When a voice floated through the office, Peyton looked up from the desk he had just found sporting a shiny plaque that had his own name on it along with his brand new official title. He still wasn’t sure he believed this was happening to him - but he would take it… They weren’t getting rid of him now that he had his staff ID and a desk plaque.

”Good morning.” He greeted in return, looking around the large area. ”I think I’m okay, just in awe of the size of the building… it seems never ending. Hopefully, I won’t get lost and end up in entirely the wrong department.” He looked back to his desk before looking back up at the man. Holding out his hand he gave him a genuine smile, ”Peyton Stewart. I’m the new MLES Chief Investigator. It’s nice to meet you Mr…?” He trailed off, hoping that the gentleman would be kind enough to fill in his own name in turn.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormdancer

When a voice floated through the office, Peyton looked up from the desk he had just found sporting a shiny plaque that had his own name on it along with his brand new official title. He still wasn’t sure he believed this was happening to him - but he would take it… They weren’t getting rid of him now that he had his staff ID and a desk plaque.

”Good morning.” He greeted in return, looking around the large area. ”I think I’m okay, just in awe of the size of the building… it seems never ending. Hopefully, I won’t get lost and end up in entirely the wrong department.” He looked back to his desk before looking back up at the man. Holding out his hand he gave him a genuine smile, ”Peyton Stewart. I’m the new MLES Chief Investigator. It’s nice to meet you Mr…?” He trailed off, hoping that the gentleman would be kind enough to fill in his own name in turn.

A polite greeting in return, that was a good sign. Simon nodded in acceptance at the turn down of help as well as the comment made about the Ministry. “Yeah, it does often have that feeling.” And he of all people should know, given the fact that he and his division were in charge of the security of all the environs within the Ministry’s walls. “Well tours in the guise of rounds are available.” The various divisions did still work together to help on occasion.

And then the introductions were happening though the name plate was technically visible to the security man. Simon did his best not to falter at the title given, a title that he had to get used to not being associated with Dacs after soo long. “Bennett…” he supplied, accepting the offered hand to give it a shake. “Simon Bennett, head of Security,” he added in return of what he had been given as he released it. “Nice to meet you.”

As much as it wasn’t his division, there was nothing beneath the new Division Head. With a small smile, the American-raised man nodded his head twice. ”Actually, that would be perfect. What time is your last round tonight, or the first one tomorrow morning?” For all the time a walk-round would take, he was more than happy to stay longer or come in earlier to see the Ministry proper, as it really wasn’t the Magical Congress… and he needed to know the Ministry.

Nodding, Peyton smiled as he was introduced to another of the Division Heads. It was just as well he was rather good with remembering faces otherwise the next few days would be hell for him. ”Ah, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bennett.” First names would be used when allowed, but it was too quick to assume he could be used. Motions to the room with one hand, ”Have you worked here for a while?” Curiosity… It was high.

Which one...which one...?

There were just so many to choose from and Alexa was proper stuck. Feet kicked up at her table, posture relaxed as she leaned back into her seat, the Auror's eyes diligently scanned the pages of her book. She could use this one...but there was no specific detail on the level of pain it would inflict. That was hardly helpful.

Picking out curses to place on one's desk should NOT have been this hard. Legend's desk was all decked out and she bet it didn't take him nearly as long.

Oooooooo!!! this one looked promising.

In a minute she would get on to the actual work she was meant to be doing, but this--and the chocolate frog in her hand--was important.

Level two was completely confusing. So many halls and offices and rooms that she probably wasn't allowed to go into. Evie felt like she was a guest in someone else's home. The MLE department was big and there were a lot of important people here, and she was just a tiny baby YATI girl who didn't know where to begin, where not to step and when not to breathe. It was overwhelming and she hoped it would pass.

Finally managing to find the Auror desks, Evie wandered in, her eyes immediately drawn to the "wanted signs" on the wall, both caught and uncaught. She wondered how long it would take for her to be able to mark one of them with a big red X.

Catching movement out of the corner of her eye, she saw Alexa Cambridge sitting at a desk. She intrigued Evie. If she was as awful and confusing as Milton said she was, how did she end up here? It was peculiar and Evie wanted to find out.

"What are you reading?" the former Ravenclaw asked as she started to walk over to her. She wondered if she would even tell her, though. Probably not. Auror's were secretive and suspicious.

A few years ago, Lex might not have noticed have noticed the Evie girl entering the office due to a lack of interest and her attention focusing so much on her current objective. Being in MLE, however, she had learned a little thing called 'constant vigilance'. Yes, there was YATI walking around the office, one that probably didn't have patrols or training at the moment who was probably looking to get her earlier patrols written up.

All that deduction while her eyes never left her book--this was how you knew the training had worked.

Not even gonna lie, this having a desk thing and not having to sit on the floor because she wasn't a YATI anymore, soooo much better for lounging and it hurt her butt less.

Oh? She was talking to her? Not looking to start her reports then. Huh. Lex glanced over her book at the younger girl. "Book of curses. Don't think I've found the right one for my desk yet. Not enough...bang if you get me." Lex lowered the book, shoving it over to her new company. "I like this one, but on the off chance a YATI doesn't know better, I don't reckon Emily will appreciate their hand being blown off." Hazel eyes on the YATI. "Thoughts?"

SPOILER!!: Peyton

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stormdancer

As much as it wasn’t his division, there was nothing beneath the new Division Head. With a small smile, the American-raised man nodded his head twice. ”Actually, that would be perfect. What time is your last round tonight, or the first one tomorrow morning?” For all the time a walk-round would take, he was more than happy to stay longer or come in earlier to see the Ministry proper, as it really wasn’t the Magical Congress… and he needed to know the Ministry.

Nodding, Peyton smiled as he was introduced to another of the Division Heads. It was just as well he was rather good with remembering faces otherwise the next few days would be hell for him. ”Ah, it is a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Bennett.” First names would be used when allowed, but it was too quick to assume he could be used. Motions to the room with one hand, ”Have you worked here for a while?” Curiosity… It was high.

Two nods followed by an acceptance of his offer. All good. At the question, he gave thought to his own plans since Simon tended to take the ones at the beginning and ends of the day. A salute to his former tendency to be a workaholic and taking things on himself. “Baring anything unusual…” like emergencies or calls for all hands on desk, “7:30 tonight or 8 tomorrow.” Both times were relatively quiet overall and perfect for seeing things how they were but not having to worry about too much unnecessary interruption.

“Simon works…” the security man supplied in case there was hesitance on using his first name. It wasn’t like they were the same age and essentially the same position. As for him being there long, now that was a deeper thing to think about. So many years under one division in one role, then a promotion and finally a transfer to another division that had its advances involved in it. “If memory serves…It’s been a dozen years since I joined as a YATI.” After that information, long was however one saw it.

Truth be told, she had showed up to work early because she was afraid of getting lost and ending up late. Also, she just wanted to show up earlier than Benzi.. always. Heh.

Evie kept a safe distance from Alexa, but stood close enough to be comfortably talking to her. A book of curses... Well, that wasn't really surprising. Evie looked curiously at the surrounding desks while Alexa talked about finding the perfect curse for her desk. Then she looked at the book that the Auror had thrust at her and read the details of the curse briefly.

"I think anyone who doesn't suspect precautionary curses to be set on desks in this level... probably shouldn't have made it past the application stage." Otherwise, Evie was fairly certain that they would be eliminated... naturally, quite quickly.

...

.....That was a good answer, one that left an amused sort of smile on Alexa's face. "I couldn't agree more. No sense of self preservation could prove fatal to not only them but anyone who's got to go on missions with them. Best to weed that sort out early. Save us all the injury and potential murder charges." If she got stuck with an idiot, it was him or her...and let's be honest...it would most likely be him. Lex pulled the book back towards herself, idly skipping through the pages once more.

"Not all the desks are immediately deadly. I think that kind is neat. You sit, think you're perfectly safe but get up with a string of toxins you didn't even know existed. I'd get something like that but I'm more for instant gratification."

But enough about her. Lex flopped the book shut and turned her full attention to Shacklebolt. "I knew someone else that had your last name. Real interesting bloke. Surpassed me and my bestfriend's expectations after he graduated Hogwarts. Any relation? Name's Milton."

It'd been forever since she ran into him. She almost missed teasing him...a little more than almost. If Shacklebolt DID know him, maybe she could get her to take him a gift!

Yes, it was a good answer. Evie was clever. Sometimes not as clever as she thought she was, but still clever enough. "My thoughts exactly," she replied, pleased that she was thinking on the same page as an auror... and putting aside the preconceived notions Milton tried to put in her head before she met Alexa.

Evie's eyes scanned around the room and at all the desks again as Alexa talked about her ideal desk curse. Evie did agree that it was... smart. Clever. Necessary? Probably not that one in particular, but protective charms in general, yes. As she was thinking about it for a moment, Evie didn't get time to reply before Alexa moved on to her next topic. Evie refrained from commenting on the fact that most people knew somebody with the last name Shacklebolt, her great-uncle in particular. A smile tugged at her lips. "My brother. Half-brother, if you want to get technical." And if she was worried his bad luck spread to her.

It was his first day back in the office, two days later and as usual his scowl was in place. New year and fresh faces that he had yet to meet, not that he was really looking forward to meeting any. He muttered a good morning and drop his bag unto his desk and in usual Tyler fashion, propped his feet up on his desk and leaned back in his chair with the prophet.

Get news in, then coffee, then leave the office for patrol or training. He practically had his whole day planned out.

So far, this one was alright. Not squeamish. Not self-righteous and pious. No preaching about justice above all and other such grandiose thoughts. Don't get her wrong, you had to understand and possess a sense of justice according to the bigger heads but those that took it overboard....not her cup of tea. Not her cup of anything.

And lookit that, she DID know Milton.

Half-brother...brother, it was all different to her before a year ago but now she did her best not to make the distinction. If anyone asked, she no longer stressed the 'half' with her sister and no longer paid attention when others added 'half' before their own. "We can leave the technicalities to the Courts." Let the Prosecutors worry about that bit. "I'm surprised he didn't fill your head with tall tales of psychotic people within the Department so you wouldn't try joining after Hogwarts." Assuming that's where she went. Who knew.

"How're you liking the job so far?" All the training then in-Ministry Patrols that never turned up anything, then report writing on said patrols that turned up nothing, then more training. Looking, Alexa didn't miss most of it at ALL.

Vivi's inbox was much higher than her outbox, which was NOT the way she liked to do business, and she gave it a glare that should light the entire stack on fire. If such a thing was possible.

Instead, she pulled the top warrant from her box and sat down hard in her chair. The wheels gave slightly, rolling her a few inches back from the desk, and Vivi shoved herself back into place.

"Okay, where are my puppies? We have work to do."

Evie was on time, as usual. Technically, she had arrived early, but was stalling outside the office before it was really time to begin. She dumped her empty tea cup from the coffee stand in the garbage bin on the way in, just in time to hear her, err... supervisor(?) announce that there was work to be done.

Whatever it was, Evie wanted to do it. She was still new and excited enough that even paperwork was exciting. Literally a puppy.

"Puppy number one, reporting for duty," Evie announced as she stepped up to the blonde, whom, she knew, by the way, to be Vivi Branxton. Milton had told Evie about her. And Evie already wanted to be her best friend.

Peyton walked into the office after lunch, hoping to get a peaceful afternoon to tackle some of the paperwork that was piling up in his in tray… which was almost double the size that it had been this morning. Sighing, he moved through the office at least fed and charged for an afternoon of writing. Perhaps he would finally manage to get that report done for Emily? If not, he would just have to take it home and do it tonight because she had wanted it by yesterday.

He looked around the office before going to his desk though, just in case anyone needed him.

It was official. Staring at your in-tray and hoping papers would magically appear was not an actual thing. It didn't happen, not even in a magic work place and especially not when your boss wasn't too thrilled about handing off work to you for a while. You stay late at work a few times and suddenly you were a workaholic with a problem. Merlin.

Lex reclined in her chair, feet on her desk and a report she'd done up in her spare time in hand. She had plans for it, that weren't exactly in her jurisdiction to begin with--not really. It wasn't the sort of things Aurors really got....assigned to when there was more pressing work out in the field but it was all she'd had at the time and she'd gone as far as she could with it. Now it was time to pass it off.

As if on cue, the Head of Investigations walked right by her desk heading to his own. Huh. If that wasn't a sign, she didn't know what was.

Checking to be sure Legend wasn't currently at his own desk, Lex got up and headed over to the man. "You got a minute, Chief?"

And just like that, he was called out. As he placed a few more - urgh - files in his inbox, he attempted to name the voice before he turned around. He’d been here a good few months now, but in such a busy office where the employees are out of the office as much as they are present… it is slightly harder to remember the faces, names and voices of his co-workers. However, it was something that he was constantly working on; learning their mannerisms and the way they that they interacted with the other workers in the office. You never knew when someone would try to use Polyjuice to get critical and confidential information from the Department.

Cambridge. He thought, as he turned on his heel to face the voice who had called for him. A small, tiny really, smile graced his lips and he nodded his head at her. ”Of course, Auror Cambridge.” He moved so that he leant on his desk, one ankle crossed over the other as he waited to find out what she wanted to talk about. Silently, he congratulated himself on recognising her voice. One more person memorised. "What can I help you with?

"Just 'Lex' is fine." Auror Cambridge was a mouthful and while she did like the constant reminder that she was living the life she most wanted and had the perks that came with it, she recognized how cumbersome it could all seem too. So yeah, 'Lex'. Three letters and a whole lot easier to remember too.

As for what he could help her with....that part would come in a moment. First was how she could help him.

"Found this case you and your people might wanna take a look at." As she spoke, she extended the file in her hand so he could have a look if he wanted. "A smuggler who fancies himself an expert on chimaera eggs and an authority on selling them." In another life, Lex might have bought one before turning him in but alas, she was an Auror and though she'd failed her wizarding law module the first go...she was fairly certain something like that was frowned upon.

"Got a lead from a source, followed it through," Nearly getting her cover blown by that idiot on Level 3 who fancied himself some sort of detective, "and from what I've gathered it's pretty low-key, small scale, scum just trying to make some good galleons." Which was...pretty much something for the Hit Wizards. "But." Because of course there was a 'but' "if this turns out to be something bigger, some of us Aurors would like to get in on this, and," Because there was an 'and' too, "even if it isn't, I'd still personally like to help." Please?

He nodded slightly. ”Lex.” He repeated. It sounded slightly informal, but if it was what she prefered, then who was he to argue with her? He knew himself how annoying names could be; his own name meant he was often mistaken for a female while he had given his daughter the name Blair to help her in the ‘name game’ as he liked to call it.

He stood still and listened to her, though he took the file from her hand. He nodded slightly as she told him some details about the case and he nodded. That did sound like something that he and his Hit Wizards should look like. His eyebrow raised slightly at the mention of the chimera eggs and instantly wanted to find this idiot. Didn’t he know that they were dangerous? Sighing, he finally flipped open the file and started to read through the information that she had collected already as she listened to her giving him the rest of the details.

”Basically, you don’t want to lose a case you have dealt with from the start.” He gave her a small, lazy smile and nodded. ”That, sounds fair.” He didn’t give her an answer in reply to the Auror’s working with them, because obviously that would be the natural progression for the case. He looked down at the file before he closed it again, he could read it later. ”Do you know where he will be next?” If there was one thing Peyton loved, it was getting out of the Ministry and getting out into the streets of Britain.

The perks about being an auror verses being a YATI meant that the Durmstrang Alum spent far less time in office and more in the field. When things were slow he'd pop in and check on his new babies and his wife. Life had changed so much since the twins were born, especially in the usual grumpy demeanor of the auror.

Every once in a while he'd walk into office with a smile on his face, or rather, without a grimace in place.

Today he took his seat, chair pushed back and legs on the desk while he read a foreign news paper.

Tough luck, the prophet burning down.

Business as usual, is exactly what today was just as it ought to be for everyone else. Granted, the newbies would be settling in. In part that was one of the reasons for her doing her rounds of the office earlier than usual, but also in part because she simply could not stand another hour of paper-pushing at the minute.

Regardless, Emily made her presence known as she meandered through the work spaces. She was hopeful that things were still running smoothly at this hour, but controlled chaos could always be appreciated - so long as it didn't involve a YATI spat.

The holiday break was over.

The slowdown that had proceeded it was now to be followed by the return of business as usual. At least roughly. New and old and returning employees would be coming in and Simon had joined their ranks early in the day to make sure things were situated the way he liked. Now was the time to check into the department to make sure he wasn't missing a staff meeting or something.

Having headed up from the security office and floo, the security man mad his way into the office shared by his division, the aurors and MLES. It was still pretty quiet, but Simon noticed the familiar form of Emily looking over things. The department head was certainly one of those he expected to be around early even when it wasn't the first day back.

"Good morning..." he greeted as he approached her as he moved further into the office.

Oh no.

Oh no.

OH NO.

Sam had been caught up on the phone this morning with his older brother, Logan, about his niece, Kyra, that he was RUNNING LATE FOR WORK. Apparently, she had moved in with Dan?! DAN MCDEAN?! It was obvious that his niece had finally lost her marbles, but if that's what she had wanted to do, then he had to be happy for her. He knew she was trying to make a life in theatre in New York right now so maybe staying with Dan was a decent idea...

ha, yeah right.

Not that it really mattered at the moment because like he said: RUNNING LATE FOR WORK.

He had a carrier full of coffee cups in one hand and a bag that contained stuff such as creamer, sugar, and spoons in the other as he powered walked into the office area. "Good morning, everyone!" He exclaimed. "I brought some coffee. Help yourself!" He placed the carrier on a nearby desk as he went over to his own.

Oh, this just wasn't going to do... nope. He took his wand out and changed the color of his desk to orange. It was definitely home again for him.

Though, he did wonder if there were any magenta desks left in the Ministry somewhere from before he left... He would have to look into that later.

It was his first day officially, but Angelo had come in a few days earlier to get the lay of the land so to speak. He liked being familiar with his surroundings where it was possible. He was earlier than he'd been told to be, but then that was important to him too, part of being prepared and having the right mindset for this. It would be tough enough as it was even if he wasn't taking it all very seriously.

He came through, confidently but silently, just as someone turned a desk orange. Angelo glanced that way but said nothing. He'd not really expected that kind of.... loud personality type to be found in this particular department. DMLE didn't exactly smack of whimsy did it? But who was he to judge, being the new one, the bottom of the proverbial food chain. Something that made a change for him, really.

He also noticed his new boss of course, she was hard to miss. And an older man who certainly seemed comfortable and was clearly someone fairly senior in the grand scheme of things.

Rather than presuming to just claim a desk, Angelo remained standing, silent, and out of the way. The right people would notice him and he had no particular interest in any of the wrong people who might do so.

"This one is mine. Emily! I claim this YATI for myself," Genevieve Branxton had noticed the coffee, the orange desk, the boss, and a certain young Toussaint she'd known since he was a baby, and she also noticed that her desk was still free of paper since she'd cleared her inbox before Christmas. She took a seat before flicking a finger at Angelo.

"Mine. Also, McDean is damaging my eyeballs with his desk." It looked like a Muggle traffic cone was trying to blend in at the office and doing very badly. Vivi wiggled her eyebrows hello at Simon, but she wasn't going to be distracted from the task at hand. Claiming YATIs. Yes.