Category: episode

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

Asunder | The Chthonic: Ceremony Cycle

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Beneath veils and vows, reality thins. As the ceremony unravels, the mirror doesn’t lie.  It forgets.

This is Episode Four of the dystopian fiction Deep Dream State, an audio drama exploring identity and desire.  

(The Chthonic arc specifically is classified as cosmic horror.)

 

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 Innocence
  • Tiffany, Bridesmaid – Britt Reprogrammed

Credits

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

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’s a pivotal revelation.  It exposes the dystopian vision at the heart of the 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.

Written and produced by Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns, Asunder doesn’t treat transformation and desire as spectacle.  They’re a genuinely destabilizing force here.  The horror is cosmic, rooted in the Lovecraftian tradition of encountering what can’t be comprehended and being changed by it anyway.  It’s a dream of devotion that opens onto the abyss.

And the abyss has been waiting.

Support the Show

For high-quality downloads, early access, and exclusive behind-the-scenes content, support us at:
🔗 patreon.com/minderaser

Your support helps keep the dream alive — and dragging you deeper.

Content Advisory

Deep Dream State is an adult production containing cosmic horror and scenes of ritual transformation, devotional surrender, and encounters with ancient non-human entities.  Not for the faint of heart or the firmly landlocked

Official IMDb Episode Link


Deep Dream State – S1.E4 on IMDb

Official IMDb episode page for Deep Dream State Season 1, Episode 4.

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

Veil | The Chthonic: Ceremony Cycle

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The bride walks the aisle. The veil parts. And the sea is hungry.

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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Sticker-style text “Chthonic E2: Cringetide” in bubbly blue font with frilled outline.
Cringetide | The Chthonic: Maiden Cycle

Cringetide | The Chthonic: Maiden Cycle

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The tide is rising. And shame makes a sound.

Mairead’s gambling debt has come due, and the Chthonic’s leadership has been watching the whole time. The captain’s mast isn’t just a disciplinary hearing.  It’s a recruitment. Mairead gets her assignment and her uniform and her smile, and the bachelorette party decides karaoke is a crime against humanity and makes a break for it.  The question’s always – what are they escaping INTO?

Cast & Crew

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

Ship’s Crew

Guests

Explanation

Maiden Voyage established that the ship is running a conspiracy. Cringetide shows how it sustains itself: through debt, surveillance, and the specific leverage that comes from watching someone in a moment they believed was private. The captain’s mast isn’t punitive. It’s onboarding. Mairead isn’t being punished for her indiscretions.  She’s being converted into an asset, which is what the Chthonic does with every vulnerability it documents.

Fion’s opening confrontation is the episode’s most honest scene and its most painful. She names everything accurately – the addiction, the debt, the pattern.  None of it changes anything. Mairead knows Fion is right. The system knows it too, and it has already factored in the part where people who know they have a problem still can’t stop. That’s not a flaw in the design. That’s the design.

Emma, Kara, and Sarah watching the Yo Ho Hos perform while the machinery of the ship closes around everyone.  The comedy isn’t relief. It’s the tide coming in.

Full Plot Synopsis (Caution: Spoilers)

Fion walks in on Mairead onboarding Nikki at the spa and immediately detonates. The argument covers everything: the gambling debt, the lying, the pattern of dragging Fion into situations she didn’t choose, and the specific indignity of being broke in Alaska. Nikki absorbs this with the composure of someone taking useful notes. When Fion leaves, Nikki offers what she has: she hears things, nobody notices the maid, and she knows which of Alistair’s arrangements cost money and which ones don’t. The conversation is interrupted by Alistair and Holly arriving for their three o’clock.

Alistair’s session with Mairead and Nikki establishes the terms of Mairead’s debt repayment with the brisk efficiency of someone who has run this accounting before. He documents everything. He makes Mairead say what she needs. He puts the embarrassing moment on the big screen. Holly assists with the precision of a partner who knows her role in the operation. Olivia interrupts and removes Mairead from the room.

The captain’s mast is where the episode turns. The Chthonic has been recording everything – the spa, the arrangements, all of it – and the contract Mairead signed covers surveillance in any area of the ship including workstations. The captain isn’t interested in firing her. He’s interested in the excursion leaving tomorrow.

Mairead’s assignment is simple: guide the passengers and make sure they don’t find the things they’re not supposed to find. In exchange, the indiscretions disappear. Mairead agrees.

Olivia tells her to fix her attitude and get in uniform. It’s showtime.

Showtime is karaoke. Olivia introduces Mairead to the assembled passengers as May May, which Mairead visibly hates, and Mairead delivers an archaeological briefing about the Tunngavik site with the energy of someone who has just had the worst afternoon of her life. Olivia takes the mic back before she can finish. The Yo Ho Hos perform a pirate-themed number for Emma’s bachelorette party while Emma, Kara, and Sarah watch from the back of the room with increasing desperation. Kara knows a place. They leave.

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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.

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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Sticker-style text “Chthonic E1: Maiden Voyage” in deep blue font with white outline.
Maiden Voyage (Premiere) | The Chthonic: Maiden Cycle

Maiden Voyage (Premiere) | The Chthonic: Maiden Cycle

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The Chthonic sets sail. And the sea does not forget.

The luxury cruise ship Chthonic embarks on a voyage overseen by the Dagon Dream Group. As passengers settle into their cabins and experience disturbing dreams, the ship’s leadership begins orchestrating something far more sinister. Behind the scenes, the captain and his associates identify vulnerable travelers and set a methodical plan in motion. What appears to be a luxury getaway conceals a coordinated conspiracy with mysterious depths.

Cast & Crew

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

Ship’s Crew

Guests

    • Alistair, CEO of Neuroplex: Jericho Caine
    • Holly, His Girlfriend: Dizzy Dollie
    • Emma, The Bride-to-Be: Pipp
    • Brittany, Bridesmaid: Kitten Azazel
    • Kara, Bridesmaid: Tender Confusion
    • Sarah, Bridesmaid: Ring of Kees
    • Tiffany, Bridesmaid: Britt Reprogrammed

Full Plot Synopsis (Caution: Spoilers)

The cruise begins with Cruise Director Olivia Naylor greeting passengers and outlining the itinerary under the Dagon Dream Group banner. She promotes nightly bells, a wellness center managed by Mairead, and the Dagon app controlled by crew member Nikita. Captain Will Dyer, Chief Engineer Fion Morgan, and Chief Purser Selene round out the leadership presented to guests. The atmosphere appears welcoming and professionally managed.

In their cabin, bachelorette party guests Emma, Tiffany, Brittany, Kara, and Sarah share unsettling nocturnal experiences. Strange sounds come through the ship’s walls, and their collective nightmares involve tentacles and the sensation of being observed. When Captain Dyer and Olivia briefly check on them, the passengers mention nothing specific, and the leadership departs without investigation.

Behind closed doors, the captain confronts Olivia with explicit demands for absolute obedience tied to the tank and entities called the Old Ones, specifically invoking Abyssrath. Olivia submits without resistance. Later, Alistair Howell, owner of Neuroplex and the ship’s true architect, uses Olivia for control exercises and instructs her to identify new targets. Crew members Nikita, Mairead, and Fion witness the ship’s darker reality. Selene reveals that she has worked such vessels before and that formal complaints are deliberately ignored. She performs a cryptic shanty referencing judgment from the waters.

A casino night attracts Mairead, who is financially desperate and mathematically convinced she can gain advantage through high-stakes poker. She loses to Alistair and accumulates debt. Captain Dyer reviews surveillance footage and identifies Mairead as the ideal mark: vulnerable, broke, and isolated. Olivia agrees to leverage the ship’s systems, the nightly bell, and the Dagon app as tools for entrapment. The episode closes with the machine set in motion to deliver Mairead into the hands of those orchestrating the voyage.

Listen & Explore

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

Cosmic horror, eldritch entities, ritual, surveillance, adult themes, dream manipulation.

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. Maiden Voyage contains cosmic horror, ritual content, surveillance themes, and adult themes. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context.

ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Chapters

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