First, the seven people follow the instructions as to how to lay down connected in Twister-fashion. The result looks something like this:
When they do so, the big black parts (the black bar and hats) on the backs of their T-shirts form a seven-segment LED display. As confirmation of the correctness of this configuration, the first letter of each participant's name matches the name of the corresponding LED segment. For instance, the top segment of an LED display is called the A segment, and in the proper orientation Ann Ramon is in that position.
Next, notice that each name has one or more three-letter substrings corresponding to standard abbreviations of days of the week. For instance, Balthus Sundewed contains the substrings THU, SUN, and WED. The days found in all the names span Sunday through Friday; these are the "days" of the ritual.
On each "day" of the ritual, the participants having that day's abbreviation in their names become "invisible." In other words, you consider their LED segments to be off and all the others to be on. The segments that are on form a letter of the alphabet, as follows:
- On Sunday, segments B (Balthus SUNdewed), C (Cal ThunderSUN), and D (Desmond TuelSUN) are off. The remaining segments (A, E, F, and G) form an F.
- On Monday, segments A (Ann RaMON), D (DesMONd Tuelsun), E (EdMONd the Cowed), F (Fay MONsen), and G (Godfried ThurMON) are off. The remaining segments (B and C) form an I.
- On Tuesday, only segment D (Desmond TUElsun) is off. The other segments form an A.
- On Wednesday, segments B (Balthus SundeWED) and E (Edmond the CoWED) are off. The others form an S.
- On Thursday, segments B (BalTHUs Sundewed), C (Cal THUndersun), and G (Godfried THUrmon) are off. The others form a C.
- On Friday, only segment G (GodFRIed Thurmon) is off. The others form an O.
Taking these letters in day order yields the answer, FIASCO.