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Basic Trope: An attempt to find something in storage, especially in a magical container, is either delayed or fails entirely.

  • Straight: Bob attempts to draw a sword from his Bag of Heroes, but only successfully does so on the third attempt and after ten seconds have passed, having taken an amulet and a key on the first two attempts.
  • Exaggerated: Despite five minutes of searching, Bob never even finds that sword, resorting to his fists instead.
  • Downplayed:
    • Bob grabs the sword the first time, receiving a small cut from touching the blade before adjusting his grasp on the sword and pulling it out.
    • Bob grabs the wrong sword "not my first choice, but it will have to do".
  • Justified:
    • Bob is new to using the bag and therefore, unfamiliar in how to use it.
    • Bob is looking for the sword in his laundry bag, not his weapon bag.
    • It's been a decade since he last needed something from those bags and thus can't remember which he put the sword in. note 
  • Inverted: Mired down in a puzzle, Bob takes a look in the Bag of Heroes to check his inventory and realises that the first item he finds will solve his current problem.
  • Subverted: Bob intentionally pulled out the amulet and key, laughing to himself as he takes his sword. His enemies are bemused.
  • Double Subverted: When Bob is praised for that "amulet and key distraction" he admits he didn't mean to do it.
  • Parodied:
  • Zig Zagged: The first time Bob uses the Bag of Heroes, he comes across this issue many times. Over time though, he doesn't come across it so often.
  • Averted: Bob comes across his sword immediately without any trouble.
  • Enforced:
  • Lampshaded:
    Bob: "This...isn't what I was looking for."
    • Or:
    Bob: "This is taking forever!
  • Invoked: Bob's Trickster Mentor designed the Bag of Heroes specifically to be difficult to search through, as a lesson to encourage Bob to be creative with how he uses the things he finds in it.
  • Exploited: Bob is attacked while rummaging.
  • Defied: The internal dimension of the Bag of Heroes is timeless. With this knowledge, Bob astrally projects himself inside the dimension so that he can search for the item he needs at his own pace, even in the middle of a fight. There's no need to hurry and risk taking the wrong item.
  • Discussed: ???
  • Conversed: "This kind of crap always happens before the big battle."

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