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 war, Raul grew up on Hidalgo Ranch outside Mexico city. He was a good shooter and mechanic, both of which occasionally got him in trouble with the law. The ranch was in a remote area and was spared from atomic destruction, but soon afterwards was beset by refugees seeking food and shelter. The Tejada family were as accommodating as they could be, but they eventually simply ran out of room and food, and began having to defend what was left of their scarce resources. Raul and his Father armed themselves in an effort to ward off scavengers, but this angered a group of them, who decided to set fire to the ranch in the night. 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, including his mother, father, grandmother, two brothers and two other sisters, all died in the blaze. After that, the pair traveled to the "radioactive ruin" of Mexico City to begin anew, amidst the large number of looters in the city. There, Raul found an old Vaquero outfit in a costume store while looking for cloth to wrap his burns with. Seeing him in the outfit was the first time since the tragedy that Rafaela laughed, so Raul began to wear it and soon became a legend in the area. His post-apocalyptic gunslinging antics attracted the attention of glory seekers, but he always saw them off.

Sickened by radiation, Raul spent some time too ill to go scavenging with his sister (this illness was to be indicative of the early stages of "ghoulification"), and 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 by raiders so horribly that she was only identifiable by a tiny scar on her knee. Raul tracked down the raiders at the market responsible and killed them to the last man, discarding the Vaquero outfit that had attracted him the attention that he felt had killed his sister.

Leaving every aspect of his former life behind, including as Raul cleverly says "his face", he wandered to the Gulf Coast and inhabited an unclaimed Petró-Chico refinery. He spent a long period of time here, thinking about his life so far. He found a Petró-Chico jumpsuit and began to wear it, taking the name "Miguel"; the name found on the jumpsuit's nametag. 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. 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, overrun with raiders and tribals before the rise of Caesar's Legion brought stability to the region, brought 'Dirty Dave' and his six brothers to town looking for bullets. Raul sold them ammunition, hoping they would leave now that they had what they wanted. Instead, they decided they wanted the brothel. They attacked it, killing most of them and taking Claudia as a prisoner. Raul gave chase, and after a three-day pursuit across the wasteland, Raul found them. Youth was not on his side anymore, however, and the battle left him severely injured. By the time he found Claudia, she was already dead. Dejected, Raul wandered west to the Mojave Wasteland, where he stumbled upon the signal of the Black Mountain Radio, and started listening to it. One day he lost the signal being transmitted and decided to go have a look. There he offered his services to Tabitha, the nightkin who broadcasted there, and fixed the transmitter, but to his dismay Tabitha decided to keep him around, mostly repairing broken toasters for the super mutants as well as performing repairs to Rhonda.

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 if he should embrace his old gunslinging ways. In which 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 should the Legion be victorious. He is not affected by the Legion's presence on the wasteland and admires the security and order brought by them, although he wouldn't be able to join them due to their hatred towards all forms of super mutants. He also has quite an insightful amount of knowledge about Mr. House, as Raul lived long enough to see his pre-War exploits.

Quests

 * Crazy, Crazy, Crazy: Raul can be recruited as part of the quest Crazy, Crazy, Crazy, 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: Obviously, 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.

Notable quotes

 * "My name is Raul Alfonso Tejada. Can I leave now? Or did you want to come back and ask me again in five minutes?"
 * "[Sigh] No boss. I'm a prisoner of the crazy Super Mutant with the wig and glasses, and I was kind of hoping you'd set me free. Or maybe I'm not a pretty enough damsel for that, huh?"
 * "Sure, boss. I'd be happy to prolong my captivity and psychological abuse to tighten some lug nuts for you."
 * "Sure, boss, the old man will crawl around in the dirt to keep hidden."
 * "Don't worry, Boss, the decrepit old man can carry all your stuff for you. Really."

Appearances
Raul only appears 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

 * 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 will correct this.
 * The back of his head clips through many hats and other forms of headgear.
 * 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.
 * If you have Raul as a companion, knocking him out with the Oh, Baby! will lead to him launching into the air upon regaining consciousness.

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