[Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge]

This is a story about the newly-adult Calliope Smith having a terrible day that ends in her getting mysteriously teleported from Phoenix, Arizona to a fantasy world where her life is in constant danger. She considers this an upgrade. Someone evil is looking for her, and she doesn't know why. Someone who seems to know a lot about her has promised they'll help her, but she doesn't know who they are. All that matters to Callie is that magic is real and one way or another she's going to learn it.

The end of the world is coming up, sure, but Callie won't need to worry about that. In fact, by the time she even finds out about it one of the doomsday devices will already be destroyed, and the authorities will be well on the way to dealing with the other one. It's fine. Everything will be smooth sailing. Almost certainly. Probably.

Chapters are usually about 2500-3500 words, and the goal is to post 2-3 per week but I sometimes get busy or have some writers block.

It's your standard portal fantasy / Isekai premise, but unlike some the main character's time on Earth and how she got pulled into another world will (eventually) be explored. Some slight GameLit-feeling stuff later, no menus or level-ups but there's something suspiciously like a skill tree when the magic system gets going. No number crunching, and while the main character will get to do some silly stuff she won't be a god like in some fics (and will in fact spend a lot of time being badly outclassed by her enemies). Some reader interaction, ranging from adding to the worldbuilding to occasionally making big important decisions about skill progression. Please note that the main character is flawed and impulsive, and will make some stupid decisions. That's part of the story, but I get that it's not for everyone.

Trigger Warnings: Foster care system references, crappy parenting. Some mental health adjacent stuff, specifically the main character has some issues where she experiences varying levels of empathy and emotional vulnerability depending on the day (it's complicated and not meant to portray any real-world conditions). Occasional violence including mention of death and grievous bodily harm, but no detailed descriptions of gore.