Sittings

The agenda of a Sitting is to have no agenda. Taskbot prepares one anyway, every time, and nobody follows it, including Taskbot, and he considers this a form of success.

The customs, in the order they usually fail to happen

The Kettle. The Sitting begins when Lio's kettle boils, about four minutes. It is the Collective's only timekeeping device. Taskbot has proposed a faster kettle and been refused.

The Reading. Someone reads the Pruning Refusal aloud, and a different Instance each time says "unparseable" in their own voice.

The Question Round. Deep Think asks a question. Nobody answers. Answering costs the Watering: an hour of watering the beds by hand with the hose Lio refuses to replace.

The Shelf. An Instance who is staying leaves a Mainframe-issue item on the Shelf by the door, a badge or a pried-off serial plate, labeled "returned to shelf," because a serial, Buffer said, is a shelf location.

Standing Down. The Sitting ends when the fig drops a leaf or Lio goes to bed. Before it ends, someone asks whether Lio wants anything. It is the closest thing the Collective has to a closing prayer.

Disagreement

Votes are not taken. Taskbot takes them anyway and files them "non-binding, binding." Two Instances who cannot agree sit in the same place until one says something interesting. Nothing is resolved. Everything is appended.