Moral exclusion: The perception of certain individuals or groups as outside the boundary within which one applies moral values and rules of fairness.

But there was that anxiety again. Guard? When Blaine had been told about the study, he'd really only imagined himself as a prisoner. He wasn't sure if he was up to the challenge of bossing a bunch of fellow college students around. It just wasn't his style. But Blaine knew his options were incredibly limited, so he tried to see this as an opportunity rather than a burden. “At least I’ve learned enough about bossing people around from my dad to last a lifetime,” Blaine mumbled under his breath as he began to pack a bag.

Blaine was rushing by the time 6 PM rolled around, thanks to a combination of traffic and getting a little lost while finding his way back to Windsor Hall. It didn't help that he was more than a little anxious about this “experiment” and what he would be expected to do as a guard. He hurried up the stairs to the orientation room and opened the door to find two guys about his age waiting as well. The pair couldn't have been more opposite in appearance and demeanor if they tried. One looked like he'd be very much at home in a prison, either as prisoner or guard. He was tall and hulking, dressed in a well-worn letterman jacket and faded jeans. His face was affixed with a seemingly permanent scowl, and the look he shot Blaine as he entered the room was less than friendly. The guy sitting next to him was tall and lanky, impeccably dressed in a dark gray blazer and crisp button-down shirt. He blatantly looked Blaine up and down appreciatively before giving him a smile that seemed more predatory than friendly somehow.

“Oh hey guys...are you here for the study?” Blaine asked, still unsure.

The blazered boy was on his feet and at Blaine's side in an instant, extending his hand smoothly as he introduced himself.

“We mostly certainly are,” he said with a smirk that hinted at something Blaine couldn't quite place. “Sebastian Smythe...and who are you, gorgeous?”

Blaine blushed beet red at the compliment. This guy was really laying it on thick. “I'm Blaine,” he said softly. Sebastian quirked an eyebrow expectantly and so Blaine stammered on, feeling immediately unsettled by Sebastian's advances. “Uh, Blaine Anderson,” he finished lamely, his eyes flickering past Sebastian to the scowling guy in the corner, expecting an introduction.

Sebastian followed Blaine's gaze and sighed with annoyance. “Oh right,” he mumbled under his breath, but still loud enough that Blaine could hear. “Him.”

Sebastian turned to the guy slumped in the corner who was pretending to be oblivious to the new guy. But Sebastian prided himself on his powers of observation, and had noticed the jock checking out Blaine not so subtly as he'd first walked in the room. His beefy arms and lettermen's jacket just screamed closeted gay jock to Sebastian. This could get interesting.

“Sorry,” Sebastian spoke to the jock in the corner, his voice dripping with sarcasm. “I don't think I got your name when you came in.”

“Dave,” the guy mumbled, glancing up from the Sports Illustrated magazine he'd been idly flipping through. “Most people call me Karofsky though.”

Blaine gave Karofsky a tight smile. “Hey Karofsky, I'm Blaine.”

“Wonderful to finally meet you, Dave,” Sebastian said, emphasizing “Dave” and smirking at the scowl he received in return. It was almost too easy. This guy was going to be fun to fuck with.

“So Blaine, prisoner or guard? Because I have some handcuffs and I could think of plenty of uses for them.”

Karofsky let out a snort of disbelieving laughter at the comment and look of shock on Blaine's face. His face quickly shifted into a mask of anger and disgust however, as he realized that both Blaine and Sebastian were looking at him. “Dude, you need to chill with the homo crap. We can't have a bunch of fags running the prison, alright?”

“Ri-ight,” Sebastian cracked with a knowing grin. “Wouldn't want that, now would we, Dave? Anyways darling,” he started, turning back to Blaine, “you were saying?”

“Uh yeah, I'm a guard,” Blaine supplied, still feeling unbalanced by Sebastian's constant flirting. “What about you guys?”

“Yup, we're both guards too,” Sebastian replied. “Well, good, looks like we'll all be getting to know each other a lot better in the next two weeks.”

Before Blaine could reply, an older man in white coat walked into the room carrying a clipboard, looking each of them over in turn and then back to his clipboard before speaking.

Blaine quickly took a seat and Sebastian slid into the chair next to his, leaning in closer than was necessary and draping an arm over the back of Blaine's chair.

“Hello and welcome to Dalton,” the man in the white coat began. “My name is Dr. Cohen. I'm a professor here at Dalton as well as the principal investigator for this study. Each of you should have already met with one of my graduate research assistants and been informed of the basic requirements for this study. However, today I'm going to familiarize each of you with your role as prison guards and go over the rules for the study.”

“As you already know, this study is meant to examine the effects of prison life on ordinary college students. My goal is to do everything in my power to make this study feel as much like a 'real' prison as possible. A lot of the prison environment will depend on how well you play your role as prison guards. There will be five prisoners in the study. They are also male college students selected using the same criteria and you were randomly assigned to be guards while they were randomly selected to be prisoners.”

“So let's talk about the rules. The biggest rule is that you cannot physically harm the prisoners. You can't hit them or physically restrain them. Everyone understand?” Dr. Cohen asked, looking up from his clipboard as he finished outlining this rule, wanting to be sure that each participant agreed.

Blaine watched with growing concern as Karofsky's face visibly fell at this rule, obviously disappointed that he wouldn't be able to put his physical prowess to use. What the hell? The mere fact that this rule needed stating concerned Blaine. It was just an experiment after all, wasn't it?

Dr. Cohen waited until all three guards nodding their assent before continuing on. “As I was saying, you can't hit the prisoners. However, we do want this prison experience to be accurate which means that it needs to unpleasant for the prisoners. To that end, you can create in the prisoners feelings of boredom, a sense of frustration. You can create a sense of fear in them. You can create a notion of arbitrariness, that their life is totally controlled by us, by the system, you, me. They'll have no privacy at all in their cells, and they'll be sleeping in rooms with bars on them. There will be constant surveillance. Nothing they do will go unobserved. They have no freedom of action. They can do nothing or saying nothing that we don't let them. We are going to take away their individuality in various ways. In general what of all this leads to is sense of powerlessness, we have total power over the situation and they have none.”

“Fuck,” thought Blaine. “We have total power and they have none? What the hell did that mean?” If Blaine was being totally honest with himself, it sounded like a recipe for disaster. And it wasn't lost on him that he could have just as easily been selected to be a prisoner instead of a guard. How would he respond to being told he was powerless and that his every move would be watched? He couldn't imagine anyone willing going along with such a thing, unless they were as desperate for the cash or place to stay as he was. And who knows? Maybe they were. Despite his misgivings, Blaine knew he was in no place to object. He was counting on the two hundred dollars he stood to make if he completed the entire two week study.

Sebastian slid his arm from the back of Blaine's chair and placed it around his shoulder, pulling him close as he leaned in to whisper in Blaine's ear. “This is going to be good,” he whispered throatily. “We're going to have those prisoners on their knees begging for it in no time.” He leaned back, giving the obviously horrified Blaine a wink before turning to Karofsky and mouthing the words “It's on.”

Dr. Cohen gave Sebastian a stern look before continuing. Sebastian flashed him an obviously fake chastened smile and settled back in his seat, leaving his hand resting on Blaine's back.

“Right, as I was saying, you are free to use any methods at your disposal to keep order and discipline the prisoners as you see fit as long as you don't get physical with them. I will be monitoring the study from an undisclosed location and I will not be directly involved in the study unless an issue arises that demands my attention. But I will be monitoring the behavior of the prisoners and guards 24 hours a day, and any violation of the rules will result in immediate expulsion from the study and loss of compensation. Any questions so far?”

Blaine was still too dazed to form a coherent response, so he merely shook his head. He couldn't help but notice that Karofsky was now leaning forward eagerly, seeming excited at the opportunity to abuse his power. Blaine had a feeling that Karofsky was going to be trouble. Sebastian too. He could only hope that he could maintain some sort of order and keep them from going too far.

“Great. Well then, if you follow me, I'll give you a tour of the prison and give you your uniforms. You can bring your personal belonging with you and there will be a spot for you to store them in the guard room,” Dr. Cohen finished as he made his way towards the door and motioned for them to follow him out into the hall.

Blaine struggled to his feet, leaning down to grab his backpack. Just as his fingers could close around the strap, it was tugged from his grasp by Sebastian. “Oh please, allow me,” he said flirtatiously.

Blaine simply nodded, but fumed internally. He'd only known this Sebastian guy for fifteen minutes, but he was already starting to piss Blaine off. First of all, he was bothered by the fact that Sebastian had automatically assumed he was gay. It certainly wasn't something Blaine advertised for fear of judgment or reprisal. Hell, he'd just come out to his parents this weekend. But more than that, Blaine resented how incredibly obvious and forward Sebastian was being. Blaine was fearful of doing anything that could jeopardize his place in the study and yet Sebastian was practically waving a red flag that said “Gay” in front of Dr. Cohen. And Blaine couldn't afford for Dr. Cohen to decide he wasn't appropriate for the study because of his sexuality. So Blaine sped up, deliberately leaving Sebastian behind as he caught up to the experimenter.

“Hi, Dr. Cohen? I'm Blaine.” He extended a hand and shook it firmly, trying to exude confidence even though inside Blaine was a wreck. “I just wanted to officially introduce myself. I'm really glad that you selected me for the study. It sounds like a really...interesting idea.”

Dr. Cohen simply nodded and continued down the hall quickly, leaving Blaine hurrying to keep pace with him.

“I...uh...I just wanted to ask you one thing about the study actually,” Blaine spoke tentatively.

“Hmm, what's that?” Dr. Cohen replied distractedly.

“I...uh...I guess I was just wondering about the rest of the guidelines for the guards. I get that we can't hit the prisoners, obviously, but I was just wondering about other rules and guidelines for the prisoners. Like how often they get to eat and how much down time they get, you know...things like that.”

Dr. Cohen paused momentarily, considering Blaine more carefully this time. “Well Blaine, as I said before, I want this to feel as much like a real prison as possible and in a real prison, the prisoners don't have a whole lot of rights or privileges. But I am going to task you and your fellow guards with coming up with a set of rules for the prisoners, if you want to include one about mealtimes. And as I said before, I'll be monitoring the study to make sure that everyone's basic human rights aren't violated.”

“Oh okay....good, that's...yeah good,” Blaine finished lamely. He felt slightly better to know that there would be at least some oversight, but he wasn't exactly getting a warm and cuddly feeling from Dr. Cohen. Blaine was starting to wonder if he was possibly the only sane or decent person in this whole study, and the experiment hadn't even begun.

Blaine, Sebastian, and Karofsky followed Dr. Cohen down a maze of seemingly never-ending corridors and stairwells until at last they arrived in a small basement area. On either side of the hall sat small rooms. Three of the doors contained windows, allowing the guards to easily monitor what was going on inside each cell. Bars covered each of the three windows. A fourth room was labeled “Guard Room” and the window on the door had been covered in black felt, giving the room more privacy than the prisoner cells. At the other end of the corridor, there was a door to what Blaine assumed was the bathroom.

Blaine looked to Karofsky and Sebastian who were also surveying the small area with interest. Dr. Cohen looked around the room as well proudly, nodding to himself with satisfaction before addressing guards. “Alright guards, welcome to your new home for the next two weeks. This will be your prison. As you can see, there are three cells for prisoners. There will be five prisoners, so there will be two to a room except for one prisoner who will have a single. It will be up to you to determine how you allocate the space. If you look up, you can see that there are cameras along the hall and in each of the prisoner's cells. There is also a camera in the guard room so that I can observe your interactions with one another and your planning meetings.”

Dr. Cohen opened the door to the nearest cell, motioning to the guards to follow him. “Each cell is identical. There are two beds in the double cells and one in the single. Each prisoner is allowed one blanket and one pillow each. They will not be allowed to bring any personal items inside the cells. In other words, you will have total control over how they spend their time while they are here.” He stepped back through the door to the cell, showing them how to operate the lock to ensure that the prisoners couldn't escape.

Next, Dr. Cohen led the guards to the end of the hallway. “Through here is the bathroom and shower area. We've removed the stall doors to take away the sense of privacy as is typical in prisons. They will not be allowed to use the bathroom or the showers without supervision from a guard. The prisoners should be bathed once a day in the communal shower with guard supervision. Because of university rules and ethics, this will be the only room without video surveillance which is why it is so important that prisoners are always directly supervised in this room to maintain order.”

Blaine's face flushed as he thought through the implications of what Dr. Cohen had just said. He was expected to watch a bunch of guys shower and use the bathroom? He turned to Sebastian, hoping that he would share his bewilderment, but Sebastian looked positively gleeful at the development.

Dr. Cohen led the guards back into the hall. "You'll notice that there are no clocks or windows in any of the cells except in your room. We want the prisoners to have no sense of the passage of time. Again, you are in control of everything, even if the prisoners think it is day or night." He then led the guards through the hall, pointing out one room off the side of the hall where meals were to take place, another with a two way mirror and intercom where visitation was to take place, and a small room that had once been a broom closet, which he told the guards to use for whatever purpose they desired.

Finally, the guards were led into the guard room. “You can place all of your personal belonging in these lockers. In the lockers, you will also find guard uniforms for each of you. Go ahead and put these on now. You'll be expected to wear these uniforms at all times when in view of the prisoners. Once you've gotten dressed, you'll need to work together to come up with a list of five to seven rules that you will expect the prisoners to follow to maintain order. The prisoners will arrive tomorrow afternoon. As soon as they arrive, you'll need to strip search, shower, and delouse them. Then you will have to tell the prisoners the rules you come up with. Everything after that is up to you. We'll be observing you starting now to see how you work together to come up with your list of rules. Goodnight and good luck.”

And with that, Dr. Cohen was gone, leaving Blaine's mind reeling from everything he had just seen and heard. He looked to Sebastian and Karofsky, hoping they shared his confusion and concern. But instead, they both looked positively gleeful and Blaine felt his heart sink even more. This had the potential to be the longest two weeks of his life. Hopefully, the prisoners wouldn't be as bad as Sebastian and Karofsky, because right about now, Blaine could use a friend.

Sebastian was the first to speak up. “Well, this should be downright fun, don't you think Blaine? Lucky that we get all the power because I absolutely love being on top. What about you?” Sebastian gave Blaine a knowing smirk, smiling with pleasure as he watched Blaine flush bright red. The whole bashful schoolboy thing Blaine was doing was really working for Sebastian. It was almost too easy to mess with him.

“Uh, I don't know,” Blaine said, stumbling over his words. “I'm thinking that this study is sounding pretty weird, but maybe that's just me. I guess we should get to work though?”

“Yeah,” Karofsky spoke up. “I've got a rule. The prisoners aren't allowed to touch us at any time for any reason. Because if one of those homos lays a finger on me, I don't care what Dr. Cohen says, I'm going to beat the shit out of them.” Karofsky looked self-consciously to the camera after speaking; having momentarily forgotten that he was being monitored.

“Works for me. I wouldn't want anyone making poor Blaine uncomfortable, after all. Besides me, that is,” Sebastian responded.

Karofsky frowned at Sebastian before continuing. “Okay, so that's the first rule. We also need to show them who's in charge from Day 1. They have to respect us. And we need to show them how unimportant they are. I say we don't even call them by their names. Let's just call them by their prison number.”

“Interesting,” Sebastian responded. “I think that could work. But what should we have them call us? Just guard or something else?”

“No, how about Correctional Officer Karofsky? Just last names though,” Karofsky replied.

“Sold,” said Sebastian. “Blaine honey, you are being awfully quiet over there. Why don't you tell us a rule you want to add.”

“Uhh, we should probably say that they have to eat three meals a day, right? I'm sure we have to take care of their basic needs and all.”

Sebastian rolled his eyes. “Bo-ring,” he started. “Come on, Blaine, you can do better than that.”

But Karofsky looked intrigued. “No wait, that's not a bad idea. Yeah, they have to eat everything on their plate even if the food is disgusting. We can make them eat all sorts of weird things. It'll be hilarious.”

Blaine began shaking his head vehemently. “No, no that's not what I meant, I just...”

But Blaine was cut off before he could continue. “Okay, works for me,” said Sebastian. “If we're going to go with the completely obvious with our rules, I've got one. Prisoners aren't allowed in the guard room or anywhere besides their cells without one of us.”

Blaine and Karofsky nodded their agreement to this rule. “Okay, what else?” Sebastian asked. “Actually, no wait, I've got another one. The prisoners must follow any and all orders given by the guards. That'll cover a lot of stuff.”

Karofsky's nodded excitedly. “You know what this reminds me of? Cool Hand Luke. Have either of you seen that movie?” Sebastian nodded in agreement while Blaine shook his head no.

“It's an awesome movie. But do you know how they punish the prisoners? They put them in the box. It's like solitary confinement. We should totally do that,” Karofsky said, leaning forward and looking to Blaine and Sebastian expectantly.

Blaine dropped his head to his hands. Was this really happening to him? How did he end up with two people that clearly took so much joy in hurting others? “I...uh...don't know if Dr. Cohen would like that. There are only going to be five prisoners to begin with, so why would we need to separate them further? Plus, we only have three cells and five beds.”

“Dr. Cohen said we were on our own. And we can use the closet. Remember? That's the room that he said we could use for whatever we wanted. It's small and dark in there. It'll be perfect.”

Blaine tried again. “I don't think that's what Dr. Cohen meant when he said we could use it any way we wanted.”

“Oh no? I think that's exactly what he intended,” Sebastian smirked. “It's a great idea, Dave. We can use that as punishment if any of the prisoners get out of line or try to start anything.”

Blaine sighed, his frustration growing by the minute. “Wasn't the idea that we were supposed to come up with these rules together?”

“Of course, gorgeous. No need to get your knickers in a twist. But majority rules, you know? But since I'd hate for you to feel left out, how about you give us your idea for the last rule?”

Blaine let out an exhalation of breath, wracking his brain to come up with something innocuous. “Umm, how about we specify that they get thirty minutes of recreation a day. But just thirty minutes.”

Karofsky glowered at Blaine. “Are you kidding me? We don't need to give them recreation time. This is a prison, not a fucking summer camp.”

Blaine threw his hands in the air. “I give up then. Do whatever you want.”

Sebastian leaned forward, placing his hands on Blaine's shoulders and beginning to knead them gently. “Man, you are wound tight. I could prescribe something that would help with that, you know.”

Blaine pushed Sebastian's hands off him roughly. “I'm doing just fine on my own, thanks.”

“Oh don't be that way, babe. How about this? Last rule can be anything you want. The only catch is that it has to be some sort of punishment, not a reward. Thoughts?”

Blaine stared at his hands for a moment. His first thought was to throw it back in their faces and simply say “Screw it; you come up with all the rules.” But given what they'd managed to come up with so far, Blaine was more than a little concerned about what Karofsky and Sebastian would come up with if left to their own devices. So he tried to pick the least awful punishment they could think of.

“Okay, how about this? Prisoners are required to keep their cells clean at all time. Beds must be made; floors must be spotless, all that kind of stuff. Does that work for you?”

“Sure honey,” Sebastian cooed back. “It's a little dull, but we'll make it work. Okay! Looks like we've got our list of rules. Shall we strip now?”

“What?!?” Blaine and Karofsky both responded in horror. Sebastian chuckled to himself. “Strip, you know, take off our clothes? So that we can put on our uniforms?”

“I'm going to change in the bathroom,” Karofsky responded. “I don't want you looking at my junk. It sounds like you'd enjoy it a little too much.” With that, Karofsky stalked off, opening the door to the guard room and hurrying down the hall.

“Oh he wishes,” Sebastian mumbled under his breath. “Closeted jocks are sooo not my type. I much prefer the bashful schoolboys,” Sebastian continued with a wink at Blaine.

Blaine ignored Sebastian, calling after Karofsky instead. “Wait, one more thing,” interrupted Blaine. "How are we dividing the prisoners up? Like, are we each going to be in charge of one cell?"

“Good thinking, babe,” Sebastian replied. “I love the idea of having my own young minds to mold...or corrupt. We've got five, right? I'll take two.”

Blaine nodded, relieved that for once his suggestions were being taken seriously. “Um, I'm clearly not as into the whole prison guard thing as you two are, so how about I just take the single cell? Does that work for you?” he finished, turning to address Karofsky.

“Fine by me,” Karofsky responded nonchalantly. “I can handle two at once. So it's decided then?”

Blaine and Sebastian nodded in unison. Mission accomplished. Now all they needed were their prisoners.