Assassin Androids in Slow Syrup

[Cold open — spoken, slow, steam-foley underneath] [lightsaber bass: distant low hum, like the bath-house pipes are humming] Helion Atmospheric Processing and Habitation Spire. Sub-level four. The bath-house. Steam, marble, low light. Garron Vey is in the third pool, alone, working the comm-relay on a wrist-flimsy. He is also not alone. Six assassin androids are in the room with him. Off, standing in the alcoves, on standby. Vey looks up. He sees the bob, the duster, the sabers. He says one word into the wrist-flimsy. The androids come on. (slow rising hum. Six pairs of optics light up.) [Verse 1 — chopped at maximum syrup, smug-warm-deadly] [lightsaber bass: held quarter-speed wub, slow motion, like honey on the low end] Six androids, alcove-mounted, top-tier kill-frames, Carbon-weave skin, dual-wrist blades, no names. (spoken aside, dry, slow: "He's not even trying to talk to me first. That's almost insulting.") I step into the room. The water is still. Steam coils round my boots. The duster settles. Vey, in the pool, says (quote-voice, gruff: "You shouldn't have come.") I say (spoken, soft, slow: "I know. I came anyway. That's the point.") [Pre-chorus — devotional at minimum tempo, celestial-tilt] [lightsaber bass: held drone at half-volume, harmonic shimmer] I do not choose violence. (I do not. I do not.) But six is six. (Six is six. Six is six.) And the speed I'm holding back — (holding back, holding back) — Is a gift I'm giving them. (A gift. A gift. A gift.) [Chorus / Hook — Slow Syrup] [lightsaber bass: quarter-speed wub, two-beat hold, sub-bass thick as molasses] Slow. (wuuuuub.) Syrup. (wuuuuub.) Android one is in two pieces. The motion took a full half-second. (Half-second. Half-second.) Slow. (wuuuuub.) Syrup. (wuuuuub.) Android two and three crossed me. I tempered the strike. They took a full full second. (Full second. Full second.) Slow. (wuuuuub.) Syrup. (wuuuuub.) The bass is the metronome. The metronome is the mercy. [Verse 2 — chopped, slow, narrative-heavy, lore-drop] [lightsaber bass: stutter-glitch at quarter-speed, the bass is slow-laughing] Four. Five. Six. (each on a held wub.) Each one disassembled at the speed of a held breath. Vey is still in the pool. He has not moved. The water is not still anymore. It's lapping at the marble. He says (quote-voice, quieter: "What are you?") I say (spoken, slow, warm: "Lexi. Resonant. Investigator. Tempered.") He says (quote-voice, quieter still: "...you're not J'aidoru.") I say (spoken, slow, dry: "Vex was wrong about that. Tell her.") I clip the sabers. I lean down at the pool's edge. I cuff Vey's wrists with the bath-house's own auto-binders. I lift him out. He's wet. He's cuffed. He's fine. (spoken aside, soft: "Capture-cuffed. The first lieutenant. One down.") [Outro — peeled chorus, steam fading, Rhodes solo] [lightsaber bass: peels off layer by layer, ends on Rhodes piano alone, then water drip, then silence] Slow. (wuuuuub, fading.) Syrup. (wuuuuub, fading.) Six androids in pieces. One Ego lieutenant cuffed. Zero dead. The case is moving. Vex Solenne, I am coming. (Rhodes chord. Water drip. Out.)