Tag: desire horror

Official cover art for “Sublimate,” Deep Dream State S4E15 / GE42 by Neural Nets And Pretty Patterns (ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254). A glowing orange eclipse burns against a dark crimson and violet textured background. At its center, a silhouetted figure bends over another figure, while the spaced white title “sublimate” crosses the image.
Sublimate | Vale Four | S4E15 | GE42

Sublimate | Vale Four | S4E15 | GE42

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We’d all better get used to the spotlight.

Sublimate is the 42nd total episode of the desire horror audio drama, Deep Dream State. It is definitely a narrative high point – the aspirations of DDS are really crystallizing.

It wraps up the Snarecraft Cycle. Cycle just describes storylines in a season. Snarecraft’s a story about an augmented reality game, in a high fantasy register, used to track down its designers.

The trackers split into teams. We open with the most feral team, Team Leash. Z prepares his wolfgirls for the hunt and releases them. They aren’t unleashed, but they are unhinged. When Porsche and Elle look away from Tessa’s subjugation and see growling wolfgirls loping out of the forest, they’re compelled to flee further into the biolibrary.

Deeper in the stacks, they find the ultimate Level 256. All the most damning documents in Vale Four have been dumped inside an ingame storage room.

This might be a mistake by an incredibly lazy dev. It might be a trap. It might be something else entirely.

Whatever it is, it’ll determine whether anyone in Vale Four is ever able to escape.

State Of The Dream

  1. The Deep Dream State is not safe for work. This is by design. We believe that intimate audio can aspire to the same heights as studio backed productions.We’re deeply gratified that Closing Credits, the official educational branch of Casting Call Club, subscribes to this premise as well. Autumn Ivy’s class, Intimate Audio Business, will feature Deep Dream State casting as a week four class component.The documentation and websites are all SFW. That’s also by design; we believe in freedom of expression but only under conditions of informed consent. No blindsiding.Disclosure is especially important for this one. Some episodes are slow burns. This is not one of them. The thinkykinky spice meter starts at an 11 here.
  2. The Deep Dream State is difficult to fit in a niche.This episode has strong elements of comedy, thriller, litRPG, desire horror, and erotica. We like to think that the movement across genres achieves unique effects that lane following never could. Say what you will, but there is a LOT here.
  3. The Deep Dream State is extremely full cast. We’ve cast over 50 people at this point. We’re proud of our status as an artistic outlet and resume builder for so many VAs.For Season Five, we are especially keen to cast more male voices. We are also looking to cast people with GENUINE British or Irish accents for the first cycle of Ever After. (Genuine accents only.) If that potentially interests you, please use the audition form or email deepdreamstates@gmail.com.
  4. I am the showrunner, writer, sound designer, editor, publicist, and director. I play the character Z as an actor. I am the neophyte coder for the show, which is definitely mocked in this episode in some plot-relevant way. My creative stage name is Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns (ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254.) I am one person, not a collective or duo. (I took the name on tumblr before gen ai was much of a thing; it’s just a pun.)

Cast & Crew

Neural Nets And Pretty Patterns as Z (L) | Panda Moanium as Celeste (L) | Valentina Vallay as Gia (L) | Vixen Clouds as Clara (L) | Echo Doll as Elle (F) | Princess Ella as Porsche (F) | Naomi Biela as Blake (H) | Syndi Rella as Hespa (H)(S) | Dizzy Dollie as Naia (H)(S) | Ring of Kees as Tessa (T) | Lux Peralta as Laura (T) | Bliss Blank as June Lowell (T) | Bun Li as Meg Aerin (A) | Talithara as Leandra (A) | Swirls and Twirls as Iris Vale (T) | Eclipse Aleice as Glitch Kitten (V) | Brie Michelle as Power Up Peach (V) | Kat McQueen as Joystick Jezebel (V) | Karma Reid as Loot Bunny (V) | Cherry Pak as Pixel Dollie (V)

EPISODE LINKS

NNPP Site | IMDb | MusicBrainz | Spotify | Apple

Sublimate is the fifteenth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror and monster romance audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Snarecraft Cycle.

SHOW LINKS

Support the Show on Patreon | DDS Glossary | MusicBrainz | Wikidata | Spotify | Apple | RSS

EXPLORE THE NEURALVERSE

NNPP Site | NNPP MusicBrainz | NNPP BookBrainz | NNPP ISNI: 0000 0005 2877 6254 | NNPP IPI: 01346215468 | 01346215566

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Rubido poster for Deep Dream State GE41, showing a silhouetted woman suspended inside a fiery eclipse against a red and violet cosmic background.
Rubido | Vale Four | S4E14 | GE41

Rubido | Vale Four | S4E14 | GE41

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Everyone gets exactly what they deserve.

In Snarecraft, hubris is a lot more than an allusion. It’s a game mechanic.

We open with the wolfgirls choosing to run on their exercise wheels – really everyone in the game is doing the same thing. Team Alchemy is still inside the Panoptic Library. Z observes it directly as he uses the clicker to keep Team Leash ready for the hunt. Gia has fully settled into her concubinded role, and she’s chasing treatstick.

Team Flowers watches from their own vantage point. They’re in the second secret library, which lets them see absolutely all of the action. They can’t look away.

They especially can’t look away from the forest scene with Team Thorns. Queen Tessa‘s been hacking through vines and bullying her thralls. Both the vines and thralls might have learned to adapt. Everything cut down in this forest grows back much, much stronger.

State Of The Dream

S5 has both a title – “After After” – and a thematic emphasis. It’s gravitating to posthuman monster romance. The writing process has begun, so season five should launch directly from season four, with only a week or two hiatus. Serial continuity will be maintained!

Auditions are open now.  

Cast & Crew

Cast

Talithara as Leandra (A) | Bun Li as Meg Aerin (A) | Valentina Vallay as Gia (L) | Neural Nets And Pretty Patterns as Z (L) | Panda Moanium as Celeste (L) | Princess Ella as Porsche (F) | Echo Doll as Elle (F) | Swirls and Twirls as Iris Vale (N) | Syndi Rella as Hespa (H) | Ring of Kees as Tessa (T) | Bliss Blank as June (T) | Lux Peralta as Laura (T) | Dizzy Dollie as Naia (H)

Rubido is the fourteenth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror and monster romance audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Snarecraft Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Sealed cover art for Deep Dream State S4E13, showing a fiery ring of light around a falling silhouetted figure, framed by a faint hexagram, with the episode title lowercase across the center.
Sealed | Vale Four | S4E13 | GE40

Sealed | Vale Four | S4E13 | GE40

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Everything in its place.

The Deep Dream State is kinky. The show also aspires to thinky. We call it “thinkykinky.”

That’s most clearly exhibited in Sealed. I’m not sure anyone asked for a kinky retelling of “Exactitude in Science.” If you’ve ever felt the need for magical realism gone wild, though, this might be the show for you.

Sealed is the next chapter in the Snarecraft Cycle. Deep Dream State follows the standard season:episode format. “Cycle” just tracks stories within a season. Snarecraft’s about a high fantasy augmented reality game that’s repurposed to hunt down its creators.

Smaller hunting parties, or teams, lead the chase. Sealed opens with the secret wolfgirl team. We zoom in, though, on Team Alchemy. (Snarecraft Cycle episodes are all named alchemically, thus “Sealed.”)

Following the logical path, Alchemy arrives at the most complete library ever. The events in there are the last step in their Snarecraft journey.

State Of The Dream

1. The IT department has had its struggles, but it’s learning. The Deep Dream State has perhaps the only show-maintained dynamic lore guide.  The show is often racy, but the linked site is PG at most, by design.

2. This is E13. Vale Four will run for 18 episodes, they’re all in the can. The plane has begun its descent.

3. The next season is already under supported development. There will be some evolution. We’ll incorporate a lot of romance in S5, on our own terms. Think monster romance.

We’ll also cast broadly. Much casting’s from previous VAs. Some of it will be in conjunction with a new Closing Credits class. We’re one of the fullest casts, though, so there are always frequent casting opportunities. Use the contact form to reach out if interested – select voice auditions.

Cast & Crew

Cast

NNPP as Z (L) | Valentina Vallay as Gia (L) | Panda Moanium as Celeste (L) | Vixen Clouds as Clara (L) | Echo Doll as Elle (F) | Princess Ella as Porsche (F) | Bun Li as Dr. Meg Aerin (A) | Talithara as Leandra (A) | Dizzy Dollie as the Head Librarian (H)

Sealed is the thirteenth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Snarecraft Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Quintessence Deep Dream State GE39 S4C4E12 Official Cover Art Blubrry Feed
Quintessence | Vale Four | S4E12 | GE39

Quintessence | Vale Four | S4E12 | GE39

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We see you scrying.

The Deep Dream State‘s built for some fast lane changes. Whatever it’s got for handling is on display here; each scene’s drastically different.

It’s all unified by the game. An augmented reality game for commercial deployment’s being used to hunt down the game designers. That’s dark. Every scene blends that darkness with high fantasy elements, but the mixes come out much different. That – and some love for live play podcasts – is why there’s a die roll in each scene transition.

It opens comic. The Muppettes, observers who always watch the action, put on their sorceress robes and get to incanting. Even though it’s funny, there are some real secrets uncovered here, including the real origin of the name Meridian A.

It gets dark. When Z sees the Muppettes scrying, he puts his hunting team of wolfgirls through the paces. Prior subjects Gia (played by Valentina Vallay), Celeste, and Clara have found a new place at Vale Four. The writer isn’t barely disguising anything here. The Muppettes are horrified; Z clearly delights in freaking out the audience – listeners included. (The Deep Dream State is NSFW thinkykinky material. This scene should be flagged as high spice level.)

It shifts to unsettling. Team Flowers and Team Alchemy navigate their way through Hespa’s map. They find their way through raging floodwaters, their own unspoken desires, and the medieval origins of the worst sports podcast of any epoch.

They arrive soaked and breathless to a secret they were told didn’t exist.

Cast & Crew

Cast

  • Astoria : Dakota Dream
    Leads the Muppettes’ ritual, uncovers the force behind Meridian A, discovers that the thing she is watching can watch back.
  • Hilton : Tickled Panda
    The nervous novice whose questions keep the ritual grounded until one word opens Team Leash.
  • Tessa : Ring of Kees
    The queen of Team Thorns,  discipline dressed in finery.
  • Laura : Lux Peralta
    Returns as part of the hunting party Astoria watches moving through Snarecraft.
  • Z : Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
    Catches the Muppettes scrying, turns the gaze back on them, and trains his wolfgirls to hunt by scent.
  • June : Bliss Blank
    Part of the  hunt Astoria observes as the teams move through Hespa’s map.
  • Porsche : Princess Ella
    Trusts Elle’s route, accidentally summons Midstream, and reaches the marker for a library that shouldn’t exist.
  • Elle : Echo Doll
    Follows what she believes is Hespa’s pattern, gets stranded in the river, and accepts a deeply dubious rescue.
  • Meg : Bun Li
    Reads traps as systems and Leandra as badly, then confronts a map that refuses to stay legible.
  • Leandra : Talithara
    Knows the route behind the waterfall, remembers the Puzzlers, and reveals that the hidden library leads back through Deep Ward.
  • Clara : Vixen Clouds
    The newest member of Team Leash. Hides under a blanket, remembers FaceTrace, and learns that pretending not to be seen is not the same as hiding.
  • Gia : Valentina Vallay
    Breaks treatstick protocol, accepts correction, and is recruited to hunt by scent.
  • Celeste : Panda Moanium
    Performs tricks for Clara without permission, loses Trixie time, and joins Team Leash’s hunt.
  • Cael : Jericho Caine
    Returns as Caellum, a medieval Midstream merchant selling ball lore, guild membership, and suspicious raft transport.
  • Mudrick : Violently Passionate
    Caellum’s eager shield-mate, fascinated by every kind of ball and fully committed to the worst sports podcast of any epoch.
  • Hespa : Syndi Rella
    The absent architect whose recycled maps, hidden routes, and secret library guide every team toward something they were told did not exist.
  • Naia : Dizzy Dollie
    Part of the wider hunting party Astoria’s ritual observes across Snarecraft.

Quintessence is the twelfth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Snarecraft Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Official poster for Deep Dream State episode "Luna." A glowing gold ring like a solar eclipse encircles the silhouette of a woman falling backward through it, set against a deep red and blue cosmic background. The text reads "Deep Dream State" above and "Luna" below.
Luna | Vale Four | S4E11 | GE38

Luna | Vale Four | S4E11 | GE38

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Our knives are drawn.

Tessa says we all make choices. Vale Four has built the genre defining choice game.

Snarecraft’s the ultimate Assistive Reality Game. It’s made to hunt people.

Hespa and Blake have fled the island. They’re going to testify. The forces of Neuroplex are going to pursue them with the most vicious hunters they can find – an army of gamers.

It’s more than just a hunt IN the game though. The game architecture helps track the quarry, because they’re looking for the coder. Hespa made the game, and now they hope it unmakes her.

The advance parties divide into three teams. Each one’s a different approach. Team Thorns is led by Queen Tessa. They’re the path of absolute brutality. Team Alchemy’s the path of calculation and foresight. (All the titles in the Snarecraft Cycle are from alchemy.) Team Flower’s all randomness and vibes.

The listeners will find out which pack hunts best. The path and stakes are as high as possible.

It’s not a game anymore.

Cast & Crew

Cast

    • Tessa: Ring of Kees
      Queen of the hunt. Rules through cruelty and calls it discipline. 
    • Z: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
      Sets the hunt in motion and explains the rules of Snarecraft. Matter-of-fact about the cruelty underneath the game.
    • Iris: Swirls and Twirls
      Convinced the maze hides a centerpiece only she can find. Haughty, dismissed, still certain she’s right.
    • June: Bliss Blank
      Careful and cowed and quietly the one whose plan actually gets the party through the brambles.
    • Meg: Bun Li
      Analytical to a fault. Treats a living, watching maze like a dataset.
    • Elle: Echo Doll
      Playing vapid just enough to get close to Porsche. Sharper than she lets on, and closer to Hespa than she admits.
    • Naia: Dizzy Dollie
      Appears in the eastern woods as a whispering forest spirit.
    • Hespa: Syndi Rella
      The fugitive the whole hunt is built to find  from inside the game she built.
    • Gia: Valentina Vallay
    • Laura: Lux Peralta
      New to the hunt and to this world. Nervous, naive, worn down scene by scene until she stops resisting.
    • Leandra: Talithara
      A video game addict who recognizes Snarecraft’s maze and remembers it better than she wants to.
    • Porsche: Princess Ella
      Vapid, lovable. A GluckGluck and Spotlight girl fangirling over Elle, guided across the stream without knowing why it matters.

Luna is the eleventh episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Snarecraft Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Episode cover art for Bullseye, Season 4 Episode 10 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. A figure falls toward the center of a glowing target on a warm purple and red gradient field.
Bullseye | Vale Four | S4E10 | GE37

Bullseye | Vale Four | S4E10 | GE37

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There’s an older currency than money. And you’re going to earn it.

Blake (Naomi Biela) is out of Kamas, out of options, and out of time. She’s seen what Vale Four does to Piper. She’s seen what it’s doing to Gia. She knows exactly how the system works because she built systems like it. None of that helps.

Hespa (Syndi Rella) has been waiting for this moment. There’s a way out. There’s a way to bring the whole thing down. It requires Blake to trust someone inside the facility, walk through a door she can’t walk back through, and testify against a system with DOD contracts and state secrets privilege.

Blake says yes.

The episode opens before any of that. Z (Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns) tells June (Bliss Blank) he was afraid of losing her. June encourages him to press harder on Blake. She frames it as clarity about the program. Whether she’s being loyal to Z or steering him toward the exact outcome she wants is a question the episode does not answer and does not need to.

Note On Series Structure

We’re revamping the episode listings to clarify Deep Dream State episode navigation. These don’t take anything away. It’s just more information.

Season and Arc are the same thing in Deep Dream State. We’re shifting toward saying Season more, to align with standard podcast conventions. The Episode number reflects where it falls in the sequence for that season.

GE is the Global Episode number. A simple running count across the entire series, like you see on IMDb and MusicBrainz.

Cycles group episodes by theme within a season. They don’t change any numbers; they’re just additional context for the storyline you’re in. If you find them confusing, Season:Episode and GE are all you need.

Cast & Crew

Written, Directed & Sound Engineered by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Co-Directed by: Bliss Blank

Cast

    • Dr. Zev Talcott (Z): Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
      The architect. Neuroplex operations. Runs the show and knows it. Never the one holding the leash and always the one who decided where it goes.
    • Dr. June Lowell: Bliss Blank
      Holdfast. Playing the loyal Neuroplex assistant while quietly working against everything she appears to serve. Brilliant at making compliance look like virtue.
    • Dr. Tessa Finn: Ring of Kees
      Neuroplex. The public face of Vale Four’s research program. Sadistic, precise, and genuinely good at her job. She means everything she says and that’s what makes her dangerous.
    • Dr. Meg Aerin: Bun Li
      Holdfast. The data scientist in the room. She documents everything and misses nothing. Her loyalty is to the methodology first, the mission second, and people a distant third.
    • Elle Lawson: Echo Doll
      Holdfast. Performing bimbo while running legal strategy underneath. Went to law school. Topped her class. Has not forgotten a single thing they told her she forgot.
    • Hespa Apate: Syndi Rella
      Neuroplex systems engineer. Built the Valescape. Knows exactly what it does. Working out which side of that knowledge she actually belongs on.
    • Cael: Jericho Caine
      Runs Midstream Sports. Holdfast adjacent, possibly without knowing it. Useful, earnest, and completely underestimated by everyone including himself.
    • Iris: Swirls and Twirls
      Neuroplex. The public face of the research program’s success. Trained fast. Moving up. Learning the difference between running the show and being run by it.
    • Naia Anderson: Dizzy Dollie
      Founder. Built the research before Vale Four existed. Pushed out when they needed to scale it. Retained a call option. Has been waiting for someone like Blake.
    • Astoria: Dakota Dream
      Muppette. The more analytical half. Sharper than she lets on. Convinced she’s watching from outside the system. She isn’t.
    • Hilton: Tickled Panda
      Muppette. The more impulsive half. Came from Incognitoh and never quite left. Also convinced she’s watching from outside the system.

Video Vixens (Game Voices)

Guest Stars

    • Blake: Naomi Biela | IMDb
      Subject. Coder. Between jobs. Designed addictive systems for a living and can name every mechanism being used on her. Bullseye is Blake’s episode. The arc from fury to terror to quiet resolve is performed without a false note. Professional training shows in exactly the moments where most performances crack.
    • Piper: Jen Larner | IMDb
      Subject. Teacher. Arrived with the most considered critique of choice architecture and is losing it game by game. Piper is vulnerable and defiant at the same time, and both registers are completely credible.
    • Gia: Valentina Vallay | IMDb
      Subject. Influencer. Oblivious in exactly the way the system prefers. Gia is now an ongoing character by fan demand.

Explanation

Bullseye closes the Targeted Cycle. The arrow was always aimed at Blake.

The episode opens in Z’s office. He tells June he was afraid of losing her. June, who is always several moves ahead of wherever Z thinks she is, encourages him to tighten the pressure on Blake. She frames this as loyalty to the program. Whether that’s true is the question Bullseye leaves open, deliberately and permanently.

The Sapient ad is Blake’s confession. She built the system. She can’t stop playing it. She forgot other people could see her and then decided to let them look. Those Spotlight girls show off their bodies. I show off my design. And my design is next level. It’s the most honest thing anyone says inside Vale Four. That makes it the most dangerous.

The Snap scene is a workplace. Z is a boss. The cruelty is ordinary and that’s the point. Blake is told she’s expensive dead weight. Hespa apologizes in corporate language, then drops it and just apologizes. That distinction matters more than the apology does.

In the arcade, Blake watches Piper’s character get controlled by a game she agreed to be in. She watches Gia earn Kamas off it without registering what it is. June offers the conditioning suit. Blake refuses and goes looking for Z. She finds something worse.

The Bullseye scene is the load-bearing scene of the Targeted Cycle. Hespa tells Blake the truth, including the part where it might not work. Vale Four has DOD contracts. State secrets privilege could block the testimony entirely. She tells her anyway, because she was placed here, because it’s now, because it’s Blake. Naia Anderson built what Vale Four became. She was pushed out to scale it. She retained a call option that triggers if the IPO fails. She needs Blake’s testimony to crash it. She tells Blake this without softening it. Blake says yes because she has seen the alternative and the answer is just no.

The Snarecraft ad closes the episode. The fugitives are already being hunted. The game just started.

Bullseye is the tenth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Targeted Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

A figure falls toward a glowing target ring against a deep purple background. Deep Dream State S4E9 by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns.
Nock | Vale Four | S4E9 | GE36

Nock | Vale Four | S4E9 | GE36

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Other girls show off their bodies. I show off my design – and my design is next level.

The research subjects Piper (Jen Larner), Blake (Naomi Biela), and Gia (Valentina Vallay) keep going deeper into the game.

They’re wearing Prismatix, clothing that makes their bodies into billboards. They’re spending Kama tokens on YumYum and Sapient and Purpose. At this point, they’re not just playing the games. They’re getting played by all the factions.

Neuroplex management wants their data and their selves harvested. The Holdfasts want to push them to the point of rebellion. Cael and Hespa may be playing their own game.

All the subjects can tell is that they’ve taken all the free offers, and they’re the product now.

Some of the subjects like that convenience, and some don’t. That’s a daily choice everyone faces, and it’s the heart of this Cycle.

Note On Series Structure

We’re revamping the episode listings to clarify Deep Dream State episode navigation. These don’t take anything away.  It’s just more information.

Season and Arc are the same thing in Deep Dream State. We’re shifting toward saying Season more, to align with standard podcast conventions. The Episode number reflects where it falls in the sequence for that season.

GE is the Global Episode number. A simple running count across the entire series, like you see on IMDb and MusicBrainz.

Cycles group episodes by theme within a season. They don’t change any numbers; they’re just additional context for the storyline you’re in. If you find them confusing, Season:Episode and GE are all you need.

Cast & Crew

Written, Directed & Sound Engineered by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Co-Directed by: Bliss Blank

Cast

    • Dr. Zev Talcott (Z): Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
      The architect. Neuroplex operations. Runs the show and knows it. Never the one holding the leash and always the one who decided where it goes.
    • Dr. June Lowell: Bliss Blank
      Holdfast. Playing the loyal Neuroplex assistant while quietly working against everything she appears to serve. Brilliant at making compliance look like virtue.
    • Dr. Tessa Finn: Ring of Kees
      Neuroplex. The public face of Vale Four’s research program. Sadistic, precise, and genuinely good at her job. She means everything she says and that’s what makes her dangerous.
    • Dr. Meg Aerin: Bun Li
      Holdfast. The data scientist in the room. She documents everything and misses nothing. Her loyalty is to the methodology first, the mission second, and people a distant third.
    • Elle Lawson: Echo Doll
      Holdfast. Performing bimbo while running legal strategy underneath. Went to law school. Topped her class. Has not forgotten a single thing they told her she forgot.
    • Hespa Apate: Syndi Rella
      Neuroplex systems engineer. Built the Valescape. Knows exactly what it does. Working out which side of that knowledge she actually belongs on.
    • Cael: Jericho Caine
      Runs Midstream Sports. Holdfast adjacent, possibly without knowing it. Useful, earnest, and completely underestimated by everyone including himself.
    • Celeste: Panda Moanium
      Subject. Arrived skeptical and is losing ground fast. Sees the system more clearly than almost anyone and keeps choosing to stay anyway.
    • Hilton: Tickled Panda
      Muppette. The more impulsive half of the review duo. Came from Incognitoh and never quite left. Convinced she’s watching from outside the system.
    • Astoria: Dakota Dream
      Muppette. The more analytical half. Sharper than she lets on. Also convinced she’s watching from outside the system. Neither of them are.

Guest Stars

    • Gia: Valentina Vallay | IMDb
      Subject. Influencer. Arrived thinking this was a content opportunity and isn’t entirely wrong. Gia sees the shimmer on everything and reaches for it. She’s funny, perceptive, and very easy to target. We knew Valentina would be perfect in the Neuralverse; her dark romance work fits the vibe precisely. There are a lot of parallels between this episode and her excellent book It Ends in Blood. We never knew she’d be so funny as well. Gia is now an ongoing character by fan demand.
    • Piper: Jen Larner
      Subject. Teacher. Arrived with the most considered critique of choice architecture and is losing it game by game. Piper is vulnerable and defiant at the same time.  Jen Larner nailed a genuinely tricky register. She’s a UK-based actress, voiceover artist, and writer, and the dynamic shift she delivers here is performed pitch perfect.
    • Blake: Naomi Biela
      Subject. Coder. Between jobs. Designed addictive systems for a living and can name every mechanism being used on her. That doesn’t help. Naomi Biela’s professional vocal training makes this chapter particularly immersive .  It adds real depth to the Neuralverse, and it’s a standout performance.

Explanation

Nock opens the Targeted Cycle. The Vale Four subjects are invited to play and maybe get played.

The Valescape is a closed economy with its own currency, feedback loops, and cameras that never stop. The subjects get five hundred free Kamas. The system calls that a sampler, even if they don’t remember sampling.

Blake sees the architecture because she built it. She’s been a watchmaker, so she clocks the rubberbanding and the addiction loop. She names what she sees. Nobody listens, because Gia’s already earning Kamas off Gluckgluck and Piper has the high score in Spotlight and the dopamine loop doesn’t care what Blake knows.

Spotlight is the Iris Vale game, and it’s where Iris moves from ad reader to icon. It was trained on her performance capture, her approval curves and her curve curves. Tessa explains this without embarrassment: you don’t sell a product, you sell a person. The future of the industry is already running in the arcade and everyone’s paying Kamas to play it.

The Midstream Sports ad breaks the episode in half like it always does – with all the grace and subtlety of a new Kool Aid man. You don’t change horses midstream. You get in the game. The system already knows which game you’ll pick. It just needs you to reach for it yourself.

Nock is the ninth episode of Season 4 of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Season 4: Vale Four, Targeted Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

 

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Quiver
Quiver | Vale Four | S4E8 | GE35

Quiver | Vale Four | S4E8 | GE35

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We all make choices.

Vale Four opens its arcade. The subjects get Kamas, games, and three hours they don’t remember losing.

Blake sees the architecture.

Gia sees the shimmer.

Piper sees the high score.

Nobody sees the cameras.

Cast & Crew

Written & Produced by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Directed by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Co-Directed by: Bliss Blank

Cast

Guest Stars

    • Gia: Valentina Vallay | IMDb
      We knew Valentina would be perfect in the Neuralverse; her dark romance work perfectly fits the vibe.  There’s a lot of parallels between this episode and her excellent book It Ends in Blood.  We never knew she’d be so FUNNY as well.  Gia is now an ongoing character by fan demand.
    • Piper: Jen Larner
      Jen is a UK-based actress, voiceover artist, and writer.  She really nailed it in a tricky part here; Piper is vulnerable and defiant at the same time.  She has a real dynamic change here, and it’s performed pitch perfect.
    • Blake: Naomi Biela
      Naomi Biela’s professional vocal training makes this chapter particularly immersive. It adds real depth to the “Neuralverse,” and it’s a standout performance.  We’re delighted that the projects drawing in people from across the arts landscape.

Video Game Vixens

    • Glitch Kitten: Eclipse Aleice | IMDb as Eclipse Williams
      Eclipse is a voice actress specializing in character work with a wide range. She works fast, takes immediate direction, and always brings something extra.  She’s perfect as a Video Game Vixen, given her prior experience narrating video games and visual novels.  She is a certified rising star in voice acting.
    • Power Up Peach: Brie Michelle
    • Joystick Jezebel: Kat McQueen
    • Loot Bunny: Karma Reid
      Karma Reid is an experienced voice actress.  In addition to the Deep Dream State, she has been featured in projects like GTA: Online Rags to Riches.  You can find more of her artistic pursuits on her IMDb Page.
    • Respawn Rouge: Kitty Pawa
    • Pixel Dollie: Cherry Pak

Note On Series Structure

All DDS episodes are organized by Arc > Cycle > Episode. The Cycle part’s unusual, but it’s not a trick. It’s the best way to categorize storylines that run through multiple episodes.

Each Cycle is about something.  This Cycle is about microtargeting, and it’s as unnerving as you’d expect.

Explanation

Quiver opens the Targeted Cycle.  The Vale Four guests are invited to play and maybe get played.

The Valescape is a closed economy with its own currency, feedback loops, and cameras that never stop. The subjects get five hundred free Kamas.  The system calls that a sampler, even if they can’t remember sampling.

Blake sees the architecture because she designed it.  She been a watchmaker, so she clocks the rubberbanding and the addiction loop. She names what she sees.  Nobody listens, because Gia’s already earning Kamas off Gluckgluck and Piper has the high score in Spotlight and the dopamine loop doesn’t care what Blake knows.

Spotlight is the Iris Vale game, and it’s where Iris moves from ad reader to icon.  It was trained on her performance capture, her approval curves and her curve curves.  Tessa explains this without embarrassment: you don’t sell a product, you sell a person. The future of the industry is already running in the arcade and everyone’s paying Kamas to play it.

The Midstream Sports ad breaks the episode in half like it always does, loud and deliberate and exactly as subtle as everything else here. You don’t change horses midstream. You get in the game. The system already knows which game you’ll pick. It just needs you to reach for it yourself.

Quiver is the eighth episode of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Arc 4: Vale Four, Targeted Cycle.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

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Deep Dream State Trailer Art Far View Official
Trailer – Deep Dream State

Trailer – Deep Dream State

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There is a world behind this world.

We’ve been making Deep Dream State for a while now. It was time to make a trailer.

This is what the show is.

Making a trailer deep into season four isn’t standard practice, but Deep Dream State isn’t a standard audio drama.  I wish I had an in universe explanation of faction sabotage.  Well, I did, but the succubi won’t let me say it.

I’ll just say that as a fully independent production, we can’t adhere to studio production timelines.  We release a full episode every week, and that’s a minor miracle.  (I also think the trailer is very good.)

Credits

Written by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Voice by Valentina Vallay, Swirls and Twirls

Text

There is a world behind this world.
What’s behind your shows?
Your cruise?
Your games?
Your money?
What’s behind you?
You sense it.
Deep down.
There’s an older dream.
An older game.
An older power.
And she is very disappointed.
Deep Dream State.
Hear what you can’t unhear.

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The River
The River | Vale Four | S4E7 | GE34

The River | Vale Four | S4E7 | GE34

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You watch the hands.

Recalibration isn’t what anyone said it was. The Tell Cycle ends where it always had to: with the person who knew the whole hand before the deal.

Cast & Crew

Written & Produced by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Directed by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Co-Directed by: Bliss Blank
Cast

Note On Series Structure

All DDS episodes are organized by Arc > Cycle > Episode.  The Cycle part’s unusual, but it’s not a thematic trick. It’s the best way to categorize storylines that run through multiple episodes.

Every single DDS Episode has a Cycle designation. You can find them on the Episodes Page.

Explanation

The River is the Tell Cycle finale, and it lands like one. Every tell that’s been catalogued, every session steered, every whispered instruction written under clinical cover, Z clocked all of it. Before the confrontation. Before the log. Before Hespa hit record on night one. That’s the gut punch this episode delivers and earns. June thought she was running a play inside the system. She was the play. Her resistance, her autonomy, her absolute conviction that she was the smartest person in the sessions, that’s the product.

The River is built like a confession booth. Tessa’s the architect. She knows exactly which door Ava will walk through if you show her the right receipts in the right order. Ava’s whole deal is wanting to be good. That’s not a character flaw. It’s a handle.

The episode closes with an ad, and then Z in a corner telling Iris something she should’ve seen coming.

Then he tells her what to watch.

The River is the seventh episode of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It is part of Arc 4: Vale Four, Tell Cycle.

Full Summary (Caution: Spoilers)

Hespa opens an operational log for night nine of Project Argus Mirror, Vale Four, pursuant to Federal Behavioral Initiative 7D. The recorder catches more than she intends. She’s replaying Ava’s voice on loop, selection language, recognition language, the fastest route to monetization, and has reached a state she’s describing to herself as working when Tessa walks in. Tessa names what she’s looking at. Their exchange maps the fault line between them precisely: Hespa in the blazer, running the numbers, and Tessa naming what the numbers are covering. Tessa submits to FaceTrace. She wants to see what she fears, what she needs, and where those are the same. Hespa adds an operational addendum to the log: subject response is more variable than projected. So, apparently, are they.

In the monitor lab, Elle coaches Ava through a FaceTrace baseline sequence. The session runs as legitimate clinical procedure on the surface. Underneath it, Elle’s writing instructions in real time: keep your voice steady on the stand, don’t blink when they pressure you, say exactly what you saw and nothing more. Ava repeats the stimulus prompts aloud and the baseline is established. June confirms it. Ava confirms she can do this.

Tessa and Meg enter. The confrontation is surgical. June’s Sitri record plays back at full volume, documented sadism, refinement, a subject who kept asking for reassurance until June learned to weaponize the delay. Ava’s shown the receipts. She doesn’t want to believe them. Meg makes the case without mercy: this is what happens when you focus on seeming good instead of being good. The offer is recalibration, penance, the only way to make this right. Ava says yes. Meg tells her she’s going to be so good at this. The door closes. Elle stays quiet. June has nothing left that’ll land.

The FaceTrace Haptic System presents itself as a commercial. It makes smiling automatic. Subject Ava is cited as a success case. The audience is informed that their listening habits are listening back, that every pause is a data point, that their attempts to resist are the best data of all. Their agency is the product.

Tessa surfaces with a problem: Elle’s affect reads 67% genuine, June’s 78.4%. Meg’s treating this as a crisis. Iris pulls Z aside before the spiral takes hold. She’s reviewed the footage. June and Elle were steering the FaceTrace cues, cheating, deliberately and intentionally. Z already knows. He gave them room. They filled it. A system that produces perfect compliance produces nothing worth studying, nothing worth selling, nothing worth watching. June’s resistance is the product. Her belief that she’s running her own play is the product. The stumble is what they sell, not the perfection. Iris asks about June specifically. Z deflects with precision and obvious affection. Then he tells her what she should’ve been watching all along.

Not the eyes. Not the plan.

The hands.

Listen & Explore

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever on Pixabay, under the Pixabay license. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Consent Declaration

Deep Dream State is a desire horror audio drama written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. It explores psychological fiction at the boundaries of control, identity, and complicity. The elements depicted are fictional and intentional. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download