Chapter Text
One of the first things that was compiled after the destruction of Asgard and their safe arrival aboard the ship that would carry them to their new home, was the census. The names of all people present were recorded on a scroll, along with their age (translated for your convenience to their equivalent relative age in human years) and occupation.
Here is a sample of the document:
Ragneid Haakondottir, 37, caterer
Jannikke Larsdottir (41) & Magnus Olafson (14) & Berte Olafdottir (11), homemaker & children
Sigurd Sorenson, 68, shop owner
Hallfrid Ulfdottir, 48, Lady
Signe Yandottir, 34, biologist
Siggeir Horkelson, 37, groom
Hoti Siggeirson, 7, n/a
Snorri Borinson, 26, Doctor
And so forth.
A copy was posted in a public place for the people to read, so that the people could see who had lived and who had died. Another copy was prepared for the king, who read the whole thing top to bottom. It was long read, and rather tedious. And yet he wished it was longer.
The sum of his people, Asgard itself, contained in a scroll, the sum of their being contained in three brief data points, name, age, and occupation. And the sum was, in total, 432 people.
432! A staggering reduction from the initial population of Asgard, which had never been large to begin with. Compared to Midgard, Asgard had always been nothing more than a jot, and now they were less a jot, a corpuscle, and it would take centuries, millennia, until they reached anything close to its former size. That is what the population projection contained in the appendix of the report said: a century and perhaps the population would breach a thousand.
This report had been prepared for him by a professional looking lady that Heimdall had commissioned, whose name was on record as Kanda Orvikdottir, 32, a former warehouse manager, and sat in his office alongside several other lengthy documents on food production, consumption projections, waste management, time management proposals, militia, education, and so forth, pages and pages of data which all meant nothing to him.
To demonstrate: according to the reports, the final population of living Aesir was 432, the vast majority of which were women and children, the young men having mostly perished against Hela. In addition to the 432 Aesir (which besides also included small pockets of Vanir and other ethnic diaspora from the colonial realms, whose numbers could only be guessed as ethnicity was not recorded), there were also 30 of various species who had come from Sakaar, and 1 large green monster who had originally come from planet Earth.
So in total the ship held 463 living and breathing souls. This was well within the ship's capacity, as it had (according to another report at least) room for almost 1000 people. And so they had no trouble allotting chambers for each person, there was enough for all of them but many shared anyways since all the rooms had queen sized beds, and some even had two, which were given to those with families. Then there were the luxury suites, which Thor had declined to use, and if push ever came to shove there was also an expansive dormitory in the medical bay (partly occupied at the moment by those injured in the final battle), as well as a cramped room in the belly of the ship originally meant for staff.
The ship also boasted several small cafes and bars, several large conference halls and activity rooms, a theatre, a fully equipped gym, a garden, and, for some inexplicable reason, a skydiving chamber and a skating rink.
It appeared to have originally been built as a luxury cruiser, and so although it was well-stocked and comfortable, it was large and bulky and slow. But however, according to this OTHER report, although they had found a large stock of freeze-dried food available which would last them for some time (refer to Appendix A for a detailed analysis of the chemical composition of the food and to Appendix B for a detailed rationing plan), despite this there had nonetheless been some other unforeseen problems with food production, the solution of which was being tackled in a two pronged approach as outlined in section A and B, and furthermore it was recommended that such and such thing happen and well, Thor couldn't stand another minute of it!
What did it all mean? It appeared so simple when written down, but who exactly was Ragneid Ulfdottir, 38, caterer? Who was Jannikke Larsdottir (41) & Magnus Olafson (14) & Berte Olafdottir (11), homemaker & children, and what had happened to Olaf their father, who did not appear in the report? Not only did the report say things, but what it didn't say also said things, and how were you supposed to make heads or tails out of that?
And yet Thor knew how very important it was. Yes, it was tedious, but wasn't that his responsibility? Being a king was more than fighting noble battles. It mattered very much, how much food they had, how much fuel they had. If they didn’t have food, they wouldn’t survive. If they didn’t have fuel, they wouldn’t survive. He needed to figure it out, to plan, to organize, to get everything together. They were all counting on him.
But he didn’t understand it. Why was he so useless? The numbers all blurred together in his head. He had to go over them again. He had to keep reading, keep planning, keep organizing. He had to keep it all together. He had to protect his people.
And so he read on.