ruhan narang | d3 fin

Growing up, Ruhan was addicted to the computer screen. And in many ways, he still is. Whether writing, coding, or watching the Capitol's advertisements every five minutes on the apps he used, his eyes poured onto the screen until blue light stained his eyes at four in the morning. District Three's industry is technology, making a comprehensive understanding of computers a necessity. Still, after his twelfth birthday was spent in the computer labs rather than at home with his family, Ruhan's parents tried to get more strict with screen time.

Tried. And failed.

In the graduating class of the Sixty-Ninth Hunger Games, there were four groups of people. Number One: the normals, the kids who learned a bit of everything, just enough to get by and secure themselves a safe enough job. Number Two: the cool kids, whose parents are rich enough to support them whether they work or not, and so obviously they choose the latter. Number Three: the over-achievers, the tryhards who perfect every aspect of the technology field so there's a profession waiting for them as soon as they get out. Lastly, Number Four: the geeks, the kids who never cared about learning and were only there for the fun stuff. That's Ruhan's crowd.

He was a skinny kid all the way through school. He and his friends were bullied through high school. The social politics of high school were never his speed. Kids mocked them for their style, interests, and maybe their lack of poor hygiene, but for the first year and a half, the "geeks" were mostly oblivious to it. It wasn't until one of the popular kids threw his clothes out the locker room window during gym in the sophomore year that he and his friends realized. Then, things started to click. People talked to him and sat by his table at lunch because they wanted to laugh at the ridiculous things he and his friends had to say. None the wiser, Ruhan joked alongside them, thinking that what he had to say was funny. Instead, it was he himself who made people laugh. His quirks, his braces, his clothes, and his all-consuming addiction to the screen.

Ruhan never listened to the advice of adults, with one exception: the kids you bully will eventually be your boss. After graduating, most of his classmates went to their jobs, occupations practically assigned to them by District Three. Ruhan did this, too, for about half a year, coding animations for the holograms in the Capitol. But a low-level job couldn't keep his interest. It took six months for him to hand in his two-week notice.

His parents had some money, enough to support him. Why not follow his interests rather than work? He moved back into his parent's house shortly after. Immediately, they were on his case about finding a new job. "It'll come when it comes," he told them, eyes glued to the screen as he organized colored blocks with a claw. Neither of them was impressed that their twenty-year-old son was free-riding. He never cooked, cleaned, or even did his own laundry. The only time he left the house was to go to the labs with his school friends. He just wanted to play games and code. A few months after, they gave him an ultimatum: work or leave.

And so Ruhan moved into his friend's house. It was the same group of five guys he hung out with in high school. Each of them freelanced jobs around District Three, working short-term deals in the games district, coding district, and robotics district. The best part was that they all worked together from home. No need to leave except for groceries once every other week. The sweet life.

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Life in the other districts can get boring. Two has its trash, Twelve has its mining, and Four has its fishing. In District Three, there is always something new to explore in the world of technology. The Capitol is always wanting something innovative and new. When the group was in their twenties, the Capitol hired them to clean up the code for a Hunger Games simulator game. It was set to launch in just a few months, but the Capitol ran into an "issue regarding their employees that led to their firings." The group picked Ruhan to be the one to pitch that their work would be best for the job. He's never been good at public speaking, but compared to the other five, he was probably the best equipped. The mere shot at recognition from the Capitol, and hopefully their name on a product, could launch them into stardom not only in the Capitol but Three as well.

At the pitch table, Ruhan promised them everything. Loyalty. Secrecy. Obedience. Those were things that the Capitol wanted to hear. They told him that their previous employees were removed from their positions because they had embedded anti-Capitol propaganda into the product. Ruhan nodded through as they worked out the contracts: pure legalese mostly, just stating that cleaning up the code and making some changes to the game would be the extent of their job and that each of their names would be included at the bottom of the credits, as their tenure on the project was the smallest. Nothing else binding (he even put on his reading glasses for the fine print.)

The instructions were simple and concise enough that they spent day and night working on the project until it was finished with a few weeks to spare on the deadline. Computer nerds get shit done, as they say. The group gained notoriety with their names in the game's credits. Only a few people outside of the Capitol got to be featured, such as the Career actors from One they used as base models for the characters. Fixing their game got them enough pay to sustain them for quite a while, but it was the recognition that carried their finances for years to come.

A few days after the game's release, the Capitol approached the group again, asking them if they'd want to play a few rounds of the game from District Three for a broadcast as a thank-you for 'supporting the Capitol's endeavors toward entertainment.' While some of the group was hesitant, thinking of playing a Hunger Games simulator in light of Three's numerous tribute deaths was in poor taste, Ruhan welcomed the idea with open arms. The Capitol's exposure is an asset in the industry of technology. He'd much rather do stuff like this than spend day and night in a factory manufacturing computer parts. "For better or worse, we can't really say no. What sort of message would that be sending?" It took some convincing, but he eventually convinced the group to play.

The spotlights as he sat in front of his Capitol-issued gaming setup was overwhelming at first. He was much more used to the dark depths of the basement. It was quite a peculiar sight seeing six nerdy guys in their early-to-mid twenties being given all the attention in a room full of rich Capitol investors and a few special invitees from Three.

Ruhan won three of the four simulations on the broadcast, using a different playstyle each time. He lost the fourth match because he'd opted to play a younger tribute, but even she managed to make it to the final two. Crowned 'Victor of the Hunger Games Simulator Challenge,' he was given a plaque (expensive looking but cheap in actuality.)

It was actually the woman who handed him the plaque that would soon become his wife. Parvati. Looking back on it now, their romance felt almost set up by the Capitol's arrangements. One of the Capitol men in a suit encouraged him to speak with her at the after-party, saying that good things happen when a nice boy meets a nice girl. The last time Ruhan was in a relationship was… never. They married when he was twenty-seven, which was the first time he'd moved out from his group's house in seven or eight years. Ruhan and Parvati had their first (and only) child, Vinay, a year later. At forty-four, his relationship with Parvati feels like a glimpse of the past. He wasn't a good husband. While Ruhan would argue he parented well, Parvati disagreed, saying he spent more time in his home office behind the computer screen than he did taking care of Vinay. They were divorced by age thirty. If it wasn't for the man in the Capitol who he'd kept in contact with for more opportunities, he wouldn't have gotten as fair of a deal regarding their son.

Moving back with his business partners was the breath of fresh air he needed. Marriage… it was nice in theory, and he certainly is grateful for the fact that it provided him with a son, but his real home was always with the guys. They officially titled themselves the "NOCTIR Co.," an acronym of all their first names combined. Functioning as a unit, they kept working on games for the Capitol.

N for Ned, working on visual and graphic effects.

O for Otis, working on audio and sound.

C for Craig, working on script, narration, and story.

T for Tahir, working on animation and assets.

I for Ignar, working on game mechanics and function.

R, for Ruhan, working on oversight and bug fixes.

And their slogan: We'll work through the night to get your job done!

Typically, NOCTIR's work for the Capitol comes per their request. If they needed certain features of a game added or an expansion of some sort made, NOCTIR was the first place in District Three they turned to. Of course, the vision and final seal of approval always came from the Capitol's heads, but the appeal for Ruhan and the others was oftentimes the ability to play the games they produced and coded, like an added bonus for all of their hard work.

Through most of his thirties, he was practically a yes-man for the Capitol's videogame enterprises. There was always an unsavory element or two to the games NOCTIR produced, but the money they made and the perks they received helped Ruhan turn a blind eye. The house they started in, once one big cluster, turned into their "home base" as each of them began to start families of their own or lead independent lifestyles. At first, they gave the group one copy to play under the condition that it could not be copied or torrented around. However, that one copy soon moved to one for each of them, and once Vinay was old enough, one for him to use when he stayed with his mom. Father-like-son, Vinay quickly became a beta tester for the games NOCTIR helped produce. There was, of course, a budget assigned to them by the Capitol, and NOCTIR ran it to the wire every time. Ruhan's obsession with a computer rubbed off on Vinay, so it was easy to convince Vinay and his coworkers' kids to play and test products for free.

NOCTIR took pride in realizing other people's visions, but what Ruhan and the others desired more than anything was to be given the creative license to make their own game. It was talked about constantly, but always put off due to the shy nature of the group. No one ever wanted to pitch the idea, fearing rejection. It wasn't until he was forty-two that Ruhan finally swallowed the lump in his throat and went to his contact, pitching a game of randomness, excitement, and highly addictive replayable: Victor-Kart.

To everyone in the group's surprise, the Capitol loved the idea, declaring interest in it immediately.

"And which of you and your brilliant fellows came up with this idea?"

Ruhan nervously scratched the back of his hand. It was a group idea, but… "I did, actually! But everyone helped."

Claiming the idea as his own propelled his contacts to make him the chief, completely in charge of the project. While they hired NOCTIR to spearhead the project, Ruhan was also hired separately to have the lead authority over all things Victor-Kart! This, of course, came with pay four times as high as the rest of the guys, much to their chagrin.

But hey, it's just a video game, right? They all win in the end…