| July 2056, the Nim population has hit a point of stagnation. |
| My name is 1, I am a proud, yet worn out, nimizen of what is known as the Nimation for now more than five centuries. |
| Since our formation in Europe in 1532 our population has not decreased nor increased. |
| We remain a steady and horrifyingly tiresome sixteen individuals, |
| stuck in what is now a seriously embarrassing hierarchical structure: the pyramid. |
| Our society used to be organised in the following structure |
| 1 1 2 3 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 |
| We respond to a very simple set of rules |
| (i) Only one couple is allowed at the time in Nimation |
| (ii) Nimizens are only able to communicate with their immediate neighbour, i.e 1 and 7 can never be in touch |
| (iii) Only Nim’s of an identical position within our pyramid structure can navigate outside of the pyramid together at once |
| As you may imagine, the referral to multiple 1s, 2s, 3s, 4s and 5s was quite unsettling, |
| raised jealousies and could get outsiders confused. |
| The Nim Revolution, 1904, marked a turn in our history as new names were assigned to each nimizen |
| 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16. |
| 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 |
| Embracing each nimizen as individuals, |
| through distinct names and physical features became the norm. |
| Our diversity had finally become the trope for |
| a fair representation of the self within a co-dependent society. |
| The following year, 1905 |
| the L-group composed of 3, 7, 13, 14, 15, 16 and myself |
| wanted to go even further and re-considered our architectural ideologies. |
| We wanted to implement a new set of rules |
| (i) Nimation is opened to groups as much as individuals. It will no longer be a couple only experience. |
| (ii) A nimizen should be able to engage with any other nimizens and not only their immediate neighbour |
| (iii) Identity and social stature is not limited to one’s position in the pyramid |
| (iv) Nimizens should be able to navigate outside the structure with any other nimizens not only the ones of similar structural stature |
| (v) The traditional pyramid structure has to become a structure amongst others, not the default structure |
| (vi) One’s fate shouldn’t be set in stone, one should have agency as to the path one chooses |
| (vii) Nimation should be open to the growth of its nimizens as well as its annihilation, retirement of its nimizens or replacement of its nimizens |
| Unable to convince the others of the necessity of the institution’s rewriting |
| our structure remained the same. |
| 1: Psst. |
| Silence. |
| 1: Pssst! |
| 2: What?! |
| 1: I’m not talking to you. |
| 2: 3. |
| 3: Hm? |
| 2: I think 1 is trying to talk to you. |
| 3: What is it? |
| 1: I’m lonely. |
| 3: We already talked about this. |
| 1: Well it still hasn’t been solved. |
| 3: I’m sorry there is nothing I can do about it at the moment, you could... |
| 1: People assume because I’m at the top of the pyramid, everything is great for me! |
| 1: Ha, sure is a great bore. Five centuries of solitude, an omnipotent perspective that has no witness. |
| 1: No one to share my point of view with. |
| 1: To get any mundane experience across I need a waterfall of information |
| 1: to slightly hope one will get some kind of input and they might never understand. |
| 3: I understand you! Or at least try too. |
| 2: Quiet you two I’m practising. |
| 1: And when I go, I go alone. |
| 3: Well at least you don’t have to suffer the unreasonable ones of this row. |
| 1: And when I fear, I fear alone. |
| 3: You talk to me, sometimes. |
| 7: Is one having a moment again? |
| 3: Yes, yes, we’re trying to figure it out. |
| 2: Sssh. |
| 6: This again? |
| 2: 1 is trying to annihilate us again. |
| 6: Let them be, they will be picked at soon enough again. |
| 2: Hmm. |
| 1: And when I dream, I dream alone. |
| 7: They got everyone up again. |
| 3: Everyone’s up now. |
| 1: Well not enough. |
| 3: Let’s keep it quiet for now. |
| 1: You know? |
| 3: Tell me. |
| 1: In dreams... I walk with you. |
| 3: Roy? |