History Main / OffStageWaitingRoom

** Later, when the four are impatiently waiting for the Fans to point them to the second piece of the Vasyn, commentary by John and Ringo informs the reader that Paul has spent all (literally ''all'') his time practicing with his [[SuperStrength strength]], while George, terrified that [[ModeLock his ring will stick again]], has barely used it and instead has been writing, meditating, and wandering around filming things with his Super-8 movie camera. What the other two did isn't mentioned outright, but it's implied that they pretty much did the same things they were doing during the first �layoff.�

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** Later, when the four are impatiently waiting for the Fans to point them to the second piece of the Vasyn, commentary by John and Ringo informs the reader that Paul has spent all (literally ''all'') his time practicing with his [[SuperStrength strength]], while George, terrified that [[ModeLock his ring will stick again]], has barely used it and instead has been writing, meditating, and wandering around filming things with his Super-8 movie camera. What the other two did isn't mentioned outright, but it's implied that they pretty much did the same things they were doing during the first “layoff.”

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* Avoided in ''Manga/DragonBall Z'', where there is the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, which [[YearInsideHourOutside turns a day's training into a year's]]. The other characters only have to stand around for a few hours.

-->''[[Series/{{Bonanza}} Meanwhile, back at the ranch]]... nothing interesting happened.''

** According to some literary critics of Old Testament, this is a result of merging two religious traditions into one (mostly) coherent story. (What TheOtherWiki has to say [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Documentary_hypothesis about it]].)

* This happens quite a lot in the ''Twilight'' series, with some of the biggest offenders being Carlisle's position as a doctor. In ''New Moon'', he abruptly quits, leaves for several months, and apparently returns and gets his old job back with no trouble at all. Then, come ''Breaking Dawn'', his job is again pretty much dropped while he spends all his time monitoring Bella. On the subject of ''New Moon'', we also get the Cullen children apparently dropping out of school with no notice, only to get back in with no problem at all, several months later. One would think that there'd be tests and grades that would have been given in between, but there's no mention given of them having to catch up or suffer bad grades (although they have been through highschool many times already).

* Lampshaded on the "Cousin Gerard" episode ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' when Ray goes across the street to his parents house to ask them if he's like his annoying cousin. Ray's brother Robert calls him out on his always coming over to bother them about his problems: "Because no one else is really important, are they, Raymond? What do you think, we're just hanging on hooks over here waiting for you to stop by?" After Ray leaves, Robert cracks: "All right, break's over. Everybody back on the hooks!"

** Similarly, the New Testament skips most of Jesus' early life, a fact that serves as a major point of discussion in the movie {{Dogma}}.

* Humoriously poked fun at in the musical ''Theatre/{{Spamalot}}'' with the Lady in the Lake's solo ''Whatever Happened to my Part''

* ''Theatre/RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', plays with this trope by following the antics of the two eponymous background characters from Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''{{Hamlet}}''.

* This happens quite a lot in the ''Twilight'' series, with some of the biggest offenders being Carlisle's position as a doctor. In ''New Moon'', he abruptly quits, leaves for several months, and apparently returns and gets his old job back with no trouble at all. Then, come ''Breaking Dawn'', his job is again pretty much dropped while he spends all his time monitoring Bella. On the subject of ''New Moon'', we also get the Cullen children apparently dropping out of school with no notice, only to get back in with no problem at all, several months later. One would think that there'd be tests and grades that would have been given in between, but there's no mention given of them having to catch up or suffer bad grades.

* In ''{{Homestuck}}'', the trolls are basically in a waiting room during the initial part of the story, despite interacting with them occasionally. Somewhat justified in that most of the action takes place over the course of a single 24-hour period, and the trolls aren't really even in the same universe as Earth, so the coupling between their timeline and ours is somewhat loose ... in fact, they're actually trolling the kids backwards in time; from Karkat's point of view he first contacted John just pre-Scratch in the kids' session, and messed it up so badly that he decided that his next contact would be earlier on John's timeline, so John wouldn't be able to remember just how lame Karkat was in his first session. Lather, rinse, and repeat.

Compare TimeSkip, NotImportantToThisEpisodeCamp, and for games TakeYourTime. Contrast TwoLinesNoWaiting. Related to RuleOfPerception.

* Averted in the early arcs of DubiousCompany. After the everyone gets [[spoiler: blown into another dimension]], which [[EnemyMine forces focus]] on a larger cast, the creators have been good at justifying it. A simple handwave is that most of them are [[LazyBum Lazy Bums]]. Just as often though, some of the characters will run off to do their own less interesting antics, allowing the story to focus on a few key characters' plot.

*** This is similarly the inspiration for ChristopherMoore's novel ''Literature/LambTheGospelAccordingToBiff''.

* The two-and-a-half-year TimeSkip in ''Manga/{{Naruto}}'' consisted mainly of a TrainingMontage for the three main characters: Naruto, [[TheLancer Sasuke]] and [[TheChick Sakura]]. Akatsuki, the villains against Naruto, spent the 3 years doing little, if anything, to kidnap the boy while he was still weak.
** Add that Jiraiya had spied on Akatsuki for nearly ten years but hadn't even told the Hidden Village it existed until he entered the story. Phones don't work in his waiting room?
** On the other hand, most characters ''didn't'' sit down and wait for the time to pass. Every secondary character grew up, got new skills and ranked up; Akatsuki was busy not capturing the tailed beasts (leaving Naruto for last given the power level of his).
*** It's mentioned that they ''couldn't'' capture the Nine-tails until Last, due to some type of Power balance that has to be maintained in the Statue they are using, which is why they spent so much time just holding the Two-Tails instead of sealing it. Exactly what this Balance is, and how it works, is not revealed.
**** Turns out the demon statue that they seal the beasts in will shatter if they don't seal 'em in order from One-Tail to Nine-Tails.
** Yakushi Kabuto, went into oblivion shortly after Orochimaru's ''last''(?) death, only to return about 200 chapters later. Apparently, he had been quite busy in the waiting room.

* Averted in the ''DresdenFiles''. There is usually anywhere between six months to a year between books, and Harry usually has made some sort of new magical device and been involved in a few instances of [[NoodleIncident unexplained strangeness]] in the meantime.

** ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheDeathlyHallows Deathly Hallows]]'' is mostly composed of an ''on''-stage waiting room. The protagonists are in way over their heads, and it shows. They spend weeks and months at a time accomplishing nothing, about nine months hiding out in total with only a single [[MacGuffin horcrux]] to show for it. Then they stumble back into the plot and get the other four (and two from another MacGuffin set entirely) in two days for the climax. Adding insult to injury are the secondary characters, who are entirely off-camera as they spend the same time living a thrilling life of growth, determination and death-defying heroism...

* This is pretty much canon in just about every single video game with a player-character-driven storyline. The heroes go off on whatever side-quest they want, while villains, hapless {{NPC}}s needing "urgent" help, even other player-character heroes (such as the massive casts of many ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' games) sit back and twiddle their collective thumbs. Also, however imminent the threat, or time-critical the problem is said to be, [[TakeYourTime until you trigger the plot it will wait]] - and even then, unless there's an on-screen timer counting down the seconds it'll still wait. However, there are some notable exceptions.

* Averted in the ''DresdenFiles''. There is usually anywhere between six months to a year between books, and Harry usually has made some sort of new magical device and been involved in few instances of [[NoodleIncident unexplained strangeness]] in the meantime.

* Lampshaded on the "Cousin Gerard" episode ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' when Ray goes across the street to his parents house to ask them if he's like his annoying cousin. Ray's brother Robert calls him out on his always coming over to bother them about his problems: "Because no one else is really important, are they, Raymond? What do you think, we're just hanging on hooks over here waiting for you to stop by?" After Ray leaves Robert cracks: "All right, break's over. Everybody back on the hooks!"

** Another ''StargateVerse'' version comes in the ''Series/StargateSG1'' episode ''A Hundred Days''. Jack spends the titular hundred days on an alien planet, while the rest of the team looks for ways to save him. Apparently, they did nothing else of interest in those three-plus months. It would've been cool to see the team undertake a mission or two without him, as we know they must have.

* Lampshaded on the "Cousin Gerard" episode ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' when Ray goes across the street to his parents house to ask them if he's like his annoying cousin. Ray's brother Robert calls him out on his always coming over to bother them about his problems:
-->"Because no one else is really important, are they, Raymond? What do you think, we're just hanging on hooks over here waiting for you to stop by?"\\
(After Ray leaves, Robert sarcastically cracks):"All right, break's over. Everybody back on the hooks!"

-->"Because no one else is really important, are they, Raymond? What do you think, we're just hanging on hooks over here waiting for you to stop by?"

* Lampshaded on the "Cousin Gerard" episode ''EverybodyLovesRaymond'' when Ray goes across the street to his parents house to ask them if he's like his annoying cousin. Ray's brother Robert calls him out on his always coming over bothering them about his problems: ("Because no one else is really important, are they, Raymond? What do you think, we're just hanging on hooks over here waiting for you to stop by?") After he leaves, Robert cracks,"All right, break's over.
Everybody back on the hooks."

* This happens constantly in the ''HarryPotter'' series where, not only is Voldemort incapable of executing even his simplest plans in less than a school year, but the main characters will spend months just going to classes while doing nothing to advance the plot. Usually J.K. Rowling has an excuse, like giving them a clue that they don't know how to solve or research they need to do, but sometimes she doesn't bother.
** Such as in ''Goblet of Fire'', where she skips forward a couple of months and it would seem like Harry would have taken that time to figure out the secret of the egg he'd been given, but instead we find out that he hasn't even opened the egg in the intervening time. This was attributed to gross procrastination on Harry's part (despite the fact that he is well aware that his life may depend on finding the secret of the egg). The gross procrastination, though, could be attributed to the fact that he was fourteen.
** ''Deathly Hallows'' is mostly composed of an ''on''-stage waiting room. The protagonists are in way over their heads, and it shows. They spend weeks and months at a time accomplishing nothing, about nine months hiding out in total with only a single [[MacGuffin horcrux]] to show for it. Then they stumble back into the plot and get the other four (and two from another MacGuffin set entirely) in two days for the climax. Adding insult to injury are the secondary characters, who are entirely off-camera as they spend the same time living a thrilling life of growth, determination and death-defying heroism...
*** There was a lot of that throughout Harry Potter. Some characters look flat through being seen only briefly by him. Ginny had lots of bonding time with him at the Burrow and school, but that was largely unimportant to the plot so we only get a brief mention of it. The Tonks/Lupin relationship might have made more sense if Harry had seen more than just the weird extremes of it. The way we get Snape's backstory... it's a bit shoehorned.

* TomStoppard’s postmodern play, ''RosencrantzAndGuildensternAreDead'', plays with this trope by following the antics of the two eponymous background characters from Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''{{Hamlet}}''.