Origins

Friends and strangers alike know what people he comes from. Apollo calls him a “fellow Ixian” outright: both men are Ixians.

“I hate to do that to a fellow Ixian.”

“我真不想那样对待我的同胞”

Apollo is the son of Mikhail, someone who has looked at the world from the top of an ivory tower since boyhood. The first thing Abrams asked on meeting him was, “You’re Mikhail’s son, right?” Apollo asked back whether he knew his father, and he answered frankly: not personally, obviously; they don’t exactly run in the same circles. The circles he meant were his and Mikhail’s, not his and Apollo’s.

Of New York, the crown prince will only allow that it is “tolerable,” and he urged Abrams to remember that humans are not bad, but they are not “us.” Abrams would have none of it: he was not sure he needed life advice from someone who has only seen the world from an ivory tower.

“I'm not sure I need life advice from someone who's only seen the world from an ivory tower.”

“我不确定我是否要向只在象牙塔里观察世界的人寻求人生建议”

His birth has not held him back. He doesn’t work for the department and has no wish to please anyone; the streets, card tables and bars of New York are his territory. Once, when Apollo fell before him, his words were plain: he didn’t care if Apollo was Dauphin — come at his people, and he beats you down. And when Apollo put him down, the sigh was over something else: a titan of a man, a shame he made bad life choices.

“I don't care if you're Dauphin, Apollo. Come at my people, and I beat you down.”

“我不管你是不是王太子，阿波罗。胆敢攻击我的人民，我就把你打得落花流水”

His style has long had a name about town. Drifter took a liking to his jacket and asked who he’d killed for it; he answered that he bought it. His questioner was sorely disappointed.

“I bought it.”

“我是买来的”

Old Friends and Foes

Infernus, Wraith and Mo & Krill: The Sunday Card Game

Abrams’s world is not all cases. Infernus is a familiar face at the bar he frequents, and Abrams told him to remember all the times he saved his life today the next time he’s pouring him the good stuff. When it truly came to blows, his sigh was: hope I didn’t kill my bartender for nothing.

“Hey Fern, try to remember all the times I save your life today next time you're pouring me the good stuff.”

“嘿，炽焱，下次你给我倒好酒的时候，请试着记住我今天救过你多少次”

Wraith and Mo & Krill sit at his table at the Sunday card game. Wraith complained that she had missed him at the game and told him to just sell the damn book already; he said he couldn’t. She told him he wasn’t the chosen one, just a guy who was dealt a bad hand, and still he would not be moved.

“Yeah yeah wrong hands blah blah . Abe: you're not the chosen one. Your just a guy who was dealt a bad hand… dump the book and get your life back.”

“是啊是啊，运气不好什么的，等等等等。亚伯兰：你不是天选之子。你只是个运气不好的人。扔掉那本书，重新开始你的生活”

With the ritual at hand, Mo & Krill were fretting over fifty bucks they owed Wraith from cards. Abrams didn’t know whether to laugh or groan, and said he would square up after the fight. Later, when he put Wraith down on the battlefield, what weighed on him was not getting kicked out of Sunday’s card game.

“Makes a lot more sense now. I'll square up after the fight.”

“现在更说得通了。战斗后我就去收拾残局。”

Vindicta, Holliday and Dynamo: Shoulder to Shoulder

Holliday is his partner, and their plan is simple to the point of brutality: she grabs ’em, then he punches their skull in.

“I was thinking you grab 'em than I punch their skull in.”

“我在想你抓住他们然后我打碎他们的头骨”

With Vindicta, too, there has been a moment of putting his life in another’s hands. He opened with, “I’m trusting you to help keep me alive”; she answered only, “Don’t worry, Detective — I’ll do my part.”

“I'm trusting you to help keep me alive.”

“我相信你能帮我活下去”

Should they stand against each other on the field, his words are still decent: her anger’s justified, but her methods aren’t.

“Your anger's justified, but your methods aren't…”

“你的愤怒很合理，但你的手法不合理…”

And Professor Dynamo is someone he has promised to protect: stay close to me, Professor, I’ll keep you safe. Yet when he has had to put the professor down, he is just as frank: he seemed like a decent guy, and Abrams almost feels bad.

“He seemed like a decent guy, almost feel bad…”

“他看起来是个正派，几乎有不好的感觉…”

Silver: Old Times and Whiskey

To him, Silver is “Lilah.” On seeing him, the first thing she did was invite him, after the ritual, to “make some bad decisions for old times’ sake.” He demurred, and she teased him for becoming so boring. She knows all about the tome case he is working, too.

“After the ritual want to make some bad decisions for old times sake?”

“仪式结束后，想为了缅怀过去而做出一些错误的决定吗？”

Even when they come to blows, what she leaves him with is: they’ll get some whiskey and laugh about this later.

“We'll get some whiskey and laugh about this later, Abe.”

“亚伯兰，我们待会儿喝点威士忌，好好笑一笑这件事”

Venator: What Happened in the Brownstone

There is no one he would rather not talk about than Venator. This priest of the Vatican said he should have handed over the tome the moment it came into his possession; Abrams shot back that last he checked, it doesn’t belong to the Vatican. It doesn’t belong to you either, said the priest. No, he answered, but he is the only one he trusts to get rid of it.

“No. But I'm the only the one I trust to get rid of it.”

“不。但我只信任我能把它处理掉”

Between the two of them lies the Brownstone Incident. When they met again, the priest said he couldn’t tell whether Abrams was happy or disappointed, and Abrams said: why not both? What happened in that brownstone, the priest says, is his burden alone, and he saved lives; Abrams had only one thing to say back.

The priest admits that he, too, keeps questionable friends, no better than Abrams’s. In his eyes Abrams is still a good man, worth fighting beside. But over the fallen priest, Abrams says: I really hoped I would never see that guy again.

“I also keep questionable friends.”

“我也有一些不太靠谱的朋友”

“I really hoped I would never see that guy again.”

“我真的希望再也不会见到那个家伙了”

Lady Geist: The Monster Under the Same Roof

Lady Geist finds him crude, and says outright that having to work alongside a brute exasperates her. He, for his part, calls her a monster, and says he’ll stop Oathkeeper if it’s the last thing he does. Yet the two seem to live in the same apartment building, and every time he puts her down, what he thinks about is how awkward it’s going to be back at the apartment.

“You’re a monster, Geist…”

“你是个怪物，盖斯特…”

“This is gonna be awkward back at the apartment…”

“这下回公寓后气氛可尴尬了……”

Paradox, Haze and Pocket: Coveted and Courted

His investigations have long been watched. Paradox told him herself that her people have been following his work, and advised him to stop asking questions: some things aren’t meant to be revealed.

“We like secrets, and you seem to have a knack for finding them. But a word of advice: some things aren't meant to be revealed. Stop asking questions about us.”

“我们喜欢秘密，而你似乎很擅长发现秘密。不过，给你个忠告：有些事情不应该被揭露。别再问我们了”

Haze, meanwhile, urged him to work for the OSIC: they have plenty of people who can kick down doors, and not enough guys who care what doors are getting kicked down.

“We do. We don't have enough guys who care what doors are getting kicked down.”

“是的。我们没有足够的人去关心哪些门被踢倒了”

As for Pocket, he has long known who she is, and wanted to talk with her about her old man, only to be turned away with a single line: please don’t talk to me like you know me.

“I know who you are, Pocket…trust me when I tell you it's not worth it…”

“我知道你是谁，口袋…相信我，这不值得…”

Warden and Seven: Black, White and Gray

Warden holds that the tome must be destroyed; Abrams says that sometimes the ends justify the means. On this the two cannot stop arguing.

“Sometimes the ends justify the means.”

“有时候，目的可以证明手段的正当性”

Seven he judges a guilty man. When he puts Seven down, his verdict is a single line: men like you deserve to rot in Lost Whisper.

“Men like you deserve to rot in Lost Whisper.”

“像你这样的人就该烂在永寂黑渊里”

The Children: Where He Goes Soft

He is especially soft on the young. When Rem asked whether he could protect him, he said he’d try. When Paige mentioned her parents’ rare bookstore, he named “Little Alexandria” at once: it was one of the first places he tried.

“I'll try.”

“我试试”

Later, when he had to raise his hand against Paige, he sighed: you seem like a good kid, I’m sorry.

“You seem like a good kid, I'm sorry.”

“你看起来是个好孩子，对不起。”

Toward Celeste, too, he shows a human touch. She got caught up in all this for the sake of her friend Lenny, and he told her she should’ve come to him for help.

“Damn it Celeste, you should've come to me for help.”

“赛凌，你应该来找我帮忙的”

Violet: A Student Who Belongs in School

In Abrams’s eyes, Violet is forever just an art student in the wrong place. She asked how many cases he was working, and made fun of the book he carries everywhere; and every time he puts her down, the first thing out of his mouth is advice to stay in school, get back to life drawing class, or find an artist’s commune to hang out in. She bears him no ill will — she calls him Detective, and hopes he will stand on her side — only the ritual leaves her no room to go easy.

“Took out the art student.”

“击倒了美术生”

Anecdotes

He has his own rules in this city. Ivy asked whether a private detective isn’t a job where you help people but charge them money; he answered that a lot of his clients wished he hadn’t been honest about what he found, and that the truth usually is depressing. Another time, Calico told him that honest men are hard to come by, and tend to stick out even if they aren’t a blue wall of muscle.

“Help is relative…I'm pretty sure a lot of my clients wished I wasn't honest about what I found.”

“帮助是相对的…我敢肯定，我的很多客户都希望我对自己的发现不诚实”

“Honest men are hard to come by. They tend to stick out even if they weren't a blue wall of muscle.”

“诚实的男人难得一见。即使他们不是肌肉发达的蓝皮人，也往往很显眼”

He once advised Ivy not to undervalue her worth; yet when the time came that he had to strike her, he owned up plainly to the guilt he felt.

“I feel pretty guilty about that. Not guilty enough not to punch her again, but still guilty.”

“我对此感到非常内疚。虽然还没内疚到不忍心再打她一顿，但还是很内疚”

He knows his own weight, and knows when he is outmatched.

He talks about New York the way one talks about a difficult old flame.

In his hands the tome’s power is more like a set of shackles: he charges in on its strength even as he curses it, and he even talks to the book.

“Listen here, book… you work for me…”

“听着，书… 你是为我工作…”

He has been seen below ground: Rat King once told him he wasn’t supposed to show his face in the sewers again, and though he grudgingly let it slide in the end, he warned him, “I have my eye on you.”

“I thought I said you weren't supposed to show your face in the sewers again.”

“我不是说过你不准再出现在下水道里吗？”

Solomon, for his part, told him that once he gets rid of the tome he deserves to take himself on a nice vacation, and offered to call in a favor for five-star accommodations.

“Let me put it this way. If you can buy an airship ticket to Europe, I can call in a favor for 5 star accommodations.”

“这么说吧，如果你能买到去欧洲的飞艇机票，我就能帮你安排五星级酒店住宿”

Open Questions