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
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- 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
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- 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
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