There are five things to understand.
Each part is named, bounded, and stated with what it cannot do.
The whole mechanism is five named parts. If a sentence about Tallystick cannot be said with these five words, it is not part of the mechanism.
The Paring
Each trade parts with two percent, left with the contract. It cannot be taken by any account, cannot be sent elsewhere, and cannot buy anything except the queue’s work. Consequence: the mechanism is funded by use alone, and the fee is nobody’s revenue.
A Notch
The obligation one trade opens: that trade’s TALL size and the Ethereum block that saw it. A Notch cannot be edited once it exists, cannot leave the queue except by discharge, and cannot jump ahead. Consequence: each trade leaves a public, ordered record of itself.
The Scoreline
The append-only run of open Notches, kept on-chain by the contract, with nothing else touching it. It cannot be shuffled, rewritten, or reset. Consequence: opening order is not a policy; it is the only direction the record can be worked.
A Tallage
The permissionless discharge. Anyone may call one. It spends the gathered Paring on TALL from the market, retires what it bought, and marks the oldest live Notch before any younger one. It cannot work a younger Notch first, cannot retire more than the queue stands owed, and cannot be reserved to anyone. Consequence: the queue moves forward without an operator.
Char
TALL retired by a Tallage — gone from supply for good. Char cannot be sold, handed back, or reissued. Consequence: launch-day 900,000 TALL is the permanent ceiling, and charred() tells you exactly how much of it is gone.