Inland Empire: An Elysian Augury
Lost within.
My mind a swirling, dark mess of smoke and whispers.
My voice fractured into the myriad.
Like splinters in my brain.
Shouting, tempting, haunting—driving me.
Ever onwards.
Trudging through these bleak streets.
Ever onwards.
Towards a ledge I never noticed.
I stare into the mirror.
No recollection stirs—only the foggy reflection that stares back.
Life used to be Disco.
Now only faint memories.
Apricot gum and Commodore Red. Scented memories.
Memories of color–
Of light–
Of her–
Of happiness.
Every day becomes a haze, drowned at the bottom of a bottle.
Their bloated corpses lingering, stacked, in the back of my memory.
A tangle of moments, cluttered and uncatalogued.
Without beginning, thirsting for an end.
Ever onwards.
Towards a ledge I never noticed.
Lieutenant double-yefreitor Harrier ‘Harry’ Du Bois, and the exceptional tale known as Disco Elysium, have firmly etched themselves into my emotional landscape.
The strands connecting its essence to my own are apparent and unshrouded.
At its core lies an inner maelstrom—rife with themes of loss, self-destruction and regret.
A force, unknown yet enduring, compels a broken soul to push through hardship and pain on a journey to reconnect with the inner compass he somehow drifted away from.
Who am I, when all I took for granted falls apart? A spiral to be painstakingly navigated—winding ever inward toward the bare truth awaiting at its center.
Harry's story is one of scattered memories, of addiction, of confrontation with the past, and of the aching weight of remorse. But on his path, I also see self-reflection, personal growth and the aspiration toward true freedom.
This piece was born as a tribute to this resonance. An amalgam that holds within it both my essence and that of the source. As such, it has found its place among the reverberations housed within The Mirror of Assimilated Auguries.
