Raul (Fallout: New Vegas)

Raul Alfonso Tejada is a ghoul mechanic and gunslinger living in the prison building at the top of Black Mountain in 2281.

Background
Born in 2047, Raul has had a long and storied history. Before the Great War, Raul grew up on Hidalgo Ranch just outside of Mexico City. He was a good shooter and mechanic, both of which occasionally got him in trouble with the law. During the war, the ranch he lived on was spared from atomic destruction due to being located in a remote area. Soon, the ranch was beset by refugees seeking food and shelter. The Tejada family was as accommodating as they could be, but the amount of refugees was too much for them to handle. Raul's father was forced to turn down any more unfortunates seeking help, due to their resources becoming scarce. At one point, Raul and his father even had to drive off the remaining refugees, as things became violent. Later that night, about two dozen men returned and set fire to the ranch house, barring the doors from the outside to prevent any escape. Raul awoke to the smell of smoke and was able to sneak himself and his sister, Rafaela Tejada out a window, receiving burns across his body in the process. The rest of his family, consisting of his mother, father, grandmother, two brothers, and two sisters, perished in the flames. As they escaped, a few of the men pursued them. Raul killed the pursuers, and left the rest to live, since he did not want to throw away his life in revenge; he still had a sister to take care of.

The pair traveled to the radioactive ruin of Mexico City to begin anew, amidst the large number of looters in the city. They both scraped by as scavengers, constantly looking for food, and medicine to treat Raul's burns. The intense radiation of their surroundings soon started affecting Raul, commencing the first stages of his ghoulification. It was also there that Raul found a novelty costume shop, where he found a Vaquero outfit in good condition while searching for cloth to wrap his wounds. Raul took the outfit, and wore it as he returned to his sister. For the first time since the bombs fell, Rafaela laughed. Soon, Raul became a legend; his sharp eye and top-notch gunslinging always meant the end for glory seekers who were looking to prove themselves. Even though this kept Raul and his sister safe from trouble, it always created more.

Suffering from radiation poisoning, Raul eventually became too ill to scavenge with his sister. As such, she was left to provide for the two on her own. One day, after she failed to return from a market where she had been scavenging for food, Raul went in search of her only to find her brutally murdered, her corpse violated so horribly that she was only identifiable by a tiny scar on her knee. Fueled by anger, Raul tracked down the raiders responsible and killed them to the very last man. He salvaged what was left of the raider gang's possessions and left Mexico City, now the lone survivor of his family.

Leaving every aspect of his former life behind, including, as Raul says, his "face," he wandered to the Gulf Coast and inhabited an unclaimed Petró-Chico refinery. There, he spent a long time thinking about his life. He realized that his gunslinging hadn't given him anything; he discarded his guns and took off his old vaquero outfit. He put on a Petró-Chico jumpsuit that he found, and took the name "Miguel"; the name found on the jumpsuit's nametag.

Bearing a new identity, he eventually arrived in the Arizona town of Tucson, now known as Two Sun. He settled there, becoming a mechanic and a general handyman, his guns stashed away where they could do no further harm, although he still kept them oiled out of professional pride. After 75 years of relative peace, he met Claudia; a prostitute working in a local brothel who bore a striking resemblance to Rafaela. Spurred by this reminder of what he lost, he took the time to look out for her, though for obvious reasons never visited her.

This peace was not to last. Arizona was overrun with raiders and tribals before the rise of Caesar's Legion brought stability to that region; the conditions brought "Dirty Dave" and his six brothers to town looking for ammunition. Raul sold it to them, hoping they would leave now that they had what they wanted. Instead, they decided to take their edge off in the brothel. They massacred the place and took Claudia as a prisoner when they left. Enraged, Raul pursued the gang. They had a head-start, and slept nights; Raul didn't. After three days of continuous pursuit, he finally caught up with them. By the time he found Claudia, she was already dead. This ignited a familiar feeling in Raul; the vengefulness he'd felt at Rafaela's death. In a state of fury, Raul charged head-on into the middle of the camp, and kept shooting his guns until Dirty Dave and his gang were all dead. Youth wasn't on his side anymore; the battle left Raul severely injured and nearly lifeless. After days of gathering his energy to carry his injured body, Raul returned back to town.

Dejected, Raul has wandered west to the Mojave Wasteland. He swore to himself that he was done with the gunslinging life, since he is starting to feel his age. While there, he stumbled upon the signal of the Black Mountain Radio, and started listening to it to pass time. One day, he lost the signal being transmitted and decided to have a look. He ended up meeting a nightkin named Tabitha, the radio's broadcaster and supreme ruler of Black Mountain. Raul fulfilled his purpose and fixed the radio's transmitter, but much to his dismay, Tabitha decided to keep him; after all, he coudln't disagree with a super mutant twice his size. Raul was then turned into Black Mountain's handyman, fixing toasters and things the super mutants wanted fixed. He has also been tasked with the repair of Rhonda, Tabitha's robot and best friend, in which he has been unsuccessful. To guarantee his cooperation, Raul is imprisoned in a building near the mountain's broadcast station.

If freed from captivity, he will join the Courier out of gratitude. A new taste of adventure reminds Raul of his tumultuous past, prompting him to consider whether he should embrace his old gunslinging ways. In this case, he will be forced to decide between two different ways of life.

When compared to the other human companions of the Wasteland, Raul is perhaps the most tolerant towards the Legion when compared to everyone else who would suffer under their rule. He is not affected by the Legion's presence in the wasteland and admires the security and order they bring, although he wouldn't be able to join them due to their hatred towards all forms of mutants. He also has quite an insightful amount of knowledge about Mr. House, as Raul has lived long enough to remember his pre-War exploits.

Quests

 * Crazy, Crazy, Crazy: Raul can be recruited as part of the quest, or simply by traveling to Black Mountain and busting him out.
 * Old School Ghoul: While Raul is an active companion, talk to and exhaust all dialogue options for Loyal, Corporal Sterling, and Ranger Andy. Upon finishing the last conversation, Raul will open up a new dialogue with the Courier. Note that killing any of the non-player characters will cause the mission to fail, resulting in Raul's new apparel to be unobtainable, except through console commands.

Other interactions

 * He is a very competent repairman, but will only offer repairs at his shack, and even then will not offer a discount. He must first be dismissed as a companion ("for the best") before repairs can be done.

Appearances
Raul appears only in Fallout: New Vegas.

Behind the scenes

 * Raul Tejada was written by Travis Stout.
 * His quote about the super mutants asking him to fix toasters is yet another Fallout nod to the strangely useful skill in Wasteland, "Toaster Repair."

Bugs

 * When asked to go to the Lucky 38, a notification will pop up saying he has gone there. When you go looking for him in the Lucky 38 later, he's nowhere to be found. It turns out that he stays at the last location you asked him to leave.
 * Unlike other companions, Raul won't walk around while in the Lucky 38, merely standing in the main room to the right of the door until spoken to.
 * After fast-traveling to a location, Raul will occasionally start running away as quick as he can for no reason, and cannot be interacted with. Loading to a new area or simply waiting for him to turn around will correct this.
 * When Raul awakens after being knocked unconscious, he will sometimes claim to have had a nightmare of Petro Chico Boy "stealing his chicharrones (Spanish for pork rinds)", but the subtitles will incorrectly use the word "chitlins" instead of "chicharrones".
 * Sometimes if the player speaks to him in the Lucky 38 presidential suite, a generic Great Khan will spawn.
 * By pressing "Take All" when pickpocketing Raul, the caps will still appear in the player's inventory despite being caught. To repeat this again, take him outside of his shack and dismiss him as a companion. This means you can get infinite free repairs.
 * When leaving a casino, if Raul is given a weapon, the weapon's weight will be present, but no item can be seen.
 * His voice will change if given a stimpak.
 * He will randomly attack Ringo upon entering Goodsprings Gas Station.
 * Using the Gun Runners companion dismissal terminal to send Raul to his shack may cause him to not appear in his home or the Lucky 38.

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