Inktober #17: Ornament

Welcome esteemed colleagues. I know a lot of you have been looking forward to this lecture, and I hope not to disappoint. I assure you that everything you are about to hear is factual, and supported by primary sources.

So buckle up.

Ments. Common slang for the practice of embedding circuitry via tattoo or surgery into the skin, and sometimes even deeper.

Ments actually have quite the varied history. Starting as a fad for the upper class, turning into an effective means of data transfer on the black market, and then becoming the fashionable and commercial product it is today. As of two years ago about 60% of the UE population was sporting at least one Ment.

And then, one year ago, as you are all aware, a child was born.

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This child. Abraham Jacobs. Seemingly normal but for...

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A Ment. An almost spider-like tattoo at the base of the spine.

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The "body" if you will, integrated into the spinal cord.

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And perhaps most shocking of all...

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Nearly identical to her mother's.

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As you can see with them side-by-side there is distortion. A few more tendrils, thinner, lighter in color. A mutation.

Yes, I know, I know. Hear me out.

Now how could this be possible? Millions have been Mented, millions with Ments have had children. None have had this condition arise. After all why should they? Ments are superficial, not genetic. There is nothing to be coded into the DNA.

...But that's the key word isn't it? Coded. DNA is a code. A series of bits that the body as computer reads to run its processes. As we know from viruses, code can be added to DNA. It's often junk, unreadable, but the legacy of viruses long dead can be found with ease in the DNA of all people living.

So what would happen if that code were readable? What if those viruses could delicately select the genes they knew would be replicated if properly added to the genome?

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Since their creation, Ments have been used to store data. Easily readable and accessible data for the user. Easily transferable to anyone with a Ment and the proper clearance code.

As I said, this started out as a fad for the rich. Glowing tattoos,

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more ornamentation than information transfer, hence them receiving the "Ment" moniker. But as tech does it hit the black market. The upper class, with no reason to fear, used the Ments to store all sorts of information without the current level of security Ments have received. As such...

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many were robbed, many had their identities stolen, and according to my sources Ment Cons soon became highly sought after amongst the criminal underworld.

But, pretend with me that you are a part of that criminal underworld. Say it costs two million to hire a Ment Con for a job that will earn you twice as much. Why do that, when you can instead get your hands on the tech for four million, but put it into your trusted people instead and start earning those millions and more?

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Ments started to spread. Their use as minor surreptitious data transfer caught on. Money traded hands, the tech improved and dropped in price. Security caught up to demand and the heyday of the Ment Con was over. Instead,

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fashion once again became the focus. More and more opted in.

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The tech evolved. Security evolved with it.

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Convenience, as it does, determined the rest.

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So how did this come about? How does a spiderous Ment show up on a baby when no surgery has occurred? How is this the first instance after millions of births?

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This picture of Dorian Asworth, age 4 here, was taken 30 years ago at the height of the first wave of Ments. A seemingly normal picture. Until you look closer.

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There, just poking up towards the neck. Looks awfully familiar doesn't it? But that could be anything.

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Except there it is again. One year later. Looks a little more defined now doesn't it?

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Dorian seems to wear a preponderance of high-necked clothing and scarves for the majority of his childhood. It isn't until he's 15 years old that he's photographed at a party,

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with a Ment on his chest. A rather simple almost lightning-bolt like design, that sticks up exactly where we saw in those previous photos. One that looks rather

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like his mother's. Seen and advertised as a gesture of love, of family. Sure he seemed a little young for a Ment but, teenagers, right?

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Look for them.

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They appear.

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No one was looking.

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So no one noticed.

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And those that were born,

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were either rich enough to have the news silenced,

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or seen as a secret weapon by the underworld,

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or simply killed.

Until,

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Abraham Jacobs. Colleagues, I pose to you the rather terrifying certainty that we are already entering the second generation of a new symbiosis. There have been those born with Ments before this. And they are now having children themselves.

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This is Dorian Asworth with his son. Very clearly, no lightning bolt on the chest.

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This is the child's mother, Audrey Asworth, with her pink-hued Ments on the back of her thighs.

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I have not been able to identify a Ment on their child.

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But they are quite literally never photographed without long pants.

But now,

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Dorian. A seemingly normal child from normal parents with only one Ment each.

And the press,

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is praising it as a miracle. A very big deal is being made of little Dorian. And public perception is very much being led towards it being a "good thing". Why now? That I can only speculate on. But I hope you all keep an open mind in the weeks to come. Because there is one thing about little Dorian that's being kept out of the press.

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The Ment isn't empty.

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There's code.

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Code that can also be found in his genome.

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And code...that can't be read.

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No one yet knows what to make of this seemingly extra and irrelevant data. They have compared it to the makeup of data in the mother's and father's Ment before birth. They have run it through all sorts of tests and ciphers and translations...nothing.

Well, there is one thing.

When Dorian's Ment connects to his mother's, the irrelevant data changes. And his mother's does the same.

And the one thing that I have to tell you, without the primary sources, without knowing it for sure...is that it sure looks like...like they're talking. The code changes. Adapts. Evolves.

Ments were once for fashion. Then for utility. Then both. And now, colleagues, they seem to be serving an altogether different purpose.

A purpose of their own.

Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.