Re: Carnival: Muerte / Eddie
Muerte knew that hurt-child part of Eddie, tried to move around it (not with pity, but with care). And she knew how it made him soft-hearted to those he could identify with. It was enough to make her aware of those plights as well. Even a passing word could help someone like Danny, and it cost her nothing to be the one to lay it out there.
Eddie's smile at the glove-strip brought a bit of mischief to her own expression. The performing came easy, mainly just flirting with him onstage, and she mostly wanted to do that all of the time anyway. And if she maybe played it up a little more than she would otherwise (if there was a little bit of Cat's bravado in Muerte's performance), she didn't think that hurt the show or either one of them. She didn't hear (or feel) any complaints from the audience, at least.
His hand laid in hers, she laced her fingers between his, bringing his hand over to her bare one so that she could guide both their hands over Marigold's side, skin to skin over the dragon's shining side. It was a moment that felt curiously intimate, both for her, and for many of the audience members watching. She moved them along slowly, feeling every outlined scale as a valley beneath her fingertips, and it took almost an age to reach the dragon's tail. She knew what was coming when they did, and this part was all Eddie, all of it his own genius in bringing life to the clockwork.
Marigold stole the show for the audience, but Muerte was more focused on the warm press of Eddie's kiss to her cheek. For the first time since she took the stage, her snow-pale cheek flushed, just a bit, and she angled a pleased glance over at him. It was easy to take his hand again, to step close and smile down at him. She had the fleeting desire to toe off her heels so they'd be nearly equal in height, but she wasn't going to do it in the middle of the show. It felt like it was be a little too much of a dropping of her character. That didn't stop her from smiling at him and easily following the lead of his steps - bare hand in his and gloved against the material that covered his shoulder. "That's an awfully long time," she murmured. "I hope the audience doesn't get too bored..." But part of her? Part of her didn't care at all how entertained the audience was. Not when Eddie held her close like that.