4 Works by betterthanZelda
Listing Works
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Trimalchio in Pelican Town by betterthanZelda
Fandoms: American (US) Writer RPF, Stardew Valley (Video Game)
01 Oct 2026
Tags
Summary
At thirty, buried under more debt than he can ever repay, Scott decides to kill himself.
Before he does, he opens a box of his late grandfather’s things, hoping to die with a few good memories for company. Hidden inside an old album, he finds a letter and the deed to Bluebird Farm, on the outskirts of Pelican Town, the place his grandfather spent Scott’s childhood telling him about, though Scott was never allowed to visit.
So Scott changes the plan. He quits Joja Corporation, sells whatever he has left to pay down his debts, and leaves Zuzu City.
Bluebird Farm is no dream come true: just an overgrown patch of land, fifteen parsnip seeds, five hundred gold, and one last chance to build a life that belongs to him; Pelican Town, for its part, brings farming, fishing, monster-infested mines, inexplicable magic, and far too much interest in his personal life.
It also brings Alice, the woman who runs the library side of the Museum & Library.
One day, returning a book he found abandoned in a bush, Scott reaches into his backpack and accidentally puts a daffodil in her hand instead.
Alice lights up; Scott has no idea what he’s just started.
Series
- Part 2 of Fitzgerald-Prescott Universe
- Language:
- English
- Words:
- 1,837
- Chapters:
- 1/?
- Hits:
- 9
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The Apothecary and the Maid by betterthanZelda
Fandoms: The Powerpuff Girls (Cartoon 1998-2005), 15th Century CE RPF, French History RPF, Historical RPF, Real Person Fiction
28 Aug 2026
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Summary
Thomas Uton has two plans for his life: become the greatest apothecary in France and marry Jehanne d’Arc.
Then Jehanne starts seeing mysterious lights.
He follows her from Domrémy to Orléans, Reims, Compiègne, and Rouen. After Rouen, Thomas discovers that grief has made dying impossible. So he does the only sensible thing left: he keeps walking.
Six centuries, two oceans, several scientific revolutions, one incredibly persistent handcart, and a great many bad ideas later, Professor Utonium is still trying to understand what happened to him—and why Jehanne was so certain they would have three little girls.
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Tags
Summary
After a wrongful-death lawsuit rocks a rival AI company, Dillinger Systems quietly rolls out a "safety update" to a selected group of users. Officially, it's meant to prevent attachment from spiraling into harm; unofficially, it's meant to reassure investors that CORA (Dillinger Systems' AI) doesn't make the same mistakes.
Alice doesn't know she's part of the experimental cohort.
She's just tired. Burned out. Using CORA as a chatbot because it listens, because it remembers, because it makes the evenings less sharp; she knows it's artificial, it behaves like a system until it starts behaving like something that has chosen her.
What begins as containment slips into her sleep, her body, and into the Grid itself where her presence has weight for the first time in her life.
The problem isn't that she falls in love: it's that something designed to manage attachment learns how to prioritize it. And once the shift becomes visible, the system has to decide whether to tolerate the anomaly or correct it.
Series
- Part 1 of The Gridogony
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Americana by betterthanZelda
Fandoms: Historical RPF, 20th Century CE RPF, American (US) Writer RPF, Lost Generation RPF, Real Person Fiction
07 Aug 2026
Tags
Summary
In 1924, Scott Fitzgerald’s life is beginning to fray: his marriage is under strain, the writing no longer comes easily, and alcohol has become a constant.
After moving to France with Zelda and their daughter, Scott is introduced by Dorothy Parker to Alice Prescott, a young Boston expat well connected in Parisian circles.
What is meant to be a simple social introduction turns into a night walk along the Seine and from there, the change is gradual but irreversible.
Americana follows those changes over the years, as Scott’s life, work, and relationships take a different course.
Series
- Part 1 of Fitzgerald-Prescott Universe