The punch isn’t alcoholic, because Lady Malcolm wants to reform the servants, but there’s no shortage of people who smuggled in some whiskey and are mixing it in there. This is one of the few places where the elites and the servants mingle; with the masks on their faces, you can’t tell them apart.

Ruby puts her arm on Steve's arm. "My, what large muscles you have."

She is dressed as an Arabian harem girl.

Steve looks down her extraordinarily skimpy outfit at the cleavage that she does not, in fact, have. "Um, thanks?"

He didn't realize it was a costume ball but fortunately his sailor's uniform is a costume. Probably. It counts.

Jing Yi is alone, bereft, left behind by Ruby in the brief moment he went to get some definitely non-alcoholic punch, he is definitely a reformer who agrees with Lady Malcolm's values here. He is also dressed as a harem girl, but following a very different brief. Much further East, one might say. It is incredibly inaccurate, both because he is an actor on a budget and it is funny. It would be like dressing up as Her Royal Highness by covering yourself in a shroud of sequins. ...He's pretty sure only about 30% of the party knows enough about anything to realise how stupid this costume is, which only makes it funnier.

Ruby waves him over. "And here is my friend Wilhelmina Jing." She snaps open her fan. "I've always found a harem needs more than one resident, don't you think?"

"Um. ...pro... bably?"

"Especially those who are... exotic."

What level of irony is Ruby acting on? We just don't know.

"Well, I certainly think so." He waves the World's Cheapest Fan in front of his face coquettishly. Does this sailor know what is going on? It's a fascinating question.

Steve Costigan is aware he's being flirted with by two girls who are much more forward than any girls he's used to.Possibly it is because of the very non-alcoholic punch? Maybe it got them all loose. Steve likes loose women.

He has completely failed to notice certain details as regards deepness of voice, absence of cleavage, etc.

Okay, that is hilarious, and he has to play along with this now.

"It's always exciting to meet a sailor. --Or well, someone who could pass for one."

"Oh, I'm a real sailor!" Steve says earnestly. "I'm on the Sea Girl. I didn't realize this was a costume party."

"Even better! Have you ever sailed anywhere Fun?"

"Uh, lots of places. India, China, the South Pacific--" He decides he needs more whiskey for this interaction. "But nowhere have there been girls as beautiful as you," the whiskey inspires him to say.

"Indeed."

More coquettish fan waving. "Oh, you're too kind."

"It's so warm in here. Wilhelmina, are you warm?"

"I hadn't noticed yet, but I am actually now I think about it."

"I feel fine," Steve says, obliviously.

Oh nooooo. He is so-- so oblivious. It's wonderful. "It might be cooler out in the gardens."

"It's a lovely night. I think we should go for a walk." She snaps her fan closed. "I know a wonderful place, darling."

Is the place a public bathroom? Ruby doesn't need to confirm or deny that.

"I trust your good taste."

"Onward!"

In the interests of maintaining this continuity's R rating for violence instead of sex, we will elide Steve Costigan's baffled discovery of what exactly drunk girls get up to and at least one exotic new sex act.

"That was amazing," Ruby says in Polari, having dismissed a dazed Steve Costigan and refilling her punch.

"It was beautiful. I don't think I've ever met someone quite so oblivious. ...We have given him a very weird idea of what goes on at Lady Malcolm's."