Pieings
History of the Gray Ajah FOPI
The history of the Gray Ajah Pieings, and the First Official Pie Initiate.
Compiled by: Jenarra Tikvah
The real life pie-ings began back in January of 2004. At the time, I was a Novice, on the verge of being raised into the Gray Ajah. This was before the guesting system had been introduced, so I was going to be raised directly to “Accepted of the Gray Ajah”. Elanda Tonil was the Head of the Grays at the time, and Kariada Kunai was a newly raised Aes Sedai.
Living in Mobile, Alabama, I was pretty far away from other Grays, geographically speaking. The closest one was in Atlanta, Georgia, which was about 6 hours away from me. After talking online for a good few months, we had decided to meet in Birmingham, Alabama, for lunch one weekend day. She brought her boyfriend along, and I brought my husband and small son.
After lunch at Olive Garden, she told me that she had a present for me in her car, so I walked her out where her boyfriend was on the phone with his back to me. She leaned into the hatch of the car, and came out with a whipped-cream filled pie crust, our first “Pie”. Kariada was on the phone at the time, and the boyfriend in attendance held up the phone with one hand, and his camera with the other. With giggles from the Gray and myself, and glares from my husband, I accepted the first real life pie-ing, amidst cackles from Kariada (by phone) and flashes of the camera. Once the pie-ing was over, Kariada informed me that Elanda had changed my permissions that morning after I left Mobile, and that I was now officially a member of the Gray Ajah.
The kicker here is that - not knowing that I was going to take a pie to the face - I had not packed a change of clothing. It was about 35 degrees outside, and I was soaked in sugary slush. I went back into the Olive Garden, covered in whipped cream, and used their bathroom to bathe off. I had to ride home the entire way with my husband glaring at me, with a soaked shirt, and my son asking why that mean lady hit me with food.
And thus I became FOPI of the Gray Ajah - First Official Pie Initiate. It was about a month later, I believe, that Asandra became the SOPI (Second...) and I don’t remember who was third. The tradition held strong, though, because three years later, at my house in Atlanta, both Zashara and Amira were pied when they came to visit me.
Photos
Kymo and Tyla Get Pied
