[align=center][div style="width: 500px; text-align: justify; font-family: helvetica; font-size: 9pt; line-height: 1.4;"]ooc: this is a combination of his ooc prompt and this month's cdc!

For all of the trouble that Theo has gotten himself into over the years, he firmly believes that this is the moment his dad might kick his ass. For all of the (numerous) mistakes he had made in his youth — the arguments, the stubbornness, the fierce independence — he always remembered the basic rules, which in truth were hardly rules in the first place. Guidelines to living a healthy and safe life, really. In the end, he broke all of them.

1. Stay sweet or stay efficient. People don't change, no matter what they say when threatened. Perhaps he hadn't broken that one fully — Letty had never pleaded or bargained for his life. A simple are you going to kill me too? and his life had spiraled. Because he was curious, because he wanted answers. There were so many people who lived their lives differently than he did, and having only seen it from one side of the fence... well, obviously he'd thrown himself in headfirst. He'd paused at the most necessary moment, but it had ended up being one of the best decisions of his life. And one of the worst.

2. Don't judge based on appearances, but trust your gut and the thrill of fear that rushes up your spine. He'd made a habit of breaking rules in steps. The fear didn't outweigh curiosity, and he'd let himself ignore the former to chase after the later. It didn't overwhelm him when Letty pinned him down, with rough paws and teeth at his neck. So he'd let it slide, let it fade away, just tipped his head back and let curiosity win.

[ADD AT LEAST ONE MORE HERE]

Looking back, he realizes that he threw out half of his life lessons for something that he had intended to offer forever. That makes it worth it, at least in part. The list went on, of course, but he doesn't have time to recite it all or to worry after the past. No, not when today was the day he broke a rather fundamental rule that he'd never broken before: don't take weird drinks from weird people. Simple, right? Easy to follow? Apparently not. Not when he wanted to fully understand this place and its culture. He had only been handed the drink and instructions not to leave the island until the sun was rising. A deceptively simple task that has him worrying about what else he would find on this island, or what this drink would do to him. Still, he's calm as he settles in for the night. It's... lonely here, even for someone who had only re-entered group life a few months ago.