#I finished watching Lip Service last night- I'm specifically talking about Lip service! which is Scottish L word basically

[artemismatchalatte]

Still thinking about how even on a lesbian tv show, none of the women seemed to have any body hair at all... seriously?!?

It seemed so unrealistic to me. Unless I'm the weirdo here.

[mitochondriaandbunnies]

This is a re-post/archiving of a twitter thread from Oct 16, 2021, edited slightly for clarity.

Know what I haven't done for a while? Waxed philosophical about Miami Vice.

I'm currently stuck in traffic bad enough that people have turned off their cars and are chilling outside, so here goes.

So we have a houseguest who actually ASKED to be subjected to Vice, and Dan immediately suggested we watch Bushido, because let's face it, he's a Castillo Guy, and the "Vice Squad's Lieutenant is a Weird Weeb" episodes are some of his favorites. 

I expressed some hesitation— Bushido is an episode that is very slowly paced (purposefully) and works best when you know the characters and know what the stakes are. We watched it anyway, and it didn't really land the way it should've (although the guest appreciated the Battlestar Galactica connections).

(Traffic cleared. In line for donuts now.) I tried to explain the fact that while Vice is technically an episodic show, it's a precursor to arc based shows in the ways it handles all the characters and their *emotional* arcs— case in point, in Bushido Sonny and Rico both seem *happy.* Castillo earnestly smiles for the first time in the show, and we learn the depths to which duty and honor matter to him (and yet, how much actual RULES really do not— his own code of honor supersedes the law even if he finds ways to pay lip service to it.)

This got me thinking about how Season Two of Miami Vice telegraphs an enormous amount about the characters' eventual arcs and the decisions they'll make throughout the series; practically half of S2 is episodes about Sonny Parallels crashing and burning and how that predicts his own eventual crash. Of course, those are the OBVIOUS things the show tells us about its cast. The thing I find fascinating about S2 is that a LOT of information is broadcast through music and images rather than the script, and Vice expects you to be smart enough to pick up on this and how it will come to fruition later in the series. So much of who Sonny and Rico are isn't spoken, and a lot of the things they say and do later in the series make a lot more sense if you pay attention to music and visual cues early on.

(Gonna drive again, will finish this thought in a bit…)

This, on top of a friend on the Vice Discord asking for a listing of all the music in Vice got me thinking (aloud) about the music in S1&2, and Dan mentioned there were 14 licensed songs in Prodigal Son alone. That reminded me that a few weeks back I'd had a revelation: I had realized something about You Belong to the City, a song specifically written specifically for Vice (I.E., it's a significant piece of music thematically and lyrically), and which plays in Prodigal Son over a sequence of Sonny being distraught in NYC at night. 

I wrote about Prodigal Son last year (2020) and didn't mention that sequence at all except to talk about the weird aggressive roller skater who chases Sonny on a darkened road. At the time, I frankly thought it was a song that was chosen for its sound more than its lyrics, because the lyrics don't really fit with what we're seeing on screen.

The song starts playing about halfway through the first Prodigal Son episode, right after Tubbs reunites with Valerie and leaves Sonny alone in a city he doesn't know and doesn't have any connection to. I've mentioned before that I think, as the opener for S2, Prodigal Son is very much about home and belonging. And the thing is: Sonny doesn't belong in New York. The end of the episode confirms that, at least at that point in the series, it isn't really home for Tubbs either.

Sonny's a Southern Boy, most at home on a boat. You could argue there's some kind of ominous irony in the first 1/2 of the chorus:

Cause you belong to the city You belong to the night Living in a river of darkness Beneath the neon light

But it's not objectively TRUE.

When you start picking apart the rest of the lyrics:

You can feel it Starting all over again The moon comes up And the music calls You're getting tired of Staring at the same four walls

It really starts to fall apart. Sonny isn't *tired* of anything, he didn't choose to go out wandering or to be in the city at all, Tubbs just left him alone to be with his ex-girlfriend. This isn't wanderlust, like the song implies, it's aimlessness. The second half of the chorus and the second verse make it clear that this isn't an accident.

You were born in the city Concrete under your feet It's in your moves It's in your blood You're a man of the street

This... isn't a song about Sonny Crockett. 

You Belong to the City *is about Rico.*

The second verse says:

When you said goodbye You were on the run Trying to get away From the things you've done Now you're back again And you're feeling strange So much has happened But nothing has changed

These are exactly the circumstances Rico is in in this episode—he's the titular Prodigal Son, returned home after a long time to discover things are in some ways exactly as they were, and yet he doesn't fit anymore. It doesn't describe Sonny— Sonny isn't "back," he didn't leave NY "on the run." Rico did!

So, why, then, is a song about Rico playing when Sonny is wandering the city alone? 

Because the idea that Rico *belongs here in NYC* is Sonny's driving fear at this point in the episode. From his perspective, he's been abandoned. He's unmoored. (And I think this is what leaves his guard so far down with Maggie. He is painfully lonely at the best of times throughout the series; alone in NY he's bereft. First port in a storm and all that.) That the episode ends with Take Me Home is a repudiation of that fear—especially considering the more-or-less-overt flirting that occurs when they meet again.

Why is any of this important? Because Vice is a series that often takes Show Don't Tell as far as you can go without becoming French New Wave: Now on TV! I argued last year that Prodigal Son intended for a savvy audience to read Sonny as bisexual; the seemingly incongruous lyrical use of You Belong to the City both confirms that and adds the extra wrinkle that *Tubbs needs to be considered in that equation.* 

Which is to say: the first episode of Season Two decides to make a statement about where the season is going, and that statement is that *the relationship between Sonny and Rico is import\ant and vital and that they both have a concept of home that involves each other.* Considering where the rest of the series goes, that makes the eventual unraveling of their relationship as Sonny falls apart just about the closest thing the  series has to a full overarching plot. 

THEIR PARTNERSHIP IS THE MOST IMPORTANT THING, FOLKS

GLENN FREY WROTE A SONG ABOUT IT

(and I'm done)

[nicolewoo]

All Along Part 2

Pairing: Joe Anaoi X Reader, Roman Reigns X Reader

Warning: Cursing and explicit sex. SMUT SMUT SMUT.

I woke up to the realization that I was curled up on Joe's chest again. I breathed in his scent and appreciated the feel of his arms around me. I looked up to see that he was still asleep. The movie we'd been watching last night was over, and the TV screen was on the menu page. I was going to lay just like this for as long as possible. I placed a kiss on his chest and ran my hand over his arm tracing his tattoo.

“Mmmmm” He moaned. I felt his head shift and looked up to see him looking at me. The sweetest smile brightened his face. “Hey. Looks like we fell asleep.” He ran his hand up and down my back.

“Looks like it.” I answered laying my head back down onto his shoulder. “How did you sleep?” I asked.

“Baby, I always sleep well when you're here.” He kissed my forehead, running his fingers through my hair.

My alarm went off, jarring us from our snuggling bliss. Joe moaned as I reached to grab my phone and turn the beeping off. “I don't want to get up,” he sighed. I opened the calendar on my phone and began reviewing my schedule for the day. Joe peeked down at my phone and said, “What time is our flight?”

“10 am.” I said. “We should get up and get ready.” I smiled up at him.

He turned me so my back was to the mattress and he shimmied down so he was on top of me, face to face. “Can't we just play hooky?” He nuzzled my neck and I felt him begin to get hard. If only he knew how wet he made me, he'd never get out of bed..... I wouldn't either.

We hadn't had sex yet. We'd only declared our feelings two days ago, but knowing each other as well as we did, waiting to be together was so difficult. It felt like we were ready, but were holding off out of some archaic morality system.

Now, laying in his bed beside him, sleeping next to him as I had both nights since Thanksgiving, feeling him nuzzle my neck, I KNEW I was ready. Maybe it was a good thing that we had to catch a flight in a couple of hours.  

“I wish.” I said as I played with his hair.

He pulled away from my neck and looked in my eyes, his hand running under my shirt and skimming my stomach lightly. “Stay with me tonight.” He said impulsively.

“What?” I was shocked at how certain he sounded. “We're going to be in a hotel full of co-workers.”

He smiled slightly, “And?” he quirked an eyebrow. “Stay with me.” He pleaded. “I don't care who knows or what they say.” He was so certain it was hard to argue with him, so I nodded yes. He kissed me sweetly, and his hand began to brush against my stomach again. As he slid his tongue in my mouth, his hand slowly ventured down slipping inside my shorts. It took every bit of willpower I had to grab his wrist and stop him. He pulled back and looked into my eyes.

“We have a plane to catch.” I gently reminded him, and he lowered his head to rest in my neck.

“It's getting harder and harder to stop myself.” He admitted.

I grunted in frustration, “Here too.” I admitted.

I took a deep breath. “Ok, let's get out of bed before we start something we don't have time for.”  With a quick kiss to my lips, he slid out of the bed, holding his hand out to help me up. Joe showered in his room while I used the shower in the guest room. When I returned to his room to start putting everything back in my suitcase, Joe came out of the bathroom, wearing nothing but a towel. I gasped at the view.

“Shit, baby girl. I didn't know you were in here, he quickly turned to go, but not before I saw the tent in his towel.

“Fuck.” I whispered to myself as I turned away.

“Could you... um.... Can you bring me some pants?” He called out. I knew where he kept everything and I quickly got into his dresser to grab a pair of boxers and pants.

“Which pants?” I asked looking at the array.

“The jeans that are on top please.” He said. I grabbed them and went to the bathroom to hand them to him. “I was never shy in front of you before.” He admitted, and I realized he was right. I often saw him changing or in a towel in his locker room. Now though, it was so different.

I just chuckled and went back to packing, trying desperately to forget what I'd just seen.

“Did I see The Bump on your schedule?” Joe called out from the bathroom quickly changing the subject.

“I'm meeting with the producer today. I'm a guest on next week's show.” I saw him come out of the bathroom, still incredibly sexy with wet hair and no shirt.

“That's awesome!” he said as he wrapped his arms around me from behind. “You've been kicking ass and taking names since you got to Smackdown.” He kissed my shoulder softly.

“Joe?” I asked, and he answered with a questioning hmmm. “Baby,” Fuck! How could I say this? “If you keep touching me......” I trailed off, but he knew.

He pulled his arms away from me and took a deep breath. “Yeah, I understand.” He said, but he didn't move away from me. Instead, he kept his body pressed against mine. His voice was husky with lust “Tonight, baby girl.” His voice resonated in my body and I felt my pussy clench in desire. I had to take a deep breath this time. He moved away from me and calmly said, “Finish packing. We're running out of time.”

“Ugh! That's not fair!” I complained, and turned to see a shit eating grin on his face.

“It might not be fair, but it's fun.” He teased, and I threw a sock at him.

He reached into his dresser to grab a shirt and slid it on his body, covering his incredible chest. “Tonight?” I asked.

He stopped what he was doing and came over to wrap his arms around me, “If you're ready.” He looked into my eyes. “I'm ready.”

I couldn't help the giant smile on my face. “I've been ready.” I said and he smiled too.

“Let's finish packing and get to the airport.”

=================================

The day DRAGGED. Everything seemed twice as hard as it should have been.... First a plane delay.... then a mix up with our room reservation.... the whole day was difficult. I just wanted it to be tonight. I wanted to be with Joe so bad, and it was all I could think about.

After losing my match, which I really didn't care about today, I showered, then waited in Joe's locker room until his match. As I went to the common area to watch the match on the TV, Becky wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “How are things going?” I knew she was asking about Joe.

“Everything is perfect.” I said, but she quirked an eyebrow.

“If everyt'ing is so perfect, why are you all tense?”

“Tonight.” was all I said.

“Tonight?” She questioned.

“Tonight's the night.” She didn't understand. “Becks, tonight is THE night.”

Realization dawned on her and she looked at me in surprise. “You guys still haven't....?” I shook my head no. “Holy shit girl! No wonder ya look like yur gonna snap on someone.” She giggled a bit which caught the attention of others in the room. I pressed my finger to my lips to tell her to keep the information quiet, and she patted my shoulder in understanding. I leaned my head back onto her shoulder. “It's gonna be great.” She said to me.

================================

“Let's go to the gorilla,” she suggested when the match was almost over. I hadn't pried my eyes off the screen through the entire match. We headed over just as his music hit. He'd won the match.

AJ styles came through the curtain first. Everyone was congratulating him on such a great match. Joe took a few extra minutes to ham it up for the crowd before he came back. Once in the gorilla, he and AJ congratulated each other on a great match, and Paul Levesque  joined them for hugs and congrats. As the show ended, everyone in the room started milling around.

Joe was talking to Paul, so Becks and I chatted while we waited. I noticed Joe peaking up at me, and I smiled softly at him. Then again and again. He was having trouble paying attention to his conversation.

“Get a room,” Becks said quietly to me.

“We have one,” I whispered back, “and as soon as he's done talking to Paul, we can head there.”

Paul finally looked up to see where Joe's attention was. He looked confused when he saw me. He knew Joe and I were best friends, and it wasn't uncommon to see me waiting in the gorilla. My guess is that he was wondering why Joe was distracted by me this time. Either way, Joe focused solely on Paul after that. When their business was done, Joe marched over to me, took my hand and dragged me to his locker room without even a word.

I took a seat on a bench while he showered trying to block out the urge I had to strip down to nothing and join him. Before I could I even imagine what would happen in there, he was out, and he was ready to go a minute later. He beckoned me to him and we left. He didn't even care who saw us. Yeah, it was normal for us to hold hands, but not for him to be dragging me out like this. I saw a couple of  people take second looks at us.

“Are you hungry?” He finally spoke once we got in the car.

“Yes.”

“Can we order room service or is there something special you want?” He asked, and I agreed to room service. Once in the hotel, we stopped by the front desk and ordered dinner. Joe left specific instructions to have the meal delivered to our suite's living room, but not to bother us. He tipped there at the front desk.

“What was that about?” I asked about the special instructions as we got I the elevator

Joe walked over to me, placing a hand on the wall on each side of me. “I don't want to worry about having to wait because of room service.” He looked in my eyes and I reached up to kiss him.

“You think of everything, don't you?” I teased.

“Well...” Joe looked shy again, “There's one thing we haven't talked about. Birth control.” He looked down to me, grabbing my chin in his fingers. “I brought condoms, but I'm pretty sure you're on the pill?” He was right. One of the benefits of working for WWE was that we were tested for STD's when we were drug tested; which was frequently, so we didn't have to worry about that.

“I am.” I answered; then added “But we can use a condom if you want.”

He chuckled down at me, “No baby girl, I trust you to take the pill.” He pressed his lips lightly to mine, starting a fire inside of me, but it was interrupted by the elevator stopping.

I was getting excited and just a bit nervous. What was going to happen? Was this going to be awkward? I began overthinking every possible scenario of how this was going to start. I shouldn't have worried though, because once we were in the room, Joe took my face in his hands and stared deep into my eyes. He slowly leaned down and gave me a gentle, sweet kiss. Instantly, all of my nervousness was gone. I was with my best friend, and this is what we were meant to be. I knew it. He knew it.

He guided me to the bedroom, and I was pleasantly surprised to see a few candles scattered around the room lighting everything in a soft glow. Joe turned to see the happy look on my face and shyly said, “I wanted to make tonight special.”

“Thank you,” I said as I wrapped my arms around him and kissed him deeply. He wrapped his arms around me and pulled me close, kissing me back. I began to guide us to the bed, and I felt a smile cross his lips. When I felt the mattress against my legs, I stopped and laid down on the bed.

“Sit up,” He said, and leaned over to kiss me, his hands slipping under my shirt and running over my skin. I moaned at the gentleness of the move. He lifted my shirt up and over my head and removed his own shirt. His eyes took in my form as he smiled down at me. “I've thought of this so many times,” He said as he laid next to me and ran his hand over my stomach again.

“Me too.” I said as I pulled him closer for a kiss. I moved to start kissing his neck, and he moaned as I gently sucked a spot for a moment. He pressed his body against mine, and I reveled in the feel of his skin against mine, but it wasn't enough. I needed more, and he sensed it.

Slipping his hand behind me, he undid my bra and discarded it onto the floor. He leaned up for a second to survey my breasts and smiled in pleasure. He took a nipple into his mouth, his tongue lathing it quickly, causing me to arch my back and press closer to him. I felt a contented hum from him, and it vibrated my nipple wonderfully.

I reached and grabbed for anything I could hold onto finding only his shoulders as he continued to tease my nipple. I could feel him hard as a rock inside his jeans as he pressed against me. I was having trouble concentrating on anything except the pleasure his mouth was giving me, but I managed to reach between us and undo his button. He pulled away and looked into my eyes as he took off his jeans and then mine. I pulled my underwear off which prompted him to also.

The view of his thick member being freed caused me to inhale sharply, and I reached to take him in my hands, causing him to moan and lean his head back as I stroked him. His hand began to slide slowly up my inner thigh, sending pangs of need straight to my core. I released his penis and wrapped a leg around his waist trying to pull him closer to me.

“I need you,” I begged, and he moaned back at me.

“There's so much I want to do with you.” He whispered to me.

“Later.” I whispered back. “Right now I NEED you, baby.”

He looked down at me, giving up his plans and slowly sliding into me, causing us both to moan in relief. It felt so right having him inside me. He kissed me softly and began to slide in and out of me slowly, tenderly. My hands grabbed onto his arms and explored his muscles as I reveled in the feel of him filling me. He moaned again and I saw frustration in his eyes as he tried to keep a slow pace, so I wrapped my legs tighter around him.

He pressed his forehead against mine. “Baby girl? Tell me what you need.”

My voice was louder than I meant it to be as I answered, “I need to cum.” He didn't need to hear any more. He pulled out of me and replaced his dick with two fingers causing me to cry out in sadness. He pumped in and out of me a few times before stilling his fingers deep inside me and curling up to brush my gspot. It was exquisite pleasure, and I lost all control of my body as he brought me to my orgasm, watching my face as I came.

He kissed me deeply until he was sure my orgasm was over. “You look so beautiful when you cum.” He smiled down at me, and I felt a hint of shyness, but this was Joe. This was my best friend, and we were taking this journey into a new phase of our relationship together.

“Come here,” I said as I pulled him back on top of me. He immediately slid back into me and started a steady pace. My gasps and moans spurred him on. He grabbed my legs and pulled them over his shoulders, looking down at me lustfully.

I screamed his name as he began pounding into me unabashedly. “That's it baby girl. Give me everything you've got.” He slid his hands between us and began rubbing my clit. I exploded around him almost instantly. My walls squeezing him tight and he lost control. He began rutting into me wildly, nearing his own orgasm. He pounded harder and harder, faster and faster until he lost himself inside of me. He exploded with a wild groan and stilled inside me, releasing my legs, laying on top of me and burying his head in my hair.

I ran my hands over his back as he caught his breath. He rolled beside me, and I turned to face him. We stared at each other as we recovered, smiles on both of our faces. He reached up and put his hand on my cheek. “That was amazing, baby.” He said, and I moaned in agreement.

After a few minutes, he whispered, “Are you hungry ?”

I hadn't heard the food arrive. “Is it here?”

He chuckled, “Yeah. You were busy calling my name when it got here.” I blushed and groaned at that. “Go get cleaned up, baby girl. I'll get the food.” He laughed.

We had a picnic that night right there on our bed. The food was fantastic, but nothing could live up to the feelings I had for Joe. We laughed. We joked. We ate. We kissed. We cuddled. We loved.