[Loki doesn't know anything practical about running a shop, but he understands economics and intrigue, and his recent experience as Pepper's ersatz assistant has given him a certain insight to the way humans conduct their affairs. Besides, when it comes to anything that seems to hinge on being clever, he just assumes he can do it. Or at least give useful advice. Or at the very least show off a bit.]

What are you having difficulty with? Handling the numbers, a lack of enough bodies to mind the shop and the stock, managing customers...?

[No, he hasn't gotten the hang of saying hello on these devices.]

A plant shop, you said? Are you selling them alive, or are more of an herbalist? though honestly neither sounds easy...

[He's just thinking out loud. And will continue to do so with glee. Puzzles are fun!]

One would think the technical end of things would be more difficult. Perhaps if you found someone to mind the counter who also had a head for sums... Though unless you've a better idea than I do what the going rate for plants is locally...

It would be helpful to have someone who actually lives here, but you could also just ask them. From my admittedly limited observations, we shipfolk tend to form a loose but persistent alliance. I certainly find it a bit easier to cooperate that way. Hmm.

...Situationally patient, perhaps.

[It isn't a particular virtue of his, he's pretty sure.]

True. I don't think I've met anyone yet who understood magic and science, let alone the variations within those, and of course all our contexts are entirely different.

As do I, though I've been trying to make a study of other options while I'm here. Might as well accomplish something.

That's one word I don't know. Best of luck, I suppose?

Ah, I see why, then. I can't think what use we'd have for such a word at home.

[And Loki's interest is piqued anew. Stores are all well and good, but magic is important.]

Are you a sorcerer yourself, then? Or just around a lot of them. I don't know anything to speak of about human magics...

[Human lifespans will never cease to amaze him. Two years? He winds up being a bit vague.]

I'm fairly advanced in my own apprenticeship. For my age, in any case. I don't know how that relates at all.

I don't know how an apprenticeship would compare to formal schooling in magic, assuming you work on the same sort of model they have here? As I said, my knowledge of human magic is really quite limited, and there are plenty of complicating factors. I've passed basic spellcasting and mostly worked my way through elementals, though without my tutor I've been falling terribly behind while I've been here.

Asgardian. I'm aware I don't look any different, and no, I don't have any idea why that should be, but it is quite convenient if one is inclined to visit Midgard. Or fit in without incurring funny looks around here, at that.