Elanor was truly touched by this action of Gary's. She could see that some of the others were contemplating to follow suit. The manager wouldn't mind, but with how much time had passed, even the stars should be aware that many of their fans might see through that it would simply be a stunt, a way to become even more popular with the people. The thing was, Gary was doing this, and he didn't even want credit for it, letting the old man deal with it all, and leaving before they would even get the gift that he had prepared for them.
She would certainly come back at some point and get the others' reactions after Gary had left.
Heading up the elevator that was now working and had the buttons intact, they reached the top floor. Quite a difference from the days when Gary would have to climb the whole flight of stairs every day.
No amount of cleaning could get rid of the dirt that had literally become part of the walls, floor and door. One could tell that the others were a bit frightened to touch the walls. Using the key, Gary opened the door for the rest of them.
"Welcome to my crib." Gary said cheerfully. "Sorry, but I always wanted to say that once."
It was hard for them all to fit through, they had to walk through the hallway one after the other, and the camera crew were struggling to move around to get good shots of things, but they were able to see how small everything was.
Walking through each room Gary would describe his upbringing, where he would eat a meal with his family, and where they would talk and so on.
"Wait, there's only two bedrooms, didn't you say you had a sister as well?" Rachel asked.
"Yeah, I do. My sister and I had to share a room until last year." Gary replied, looking a bit embarrassed as he did so. All the girls looked at each other in that moment, the room was already small compared to what they had, and to share it with a boy of all things it sounded like a nightmare, and in that moment they all felt bad for Gary's sister.
"Your life must have really changed after you became an Altered then?" Clem asked.
"It did." Gary answered. "But, other than the financial struggles my family went through, I don't think it was too bad before that either. The people here are nice, my family was well looked after. It was bad before, but now I really think Slough has become a nice place for people to live."
With the tour done, it was time for Gary to take them all to some local sites. Gary waved goodbye to the residents who had changed into nicer clothes, just as several devilry food drivers were arriving. It looked like they were getting out of the area just in time. With that, they got in the van and were on their way to the next destination.
"I have to say Gary, I would have never been able to live in a place like that." Tyson stated. "And to give away your money like that. You might be unaware of this, but the advance we are getting is more money than someone would usually get on their first program… the way you act so carelessly with money, you would think you always grew up and had tons of it, but then we saw where you lived."
"I…think it's because I lived like that. Sometimes I find it crazy how money, which is nothing more than paper which we assign a special value to, is the reason why people go hungry and have to worry. As I said, I've reached a point where I won't have to go hungry anymore, so if I can make other people I know and care about happy by giving up on being richer than before, I won't hesitate for even a moment."
As they travelled, the conversation started to steer away, as Spring was asking about a man named Ash.
"Elanor, are you able to get me a meeting with Ash, he missed the one last week, we were meant to talk about another promotion." Spring asked.
"Ah, I will try, but to be honest, Ash has been pretty busy these days." Elanor replied. "I suppose I can tell you all this, but the truth is, AJ Entertainment recently was bought out by another company. Ash is no longer the majority shareholder. I don't know the details of who yet though."
Hearing the news of a takeover was always worrying and Elanor was quick to calm down their worries.
"Don't worry, Ash will continue working as the director at AJ Entertainment, this was actually his decision. It's why we are able to invest more in productions like this. On top of that, Ash told me that the new company has allowed AJ to continue working the way they have been. Although it's technically a takeover, effectively it's more of an investment basis, so none of us should be affected directly."
"I'm happy to hear that." Rachel said. "Still, I thought AJ Entertainment was already a big company. Who would have the means to buy out the company just like that?"
"Whover it is, they must be a pretty big spender. We should find out, maybe they will have more connections for us." Tyson suggested.
"I guess that means we should be careful if we see some new visitors around the building as well. Who knows, they could be part of this new company, the last thing we would want to do is offend them." Spring agreed.
*****
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