A single pure fractal made in Apophysis 2.09, mirrored and overlaid four different ways
“Well, I always saw your Banneker uncle as a more cuddly, kinder version of a Lobortrian Pyncier – not going to move to bother you, but if you get to close to any of their children and sometimes their grandchildren, they're gonna kill you.”
My cousin Symone Biles was too young to have anything to say about members of that side of my family losing their mind for a minute and deciding to sue my uncle for custody and thus control of a settlement I received because of how my parents, Cody and Khati Banneker Biles, died.
“But it's like even back then,” Symone said, “the man was a whole captain with no legs who strapped on two bionic legs, got the fleet to give him his job back, saved the lives of thousands of people messing up that pair of bionic legs, got a second pair, and still got his job back again, then retired, became a famous civilian scientist before and after making sure you were good, and then the stuff he predicted as a lieutenant started happening and old enemies started acting up and just set him up to come back and get the promotion he turned down to raise you, and then get another promotion to admiral, and then get to moonlight as an ambassador, and then get the girl he knew 60 years ago as his wife while doing all that – I mean, your uncle is one of those who is basically a transformer and we ain't even seen his final form yet because he's still alive and in good health!”
That was the reason for the analogy with the Lobortrian Pyncier … no one has yet seen their final form because they will put you in your final form long before that … they are not large creatures, maybe the size of a big puppy, but humans' vital organs are not that big either. Just their resting form, with what looks like a face both between and below the top set of pincers, looks fierce enough to give anyone a fair warning … but the thing is, all that gives this creature a mildly humanoid appearance is just muscles and pincers below its “neck,” and it can switch it up in a hurry …
This second form is also what gives this creature the nickname “Merciless Seat” for the appearance of the two angels reaching toward each other like over the mercy seat in the ancient Torah … but there is no mercy to be found here. Lobortrian Pynciers are studded with small pincers that can liquefy flesh like a standard industrial blender, and the big pincer sets can crack bone. Few people have ever even lived to see its "Double Death's Head" form ... big pincer sets all out and ready to take out creatures the size of elephants...
They know to follow any heart's pulse to the source, and they can get to a human heart in all of five seconds, making time to pinch off fingers as they go. I like to think they were created with at least two transforms that suggest humanoid masculine fearsomeness –
– just so eventually, humanity would not take too many casualties in discovering why they should not be messed with, and sympathizing with the reason.
To their own offspring and also any orphaned brood that comes under their protection, Lobortrian Pynciers are excellent parents, having one of the highest survival rates for their young into adulthood among the galaxy's many crustaceans.
“In Earth terms, Cousin Symone thinks I'm a coconut crab with family man inclinations,” my uncle said about it, “and it just goes to show you that you never need to worry about how other people perceive you!”
He had a good laugh when I shared with him what Cousin Symone had said, and laughed some more when I added, “But she did say you were a cuddly one, though!”