I am convinced there are easier ways to earn one’s living than following the T.E.A. Society into danger, disorder, and predicaments no prudent person would seek out. And yet, my publisher continues to regard your humble correspondent as singularly suited to the task. On this point, I can hardly fault him dear readers. For all its hazards, there is no assignment quite so lively, so curious, or so impossible to resist.
So, as it appears I am once again to be attached to the adventures of the TeslaCon Explorers & Adventurers Society - that is, the T.E.A. Society - it seems only proper that I introduce myself.
I am Miss Abigail Peasley, reporter by profession, enthusiastic observer of extraordinary events, and your humble correspondent on matters concerning the T.E.A. Society. I am told I have developed something of a reputation for keeping my head in situations where others lose theirs. This is flattering, my dear readers, though I must point out that in several instances I kept my head only because I was running too quickly to misplace it.
Some of you may already know my work. In 1893, I was sent to Egypt, where I found myself mixed up in the alarming business of the deceased Professor Sterling Rutherford Sirius, a most intriguing series of hieroglyphic translations, and the thoroughly inconsiderate Curse of Anubis. What began as scholarship ended, as these things so often do, with entrapment inside a tomb and a very pressing need to escape it. I did escape, and I am pleased to say I retained my life, my notebook, and a healthy skepticism toward any person inclined to describe a tomb, a curse, or a sealed chamber as “perfectly safe.”
One might imagine that after such an experience I should have been granted gentler assignments. Flower shows, perhaps, or a profile of someone who manufactures teaspoons. Instead, in 1894, I was dispatched after the T.E.A. Society yet again, only to find myself on an island beset by pirates and dinosaurs. I assure you there is no training in any respectable school of journalism that prepares a young lady to report accurately while also avoiding prehistoric teeth. Still, I cannot deny it was a capital adventure. Disorderly, yes. Sensible, certainly not. But capital all the same.
Then came 1895, when I followed the Society to Norway, where matters involving trolls, fae, and assorted folkloric inconveniences proved that the T.E.A. Society never repeats itself. One year brings curses, the next pirates, and the next creatures out of old tales - and somehow, every year, the Society makes me glad I came. It is enough to send one’s hat askew, though I flatter myself that mine remained more or less secured.
And now, my dear readers, here we are again.
For that is the thing about the T.E.A. Society, my dear readers. It is not the sort of thing one merely watches from afar. It is mystery, mayhem, contraptions, competitions, strange happenings, and the sort of adventure that sensible people may hesitate to pursue, but never forget once they have joined it.
If you are newly arrived to all this, do not be alarmed. While I await further leads as to what adventure the T.E.A. Society shall be embarking upon this year, I intend to make myself useful. In the coming weeks, I shall set down several articles to catch one up on the happenings of previous years - the curse in Egypt, the pirates and dinosaurs of that most unreasonable island, the trolls and fae of Norway, and the other assorted difficulties that have already made the Society so storied.
One might imagine that after such an experience I should have been granted gentler assignments. Flower shows, perhaps, or a profile of someone who manufactures teaspoons. Instead, in 1894, I was dispatched after the T.E.A. Society yet again, only to find myself on an island beset by pirates and dinosaurs. I assure you there is no training in any respectable school of journalism that prepares a young lady to report accurately while also avoiding prehistoric teeth. Still, I cannot deny it was a capital adventure. Disorderly, yes. Sensible, certainly not. But capital all the same.
