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octaviasdread · 5 days ago

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you’re feeding the pitts girls so well

me rn <33

i'm back for more pittsie pie <3 this time i'm thinking college aged and long haired pitts like that one picture i screamed at you all about (you know the one) i don't really care what more you do with it bc i'll scream and cry (pos) at whatever you write but i think u know my ~type~ when it comes to Men - emotional, sensitive, openly affectionate, you get it girly <3 okay i love you so much bye bye

Spring Flowers

Pairing: Gerard Pitts x FemReader

Warnings: fluff, dirty talk, no use of y/n, established relationship, just a sweet and short blurb

Summary: You soak in the first signs of summer with the boy you love most

word count: 1.1k

Masterlist

The spring sun beats down hard on your skin, warming you over, and managing to lift your mood in every way. Harvard had long, cold, hard winters and this was finally the light at the end of the tunnel. It was the first time since the Fall you were able to lay out on the grass in the quad and read a book. All your assignments were done for the week and finals right around the corner. Life couldn’t be any better.

This is proven to be true when a familiar body settles beside yours on the ground. He practically cocoons you with how much of him there is but you can only turn and smile. Birds chirp in the sky and the sun glares back at you, but none of that matters when you realize how picture perfect this entire moment is. How perfect he is.

“Having fun?” he questions, arm tightening around your waist and pulling you closer. You nod softly while brushing some of the hair out of his face. It had grown out so much and there was something sexy about the longer hairstyles the boys were starting to sport.

“Yeah, hoping to catch a tan,” you tell him in a teasing tone, knowing the spring sun wasn’t yet strong enough to provide the color you so desperately needed. It was nice to hope though.

“As long as you remembered sunscreen,” he says while tugging the book from your hands. He carefully places the bookmark between the pages and dismisses it off to the side.

“Of course I did,” you defend but he knows you’re lying just as much as you do. He just laughs before rolling to his back and tucking you against him. The laughter of other classmates fills the air and a stray frisbee flies through the sky every few moments. All of you are soaking in the first signs of summer.

“I was worried when you weren’t in your dorm but I figured even you couldn’t avoid some warm weather,” he says, fingers tangling in your hair and you smile as you rest your cheek against his chest. His heart thumping softly and it brings a smile to your face.

“It’s perfect reading weather, it was calling my name all day,” you inform him, pinching one of the buttons on his shirt between your fingers. Classes had been long and tedious nearing the end of the year but the first signs of sunshine outside gave you hope and the strength to get through it.

“Yeah well I was hoping to go to your dorm and have you call my name instead,” he states and you gasp, lightly slapping his chest and unable to suppress the giggle that bubbles past your lips.

“Ger, if we always did what you wanted I’d never leave my room,” you say and he smirks, hand cradling the back of your head as you look up at him.

“Would that be so bad, I mean, you remember last night. My hands and mouth, your thighs wrapped around my head,” he mutters lowly into your ear and a deep blush crosses your face at the memory. You both had been lucky not to receive a noise complaint.

“Oh I remember just fine, thank you,” you say, not daring to look in his eye and inflate his ego even more. Gerard lets out a low chuckle and it warms your entire body over.

“I’m just saying, it’s too bad we don’t have any privacy right here,” he tells you, ducking down to capture your lips in a quick kiss. As always you become absorbed in him, giggling against his mouth as his long locks fall and hide your faces. When you pull away you push the hair back and behind his ears which only earns you another kiss.

“You think you’ll cut your hair when you get back home?” you question, hoping the answer was no but also knowing this free lifestyle he had become accustomed to would disappear the minute he was back home.

“Probably, but it’ll grow back,” he reminds you, relaxing into the grass and trying to memorize the feeling of you against him before you were separated for three months. As much as you yearned for the end of the school year you also hoped it would slow down just a little so you could have more time with him.

“I’ll miss it, but probably not as much as I’ll miss you,” you tell him and he grins, ducking to press a kiss to the crown of your head. There was something about Spring that fit the boy so beautifully. Tall like the flowers that kept spouting and bright like their colorful petals. He was calming, safe like a soft breeze and baby birds chirping high in the trees.

“I’ll write and call as much as I can,” he reminds you, tangling his long fingers through your hair and brushing through the locks. You close your eyes at the sensation, relaxing into him and ready to fall asleep right here in the middle of the quad. “Besides, anything is better than a flat top.”

You laugh loudly, remembering the haircut he first sported when coming here. Yet it still didn’t keep you from resisting his charm, bad haircut and small redhead roommate included. He had been the best part of your years here and without him you may have never gotten through it. There was more to him than the other guys, something dark but in a way that made him who he was. He never let those moments bring him down and he was constantly reminding you of the good. No matter if assignments got too hard or your parents stopped calling for a while. Gerard was the bunker in a storm and you were going to keep him no matter the cost.

“I liked the flat top, very preppy,” you remind him and he snorts, knowing he long ago shed the conformed school boy persona for something more go with the flow. He had taken up the guitar, tried weed for the first time, and stopped buttoning his shirts all the way. That last one was your favorite but you could do without the weed. All that had gotten you was a late night and all the food you had stashed cleared from your dorm.

“You like everything about me,” he jokes but it couldn't be anymore true. Smiling you snuggle tighter against him and memorize this moment to hold close for the entire summer apart. It could be the only thing to get you through.

“True but if I didnt we wouldn't be here right now,” and this answer suffices him as he squeezes you in a hug, certain that when Graduation rolled around next year there would also be a ring stuffed in his pocket. The first summer for his entire life he would finally get to keep you.

And you knew you’d say yes.

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octaviasdread · 18 days ago

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"Meeks goes to Vietnam and dies there": what was said, interpretation, and the truth?

Because I've seen some people on TikTok not know how to behave, I’m going to make an elaborate post that no one will care about, but you can't say I didn't say anything about it.

First things first, let's do some definitions. These definitions are ones that I've written for the purposes of this post based on the sources of Wikipedia and Oxford English Dictionary.

canon (noun): the works of a particular author or artist that are recognized as genuine. For the purposes of this post, "canon" is the established facts of a piece of work as it pertains solely to the work. This means adaptations and random comments made by people associated with a piece of work are not canon. The only people who can dictate what is canon are the people who create the original work (usually writers, sometimes directors, in rare cases actors).

For the purposes of Dead Poets Society, Peter Weir’s final cut of the film is all that is canon. Stuff that was left out from Tom Schulman's script is not canonical. The book is not canonical. Gale Hansen’s tweets are not canonical.

fanon (noun): the unofficial facts or rules about a piece of work as decided by fans of said work or by people associated with the work. Fanon is usually widespread amongst fan groups. Sometimes there is information to back up these facts or rules, sometimes there isn't.

An example of fanon is anderperry, a widespread ship that most people agree on. There are little things about their relationship to interpret them as having a romantic relationship. However, it is not canonical. There is no scene where a romantic relationship is explicitly displayed. Another example of fanon is Neil lives. This is an example where there is nothing to support this; in fact it contradicts what happens in the canonical work.

headcanon (noun): similar to fanon, however a headcanon is predominantly believed by one or few people. There can be overlap between the two: a headcanon can turn into fanon if it becomes popular enough. Like fanon, a headcanon can have evidence to support it, or none at all.

An example of a headcanon would be Pitts having ten siblings. There isn't anything to support this. I just really feel it.

Now that I have established the rules for this post, let's get into the meat and bones:

On February twenty third, 2021, Gale Hansen (Charlie), Allelon Ruggiero (Meeks), and Dylan Kussman (Cameron) went on the Hard Out podcast for a mini reunion. In the interview, someone asked Allelon what he pictured for the future of his character. I'm going to insert the interview below and also write out a transcript of the conversation.

For ease of reading, I've abbreviated everyone's names and I couldn't be arsed to learn the names of the hosts, so they are Left Man, Middle Man, and Right Man.

30:16-32:50

youtube

MM: This [question] is for all of you guys. I would love to know where you think your characters ended up as well. Like, you can make that part of your thing. Like, do you think—

AR: Well...

MM: Where are they today?

AR: I've already—We've actually already discussed, some of—something like this before.

MM: All right, cool.

AR: You know? In my mind, Meeks—if you think about the—how old the kids—the guys were... Meeks went to Vietnam.

MM: Mm.

AR: Right? A couple of the guys [cuts out, unintelligible]

LM: MmmMmmm. Yeah, I hadn't considered that.

AR: —1959, it's the 60s. You know? So, uh, that's what—in my story—

LM: Radio! He was a radio operator.

MM: I was gonna say, he very well would have been a radio guy, which would have made him a target, and more likely to get killed too.

[It's hard to hear what Allelon is saying under MM, but he is nodding in agreement]

AR: His-his—I think he had some sort of affection for gadgetry and electronics and maybe he went into the military, maybe—

LM: He'd be an officer.

AR: Maybe his father was a Military Man, you know? [unintelligible]—nam

LM: Most likely, yeah.

MM: Well, he'd have to go to college to be an officer.

LM: Right. But he was in prep school for college.

AR: (overlapping) That's what's going on in my mind.

MM: It makes me really sad picturing Meeks getting, just, ventilated—

AR: Right?

MM:—in the jungle and dying. [unintelligible]—bach and shit (?)

LM: Aw man. He got a purple heart, man.

AR: I kind of like that too.

LM: It's poetic, so to speak.

AR: There's something about that that I like. The im—you know, he kinda reminds me of, um, did you ever see More American Graffiti? The guy, Toad—

MM: No.

AR: But you've seen American Graffiti?

LM, MM, RM: Yes.

LM: Yes, of course.

AR: Okay—

GH: [unintelligible old man yelling]—Charles Martin Smith.

AR: Yes, thank you! He winds up in Vietnam in More American Graffiti, you know what I mean. That's the correct [unintelligible]. He winds up in Vietnam. I mean, I won't go more into the storyline of More American Graffiti.

(overlapping)

AR: I kind of thought of Meeks as that character. He's like that nerdy character. that, you know, as he ventures off into the 60s, um, that's, you know, a lot of young men wound up that way. I remember my father was kind of the same age and he has a lot of buddies who went off to Vietnam. It's very tragic. Tragic stories of his friends. That whole generation of young men... just decimated, you know, from that war.

MM: Those are the kinds of men that go to war. Keating's students, you know?

AR: Right!

MM: Young men—

LM: Right!

AR: All kinds of kids went. All kinds of young men went to the war, to the Vietnam War.

-end of transcript-

Hopefully watching/reading that has reminded you of everything that was said pertaining to Allelon’s answer. It often gets misconstrued and misremembered by the fandom, so I have the whole thing there to reference. To my knowledge, this is it. I don’t believe any other statements about this have been made, but if you are aware of a tweet or post deep in the archives, please alert me to it.

At this time, I will be responding to and analyzing this answer with common talking points I've seen on the internet. Now, I promise I'm not pulling talking points out of thin air. I had a team brainstorm ones they have seen between tumblr, Instagram, TikTok, etc. That said, I'm not going to source where I've seen them because I don't want to cause trouble for the people who made these points bc a) they're probably children and b) it's not really fair to direct the seriousness in which I’m taking this at people who don’t know who I am. So while I normally source what I'm saying so you know I'm not talking out of my ass, for this, you'll just have to trust me.

I'm separating these talking points into two categories.

Category 1: It does not matter that he said this (aka stop coping so hard)

Talking point 1: Allelon Ruggiero made it canon that Meeks died in Vietnam, and I don't like that. Why would he do that?

No, he didn't. It is not canon. Canon, as previously established, is information relating to a piece of work that is undeniably confirmed. And the key words from Allelon himself are "in my mind." And what's another word for mind? Head. It's his headcanon. Canon would imply that we saw something in the movie that meant Meeks went to Vietnam. We didn't. Therefore, not canon. Just because he was in the movie doesn't mean he can make it canon.

Now, if they had worked in the movie (somehow) that Meeks ended up there or if it was implied in some way, that would be different. But him saying it's something he thinks about "in his mind" does not make something canon. I would not attribute this to the rare cases of actors making something about their characters canon because, again, there isn’t anything in the film to support his headcanon.

Talking point 2: But Allelon didn't actually say Meeks died. The interviewers said it. Maybe Meeks survived!

Technically, on paper, this is true. At no point does Allelon say "Meeks dies in Vietnam." But when the hosts bring it up, he doesn't dispute it in any way. In fact, when one of them says "it makes me sad to think about meeks blowing up in the jungle," Allelon doesn't say "Well maybe he survives!" he says, "Right?" As in, yes it's sad to think about Meeks dying in Vietnam.

That said, because it's his personal headcanon and not tied to canonical fact, Meeks could survive in your or anyone else's headcanon, yes! However, I've seen a lot of people try to say "he didn't say it" as the reason. And it's just not a good reason, because he was clearly okay with the idea. The better answer is "Meeks could have survived Vietnam because I said so, and there's nothing to dispute it." Many soldiers did survive Vietnam. While radio operators had a notoriously short life span in the battlefield (TWS 2019), there were survivors.

Speaking of radio operators:

Talking point 3: Allelon didn't bring up Meeks being a radio operator. The interviewers said it. Therefore, why should radio operation have anything to do with Alleon’s headcanon?

Because he immediately agreed with them, and had an entire response about Meeks being interested in gadgets. He works on a radio with Pitts in the damn movie. That was the obvious connection. Radio men were Very sought after for the Vietnam War (American Air Force). They needed smart people, and people who could run.

I really hate the argument people try to bring to this topic of "Well, Allelon didn't say it, therefore it doesn’t matter." But he did say it. He wasn't speaking into a void and not hearing the response. He heard the "Meeks getting ventilated in the jungle" comment just like the rest of us. In my opinion, he had and has had more than enough time to clarify if he truly meant "Meeks goes to vietnam but he comes back dw." (By the way, he does not owe any of us an answer as to what he thinks. The fact he even cared enough to share it is wonderful.)

This brings me to my next category of talking points:

Category 2: Some of you do not know how the Vietnam War worked (aka Allelon is more correct about this than you think)

For those unawares, I am American. I know a fair bit about the Vietnam War. I didn’t study it in uni or anything like that, but I have family members who were drafted and in combat. I feel very passionately about this, but I will do my best to stick to the facts, and not what I personally feel.

For the purpose of this category, we need to assume Meeks gets drafted. As in, his birthday gets drawn, and he has to go. I will point out that the chances of that happening were already small, just in how the draft actually worked. I will explore a volunteer option later.

Talking point 4 (but it's really a bunch of talking points): Meeks couldn't go to war because:

a) He was in college

He would not have been. Assuming he started uni in autumn 1961, he would have finished in spring 1965. He would be out of college just in time for masse troops and the draft. He could have gone to graduate school, which would have pushed his assignment a few years, but graduate school was (still is) very expensive. Also in 1971, most student deferments were dropped (Roos 2024). I know some people think boarding school kids are all Top One Percent, and I have no doubt that Welton would be one of those selective, expensive schools where students were at least Upper Middle class.

b) He obviously would have objected to the war

A lot of people objected to the war and still went to Vietnam because they were legally required to. It is possible he signed on as a conscientious objector, but a lot of men who did that seemed to have been counseled by religious groups (Roos 2024). I will address the possibility of draft dodging below.

c) Ailments get him deferred

Possible. Bad eyesight. Asthma. Bone spurs. If he had a very helpful doctor. We don’t know enough about Meeks’ health to say one way or the other.

d) He fled the country

I agree to an extent that Meeks could have dodged the draft. I would argue it was largely rare that people did this to any meaningful extent (There were only about 500,000 men who dodged, and only about 200,000 were ever legally accused (Rostker 2006)), but it’s impossible to say either way if he would or not. That’s up to you. But I would like to propose an observation.

What do we know about the society that the boys grew up in? Where the adults are in charge, you do as you're told, and you don't ask questions about that. Now, Keating made the boys challenge that idea, and it's implied that at the end of the film, they go on in their lives to do that. So, it would follow the theme of the movie that Meeks could have been an objector and dodged the draft by all means necessary.

However, it wasn't just an adult telling him to do something. It was the government. I’ve seen somewhat conflicting reports on the likelihood Meeks (or his family) could have bought his way out of the draft. An article from WashPo suggests 50% of men sent to Vietnam were middle class (Cao 2017), but I haven’t been able to figure out where they got that number from. Rostker (2006) cites Baskir and Strauss (1978, p. 9) for their table suggesting the likelihood of Vietnam-Era service for middle income men was 30%, and 24% for high income men. Dodging was hard if you weren’t in a position to pay a doctor willing to lie for you, or be in a position to not be questioned. You hear a lot of men talk about it now because the ones who couldn't died in the jungle.

Another thing: I know a lot of people think Meeks would have participated in counter culture. I think that too. But what did Keating say? "There is a place for daring and a place for caution, and a wise person understands which one is called for.” Now, if Meeks went to Mr Keating and said "I'm going to defy my government and dodge the draft. I'm running away to Canada." Would Keating call that daring? Would he say that's making your life extraordinary?

It’s possible. Keating would encourage him to think about what he wants. If he doesn’t want to go to war because he morally objects to it, do what you gotta do. I'm not saying going to Vietnam was the safer option. It wasn't. But neither option was good. The American government put young men in an impossible position morally: Fighting for your country was a risk, but up held as a righteous thing to do. Dodging the draft would prevent dying in the jungle or life long impairments from war, but you were likely looked down on socially.

e) He would never join the army

Let's go back to the transcript for a second. Allelon says "maybe his father was a military man." How likely is this? I don't know. However, it seems that he's thought about this to the extent that he's come up with different ways Meeks would have ended up in the war, and this isn't something he's coming up with off the top of his head. I do find it funny that I have yet to see someone propose the idea that Meeks willingly joined the military. We’ve always assumed he was drafted, however most men in the Vietnam War were actually volunteers or enlisted willingly, not draftees (Cao 2017). But as Allelon says, maybe his dad was a military man. Maybe Meeks felt a sense of duty to his country. But there was a time when fighting for your country was genuinely honorable to nearly everyone. Meeks' dad could have fought in WWII. His grandads could have fought in WWI. It’s not impossible to consider Meeks volunteered or enlisted.

Now, if you want to believe that Meeks was part of counterculture, that's so valid. If you want to argue about Allelon’s headcanon, that's fine!!! You don't have to believe it or even like it. That's the nice thing about headcanons; you don't have to accept them. I’m just pointing out some faults in people's rebuttal to the hc. I find a lot of them are not based on interpretation or facts, but rather on most of the fandom just not wanting Meeks to die horribly, or even partake in the No Nothing War. And I genuinely understand that. No one wants sweet Meeks to die horribly. Allelon (and Gale for that matter) were definitely being realists with their answers. Gale talks about just after his answer how it’s easy for people to say that everything works out great for their characters and Nothing Bad Ever Happens, but that it’s just not the truth, and that’s okay to consider.

Just because Allelon said this, just because this is his headcanon, just because some people have taken it up as their headcanon, it doesn't mean it's canon or that it needs to be your headcanon. Allelon Ruggiero has no more authority over Steven Meeks than you or I do. If Steven Meeks works at NASA and puts man on the moon, that is so slay and I hope you post that ff bc it sounds awesome. If Steven Meeks becomes a secret agent, work. If Steven Meeks settles down and has a happy rest of his life, love. All of those are just as valid as Meeks goes to Vietnam and dies.

Basically, stop being in denial that Allelon said Meeks went to Vietnam and died there. Don’t say he didn't say it. He did say it. But you are well within your right to ignore it and post mitts domestic life fanfic.

In this final part of the post, I will present to you ACTUAL reasons Meeks wouldn't/couldn't have gone to Vietnam if you really want to argue with people who say he did. Some of these come with the caveat of Meeks needing to be drafted and some of him needing to volunteer. This doesn't mean Allelon was wrong to think he did, but these are some real reasons it was unlikely to happen.

If he started a graduate degree before summer 1967, he would be deferred until he finished his studies. This assumes that he does a graduate degree which, while not uncommon, might be a stretch depending on what he studied. Graduate degrees were NOT cheap, and it would only hold him off until about 1971, but of the ten percent of people by 1970 who had college degrees, I feel confident in saying Meeks would have been in that stat.

If he were drafted, he would not get to choose what he would do. He would have gotten assigned a role, and the Air Force and Navy didn’t take draftees (Rottman (2005). He is a very technology driven guy, so it’s still likely he would have been assigned to be an operator, just not guaranteed. This actually supports him enlisting and being in any branch that wasn’t the army, because nearly every other branch was less likely to partake in Vietnam and fatality was less likely as well (Roos 2024).

The chances of getting your birthday drawn in the draft, not deferring, not exempting, was incredibly low. Ultimately, only two million of the nearly 27,000,000 men in America were drafted (Rostker 2006). He could have been one, and he would have been very, very unlucky.

Lastly, he is our baby boy and he simply doesn’t <3

Okay the end

Very special thank you to @ash5monster01, @toindeedbe, and @octaviasdread for helping me with this monster post. They helped me organize my thoughts and helped me with finding sources. They also enabled me taking this so seriously lol

PS if this post makes you want to tell me to kill myself, just remember: Meeks is not a real person. Him dying in Vietnam cannot hurt you in a way that matters.

SOURCES:

Cao, L. (2017, September 29). Five myths about the Vietnam War - The Washington Post. Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/five-myths/five-myths-about-the-vietnam-war/2017/09/29/467ef3e0-a474-11e7-ade1-76d061d56efa_story.html. — Pay attention to myth #3. (I had to use the Wayback Machine to access this article because the Washington Post hates freedom.)

Official American Air Force. AN/MRC-108 Communications System. National Museum of the United States Air Force™. https://www.nationalmuseum.af.mil/Visit/Museum-Exhibits/Fact-Sheets/Display/Article/588962/anmrc-108-communications-system/. — From the US Air Force Website. This is obviously Air Force specific, but the role of Radio Men across the military was largely similar.

Roos, D. (2024, May 28). 7 ways Americans avoided the draft during the Vietnam War. History.com. https://www.history.com/news/vietnam-war-draft-avoiding. — a detailed list of draft dodging options.

Rostker, B. (2006). The Coming of the All-Volunteer Force: Analytic Studies (1960–1968). In I Want You! The Evolution of the All-Volunteer Force (pp. 43–60). essay, RAND. Retrieved 2025, from https://www.rand.org/content/dam/rand/pubs/monographs/2007/RAND_MG265.pdf. — a monster monograph about Volunteer soldiers in the American Military. Chapter 3 pertains to the Draft

Rottman, Gordon L. (2005). "CONSCRIPTION". US Army Infantryman in Vietnam 1965-73. Bloomsbury Publishing. ISBN 978-1-78200-468-4 – via Google Books. — I did have to take this information from Wikipedia, but I believe it’s largely documented.

Smale, J. (2008, September 17). Vietnam Era Radioman. ARRL - National Association for Amateur Radio. https://www.arrl.org/news/vietnam-era-radioman. — A first hand account of a radio man from Vietnam about how he got into the military. He enlisted, but still an interesting read about how radio men trained and what they did.

Thorton, J., & Gull, M. (2021, February 22). DEAD POETS SOCIETY Mini-Reunion! Cast & Oscar-Winning Writer Reminisce on Film, Robin Williams. YouTube. https://youtu.be/jk4zONaa8lY?si=4wfe-7DcYPxIs0o5. — where the Incident happened

TWS (Ed.). (2019, April). Radiomen in the Vietnam War faced a 5-Second Life Expectancy. Army - Together We Served. https://army.togetherweserved.com/dispatches-articles/33/411/Radiomen+in+the+Vietnam+War+Faced+a+5-Second+Life+Expectancy. — From a Veteran’s forum about Radiomen survival. This does address the confusion around the 5-Second Life Expectancy idea.

#join us today to end the fandom disruption that is This Interview #and give sunny five mins of your time to read this #because it’s worth it and she is Right #thank you for attending this ted talk <3 #dead poets society

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