brumeier

Warning: Discussion of death in the family

February was a rough month, friends. Not gonna lie. My mother-in-law passed away somewhat unexpectedly. I say ‘somewhat’ because she’d been very sick for the last three years – dialysis three days a week, frequent hospital visits, rare blood disease, COPD, and on and on. But still, she was just going about her regular day when she died. It happened so quickly none of us were able to be with her when she passed.

This was especially difficult for my boy, who hadn’t yet lost someone he was so close to. Luckily, his girlfriend was with him when I broke the news, so he wasn’t alone. He came home from college for the viewing, and he had to deal with another issue – seeing his father after almost four years of no contact.

It was a fraught time. But we got through it together, and my boy got the chance to say goodbye to his grandmother. And maybe make a little peace with his father.



My MIL in happier times (2017) before she got sick


Understandably, my productivity for the month was all over the place. I did four scrapbook pages at the start of the month, but couldn’t make myself do any others. I think because I want to do some layouts about my MIL but I’m not quite ready yet.

Here’s one of the layouts I did:





Writing was also a bit dodgy. I had a firm plan for the month, with two challenges I wanted to participate in. But after my MIL passed, I was having a hard time focusing in. So many of my words for the month went to a self-indulgent WIP not attached to any challenges at all.

Still, I was able to manage some last-minute challenge fills. Here are the 5 new fics I posted in February:


Title: What’s the Opposite of Teamwork?
Challenge: February Drabblethon
Fandom: Misfits of Science
Warning(s): silly little drabble

Summary/Prompt: Billy had an inspiration speech ready to go.

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Title: The Reason
Challenge: February Drabblethon
Fandom: Friday the 13th: The Series
Warning(s): A drabble of self-reflection

Summary/Prompt: Sometimes it was easy to lose sight of why they did what they did.

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Title: The Fate of the Lost City
Challenge: International Fanworks Day: fusions/crossovers
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis/Nancy Drew
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, former John Sheppard/Nancy Drew
Warning(s): mostly fluffy past relationship stuff

Summary/Prompt: A lot of dignitaries and VIPs have been visiting Atlantis since declassification, but John didn't expect his ex-wife to be one of them.

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Title: Breaking the Rules
Challenges: : shadow; : Highlander – Shadows;
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Warning(s): offscreen violence, poisoning, secrets, hostile takeover, Rodney fixing all the things

Summary/Prompt: Rodney is a Watcher, but he has higher asperations. And a plan to save Immortal John from the Game.

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Title: Away Team
Challenge: Romancing SGA at
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Evan Lorne/David Parrish
Warning(s): minor character injury, minor Wraith feeding, very little actual romance honestly

Summary/Prompt: Commander Evan Lorne was leading what should have been an easy Away Team mission with the botany department, but he was about to learn that nothing in the unexplored Pegasus galaxy was easy.

I got a notification from LJ today that it's been nine years since I joined there. It doesn't seem long enough. Like...only nine?

At that point, I'd only been writing fanfic for three years. I was posting solely on fanfic.net back then, the Alice fandom giving way to Sentinel and Stargate Atlantis and Hawaii Five-0. (SGA still prevails as my main fandom). It was taste_is_sweet who convinced me to join LJ, which also coincided with sign-ups for SGA Secret Santa, my first writing challenge, and the last year of the WriSoMiFu.

I was off and running after that. Nine years in, I have two writing comms (ushobwri and whatif_au), I have 847 works posted on AO3, and I've participated in countless challenges and exchanges. I've made so many new friends, been inspired into different fandoms, and attended two Stargate conventions. I've seen AO3 grow, and LJ get smaller. I separated from my husband, got my boy through high school and his first year of college, and put some blue back in my hair.

The last nine years have been pretty full. I can only imagine what the next nine might bring.

Thanks for being my friend then, thanks for being my friend now, and thanks to anyone I befriend in the future! This wouldn't be as fun without you!

February Recap & FIC

February was a heck of a month, friends. Not gonna lie.

I adopted a cat from the animal shelter. Gentle Ben is about five years old and a graceless tank of a feline. I’d wanted a companion for Barry, who is about the same age and seemed to be quite bored and lonely. My expectations were perhaps a bit too high.

Ben is very sweet, a real love bug. Barry hates his guts. She spends a good portion of her time hissing and growling at him, but he never retaliates. He likes to snuggle, but that can be dangerous because he has claws like eagle talons.

Most alarmingly, Ben has peed on my bed several times. Is this behavioral? It is part of yet another health issue? I have no idea. So I’m not certain about Ben’s future with me. I’m loathe to take him back to the shelter, but he might just be too much for me. He sure is handsome, though. Now we just need to clear up his respiratory infection, his ear infections, and schedule surgery for his ear polyps. ::headdesk::



I experienced one of the scariest moments in my life last month. I have this really long, double-decker wall-mounted bookshelf my mom made me ages and ages ago. It used to be mounted above my bed, but right now is hanging out on the floor in my kitchen because it fell on me in the still-dark hours of the morning. I remember screaming. I don’t remember leaving the bedroom.

The shelf didn’t clock me, but some of the books did. So my head was a little sore. My bedside lamp got destroyed, so I had a pulverized lightbulb to deal with. I did a fair amount of crying, messaged with my ex because he’s the only one I knew who was awake, and sat in my chair like a depressed slug most of the day. It took me an hour to set the room to rights, especially since I had to vacuum all the books on the lamp side of the bed.



February wasn’t all bad. I got an unexpectedly delightful tax refund, so I was able to buy some things I needed and pay off a pretty big bill, while still putting money aside. And we had some really lovely, spring-like days with warm temps that made it seem like winter might be over soon. Plus, the last weekend of the month I was productive with everything I put my hand to – writing, assembling furniture, reading, scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking was all over the place in February. My layouts ran the gamut from current events to childhood pets to holidays. I created eleven scrapbook layouts, and this is one of them:



The writing wasn’t great. The month was arduous, every word needing to be pulled out with force. Fics that should’ve been written relatively quickly took ages to complete. I just couldn’t get in the zone. It was very frustrating.

The last few days of the month, though, things started to turn around. My muse must be back from vacation. I was able to meet the challenges I’d been shooting for, and even wrote in a new-to-me fandom. So not all doom and gloom, I guess.

Here are the five new fics I posted in February:


Title: The Heart of the King
Challenge: chocolateboxcomm
Fandom: Original Fic
Warning(s): seasickness, referenced homophobia

Summary/Prompt: While King Caldore's advisors push a political marriage, his private secretary makes plans of his own to assure that everyone gets what they want. Himself included.

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Title: A Single Friend, My World
Challenge: International Fanworks Day; trope_bingo: AU - Apocalypse; story_works: friendship flash challenge
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Warning(s): apocalyptic setting, mutant monsters

Summary/Prompt: It was only bad timing that Laura and Miko were on Earth during the apocalypse. Now they're stuck there, fighting off mutant creatures, homesickness, and despair. Luckily they have each other, and it's a real friend that can carry you through the worst days of your life.

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Title: Let It Go, B’y
Challenge: hc_bingo February amnesty challenge
Fandom: Republic of Doyle
Warning(s): canon-typical violence, restraints, extortion, interrogation, assault

Summary/Prompt: Jake is tied up (not unusual) and getting punched in the face (also not unusual), but he doesn't know why (less typical). He needs to figure things out before he loses more teeth.

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Title: Sleeping Arrangements
Challenge: romancingmcshep; trope_bingo: sleeping arrangements
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Warning(s): light angst, John’s manly repression

Summary/Prompt: Of all the risks John faced in the Pegasus galaxy, having to share a small bed with Rodney while offworld was definitely the most dangerous.

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Title: Where There’s Not A Lot Goin’ On
Challenge: sga_saturday: gas
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandoms: Stargate Atlantis/Corner Gas
Warning(s): discussion about comic book characters by someone who has never read comic books

Summary/Prompt: John and Rodney are distracting themselves with a Canadian road trip, and they stop for gas in Dog River.

Hey, everybody! It's International Fanworks Day!

What this means to me is celebrating fandom through fic. I typically write my characters being fannish about something or someone, which can be really fun. I’m not always successful in writing something for IFD, but this was one of those years. Woo!

This year, Laura and Miko are dealing with the apocalypse by discussing movies and K-pop:

A Single Friend, My World (Stargate Atlantis): Laura and Miko are trying to survive the apocalypse, and one of the ways they pass the time is discussing pop culture.

And if you’re interested, here are things I’ve written for IFD in years past:

Protect & Serve & Take Selfies (Hawaii Five-0 + a boatload of crossovers, Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams): Steve and Danny are at a law enforcement convention populated by some familiar faces, including the one guy Steve has been secretly fanboying over.

Thank You, Bucky Barnes (Stargate Atlantis/Marvel Cinematic Universe, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay, Steve Rogers/Bucky Barnes): A request from SHIELD leads John down memory lane as he prepares to face his childhood hero in the flesh.

Reflections IV (Stargate Atlantis, John Sheppard/Rodney McKay): Rodney makes connections between Star Trek space husbands and his relationship with John in this little drabble.

I'm a teensy bit early in wishing my dear friend nagi_schwarz but I just couldn't wait!

Happy Birthday, Nagi! You are an amazing person, not just because of all the cool things you can do - bellydance! jiujitsu! fabric crafts! drums! - but because of how kind you are. You're always ready to jump in and help other people in any possible way you can, even when you're exhausted or stressed out. You never give up, and you always help me feel better when I'm down.

Thank you for everything you do, Nagi! Please enjoy this uplifting tale of the apocalypse for your birthday. ::grins:: Really, it's a story about friendship for one of my best friends. Love you, friend!

Author/Artist: brumeier
Title: A Single Friend, My World
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Rating: Teen & Up
Warnings/Tags: apocalyptic scenario, mutated creatures

Summary: It was only bad timing that Laura and Miko were on Earth during the apocalypse. Now they're stuck there, fighting off mutant creatures, homesickness, and despair. Luckily they have each other, and it's a real friend that can carry you through the worst days of your life.

January was pretty good. My boy was home for three weeks of it. I baked him lots of cookies, and got him all set for his return to college with a doctor visit, a booster shot, and a covid test. He also got his second tattoo with his Christmas gift certificate. The girlfriend spent a lot of that time with us, so I did a lot of cooking for everyone.

My boy was reluctant to go back to school. And he called me the night of the second day of school to report that he and his friends were hanging out – with bongs and pot – and got busted. We’re still waiting to find out what the repercussions of that will be. This is such a fun age. ::rolls eyes::





We had a lot of sub-zero days in January, which meant the Super of my ancient building kept the heat cranked up to avoid frozen pipes. One day it was 88 degrees in my place, and 20 degrees outside, and I had to sleep with my window open so I didn’t die. Winter can be such a struggle, right? LOL!

I scanned a lot of pictures last month – I still have a ridiculous amount of them to do – and that led to a lot of scrapbooking. I created 16 layouts, most of them from my childhood (and about childhood pets), but I also did some pages about my boy. Here’s one of them:





My writing focus was all over the place in January. I did some random prompt fills, started a lot of fics I still haven’t finished, and did a lot of re-writing of the opening section of my chocolateboxcomm fic, which I really need to get a move on with.

I also signed up for trope_bingo for the first time in a long while. My usual modus operandi when dealing with a bingo is to write a fic and then see if it fits a square. It’s not the speediest method and I’m trying to work it a little different. We’ll see how that goes.

Here are the seven new fics I posted in January:


Title: Old and Gray
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Warning(s): fluffy domestic stuff

Summary/Prompt: Any, any, "I feel old."

In which John is feeling old, and Rodney tells him why that's okay.

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Title: Backup (For the Backup)
Fandom: Prodigal Son
Series: Monster Hunters
Warning(s): high school monsters

Summary/Prompt: Prodigal Son, Malcolm Bright + any, Call for backup

In which Malcolm has some suspicions about the Shadyfell swim team, but he could never have guessed what was really going on.

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Title: Side-Effects in Blue
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Warning(s): naked boys, pre-porn, implied sexy times

Summary/Prompt: Any, any, "Is it supposed to be that color?"

In which Rodney finds out John has a very intriguing post-Iratus side-effect.

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Title: The Black and Blue Clue
Pairing: John Sheppard/Sherlock Holmes
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis/Sherlock
Series: Elementary, My Dear Sheppard
Warning(s): lots of bruises

Summary/Prompt: Any, any, bruised blue and black

In which John is injured while on a case but still manages to get Sherlock information he needs.

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Title: The Road So Far
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Series: As Seen on TV
Warning(s): angels, hints of angsty backstories, missing kids

Summary/Prompt: People don't just disappear. Other people just stop looking for them. But not everyone. The McKays are sent to find out what happened to eleven kids who disappeared from the same house over a period of fifty-some years, with a little help from their uncles, Rodney's angel boyfriend, and some scientific know-how.

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Title: 900 Acres of Freedom
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Series: ficlet_zone: Cher – A Cowboy’s Work is Never Done; whatif_au: western; trope_bingo: western AU
Warning(s): John as a modern-day cowboy, that is all.

Summary/Prompt: Rodney is returning home to Freedom Ranch after two weeks of speaking engagements on behalf of the ranch and the Integrity Beef Alliance, but there's no time to sit and relax on a working cattle ranch.

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Title: Breath of Fresh Air
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay (pre-slash)
Fandom: Stargate Atlantis
Challenges: sga_saturday: fresh and trope_bingo: happy ending
Warning(s): trapped, running out of breathable air

Summary/Prompt: Rodney is trapped in a tightly sealed room, running out of breathable air, and things are looking dire.

July already? ::boggles::

June was a busy month for me. Lots of Zoom meetings for work, the last scramble for my boy to finish up schoolwork, and my mother-in-law finally came home after a month in the hospital (for non-COVID reasons). I also finally got down to two shifts a week at Second Job, which I’d spent months angling for.

I also went to a party. The first non-work gathering of people I’ve been to since the pandemic started. I wore my mask there, but literally no-one else was wearing one, or maintaining social distance, and I felt really uncomfortable. And also, there was unspoken pressure to not wear my mask.

Dude, this stuff is hard!

In exciting news, I got all my new furniture last month! My house looks so good! I got an armchair and a loveseat, and a kitchen table and chairs. All my big, bulky furniture is gone, and everything is now more appropriately sized for my tiny apartment. I’m loving it! (We won’t talk about the boxes that had been stored under the old table that I now have to go through and see if there’s anything worth keeping.)

Scrapbooking – I did ten layouts. A few birthday pages, since I’m still catching up on for my boy. Almost there! Here’s one of the layouts I did in June:





Writing was plentiful in June, which was nice. I wrote 19k words for the month (lots of prompt fills, a huge amount which won’t be posted until this month) and posted 8 fics. I met all the challenges I signed up for. So writing-wise, it was a really good month for me. Here are my posted fics:


Title: Sword of Damocles
Fandom(s): Prodigal Son
Characters: Dani Powell, Malcolm Bright, Gil Arroyo, Jessica Whitly
Warning(s): Grownups liking things they shouldn’t

Summary/Prompt: Prodigal Son, any, one of them is a Rocky Horror Picture Show fan
In which Dani intends to initiate Malcolm into the wacky world of RHPS, but things don't go as planned.

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Title: The Professor and the Drag Queen
Fandom(s): Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Characters: John, Rodney, OCs
Warning(s): moody drag queen

Summary/Prompt: any, any, dancing queen (abba)
In which John goes to see a show and Rodney is feeling a little blue.

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Title: Pressed Flowers
Fandom(s): Trixie Belden Mysteries/The Three Investigators
Pairing: Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones
Characters: Trixie, Jupiter
Warning(s): brief mention of dysfunctional relationship

Summary/Prompt: Any, any, "Flowers in the Attic"
In which Trixie is sorting through some boxes and Jupiter learns something new about her.

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Title: Found My Thrill
Fandom(s):Stargate Atlantis/Hawaii Five-0/The Sentinel
Pairing(s): Rodney McKay/John Sheppard, Steve McGarrett/Danny Williams, Jim Ellison/Blair Sandburg
Characters: Everyone above, plus Radek, Biro, and Kavanagh
Warning(s): shameless author playtime

Summary/Prompt: Any, any, happy days
In which three Jocks decide to reach out to a Nerd, a Greaser, and a Beatnik. (Or: the Author goes completely off the rails and has fun with her OTPs.)

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Title: The Bicentennial Mystery
Fandom(s): Trixie Belden Mysteries/Three Investigators
Pairing: Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones
Characters: Trixie, Jupiter, Diana, Helen, OCs
Warning(s): none that spring to mind

Summary/Prompt: Trixie Belden Mysteries/The Three Investigators, Trixie Belden/Jupiter Jones, a Bicentennials-related mystery
In which Trixie has brought Jupiter back to Sleepyside for the Bicentennial celebration, and stumbles into a mystery.

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Title: Mission: Quarantine
Fandom(s): Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: John Sheppard/Rodney McKay
Characters: John, Rodney
Warning(s): set during the pandemic

Summary/Prompt: Just another day in quarantine! Although John does even that his own way.

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Title: History Will Decide
Fandom(s): Trixie Belden Mysteries/Stargate Atlantis
Characters: Trixie, Acastus Kolya, OCs
Challenge(s): intoabar
Warning(s): a kinder, gentler Kolya…maybe?

Summary/Prompt: Trixie has been brought to Atlantis to write a puff piece for the impending declassification of the program. But she has a nose for secrets, and a chance meeting will reinforce her determination to dig deeper.

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Title: Till the Cows Come Home
Fandom(s): Stargate Atlantis
Pairing: Rodney McKay/John Sheppard
Characters: Rodney, John, original bovine character
Challenge(s): whatif_au: political and sga_saturday: livestock
Warning(s): nothing but good stuff in here

Summary/Prompt: John is looking to rig a club election, and of course he goes to Rodney. But Rodney has a different idea.

Today is More Joy Day, the brainchild of sdwolfpup. It’s a day when we can all do our parts to spread a little joy. Random acts of kindness, from simply holding a door open for someone to giving a gift of time or money, can brighten someone’s day and make that person feel like passing that joy along to someone else.

And we can all use some joy, am I right?

As usual, I’m giving the gift of fic. And handsome men. ::grins:: I wish I could do something for all my wonderful friends, but know that I love and appreciate all of you!

Now, for the gifts.

In Case of Dire Consequences is a gift for respoftw. This is my second SGA fusion with Good Omens, and something I apparently had finished months ago and simply forgot about. Respo was so pleased that I made Rodney the demon, so I thought she’s like another shot of that.

You Keep Me Searching is a gift for taste_is_sweet. I wanted to get it done in time for Christmas, but words were few and far between then. But I was able to finish this MCU-centric installment of my Life in the Yukon series in time for today. Taste got me started on the Steve/Bucky goodness, so this seemed a fitting gift for her.

The Chance to Be Good is a gift for popkin16 and squidgiepdx. This fic came to be because Squidgie’s comm sga_saturday needs some love and it’s been pretty quiet there, and also because of a conversation Popkin had recently about John’s mother usually being dead in fanon. This is an angsty little piece about dysfunctional families.

In Wine, There’s Truth is a gift for nagi_schwarz, sherlockian_syn, and my pal smiles2go who eschews social media. ::grins:: I just love these ladies so much, and they’re such big parts of my lives, that I wanted to write them a little something. And what better than a drunken confession SGA fic? LOL!

Last, but certainly not least, I did a little digi manip for darkmoore. She is a collector of angsty male characters, and tries to write them some measure of happiness. I couldn’t fit the whole brigade, but this is a good representation. ::grins::

Happy New Year, friends!

It was definitely a mixed bag of a year for me. There were some pretty big highs, mostly involving meeting online friends and attending my second ever Stargate convention. And some lows, including my ex husband moving away without a word and abandoning our son.

In the world of scrapbooking, I can report eleven completed pages and way too many newly-purchased digital elements and papers. Most of them were Christmas-related, like this one:



On the writing front, I had a strong start to the year but a fairly weak finish. Not sure where my mojo went, but finding words was almost impossible. Overall, though, it was a good writing year for me. I was able to step back from the pressure of deadlines and challenges, which meant I was much more relaxed with my writing. I’m hoping to continue that into the new year.

Here’s my AO3 overview for 2019, which I’ve seen some other friends doing.

124 fics posted, which is a ridiculously high number. But a lot of those fics were short fills.
150,265 words posted, which is down about 70k from last year.
6,905 kudos
1,186 comment threads
60,777 hits
93 prompts filled
8 new fandoms written in

I could compare all these numbers to last year, but I don’t want to make myself feel bad. ::grins::

Most Hits
First Time, And Again: Marvel Cinematic Universe, Bucky and Steve getting their sexy on.

Most Kudos & Most Bookmarks
Three Times John Used His Words: Stargate Atlantis, John and Rodney taking turns getting whumped while progressing in their relationship.

Most Comment Threads
Feels Like Home: Stargate Atlantis, Rodney deals with John’s major head injury and many, many feels ensue.

Most of my low counts are in the Trixie Belden fandom, which is a small, small fandom. So I’m not surprised there. It hasn’t stopped me from wanting to write it, though.

Favorite Thing I Wrote This Year
A Letterkenny Family Reunion: Letterkenny/Stargate Atlantis, Once the idea popped into my head of Wayne and Rodney being related, it wouldn’t go away. I really like how it came out, even though it was only my second ever Letterkenny fic.

Favorite Series I Started This Year
Sagebrush Tales: Hawaii Five-0 (with some crossovers), Danny and Steve fighting the good fight in the Old West. It’s been fun making them cowboys and finding ways to bring in some familiar faces. This all started thanks to some prompts on .

Tags: all about me, fic, hawaii five-0, letterkenny, mcu, scrapbooking, sga, year in review