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This is all just for fun!

There are something at the institute that organized and quantified, like chores and cooking schedules, but there are some things that were beyond the control of lists and sanity. TV… was one of these things, that was beyond control of any known force in the universe. The professor had started out with good intentions. He'd purchased several TV's for the institute, including a big screen for the Rec. Room, but without fail there were epic battles for control of the Institutes five coveted television sets on every night of the week.

Each of the students at the institute had their favorite shows and were ferocious in their fight to get it on the first TV schedule. That lasted as long as it took for the professor to print it out and post it in the Rec. Room and was worth about as much as a snow cone in Antarctica.

The list left out some very important contenders.

In particular it left out Rogue's Thursday night favorite; Supernatural. It was an underappreciated minority as far as Rogue was concerned… and had failed to make it on the list.

At least until the first Thursday when Rogue walked into the Rec. room with her salt and burn t-shirt on and raised holy hell that the TV was on another show. After that… the room was empty and the TV left on Supernatural every Thursday without question. Some people where brave enough to stay but… they were few and far between. Unlike the other's who fought for places on the TV schedule, Rogue was like the boogey man… or woman of the Institute so her struggle for TV dominance had been swift, brutal, and unforgiving. Needless to say, the Schedule became more of a suggestion after that…

Kurt and Kitty had started ported and phasing people out of the Rec. Room to ensure that they were able to enjoy J.J. Abrams at his mind bending best every Wednesday night. This had been met by much resistance from Jean who insisted that America's Next Top Model was far cooler, and less likely to induce temporal displacement, than Lost. In response Kurt and Kitty had waged an all out war against Jean for an entire week after she'd somehow finagled her way into watching ANTM instead of Lost. After that Jean relegated herself to the downstairs TV. Although it was much smaller it was the second most fought over TV in the school and she had to play dirty to get her TV time, which is to say she threatened to make everyone in the room see things for a month if they didn't agree with her programming choice.

No one knew exactly what Scott watched on TV every Tuesday night, but it was a big secret and a source of much speculation. Some people where allowed to come into the professor's sitting room to watch it with him… but entrance required a secret password that changed every week.

The institute's thriving gossip network had the programming choice at everything from porn to Martha Stewart, to old Power Ranger and Barney reruns. As no one was able to get a man on the inside to discover their secret… it was purely speculation. It was said was the Rogue knew what happened in that room every Tuesday night…

But she wouldn't tell… unless you were willing to make a deal with her. Which they knew was a bad idea… because all of them had been forced to watch a supernatural episode warning them about making deals with devils… not that Rogue was evil or anything… just dangerously manipulative and willing to use her powers for evil.

So week nights at the Institute fell into a somewhat easy pattern of Television programming and volatile arguments over the validity of one scientific principal/exorcism right/elimination and who was watching what and why.

At least until the time that the cable went out.

Thanks to the Brotherhood of Mutants the cable station had demolished and the entire town of Bayville was without cable. In response the professor locked himself in his office and barricaded the door. Mrs. Monroe had taken an emergency vacation to see her friend in California. Hank had immediately donned his safari gear and loaded up a gun with tranquilizer darts… just in case.

Logan seemed to be the only one not afraid of the coming storm. Then again, he may have stayed in town to see the chaos first hand… no one was really sure.

The first day was… different, not bad… but it was only the beginning.

It wasn't too long before all out madness overtook the institute.

Kurt had set the tone for the two weeks by porting himself out into the woods around the house and for all intents and purposes going feral. He wore only a pair ripped shorts and leaves in his fur. With his image inducer off and his fur sticking in various directions he looked like a demon… which lead to problems with Rogue and her supernatural obsession. Sometime during the first week, as boredom took over and she ran out of books to read, Rogue decided to make the best of their summer vacation without cable and exorcise Kurt. It had taken some careful planning on her part; including laying a trap of gut busters and other favorite munchies of the now wild x-man. Her biggest concern was that he would escape her devil's trap using his porting power but a little knock on the head and a power zap from her and he was unconscious… and ready for his exorcism. This had frightened most of the Institute students into silence… at least until Jamie had come running out of the kitchen hold salt and a cup of water with a rosary in it screaming 'Got it, Let's do this thing… and then we can get some pie!'

The silence had been broken only by the sounds of running feat and a loud Latin chant.

Remy who'd stayed in his room for the past couple of days… and was otherwise unaffected by the loss of TV as he didn't like to watch it, came down the stairs to this sight. He immediately grabbed his jacket and left the house, followed by screams that he was next.

He stayed gone for several hours. During which Kurt woke up and ported away; was captured, knocked-out, and exorcised again… then woke up and escaped again… only to get caught again. It was sick cycle that lead to five exorcisms and Kitty being called a ghost and "trapped" in her room by a thick line of salt across her door way. When she'd tried to protest Jamie had insisted that it was EVP, which lead Rogue and him into the woods, with a gas can and all the salt from the kitchen, to find her bones.

Thankfully before they could accidentally burn down the forest or catch Kurt again, Remy reappeared with the first four seasons of Supernatural on DVD and enough junk food to last a year. All three of them locked themselves in the Rec. Room after that.

Kurt, Rogue, and Jamie were not the only ones to be effected by the loss of the TV or adult supervision. Life at the institute had broken down. Food was being horded, the kitchen resembled a war zone and getting water was an as dangerous as trying to steal food from someone, the bathrooms were guarded like Fort Knox, holes appeared in the walls, and the hallways were reminiscent of Danger Room gauntlets.

It was Mad Max… Institute style.

Hank was prepared for this. He could often be found hiding in abandoned rooms or under the overturned coach in the living room with his tranquilizer darts. Any student he felt was in danger of succumbing to illness, exhaustion, hunger… or any other aliments was quickly sedated and carted off to the infirmary in what could only be called a catch and release program. Hank would swiftly diagnose the problem, treat it, and let the student go… back into the wild as it were.

Thankful the city worked swiftly to restore the cable. Within two weeks it was turned back on. Sanity was quick to return to the institute, though their time as wild animals had left lasting scars on them and the school. Kurt would snarl at people who came to close to his food for the first couple of days, toilet paper and food kept disappearing from the house and Jamie had official adopted into the fold by Rogue and Remy… giving him frightening new power over the other new recruits.

Logan had watched all of this with a keen eye and an amused smile… at least until he saw what had happened to his precious Danger Room… after that he heartily respected the power of TV.

Ah… TV, can't live with it and certainly can't live without it.

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