On A Midnight Run
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midnight-runner.bsky.social
On A Midnight Run
@midnight-runner.bsky.social
73 followers 91 following 860 posts
Real live adult. Crime Writer. Editing my ms before querying. You might know me from Tumblr under a different name.
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midnight-runner.bsky.social
Yeah, alright I guess LOL

These bots are out of hand. But when I see that kind of follower/following ratio, I generally write them off.
December 5, 2025 at 2:04 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Everyone talks about the bully to nurse pipeline, but no one talks about this.
October 30, 2025 at 5:09 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Also, if it's any consolation, they only have major arcana:
October 27, 2025 at 5:05 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
I'm real bad at this; I'm so sorry... My phone app shows one thing, but when I'm on desktop, I see this. I had issues when there was that switchover from user names to user names with numbers.
October 12, 2025 at 3:27 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Here's my user name (in case I wrote it wrong) 💕
October 12, 2025 at 3:19 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
I am, of course, referring to this:
October 11, 2025 at 1:03 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
>:D
September 18, 2025 at 8:06 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
So here's the model:

For $2100, you can survive cancer.

Go ahead and tally up the supplies at Gerson[dot]org. You're cleanly upward of $10,000 you're spending instead of your cancer treatment.
August 26, 2025 at 5:47 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
July 20, 2025 at 12:27 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
I'm not sure what to make of this, other than the fact that it's uncanny that two of these four know some form of kungfu.

(Katara getting pushed toward the acupuncture aspects of water bending instead of the martial parts is one of my favorite storylines of ever).
May 19, 2025 at 7:46 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
If your colleague wonders about your wellness as soon as you start acting normal, you might need to inventory your priorities. And for Hal, those new priorities should include "get to know your friends."
Text snippet: "Hello?" Grace called cautiously. "You still there?" "Sorry, yeah. I was just thinking that you're right." He snaked one arm out of his shirt, then grabbed the phone to free up the other arm. "Really? Damn, thought I'd have to twist your arm a little." "No," Hal said with a sigh. "No arm... twisting this time," he grunted, wiggling out of his shirt, then holding it at arm's length with a disgusted frown. He debated throwing it in the bin, but instead tossed it on the hood of his car. […] "Damn." She paused, then asked, "You're not dying, are you? You can tell me; I can keep a secret." "No, nothing so extreme." He produced an old shopping bag, dumped the shirt in, and threw the disgusting parcel into trunk. "It's just been a weird day. Weird few weeks, actually."
May 8, 2025 at 12:30 AM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
It doesn't count as flirting if neither man realizes his feelings, right? RIGHT?!

#writeSky #WIPSnips #writingCommunity #crimeWriter
Text snippet: David cupped his free hand around Hal's long, spindly fingers. "Hey now. It's more information than I had earlier today. I can ship this back to the CO, see if we can break in our new lab equipment. Can't let our scientists get too bored, right?" "True. We start causing trouble when left to our own devices." "Yeah? What sort of trouble?" "Confess to a cop? Is this one of those things I'm supposed to be watching out for?" David laughed. "That bad, huh?
May 1, 2025 at 4:16 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Other people in this situation find themselves with a new lease on life, so why the hell did he feel so... empty?

#writeSky #WIPSnips #writingCommunity #CrimeWriter
Text snippet: He would've landed, then, face first in purge fluids, and while it's probably lights immediately out when your frontal bone explodes, there was a chance—maybe, possibly—that his last thought would've been a weary "fuck."
April 30, 2025 at 6:59 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Detective David Miller: smoker, coffee drinker, pen connoisseur.

("move" --> "remove" is the logic for this snip)

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #CrimeWriter
Text snippet: David removed the pen from his mouth to twirl it in his fingers and take a sip of coffee. Taste was well past burned and into mud territory, and he winced when he felt the gritty texture of grounds as he swallowed. "You focus on your job; I'll focus on mine. No matter what we decide here, I have superiors to answer to."
April 21, 2025 at 4:16 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
The smell of death has a funny way of weaseling its way into your senses. Every time you think it's gone, you catch a whiff, and wonder desperately if it's on you.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WIPSnips #CrimeWriter
Text snippet: "Hey, I don't smoke that often," Hal said, fishing around in his glove compartment. "Just after a bloater." He produced a lighter and the crumpled pack he kept hidden under his manuals.  David nodded. "Get the smell out," he confirmed. "I've done the same thing myself. Which, if I might be so bold?" He threw up his eyebrows and leaned toward Hal. Hal placed a cigarette in David's waiting lips and lit it. David inhaled with half-lidded eyes and blew a cloud out through his nose
April 20, 2025 at 3:06 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Alpha Red knew what his boss expected of him. He just didn't care. The universe spoke, and he knew a real acolyte listened to the interstellar music.

Nice knowing you, Dave.

#WIPSnips #WritingCommunity #WriteSky #CrimeWriters
Text snippet: They say you attract your opposite, but Alpha Red knew the real secret: harmonic energies gather. He had meditated before this mission, raising his vibration to call the detective into his web, and wouldn't you know it, David walked down this very path. Hard to assume it's a coincidence. Hard to assume any coincidences, not when he understood the real natural order. Wolf eats rabbit is child's play, he thought smugly. Man's dominion over beast is self-evident. No, the real ordering of the natural universe happened at the quantum level, with the harmonics of our atoms and souls making interstellar music.
April 18, 2025 at 3:17 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Listen Doc, things are going to be different now.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #CrimeWriters
Text snippet: David let the moment breathe. Then, he took Hal's clammy hand in his. "Doc," he said slowly, "that sort of thing. That changes a man." He cleared his throat again and looked down at the sheets, crumpled around their joined hands, with his scarred fingers curled around Hal's pale thin ones, blanched at the knuckles from gripping David's like a man holding on for dear life.
April 17, 2025 at 3:37 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
He dreamed he was drowning.

Sometimes he drowns. Sometimes he just fades out. But always, he dies.

#WIPSnips #WriteSky #WritingCommunity #CrimeWriters
Snippet of text: To wake up with a gurgle. He flailed again, this time against the tubes around his head, until his hand connected with one and he pulled. With the other, he swiped at his face and connected with a solid hunk of plastic, and he pushed the full-face CPAP mask up and away from his airways, leaving a trail of condensation in its wake. He groped for the raised button on his machine on the bedside table as the mask—suddenly removed—blew a steady stream of air directly in his eye, unable to ramp the pressure down as it does during a natural sleep cycle. His long, nervous fingers finally brushed against the rubbery texture, and he swatted until the pressure suddenly released.
April 16, 2025 at 3:40 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
For a guy who lies so freely, Hal's a bit too trusting.

#WriteSky #WritingPrompts #WritingCommunity #WIPSnips #CrimeWriters
Text snippet: "Yeah, and you'd be brilliant, but here's the thing: it has to stay between us. No records, no conversations, nothing. If anyone so much as suspects something..." David shook his head. "You're going to have to lie." Hal started to feel a chill, despite the climate control. "I can lie, Detective. But I won't kill anyone." David took Hal by the shoulders and looked deep in his eyes, and Hal could at least identify one potential source of chill with the steely stare. "Doctor. If it god-forbid comes to that. I'll be a lot faster on the trigger this time, I promise you."
April 14, 2025 at 2:03 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Hal has exactly two speeds: full-tilt, everything all at once or sleeping.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WritingPrompts #CrimeWriters #WIPSnips
Text snippet as follows: A few paces ahead, Hal's head perked up like he had just remembered something, and with a brisk about-face he strode back to where David was limping. "Real quick," he said, rooting through his pockets. He placed one hand on David's cheek while the other produced a set of keys and dangling multi-tools. He tested a pen light on the back of his hand, then said, "Look forward." David complied. Hopefully, the sooner Hal got the doctor shit out of his system, the sooner they could get to the case. And get home. And wallow, a little. "Already tested your memory," Hal murmured, darting the pen light in and out of each of David's eyes, from the outside in. David blinked uncomfortably as photo negative trails obscured his vision, then faded as he readjusted.
April 13, 2025 at 2:33 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
What a piece of work is a man, David.

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WIPSnips #CrimeWriters
Snippet of the following: "Yeah," Frank said, his eyes suddenly cold. "I remember. Our men died because of you." David clenched his jaw. He wanted to bite his lip so hard it bled. Frank was the one talking about desertion that night; David was the one splattered with blood. But Frank was immune to facts at this point. Hell, he was immune to empathy. The only thing Frank wanted was to get these feelings out of his body, and he didn't give a shit who was in his blast radius. "If you think that, then why am I here?" "Same question I been asking myself."
April 12, 2025 at 1:36 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Hal hopes that David can give a sign of life on secure channels, but soon realizes that it would endanger David. And the mission.

(This scene is cut for now, but I never throw stuff away. Might use it later, when I feel it fits)

#WriteSky #WritingCommunity #WIPSnips #CrimeWriter
Snippet of text: "I'll do everything in my power to get a message out." "I guess that's the best I can hope for, huh? Security and all." David nodded grimly. "If you see an unknown number..." He pulled Hal in again, and Hal got the distinct impression that David might not be able to swing this. Not for lack of trying, but SOP might hold that David completely disappears. Completely covers his tracks. Anything less might break his cover and endanger both of them, and while David never seemed to mind his own safety, he'd rather die than risk Hal. David sniffed and cleared his throat. "Sorry," he said in a guttural voice. "Making this harder than it needs to be." "If you had left without saying goodbye, I never would've forgiven you." David chuckled and pulled away after a light squeeze. "I know, Doc," he said, surreptitiously swiping at his face. "I wouldn't do that to you." I know. You're a good man, David."
April 11, 2025 at 12:54 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Meet your new boss. Swoon in front of your new boss. Accidentally get purge fluid on your new boss.

Bummer.

#WipSnip #writeSky #writingCommunity (If you're familiar with the piece, I'm editing it up now.)
Image with the following snippet: Hal nodded and removed his exam gloves. He went to stand, but the blood had pooled while he was kneeling, and he found his legs collapsing as unstable gelatinous sticks not entirely under his control. "Shit, watch out, Detective. I'm covered in..." David lunged forward as though he were expecting it and held Hal up by his forearms. "Trip to the laundromat it is, Doctor." He walked Hal to a hay bale and set him down. "Why don't we get you out of the slime, see if we can't scare you up a fresh t-shirt or something."
April 10, 2025 at 3:50 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
Oh yeah, they're HUGE. They affect our weather (we call it the "Lake Effect"). Major snowfall, windy, feels a lot colder in the winter...etc. There are also whole cities on islands in the middle of them.

The ice floes in winter can get pretty spectacular.
Ice shards in Lake Michigan
February 4, 2025 at 8:32 PM
midnight-runner.bsky.social
I have the other offices, if anyone needs them
February 4, 2025 at 5:30 PM