lena-writes

[lena-writes]

MACK & CAIN (PROPAGANDA | 100)

It’s easy to forget, watching them now, what they’ve survived. The 98th Games left scars on both — physical and otherwise — but what’s remarkable is how gently they’ve learned to hold each other’s past. Mack, who once bristled at tenderness, now rests her head on Cain’s shoulder during our shoot. Cain, famously composed, sometimes catches himself smiling at her mid-sentence, like he’s just now realizing she’s still here.

“I didn’t know what to expect after the Games,” Mack says, softer now. “But… there was never anyone else I wanted to figure it out with.”

[lena-writes]

LIFE UPDATES (CRESS - 99/100 OFF-CYCLE)

JULY Farina wins, and the city convulses in celebration. By dawn, the streets lie carpeted in confetti, glittering fragments of a fleeting triumph. Cress and Slate set their plan into motion. He begins revising the letters from his arena; she begins counting down until she's free.

AUGUST Under the guise of renewed devotion, Cress reenters Pontus’s alabaster‑walled office. He drapes her over a chaise longue as if she were a fine blanket, or he allows her to stretch across the rug by the window, cat-like. Meetings drag on for hours: advisors murmur, screens glow with shifting graphs, and Pontus occasionally pauses to admire her stillness. In that sculpted silence, Cress catalogs every flash of his impatience, every slip of his guard. She is already weaving the intricate tapestry of evidence that will destroy him.

SEPTEMBER Morning sun filters through tiny classroom windows as Kya, satchel bouncing, takes her first steps into kindergarten. Slate cries. Cress wonders what the root is, knowing he never had this. Cress cries, knowing she did. Five -- the same age she started the Academy. The age it all began. She returns late one evening from Gamemaker HQ, exhaustion etched into her spine, only to find Jasper at her threshold: gaunt, feverish, eyes hollow with need. Wordlessly, she guides him inside, drawing hot tea that steams between them. She asks him why he came. What brought him to her door in the middle of the night? "I wanted you," he says. "I love you," she replies.

OCTOBER Jasper reappears from Twelve like a storm, clutching shards of raw kyanite that flash cerulean in the half‑light and bearing the marks of Luxite’s wrath — a bruised cheek, a black eye. He’s been made into a shared pet again, and Cress asks him to draw a line. What will it take for you to sacrifice him? He says Luxite would have to bring in someone else, or leave Jasper for dead. He gifts her a necklace: a chunk of kyanite set in metal he scavenged from bomb‑scarred ruins. She fastens it, its weight an anchor for fragile hope. Slate and Cress host their annual birthday party at District Zero. A Bacchanalia -- a wine-soaked affair. She and Bram have coordinated a surprise for Slate, and while it's the first time Cress touches Bram, it's the first time Bram touches another woman. Their orbits irrevocably realign. Something changes.

NOVEMBER Under Capitol Studio Soundstage 3B’s merciless floodlights, Cress is dressed in her arena uniform, a replica of the Captiol-sanction undergarments they'd been made to wear. The “Victors of Panem: Centennial Series” demands it. The past is honored, though it's hardly sacred. Jasper is a ghost. He falters, confused, and she locks them in a dressing room, shielding them from prying eyes. He tells her Luxite has been tightening, that he was made to reenact his arena, and Cress swallows her rage. "I'll keep watch," she promises, and he sleeps on the couch with the lights on -- the first time he's slept in days.

DECEMBER To cover Slate’s journey to Avalon with Bramble, Cress bundles Kya into woolen layers and travels to Twelve. In Hestia’s warm kitchen, they knead dough and sip thick soup, children’s laughter weaving through the hearth’s glow. But before they settle into peace, the four of them — Cress, Slate, Bram, and Jasper — steal away to District Two for a pre-Hearth Day vacation. Under low beams hung with holly, they toast spiked cocoa until tears and laughter mingle on their cheeks. They honor Galen. Cress recites, “Give lilies with full hands…” and Jasper finishes, “…that I may scatter purple flowers,” their voices trembling with memory and reclaimed joy. It is a perfect three days — an impossible dream painted over the ghosts of past horrors. It's the last time Cress feels truly happy.

NEW YEAR'S EVE New Year’s Eve descends like a guillotine. Pontus leads Cress into the penthouse’s mirrored foyer, where Jasper and Luxite wait behind velvet drapes. He speaks of love as duty and duty as love, guiding her through a ritual of submission she once believed she’d escaped. Cress had been promised she was past this. She refuses, even stands to leave. "Fuck you," she hisses, and Pontus hits her -- the first time, the only. She and Jasper are made to perform, and Cress is told it is a lesson. “It’s my fault,” Pontus says. “I’ve confused you. I gave you too long of a leash, to where you forgot you had one. And you’ve wandered away from your role, from your responsibilities. This is to remind you. To help clarify things.”

JANUARY Slate tends to them both. They sleep, and sleep, and then Jasper is called home. His father is ill, and he has to go. Before he does, he gives Cress permission -- "We have to kill them both." But Cress says nothing. She cannot muster the energy to seek revenge. She is no good to anyone. In her absence, the plan carries on. Almanac 95 is released, and Pontus is arrested for its distribution. Slate denounces the letters. He asks if she wants to see the footage -- if it would help to see Pontus punished. Cress rolls over. She retreats. She doesn't leave the bed. Weeks later, Cress wakes Slate in the middle of the night. "I have to tell you something," she says, and by the time she's done, the sun is rising in the sky. Slate packs their things. He takes Cress and Kya to Twelve. She needs to heal.

FEBRUARY Winter’s grip tightens as Cress surfaces from weeks of fevered sleep only to discover she’s nauseous, her body aching with impossible new life. When the bleeding doesn’t come, dread coils in her stomach. She asks for a test. Slate brings her three. They come back positive, and Cress refuses to consider the possibilities. Slate coaxes her back to the Capitol, to a midwife who speaks with care, and she confirms what they suspected: "we ran a paternity test, and the DNA match isn't you."

Slate tells Cress the results: "it's Jasper's."

[lena-writes]

LIFE UPDATES (MACK - 99/100 OFF-CYCLE)

JULY Farina wins the 99th Games. Mack and Cain play a game at District Zero together, one about jealousy. It ends with Cain punching a sponsor, with Mack realizing he's saved her again -- again -- both with his fist and with his association, which has kept her insulated from this dark underbelly. When Ariston says, It’s time you and Cain moved in together, she just nods. She doesn't mind. In fact, she's grateful to not be alone.

AUGUST Cain’s apartment in the Capitol is so clean, it squeaks. Spartan, like he thinks someone’s inspecting. They probably are. Mack doesn't have much to her name. Only what they gave her. Only what she's accumulated since her Games. It all fits in one bag. They operate like roommates, or maybe more like she's a guest, crashing on the couch between places. He’s polite. Boyish. Too careful. She tests his limits with toothpaste left uncapped, bras on the door handle, making morning coffee in her underwear. Sometimes he argues with her, calls her messy and annoying. Other times, he stammers and turns red. She thinks it’s kind of cute.

SEPTEMBER The awkwardness mellows. She learns he does this little tap-tap rhythm on the side of mugs when he’s thinking. He starts to learn her songs, which are Covey, and he doesn't ask about them yet, but he's starting to want to. They develop a rhythm: she makes messes, he cleans them. She lights candles, he blows them out after she falls asleep. She teases. He laughs. He comes home with flowers one day, then insists they're just for decor. They start to look like something. Not quite lovers, not quite friends. But something.

OCTOBER The Bacchanalia for Cress and Slate’s birthday is a wine-drenched fever dream. Jasper’s there, looking thinner than she remembers. She spends the night trying to get that spark back behind his eyes. It catches, just a few times. When Venus' touch seeps into everything, she reaches for Cain, and they go home. There are no more drugs in the air when they reach the apartment, but there's just as much desire. For the first time, Mack sleeps in the bed with him.

NOVEMBER Something starts to bloom. Quiet at first. Cain brushes her hair out of her face while she’s asleep on the couch. She kisses his cheek one night, just to see what he’ll do. He stares at her like she’s a sunbeam he wasn’t allowed to look at. She sees it then — he’s afraid of her. Or maybe he’s afraid of what he wants. She stops teasing quite so hard. Starts letting him win at cards. They get drunk together one night and wake up tangled but clothed. They don’t speak of it, but neither of them pulls away anymore.

DECEMBER They visit the Gunns for Hearth Day, which Mack fucking hates. She's excited to see Archer, though. They go snowboarding, and this time, Cain laughs when Mack pushes him into the snow. They play with Keres and Kratos, and Mack tries her best to coax him out, lying on her stomach, taking it slow. Cain sits with her for a whole afternoon, his hand on her lower back, thumb drawing lazily, affectionate and slow. She admits that she's been reading Mega Trona comics, and that thrills him, so they hide out on the rope loft and pour over them together. Up there, they kiss once, then again, then stop and laugh at themselves, afraid of Archer walking in again. When she tells him she's getting the itch to catch out, he looks hurt, scared. He looks like he's trying to find a way to ask her not to go.

JANUARY Pontus falls. The arrest rocks the Capitol. Almanac 95 drops like thunder in the underground, and Ash in the Orchard spreads like wildfire. Mack’s voice is in it — hers and the old voices, the Covey songs sung in fields and railcars and jail cells. Back in the Capitol, Mack and Cain have found full flow. They want to give it another chance. One night, they go there. It’s slow. Tender. Sober. After, one of them whispers, What if we just don’t go back? And the other says, Okay. They make a plan.

FEBRUARY The day comes. She waits at the depot, boots laced, bag on her back, heart thudding like a train engine. Cain appears. And then, so do Peacekeepers. The train begins to rumble to life, turning its wheels, and Mack leaps up, turning to help Cain. He stops. There’s an apology in his eyes that splits her in two. He's frozen, obedient. He watches her go. She jumps to another train at the next station. Then again. Then again, so no one can follow. She turns off her phone. She keeps going.

FEBRUARY – JUNE She vanishes. Not gone, just dispersed. In Nine, she sings in a barn. In Three, in a basement. In Eleven, in the fields, the lyrics catching on the wind. She passes out zines and copies of Almanac 95, tucks them in coat pockets, leaves them on stoops. She performs Ash in the Orchard wherever she goes. In Twelve, she meets Maia at the Hob — a Covey elder who remembers things Mack never learned. She seeks out her wisdom, her mentorship. Maia is skeptical, but Mack is persistent. Maybe she reminds Maia of Slate, or Galen. They talk of roots. Of memory. Mack writes new verses every night. Old ones echo back.

JULY She comes home. Or what passes for it -- District Six, for Reaping Day. They take her at the checkpoint, and they force her on the stage beside Mandi and Cat and Otto. After, she's escorted to the train. You’ve been summoned, they tell her. Ariston and Nerissa are waiting.

[lena-writes]

Playlist 03 (Cress & Jasper)

And the sights were as stark as my baby And the cold was as sharp as my baby And the nights were as dark as my baby Half as beautiful too

[lena-writes]

MOODBOARDS (SLATE + BRAM)

She hadn't thought about Slate in a little over a month.

Healing scar tissue, like the raised skin across her stomach. Too deep to ever disappear, but she could pretend. She could cover it. It only hurt if she pressed. In the immediate fallout of the arena, Bram had fits -- violent, ugly. Isolation had made her desperate, and she'd begged for connection. A minute. A note. Anything. In the months after, she tried from Eleven, but there was nothing left -- all of the networks had been exposed, all of the loose ends tied up. In the years after, she'd only received whispers, scraps of information. The death of TH3 T0MMY. The birth of his daughter. The life he had Cress in the Capitol.

She hadn't thought about him in a month, and that was a new record.

[lena-writes]

Playlist 02 (Mack & Cain) + Hip Hop / Rap / R&B

If the chips fall right and the dick alright Can I stay all night? I can lie pretty well

[lena-writes]

MOODBOARDS (MACK + CAIN)

Cause this is torturous Electricity between both of us And this is dangerous 'Cause I want you so much But I hate your guts I hate you

[lena-writes]

Playlist 01 (Mack & Cain)

Leave me on the tracks To wait until the morning train arrives Don't you dare look back Walk away Catch up with the sunrise