What You Build

**What You Build** is an InCryptid short story. It is ninth in the Alice and Thomas Shorts and continues the events of What You Pay For.

## Synopsis

We're back to Alice Healy and Thomas Price as they continue to try and navigate the biggest disasters they've faced to date in "What You Build."  This is a direct continuation from "What You Pay For" in November.

## Plot

After Alice comes home in tears and locks herself in her room, Enid and Alexander go into the forest to investigate the sense that something out there is off.

Thomas, Mary, and Gwendolyn discuss the slime that they found in Alice's bag. Mary makes herself scarce so she can go check on Alice, and when Gwendolyn threatens "his wife," all he can think of is Alice when ordering Gwen to leave her alone.

An Aeslin novice standing guard over Alice is consumed by the slime, which proceeds with a stealth attack on Alice. Mary arrives to find the mouse's remains and Alice missing.

Mary alerts Thomas to the danger Alice is in, and he and Gwendolyn head into the woods to look for Alice. Mary goes too, separately, so she can use her abilities to search.

Alice is half-conscious as the slime propels her through the woods. She can't stop thinking about seeing Mary and Thomas kiss. She leads the slime to the swamp bromeliad, which traps her in its flower. Thomas and Gwendolyn find her there, Mary joining them, and pull Alice to safety. Thomas pulls out remedies to expel the slime from Alice's body. Once it is clear Alice will be okay, he leaves her in the clearing and takes Gwen to go hunting.

Mary finds the adult Healys and brings them up to speed. They reach Alice and find the jar of slime Thomas had left behind with her. They take Alice home.

The bear, still controlled by residual slime, prowls near the Healy house...

## Characters

* Alexander Healy
* Enid Healy
* Alice Healy
* Jonathan Healy
* Thomas Price
* Gwendolyn Brandt
* Mary Dunlavy

**Mentioned**

* Enid's father
* Frances Healy (The Violent Priestess)
* Daniel Healy (The God of Early Arrivals and Earlier Departures)
* Manfred Cunningham, a "master" within the Covenant

## Field Guide

Crossroads Ghost

* Tailypo
* Angler Tortoise
* Dire Boar
* Fricken
* Alkabyiftiris slime
* Swamp Bromeliad (species)

**Mentioned**

* Unicorn

## Locations

* Buckley Township, Michigan
	+ Old Parrish Place
	+ Healy House
	+ The forest

**Mentioned**

* Penton Hall

## Trivia

* Alexander and Enid have both recognized Alice's crush on Thomas, and aren't particularly concerned by it
* Schisms have developed within the Aeslin colony since Frances's death, and the mice worry that the time of this pantheon may be ending.
* Aeslin mice never linger in the daylight world after death, eager to move on to meet their Gods in the afterlife.

## Quotes

* "We'd never be able to keep Alice away [if a unicorn was in the area]. She'd get gored." -Alexander
	+ "Or worse, she wouldn't, and then we'd have to deal with Johnny trying to organize a shotgun wedding to every teenage boy in Buckley." -Enid
* "Americans will build anywhere. Floodplains, in the path of tornados, near active volcanos -- it doesn't seem to matter. As long as the land was taken bloodily from the people who owned it prior to European colonization, they're happy to have it." -Thomas