Exchange Day
Description (the day after Retreat):
Venerating the Marketplace, Tribes / Clade coalesce either on their own or at the behest of their Sages in festive celebrations like a twenty-first century, product expo taking place on the Las Vegas Strip. Displays, betting games, contests, and demonstrations of Tribal / Clade POPs are centered around a hub with an extravagant buffet, booths with bookies to place / collect bets, and stations with Sages on-hand to facilitate new contacts and arbitrate contracts that have been unresolved for more than a year. Ideally, Exchange Day will take place in concert with some high-profile sporting event(s). All attractions are intended to be for-profit. To symbolize the strength, efficiency, and supremacy of the Marketplace, contracts created on this day are subject to forced Sage arbitration / cancellation the following Exchange Day, should they fail to fully form during the year. This is the Novel Universe Cult’s sole, public event, open to all Cult member and the wider world.
Practices:
The week prior to Retreat, the Rock Body’s leadership announces the list of NPs (symbolizing the Hypergraph’s Node Particles) who forgo both Retreat and Exchange Day, and instead, function as the Marketplace’s network connections. In other words, they’re the event’s labor force. Whether compensated for (reward) or not (punishment), NPs are selected based upon standards spelled out in the Body’s pillars, and no member serves consecutive years.
NPs spend Retreat setting up the “Marketplace,” and may rest / relax only when the job is complete. As their only break throughout the two days, sleep is encouraged, but not required.
With the rising sun, members gather in small areas attached to the Marketplace, where the NPs have a free, all-you-can-eat breakfast buffet waiting. This phase of the Day is private, with no other Bodies allowed into the Marketplace, and the cost of the buffet paid for by the contributing Bodies hosting the event.
For the purpose of occupying the membership’s attention for the first part of the Day, light entertainment plays in the background while the members eat– soft music, screens with sporting events, magicians, artistic shows, and the like.
Members are called into private rooms by Sages, where forced-arbitration sessions close out all outstanding contracts from the previous Exchange Day. Only a Sage may act as arbiter, with the final say as to the state of each contract. All non-negotiable fees collected for this service are paid, by the members undergoing arbitration, to the Sages. The Sages allocate this money to directly pay the vendors of Exchange Day’s events, thus assisting the Rock Bodies with the cost of the festivities.
While arbitration is under way, NPs finalize preparation of the central event, including a large buffet, filled with food, libations, and such Tribe-approved recreational substances for sale.
Once the sessions are complete, the full venue is opened to the public.
Prior established fees and a set percentage of all revenue (“house” profit) is collected by the hosting Bodies at the end of the week following the Day.
Exchange Day is one, long extravaganza of playing games, betting, and creating new contacts with others, both within and outside the Cult.
Any special itinerary, such as concerts, shows, or speeches, is at the discretion of the hosting Bodies with Sage approval.
Exchange Day lasts until the sunrise of the following day. Once concluded, the NPs complete the Day’s cleanup, and are finally released from their duties.
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