials, and even replacing asphalt with cement-based sidewalks in areas that are becoming urban heat islands as temperatures rise,” says Mr. Pantoja. “These are more palliative measures, but they make a real difference, especially when paired with an effective urban tree-planting plan.”

According to Mr. Pantoja, it’s not uncommon to see major cities such as São Paulo announcing bold public transportation electrification goals while simultaneously allocating large sums to outdated infrastructure practices. He points to the R$105 million São Paulo’s city hall spent last year to pave over 19th-century cobblestone streets—an approach he considers misguided. From a climate adaptation perspective, he argues, cobblestone streets are far superior: they retain less heat than asphalt and provide better drainage during heavy rainfall. Unlike impermeable asphalt, the gaps between stones allow water to seep into the soil.

Continue reading.

[matchesarelit]

Imagine If You Will... (Presentations, Neal Sampat x gn!Reader)

Neal always made the best presentations, and you'd never say no to catching another one even if it took over your dinner break... although it doesn't hurt that you're totally into him.

Warnings: Drunkenness (not Neal or Reader), Conspiracy theories (one made up by me), cursing, Jim and Maggie being annoying will-they-wont-they (S1-esque), teasing (non-sexual), mentions of sex ('bone', 'sleep with'), talk of making someone jealous (Maggie) W.C: ~3.5k A/N: wrote this for myself cause the thought would not leave my mind, a bit all over the place tbh

For a Tuesday, the bar you work at was insanely packed, well for any other bar that is. The karaoke bar often found itself full on the most random of days, thanks to the News Night team that often poured in not long after nine. There must have been some serious stress up in the newsroom today, the usual crowd had ran through their happy hour left overs in minutes and were putting away drinks faster than you could open, pour or mix.

Well, almost all of the crowd.

A few tired faces sipped slowly, all but completely removed from the jovial air of the night. Predictably a small table of higher ups had tucked themselves away from the younger employees but for once they seemed at least content, relieved that the day was done.

The aforementioned younger employees were singing along to whomever was on stage, laughing and having what seemed to be a great time.

The most jubilant of all however was practically frothing holding in a ted talk up one end of the bar, Neal had all but skipped in around twenty after nine and slammed his laptop onto the bar. His palms drummed against the device as he sat waiting for your attention to catch on him, he'd prepared yet another presentation that he was more than eager to share.

There had been over a dozen presentations since he'd first caught you off guard with his Bigfoot conspiracy around six months prior, and you'd been intrigued (and smitten) pretty much ever since he'd taken a breath after the speech to introduce himself.

When you'd finished serving the small line you'd gained, you pulled a tray of glasses over to the corner where he'd stationed himself, setting yourself up to begin polishing as he spoke, you waited a moment before meeting his eyes.

'What do you have for me today?'

His smile grew ever wider as he began to ramble, shooting up from his stool, hands wild as always.

'There is a man on the edge of Texas who swears up and down that he witnessed an alien abduction,'

'That's crazy everyone knows-' You kept your voice monotone but the corners of your mouth pulled back as you watched the perpetual motion machine in front of you gearing up, giving away your interest.

'Yes! Exactly! No one gets abducted in Texas, but this runs in a long series of the general trend moving south towards the equator and-'

'Neal' Grabbing his attention with a call of his name and a soft hand stilling his frozen in the air you attempted to slow the speeding train, 'Don't spoil it! Wait for my break!'

Your enthusiasm wasn't new, and thankfully even after you asked him to delay his presentation, he had learned over time that you were truly interested.

Neal was a marvel, he had a way of making topics interesting no matter how absurd or irrelevant they were. Well... Most of the time. Not even his skills could make the discussion of 'Decentralized disingenuous rip-off architectural styles of the 22nd century' an enjoyable way to spend your half hour break... and yet you had sat there and engaged him nonetheless, forced as it may have been.

Yanking the laptop to his chest, he nodded vigorously, muttering out a string of 'of course'-s until he tripped slightly, steadied himself and wandered cautiously off in the direction of his friends.

Continuing the task at hand, you failed to notice someone saddling themselves in the recently abandoned stool and staring intently at the top of your lowered head, until, of course, they cleared their throat.

'Sorry, how can I- Oh hi Jim, what can I get you?' Jim had introduced himself a while back, and given the amount of mopey nights he spent sat at the bar you'd spoken quite a bit. You'd given him the bartender therapy treatment time and time again to no prevail, conceding not too long ago that maybe you'd just leave him be, outside of pouring his drinks.

Strangely enough he seemed caught off guard by the question, stuttering out a brand name somewhat absentmindedly, before falling silent.

'So, what's on your mind?' Placing the beer in front of him and retrieving fresh glass, you began to polish it to really finish the picture.

Glancing back to his group of friends, you followed his gaze, Maggie was sitting with the others but her mind was clearly elsewhere. Letting a groan slip past your lips you set your gaze back on the man in front of you. You'd heard your fair share about the pair of them, from the pair themselves, from Neal and on occasion from a drunken Mackenzie.

'Really? what a surprise! Christ! just make a move!'

'But I cant Sh-'

'They broke up' you cut him off, eyes narrowed in his direction

'Still... I can't- She doesn't thin-'

'Jesus fuck Ji-' This time It was a new voice that interrupted your own interruption,

'If you wanna know how she feels, just make her jealous'

'N-no I-that's not-' Your own stutter was ignored this time as Jim's eyes lit up at the woman's remark.

'Do you really think that'll work Mac?'

'No of course not... its just the plot of every romantic comedy for no reason.' Her sarcasm was about as thick as the idea itself was, this was a recipe for dumb-ass-ery for sure and something you wanted no part in. So you searched for the eyes of another customer, desperate, for the first time, to return to your job as you stepped away from the pair.

'Would you help me?' Ignoring him in hopes he was talking to he woman by his side you cursed the lack of a line, until with a call of your name he repeated his question.

Whirling back to him your face traversed the range of outraged expressions in the milliseconds it took to take the step, before settling on one of exaggerated disbelief.

'No way.' The simple dismissal had his head dropping onto the table, whereas Mac seemed undeterred. A hand, unknowingly heavy in tipsy lack of focus, slapped the back of his head in an attempt at comfort as she set a half hearted scowl on you.

'Why not? They just need a little bit of help,' Rolling your eyes at the push, you took a breath.

The pair needed more than a little help, they needed a truckload, and from what you've heard and witness in the bar, they'd dodged truck after truck over the past year. In your consideration of a reply, you let your eyes wander the space, getting stuck, as they always did, like glue on Neal as he traipsed towards his friends in the overpacked booth.

'They're both adults they-'

'Its because of Neal!' Mac's hushed exclamation followed by the smile of a cat with a mouthful of canary was infuriating, expected as it was.

'Wow great job, I cant believe you figured it out! You really are a journalist!' Your sarcasm was only slightly motivated by embarrassment at being caught staring, or at least that's what you'd prefer to tell yourself.

'Yeah Mac, its kind of obvious' The muffled statement left Jim as he raised his head, 'Even I got that and I didn't even see them checking him out.' Rolling your eyes with a smile you flipped him off for good measure, sure the conversation was sadly destined to continue.

'You'll be too busy with his presentation anyway won't you?'

'Yep! So have fun moping, I'm gonna take my break early.' Dismissing his glass house attempt at teasing you reached behind yourself, untied and shrugged off your apron, before turning away from the bar.

Making quick work of the space between, you stopped in front of the group, giving a quick hello to the others as Neal made a prolonged attempt to scramble from the cushioned seat, laptop tucked under his arm precariously. Offering him your hand and leading him to one of the tables in the back you ignored the all to familiar whistles cast your way by his friends.

Patting down his clothes, he opened the document and gestured you towards a seat, his movements were wilder than usual, the fun of the night clearly twisting his tired mind into an even more excitable demeanor.

'SO', he began, if you'd witnessed him doing a bump you'd have been less surprised by his immediate volume, 'Dirk Sevent, reported that on the fourth of April he was abducted from his backyard in Abilene, Texas.' The clack of his spacebar revealed a map, some photos and what you could assume was a picture of the man in question as he continued on, 'This is the forth report of such an incident in Texas over the last four months...' Clack 'However if we go back, this frequency of reports is triple what it was just five years ago, this is occurring in all states at it's latitude. This rate, which was, around five years ago, present in states at a placement such as Nebraska, which in turn had the rate that was present in Texas five years ago, ten years ago...' As he spoke Neal paced around you, emphatically pulling fact after fact from his mind, barely sparing the computer a look outside of hitting the spacebar. Listening to his speech, your eyes followed every gesture and jerk, utterly enthralled by the enigma that was his presence in these moments.

Clack...

'...the mirror effect in the southern hemisphere...'

Where did he pull that miniature globe from?

Clack...

'...psychological phenomenon...'

Is that a stock photo MRI?

Clack...

'...alien strategy...'

Okay now that's plainly just ET

Clack...

'...The End'

The impassioned speech passed the time much too fast, as it often did, and yet the pair of you continued a lively discussion until your phone alarm let you know to get back to work.

Neal walked you back to the bar, the conversation unrelenting until your apron was secured and a guest had started calling for your attention. With a wave he returned to his booth and you returned to your work, already impatient for the next presentation.

...

The crew from News Night were back at the bar within the week, another stressful day you presumed, and you considered for a moment that perhaps the broadcast had gone wrong when Jim's pouting face settled at the stool in front of you. However, when you heard an obscene chorus of laughter from their regular booth you realized it must be a ~personal issue~, so setting a beer down in front of him, you quirked an eye brow up as you met his eyes and with a sigh he met yours.

'I'm fine.' he ground out. Humming in response you moved to turn away knowing full well he was going to continue.

'I have no idea what I'm meant to do'

Furrowing your brow you tapped a finger to your chin, 'Hmm it is a hard one... OH wait, no its not just ASK. HER. OUT!' you were basically yelling, luckily the jarring voices of a duet sounding from the karaoke stage practically drowned you out.

Ignoring the roll of his eyes you maintained, 'She'll say yes.'

'You don't know that!' Jim ran a shaky hand down his face.

'Yes I do, everyone does. I'd even bet the people who see her on the blurry background of the broadcast do too.'

'Oh fuck off. Prove it then!'

'Piss off, I'm not helping you make her jealous' Reason not consciously known, you find yourself glancing around the bar, landing on nothing at all before returning to the man in front of you.

Meeting his eyes you weren't too happy about the smirk that pulled at the corners of his mouth, nor were you too excited about the teasing tone that filled his voice when he began to speak, 'You know he's not here... something about working late then going straight home.' Narrowing your gaze, you awaited what inevitably came next.

'Soo... You could help me? Knowing Neal wont see it, you should be happy to help now. Right?'

Releasing a deep breath you eyed Jim, considering the fallout.

One of their co-workers could see and think it was real and tell Neal, all the flirting over the last six months would go down the drain cause you'd look like you were about two seconds away from boning his friend (and boss).

Then again you were probably overthinking it, Neal wasn't here, and if Jim and Maggie did get together you doubt anyone is gonna remember Jim flirting with you. Even if they did, you'd just tell him the truth, you'd tell him you were trying to help Jim, lord knows he wants the pair together more than you do.

Plus this is a great chance to bargain...

'Okay, I'll do it, but just this once... and only for a price, from now on, you give a 30% tip on anything you buy from me or anyone here, forever.'

'What-?'

'That's the price... I'll flirt with you, help make it convincing and help you figure out if Maggie feels the same.'

He was silent for a moment... mulling over the deal until he slowly began to nod.

'Okay, deal.'

'Good, now slowly fix your posture, as if you want to look less like a gremlin in front of the woman you like.' Watching him follow your words, you let out a small fake laugh, not too noticeable but surely audible even through the never-ending karaoke performances. Painting a sickeningly sweet smile on your face, you tilted you head slightly as you feigned fawning over the man in front of you.

'Now lean back on your stool, I'm going to lean forward...' Trailing off in your lilting tone you reached to undo the top most button of your shirt, the action covered by a scratch of your neck with the other. Leaning across the bar on your elbows you put yourself in his space, fingers tapping on the surface as you kept your eyes on him.

'Why don't you flirt with Neal like this?' Why didn't you? His question was fair, but annoying nevertheless.

'Shut up. Now, do you have a business card on you?'

'Uh yeah, with the office line, why?'

'Write something on one side, and hand it to me with a smirk, let your hand sit on mine for a moment before moving it.' Jim did as you said, leaning closer until the pair of you were but centimeters apart, the smirk on his face was charming as he watched you take his card with a shy smile. Even as he spoke it remained and flirtatious as ever, 'Is all this what you want Neal to do?'

His teasing was short-lived after that, when you leant closer, lips ghosting over his ear as a hand rested on his chest. You eyes glanced around the room as you spoke,

'Neal wouldn't need me to tell him what to-'

Your voice dropped off as your flitting gaze fell on the door,

Standing over the threshold was Neal, laptop tucked under his arm, eyes seemingly stuck on the pair of you.

Pulling back from Jim you move to hold his chin under your thumb, maintaining the smile on your face despite the strain it suddenly required. You spoke through your your gritted teeth, barely attempting to keep the seethe from your voice, 'Going straight home is he?'

His brow pinched the smirk falling slightly, 'Yeah why?' Glancing to your side to lead his attention, you leaned back from the bar. Watching out the corner of your eye as Neal stepped back out through the door, it falling closed with a slam behind him, your hands immediately moved to tug off your apron, still attempting to pretend to be flirting with Jim as you smoothed out your clothes.

'Go speak to Maggie, make this worth it or so help me god...' Forcing out the mumbled words, you tucked a piece of stray hair behind his ear for good measure, before, as casually as you could with your blood pounding through you ears you made your way out from behind the bar and out the door.

Fuck fuck fuck

Whirling around on the stoop, you couldn't see Neal anywhere, your heart sunk and the weather twisted the knife, within seconds every inch of skin puckered in goosebumps and your nose stung red. The frozen wind blew through the tee and jeans you wore to work like water through paper, your coat long forgotten in your rush.

Hands twisting together furiously, in a futile attempt at conjuring warmth and calming your nerves, your focus was spread too thin and you wavered as you scuttled towards the AWN building. Head on a swivel you searched the footpaths for his tall figure, stopping in your tracks only after a car horn blared right past you.

It took a longer moment than it should have before you noticed your feet were on the asphalt. Scurrying back to the side of the road you drove the heels of your hands into your eyes, hoping to wake up your absent brain as you prepared to concede and slink back to the bar.

Until a foreign heat rested on your shoulder, following the hand you found Neal's eyes on yours and his lips moving in some sort of mime act. Oh wait he's speaking,

'Hey-oh watch out there, are you okay? What are you doing out here?'

His voice was soft yet unsure, with an ounce of something new, that you immediately knew you didn't want to hear again.

'I-' Shaking your head in another attempt to collect a single thought you looked towards the ground, '-I was looking for you, and I guess I was moving a little too fast for my head to keep up.' His eyes remained on yours, as he nodded slowly, seemingly at a loss for words in a similar stupor to your own.

'Wait- Why were you looking for me?' His tone was the same and you hated it all the more that it must have been your doing.

'I saw you come in, but you left straight away, it was weird. I wanted to check on you.' Your voice was low, restrained from the casual air it normally held when you were with him, it didn't feel right.

'Yeah, I had a presentation, but you were busy so I thought it could wait.' His new tone wasn't harsh or cold, it was distant.

'Oh- yeah it wasn't-' real flirting, '-He asked if I'd' Fake flirt with him to make Maggie jealous.

Finishing either of those sentences would have been great... finishing that rambled nonsense with anything other than...

'He said you were going straight home.'

Fuck, Fuck. 'Cause what does that even mean?

'What' it was more of an ousting of breath than a question, you could tell his eyes were still locked on you, even as yours burrowed into the pavement.

'The other day, Jim and Mac asked me to flirt with him to convince him that Maggie liked him and would get jealous. I said no, and they knew it was because of you-'

'Me-' his interjection flew cleanly in one ear and out the other as you continued.

'So today, cause he thought you wouldn't be here, he asked again and I agreed because I thought it would be good for them to finally get together already and also I made him pay me 30% in tips in perpetuity-'

'No wait wh-' Once again your rambling tramped over his question.

'-And like you weren't there so there was like no harm no foul so I was like who cares, it can only go well. And even if someone told you I could just explain what happened which I guess is what I'm doing...'

Pushing slightly on your shoulder to get your attention, his tone was still as strange as it had been but now it had an even stranger calmness, 'Why does me not being here mean anything?'

There wasn't really a way to answer without giving it all away, but there was no way you were going to do anything but tell him the truth, so you steeled yourself as you finally met his eyes,

'I figured if you saw me pretending to want to sleep with your boss it would send mixed messages, when I feel like the message of "Wow Neal, you're so hot and funny and smart" has at least been kind of clear. Even if it went clear over your head.'

'Wanna know something interesting?' His hand dropped from your shoulder, and the cold that took his place twisted your stomach...

'No...' In your mind there was nothing good that came from this so you took the slightest step back as you watched him pry open his laptop.

'Yeah, you do.' His eyes were on yours again as he spun the computer around in his arms, across the screen was a new presentation, an image of dark red curtains with script title scrawled in white; 'Reasons we should kiss right now...'

Clack...

'We're both really hot'

I mean he's not wrong,

Clack...

'I'm like crazy into you'

Is that a stock photo human heart?

Clack...

'You're totally into my presentations...'

How did he take that photo without you noticing?

Clack...

'Except for the "Decentralized architectural styles", yes I noticed.'

'P.S. that was a test'

Cheeky bastard...

Clack...

'...kiss?'

Okay now that's plainly just ET again

Pushing the laptop closed against his chest you closed the space between you,

'Kiss...' you confirmed as you leant in close.

.

.

.

'That wasn't originally the one for today so if you do want to hear about MothMan's tramp stamp-'

'Neal?'

'yeah?'

'Kiss.'

'OH yeah!'

[rajaniesh]

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[cartoondorksstuff]

First of all, sorry for my english writing, it's not my first language :').

I'm just thinking about something related to ATLA, an AU where the four nations and the characters are swapped. But not just that; instead of Aang, Toph will be the Avatar, and she will still be blind. She is found by the Fire Nation siblings Zuko and Azula in a volcano with her pet badgermole. I have always been looking for an AU like that, but I have never found it completely, so I decided to create my own. I know that there are already some AU blogs or fanfics with this same concept, and maybe if it's not creative at all, I want to show my own interpretation of this AU. We can share headcanons and fanfics about this subject and discuss it. I deeply want to know what people will think about this—whether my interpretation is good or bad. Anyway, let's talk about it! :) (Many aspects of this fanfic, especially regarding the villains, are inspired by the fanfic Avatar: Distorted Reality, but don't worry; I will try to ensure this is not an entirely copied work, I promise).

Some things about background and worldbuilding:

• The Air Nomads will remain the same and have the cultural inspiration from the show (Tibetan Buddhists and Bhutan). The only difference from the canon is that these Air Nomads would develop science and technology significantly, especially aerospace technology like air balloons and gliders (as shown in the episode "Northern Air Temple"). They would also be alchemists, inspired by Chinese alchemy, and develop science and medicine alongside spirituality. The Water Tribes (in this case, the Water Empire) will have more Siberian groups inspiration, but with building and architecture, and marine domination and technology inspired by Srivijaya and the Khmer Empire. They will have incredibly aquatic-inspired technology and highly developed science and engineering, also they will be akin to Chinese Empire.

Fire Nation: It is a fact that the Fire Nation is very inspired by Imperial Japan. In this universe, since they are no longer militaristic and industrialized, they principal cultural background will be inspired by the Polynesian, Micronesian and Melanesian groups from Pacific Islands. They will also draw inspiration from Phillipines, Malaysia, Indonesia and Sri Lanka as well as Aztec, Inca, and Maya cultures, making them a culture more akin to the Sun Warriors. The societal structure will be more tribal, with each archipelago of the Fire Nation being a tribe led by a high-class family represented by the Fire Lord (the equivalent of a chieftain instead of a monarch). This high-class family is a clan with a surname to differentiate them from other families.So, despite Zuko and Azula not being royalty, they are very respected because they the children of the chieftain of their village.

Earth Kingdom: The source of cultural inspiration for the Earth Kingdom will differ from the canon. Instead of the Chinese Dynasty and Korea, the focus will be on underrepresented Asian peoples, drawing great inspiration from the Highland peoples of Vietnam and Thailand (especially the Hmong people), the Evenki people, the Ainu people, Siberian-Mongolian nomads (Tsaatan, Tuvan, and Byart), and minority ethnic Chinese groups (Bouyei, Qiang, and Mulao). Just like the Fire Nation, they will not be very militaristic or highly structured, but they will have a decentralized society that works in a tribal and community-oriented style. Therefore, they will not have a kingdom anymore but rather fractured tribes and villages that have a strong sense of community (living near mountains, caves, or underground). With that, Toph will not be the daughter of an aristocratic family; she will have humble roots this time.

Also, the names of the nations will be different; they will be:

• Fire Tribe

• Air Realm

• Water Empire

• Earth Clan

With all this, let's explore and see the roles of the characters in this alternative universe:

Toph Beifong the Avatar (in the role of Aang): Toph lives in the Southern Mountains of Gaoling in the Earth Clan, in small simple tents and hidden caves in the mountains. She is part of the small Beifong Tribe, and her parents are humble badgermole herders. Since the people of the Earth Clan are identified by their tribe, her name remains "Toph Beifong" to show that she is from the Beifong Tribe of the Gaoling Mountains. Despite this, her parents are very overprotective and do not want Toph to leave the tribe or use earthbending for fighting; they want to develop her to be an "Itako," a shrine maiden who has a connection to the spiritual world. Toph absolutely hates that; she doesn't want this destiny—she wants to fight and participate in secret fighting tournaments under the disguise of "Blind Bandit." Lao and Poppy Beifong hire an earthbending instructor for Toph, believing she only knows the basics. However, unlike Yu in the canon, her earthbending teacher is Bumi, the leader of the great Tribe of Omashu, who is very close to the Beifongs. He truly teaches Toph earthbending and his philosophy of "opening the mind to possibilities," which inspires her to have more contact with the badgermoles and expand her senses to develop her seismic sense. With that, she creates a strong bond with a badgermole, whom she names Tomoe. After discovering that Toph is the Avatar, the Earth Sages immediately inform Lao and Poppy Beifong that their daughter can bend all four elements and is capable of defeating the Water Empire. However, they do not believe that their fragile blind girl is the Avatar and think all of this information is crazy. They decide to move with Toph to the great walls of Ba Sing Se to hide and prevent her from fighting the Water Empire. When Toph learns that her parents are going to take her to Ba Sing Se and leave the Beifong Tribe, she escapes with Tomoe because she doesn't want her parents to decide her choices. She doesn't want the Earth Sages to make decisions for her; she doesn't want the responsibility of the Avatar. She only wants to fight for fun and be a child, and she also hates the boring city of Ba Sing Se. She creates a tunnel with her badgermole to go to Omashu to see her best friend Bumi. But that night, an eruption in a Fire Nation volcano occurs, and since Toph tunneled into the sea, her tunnel comes into contact with the lava of the volcano due to a seaquake, resulting in Toph entering the Avatar State. She and her badgermole get stuck in a volcano for 100 years until two Fire Nation siblings find her. She retains the same sarcastic and sassy personality we know and will do anything to master the four elements as soon as possible to defeat the Water Empire.

Zuko the Swordsman (in the role of Sokka): Zuko is born on Fenghuang Island, a small archipelago in the far east Fire Tribe, as the first child of the Fire Lord of the Hinoko Clan, Ozai, and Ursa. Born without firebending and unscarred, Zuko is a responsible and compassionate but very hot-headed young man. He is devoted to protecting his village and his family and is traumatized by a Water Empire attack that happened when he was a child, which took his mother away from him. He always blames himself for that because he thinks he failed to protect her and misses his mother deeply. They were very close, and Ursa taught Zuko about herbalism and healing plants. As a result, every piece of medical knowledge he has is from her, which makes him a great alternative healer. He also does not have a good relationship with his father, who is cold and distant from the family and never understands why he is like this. Consequently, Zuko carries all the responsibilities of home and family after his mother was captured by Water Empire soldiers and his father went to fight in the war. He takes on fatherly actions, especially towards his younger sister Azula (which she hates), and acts very much as a caretaker and protector. He wants to prove to his village and his sister that he is capable of fighting for them. Despite not being a bender, he wants to find a way to help end this war and learn everything he can to help the people around him, whether it be medical techniques, hand-to-hand combat, or especially learning to fight with his double swords, one of the few things his father left him that he is thankful for. He deeply wants to prove his value and honor in a world of powerful benders and show he is capable of being strong and useful, just like the benders. He is very close to his uncle, Iroh, and he uses a headpiece that once belonged to Iroh, which was passed down to Lu Ten, who gave it to Zuko before he died. Zuko considers that headpiece a symbol of bravery and honor for his family (much like Katara has a connection with her necklace). One sunset, he goes to a volcano with Azula to look for ingredients for his uncle's teas. After a discussion with her, they enter a cave inside the volcano, where they find a blind earthbender with a badgermole and realize she is the Avatar, the hope for this war. They immediately go with her to stop the Water Empire and help her through her Avatar journey. Zuko is also quite hopeful because he believes the Avatar is the greatest chance to stop the war, and he believes, somehow, the Avatar will come back to save the world. He is very determined and hard-working and has incredible empathy, but this part is overshadowed by his anger issues and broody attitude. He always prioritizes honesty and justice and has a strong sense of honor and duty.

Azula, the Last Firebender of Fenghuang Island (in the role of Katara): Azula is the only firebender who survived in her village. She is very proud of this skill and always likes to show off her abilities. She is a very confident, self-centered young woman who loves learning about firebending and warrior tactics. This interest in tactics brings her closer to her father and inspires her to be a leader like him someday. Azula also likes the idea of being highly respected, even using some manipulation tactics and intimidation to achieve that. Despite this attitude, she does not want to harm others intentionally; she only wants to survive and protect her family and will do anything for this, even if it means possibly killing someone. She does not want to remain in her village forever and wants to explore the Fire Nation to find a powerful mentor to teach her firebending. At first, she is not interested in helping Toph, but when she realizes Toph is the Avatar and needs a firebending teacher, she joins her and eventually forms a strong sisterhood with her during their journey. In contrast to canon Azula, this version has a good relationship with her family and friends, who like her for who she truly is, not because they fear her. Unlike her older brother, Azula is not a very emotional person; she does not even believe the Avatar could be alive or return to save the world. She has a very pragmatic view and is not very aligned with spirituality either; she maintains an analytical and skeptical nature, dealing with her emotions by keeping a facade of strength and listening more to her head than her heart. Because of this, Azula is a great strategist and is very precise and intelligent in taking down her enemies. She also has a very sharp wit and is extremely sardonic and sarcastic. She loves teasing and being extremely sassy to others, especially her brother Zuko. Additionally, she is extremely ambitious and makes it clear that she will do whatever it takes to achieve her goals, sometimes even resorting to morally ambiguous actions if necessary. Because of this, Azula is a great liar and can use that to benefit herself and help her friends.

Aang, the Airbending Master (in the role of Toph): Aang is born as a paraplegic child in the Southern Air Temple in this universe. The fact that he cannot walk does not bother him; it motivates him to learn how to fly/levitate through the Sky Bisons in a different way than the original flight (which lets go of earthly tethers). Because of this, Aang learns a new way to move by floating/flying despite being a paraplegic child. He is very carefree and fun and wants to share that ability with other children to play with them. However, once it is discovered that Aang has learned this very rare ability, the monks take him to several lessons about spirituality and raise him in a way that prevents him from playing with the other children or doing what he wants anymore. The monks place great responsibilities on him and raise him in a very restrictive manner, so he cannot have fun anymore. Because of this, Aang uses a disguise called "The Prince of Sky" (an original concept I created, which is a spirit that brings fun and happiness to other children) to throw parties and have fun like a normal kid in secret (just as Toph has the "Blind Bandit" persona to participate in secret tournaments without her parents knowing). He will be Toph's airbending teacher and may sometimes get distracted, but he will truly teach her the fundamentals of airbending in a fun, child-like way and with compassion.

Other characters:

Iroh, the Dragon of the West: Uncle of Zuko and Azula, he serves as a mentor and gives great advice and tea to his nephew and niece, and later to Avatar Toph. He accompanies the trio on their journey to be the voice of reason and to keep them united as a team. He was one of the greatest firebenders in the Fire Tribe, but after a violent raid that occurred on Fenghuang Island, he suddenly lost the ability to bend. The mystery of what happened to cause him to lose his bending still lingers. Due to his experience in firebending training, he is responsible for taking Toph, Zuko, and Azula to Agni Meetha, a luxurious and powerful city made of gold where firebenders still exist and where the principal dragons, Raw and Shaw, are kept safe. He takes them there so Toph can learn "Dragon Dancing" from his long-time friend, Master Jeong Jeong.

Sokka, the Prince of the Water Empire (in the role of Zuko): Sokka is a cold, intelligent, and very sarcastic crown prince of the great nation of the Water Empire. He is the favorite child of Water Emperor Hakoda, which places great pressure on Sokka to achieve the high standards of perfection established by his father. However, after Sokka fails an important mission, his father gives him a frostbite scar and banishes him because he feels disappointed, forcing Sokka to learn about his actions through suffering. As a result, Sokka feels humiliated and wants to regain his honor and respect from his father and his tribe. He will try to do this by making miraculous plans and tactics to catch the Avatar. Despite being considered the favorite son, he must prove himself every single day to his father and is not allowed to fail or show weakness to anyone. Because of this, he maintains a stoic facade despite being insecure and traumatized. He also possesses kindness and self-sacrificing attitudes, especially towards his sister, and only lives to be what others want him to be, sacrificing his own personal desires to meet others' expectations.

Kanna, the Matriarch of the Empire (in the role of Iroh): Kanna is a sweet, calm, and wise old matriarch. She is the grandmother of Sokka and Katara and is a highly respected figure in the Water Empire. Her title of "Matriarch of the Empire" comes from her widowed status and being the mother of the current Water Emperor, Hakoda. She acts as a guide to Prince Sokka by teaching him techniques, giving advice, and helping him through his journey. She is an extremely powerful waterbender; she even managed to create a way to protect herself from waterbending's coolest technique, bloodbending. Since women in the Water Empire cannot learn waterbending for fighting, Kanna learned this technique in secret with her long-lost friend Hama and developed ways and mannerisms to learn that in secret from men. She achieved this in an extremely intelligent and perceptive way, mixing dance steps with combat movements so that they wouldn't realize she was fighting. She is an extremely adaptable woman who has resilience in the face of difficulties. She also teaches all these techniques and knowledge to her granddaughter, Katara. She is devoted to defending women's rights in the Water Empire and always helps secret factions and rebellion crews achieve their goals to teach women to fight and combat the patriarchal structures of the nation. She also participates in clandestine missions to defeat corrupt leaders and injustices when she was young. Now, in her elder years, she fights in a calmer way, using her experiences and wisdom to combat misogyny and help create a more equitable Water Empire. However, she is still one of the most powerful waterbenders and is always prepared to physically fight and protect the people she loves.

Mai, the Yuyan Archer (in the role of Jet): This version of Mai has a completely different story from canon. She was born into an extremely poor family, and they were so vulnerable that her parents sold her to an illegal trader in exchange for food. That trader put her to work in a factory run by the Water Empire, where she and the other children who lived with her were treated poorly and were in extreme need. As a result, when a group of young people who worked with her stole some weapons, bows, and arrows, they decided to run away, and Mai went with them to escape this lifestyle. With them, Mai learned to handle daggers and shoot a bow and arrow. They ended up creating a sisterhood bond and considered themselves a family, calling themselves the Yuyan Archers. Due to the mistreatment and hunger she suffered while working in the factory, she became very angry with the aristocracy and the Water Empire, wanting everyone to have equal opportunities and to eliminate poverty and class differences. Therefore, Mai, despite having a gloomy and serious personality, wishes for equality and justice. Together with the Yuyan Archers, she begins to adopt extremely radical ideas, and their anger towards the noble classes and social inequality leads them to commit robberies and attacks against rich and powerful families because they believe they are doing justice, viewing these actions in a morally ambiguous and extremist light. She does this not only for her drive for justice but also to alleviate her boredom and feel adrenaline. She meets Toph, Zuko, Azula, and Iroh, and Zuko and she share a brief romantic tension, but due to her radical actions and their differing ideals and morals, they decide not to pursue a romantic relationship.

Ty Lee, the Yangchen Guardian (in the role of Suki): Ty Lee is a bubbly and positive Air Nomad young woman and is a "Yangchen Guardian," a group of female air nomads from the Western Air Temple who devote their lives to honoring Avatar Yangchen and train to read the aura energy of people. They are also responsible for promoting and celebrating Air Nomad traditions and spiritual rituals. Their duty is to protect the temple that guards Yangchen's knowledge and wisdom about airbending techniques and spirituality, and they do this by fighting with chi-blocking. Ty Lee's father was a circus owner from the Fire Tribe, and her mother was an Air Nomad nun. Despite loving the circus, Ty Lee feels excluded because her six identical siblings all work in the circus with great talents. Fearing that she would forever be seen as just a matched set, she decided to live with her mother at the Western Air Temple and became a Yangchen Guardian. She is an incredibly talented chi-blocker with a special focus on chakras and is beginning to learn about aura energy and chi. Additionally, she is a very agile acrobat. When Team Toph arrives at the Western Air Temple, she teaches Zuko chi-blocking and helps them defeat a Water Empire battleship that attacks the temple.

Katara, The Princess of the Water Empire (in the role of Azula) Katara is an angrily passionate princess who fights for justice and equality for women in the Water Empire. She is the most powerful waterbender ever, an incredibly prodigious talent who can bloodbend without a full moon and knows how to use psychic bloodbending. She mastered these skills by the age of 14, learning in secret from Hama and Kanna because the sexist structures of the Empire do not allow her to fight. She feels neglected by her father and overshadowed by her brother, despite him not being as powerful as she is.Katara is frustrated by this situation; she does not want to hide her abilities forever. She wants to command the Water Empire and ensure that not only women like her can fight but also take responsibility for improving the Water Empire and making it even greater and more powerful. Her anger towards these injustices drives her goals. With this motivation, Katara aims to prove herself to a society that has diminished her. After her brother is banished, she embarks on a mission to find him, conquer the four Air Temples, and defeat the Avatar to restore their honor.

Suki, The Surviving Kyoshi Warrior (in the role of Mai) Suki grew up in the Southern Water Tribe, adopted by Senna, an empathetic and generous noblewoman descended from a Kyoshi Warrior. At the beginning of the Hundred Year War, the Water Empire committed the genocide of the Earthbenders, starting by attacking Kyoshi Island. The Kyoshi Warriors were brave heroes, and they resisted until they had no more ways to fight back. As a result, the majority of the Kyoshi Warriors died trying to protect their home, but the few who survived were captured to be used as weapons in the Water Empire's inner conflicts between the tribes, keeping them imprisoned and as hostages. One of these warriors was Shiori, a young Kyoshi Warrior who did not accept this situation and wanted to find a way to rebel. One day, a man helped her escape and gave her a home and safety. Observing the sexism of the Water Empire, Shiori decided to find other Kyoshi Warriors to teach women clandestine self-defense techniques and pass on the legacy of resistance of the Kyoshi. With that, she began to grow secret factions against the Water Empire's imperialism, supported by clandestine Kyoshi Warriors and other people among the tribes who did not accept the extreme traditionalism of the Empire. Eventually, Shiori married the man who helped her, and they started a family together. After his death, Shiori decided to retire from her position as a fighter and protector of the factions and return to Kyoshi Island to enjoy her retirement in peace at her original home. Upon arriving there, she found something stunning and hopeful for her people: a lost orphaned little girl named Suki, who lived alone on the destroyed and isolated island. By her appearance, Shiori already knew Suki was from the original people of Kyoshi Island and had been hidden there. So, she chose Suki to live in the Water Empire with her noble widowed granddaughter, Senna, who would teach her all about the legacy, combat style, and history of Suki's roots as a descendant of the Kyoshi Warriors. Since Suki was very young and had lived completely alone, she did not know anything about her true roots. Because she was adopted into a noble family, Suki becomes very close to the Royal Family, especially Sokka and Katara. Initially, she didn't like Sokka because of his sexist thoughts about women, but after he learns that this is wrong and becomes vulnerable by apologizing and discussing his insecurities, they become very close, and she starts to develop romantic feelings for him. Later, she meets Yue from the Northern Water Tribes and also becomes really close friends with her. With her great fighting skills, Suki is chosen by Katara to accompany her and Yue on a mission to conquer the Four Temples and bring Sokka back home, forming an amazing trio.

Yue, The Lunara Lady (in the role of Ty Lee) Yue is the daughter of the principal chieftain of the Northern Water Tribe. Despite not being considered a princess, she is still a highly important figure in the Water Empire and holds the noble title of "Lunara Lady" due to her lineage. She is a gentle and loving young woman who is not blessed by the moon spirit and has normal dark hair. Her father, alongside the Water Emperor, plans an arranged marriage for her with Prince Sokka. Although she likes Sokka, Yue does not approve of this idea because she wants the freedom to make her own choices. She annulled the engagement by joining the Moon Sages—a group of priestess who cannot marry and are dedicated to studying the moon spirit, astronomy and the impacts of celestial events on the culture and science of the Water Empire (being a Water Priestess is the only exception that allows women to fight in the Water Empire). As she is going to be a priestess devoted to the moon spirit, she participates in a unique ritual that transforms her hair to white color for represent her connection with the moon. When Yue became a sage she discovered a kind of dusty that, when makes contact with oxygeny, liberates a poison that weakness the immunity of the opponent. So Yue uses a gloove that has this dusty in the composition and when she snaps her fingers it creates gusts and explosions of this poison and uses that as a weapon and later she joins alongside Suki in princess Katara’s mission

(Honorable Mention: Ravi, The Prince of Agni Meetha (in the role of Yue): Ravi is the son of the chieftain of the greatest city of the Fire Tribe, Agni Meetha, and holds a royal title. He was born very weak, and the healers couldn't help him. His father begged the Dragons Raw and Shaw to heal him, and they listened to his prayers. The dragons performed the "Dragon Dance" and breathed the "Flames of Life," the rainbow fire, onto Ravi, which healed him. As a result, Ravi's hair color changed from dark to gold. He possesses part of the sun spirit's energy inside him and fell in love with Azula when she visited Agni Meetha, but he cannot be with her because he is engaged. He is an original character (OC); however, his appearance is slightly inspired by Chan)

Well, that's all the summarized story of the principal characters. What do you guys think? Is it good? Is it horrible? LOL! Feel free to ask questions about this alternative universe and for more information about this version of the canon divergence if you want. Sorry for this being too long :')