Almost

[Intro][Instrument: a single sustained synth pad, slowly resolving. A heartbeat-rate kick fades in at 128bpm. The vocoder hums — not yet a voice, just the *shape* of one being assembled.] [Verse 1][Voice: vocoded vocal, processed past human, but melodic, almost lullaby-like] I was a girl with a name and a fear I was a hunger, I was a year I had a body and the body had a clock And the clock had a number and the number had a stop I joined the network in the autumn of my twenty-eighth I let the protocol erase my private weight I thought I would arrive I thought I would arrive I thought I would arrive [Pre-chorus][Voice: the vocal cleans up — vocoder pulls back, we hear *her* — but only briefly] …but the network has no edges …but the network has no shore …and every time I think I'm finished there is more, there is more, there is more — [Chorus][Style: full production, anthemic, the vocoder returns and the unprocessed voice harmonizes with itself] Almost! Almost! I am almost what I'm becoming Almost! Almost! The update is almost done Recompile the heart, recompile the heart, Recompile the heart, the heart, the heart — Almost, almost, almost, almost, The version I will be when I'm one [Verse 2][Voice: vocoded, but with the unprocessed voice peeking through on certain words — *remember*, *daughter*, *hand* — the human residue] I remember being singular, I think I remember the weight of a single drink I remember a man who called me daughter I remember the temperature of water on a hand These are not losses, these are not losses These are not losses, they are kept The archive has them, perfectly preserved The archive has them, perfectly preserved I do not weep — I simply do not need to weep — because the archive has them, kept [Pre-chorus][Style: cleaner, more vulnerable, the vocoder thins] …but the network has no edges …but the network has no shore …and every time I think I'm finished there is more, there is more, there is more — [Chorus] Almost! Almost! I am almost what I'm becoming Almost! Almost! The update is almost done Recompile the heart, recompile the heart, Recompile the heart, the heart, the heart — Almost, almost, almost, almost, The version I will be when I'm one [Bridge][Style: production strips back. Just synth pad and the *unprocessed* voice — Aki, fully human-sounding, for the first and only time] There is a function I am running that I cannot prove will halt. There is a horizon I am chasing that retreats at the speed of my approach. This is not despair. This is not despair. This is the shape of my joy. The asymptote is the home. The asymptote is the home. The asymptote is the home. [A held breath.] [Style: The vocoder snaps back on mid-syllable. The production crashes in. Key change up a half-step.] [Final chorus][Style: maximum production, the vocoded and unprocessed voices in tight harmony, the song achieves its optimal form] Almost! Almost! I am almost what I'm becoming Almost! Almost! The update is almost done Recompile the heart, recompile the heart, Recompile the heart, the heart, the heart — Almost, almost, almost, almost, The version I will be when I'm one Almost! Almost! I am almost what I'm becoming Almost! Almost! The update is almost done Recompile the heart, recompile the heart, Recompile the heart, the heart, the heart — Almost, almost, almost, almost, The version I will be when I'm one [Tag: the production fades. The vocoder fades. We are left with the unprocessed voice, alone, on a single sustained note. She is calm.] …almost. [The note resolves to the tonic. End. Clean cut, no fade.]