History Recap / AreYouAfraidOfTheDarkSeason4TheTaleOfTheClosetKeepers

* AnAesop: Don't judge someone for their disability, or you may miss out on them.

* WouldHurtAChild: The head keeper figures out rather quickly that the zoo's sound based technology doesn't work on Stacy, and for this reason advocates getting rid of her.

Meanwhile, on the basketball court, Billy shoots hoops alone. Suddenly troubled by a harsh, electronic whistle, he grips his ear. The two MenInBlack loom in the door of the fence. One, behind his back, swiftly hides a smooth grey gizmo. At a harsh whistle, Billy sinks to his knees and holds his ears.

Meanwhile, Stacey hides beneath a brief railing. Two more MenInBlack arrive. On a wall-mounted map, one of them touches southern England. By the open hatch, they monotonously exchange old-fashioned English idioms.

As Stacey straightens for a closer look, she accidentally knocks to the floor a cylindrical device. As the MenInBlack turn on her, she runs. One activates another of the grey whistling gizmos - but it doesn't work.

She looks across the corridor, finding herself facing a grey-haired man in a cravat and overcoat. From behind, the two MenInBlack seize her and march her to another sterile room: this one painted blue, decorated with life-size images of bedroom trappings, and furnished with a rectangular block painted to evoke a bed.

Just then, the Keeper bursts in, seizes Billy by the throat, and aims an electronic whistler at Stacey. Unaffected, she backs away, and reaches for a wall button. Billy wriggles free, blocks his ears, and tells her to hit the button.

* TookALevelInKindness: While Billy isn't overtly nasty, he learns to appreciate the impact of his condescension towards Stacey's deafness.

In a dilapidated hallway, she sees movement atop a flight of stairs. As she takes cover, two men in black suits march down the stairs. They each don a pair of shades, and head out.

Meanwhile, on the basketball court, Billy shoots hoops alone. Suddenly troubled by a harsh, electronic whistle, he grips his ear.The two MenInBlack loom in the door of the fence. One, behind his back, swiftly hides a smooth grey gizmo. At a harsh whistle, Billy sinks to his knees and holds his ears.

As Stacey straightens for a closer look, she accidentally knocks to the floor a cylindrical device. As the MenInBlack turn on her, she runs. One activates another of the grey whistling gizmos - but it doesn’t work.

She looks across the corridor, she finds herself facing a grey-haired man in a cravat and overcoat. From behind, the two MenInBlack seize her, march her to another sterile room; this one painted blue, decorated with life-size images of bedroom trappings, and furnished with a rectangular block painted to evoke a bed.

The door slides up. Bemused, the two wander into the corridor. Through a meshed window, a girl in school uniform, Emma, urges them to hurry, lest they don’t get fed. Through a hatch are passed bowls of some sort of green jelly. Having been here a few days, Emma understands their captors to be from the distant future. Billy makes for the door - and is overwhelmed by a torturous siren.

Back in their cell, Stacey, to a moved Billy, admits her reluctance to leave him and the others behind. From his pocket, she takes a tin foil wrapper, and holds it to the siren hole - and the alarm doesn’t go off - it mustn’t work on reflective surfaces.

From the wall, they pull off the room’s affectation of a bedroom mirror - revealing a mounted camera in a hole beyond.

By the transportation pod, each of the imprisoned kids, on the world map, touch their country of origin. On doing so, they run into the pod, which rotates, and teleports them home.

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: While Billy isn’t overtly nasty, he learns to appreciate the impact of his condescension towards Stacey’s deafness.

* PeopleZoo: Adolescents from various backgrounds, via concealed teleportation pods, are taken to a sterile, high-tech complex, for enclosure in crude approximation of contemporary dwellings.
* ReadingLips: Stacey can.

As Tucker and Gary argue Kiki’s over swift re-appointment to storytelling, Betty Anne arrives in the clearing, and announces an untoward spectacle: from behind her steps Kiki - in a flowery dress, with ribbons in her hair. The others submit their amazement. Everyone, says Kiki, has more than one side, so looking at them only one way can be highly restrictive - especially if something beneath the surface might mean the difference between life and death. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls this story “The Tale of the Closet Keepers.”

In a dilapidated hallway, she sees movement atop a flight of stairs. As she takes cover, two stern-looking men in black suits march down the stairs. By the door, one recounts prohibition of geeks, nerds and freaks. The other consults a wrist-mounted beeping device, and explains the terms to denote atypical bodily or behavioural characteristics.

They each don a pair of shades, and head out.

On the upstairs landing, Stacey finds a door, from beneath which flashes a green glow. Inside, she finds herself in total darkness. With a mechanical hiss, the door closes behind her. The green light returns to reveal her surroundings: a narrow, sterile, cylindrical chamber, which begins to rotate.

On a hinge, a wall swings open, and Stacey stumbles out of the pink, vein-patterned pod into a sterile grey hallway, furnished with floor-mounted hemispheres, cylinders, wall-mounted round grey screens, and an independent screen which shows a map of the world.

Behind Stacey, the door closes, and the pod turns into the wall…

Meanwhile, on the basketball court, Billy shoots hoops alone. Suddenly troubled by a harsh, electronic whistle, he grips his ear.

The two MenInBlack loom in the door of the fence. One, behind his back, swiftly hides a smooth grey gizmo. The other, in anachronistically stilted youthful slang, compliments Billy’s moves.

They invite him to accompany them. He declines. One lifts the gizmo. At a harsh whistle, Billy sinks to his knees and holds his ears.

Meanwhile, Stacey hides beneath a brief railing screened with a silver sheet. Two more MenInBlack arrive. On the map, one of them touches southern England. From twin hatches in the wall, they each take a bowler hat,

By the open hatch, they monotonously exchange old-fashioned English idioms.

As Stacey straightens for a closer look, she accidentally knocks to the floor a silver, bulbous cylinder. As the MenInBlack turn on her, she runs.

One activates another of the grey whistling gizmos - but it doesn’t work.

Through a mechanical door, Stacey finds herself in a bright metallic corridor. As a blue light flashes across the door, a synthesized ringing fills the air. Numerous voices plea for its cessation. Behind meshed cell doors, Stacey sees children, each of varied national attire, cry out for relief. She returns to the door, presses a nearby button, and the sound stops.

She looks across the corridor, she finds herself facing a grey-haired man in a cravat and overcoat. From behind, the two MenInBlack seize her, march her to another sterile room, this one painted blue, decorated with life-size images of bedroom trappings, and furnished with a rectangular block painted to evoke a bed.

Behind a window, three figures in grey tunics and silver gas masks roll by on a conveyor belt. An overhead voice erroneously announces Stacey as a twenty-first century earthling. One spectator raises a spherical red device. A hand falls on Stacey’s shoulder. With a malicious grin, the cravat-wearing man, the Keeper, tells her to smile for her audience.

He announces the furnishings to have been prepared for a boy, and that the exhibition is in its early stages.

From the wall, he drags by the ear a subordinate keeper, and thrusts his head into a hall. Beneath glaring blue lights, the electronic siren noticeably torments him. Such is the fate of those who attempt escape. With a final sneer, the Keeper leaves.

Some time later, the door opens, and Billy is forced at gizmo-point into the room.

To Billy, unfamiliar with sign language, Stacey indicates through mime their incarceration in some kind of cosmic zoo, where escape attempt is punished by torture.

Incredulous, Billy turns to the window - and sees more gas-masked spectators, who applaud Billy’s pounding on the door. He runs to the siren hatch, and briefly feels its torturous touch.

The door slides up. Bemused, the two wander into the corridor. Through a meshed window, a girl in school uniform, Emma, urges them to hurry, lest they don’t get fed. Through a hatch are passed bowls of some sort of green jelly.

Billy consults the uniformed girl. Having been here a few days, she understands their captors to be from the distant future. Told of Stacey’s deafness, she excitedly passes through a far window to her neighbours.

Back in their cell, Stacey, to a moved Billy, admits her reluctance to leave him and the others behind. From his pocket, she takes a tin foil wrapper, and holds it to the siren hole - and the alarm doesn’t go off. It mustn’t work on reflective surfaces.

Mirror in hand, Stacey sneaks past the siren hole and into the corridor. On the wall by each cell door is a button. Stacey pushes each, and the multinational children joyously leave their cells.

Stacey and Billy high-five. Billy urges the other kids to flee. However, two keepers arrive. The kids run to the far door.

Stacey falls behind. Impervious to the whistle device, she presses a nearby wall button, and a blast of siren-filled blue light falls onto the keepers. As they convulse, she flees through the door.

Billy barricades the door. By the transportation pod, each of the imprisoned kids, on the world map, touch their country of origin. On doing so, they run into the pod, which rotates, and teleports them home.

On the map, Stacey helps Emma reach England. She tells Billy to thank Stacey for her, and teleports home.

Just then, the Keeper bursts in, seizes Billy by the throat, and aims an electronic whistler at Stacey. Unaffected, she backs away, and reaches for a wall button.

The Keeper smirks, backs away, and indicates a threat to Billy, who wriggles free, blocks his ears, and tells her to hit the button.

While no one believed them about the cosmic zoo, closes Kiki, the two friends knew they could always talk about it between themselves.


-->'''Betty Anne:''' Kiki! You wanna go shopping tomorrow?
--> '''Kiki:''' Get real!\\

They laugh, and head home.

--> '''Kiki:''' Get real!

The two MenInBlack loom in the door of the fence. One swiftly conceals a smooth grey gizmo. The other, in anachronistically stilted youthful slang, compliments Billy’s moves.

As Tucker and Gary argue Kiki’s over swift re-appointment to storytelling, Betty Anne arrives in the clearing, and announces an untoward spectacle: from behind her steps Kiki - in a flowery dress, with ribbons in her hair. The others submit their amazement. Everyone, says Kiki, has more than one side, so looking at them only one way can be highly restrictive - especially if something beneath the surface meant the difference between life and death. Submitted for the approval of the Midnight Society, she calls this story “The Tale of the Closet Keepers.”

* JerkToNiceGuyPlot: While Billy isn’t overtly nasty, he learns to appreciate the impact of his condescension to Stacey’s deafness.

* ReadingLips: Stacey sometimes does.

* PeopleZoo: Adolescents from internationally various backgrounds, via concealed teleportation pods, are taken to a sterile, high-tech complex, for enclosure in crude approximation of contemporary dwellings.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screenshot_2020_08_07_at_14321_am.png]]
[[caption-width-right:350:"We call it the future...they call it the past."]