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When Theodore had first run away, he hadn't anticipated, as all teens do, how rough it would be to be homeless, or at least, in shelter without heat, or electricity, or water, though he had the last one covered, and had bought a generator and thermal sleeping bag over the course of the year, he was left without money to purchase a heater to use with their generator, something he had to conserve anyway due to not wanting to be found out by the parks department. So, he was left without a reliable source of heat as the months got colder, forcing him to go out and either collect firewood, or check dumpsters for the half used candles people would throw out and likely get overwhelmed form the variety of scents. (He had done this in the fall, he was sick for several days due to the mixing smells.) Luckily for Theo, there was always a rise in candles in and around the shops. whether due to being discarded due to a break, or people forgetting their purchases, they knew there would be candles in some form. Arriving at the shopping area that night, once the stores had closed, Theo had every intent to begin checking the bins, then the dumpsters, he honestly didn't expect two candles to be sitting at a table, seemingly forgotten, despite that being common. Making absolutely sure no one was around, they took the candles, , bagged them, then moved to find a few more things.

He returned home to his little ramshackle shack an hour later, goods in hand that weren't just the candles, such as food, a hat, and some blankets that had been spray painted to prevent use, not that that stopped Theo, the cold didn't care for human greed after all, and he'd be sure to take some of his find and clean them and donate them to the shelter he sometimes went to. He put the blankets he'd keep on his mattress, put the hat on to retain warmth through his head, and set about getting the candles out along with his matches. The candles didn't look like much to him, so he hoped they carried some sort of warmth. When he lit them up though, light exploded from the small table he had placed them on before lighting them. Oh god, oh no! He panicked, trying to cover them, snuff out the flame with oxygen, except it didn't seem to help. He worried someone would see, would investigate the shack he and his cat worked so hard to make sure people looked the other way towards so he could continue living there. He got up, covering the windows as best as he could, which did help with the warmth, but the lights simply glowed brighter with more darkness settling into the room thanks to the covered windows. Oh man, it seemed Theo made have to ride out the lights then. He sighed, hoping the things didn't last that long. Of course, he should have avoided saying that, as when he finally went to sleep and woke up, the candles were burning strong as ever. He groaned, it seemed he would have to stay with them today and make sure the house wasn't burned down.

The candles would go out around the same time he lit them the previous night, to his confusion.