A Guide to the Trimaldi Bros

As an in-game reference. To be expanded as needed.

For most folk outside of raccoon-kin (even among many beast-kin), the Trimaldi Bros. are fairly indistinguishable and/or confusing as to which is which.

  • They are brothers from the same litter, so they look like raccoons, and of a similar age.
  • They act and move in similar ways.
  • Their scent is familial and a lot like each other’s (esp. when they’ve been cooped up in the clank all day).
  • Their interests (food, family) overlap a lot between them.
  • Their voices (when speaking the common tongue) sound a lot alike.
  • They often interact with others from within a singular form (the clank).
  • They tend to talk very fast to each other to get to a group consensus on things.

There are, though, distinct differences that, as one gets to know them better (as Mizzle and Saraid are beginning to) helps distinguish them.

Jobs

Name Position Role
Shiny Head / Shoulders Vision, navigation, talking, shooting
Tiny Chest / Upper Torso Engineering, power production and monitoring, tinkering
Whiny Lower Torso / Legs Drive train, walking, balance

These are not absolutes: the Bros. can change positions and roles if need be, and all act as assistants to each other (which can further confuse outsiders). But these are the slots and portals they tend to bee-line toward when it’s time to “mount up.”

Forms and Personalities

Name Order Appearance Personality
Shiny Youngest Well-groomed and bright-eyed Sociable, smart, good talker, a bit heart-on-his-sleeves, a bit vain, worries a lot more than he shows
Tiny Middle Smaller and wiry Diligent, clever, acquisitive, easily distracted by problems to fix
Whiny Oldest A bit larger, a scosh slower Stolid, dependable, responsible, somewhat put upon by being the guy who sits at the bottom and controls the legs.

Note that, though they have provided those names in the common tongue as short-hand identifiers, their own raccoon-kin names are something quite different (and don’t translate well). They also sometimes get mixed up as to whether it’s “-y” or “-ey”; actually, Shiny and Tiny have very strong and opposing feelings about it (Whiny, when he cares, waffles a bit).

Things you may not know about the Trimaldi Bros.

Name Thing You Maybe Didn’t Know*
Shiny Would rather curl up with a good adventure tale than socialize after a long, hard day, projecting himself as the hero who saves the day.
Tiny Doesn’t much care for fresh fruit, to the amusement (and delight) of his brothers. He actually has a well-developed / finicky palate, and is put off by defects, unexpected variations, and spoilage. Some nice fruit preserves, on the other hand, yum.
Whiny Passes time in his somewhat drudge job (walking, walking some more, walking a bit faster, walking uphill, sitting down, getting up up, walking) by composing poetry (some of which, to be sure, has to do with walking). He never writes it down, but he will occasionally recite it, esp. when in his cups.

*The player maybe didn’t know, either.

2 Likes

I made the original suggestion for their names so I’ll contribute a bit of trivia too: the names come from a bit in a Cinematic Titanic feature (“Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”) where the riffers have an exchange: “This sounds like something out of a Carnac skit.” “Name something tiny, shiny, and whiny”.

2 Likes