Taking Over the Island

First, thank you all very much, you gave me a LOT to think about.

One of the best ways to focus an idea is to argue with somebody about it.  I’d read through your comments and think, “No, not that,” and then think, “Wait, why not that?”  Some of the time there was a good reason, but just as often I had to stretch my plot to discover that there was a good reason to include that.  My background plots suddenly got a lot deeper not just because you all had good ideas, but because I had to think about them all.  All of which is to say, thank you very much.:

So here’s the situation.

One group is trying to take over the island to make it a permanent hellgate, a demon get-away, and a place to plot in order to strengthen their position in Hell.   So they’re concentrating on rallying the demon population on the island by hook (bribes) or by crook (threats), and their plan to do that is to take over businesses on the island, weaken the cops and the mayor, and keep Nick from becoming Devil.  They don’t want to run the government or the utilities, they’re not interested in political power, they’re interested in economic power.  That is, they don’t want to run things, they just want to own the island so they can dictate terms.  So they have the Lemon Brothers running things, and Ranger Rich out in the Nature Preserve handling hidden gates and the disposal of Hell’s agents, they’re blackmailing businesses to sell to them, infiltrating the police, collecting protection money from demon businesses, threatening demons, etc.    Think the the demon version of the mob.  

The other group is the anti-demon group, and they do want political power so they can deport (or worse) all the demons on the island and make it impossible for them to return.  So they have people in place in government who have put iron at the entrance to the bridge and to the airport, effectively trapping demons on the island.  They handed out the poisoned doughnuts to identify demons hiding in plain sight.   I’ll add the private internet community (they already had group meetings) and a new Breitbartish tabloid.  CIty Manager is a great idea here.  They are definitely running against the Mayor in the next election and they’re rabid about party loyalty (think Tea Party).  They want an ethnically pure island, and they’re only interested in money because it pays for their plans, but they’re not in this to get rich or even wield power outside of the need to eradicate all demons from the island.  They’re bigots, but they’re not the mob.

Neither group wants to disrupt communications or food supplies or anything that keeps the island running.  Both of them want to manipulate the island’s inhabitants for their own ends.  So they’re working behind the scenes, rarely butting up against each other.  For example, the anti-demon group doesn’t care who owns the businesses as long as they’re not demons.  Demons First group doesn’t care about the iron at the bridge and airport because they can get anywhere they want by going back to hell and opening another gate.  But now both groups are getting out over their skis, starting to do big things–like buy the amusement park–and people are starting to notice, especially people like Nick and Nita, so both sides are out to discredit them or, if they get too close, eliminate them.  

So Nita and Nick are fighting two battles against two groups who both see them as roadblocks to their plans.  Of course since one group wants a demon-free island and the other group wants a demon-centric island, they’re gonna clash, but first they have to get rid of Nita and Nick. 

And a lot of your ideas are going to tie right into that.  So once again, we thank you for your support.

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