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Passer-by on the background

Have you ever thought about how many times you show up in pictures, every day? Think about all the tourists taking photos while you walk nearby, the surveillance cameras… Now you can turn this annoying fact of modern life into something useful!

Cost: 1 signigicant

Ritual Action:
Collect five photo/video cameras, five newspapers of the current day and five clocks, watches or other time-measuring items. Objects of each category must come one from each of the five continents (i.e. one camera, clock and newspaper from Europe, one of each from Asia, etc.). Additionally, each clock must be set on the local time of one significant city in its continent of origin.
Put the clocks and newspapers around a picture of the target person, together with an item that has belonged to him/her, and use cameras to film and take pictures of the whole setting; the date on the newspapers and the time on the clocks must be visible. You can have the videocameras set and filming without anyone behind them, but you’ll have to change the tape as soon as it ends, keeping the whole thing going continuously for 24 hours.
When you have finished, collect and destroy all the films and pictures, as well as the original picture and the object belonging to the target. Mix together the remainings (ashes, pieces, etc.), put them in five different envelopes, addressed to the person in question – no address, just the name – and send them.
After a week, you will start receiving in different “coincidental” ways (mistakenly developed with the post, found under a newspaper, etc.) a copy of all the pictures and videos featuring the subject in the background that were taken during those 24 hours (note that only pictures where s/he was not the main object will be received. If someone voluntarily took a photo of him with a friend, this will not appear).
The number of pictures you receive will vary widely depending on the location of the target during the 24 hours: if he is in a small rural village, probably no more than a couple; famous tourist places, you’ll probably get a decent coverage of his whole day; Venice, Paris or a high-surveillance area? You probably have each minute of his day documented.

There is this rumor that someone once used this ritual on someone who was on a desert island in the Pacific, and he got a single satellite image of the island, but that’s probably just crap…

2 thoughts on “Passer-by on the background

  1. mooshified says:

    That’s pretty cool. I’d price it higher though, as it’s actually useful, unlike many rituals.

    Reply
  2. Oneiros says:

    Thanks. I thought one significant would be enough, given the amount of effort and forward planning it requires: apart from cameras and clocks, you need newspapers of the day from five continents, so you’ll need to know in advance on which day you will spy the subject, and to find a way to receive the newspapers in time (time zones can play a tricky role here…). My idea was to add to the difficulty of performing the ritual rather than to the charges needed, but I guess 2 or 3 sig could also be appropriate.

    Reply

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