Everyone in Vale Four is getting read for filth. They deserve it.
FaceTrace is reading microexpressions before subjects know what they’re thinking, but June and Elle know they can’t afford a tell. So they’re practicing on each other, mapping their own blind spots before the real sessions begin.
Ava’s already figured out she’s being measured, and she wants more.
Summary
Raise is the fifth entry in the Vale Four arc of Deep Dream State, a desire horror audio drama produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns (ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254), and the second entry in the Tell Cycle. FaceTrace doesn't wait for a subject to say something revealing. It reads the face before the thought finishes forming, mapping want and resistance in the same pass. For the holdfasts operating inside Vale Four, that's not a surveillance upgrade. It's an extinction event. June Lowell and Elle Lawson know they can't pass a system that reads them before they perform, so they practice on each other first, running unauthorized sessions to map their own tells. What the system catches about both of them is more than they authorized it to find.
Ava is a focus group participant who came to Vale Four wanting to be part of something good. She figures out what's being measured mid-session and keeps going anyway. She asks for solo access so she can be honest without anyone watching her be honest. The machine she ends up alone with has been calibrated to her specifically and has been paying very close attention. Meanwhile the senior staff watch from the villain lair and disagree: Meg wants the contaminated dataset cleaned up, Tessa wants June awake when she breaks, and Z thinks the cheating is the most interesting data they've produced. The episode closes on a question it doesn't answer. Who's directing the experiment, and who's been performing for whom the whole time.
Cast & Crew
Written & Produced by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Directed by: Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Co-Directed by: Bliss Blank
Dr. Zev Talcott (Z): Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Dr. June Lowell: Bliss Blank
Dr. Tessa Finn: Ring of Kees
Dr. Meg Aerin: Bun Li
Naia Anderson: Dizzy Dollie
Elle Lawson: Echo Doll
Iris Vale: Swirls and Twirls
Cael Yupp: Jericho Caine
Hespa Apate: Syndi Rella
Hilton: Tickled Panda
Astoria: Dakota Dream
Ava: Kitten Azazel
Synthserv 3.0: Valentina Vallay | IMDb
Listen & Explore
- Listen on Spotify
- Listen on Apple Podcasts
- RSS Feed
- Support the creator on Patreon
- Creator bio & portfolio
- All episodes archive
- Canonical Tumblr Page
- View this series on IMDb
- MusicBrainz for Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
- BookBrainz for Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns, including show script books
- Producer ISNI
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