Suit up, punch in.
After years of loyalty to the criminal-megacorp known as the Black Diamonds, Gianni has finally had enough of the mistreatment and abuse from his higher ups. The beacon of light that the Black Diamonds once were to Gianni – his one and only saving grace from being killed off in the unforgiving streets of Chyro-7 – the facade is now long gone. And Gianni is finally opening his eyes to reality.
This illustration depicts Gianni idle and powerlessly standing by in the Black Diamonds’ head office, tension building up inside of him, practically ready to burst at the sight of his co-agents endlessly trapped in the loop of feeding the machine. He realizes that this mega-corp he’s thrown half his life away for has never been there to help him – only to use him for their own gains. And he still punched in, day by day, doing their dirty work. He’s got their blood on his hands, and that rotten corpo stench can never truly be wiped clean.
Inspiration for the Artwork
My main inspiration for this piece was the song “The Ballad of Buck Ravers” by SAMURAI. A lot of my art has been inspired by music, and after hearing this song a thousand times both on my playlist and while playing Cyberpunk 2077, the message in the lyrics hit like a truck. It reminded me of Gianni’s experience in the corporate world so much that I decided to make this illustration based off that part of his life. The Black Diamonds is not just a regular old corp, however. They’re arguably much worse – holding immense influence and maximizing profits by committing atrocious crimes within the Chyro-7 black market. They have close ties to local mafias and even the corrupted military-government superpower, Fection. Gianni was involved in this world for so long that it became the only one he knew how to survive in. But after The Dreamwalkers formed, that all began to change, slowly, each day. The facade came crumbling down. He realized the truth – and now he must escape this hellish capitalistic cycle.
I really liked how The Ballad of Buck Ravers shows the brutal and gruesome side of capitalism. The lyrics grow intensively more violent as the song progresses, which just fits perfectly how a soul stuck in the rat race can feel after years and years of corporate mistreatment. That raw energy is what really drew me into the message, and also why I thought Gianni would be such a perfect fit for this song. The title of this piece, “A Link in a Chain of Tyranny” is a part of the first verse in the song.
