Radix

Radix is the 43rd total episode of the desire horror audio drama, Deep Dream State. It is Season 4, Episode 16 and begins Grassroots, the final Cycle of Vale Four.

The Deep Dream State is all coming together, or it's all falling apart. It's hard to tell which.

Grassroots is the final Cycle of Vale Four. In a few episodes, the season will be resolved.

Each Cycle is about a different advertising phenomenon, made "thinkykinky." The show looks at a different fictionalized technology of control and asks the same question: "Why would anyone want this?"

We're finishing out the season with astroturfing. Astroturfing is the practice of making planned support look natural and organic. It's been around for decades, but it's really accelerated in an era of algorithmic mass manufacture of opinion.

Radix imagines some different takes on the show itself. Behind-the-scenes audio segments give listeners a whole different take on what the show means. Sections of the episode are designed to sound like they're off-mic bloopers or candid fragments.

They aren't. The possibilities outlined here are still within the fictional frame. The producer is not in a torrid dynamic with star VA Dizzy Dollie. Dizzy Dollie also ALWAYS gets her lines in on time. The script was not written by an enemies-to-lovers-to-enemies-to-lovers writing team. The Deep Dream State show might have a serious meta kink, but we know it's always important to stay rooted.

Radix brings Naia Anderson into the final movement of Vale Four, where advertising technology and manufactured agreement blur into conditioning. Tessa Fine and June Lowell move through shifting layers of performance while the familiar clicker makes the location of control difficult to pin down. Meg Aerin watches from another layer, turning repetition into a measurable behavioral pattern. The Grassroots Cycle turns astroturfing into desire horror, asking whether choices can still feel organic when the pattern has already been engineered.

Written and Produced by: Neural Nets And Pretty Patterns

Directed by: Neural Nets And Pretty Patterns

1. Thank you to all the listeners. We surpassed 50k downloads this week, which is huge for an independent audio drama. We're delighted!

2. The Deep Dream State is not safe for work. This is by design. 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.

3. This episode in particular should be approached via informed disclosure. We move into the Neural / Dizzy dynamic at the three-minute mark, with the door open. The door's certainly open for the Kees / Bliss scene as well. Just remember that the doors are still opening onto a stage.

4. The Deep Dream State refuses niches. This episode has strong elements of comedy, thriller, and desire horror. 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.

5. 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. If that potentially interests you, please use the audition form or email deepdreamstates@gmail.com.

6. I am the showrunner, writer, sound designer, editor, publicist, and director. I play the character Z as an actor. I play myself in this episode, but as a fictional character. 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.

The poster image for this arc is from Sunrise Forever, 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.