Rage (Fenris)

Kirkwall is a mess if you don't know, but it's the Freemarches, and so it's expected.

“Jews are commanded ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha; to love our neighbors as ourselves. But as I have a tendency to hate myself, I'm not the fondest of other people.” I say to Hawke as we stand outside one of the shops in HighTown. Now there are exceptions of course, Hawke obviously, Alarian, My friends, and a select few others who I am acquaintances with. But now I have no room in myself for love, for today all I can feel is rage and grief, and the sobering effects of reality.

Why do I feel these things? Perhaps I should give you an explanation of why we’re in HighTown in the first place. I'll start from the beginning, I had gone for a walk and I didn't feel like walk down to Darktown as that's not a very nice place, so I walked up through hightown. There's a street I like to go through that's lined with some shops and a grocery store, most of them are owned by residents of the Jewish community who live in the alienage a few streets away, and is one of the only places that you can get specific items without venturing into the Kirkwall alienage. But today would not be a normal day for them, as I turned onto the street I smelled smoke, and then I saw it-

The windows were smashed to pieces or defaced, someone had thrown a burning bottle of alcohol through the window of the post office, the inside was in flames. On a shard of broken glass someone has drawn a swastika and written “Gas the Jews.” I noticed a trail of broken shards leading to an alleyway and when I got to the entrance of it I peeked down it and yelled “Anybody there?” Then I felt someone pull on my jacket and a knife against my neck. I was pushed up against the brick wall and I could see the person's face and body, his buzzed black hair, muscular frame, long trench coat and black boots, and hate-filled eyes. He looked disgusted just from the sight of me. The perfect description of a Neo-Nazi, that's what we call people who aren't Qunari but still follow their ideology. “What are you doing here?!” He asks me gruffly and pushes the knife up against my neck more. I frown angrily and don't say anything, but my fists clench. “I'll ask again why are you here?!” I try to swallow and feel blood start to trickle down my neck “Simply running errands.” Remaining calm is hard at times like this, but he takes the knife away from my neck and steps away. “If you tell anyone about this I'll kill you!” My facial expression doesn't change, but then I hear sirens. The man turns to run but I lunge at him and tackle him to the ground. “You're not going anywhere.” He tries to get out of my grip, but I'm relentless, years of work has built up my strength. The authorities come after a few minutes and handcuff the man, taking him to the gallows: Kirkwalls jail. Hawke showed up then, running to meet me. “What happened?” He asked frantically looking at the bloodstain on my shirt and the cut on my neck. “Some guy pushed me up against a wall and held a knife to my neck. It's nothing, I'm fine Garret.” I explain. “Is that the guy who I saw them taking away? Seemed kinda bruised up, did you fight back?” He asks me pointing to the street he came down. I nod “It was equal parts anger and self defense, to explain it to you: Jews are commanded ve’ahavta lere’acha kamocha; to love our neighbors as ourselves. But as I have a tendency to hate myself, I'm not the fondest of other people. Hence, that.” I gesture to the blood stain on my shirt. Hawkes expression changes to one of sadness, you see Hawkes a bit like a big puppy. He likes to act all tough but really he's not. “W-why do you hate yourself?” I walk backwards and sit on the stone wall “Trust me, if you were me you'd have a rather negative self image too. You don't know what I've done Garret, and to be honest, I'm a mess.” One of the officers comes up to us “Were you the one who got attacked?” He asks me. I nod and he scribbles something on a pad of parchment then thanks us and walks away. Eventually the officers and the ambulance go back to their own stations further away leaving just the two of us, still sitting on the wall. “I want to show you something.” I say as I hop off the wall, Garret follows me. I walk over to the broken window of the grocery store and carefully climb through then run down one of the isles and find what I was looking for. I crouch and rummage through some boxes of pancake mix then withdraw the note I had found a few days ago. I unravel it and show it to Hawke,

To my fellow Jew,

Tensions are rising, I fear something will happen. There has been an organization rising out of the sewers of Darktown, they follow the Nazi pact and ideology. Very dangerous, be careful when walking alone. To who finds this note: keep it hidden, the Gestapo must not find it!

Godspeed,
Wilhem.

“Wilhem is the owner of this place.” I explain to Hawke. He looks up at me “Did you find this note?” He asks. “It was placed in one of the grocery bags the other day when I wasn't looking. So I thought of a place no one would look. Behind a bunch of pancake batter boxes.” He smiles “That's clever. And another question, who are the Gestapo?” I sigh, “The Gestapo are like the NAZI secret police, not quite the SS, but still bad. They were some of the ones who would make home raidings to see if people had others hidden in their basements and such. To but it simply, bad guys.” I look out the broken window, it's getting dark, I hear a bell tolling in the distance. “We should go Garret, it's getting dark.” I put the note in my pocket and lead him back out onto the street and towards home. I don't look back, if I do then all the emotions from earlier would come back. Rage, hate, and the other affects of reality.