ᴀᴅ ᴍᴇʟɪᴏʀᴀ ~ ᴅᴘꜱ (ꜱᴛᴇᴠᴇɴ ᴍᴇᴇᴋꜱ)

{ scrapped plot ideas graveyard }

!!!SPOILERS FOR THE ENTIRE STORY!!!

ok first off holy shit thank u for taking the time outta ur day to read my goofy little story,, i hope you don't regret it but i don't blame u if u do, especially after that epilogue lolzer

i just thought it would be fun to keep a list of plot/event ideas i had that never made it into the story. just a sorta alternate-timeline thing or whatever. the importance of these will vary wildly but i refuse to try and organize them so cope ❤️

1. Amy was supposed to run away and live at Charlie's parent's vacation home for a bit

2. I considered explicitly writing about Amy and Cher's "relationship" but ultimately decided to let it be implied

3. remember the scene where Charlie brings 2 random girls to the DPS meeting? i considered switching those 2 for Amy and Ivy but decided it would take too much rewriting and ultimately vary too much from the canon. the rowing competition chapter was born in its place.

4. i was fully planning on not having neil die until i started writing chapter 5. i'd rewatched the movie that night and realized the whole meaning falls really flat without it. it hurt like a bitch to write tho i'll tell u that much—

5. ivy was supposed to confront bee the first day she got there, but i decided for duvall to not give her the room number so i could draw it out more in the background.

6. this is a bit of a reverse, but the notebook-list thing in "of all the stars above" genuinely did not exist until i was halfway through writing the chapter. i had to go back and rewrite some stuff to make it work LMAOAOAO

7. there was supposed to be a whole weed dealing ring amy and ivy got wrapped up in at one point. no more context.

8. ivy was supposed to find out neil offed himself from meeks, not amy, but i realized that amy just telling her "neil died" without specifics would be kinda weird

9. i had an idea for pitts to kinda hate ivy at first bc he felt like she took up too much of meek's time, then i realized pitts would not care canonically, so i scrapped that.

10. charlie was gonna hit on ivy wayyyy more than he does within the story, but after "strike out", i felt like it was too clear that charlie knew meeks liked ivy for him to still make advances, even jokingly. just doesn't feel like him.

11. ok y'all might actually get mad at me about this one bc i'm low key mad i didn't include it myself BUT either after the party or after the rooftop, ivy and meeks were gonna hang out in one of their dorm rooms (whichever made more sense for the setting) and fall asleep there, then get "caught" by amy or pitts (again, depends which dorm) and have to stage a whole breakout to get steven/ivy out without being caught. I KNOW I KNOW ITS CUTE ITS TROPEY BUT I COULDNT WORK IT IN IM SORRY.

12. I wanted to give Ivy's parents a in-person introduction at some point to more easily foreshadow their eventual involvement in the story, but thought it would be better if they were just some negative, overhanging prescense in Ivy's life until I needed them.

13. again, a bit of a reverse, but Cher (as a concept) genuinely did not exist until i hit a block while writing "rocky beginnings" and wanted to deepen the running-away thing a bit. i hate planning out my plot lines if u can't tell <3

14. at least 3 of the above were ideas that were supposed to go between the rooftop and the play chapters bc i had my entire plot planned out UNTIL that point and then AFTER the play. so i had a few chapters to fill and i decided on the rowing competition and exams storylines.

15. knox getting his shit rocked wasn't supposed to interrupt meeks and ivy at the party until i got to that part and realized i did not want to write the kiss yet,,, so i stalled

16. cameron was gonna have more of a presence but them i remembered i hate him so

17. i wanted to fit in one more charlie appearance after neil's death but the timeline is so crammed and weird in the days following the play that I just decided to scrap it. sorry charlie enjoyers but it had to be done, but i think the wedding made up for it in the end

18. ivy was gonna be a fake blonde and have like 2 chapters dedicated to getting her roots fixed HAAHHAHAHA

19. ivy was gonna die at the end........

20. i wasn't gonna write an epilogue for the longest time bc fuck y'all u don't deserve closure,, but then i realized I wanted closure too so u got one (can u imagine if i wrote one and just didn't release it? like i just kept it to myself? that sounds like soemthing i'd do tbh)

21. ivy was gonna go to boston w meeks

22. meeks was gonna ask ivy out officially (like to be his gf) otw home from the play and then they were gonna have a messy breakup at the coffee shop

23. amy was gonna shave her head after neil died HAHAHAHHA

24. this isn't plot but i considered rewriting the synopsis multiple times to fit more of the ~aesthetic wattpad short hook~ style, but tbh i vastly prefer mine sounding like the back of a shitty chapter book you'd find at your 3rd grade bookfair

25. charlie's fiancé in the epilogue is heavily based on my friend calli who is responsible for keeping me motivated throughout this whole story (and also for quite a few plot lines, including previous items on this list). she's down bad for him so i gave her a lil dedication at the end there :)

26. bro literally how did i forget this. it is 10:31 pm rn and i just remembered that the original title for this story was "cartography". and i was gonna incorporate some metaphorical shit about having to map out their lives but it was really
contrived so i ditched it. it only lasted like a day or 2 tho then i changed it to what is it now <3

27. i considered having ivy reciprocate bee's feelings for like .5 seconds until i remembered this is a meeks x fem oc fic and i cant rlly do that

28. actually fuck you i can do what i want i just didn't want to write that in

29. dave from chapter 33 was gonna be that one blonde dude w glasses from the movie (you know the one.) but his real name was like sticks or something LMFAO and nobody is introducing themself as "sticks" to a stranger over the phone

30. also chapter 33, some other fates for the phone booth were gonna be 1) it got disconnected or 2) it was fully just removed

31. "fuzzybrain" (arguably my fav chapter) is named after 1) the dayglow song, but more importantly 2) my fav one shot i've ever read. i'm not telling you the platform or fandom bc it's embarrassing, just trust me.

32. again this isn't plot but OH MY FUCKING GOD I WROTE THE LAST 2K WORDS FOR THIS STORY AT LIKE 11 ON APRIL 8TH AND WHEN I WOKE UP IN THE MORNING IT DIDN'T SAVE. I DEADASS WAS ABOUT TO THROW THIS WHOLE STORY OUT BEFORE I DUG THROUGH THE REVISION HISTORY AND SAVED IT. fuck wattpad I hate this site.

33. there's so many little things that i know and are canonical to my story but i just can't fit them in so like... y'all don't know, but i do LMFAOO. bc like those aren't really scrapped they're still there, just not explicitly said. for example, meeks used a fake name in the epilogue 1) for drama on the writers (my) end and 2) he's on the CIA's hit list for knowing too much after some authority conflicts during Vietnam AHAHAHHAHA