#elsie rambles

[van-barker]

Paulie Lombardo strikes me as a man who gets super vulnerable and domestic right before he falls asleep when his mind is veiled with the lightness of incoming slumber. His tired and half asleep mind is often the absolute most open and honest state of his mind to encounter.

All Paulie tends to talk about when he is cuddled up in bed with his significant other is how he wants to do one last big take and then get away from it all with you on his arm. All he murmurs about in the darkness of your small bedroom in your shared flat is how he wants to buy the two of you a big house somewhere far away from Lost Heaven - somewhere the two of you can start anew together. Perhaps it is a mere vocalisation of his mind slipping into a coming dream before he has even fallen asleep.

Paulie does not like to talk about things like this when sober or wide awake in my opinion. I think he knows deep down that his line of work does not often ever let people like him walk away from the business and life with such unscathed ease. There are times when he does though. Just like he opened up about it to Tommy; of course he would open up about it to his significant other too. It is not as common as when he is about to fall asleep or under the influence of alcohol is all. The gentle weight of your body cuddling against his own beneath the bed covers and the feeling of your head resting atop his chest is a comfort that puts his mind at total ease. It opens his mind and heart up so wide. You cannot see it with your head on his chest and all but Paulie tends to have the most lovesick and hopeful little smile on his lips when he describes the future he wants for the two of you. He is half asleep and his heavy eyelids are closed over but his lips are curved up in the softest of things.

Paulie knows the exact kind of house that he wants to buy for the two of you and so much more. He envisions it having a big wrap around porch for the two of you to sit out on and watch the stars together. He plans on it having multiple large rooms for either your future children or for whatever hobbies you have. He knows that it will have a massive king sized bed for the two of you to cuddle up in and stretch out in rather than the small double bed in your current Lost Heaven flat. He is adamant on the fact that there will be a local live music club for the two of you to go dancing at and a few expensive clothes stores for him to spoil you in too. Paulie can see it all so clear in his mind and never changes or forgets a single detail when describing it to you. It is the same exact house each time.

Paulie even has multiple different names saved to memory if the two of you plan on having children in the future. Sometimes he zones out a bit when on a drive to attend business work with Tommy and Sam because he starts thinking up other names that could work. It becomes a literal escape for him. Paulie wants to have quite a few children so he wants to have lots of name options to choose from. At the end of the day, he will come home and recount every new name he has thought of to you right before drifting off. Some of his name ideas are rather awful and never fail to make you laugh into his chest while he attempts to defend them but fails rather miserably as he himself slowly realises how bad they are.

Whenever you make him promise to be careful after he tells you that he will take you away one day, all Paulie does is tighten his arms around you beneath the bed covers and give a low, drowsy chuckle before murmuring a quiet but confident “I promise, doll. ‘m gonna take us somewhere far away from here real soon. Jus’ me ‘n you.” into the softness of your hair.

This is kind of a tad bit nsfw but even before the two of you have yet to leave Lost Heaven, Paulie likes to release inside of you when he reaches his climax. He does not like to pull out at all unless you want him to for whatever reason. Sometimes in the aftermath of being intimate and him releasing inside of you, Paulie will rest his calloused hand right atop your womb and stroke your bare, flushed skin in repeating patterns in a silent hope that his seed has taken root inside of you. Not a single word about his hand placement is ever spoken between you but both of you know what it means. Both of you know what the touch is communicating and both of you are thinking the same exact thing. The understanding between the two of you will only grow deeper if you place your hand atop of his.

If the two of you do end up having a child together before managing to leave the life and move away from Lost Heaven, it only makes Paulie want it even more. It only makes Paulie start to want out more than ever before so that he can give his child a better, more secure and safe life than he himself ever had.

[elwritesx]

(27/10/17)

NaNoWriMo is too close, and I’m petrified.

More spooky rambles under the cut.

Oof, so I haven’t touched my blog in a month, aside from for reblogs that is. Perhaps because I’m procrastinating? Who knows.

I hit 560k today, which is not what I wanted to do, as I just threw in yet another plot bunny and now have... four days to finish this book? On the bright side, I’m totally ready for NaNo which is great.

I’m not ready for NaNo if you couldn’t tell, and it’s fun!

I never intended to become a plantser, but with so little time between school and all this new, fancy stuff I’ve started doing as of late, I’m left with only a few hasty reference docs to go off. Perhaps I’m just taking some minimalistic approach? Maybe I should stick to calling it that, pretend I’m actually organised.

Having poked at regions and all, I’m set to go to the kick-off party come November 1st, when I’ll hopefully have already hit 50k! Watch this space for further developments though, heaven only knows I’ll probably have taken several ‘naps’ seeing as I’m set to be writing from midnight. Goodbye my poor wrists, I guess.

I’ve not really done much interesting stuff, I finished the main part of my plot for Underground 45k ago and am still going, so I guess we’re getting somewhere? But I really must get back to writing, so thus I disappear into the void to continue pumping out words. Yay, 7.5k daily goals!

- Elsie

[van-barker]

Not sure if anyone else has mentioned this before - please do forgive me if they have - but in certain cutscenes with Paulie where the light reflects against his face in a certain manner like in the capture below, it kind of looks like he has some pitted acne scars on his cheeks. Some similar markings are shown on his cheeks on the art of his cigarette card in game.

I do not know if this is an intended trait or if it is a simple trick of the light kind of thing but I am choosing to believe that these are in fact a few pitted acne scars 🥺 it got me thinking about if his partner is someone who deals with acne or someone who has their own acne scars. I deal with occasional acne breakout myself and I think Paulie would be so sweet with a romantic partner who has acne or even if it is wife! reader who begins to experience acne breakouts due to being pregnant, which is a common occurrence for pregnant women.

I think Paulie would have quite a soft spot for being kissed on his scarred cheeks too. It softens him up and flusters him far more than he would ever like to admit 😶 all of this is solely nothing more than a personal headcanon but I can view him as having been extremely insecure and embarrassed about his acne as a teenager. So when he has a partner who sees his leftover acne scars and does nothing but love them and kiss them all over with no disgust at all, it heals something so deep down inside of him that he thought he had long since buried and forgotten about as a whole.

Unrelated to my acne headcanon for him but another headcanon I have for him is that Paulie loves being kissed on the thin scar that runs down through the left corner of his upper lip from the skin above. The scar itself is quite sensitive and almost ticklish from even the lightest of touch. One lingering kiss to it will have him fumbling over his words a bit as his mind fogs over. Even more so with how close it is to his actual lips themselves. Kissing his scar will never not end in him turning his head over to catch your lips against his own and holding them in a deep kiss.

[van-barker]

Cannot stop thinking about how dad! Paulie Lombardo would be the kind of father who tries to teach his little girl how to do such foolish things without hurting herself and then goes on to hurt himself in the said process 😭 like the time when his daughter was teaching herself how to shoot little rubber bands at a wall from her fingers and Paulie had taken the rubber band from her to show her how to do it in fear of her hurting herself. He managed to somehow fling the rubber band backwards and right into his own eye within literal seconds of positioning it around his fingers.

It is never ever your daughter that you have to fear hurting herself. It is in fact Paulie. You have to fear your husband hurting himself whilst attempting to teach your daughter how to do something so random and so unserious. He always tries to play it off so well and unbothered too but that rubber band incident had his eye drooped by a small amount and stinging for the rest of the day - which of course did not go unnoticed by Tommy nor Sam who were both quite quick to poke a bit of fun at him as he grumbled to himself and held back on explaining how it even happened.

His daughter once asked him about how to do a handstand and had pleaded with him to show her with a visual demonstration because she was afraid to attempt it without seeing someone do it in front of her beforehand. Paulie could not ever speak the word “no” to her even if he wanted to. So of course he attempted to perform a handstand whilst wearing a full three piece suit and of course he did almost break multiple bones in the process of doing so. His failure was rather miserable and his attempt alone was pitiful as a whole but it made his piccolo pulcino laugh at least so it was more than worth it to him.

[van-barker]

Another random little mini dad au ramble here but dad! Paulie Lombardo is the kind of father who is very easily manipulated by his little girl 😭 one glance at her wide, pleading doe eyes and her pouted, trembling lower lip has his resolve crumbling into a million pieces and giving in to any want that she has. He does not have a backbone whatsoever when it comes to his piccolo pulcino. Paulie is an intense gift giver when it comes to both wife! reader and their daughter. It makes him feel like such a proven provider - even though you tell him so often that his love and care is more than enough and that material things are not a constant need.

Paulie does not even know that the word “no” exists when it comes down to his little girl. She erases that word from his mind without even truly intending to.

Not to mention the few times that his daughter starts to use the dramatic water works tactic because Paulie does not say “yes” fast enough for her liking 😶 it makes him feel so awful and he will dive into a panic ramble about how he will get her whatever she wants so long as she does not cry. Her little bedroom would be spilling over with so many different expensive toys because of his total inability to tell her no. Whenever wife! reader and Paulie go shopping with their daughter in tow, any simple necessities trip will very quickly turn into a spoiling trip and end in Paulie having his arms full of different bags that are overflowing with new toys and clothes.

His disuse of the word no does not only occur when it comes to him purchasing material things for her though. It still stands true in more simple ways like when his piccolo pulcino toddles up to him at home with colourful ribbons held in her chubby hands and climbs up into his lap from his suit trouser leg to begin decorating his pristine tie and suit blazer with an abundance of messy bows. Even if he has a meeting to attend with Salieri himself and the other men within the hour, Paulie is not about to push his little girl away and tell her no when all she wants to do is “make papa pretty.” He will show up to that meeting with loose bows hanging from all over his clothes without a care in the world and brag all about how his piccolo pulcino has a “real eye for decoration and fashion” and how she will be a “big shot fashion designer” in the future.

All Paulie wants to spoil her and give her an incredible life and never let her want for anything 💔 he cannot handle the concept of her wanting for something and not getting it. If she asked for the moon itself, best believe Paulie would be looking for a way to lasso it and pull it down for her.

[van-barker]

One simple headcanon that I have within my dad au for Mafia is that dad! Paulie Lombardo purchases almost any purple clothes and accessories that he ever finds for his little girl.

Paulie loves matching with her 🥺 he adores wearing his purple suit and tie while she wears her purple dress and bows in her hair. With how often Paulie wears the same purple suit in the game, no one can ever tell me it is not his absolute favourite suit - same with the amount of purple ties he wears. His favourite colour is purple and that opinion comes to be very much shared by his daughter too.

It is not at all an uncommon occurrence for Paulie to arrive home in the evening after attending some business with Salieri with a few boutique bags held in his hands. He will walk right up to wife! reader with a knowing but proud grin on his face and start pulling all new purple coloured clothes and accessories for their daughter out of the bags, gesturing back and forth between each newly revealed item and his own pristine suit with his free hand. “I had to get it for her, doll. The pattern matches my tie!” He defends with the most genuine excitement, holding a dollish purple dress up to his silk tie to prove the close pattern match when wife! reader softly tells him that their daughter already has both a large closet and a chest of drawers that are each overflowing with clothes that she will soon come to outgrow.

Due to how frequent it is for her to see him wearing purple, the colour itself becomes a massive comfort for her. If you are familiar with those videos of fathers shaving their beards and their babies or toddlers hating it, the same sort of thing happens between Paulie and his little girl when he decides to wear a suit that is not purple for once. She does not like it at all and that man is not her father 😭 her father wears purple; bring her purple clad father back.

Paulie also keeps one of her many purple ribbons - which are used for making bows in her hair - in the inner breast pocket of his suit blazer at all times as a good luck charm and because it reminds him of her. She had toddled up to him and pushed it into his calloused palm right before he was due to head out and handle some business alongside Sam. He had pocketed the small ribbon and kissed her on the head before leaving. The supposed business turned out to be a relentless shootout in which he miraculously avoided getting shot multiple times by mere impossible inches. He has not taken the ribbon out of his pocket ever since. It reminds him of what he has to fight for and of who he has to stay alive for.

The same tradition occurs between Paulie and wife! reader too. He has bought countless purple dresses and skirts and blouses for wife! reader and he has no plans on ever stopping. He has done so for long before their daughter was born. Truth be told; dad! Paulie, wife! reader and their daughter are a mere beautiful lavender bouquet of a family.

[van-barker]

Random little thought here but reboot! Yuri Volkov seems like the kind of man who is fazed by very little and who has an incredible control over his emotions and expressive things that could reveal his true feelings toward something.

Except for when he takes his significant other to meet or visit his mother and she starts pulling old photographs of him out of storage. Somehow, this crumbles his resolve and control down to nothing more than smithereens within literal seconds of him spotting the photographs held between her fingers as she approaches his partner. Those unreadable expressions and that stiff appearance which have long since been drilled into him thanks to the armed forces are overpowered by a sudden tidal wave of almost childlike embarrassment. His pale cheeks become dusted with an ever deepening and spreading blush that he cannot seem to stop in spite of how hard he tries. His gaze flickers back and forth between the wall and the ceiling as if they hold the most impressive patterns he has ever seen. His slim fingers rise and fall in repeated taps atop his knee through his trousers.

All of this is nothing more than a reaction to and a distraction from the fact that his significant other is in the midst of looking at an abundance of old photographs that depict him with hair and a total baby face right in front of him and right beside his mother - who is so elated to be showing you them.

Yuri will attempt to act like he is so unbothered and so unfazed when you begin to tease him about how cute he was but the pink flush on his cheeks tells you all that you need to know. It does not help that I feel like his significant other will have never seen him with hair before seeing the old photographs. He has been all shaved for so long now that the idea of himself having hair seems quite foreign and unfamiliar. He cannot imagine it whatsoever. He has forgotten what he even looked like with hair for the most part.

It is a guarantee that Yuri will be heading out into the cold for a quick smoke after having to watch you flip through the old photographs with a beautiful little grin on your face. You are more than free to come out and stand beside him. He will not hesitate to wrap an arm around you and pull you into his side to keep you warm against the chilled breeze that blows past. But he will chuckle before murmuring something deep and unintelligible in his mother tongue around his cigarette and shake his head with an almost invisible little smirk the second you murmur a teasing question about if he “still has that awful leather coat” that he was wearing in multiple photographs from his teenhood.

He might grumble a bit like a big winter bear who dislikes being poked and teased but Yuri loves it deep down and it shows rather clear. He loves that you feel secure enough to tease him and poke innocent fun at him in a way that no one else ever often does. It is such a refreshing and grounding thing for him and does nothing more than prove to him that you are the one - not that he ever had any doubts about that.

[van-barker]

So much of my mind has me convinced that Ruggero Spadaro would call his significant other his “piccola colomba” as a pet name 🥺 he uses it ten times more than usual when he knows that you are a bit upset with him too; whether it be because Ruggero returned home later than he said he would or because he did something that you do not at all agree with. He will use this pet name so much when you are giving him the cold shoulder and the silent treatment for whatever it is that he has done this time.

Ruggero is not at all a total sap in my opinion though. There is no doubt that he loves his significant other more than words can even explain but he is not the kind of man to get down on his knees and beg for forgiveness is all. He is much more the kind of man who butters you up and manages to slither his way back into your good books by peppering soft kisses across your shoulder and along the sensitive nape of your neck while you have your back turned to him. Ruggero murmurs quiet apologies against your warm skin with each lingering kiss and he has to bite back a satisfied smirk when he feels your tense shoulders loosening beneath his touch. He knows how to work his way around you and break your stubborn walls down into smithereens. Not to mention gift giving 😶 Ruggero is someone who views gift giving and kind of intense affection as making things up to you. He will arrive home later than what he told you but at least he bought you that glamorous necklace you pointed out to him a few days back. He will know that you are aware of something awful he instructed at the mines but he will take you out to an expensive dinner to forget all about that knowledge.

Perhaps this is quite a massive flaw within him though because Ruggero is never truly sorry for his actions or his instructed actions against other people. The only thing he is actually sorry for is upsetting you because that is something that actually affects him. Nothing else and no one else matters to him in the way that you do. Ruggero tries rather hard to keep his line of work and business far away from you most of the time anyways though. His pet name for you is “piccola colomba” which means “little dove” and doves represent peace and innocence as well as purity among many other things that he knows both he and his line of work are not in the slightest. Ruggero views his significant other as his own little dove and does not ever wish to see your metaphorical white feathers stained with crimson blood and dirt. He will keep things as far away from you as he can - even if for kind of selfish and knowing reasons.

Ruggero is such an interesting character to headcanon things for as a romantic partner because I feel like he would be so sweet and endearing in some ways but also rather toxic and unbearable in others. I love his character so much though. The whole Spadaro clan were actually one of my absolute favourite parts of Mafia: The Old Country and I pray we see a little bit more of them in the upcoming DLC 🥲