#crossing!barry

Ah, an important question. I’ll tell you everyone’s just so it can all be together. Usually, it’s hard labor/menial tasks, and they’re aimed to be exactly what the person doesn’t want to do. It can vary, but these are what they usually end up doing:

Arin: working the books. balancing checkbooks, organizing files, shredding papers. The most boring office shit you can think of that Nook would need done. He takes phone calls where his literal only line is “Hello, thank you for calling, please hold” and then pushing the hold button. It’s all secretarial, but Arin hates it because he has to focus on the most boring tasks for extended periods of time and sit still in a chair for far too long.

Holly: Chopping down trees/lumber work in general. She’s constantly ambushed by bees and she tries to apologize to every bird whose home she ruins. But she also has a quota to reach, so there isn’t much time to dillydally.

Barry: Delivery services--especially returns. Not only does he have to constantly make conversation with total strangers, but with returns, they’re usually not very happy to see him.

Ross: In-store customer service, where he has to smile and act polite all day, and the customer is always right! Plus he’s constantly hounded by the little hellions that are Nook’s nephews (I think they’re his nephews?).

Suzy: Digging up fossils/finding those weird money rocks/also finding those trees that just drop money for some reason. She’s also at risk of bees, for one thing, and she hates getting all covered in grime and shit when she has to dig stuff up.

and Brian? Fuckin telemarketing. Yeah, that’s right. They took the fuckin dude who literally lives off of being the silent type and make him answer phones and call people with “sales for this!” “deals for that!” And being chipper isn’t exactly in his wheelhouse either.

oooh interesting. Well, they’re all kind of faking happiness around him at first, but as he gets to know them, he realizes they’re all pretty burnt out and depressed about their situations. But let’s see...

Arin -- The first of his housemates that he meets. Arin kind of shows him around and tells him about the town and all the people (or animals) that live there. Danny and Arin immediately play off of each other well and it feels really natural for them to be friends. He’d probably be the one Danny gets the truth from, seeing as he’d end up knowing him the best pretty quickly and would realize that Arin’s kind of faking all this happy-go-lucky bullshit.

Suzy -- When he first sees her, he’d think she was some kind of punk/goth girl that wouldn’t wanna hang around much of anyone. Then he hears her voice and she’s greeting him like “hi! welcome to our little house! you must be the nice new roommate we’re getting!” and she’s just so sweet that he immediately feels welcome in the house.

Ross -- The impression can only be described as “angsty teen” because Ross is really easily irritated just by their general circumstances that Danny showing up seems like just some new shit he has to deal with that he didn’t ask for. It takes Ross a while to warm up to him, so for a while Danny just kind of avoids him.

Barry -- Doesn’t seem like much of a conversationalist, so he’s kind of awkward for Danny to be around at first. He also is kind of put off of Barry at first because Ross hangs around him a lot and sometimes walks into a room where Ross will immediately stop talking when Danny enters, so he thinks they’re talking shit about him (when really Ross just stops normal conversations because he doesn’t want Danny to jump into them).

Holly -- Immediate adoration. She’s really sweet and accommodating and also responsible, so she sets him up with everything he needs like a bed and dresser and everything in his room. When he sees her all depressed and exhausted it feels like a slap in the face because she’s the purest of all of them and obviously none of them deserve it, but especially Holly.

Brian -- It takes a while for Danny to even come into contact with Brian. At first it’s just this mysterious guy who wears nothing but black and occasionally can be found in their kitchen or disappearing down a hallway. Their first conversation is kind of shitty because Brian doesn’t have a filter and goes straight into “relentlessly joking like we’ve known each other for years” mode, which isn’t really appreciated when Danny is trying to just get to know the guy. But Arin talks him up so much and everyone else says he’s “alright.” Once they actually start talking about music and stuff, they hit it off better.