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Playing With / The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday

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Basic Trope: A building or business of some kind (that might possibly be magical) appears one day fully functioning as if it'd always been there, but the next day it's gone without a trace.

  • Straight: Bobby is walking home one day from school and stumbles upon a new ice cream shop in a building that was almost assuredly not there the day before. Going inside, Bobby finds the most delicious frozen treats he's ever tasted. He excitedly tells all his friends about it and when he tries to take them there the next day the building is empty and ill-kept as if it'd been abandoned for decades.
  • Exaggerated:
    • The next day the ice cream shop is not only gone, but a giant gaping crater is in its place.
    • A whole city appears one night and then disappears the next.
    • Bobby is walking home and across the street there is an empty lot. A bus drives past and suddenly there is an ice cream shop where the lot just stood. Another bus headed in the opposite direction passes and suddenly where the building stood there is an empty lot again.
  • Downplayed: Bobby is quite unobservant and it's more than likely that the ice cream shop hadn't just appeared out of nowhere. Never-the-less, the day after Bobby 'discovers' the ice cream shop, he tries to go back, but the owner is leaving the store for the last time because they went out of business.
  • Justified:
    • The ice cream shop was cursed to forever appear and disappear in random locations everyday.
    • Advertisement:
    • The economy is very bad.
    • The ice cream shop owner is screwing with Bobby.
    • Bobby discovers an ice cream truck.
  • Inverted:
    • Alice happens to live above her ice cream shop and doesn't realize that her little store hops from city to city every night. So she thinks that her town is always changing, when, in reality, it's her.
    • Bobby's favorite ice cream shop disappears one day and no one but him notices. The next day it reappears.
  • Subverted:
    • The ice cream shop never goes anywhere. Bobby is just not very good at paying attention at his surroundings and he is very forgetful so he doesn't quite remember where exactly the ice cream shop is.
    • Or:
    Bobby: "I don't understand, it was right here!"
    Kate: "Are you sure?"
    Bobby: "Yeah, it was called 'Wee Alice Screem's Four Scoop Ice Cream' and was painted pink. Alice Screem was the tiny old lady who owned the place and she had pretty red hair. She was super nice and gave me free samples. The ice cream was delicious and I didn't even care when the Octopus King beat me by cheating during a game of ches—Wait. ...Yeah, this might've been a dream.
    Kate: ''"Might've?"''
  • Double Subverted: The next day Kate walks into the ice cream shop. The day after that, the shop disappears along with that cheating bastard Octopus King.
  • Parodied:
    • Bobby takes Kate to the ice cream shop but is met with confusion as it's now an abandoned building. Kate then points out that the new ice cream shop is across the street. They find the owner is in the store surrounded by boxes:
    Bobby: "I thought this building was across the street."
    Alice: "Oh, that was our previous location but last night I witnessed a crime."
    Kate (gasps): "Oh my, really?"
    Alice: "Yes. A man over there threw a candy bar wrapper on the ground."
    Bobby: "Wait, what?"
    Alice: "Shocking, right? Needless to say, I refuse to run a business in such a hectic environment, so we moved to a more favorable location."
    Bobby: "...Are you being serious, right now?"
    Alice (nodding obliviously): "Very much so."
    Kate: "So now you're unpacking to open here?"
    Alice: "Oh no, now we're repacking. I just learned from one of my employees that yesterday their boss witnessed a crime happen on the other side of the street. So this area really isn't any better than the last, unfortunately."
    • Bobby enters the ice cream shop, five seconds before it disappears... What happens to Bobby? Find out On the Next episode o- wait, this show doesn't exist anymore? But it did just a moment ago!
  • Zig Zagged: ???
  • Averted: The little shop was there yesterday, is there today, and likely will be there tomorrow.
  • Enforced: The authors wishes to play up the weirdness of the ice cream shop, so they have the place disappear and reappear randomly in a setting where most people don't realize it.
  • Lampshaded:
    Kate: "If it was an old antiques store with a creepy owner, maybe I'd believe you, Bobby, but ice cream shops don't just disappear over night."
  • Invoked: The ice cream shop's owner hates staying in one place for more than a day, so he uses his magic to move from city to city every day.
  • Exploited: There are many such business owners whose shops move daily. As a result, a number of landowners have set aside places for them to appear in for a fee, in exchange for providing these business owners with pre-designated locations so customers don't have to always discover them.
  • Defied: The ice cream shop's owner really doesn't want to pop in and out of existence. She shuts it down hoping for this madness to stop and opens a new ice cream business. If all goes well, it'll just be normal...
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: ???
  • Played For Drama: Bobby enters the ice cream shop, five seconds before it disappears... What happened to Bobby? Later on, Alice enters the ice cream shop to search for Bobby, as the shop disappears. Bobby is never seen again.
  • Deconstructed:
    • Bobby is adamant that there used to be an ice cream shop in town. He does extensive researching and finds nothing. He develops insomnia and paranoia as a result if not finding anything and it drives him insane. He ends up in an institution, and his doctor is a very short and friendly older woman with red hair named Dr. Alice Screem!
    • The ice cream shop completely replaces an existing shop for one day. The people who work there or are otherwise supposed to go there forget that their business ever existed for one day, but one day without any sales whatsoever takes its toll on the business, and they spend the next month or so trying to financially make up for lost ground and wondering what happened to their missing day.
    • The ice cream shop's owner is struggling financially—in a case of Didn't Think This Through, she realizes that repeat customers and word of mouth are very important to staying stable in the retail sector. The low sales of ice cream and high cost of teleporting run her out of business in a matter of months.

Back to The Little Shop That Wasn't There Yesterday... What do you mean it's not there?! It was just here a moment ago!

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