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{{trope}}
[[File:
After a hard day of fighting the forces of not-niceness, the hero goes home for some much needed rest. But who should they see having tea with their mom<ref>(Despite the trope name, it can be any loved one and refreshment)</ref> but the [[Big Bad]]! The sheer, mind-breaking disconnect of the embodiment of strife, hatred, evil and [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|missing-left-socks]] engaging in [[Affably Evil|polite conversation]] over tea and snack will throw the hero into a combination of wordless shock and sheer panic. She [[Vampire Invitation|invited him in.]]
This is usually a horrifyingly difficult dilemma for the hero, doubly so if they have a [[Secret Identity]]. Attacking the villain outright will endanger their loved one and reveal the secret... that is, if the villain isn't secretly training a gun on them as a form of collateral to enforce a [[No, Mr. Bond, I Expect You to Dine|civil, if tense, social exchange]]. What usually happens is the Big Bad gets the first move and delightedly forces the hero to play along, as if they really were having tea with a friend. Expect the hero, villain and [[Innocent Bystander]] to have a tense (and potentially hilarious) [[One Dialogue, Two Conversations|veiled conversation.]]
This is not a gender-specific trope, despite what the name implies. It
A few things can happen from here:
* If the Big Bad has discovered the hero's secret identity, and with it the location of their loved ones, he will use the drop in to play head games in order to convince the hero to back off for fear he might kidnap his mom or [[Stuffed Into the Fridge|do much worse]]. Even if he does nothing, it proves beyond a doubt that no one (hero included) is safe.
* The Big Bad has discovered the hero's secret identity, and wants to propose an [[Enemy Mine]] or [[We Can Rule Together]], with the above threats implied.
* The big bad ''doesn't'' know the hero's identity (but may find out once he enters the door), and is a friend of his mom's or even romantically interested. Awkward. If both recognize the other, the usual vibe is "lets wait 'til we're outside".
* The Big Bad was waiting for the hero, met his mom, and now wants to kill both.
* The hero's mom is an [[Action Mom]] herself, knows who the [[Big Bad]] is, and all heck is about to break loose.
* The Big Bad was waiting for the hero, met his mom, and [[Hilarity Ensues|now wants to date her]].
Compare [[Go
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] & [[Manga]] ==
* ''[[Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
** Suzuka, a friend of Nanoha's who introduced her to Hayate, has met at least three of the Wolkenritter (Shamal, Signum and Vita), prior to introducing Nanoha to Hayate. In the first Sound Stage of the season, Arisa and Vita spend some time in the same bath, but don't learn each other's names.
* ''[[Rurouni Kenshin]]'' - Saitou makes himself known to Kenshin by visiting the dojo while Kenshin is out. When Kenshin comes back, Saitou makes it absolutely clear that he could have slaughtered everyone there if he had felt like it.
* In ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'', Ed finds Winry talking with Fuhrer Bradley after his second fight with Scar. This would've been more dramatic had he known Bradley was a Homunculus, but Ling tells him later that day.
** Several episodes later this happens again, this time on purpose with Kimblee. It's at this point the boys ''have'' to tell Winry that she's in a hostage situation.
* In the ''[[
* In ''[[Nabari no Ou]]'', due to the series' [[Grey and
{{quote|
'''Hanabusa''': Ah, Thobari, you join in too! }}
* An absolutely frightening example happened in ''[[Bleach]]''. Ichigo comes home after a long day of training only to find the newest big bad who just spent the last few chapters nearly slaughtering his friends drinking tea with Yuzu. It goes downhill from there. Way down hill.
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== [[Comic Books]] ==
* Has happened to [[Spider-Man]] a few times. Doctor Octopus once dated Aunt May by coincidence. In Ultimate Marvel there is an infinitely creepier version when Peter comes home and finds [[Ax Crazy|Norman Osborn]] sitting on his couch watching TV and waiting for him.
** Not just dating, they were going to get ''married'' (Aunt May inherited a nuclear reactor and Doc Ock wanted at it... it was the 70s, let's move on.)
** In another creepy example Peter came home one day to find Venom helping his Aunt May with the laundry. Venom was deliberately invoking this trope; Peter had tried to call in help from the Fantastic Four for their upcoming battle, and Venom was letting Peter know that he knew about the attempt and a second one would go very badly.
** Later, when Peter revealed his secret to aunt May, she had this exchange with Peter.
{{quote|
** Though they are still civil to each other next time they meet. Ock even saves her life, though it was partly his fault she was in danger in the first place (he was fighting a villain who copied his robo arms) and he left Spidey to die on the grounds that "you're not a civilian".
** A ''[[Marvel Adventures]] Spider-Man'' story opened with this trope when Aunt May took in Dr. Octopus in a prisoner-rehabilitation program. Spider-Man keeps a worried eye on Dr. Octopus, but gets chased off by May after mistaking Ock's household chores as attacks. Later, {{spoiler|it turns out that Ock was trying to access a power line beneath the Parker home as part of a robbery scheme.}}
** The Spider-Man newspaper comic featured a storyline where Aunt May got engaged to Mole Man. [http://joshreads.com/?p=8539 This was exactly] [http://joshreads.com/?p=8778 as insane as it sounds].
** Who could forget that Norman Osborn slept with Peter's girlfriend Gwen ''and got her pregnant''? Call this one "[[Did You Just Romance Cthulhu?|Did You Just Have Sex With Cthulhu]]"?
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[Fright Night]]'' has this happen... immediately after learning that vampires can only enter your home when invited, Charlie comes home to see the vampire in his living room with his mom. [[Oh Crap]].
* In the first ''[[Spider-Man (
* In ''[[Disturbia]]'', Kale comes downstairs, only to find the neighborhood's very own [[Serial Killer
* Inverted the hell out of it in the third ''[[Pirates of the Caribbean]]''. Davy Jones, [[Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot|the Undead Cthulhu Pirate]] storms into [[Big Bad|Becket]]'s stateroom only to find him having tea with [[The Hero|Will Turner]].
* ''Blue Steel''. [[Jamie Lee Curtis]] (playing the policewoman protagonist) goes to her parents home to find the killer she's investigating has invited himself there, claiming to be an old friend.
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* There's an example of this in ''[[The Dream Merchant]]'' to mess with the hero.
* In [[Esther Friesner]]'s ''Elf Defense'', protagonist divorce lawyer Sandra Horowitz finds her mother having lunch with elven king Kelerison (whose ex-wife she's representing), who immediately has worked up all of her mom's [[Jewish Mother]] guilt against her.
* In ''Ghost Story'', Peter, a teenage boy, sees his friend eaten by the servant of [[Humanoid Abomination|Alma Mobley]]. Terrified, he returns home to find a dinner party in progress, and Alma herself at the table. He's even pushed to sit beside her. Peter's parents make arrangements for Peter to spend some time with Alma, helping her with chores. Peter is paralyzed and mute with horror.
* In ''Hannibal'', [[Hannibal Lecter]] is being hunted in Italy by a detective, who uses unethical methods. Lecter instantly befriends the detective's wife at a public event, while the detective is obviously horrified, and can't really tell his wife what's going on without seeming jealous. After the wife leaves, Lecter tells him that "[[Double Entendre|I am seriously thinking about having your wife for dinner]]." Just in case the detective thought it was coincidence.
** It ''was'' coincidence, but that doesn't mean Lecter didn't know the guy was on to him.
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** Angelus dropped by Joyce's house in a late-S2 episode to inform her that he was looking for Buffy and yes, he'd had sex with her daughter. Fortunately, Buffy and Willow were a few steps ahead of him, having warned Joyce not to let him in and magically revoked the invitation.
** Buffy walks in on Spike having hot chocolate with Joyce in "Lover's Walk". Joyce had gotten the wrong idea due to an earlier [[Enemy Mine]].
** In a later season, she walks in on Spike, Joyce and Dawn in the kitchen, all laughing at a joke. She doesn't see the humor.
** [[Dracula]] also had dinner with Joyce in order to [[Vampire Invitation|get invited in]], although we don't get to see it.
** Glory also lets herself in and threatens Buffy vaguely.
* Sylar in ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' has done this on a couple of times. Once he was having lunch with Matt's wife to try and convince Matt to remove his powers. Another he went to Bennets home posing as Primatech deliveryman there for Bennet, only to have his wife entertain him while waiting.
* In ''[[Star Trek:
* In ''[[A Muppet Family Christmas]]'', the Muppet gang is staying with Fozzie's mom and Fozzie wants to show off his new stand-up routine. He gets the shock of his life when he sees [[Statler and Waldorf]] on the couch ready to unload yet another round of heckling, as his mom explains that they're her friends.
== [[Video Games]] ==
* In ''[[Grand Theft Auto:
* In ''[[
* Doesn't appear on-sceen, but Hawke's mother in [[Dragon Age 2]] {{spoiler|spent some time with an insane serial killer before he took her off and killed her}}.
== [[Web Comics]] ==
* In ''[[
* In the [[Mega Crossover]] [[Fanfic|fan]][[Web Comic|comic]] ''[[Roommates 2007
== [[Web Original]] ==
* ''[[Global Guardians PBEM Universe]]'': All-Star, a student at the
* Played with a bit in ''[[
{{quote|
'''Doc:''' "[[Suspiciously Specific Denial|We're meeting now for the first time.]]" }}
** It's actually a reversal of the trope, in that the "hero" is well aware of the Dr.'s secret identity and is only dating the girl in the first place because he knows he has a crush on her and it will drive him nuts (it really does). It all drives home the point that not only is Captain Hammer not [[The Cape (trope)]], he's a total [[Jerkass]] who goes out of his way to torment a relatively harmless {{spoiler|(up until then)}} villain in his personal time.
* Inverted in the aftermath of ''Afternoon Tea with the Devil's Daughter'' in the [[Whateley Universe]]. Phase and She-Beast, who knew each other in elementary school, get together and talk about books. Only Phase is the child of the powerful, mutant-hating Goodkind family, who are behind the [[The Men in Black|MCO]] and the [[Knight Templar|Knights of Purity]], so She-Beast's friends think Phase is trying to trick her, and on the other hand She-Beast is the daughter of the dreaded supervillain Dr. Diabolik, so Phase's friends in turn think ''She-Beast'' is brainwashing her or otherwise tricking her into spilling team secrets. About the only two people ''not'' actually ascribing sinister motives to one side or the other are, in fact, the conversationalists themselves.
* Played with in [[The Guild]]. Bladezz gets framed for having dangerous weapons by a person on another guild, and comes home to find that he was now dating his mother.
* Done ''literally'' (well, almost) in an episode of ''3 Way''. [[Psycho Lesbian]] Leslie (who, truth be told, is actually more of a [[Jerkass]] than a villain) calls up ex-lover Geri to terrorize her. Frightened but angry, Geri demands to know where Leslie is, even wondering for a moment if [[The Calls Are Coming From Inside the House]]. Leslie explains that, no, she's at Geri's ''mother's'' house, enjoying a cup of tea. To prove this, she holds out the phone and asks for some more tea, and Geri indeed hears her mother gladly agreeing to the request.
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* Played for laughs in ''[[Invader Zim]]'' when Dib comes home to find Zim civilly chatting with the former's Dad.
** It gets interesting as it is stated in the [[Word of God|commentary]] that Dib is a poorly made clone and it is quite possible that Dib's Dad and Zim are comparing notes on failed biological experiments.
* In ''[[Spider
* In ''[[The Spectacular Spider
* In ''[[
* A non-villainous example in ''[[
* Aang, Sokka, and Katara from ''[[
** Doubles as a [[Funny Background Event]] since when the entire Gaang sees Iroh afterwards, their first reaction was complete and utter shock, except for Toph, who just waved hi and gave a big smile.
* A mild version of this happens to Kyle in ''[[South Park]]'' when he sees Cartman talking to his mom and asking her questions about Passover.
* [[The Simpsons (animation)|Bart Simpson]] was aghast to discover that his Aunt Selma was engaged to his archenemy Sideshow Bob, whom she met as part of a prison pen-pal program and had been dating for months after his release. He flat-out told her that the man she planned to marry was a piece of scum.
{{quote|
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{{reflist}}
[[Category:Did You Just Index Cthulhu]]
[[Category:Did Mom Just Have Tea
[[Category:
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