If Loki had been gifted more time to study Midgard before his arrival here, he likely would have realised how antiquated his particular speech was when compared to how language had evolved in this realm. It would have allowed him to adjust his speech patterns and even his accent accordingly, so that he would not have given himself away as a visitor from Asgard.

He had not had that time.

He had thought to die when he let go of Gungnir. It had been a helplessness and a defeat that had seemed so overwhelming, still did if he let himself think on it too hard. Had it been any wonder that he wished to fall into the Void and never surface? How could he have known he would slip through the spaces between Yggdrasil's roots and end up here? And so his disguise remained imperfect, and his knowledge of Midgard too fledgling to be without mistakes.

The time Darcy spent in her ablutions was given over to finishing the report on her mechanical device and then sending it back into its sleeping mode. He had no other clothes and a spell to change them would rouse suspicion, so he contented himself with allowing magic to soothe out the creases and ease the tangles from his hair to make himself presentable.

The silence within the car was a little stilted. He had not naturally made conversation since before he found his secrets, and even then not with those outside his own circle.

"Tell me, Miss Lewis, are you a physicist as well? What is the nature of your particular field of research?"