Tag: surreal horror

Illustration of a cruise ship with tentacles emerging, smoke cloud text reading “chthonic e6: garter.”
Garter | The Chthonic | S1E6 | GE6

Garter | The Chthonic | S1E6 | GE6

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The veil lifts, and the ceremony deepens. A garter coils and slithers.

Welcome to Episode 6 of Deep Dream State, where the rituals no longer pretend.

Episode Summary

Sarah follows a mysterious note into the stone corridors beneath the Chthonic complex, believing she is close to uncovering the truth behind the Institute’s rituals. She is met instead by Nikki and Fion, two insiders who claim to be acting on her behalf. They warn that her investigation has gone too far, that every riddle she has chased was planted to lure her deeper.

They offer her a glowing book hidden in the vault. A vaccine, they call it. A controlled dose of the power she has been chasing. Reluctant but intrigued, Sarah agrees to read a single page. The words seem harmless at first. The air shifts as if they carry intent.

What begins as an intervention becomes a conversion. Nikki and Fion fall into unison. The chamber becomes a mirror of the Chthonic’s larger seduction: clarity disguised as surrender, safety offered through submission. By the time Sarah kneels before the text she can no longer tell whether she is uncovering a secret or becoming one.

The spell breaks with Holly and Selene’s intervention, exposing the exploitation behind the ritual and revealing that the Chthonic’s dream technology is real and spreading. What seemed like a private awakening has been a performance staged for power and profit.

Garter stands as one of Deep Dream State‘s most haunting chapters. Intimacy becomes a conduit for control, and resistance takes the form of reclaiming one’s own mind. The episode closes with a reminder that in the Chthonic’s labyrinth, even freedom may be scripted.

Cast

Ship’s Crew

Guests

  • Alistair, CEO of Neuroplex – Jericho Caine
  • Holly, His Girlfriend – Dizzy Dollie
  • Emma, The Bride – Pipp
  • Brittany, Bridesmaid – Kitten Azazel
  • Kara, Bridesmaid – Tender Confusion
  • Sarah, Bridesmaid – Ring of Keys
  • Amanda, House Mother – Korrupted
  • Tiffany, Bridesmaid – Britt Reprogrammed

Production Credits

Deep Dream State is written, produced, and directed by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. Sound design, editing, and scoring by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns.

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New productions and the full catalog are available through Patreon. Your support sustains independent audio drama and the ongoing expansion of the Neuralverse.

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Content Advisory

This episode contains adult themes and ritualistic horror. Intended for mature audiences only.  This is a work of fiction, not a guide to real life phenomenona.

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Sticker-style text “Chthonic E4: Asunder” with fractured lettering, outlined in white.
Asunder | The Chthonic | S1E4 | GE4

Asunder | The Chthonic | S1E4 | GE4

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There is a world behind this world. You just need to look in the mirror.

The ceremony is not for any human bride. The midnight rite binds flesh and will in a covenant older than the ship or the civilization that built it. Emma stands at the altar, and the abyss has been waiting.

Cast & Crew

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

Ship’s Crew

Guests

Archive : A Note on The Dream Index

Deep Dream State uses an index system to give you more information about the show. We strive for clarity. /sincere

Each episode has a Global ID — its position in the Deep Dream State chronological sequence. Simple count. That’s the number you’d see on IMDb or in the MusicBrainz catalogue. It also corresponds to the episode numbering in the RSS feed and podcast apps — when Apple Podcasts or Spotify show you a number, that’s the Global ID.

Each episode also has a Local ID, which includes:

  • Arc — the season. This is the standard season designation you’d see on Apple Podcasts.
  • Cycle — the subject group of episodes within an arc, specific to Deep Dream State.
  • Episode — its number within the arc. This matches the episode numbering in RSS feeds and iTunes.

This episode is #4. That’s the Global ID.

This episode is also A1C2E4. It’s in the Chthonic arc (Arc 1), the Ceremony Cycle (Cycle 2). It’s episode 4 within that arc.

If you find the archive system confusing, you can just refer to the Global Number and it’ll be fine.

Episode Summary

Asunder unfolds at the height of the Chthonic cruise. The passengers are summoned to a midnight ceremony led by Captain Dyer and Olivia, the ship’s Cruise Director. The bride Emma stands trembling on the threshold of the ship’s altar, surrounded by bridesmaids who chant in voices no longer entirely their own.

The sea answers, and the wedding march becomes an invocation.

The crew call down forces from beneath the waves, binding flesh and will in a rite older than the ship or the civilization that built it. Tentacles, hymns, and deep harmonics mingle as devotion gives way to something that hasn’t got a human word at all.

Olivia and Holly guide the ritual with unsettling precision while Kara, a supernatural guest, warns of what lies deeper than the ceremony itself. Their exchange exposes the fault line the episode’s been building toward: a struggle between those who’d claim the abyss and those who’d dissolve within it. The Captain preaches that the old order’s made of sand. What rises from the deep obeys older laws entirely, and the crew respond in ecstatic unison.

Emma accepts the abyss within her, renouncing the boundaries of self for something vast and ancient and patient.

Within the Neuralverse, Asunder is a pivotal revelation. It exposes the dystopian vision at the heart of Deep Dream State and foreshadows the darker architectures of Incognitoh and Sitri Center. Every subsequent arc carries its fingerprints: ancient covenant, ecstatic surrender, the moment human ambition meets something that was never human at all.

Listen & Explore

Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns — IPI: 01346215566 | IPI: 01346215468

Human Made Art

Series artwork for this arc was created by Echo Doll in collaboration with Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. Deep Dream State uses human art at every stage of the creative supply chain.

Content Warnings

Adult production. Cosmic horror, ritual transformation, devotional surrender, encounters with ancient non-human entities.

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. All performances are scripted works of fiction in which consent is clearly stated. ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

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Sticker-style text “Chthonic E3: Veil” in frilly lettering.
Veil | The Chthonic | S1E3 | GE3

Veil | The Chthonic | S1E3 | GE3

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There is a world behind this world. All you have to do is pull back the veil.

Welcome back to The Chthonic, the arc that launched the Deep Dream State.

Deep Dream State is the only active, serialized erotic audio drama on the open web. Created by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns,

 

CAST

Ship’s Crew

Guests

Episode Summary

Veil is a full-cast cosmic horror story where a cruise ship vacation becomes something far older and far stranger.

After an unbearable karaoke night and a round of seashell shots, Kara, Sarah, and Emma slip away from the noise and through a metal door into the ship’s instrument room. The ship’s purser Selene, resident mystic and reluctant guide, warns them they shouldn’t be there. The room hums with sonar pings and distant whale calls that sound almost alive. It listens, she says.

Drawn by the sound, Kara insists the songs are familiar. Selene explains they’re bowhead calls, guardians of the deep places. When Kara mentions hearing them in dreams, Selene lowers her voice: legends say the whales keep watch over the abyss, over R’lyeh.

The words ignite something in Kara that won’t go quiet. Something ancient has already started listening back.

The next day the group joins a hushed archaeological excursion led by Mairead, who warns them to stay on the marked path through the glacial tunnels. Kara wanders toward glowing runes that seem to recognize her. A stone door grinds open, separating her from the others. Inside, carvings of women shift in the flicker of their flashlights, the faces gradually resolving into their own. Curiosity becomes terror when the reliefs begin to move and the abyss answers Kara‘s call.

What follows is a fevered initiation. Tentacled forms rise from the dark and claim the explorers one by one, rewriting flesh and memory in ecstatic surrender. Kara becomes their conduit, declaring that the naditu have returned. The chamber echoes with chants and the sonar’s rising chorus until Captain Dyer and Olivia appear.

The ceremony is not for any human bride.

Veil transforms the corporate satire of Deep Dream State into revelation. Within the Neuralverse it marks the point where performance gives way to possession and curiosity to initiation. Its fusion of cosmic horror and erotic desire sits in the tradition of Lovecraft rewritten from the inside, where the beings in the abyss are not destroyers but claimants, and the horror is inseparable from the wanting. As with all Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns productions, Veil asks how storytelling can depict transformation ethically. The line between empathy and oblivion is as thin as the ice that holds the abyss below.

Production Credits

Deep Dream State is written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns, with co-production by Bliss Blank.
Sound design, editing, and scoring by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns.

Content Advisory

This series contains adult themes. Listener discretion is advised.

Official IMDb Episode Link

Deep Dream State – S1.E3 “The Veil Parts” on IMDb
Official IMDb episode page for Deep Dream State Season 1, Episode 3.
The bride walks the aisle. The veil parts. And the sea is hungry. Beneath the vows and rituals, desire takes root in obedience and The Chthonic listens.

Support & Bonus Content

For high-quality downloads, early access, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content from
Neural Nets & Pretty Patterns, the creator of the acclaimed erotic audio drama Deep Dream State, visit the Patreon:

🔗 patreon.com/minderaser

Your support helps sustain independent storytelling that explores the psychology of desire and transformation through
erotic fiction and immersive sound design.

All performances are scripted works of fiction in which consent is clearly stated.

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