Mary Dunlavy

**Spoiler warning!**
Ahead are significant plot details from the Patreon stories. Read at your own peril!

## Biology

### Ghost Type

Crossroads Ghost
Phantom Nanny

## Affiliations

### Organizations/ Alliances

Crossroads
Healy-Price Family

### Occupation

Crossroads Ghost
Babysitter

### Primary Residence

Buckley Township, Michigan
Portland, Oregon

## Family

### Parents

Benjamin Dunlavy
Unnamed mother

## InCryptid Series

### Notable Appearances

Magic for Nothing
Tricks for Free
That Ain't Witchcraft

### Notable Appearances (Shorts)

Jonathan and Frances Shorts
Alice and Thomas Shorts

**Mary Dunlavy** is a major character in both the InCryptid and Ghost Roads series. Although she is a Crossroads Ghost, her preferred role is ghostly babysitter. She has met five generations of Healy-Prices, and her primary relationships are with young Alice Healy and Antimony Price.

## About

### Appearance

Before her death, Mary's hair was an ashy blonde; her father didn't notice it change after her death.

As a ghost, Mary has long, bone-white hair and distant highway eyes. She appears somewhere between her late teens and early twenties, having aged her own appearance by several years after her death. Although a ghost, Mary can pass for human and be corporeal when she chooses.

Her default clothing tends to reflect the archetype of "babysitter" in the eyes of her current charges' parents, which usually puts her a generation or so behind the times. Her preferred outfit as Antimony's "babysitter" is a 1970s-style peasant blouse and jeans, and her wardrobe updates when the next generation begins having children.

### Personality

Mary has a very nurturing nature, having made a deal with the Crossroads to remain her father's caretaker even after his death and defining her role as a crossroads ghost around her ability to be the family babysitter. She is loyal to the youngest member of the Healy-Prices and beloved by the rest of the family.

### Abilities

As a crossroads ghost, Mary brokers deals between mortals and the Crossroads. Most favors asked of her have a price, as they trigger the need for a Crossroads bargain, although she has found a loophole with information that can reasonably fall under "babysitter duties." (For example, passing along updates to the parents is generally a safe request.) She has trained all the Healy-Price family to be careful what they ask of her.

Mary is able to move between the mortal and ghost realms with certain restrictions. The amount of time she spends on the mortal plane must be balanced by an unknown exchange of time spent in the ghost realms.

Mary speaks every language in the world, when she has to, as part of her role as a Crossroads Ghost, in order to be able to adjudicate with anyone, regardless of language barriers. This ability only applies to living people, however, not to written word.

## Biography

Mary lived in Buckley Township, Michigan until she was sixteen years old. She watched her father suffer through the death of his wife and, when she was killed by a hit-and-run, made a deal with the Crossroads to remain her father's caretaker even after her own death.

The Healy family found a babysitting flyer Mary had put around town in the months before her death. Mary became three-year-old Alice's babysitter and the family did not know that she was a ghost.

## In the Series

### Jonathan and Frances Shorts

#### Bury Me in Satin

The Healy family discovers that Mary has been dead and a ghost the entire time they've known her. Rather than reject her, as she expects, Frances locates her decaying body and the family gives her a proper burial.

#### Snakes and Ladders

Mary joins Frances and Alice for trick-or-treating on Halloween, and helps track Alice down when the girl is kidnapped by a snake cult.

#### The Star of New Mexico

After Frances's funeral, Mary is waiting to guide Frances's spirit into the afterworld.

### Alice and Thomas Shorts

#### The Lay of the Land

Alice introduces Mary to Thomas, who recognizes her immediately as a ghost.

#### Take the Shot

With the Healy family vacationing in Florida, Mary takes Thomas to a local bar to hang out.

#### Off-Balance

Mary welcomes the Healys home with fresh perishables in the fridge.

#### What You Pay For

When Gwendolyn Brandt comes to town intending to marry Thomas, Mary pretends to be Thomas's wife. It backfires when Alice sees them kissing.

#### What You Build

With alkabyiftiris slime on the loose, Mary helps Alice's loved ones track her down in the forest.

#### The Hand of the Forest

Mary continues to help rescue Alice from the slime.

#### By Any Other Name

Alice is furious with Mary for her perceived betrayal and keeps her banished from the house. Mary goes to Thomas for help.

#### Halfway Through the Wood

Mary is called upon by many townsfolk who know a little about the Crossroads, once the bodies of the Meyers are discovered. When Alice is bitten by the bidi-taurabo-haza, she brokers the deal between Thomas and the Crossroads for Alice's life.

### Main Series

#### Magic for Nothing

Mary offers Annie guidance on her sorcerer magic, sharing what she knows of Thomas's abilities two generations earlier. When Annie is sent overseas on an undercover mission, Mary is worried about her inability to follow and help.

Annie summons Mary again at the Spenser and Smith Family Carnival, where she updates Mary on her mission so Mary can relay the message to the family. Later, when the carnival is under attack from the Covenant, Annie summons Mary just long enough to lob a live explosive at Mary, which Mary relocates to another dimensional plane.

#### Tricks for Free

Mary respects Annie's wishes to remain in hiding from the family, relaying to the Prices only that Annie is safe and in hiding so they won't tear apart the country looking for her. When things at Lowryland begin getting especially complicated, Mary tells Sam where to find Annie despite Annie's instructions to leave him out of it for his own safety. From there, Mary stops hiding from Annie's friends and even makes breakfast for them all. At Annie's request, Mary also summons Rose for a ghostly consult.

When Annie and Sam are drowning at the hands of the Lowryland Cabal, Mary reluctantly brokers a deal between Annie and the Crossroads to keep them alive.

#### That Ain't Witchcraft

Mary's babysitting duties are put to the test when Annie and her friends go head-to-head with the Crossroads. The ancient entity blocks Mary from visiting when Annie gets too close to learning the Crossroads' secrets, and Mary is kept in an unknown hellish location that leaves her looking gaunt and tortured. Eventually Annie and her friends distract the Crossroads long enough to summon Mary back to them, and she goes with their plan to call an audit of the Crossroads' deal with James's family. Mary and James argue with the Crossroads long enough for Annie to destroy the evil force that took over the true Crossroads centuries ago.

#### Backpacking Through Bedlam

Mary is now the nanny-ghost babysitter of Verity and Dominic's toddler daughter Olivia Price. She is in New York with them helping care for Olivia while the Covenant try to take over the city.

Whenever someone wants to enter the warehouse safehouse, they are instructed to stand on the corner of the block and call Mary's name. Mary will come to them if the scene is safe from Covenant eyes and lead them inside.

## Relationships

### Antimony Price

Although Antimony is all grown up, Mary can still claim to be her babysitter as long as Antimony is the youngest member of the Price family. Mary manipulates this loophole to act as guide and mentor to Annie as she learns about her magic and faces down Covenant and Crossroads alike.

Annie likes to summon Mary by saying "Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse, Betelgeuse," likely specifically because she knows how much it annoys Mary.

### Alice Price

Mary became Alice's babysitter when Alice was three years old, and remained a guardian angel of sorts throughout Alice's teen years. The two have an affectionate relationship, with Mary helping Alice as much as she can within the limitations of her crossroad obligations. After Thomas comes to town, a misunderstanding leads Alice to shutting Mary out because she thinks that Mary and Thomas are romantically involved. Mary finds herself powerless to help Alice even while Alice is in danger because she is so tightly bound to her babysitting/crossroads role. They eventually make up in the wake of Enid's death.

### Thomas Price

Mary develops a friendship with Thomas independent of being around him on Alice's account. Once, when the Healys are out of town, Mary takes him to a local cryptid bar and the two share deep conversation. Later, when a Covenant operative attempts to claim Thomas's hand in marriage, Mary pretends to be his wife in order to send the operative packing. However, the two have no actual romantic interest in one another and Mary knows full well how Alice and Thomas's relationship is developing.

### Benjamin Dunlavy

Mary is very loyal to her father while he lives, and especially concerned with his wellbeing after her mother's death. When Mary is killed by a hit-and-run, she makes a deal with the Crossroads to become a ghost and remain her father's caretaker.

## Quotes

### General

* “Your family is who you tell the twilight belongs to you, and I told the twilight--and the crossroads--that I was a Price-Healy.”
* “Take. Eat. Explain. Or I swear to God, I will haunt you until you never eat, sleep, or have sex again.”
* “Having a ghost in the family can be really useful sometimes. I’d recommend it to anyone who’s looking to get something more interesting than endless second cousins.” --Alice Healy on Mary

## Trivia

* Mary brought the crossroads Tommy Price and Bobby Cross, two men with enough power to keep the crossroads happy for a long time.
* The Price family has spent the last two generations very carefully not asking Mary about the Crossroads lest it trigger her need to broker a bargain and demand a price. As a result, they are quite ignorant about it.
* Mary attends the Price family Christmas each year. Each year she always brings fruitcake from an old lady in Denver.

## References

1. ↑ That Ain't Witchcraft
2. ↑ Bury Me in Satin
3. ↑ Halfway Through the Wood Ch. 23
4. ↑ Off-Balance
5. ↑ Take the Shot
6. ↑ Magic for Nothing
7. ↑ Backpacking Through Bedlam Ch. 11
8. ↑ Halfway Through the Wood
9. ↑ Bury Me in Satin
10. ↑ Tricks for Free Ch. 8
11. ↑ Tricks for Free Ch. 9
12. ↑ That Ain't Witchcraft Ch. 12
13. ↑ Chaos Choreography Ch. 3