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I think you can pull it off.

[He's looking very steadily and directly at Chris with admiration in his eyes.]

And you can call me Quentin... if you prefer.

I think so, too.

[It's nice that somebody else has confidence in him. For far too long, he's had to prop himself up against the world.]

Quentin, huh? You're way hotter than the other director with that name.

[Beck knows what it's like, to have to always try to prove himself. He wants to be encouraging to his cast and crew - and now new boyfriend.]

You think I'm hot?

[Also something he wasn't used to hearing. He wanted to believe that Chris meant it.]

Yeah.

You're just not used to being in your own skin. You're used to being protected by the costume.

[He lowers his head sheepishly, chuckling softly.]

It's that obvious, huh?

It's difficult... just to be myself. I always felt I had to put on some kind of act to make people... like me... or fear me... or respect me... or really anything but mock and call me worthless and ugly.

[He grimaces, drinking more to avoid looking at Chris for the moment. He didn't like feeling vulnerable and not wearing the costume had that effect. Not all the time but even out of costume, he'd put on other faces, so to speak. Pretending to be other people so it didn't hurt so much when people just didn't like him.]

I'm sorry you've been through so much shit.

But I swear, man, if anyone tries to put you down when I'm around, I'll rip their fucking face off.

[Too much?]

Well, more like metaphorically because I'm not that into bloodbaths anymore but y'know. You don't deserve that shit. You never did.

[The reply does make him smile, bloodthirsty as it may be. It was nice to hear someone come to his defence. Between Chris and Gokudera, he felt much more supported.]

So you were into bloodbaths before?

It's not that I was into them so much as they tended to happen around me.

My dad taught me how to kill from a very young age. I carried that into adulthood. Probably wasn't the best adjusted dude in the world.

[Not saying that he is one now, but... he's better.]

You mean like an assassin?

Like a soldier.

Or a fucking psycho, I guess.

[He's not sure if it's worse to have his own father acting like his son didn't exist or Chris' father teaching an innocent boy how to be a ruthless killing machine. Either way, they both had a terrible traumatic childhood which they continued to try to overcome.]

But that's not you. The real you.

What did you want for yourself? What did you want to be as a kid?

Probably a badass musician who gets all the babes.

But that was really Keith's dream, not mine.

Your brother?

Yeah.

I guess I had dorkier dreams, like being a knight in shining armor and rescuing princesses.

I wanted to make monsters. Movie monsters. I used to make my own little stop-motion films as a kid.

[Beck says with a distant smile before he frowns again.]

But while you became a psycho soldier. I turned into a bank robber who tried to make people think they were insane.

Life takes us on weird fucking paths, man.

But now you can do you movie magic and I can be a hero. As well as I can manage it, anyway.

Have you rescued any princesses yet?

[Trying to lighten the mood again.]

[He laughs.]

My friend Adebayo and my friend Harcourt from a bunch of killer butterflies.

Pretty sure they'd both object to the label of princess, though.

Killer butterflies? Were they giant butterflies? Like the ants in Them!?

No, more this size.

[He shows something close to the size of a football.]

And they could eat people brains, gain their memories and pilot their bodies. Total bodysnatcher shit.

Oh creepy. I love it!

I mean... It would make a cool horror movie.

I guess living through it wouldn't be so fun. But you defeated these body snatching butterflies?

[At least he doesn't disbelieve that this can happen. He's seen plenty of weirdness in his own world.]

Yeah, we kicked their asses.

I let their leader live, in the end. I felt kinda bad for them. They were just trying to find a new home after theirs was destroyed and saw our planet going to hell.