Well, call him disappointed. Neither Megan or Ursula had seen the Mysteries man. What was he to do then? Mingle? That sounded like so much work. Just looking around the room had the man feeling like it was time to call it a day and he was sure this wasn't everyone. These events were always so taxing--though to be entirely fair.....Maddox found most things taxing. Effort, y'know?

"I'm sure he'll turn up." In the mean time, he supposed he would have to try. "Pleasure properly making your acquaintance, Ursula." Department Head duties and all. "I'm sure Megan here will be happy to take good care of you. Real help this one. Welcoming committee material." Translated to mean he'd appreciate his employee handling that so he wouldn't have to. New work year barely in swing and he was already finding ways to cut corners. Promising stuff indeed.

And THERE he WAS.

"Aiirreeeeyyyy." The meeting had been hours ago. The cocktail hour was NOW and fill with a ton of things that probably needed doing that he didn't wanna do. The man flung an arm around his colleague's shoulder. "Our new Minister's already making friends, take a look." He informed, just after the man's loud call to Bennett over there.

"A bit on the loud side," And Merlin knew the man's ears couldn't take it. "But no one's walking on all fours yet. we did good."

Merlin's beard, she didn't know Simon was so buddy buddy with the Minister. Lex knew him in the capacity of his relation to Kurumi but that was about as far as that went. If something went terribly wrong, she was among a special group tasked with making sure he didn't die and force them to spend far too much money on more elections but yeah, that was about it.

Airey got a salute when he appeared but before she could engage the man further from where she stood, someone else caught her attention.

"Bee...?" Lex blinked, taking a moment for her brain to fully process what she was seeing but it didn't take long for her lips to split into a grin. "Bee! Merlin! It's been ages!" Seeing her former schoolmate smacked her with the heaviest dose of nostalgia in life. Lex could almost feel herself being transported back to the castle and the chaos she used to cause. The friends she used to have, the whole atmosphere. It was an....interesting feeling, to say the least. "Yep, Head Auror and I didn't even have to off that last one." An inside joke mostly. She'd lost patrol privileges back as a YATI for joking about doing Legend in to take his job and now here they were.

"It's wild seeing you again! What department are you coming into?"

And then Benzi Rider happened. Alexa perked up immediately at his words. "Holding out on me, eh Rider? You'll have to show me." Obviously. She loved interesting things and knew Benzi wasn't the sort to find just any old thing to be interesting. Whatever it was, he thought it was good enough to bring to her attention.

"Any chance we can split and go have a look--no...no, I think we have to stay." Trying to be a good example was hard work. "Is it back on Level 2? Likely to kill someone? Maim? Gimme a hint at least."

In all her excitement, Lex nearly missed Bryony's nod, but caught it at the last minute and returned it before waving her over. MLE peeps had to stick together afterall.....and honestly Alexa preferred the company of her own kind if she was gonna be forced to stay here and mingle.

It was that pause to regain herself after Benzi's words that had her noticing a certain someone by the back. "Javi!" Alexa waved him over too. She hadn't had many conversations with the man but hadn't forgotten their run in the time they'd both ended up picking up their little spawns from daycare. Emm didn't go there anymore but it didn't mean the connections had to be lost.