iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 4h

Watching this history channel doc and people are like “commercialism ruins holidays” but if the doc is correct people literally introduced candy and parties and costumes because kids wouldn’t stop setting buildings on fire and it was starting to get expensive.

static.klipy.com

Pixel Art Building on Fire

ALT: Pixel Art Building on Fire

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Carson Winter @carsonwinter.bsky.social · 9h

Horror is best in short form, right? If you're looking for a spooky read this season, check out my debut collection, PORTRAITS OF DECAY. Featuring stories of internet mysteries, weird Halloween decorations, and tender apocalypses. $1.99 ebook: carsonwinter.com/product/port...

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 6h

Han has customized the couch to his liking. Now he would like to be petted.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

There is a story by J.R. Hamantaschen where a character dies, but our brains control both our perception of time and pain, so while the death takes only a second, the experience of it stretches for eternity in excruciating pain and... I haven't got that fear out of my head and I read it years ago.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I was asked a few times, back when I had a book out recently, why I write. I used to have an answer, but these days not so much. So I'm asking all of you. Why do you write? Wax me philosophical. Cringe be damned, no judgement here, I want to know! Why do you do it? QRP me, comment, just tell me!

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Also I kept the keychain thing for my room key. I was in the habit for a while of liberating these from the haunted ass hotels we stayed in 😂

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

My bad, it was Doc Holiday, not Wyatt Earp.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

Same place was apparently on some old tv show (maybe unsolved mysteries?) because there was a room that was always locked because guests reported being picked up and thrown. It was locked while we were there. The place was the St. James Hotel in Cimmaron (sp?) New Mexico.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

…to get my camera because I’d have to walk past the bathroom, which, fuck that. So I just watched it until it went away. Sleep paralysis demon? Maybe, but I could move and it never happened again. We caught piano music from the ballroom in the same hotel (nobody was in there).

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

…course of about an hour until most of it was visible, just a humanoid black shadow. The last thing to appear was a hand that I could just make out sort of beckoning me toward the bathroom. I tried to wake up my friend but he just grumbled and turned over. I wasn’t getting up…

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 01/10/2026

I was in bed and it was dark. Another team member was sleeping next to me cuz we were not well funded. I looked into the bathroom and there was just a pair of eyes floating there. I closed my eyes and when I opened them again, the eyes had been joined by a row of teeth. This continued over the…

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Don’t even get me started on the *thing* I saw in the bathroom at the hotel Wyatt Earp stayed at on the way to Tombstone. Mwahahaha

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I don't talk about this a bunch, but I was a ghost hunter for a couple of years in my early 20s. I wanted to be a filmmaker, and watched a lot of ghost hunting TV shows. I started following around a local ghost hunting team with a camera and eventually joined as a videographer. Saw some wild stuff.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I watched a video not long ago where Herzog was asked what languages he speaks and he names them and also says the only time he ever spoke French was when he was kidnapped by a group of militia men who only spoke French and were threatening to shoot him and... I mean...

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I love it because Shannon is totally following along, like "sure, the caffeine," which makes sense when you think about it, but only someone deeply involved in the kinds of situations Herzog lives in daily can go "of course."

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I deeply love listening to Herzog talk about literally whatever.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Enough people see them that I don't think they're all made up (some are), but I think the more interesting question than "real or fake?" is: what is it about human beings that make us susceptible to seeing and experiencing things that aren't physically there?

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Is all of this stuff probably explainable between environmental conditions and neuroscience? Probably, yes. Is it made up? No. The question about ghosts for me is not whether they exist, it's "what are they?" Brains acting badly? Environment interfering with perception? Souls of dead people?

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

A guy asked us to investigate his house and said he often saw a man standing at the end of his bed in the middle of the night. Our EMF meters picked up a leaky outlet (not an electrician, sorry) behind his headboard, so we told him to move his bed and after that he stopped seeing the figure.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

Once, we were investigating a cemetery across from an abandoned church and a member of the team said he saw something and chased it down a row of gravestones. It was July 4th weekend and the gravestones all had little American flags on them and as he passed the little balsa wood flag poles snapped.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I took my mom on a ghost hunt to a place that had been burned down at one point, and when she touched a doorknob in one specific room, she pulled away like she had been burned. She said the knob was scalding hot. She asked to leave after that.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

In Jefferson, Texas, at two in the morning, I watched a couple of people in 1800s period dress walk down the street across from me and disappear behind a light pole. I was just outside smoking a cigarette.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

But there were a few things I couldn't explain. Once we were investigating a house and a guy that lived there said he could talk to the ghosts of children that haunted it. He would tell a "ghost" to touch his arm, and the surface temperature of his skin in that spot would drop by like ten degrees.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

That is to say that, yes, I saw things, and so did the people around me. But looking back on it, I think so much is about environment (dark, old, abandoned, creaky places), and what a person expects out of that environment. You're in a place and you expect to see a ghost, you're gonna see one.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 30/09/2026

I drank a hot coffee while on a zoom for work earlier. Did I find a loophole or does having a coffee while talking to someone not matter at all?

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Low pay, but I dig the concept alot.

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Thea O'Ryan Files @theaoryanfiles.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Calling Authors: Dead House Publishing is opening submissions all November for their new anthology, Subliminal. Wanting horror that exists below the limits of conscious awareness. Have specific guidelines (find them on the linked website) max 6000 words, $ 20 USD pay www.dreadhousepublishing.com

dreadhousepublishing.com

HOME | My Site

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 29/09/2026

Playing the new Silent Hill: Townfall, and it's good - but I suck at it. Stealth has never been my thing because patience, and the monsters stop being scary after they've killed you 24 times in a row. But I love the atmosphere and I'm invested in the story, so... yeah. Slog.

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Eric Raglin @ericraglin1992.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

The course is half full! Interested? Reach out ASAP! Multiple free scholarship slots are still available.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Is now the right time to be writing a Spielbergian coming of age novella about kids who discover a cursed, sentient amusement park complete with friendship drama and long summer day vibes? Probably not. But that's what's happening.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

Have you zine this? This is the coolest bundle I've ever zine! (I am so sorry, it's Monday and I just downed a ton of coffee and my love of puns is eating through my better judgement.)

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 28/09/2026

I think I like writing short stories because when the energy lulls, you just find a way to wrap it the fuck up. Writing a longer piece now (I'd like it to be a novella) and the same thing is happening that always does. The energy drops and then I'm just like... what now? Hello wall, remember me?

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Gret :^] (G.D. Hand) @gretashand.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Strange noises have been coming from your bathroom lately, I wonder if you should take a look. #b&wart #inkdrawing #monsterart #horrorart #traditionalart #darkart

A traditional black and white illustration of two gangly humanoid mer-creatures in a bathtub. The larger one stands hunched in the center of the tub, doubled over at the waist as it braces itself against the tub with one arm, its other wrapped in a fist where it clutches the shower curtain. One leg is climbing out of the tub onto the tiled bathroom floor, its three joint structure more reminiscent of a frog's anatomy. It has black beady eyes sitting where a human’s would be, but several slitted gills that lay horizontally across its cheeks like gashes. Curly black hair spills from its head, wet and clumped together where it clings to its back and spills down over its shoulders. A fin structure with sharp prongs travels down the length of its spine, its unnaturally long torso displaying emaciated ribs. Behind the large creature’s outstretched leg, cowers its counterpart. Much smaller than the first one, the distressed creature grips at the shower curtain, pulling the fabric in front of it. The shower curtain obscures half of its face, as it squats, hunched in the corner of the tub.

Micron pens and hatching techniques were used to create the majority of the depth and shading of the drawing. Some screen tones were added digitally to draw a stronger focal point to the main creature.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 27/09/2026

Domestic wizard coming soon to the Ren Fair

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

I watched this for the first time a few months ago (I know, I know) and all of it was fantastic, but this guy was PERFECTION.

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 26/09/2026

But what does the ghost demand in exchange for emotional support?

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

If I was interviewing someone for a job and they brought an iced coffee I’d be like “where’d you get that, I want one” and maybe then I’d figure out a good place to get a delicious iced coffee.

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Eric Raglin @ericraglin1992.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

Lots of writing courses price out folks on a budget, but this one won't! Join my affordable Cursed Classroom this November where you'll learn how to write effective short horror fiction and submit your work to markets. Details here: ericraglin.com/classes-and-...

Now Accepting Applications for
CURSED CLASSROOM
What is it?
A month-long class taught by Eric Raglin this November. It’s geared toward newish writers who want to improve their short horror fiction writing skills and learn how to submit work for publication.
How much does it cost?
Five of the slots cost $100, and the other five are completely FREE, thanks to anonymous donors.
I’m Interested! How do I join the course?
Check out the specific course details here: https://ericraglin.com/classes-and-editorial-services/

Then, email me at ericraglin1992 [at] gmail [dot] com.
I’ll get back to you quickly!

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Brandon Applegate @bapplegate.bsky.social · 25/09/2026

I do wish there were more, though. I've always preferred collections of shorts to novels, both writing and reading them, because, well, my attention span sucks and I like it when a story gets to the damn point. Not that novels can't be gripping, but I so frequently put them down halfway through.

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