Welcome to Gaia! ::

Ladies and gentlemen of the Barton Army, I do not know how to begin this announcement. I suppose I can start by delivering a back story... At a 4th of July part, Ember met someone in real life. It seemed that in that instant, all love that she had ever felt for me vanished and she left me. As you may or may not know, this was a week after our Gaia wedding, but that is now irrelevant.

A month has passed. I've been struggling to move on, she and this other someone broke up two weeks into it with barely 2 dates, and I had to remind her constantly to keep up with her duties. The last part had been ongoing even while we were together. I brought up this fact with her today, my love for her no longer enough to mask the fact that she has not fulfilled her duties to the Army.

After a small bit of discussion, she agreed to step down from her position of General and handed it to me. You read correctly. I am now General of the Barton Army. I am proud to lead such a phenomenal group. I wish that my appointment could have had a better note to it, however, but what was done was done and can never be forgotten nor forgiven. On my part, anyways.

I, as well as Doc, and Gina, and a few others, have led this Army to where it stands today. Not any of our leaders. Our first general whose crimes are so immense I refuse to refer to him by name, was simply incompetent. Ember had good intentions in heart but has lost interest in Gaia in general, so she cannot be blamed entirely.

But that is the past. Like I am trying to do now in my personal life, I want all of you to help each other and me look towards the future of the Barton Army. I want us to grow strong, but independent of the UGMF or any other military guild. I was wrong in trying to experiment and although yes, we met some good people, we cannot grow strong by trying to bend to some storyline of theirs. We must write our own stories and continue our fight against the tyranny that is the other Towns... Except Gambino, they're pretty much the France of all the towns.

With that, I leave you with this: I vow to uphold the sanctity and spirit of all that is Barton. I vow to help keep this guild afloat and active. I vow to make us stronger, grow us bigger, and make this guild a thing to look forward to checking out each and every time any of you log onto Gaia because here, you will know that you have friends, comrades-in-arms, waiting to greet you with joking insults and attacks with inanimate objects.

All who oppose my appointment to the position of General, speak now. That is an order. But for the rest... help me in bringing in the beginning of a New Era for the Barton Army.

Oh, and for those of you wondering why I look like I'm on vacation in the Bahamas, well, it's a more symbolic gesture of me trying to get back on my feet by surrounding myself with booze and attractive, young women. mrgreen

Good lord. FINALLY.

UGMF storyline was at no point forced upon you. Should we have had the operation together, it would've been your storyline in your guild, and we would have been the ones to adjust our story for it. I do hope UGMF and BA keeps the friendship up, as there hasn't been any problems between the two.

On behalf of the UGMF I congratulate on your promotion and hope your life sorts out to the better, sir.

Sr. Lieutenant/Pvt. 2nd class Mill Wilkinson

Stand down, the both of you. Although yes, the UGMF storyline was at no point forced upon us, negotiations on any joint operation have either stalled or have deteriorated to nothingness. Although a friendship among our collective members can still exist, Gina Davis is correct; there have been a few rifts caused by the entrance of select members of the UGMF that are no one's fault but my own due to my own short foresight and for that, I apologize to my Army.

But the Barton Army is always welcome to Barton-loyal members of the UGMF. We hope to keep peaceful contact with our fellow military guild.

Welcome back, Ved.

Well, either way, it's still great to have the both of you back.

A lot, Squishy, a lot... I wish I could've missed some of those events too.

... *Stares at slimy cookie* Uh... I'm good, Squish, tryin' to, uh... Watch the weight, you know? It's still swim suit season, ya know? sweatdrop