sailor | dreamt i'm anchoring that midfield like the anchor in my midriff

Dear Last Minute Sub author/artist,

Hello and thank you so much for writing/drawing for me!! You're a gem, and I'm so excited to see what you end up creating.

If you want to stalk me elsewhere to get more of an idea of what I'm into, my AO3 is brampersandon and my tumblr is strikerbacks.

In general, I'm not picky at all and am super easy to please, so no need to stress over anything. I do have my general likes/dislikes which are applicable across the board, and I've included potential prompts for each request, but please don't feel like you need to adhere to those prompts if they don't spark anything for you. I'm happiest reading a story/seeing art that you wanted to write/draw and enjoyed writing/drawing. If you're having fun, I'm having fun!

Things I Love

Found families and team dynamics — especially in a group of unlikely characters who may not always get along but absolutely do love each other

Intense relationships — you and me against the world (even in small, mundane ways — two characters finding an understanding in each other that they can't find in anyone else), mentor/mentee relationships (platonic or shippy), codependency/loyalty kink, the friends to lovers trope, pining (seemingly unrequited or actually unrequited)

Character studies — whether it's introspection or a study of how the character relates to their world/the other characters around them, anything that delves deeper into what makes a character tick is my jam

Reunions — possibly my biggest weakness in any narrative, I love characters coming back together, realizing what they missed (or didn't) about one another, distance being forced between them OR deliberately chosen by one or both, reunions that don’t go well, everything about it really

AUs of almost all kinds (exceptions below) — I have a special fondness for anything involving robots, ghosts, reincarnation, soulmates (including identifying marks/soulbonds/etc.), telepathy (touch or otherwise), space, theatre/film, mundane professions, etc.

Banter/lots of dialogue, 5 things fics, non-linear narratives, starting fic in medias res, exposition and world-building

Domesticity — more in terms of the concept of home than in the minutiae of actual home-making, I love characters working to settle in and feel at home in unfamiliar environments, missing home, finding homes in unconventional places (or people!), etc.

Porn with plot — some things I enjoy reading are age difference, breathplay, dubcon, edging, over-stimulation, begging, praise kink, lots of talking, frottage, size difference, voyeurism, role reversals, rough sex, light (not overly-negotiated) bondage, characters discovering things they didn't know they were into

Do Not Wants

Kidfic — characters being aged down into children or adult characters somehow acquiring children

Issuefic

Scenes of rape or self-harm

A/B/O, hard kink (lifestyle BDSM/scat/guro/watersports/etc.)

PWP — I love porn, but I prefer for it to be part of the bigger picture rather than the sole focus

Football-specific DNWs — Rivalshipping or focus on rival teams/players unless otherwise noted, unasked for background ships, WAG vilification or focus on infidelity

Some AUs — genderswap, werewolves/vampires/other mythical creatures, royalty/regency

Gianluigi Buffon, Iker Casillas

YES, I'M BACK ON MY KEEPERS IN LOVE BULLSHIT.

Look, we're nearing the end of the Buffon-Casillas years of goalkeeping. We need to celebrate it while we still can. It's always baffled me that there are so few works for Gigi/Iker because their relationship is so unique. The two most capped players for their national teams, captains who've met each other head-on time and time again and built up such a mutual admiration society, immortal heroes of club and country who just get each other. I have a soft spot in my heart for relationships like that — two characters who largely weather their circumstances alone but come to find a rare confidante in someone going through the exact same thing.

Also, Iker said he sometimes sleeps wearing a pair of Gigi's shorts, which is a lot for me to handle personally.

I really, honestly, truly would love anything exploring their relationship, romantic or platonic or any weird gray area in between that tickles your fancy.

Potential Prompts:

They have a retirement pact, lads. Iker hasn't been called up to the Spain NT in over a year now and he still won't retire until Gigi does (which, supposedly, will be after World Cup 2018). Literally anything about this would make my day. How did they come about the pact? How do they see it through? If it strikes your fancy, I'd love to read a future fic where they're retired and free to hang out with each other whenever they want and figure out life outside of football, separately and/or together!

Or, conversely, if you want to rewind the clock on their relationship, I'm game for that too. Iker fully admits to idolizing Gigi while he was growing up, both as a person and as a goalkeeper, and I love the idea of cocky young Gigi getting all amped up on that hero worship (and also realizing that Iker is just as good as him, with the potential to be even better). Anything about the earlier years of their history would be amazing. Gimme alllllll that long distance slow burn.

In filthier news, boy, nobody knows the eternal stress of a keeper-capí like another keeper-capí, right?? I'm so into Gigi/Iker because it's a rare ship dynamic where somebody else gets to take care of Iker. The usual power dynamic for him is shifted and I'm SUPER HERE FOR IT. So hey, if you feel like writing something proper filthy about all the myriad ways Gigi could get Iker to relax and let somebody else take control for once, go for broke.

Gianluigi Buffon, Paulo Dybala

YES HELLO WELCOME TO MY FAVORITE AGE DIFFERENCE HELL! Sixteen years!! Paulo openly admits to being a huge fan of Gigi since he was a kid — he talks about how he used to choose him as his goalkeeper in video games, and when he was with Palermo he sought him out to get his jersey. Also, this interview snippet. And Gigi talks him up all the time, compliments him in interviews and talks about how important he is to Juventus. Their relationship is just open season on hero worship, captain kink, praise kink, all of it. IT'S A LOT.

Also? The narrative. THE NARRATIVE. Even Allegri is pointing it out plain as day! I love Gigi being in his twilight years and Paulo being this brilliant new dawn, I love how Paulo has grown into a leadership role at Juve in just a few seasons and how Gigi has helped him into that, I love that whole mentor/mentee/heir apparent thing so much. They're perfect bookends for Juve and I can't believe there isn't more fic arhsdlkfjsdlghasdkljfsdlkj.

Potential Prompts:

Paulo fit in pretty easily and immediately at Juve, but if you want to rewind the clock to his early days at the club and explore how captain Gigi welcomed the shiny new kid, I'd love that! Alternately, if you'd like to take it to current day and explore both of them dealing with the shifting makeup of Juve (Paulo lost a bunch of friends before last season, and uhhhh Gigi lost Leo this summer SO THERE'S THAT) that would be amazing too. I can handle a certain amount of transfer angst here so long as the focus of the story is actually on the two of them navigating it together and not about, like, the particulars of the Pogba or Leo sagas. Really, anything about Gigi imparting his older and wiser advice on Paulo would be aces (or, subvert the trope and have Paulo lift Gigi out of his post-Leo leaving funk, that's rad too!)

If you feel like getting smutty with it, I'm all for that. Feel free to go as dirtybadwrong as you want with the age difference — I'm super fond of Gigi being exasperated as hell with himself over being into a guy sixteen years his junior but not being able to talk himself out of it. Also, I love trope subversion when it comes to this! I love the younger character being the pushy one and the older one being baffled by it. It's so multi-layered too — he's admired Gigi for so long, Gigi is the most senior member on the team and his captain, Paulo does so much for the team that should be recognized and rewarded... Seriously, just go wild with it.

You could shove Gigi and Paulo into just about any AU and I would be pleased as punch. Whether it's a straight-up AU like teacher/student or other authority figure/apprentice, ghosts or robots or reincarnation or whatever, or AU elements in the footballing world like soulbonds or superpowers or one not being a footballer, I am super super super down. Like, as long as their dynamic is preserved, I honestly just want to see them in any context.

Alessandro Del Piero, Francesco Totti

ME: I don't like rivalshipping at all.
ALSO ME: UNLESS……….

I am apparently determined to travel back in time and relive the Azzurri glory years. For some reason Alessandro and Totti negate everything I normally dislike about rival ships. I love them as monolithic figures of club and country who, against all odds, became great buds on top of everything else.

Alessandro is such an unrepentant goofball where Totti is solid and stalwart and that dynamic also is not normally my jam, AND YET. THEY MAKE IT WORK FOR ME! I DON'T KNOW WHY!! I love Alessandro getting Totti to occasionally loosen up (...wink) and I love Totti getting Alessandro to take the important things a smidge more seriously. They just complement each other super well. Also? They were both so ugly for so long. Those are both hairstyles only the other could love.

In conclusion, LOOK HOW STUPID GOOFY THEY WERE WITH EACH OTHER THOUGH. I am forever haunted by Alessandro being so flustered by Totti. "He looked at me like Alessà~" NO HE DIDN'T ALESSANDRO HE LOOKED AT YOU LIKE A NORMAL GUY AND SAID YOUR NAME LIKE A NORMAL GUY BUT YOUR TOTTI GOGGLES ARE STRONG I GUESS!

Potential Prompts:

CALCIOPOLI AND/OR WORLD CUP 2006. AHH. AHHHHHHH! Anything set during this period would delight me beyond measure. Alessandro and Totti experiencing the highest of highs while Alessandro tries to navigate the lowest of lows is such a fun thing to explore, I think! Do they bang like a screen door in a hurricane while they're in Germany? Is Totti helpful with Alessandro's Juve mess or is he kinda shitty about it, or both? HOW DOES IT ALL GO DOWN? YOU TELL ME, MY DUDE.

I swear to god this ship breaks all my normal rules because I would actually love to read about Juve vs. Roma in terms of Alessandro and Totti's relationships to the teams. Totti is the epitome of a one club man, and Alessandro tried so hard to get as close to being one as he could but it just didn't work out. When Alessandro left Juve, it was too soon in every sense of the word and he never came back post-retirement. But Totti left with the natural close of his legacy and pretty much immediately returned to Roma after a brief vacation to keep working with the club. I think that dichotomy is totally fascinating — Totti, the one who stays, and Alessandro, the one who's learned to go when he has to. I don't know what I'm getting at here, really, more just a general feeling I'd love to read about. Some exploration of their respective time with their clubs and how they understand each other and how they really, really don't.

Retirement fiiiiic. Alessandro has been retired for some years now, but Totti just got there! Slice of life fic where Totti tries to adjust to just being a normal dude and Alessandro tries to help him settle into it? Hookup fic where they reunite when they both show up to watch the first Roma vs. Juve match without Totti and sparks fly? Future fic where they're rival coaches or pundits or something of that sort? I'd love any/all of it. Go wild.

Luka Modrić, Sergio Ramos

HEY, SO. WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?

Turns out Luka and Sergio are best friends. Like, playing basketball together after practice best friends, going on family vacations together best friends, sharing a helicopter ride best friends. There's an entire Marca article about their bizarre friendship that kinda says it all, but it's so intriguing that all I want is more exploration of it.

For this one I mostly prefer platonic fic/art. There can be light shipping if you feel like it, but please no overtly shippy or smutty fic. I'm a lot more interested in the particulars of their strange but intense friendship than I am a standard get-together story — but I also love codependency and blurred lines between best friendship and romantic interest, so I'm fine if it skews a bit that way. Does that make sense? God I hope so.

Potential Prompts:

So, apparently Luka really didn't like Sergio when he first came to Real and he confronted him about it head-on, which is how they became such friends. I think this flies in the face of a lot of the accepted Luka fanon, that he's a delicate sweet elf prince… which, like, as a lifelong Vatreni fan I can tell you has never been the case, but! It's fun to see straight up evidence of it, haha. SO, if you want to turn back time and explore how they rankled each other when they first met and how Sergio had someone so seemingly demure calling him out on the regular, how that evolved into a mutual respect and eventually an inseparable bond, I would looooove that.

Luka taking Sergio to Croatia fucked me up on so many levels. I love the idea of them being travel buddies — Luka showing Sergio new places, Sergio showing Luka new places, both of them exploring places they've never been together, I adore it all. I'm a huge sucker for road trip/vacation fic because like, going on holiday someone can be such a crazy liminal space, you know? It's rife with potential for conflict and deep talks and crazy experiences and getting to levels you never thought you could with someone. I'd love to see anything about their tralves together!

I have a soft spot in my heart for the idea of Luka and Sergio being friends for years, but not getting super close until Iker leaves. It's not like Luka can fill that void for him, and Sergio carried on as best he could, but maybe he's the one who sees him hurting and decides to reach out. Anything about the two of them growing closer in the wake of Iker's departure would break my heart in the best way possible. (IT'S NOT LIKE LUKA KNOWS WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE A NT BESTIE/SOULMATE HE NEVER GETS TO SEE ANYMORE COUGH COUGH what anyway sorry my Vatreni agenda is showing)

And that wraps it up!! Again, thank you so much for creating something for me. I can't wait to see how wonderful it is.

♥ Caitlin