Filing cabinets had worked well when Jack only had a few screens to sort through, but now there were hundreds, and more by the day. The butterflies handled every part of editing the screens, but often they simply sat flat against the screens inside the storage units. Jack walked over to one of the whiteboards and sketched out a few different ideas.
The first was something like a mall product tower. The spinning blocks that have glasses, or keychains on them. Screens and things made of them seemed to be able to ignore physics to an extent, so he could make stacks of screens connected to sticks of screens. Just tall towers of screen after screen that extended upward. He didn't really know if it would be better for organization, but it would look more interesting at least.
The second idea he thought up was closer to a series of books. By organizing people into groups, he could pile together screens and try to bind them together somehow. It was possible that making alphabetical books and the like would allow him to organize efficiently, but he would likely have to update the books constantly as new screens appeared.
The third option was closer to a server room. By keeping something like the filing cabinets and connecting them together, he might be able to view screens at a central station. Maybe he could hook everything up to his desk screen?
Jack turned to look at some nearby butterflies floating around. "What do you all think? Any preference?"
The butterflies flitted over to the whiteboard and landed on it for a moment. They flew back to the filing cabinets and more butterflies came over. Butterflies came and went, observing Jack's ideas. Jack eyed the designs critically, not very pleased with his work. They might be fine, but honestly, they were nothing more than half-hearted attempts. He idly played around with the ideas, as he waited for feedback from the system bugs.
After a few minutes, some of the butterflies came and flitted around him, clearly trying to get his attention. He turned to follow them and saw that they had created an image on the second whiteboard. The image reminded Jack of a tree from Minecraft, blocky and not very lifelike. But despite that, they had a strange charm to them. Further breakdowns of how it was constructed of screens were included. The process included making an orchard of sorts, laying down a screen base and attaching the screen trees on top. A 'root system' would stretch out to various stations that Jack could look at and search through.
The whole system served as an organizational format that was aesthetically pleasing. It would be a bit difficult to construct, but Jack was very pleased with the results. The simplest method would be to create orchards that created groupings for all the screens used. Jack settled on making orchards alphabetically, the names of every person with a status in the first orchard would have 'A' names.
Jack broke off a piece of screen and created a long platform. He laid it on the ground, then gingerly stepped on it. It was solid, and he doubted he would break it by walking on it. Screens didn't tend to be damaged unless he was rough with them, or intentionally tried to break them. Satisfied that the base was a good size and sturdy, Jack moved off it and began constructing a frame out of screens. Jack had never tried connecting two status screens together, and honestly, he didn't really want to try. In the best-case scenario, the screens would still be independent and function normally. Worst case scenario, they might start interacting with each other and causing problems.
Jack made a tall frame that could hold screens. It was seven feet from base to top and could hold about forty screens on the trunk section alone. The next step was making the "leaves" frame. Jack settled on a simple design, straight up stealing from Minecraft tree design. He made a large, three-dimensional framework to fit screens in. The whole thing was less efficient than the trunk but could hold more screens. All in all, each tree would likely be able to fit about one hundred screens. Fortunately, the constructions didn't really weigh anything, and Jack was able to attach the leaves construction to the trunk one.
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Once he propped the tree frame up, he turned to the butterflies. They flitted around it excitedly, clearly pleased with his efforts. Before attaching it to the base, Jack stuck his keyboard to its side and began copying and pasting the tree frame. He made fifty-three of them. Two would be put in each orchard for now, and one would be kept as a spare to copy and paste. Once Jack constructed more bases for the orchards, he began setting up the trees. Once placed on the screen base, he simply had to imagine them attaching themselves and they stuck fast.
He began the process of moving the screens out of filing cabinets, the system bugs helpfully showing him which screens contained 'A' names. It took a bit of time, but when he slotted the last one in, he stepped back to examine his handiwork. It was unmistakably a blocky blue tree, firmly attached to the ground. Butterflies flew to and from it, creating a strange picturesque scene, like something out of a weird blue-filtered nature documentary.
Before he moved on to the next tree, he wanted to check the connectivity of the organizational system he had created. He made a simple line out of screen, attaching it to the base of the orchard. Then he created a simple terminal with a blank screen for viewing and imagined it as a data-viewing device. After attaching it, he tapped on the viewing screen and a search box came up, blank and waiting for input. He stuck his keyboard to it and typed in one of the names present in the tree.
The screen appeared on the viewing monitor, and Jack hurridly confirmed that the information was accurate. Closing the screen with a simple click to the 'close button' in the top right of the screen, he searched for a few more to confirm that everything worked as intended. Jack took a step back, satisfied at a job well done...then he looked at all the work he had left to do. Twenty-five more orchards to set up, along with viewing monitors and confirming information. He honestly would probably have to label these as well. They would be in alphabetical order, but the more he could do to prevent a mix-up the better.
Jack glanced around, idly wondering if he might see Plexion waiting to scare him or something. But the demon was nowhere to be seen. Jack sighed, he had been hoping that his partner would show up while he worked. Every day, and honestly every hour that passed with no word from Plexion only worried Jack more. He had never seen any indication that spirits could be harmed up here except by Deis, but Jack wouldn't be shocked if the god had void sharks floating around up here or something like that. The thought of void sharks made Jack shiver in discomfort, and he decided to get back to work before he spooked himself further.
Jack spent the next few hours setting up the orchards, idly chuckling at the idea of calling two trees an orchard. Once he finished, he created a new viewing monitor, copied and pasted it enough times, and then attached them. He took a step back to admire his work. The end result was actually kind of pretty. It made Jack think of a purposeful garden, rows of trees planted with care. Some of the trees in the orchards were rather threadbare, the first 'X' tree for example only had about twenty screens on it. It was more than Jack had expected, but he quickly realized that demons all used that letter in their names, so it was plausible that they had plenty of names that began with an 'x'.
All in all, the butterflies seemed to like the finished look. They happily floated around the trees, disappearing against screens and letting others fly out to examine their new homes. Jack was pleased himself, the hard work had paid off, creating an intuitive and pleasing system. It would make being here in the white void a bit more tolerable, like having an office plant at a job.
Jack did one more sweep for Plexion, even calling out a few times into the void. There was no sign of his demonic companion. Jack wanted to go searching but didn't think he could delay his return to Drowl any longer. Everyone would likely be worried, especially since the cloud had dissipated hours ago. He sent a quick message to Reph, telling him to turn his body back on. After a moment, he felt a familiar tug, and let himself be pulled back down to the surface.
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Unbeknownst to both Jack and the system bugs, a group of spirits stared from a great distance at the new objects dotting the landscape. They were confident that they hadn't been noticed, they had even been far enough away to not hear Jack calling out. But they could see him, they had all possessed above-average sight in life, and they used it well in death.
They were the scouts, in charge of locating new spirits or spirit groups in this white hell. The one who had constructed the strange-looking trees vanished, and they all murmured to themselves. Plexion hadn't told them he could leave, this was new information. The former King of all Demons had been cagey about Jack but had told them to watch for him and fetch him if he came here.
This confirmed many things for them, most of all that Plexion had a secret agenda. And that the secret agenda somehow involved Jack.