Tag: Old Ones

Illustration of a cruise ship with tentacles amidst spiraling waves, smoke cloud text reading “chthonic e9: spiralstorm.”
Spiralstorm (Finale) | The Chthonic: Storm Cycle

Spiralstorm (Finale) | The Chthonic: Storm Cycle

By |

We’re the Captain now.

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

Olivia, Cruise Director – Bliss Blank
William, Ship Captain – Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Nika, Ship Maid – Echo Doll
Selene, Chief Purser – Syndi Rella
Mairead, Spa Manager – Bun Li
Fion, Chief Engineer – Jade

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 Kees
Amanda, House Mother – Korrupted
Tiffany, Bridesmaid – Britt Reprogrammed

Full Summary (Spoilers0

Bind

The trifold resonance completes. Selene conducts. Bride, goddess, penitent, all three wrapped together and spiral-bound by flesh, voice, and purpose. Sarah can feel Emma directly, each wave of feeling amplifying into the next. Emma understands what she is at last: not a passenger, not a bride, but a bridge, sung into being before she had a name.

The Old Ones remember her. She remembers them.

Selene names what this moment actually is: real, temporary, chaotic power that breaks the architecture just long enough. Kara, watching the signal fracture, says let them try to buy this.

Then the music goes stupid.

Dead End

Olivia and Nikki arrive with gold stars and branded cruise-core maidwear and a sponsored rave overlay that repacks the trifold resonance as content. The eldritch melody has been remixed into a party anthem.  Nikki is tossing limited edition costumes into the crowd. Sarah and Emma stand in the wreckage of their transcendence and watch it become shuffleboard.

They sift through what remains and arrive at the question the arc has been building toward: what if something older than the algorithm ran the game instead? Something beyond exploitation, beyond platforms, beyond branding. Something that doesn’t care about ownership because it predates the concept entirely.

Selene and Kara debate the cost. To fully summon the ancient voices would mean chaos, possibly annihilation. Selene reveals what she is: not a person, not a purser, but a song given flesh.  Kara says they’re too close to the edge. Selene says that’s exactly why they have to jump.

Meanwhile Mairead confronts Fion about the betrayal. Fion argues that pragmatism is survival.  Mairead says there are no closed doors left. Then she calls out to Kara with the information Fion gave her in confidence: the bulkhead fracture at Echo-Nine, below the spa. A silence. Then Kara says let’s gamble everything as she deploys her tentacles.

The steel tears and the sirens begin.

Emergence

Water floods the corridors.  The ship is sinking for real and some of the people on it have stopped trying to stop it.

Olivia goes off script. Alistair calculates: claim the insurance, Dagon Dream will rebuild, they always do. Selene tells him she has insurance too, and ends Alistair’s story.

The Captain demands attention and insists on authority.  He doesn’t get to finish either.
Selene says simply: you were never steering.

Fion asks what they do now. Mairead holds her and says they swim or they sink but together. Sarah says their world, their rules, their rot, is going under. Emma says that’s how you find another one.  Nikki, terrified, asks if there’s something down there. Selene says there’s something. Waiting. Older than the maze.

The metal creaks. Kara says the maze ends here.  The whale song rises and the nautical bell rings and the Chthonic arc closes where it opened.

Listen & Explore

Explanation

The Chthonic arc has always been, at its structural core, a story about who owns the frame. The Captain and Olivia built a system designed to convert authentic experience into catalogued content.

SpiralStorm is the episode where that system encounters something it cannot commodify and responds the only way it knows how, by trying anyway, and gets purged for the attempt.

The Dagon Dream Group’s instinct, upon finding three women in genuine ecstatic communion with something ancient and uncontrollable, is to sponsor it. This is not a satirical exaggeration. Commodify Your Dissent, the Baffler’s foundational text on how consumer culture absorbs rebellion, describes exactly this mechanism: the system doesn’t suppress resistance, it rebrands it. Every act of genuine refusal becomes an aesthetic, a product line tossed into a sponsored crowd. Nikki handing out gold stars at the rave isn’t a deviation from the system. It is the system operating at peak efficiency.

Society of the Spectacle identified the mechanism half a century earlier: lived experience is progressively replaced by its representation, and representation is always available for purchase. The trifold resonance was real. The Ecstatic Awakening Night remix of it is the spectacle.

That’s what the Old Ones are in this arc. Not a supernatural threat but a structural one: an entity that predates ownership.  The Chthonic sinks not because the rebellion won but because the frame itself dissolved. Selene, who was always the sea, conducts the requiem.

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc was created by Echo Doll in collaboration with Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image.

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.   SpiralStorm contains adult themes, ritualistic horror, consensual supernatural encounter, and suggestive content. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context.

ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Illustration of a cruise ship sinking into shadowed seas, smoke cloud text reading “chthonic e8: undergloom.”
Undergloom | The Chthonic: Storm Cycle

Undergloom | The Chthonic: Storm Cycle

By |

Your transcendence is already on sale.

There’s room for everyone inside the Lotus. The whale song is real and the recording equipment’s has been running the entire time.

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

Olivia, Cruise Director – Bliss Blank
William, Ship Captain – Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns
Nika, Ship Maid – Echo Doll
Selene, Chief Purser – Syndi Rella
Mairead, Spa Manager – Bun Li
Fion, Chief Engineer – Jade

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 Kees
Amanda, House Mother – Korrupted
Tiffany, Bridesmaid – Britt Reprogrammed

Full Summary

Throat

Holly surfaces into full conditioning.  She’s beatific and certain, convinced she’s the one doing the tempting. The Captain and Olivia review her status with the brisk efficiency of people who have already decided what she’s worth and are simply working out the logistics. She’ll be renamed Dizzy.

Most performers get lines.  Dizzy Dollie gets an ORIGIN STORY, highlighting her indispensable role on the Chthonic and in the Neuralverse.

She’ll be installed in the observation spa in a collar with her name on it, holding poses for guests while her neural feeds stream to subscribers. The bio-ink sigil goes at the base of her spine and glows when she begs. Alistair notes that truth is profitable. Fion, who is present and increasingly uncomfortable, attempts a mild objection on legal grounds.

Holly, meanwhile, has something to report.  She heard it in the water. The Captain is going to open a door during the rave, using the chaos of sound and neon as cover for a summoning.  She says this like she’s revealing a secret. Olivia grins. The Captain says they’ll let her shine on the brochure. Holly takes this as praise.

Archway of Dusk

Holly and Fion are alone in the lotus chamber. Holly is deep in the conditioning and generous with it, offering Fion the peace she’s been watching from the outside. Fion is exhausted, running calculations on everything, envying Holly’s certainty even as she can see exactly what produced it. Holly teaches her the liturgy. Fion repeats it. Holly whispers a numerical sequence and the restraints disengage. Fion steps into the device alongside her. She’s been objecting to this operation for eight episodes. She stops objecting now. The lotus blooms and so do they.

Undergloom

This is the rave. Deep bass psytrance is layered with whale song samples.  (The whale song samples are real; they’re bowhead whales pitched up 12 octaves to sound human.)

Sarah, Mairead, Emma, Selene, and Kara are in the depths of the ship as the ritual converges. Sarah has definitely stopped being the careful one.  Kara confirms that every drop of the music is laced with bowhead frequencies, filtered through spectrograms and dreams. The whales don’t just guide them; they compose them.

Selene names what’s happening: the trifold resonance. Bride, goddess, penitent. All three wrapped together.  Emma understands her function at last. She was sung into being before she had a name.

Listen & Explore

Explanation

Undergloom is the episode where desire horror earns its name most completely. The three women in the depths of the ship aren’t being overcome. They’re arriving. Sarah has been the careful one for eight episodes and she stops being careful here not because the machinery broke her down but because she finally decided the caution wasn’t worth what it cost. Mairead has been chasing dissolution since she first appeared and she finds it here on her own terms. Emma has been the most mysterious figure in the arc and Undergloom resolves her: she was always the bridge, always more than a passenger, always the hinge the summoning turns on.

The horror isn’t in the ecstasy. The horror is in the comodification logic: every moment of their genuine transcendence has been captured. The recording equipment was running. The neural feeds were streaming. Alistair already knows what subscriptions will look like. The Old Ones get their rite and Vale Four gets its content and the women in the lotus get something real, which is the cruelest part of the design.

Human Made Art

The poster image for this arc was created by Echo Doll in collaboration with Neural Nets and Pretty Patterns. Layer art overlays are used to vary each iteration of the image.

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 manipulative elements depicted are fictional and intentional. Undergloom contains ritualistic horror, adult themes, and scenes of supernatural encounter. All performances are works of fiction and take place within a consensual creative context.

ISNI 0000 0005 2877 6254

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

Cringetide | The Chthonic: Maiden Cycle

By |

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.

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.

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

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

By |

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

Podcast: Play in new window | Download