DIAGRAM :: Robin Robinson

ELECTROCHEMISTRY

Robin Robinson

For Disco Elysium

Anode to the soft temple above my ear. I'm more spinal cord than brain, more lung than eyes. More pulse than heart. My vertebrae as a rattlesnake. I bring the roach to my lips out of habit. Yell over the bar. Open circuit. Dried beer grips the sole of my shoe. 15 lbs of head on my neck and the hairs of my inner ear shivering. Being pushed and pushing. The floor hitting my feet, the strobe tapping my limbic system. Whites of eyes, saliva gloss. Every body is a heat source, ferromagnetic. Cup to lip, lip to lip, lyrics to lip, cigarette to lip, tongue to lip, fantasies tangible as the agitated air. An ex in every stranger, their fingers to cathode.

A guided meditation, of sorts, for a night out. It emerged from a playthrough of the 2019 game Disco Elysium, where I'd given my character a high Electrochemistry skill, which lets you "love and be loved by drugs." My character was near-estatically dancing while speaking with his own limbic system and the spirit in the rafters, somehow convincing everyone in the room to join in.