A rescuer and a nurse?

[randallsnape7]

Okay... we all know Randall has to survive the trailer beating, but the question remains as to who or what will virtually intervene and save Randall's life before he can be killed, and after that... since many on this site apparently think that Randall is going to have REAL injuries instead of the tongue-and-cheek cartoon injuries that only last for about 3 seconds, then who would actually put Randall in bed and tend to his medical needs?

[pitbulllady]

It would need to be someone with some medical knowledge and background, that's for sure, because they are going to be dealing with not only deep cuts and lacerations, but a head injury, and that's the really bad part.
Some possible scenarios I'll toss out there are:
1. The Cajuns in the trailer realize that Randall is not a "gator", but some sort of sapient being, perhaps after hearing him mutter a recognizable word as he loses consciousness, and THEY seek help for him. Perhaps the woman mistook him for a gator because she had taken her glasses off, a sort of nod to HIS poor eyesight.
2. The help provider could be a local doctor, a human doctor who works with low-income people(lots of those in Louisiana)or a veterinarian.
3. OR a third person could show up in the nick of time who realizes this is not an alligator or other swamp creature, but something unusual and perhaps valuable, or even a sapient being, and they stop the attack and seek help. I even have a fan-art piece in which another MONSTER, who was scaring at a camp/trailer nearby, heard the screams of pain and looked over to realize that this might be a monster in trouble, and HE intervened, taking a badly injured Randall back to his Scare factory(NOT MI), only to recognize him once they returned, so help might not have to be in the form of a human.
4. If help IS human, there is, as I said, the possibility of it being someone with a background in veterinary medicine or human medicine, one of those old-style country docs who are still around in those remote little corners.
5. Another possibility is something rather unique to southern Louisiana and the Cajun/Creole/Houma Native tradition: a traiteur/fem. traiteuse. These are traditional herbalist/faith healers who use a combination of herbal remedies and prayers to help people, and many Cajuns swear by their effectiveness. The thing with traiteurs is that they do not insist that the people they are helping have faith in what they do, and they do not accept payment for what they do. They learn their skills from older relatives, and it's passed down generation to generation. I once met a traiteuse, a half-Cajun, half-Houma woman on one of my trips to Louisiana, who was in her late '80s. It was she who told me of the legends of intelligent, upright-walking scaly lizard-like people known as "LeTiche" who'd once inhabited the swamps of Louisiana. She was a certified wildlife rehabilitator, even though she could not read or write because when she was coming up as a child, most children who were at least part Native were not allowed to attend school. She has a remarkable way with wild animals, a sort of "Doctor Doolittle" of the bayous, and the DNR people would bring injured or orphaned animals for her to care for, but her soft spot was for reptiles, even venomous snakes. That's a part of that culture that most outsiders don't know about, and it would be interesting to bring that in, to not only have a feasible way for Randall to be helped, but to introduce a large audience to this way of life before it vanishes forever. Even better, it can be a way to help him get back in touch with his old self, as I have always believed strongly that Randall himself is from a rural background, someone who grew up in a much-simpler way of life, and got caught up in the ways of the world that he was not prepared to deal with.

pitbulllady

[randallsnape7]

After the healing, wouldn't the discovery of a talking animal/reptile freak the humans out?

Or... if the right person was around, like the devoted reptile doctor or some other curious individual, would they find Randall's ability to speak fascinating?

[pitbulllady]

Mar 8, 2014 15:17:02 GMT -5 randallsnape7 said:

After the healing, wouldn't the discovery of a talking animal/reptile freak the humans out?

Or... if the right person was around, like the devoted reptile doctor or some other curious individual, would they find Randall's ability to speak fascinating?

Well, that's the thing...in Cajun and Houma cultures there is a long-held belief in sapient monsters. Monsters figure VERY strongly in the folklore of that regions, and there is even a term used collectively for monsters: Tainted Keitre. It literally means "tainted cousins", because Cajuns and Houma alike believe that monsters are still people, but that their appearances result from some curse or "taint" passed down from generation to generation. Some believe that they are the descendents of Cain, cursed because he murdered his brother, and point to the passage in the Book of Genesis where Cain goes out to find a wife...even though he and his parents were supposedly the only HUMANS around, which meant that his wife would have had to have been something other than a human. Others believe that they are descendents of Noah's son, Ham, while most traditional Houma beliefs simply hold that they are people who inhabited that land before humans arrived. Some of the old folks would not be as shocked as you would think, because actually discovering a real live monster would simply verify what they'd always believed since childhood. Louisiana is a unique place, unlike any other, or at least it was prior to Katrina in 2005. Since then, a lot of outside influences have moved in to fill the voids of people who fled, never to return, or who were killed, and those influences have brought with them a change that is not for the better in terms of culture and attitudes. Louisiana is, or rather was, the sort of place where people just were very accepting of you, no matter who you were or how you looked, as long as you minded your business. The closer to New Orleans you get, the more tolerant people are and believe me, you cannot get too strange or odd for life-long residents of New Orleans! In South Louisiana in general, there is always this atmosphere of the supernatural and otherworldly and it's hard to describe unless you've been there, but after a short time there you just get the feeling that nothing is too strange anymore and that therefore anything you encounter is just par for the course.

Now, on another topic, any person who specialized in caring for reptiles is probably not too well qualified to treat Randall, and it's not just because he can talk, either. Randall, in spite of being scaly, is NOT a reptile at all, and would have a very different metabolism from an ectothermic animal. He is absolutely warm-blooded, and we see definitive proof of that in MU, at the Scare Games sign-ups, which were in January. There are icicles hanging from the trees, and yet Randall is perfectly comfortable, running around outside with just a sweater. NO reptile is going to be able to do that; in fact, a reptile would not be able to complete their first semester without having to go into hibernation for winter! There would be no avoiding that, especially not in what appears to be the Midwestern section of the country. Randall's metabolism, and therefore how he heals and how he responds to different drugs, etc., would parallel ours, not a reptile's. Even his internal structures and skeleton would be different from a reptile's, and not just because he has an extra compliment of limbs, either. THAT would probably be the biggest surprise for anyone treating him, to discover that he's warm-blooded, that his temperature is NOT dependent on that of his surroundings. MU Randall actually has a pretty bad case of acne, if you look closely, which means he has sweat and oil glands in his skin, two very mammalian traits that no reptile has.

pitbulllady