"Oh, he caught on eventually."

"You're more astute than me, then. In my defense, I was focusing on something else."

"I mean, we took him to a cottage."

"He is a sailor, but I'm not sure he is actually in the know?"

"...You're kidding."

"What goes on in his head may be an enduring mystery of the world."

"Just wait until I tell the girls at Anna's this, they'll freak. --I suppose men aren't for thinking, are they, darling."

"Good evening to my favorite harem girls."

Evie MacQueen is a fashion designer. By day, she tailors suits for Savile Row; by night, her elaborate and edgy creations stun the bright young things of London. She's stunningly beautiful. She lives alone, spends more money than she earns, keeps a low profile, and rarely speaks about her past. She's incredibly intelligent and can discourse easily about science, philosophy, and history.

Jing Yi is also kind of infatuated with her.

The thing is that she's radiantly beautiful, and she makes such good clothes, and there's just something about the way she moves? Anyone who sees her would fall half in love with her.

Unfortunately, Jing Yi mostly knows her from when she was costuming him and he was playing the back half of a horse.

I mean, why wouldn't he be a little infatuated? She is objectively very charming.

"Always good to see you around," he says, making an attempt not to sound like a pining fool.

"It's always good to see you too," she says, and her voice sounds like Jing Yi is the only important person in the world.

Ruby raps him on the upper arm with her fan, and if Evie didn't speak Polari would very clearly be saying something about Wilhelmina abandoning her for the normals.

That is, let's be honest, very fair in this case. But it is very difficult not to pay all of his attention to Evie. "I'd ask what brought you here, but--" He makes an expansive gesture at the party. "It would be kind of a silly question."

She smiles. With her costume-- Carmilla the femme fatale vampire-- it makes her look very beautiful and a little bit dangerous. "I love to see and be seen."

"It's a very noble motive." (He is braced for getting rapped again.)

"Oh, is that a sailor over there," Ruby says. "Got to go!"

"This is... quite... a different outfit from the last time I saw you, Mr. Jing."

...That is a very fair reaction of Ruby's, honestly. "What's the point of a masked ball if you don't get to wear something ridiculous?"

"Of course. And there's nothing like a mask to reveal the truth."

...He has no idea how to respond to that! Especially considering the whole 'yes, she knows Polari' thing. Time for a brilliant strategem: changing the subject! "Business is treating you well? Less equine costumes, I hope?"

"Another fashion house tried to hire me away to Paris," she says, "but I just don't feel like I can leave London."

"There is no other city quite like it."

"And my French is hopeless. I just don't think I'm brave enough to move to another country where I barely even speak the language."

The flattery is incredibly unsubtle and if it was from someone less wonderful than Evie he would potentially be annoyed by it. But he isn't. "You get used to it."

"What have you been up to?"

(She sounds so interested, and the way she moves is magnetizing.)

"Oh, you know, the usual profession of the working actor: not acting, and spending all your time convincing people that they would like to pay you for actually acting."