Tadeo the Tavern Owner

Tadeo was the owner of a tavern in Spain called the Laughing Dagger during the Spanish Reconquista.

Early Days
Tadeo began working in the Laughing Dagger when he was five years old, passing out drinks to the locals who came in. Eventually, he inherited the tavern from his father and got married to a woman named Genna. He and his wife had a son (Elvio) and three daughters (Elandra, Marcela, and Tyne), all of whom work in the kitchens of the Laughing Dagger. Tadeo never made a lot of money, but enjoys his work nonetheless.

Meeting Atem
Atem stumbles into the Laughing Dagger in the middle of a very cold winter, nearly dying of hypothermia. He and his family offer her a place to stay and nurse her back to health. Atem takes a liking to Tyne, often playing with the girl when she came to check on her. Elvio appears to have a small crush on her.

After regaining her strength, Atem offers to pay the family back for their generosity. She ends up working for them for several months, doing the chores and helping to keep the tavern up and running.

Meeting Game Master
As spring began to roll around, Bakura the Game Master rode into town and stopped inside the Laughing Dagger to see if he could find a servant to help him on his journey. Tadeo gives him the names of several local boys, including that of his own son.

Bakura is then distracted by the sound of a bucket falling and the splash of water against his boats. Realizing that Atem had accidentally dropped the bucket she was using to clean the floors, Tadeo rushed over to her and wondered if she was ill again (Atem is not usually clumsy). He finds it odd that she is surprised by the presence of a nobleman in the tavern, as she has dealt with a few before.

When Bakura asks how much Atem's contract is, Tadeo tells him that she is not for sale (though with his thick accent, Bakura is unable to tell that Tadeo said 'she' and not 'he'). He explains that Atem is working for food and honour, not coin. But Bakura continues to insist, so Tadeo says that he will talk to her about it.

He finds Atem hunched over in her room, hands shaking. After some prodding, Tadeo comes to understand that Atem is acting the way she is because 'Bakura looked like someone she used to know.' Thinking that he resembles an abusive husband, Tadeo tries to get Bakura to leave. Then Atem comes down the stairs and tells Bakura that she will accept his offer.

Though he is surprised and wary, Tadeo allows this. Because he and his family don't own much, they send her off with two loaves of warm bread and a water skin. She thanks them, hugging them each in turn and planting a kiss on the cheek of Elvio. The boy turns an interesting shade of red.

Tadeo's last memories of Atem and Bakura are of them leading Bakura's horse out of the stable and onto the streets of the village.

After Atem
Tadeo's with the exception of their second daughter, all of his children get married and have children. Marcela does not marry and spends most of her time with another village woman named Gil. There are rumours, though Tadeo doesn't care much about what is said.

Tadeo grows old and dies peacefully in his sleep, two years after Genna passes.

Physical Description
Tadeo is a tall, brawny man with heavily muscled arms and a barrel-like chest. His hair is dirty and unwashed, his hands callused with the signs of physical labour. His nose looks like it had been broken once. He speaks in a very thick accent, making it difficult sometimes for other people to understand what he was saying.

Family
Tadeo has a very large sense of family pride. It was instilled in him by his father, whom he inherited the Laughing Dagger from. He is quite close to his wife and children, caring for each of them deeply. He doesn't seem to mind the rumours that his second daughter might be in a lesbian relationship, accepting her for what she is.

Atem
Tadeo viewed Atem as one of his own children, though he would not have known whether to think of her as a son or a daughter. He knew her quite well, as he knew that she wouldn't have dropped a bucket out of clumsiness - instead thinking that she had a reason for it. He accepted her into his family and was very sad to see her leave.

Tadeo made several assumptions about Atem's past. He believed that she received many of her scars from an abusive husband (he's seen enough women walking through town with similar backgrounds to believe that this was the case). He also thought that Atem did not have a taste for men, as he once caught her retreating to her rooms with another woman (in reality, Atem is considered onmisexual). This is also where his tolerance and later acceptance of homosexuality came from.

Bakura the Game Master
Tadeo initially didn't have an opinion on the nobleman. Though once Atem explained that his presence was shocking due to his physical similarities to 'someone she once knew', he grew to dislike the man. Believing that he either resembled the abusive husband that she was supposedly running from or actually was the man, Tadeo was very reluctant to give Atem up to him when Bakura asked to buy her contract. However, he was forced to let Atem go with him when she agreed to Bakura's terms.

Behind the Scenes

 * Tadeo is an original character created by AlcatrazOutpatient and has no connection to either historical documents or Kazuki Takashi's Yu-Gi-Oh! series.

Trivia

 * Tadeo has only been mentioned through his tavern in The Others Series, though he will probably appear sometime in Game Master's section of The Spirits: Resurrection
 * Tadeo never knew about magic, the Orichalcos, or the fact that Atem was the Immortal. He also never knew that Bakura was a section of the Shattered Soul
 * Tadeo was a man ahead of his time, as he accepted homosexuality during a time period where same-sex relationships were considered a sin against God. Ironically, Game Master had a brief moment where he questioned his sexuality when he met Atem for the first time (he believed her to be a man, yet considered her to be quite pretty) while Tadeo was in the room.