Chapter Text
Arkham Asylum did not have a children’s ward.
That was a good thing too, after all the place mainly housed the criminally insane, and in Gotham that was a dangerous game.
Most mental health issues regarding children in Gotham were handled by other clinics. Sometimes by the juvenile detention center. that is when they were handled at all.
So, no, Arkham did not have a children’s ward.
Even so it did house a few children within its gothic walls.
Seven to be precise. They stuck together as much as they could, and because it was relatively safe, they were housed together. Outside of the occasional interpersonal rough housing they seemed to be much calmer and safer for staff to be around when they were housed together. Incidents of bite wounds and stabbings had decreased afterwards, so the director had given them clearance and their head doctor was happy to keep them together saying that it was important for their general socialization and education. Staff had even noted that the children had made their own made-up language that consisted of chirping and chittering they called Trillic. Because of this inmates and staff alike had taken to calling them the Birds.
The Arkham Birds.
Each Bird was their own twisted little kind of demon.
Richard Grayson was the oldest of the birds, he was 16- and three-years senior to the others.
He had been a circus acrobat before he had come to the asylum. His parent’s circus had somehow gotten themselves on the bad side of the mob and found themselves with cracked necks for their trouble.
Their son, nine years old and orphaned, decided to take his grief to extremes.
The state had intended to send him to juvie. He never even made it to meet the CPS officers. Richard had vanished that same night and set out to find his parents' murderer.
He had gone in search of revenge.
It was unclear if he actually got it, but Tony Zocco was found dead a month later. Further into the month Richard had been found, somehow having avoided being killed or caught up with traffickers.
If he had stayed out on the streets he wouldn't have made it to ten. His luck from that first little while would have run dry.
Instead, the cops had found him muttering nonsense in a language none of them understood and with some bite marks for their troubles they had deposited him on the steps of the asylum barely able to speak a word of english.
At fourteen Richard had started exclusively responding to his nickname. Dick. He refused to answer to anything else. Some staff members proposed that it was because of the influence of the other birds, but some staff members gossiped that it might have something to do with a certain new attitude the kid had.
It was one he had picked up from his short escape from the asylum when he was eleven, after his return —with Jason in tow— the once violent, angry kid, who was out to burn the world down had disappeared, and in his place was a manipulative charmer who superficially mimicked and bent to the emotions of those around him.
Dick was a pretty child, and he had grown to be an even more handsome teenager. At this rate the child was on track to be a heartthrob as an adult. Thing was he now seemed to know how to use that to his advantage. He was a performer at heart, with a charisma that made you want to go along with almost anything he was suggesting.
The kind of charisma that could start a cult or run a country.
Most of the time that charisma was to take the form of flattery to the staff and other inmates. Cutting deals and making conversation to see that he and the other birds were ignored or actually got the help they needed at any one time. Little things like sneaking in candy for the younger kids or not having the lights turned off, Or if the rogues were planning an escape asking that they would avoid the Birds so they did not get caught up in the fallout. he'd become a protector; an older brother.
Unfortunately for staff Richard had also taught the other birds a thing or two about acrobatics and all the little shits knew how to move.
This was good because it meant they were out of the way when things went badly, but this also meant they were hard to catch when the staff needed to get ahold of them.
Richard truly was the d'facto leader of the rest of the Birds, as their voice and advocate. Yet he never forgot he had been alone for a while but eventually he had been joined by the next Bird.
Jason Todd.
If Dick had been lithe movement Jason was brute strength.
Strength he had not come by naturally.
See with his mama dead from an overdose, his father in jail for being one of Penguin's goons, Jason likely would have had a fate normal to the street kids of crime ally, he would have died or he would have survived, those were the two options.
Jason was a fighter, a surviver, and after stealing the tires off the wrong automobile, he found himself with a new roof over his head.
Ma Guns' orphanage was hell, and Jason had become a demon. She took in boys from the street and turned them into goons, her's and Black Mask's until they aged out. When they could go off and work for anyone and everyone. Drugs and violence were rampant, and for a boy who had already been hooked before ending up at her doorstep he just fell deeper.
Jason had always been a fighter.
Here he’d gotten strong, learned to never show weakness, and learned how to follow instructions. learned how to plan and outsmart everyone trying to push him down. He’d been on the streets, smoking a cigarette like the scent doesn’t make him want to cough until the air is clean again, watching, learning, copying curse words as if they’ll protect him, fighting because the second he stops, he’s dead.
Taking after his dad and the older kids in every way he could make count.
He had gotten strong, but he smallness was an issue. then there had been Scarecrow and Bane.
Ma Gun’s orphanage got shut down a few months after Jason had arrived, he had vanished off the face of the earth for weeks, only for him to show up with Dick Grayson, jacking cars, again.
He was no longer weak. The venom in his veins made sure of that.
The officers, one with a missing ear for their troubles, had brought them both back to Arkham.
The Doctor had found that Jason was addicted to a long list of substances when he had arrived. Some of them he had probably had an attachment too from birth if some of the nurses were to guess. Others he had probably been exposed too since he was young, and others they could only speculate how he had gotten his hands on.
They monitored him for weeks, as he and Dick got acquainted with the other new Bird, only they found that some of the drugs weren't leaving his system as fast as they should. There was something about his blood, something that made things stay in his system for longer than they should. He wasn't a meta, they had checked. Just an exaggerated quirk of biology
The staff thought things were a bit slow going with Todd. Treating him like he didn't understand, like he was just a brute. Saying that Jason was one who would always take three steps forward and two steps back. Other members of staff chatted between each other that he was cunning and theatrical, a Rouge in the making if they had ever seen one.
To add to the matter it didn't help that Jason Todd had once gone missing for three days after one breakout. They had eventually found him in a warehouse. Broken bones and bruises, Then J that now marked his cheek told more than enough of a story of what had happened. They wouldn’t have found the kid if Batman hadn’t heard the yelling and stopped the Joker from enacting whatever his crazed scheme of the year was this time. He ended up being the only survivor of one of the Joker’s nonsense experiments that he had decided to conduct on some of the other inmates
After that, the Jason that had first arrived at the Asylum was replaced with an unpredictable wild dog. That's what the staff and guards whispered in the corridors. The kid schemed like he was some sort of shakespearean villain. Mr. Jacobs Swore up and down to anyone who would listen to him that it was Jason who had something to do with the incident involving the severed head found in the lockers. Seeing as in a building filled with people who were known for just as strange and cruel incidents no one gave the guard's ramblings much attention.
The staff could all agree that his run in with the Clown Prince of Crime had changed Jason. He was not the only Bird to have been changed by the clown.
Tim Drake had been admitted by his parents.
They went so far as they had relinquished most of their rights to him in favor of him becoming a ward of the state.
The kid was detached and showed signs of neglect, when he had shown up. This had resulted in him growing a strong attachment to the other Birds. He tended to be the one with the strongest and most negative reactions if he was separated from the others.
More than a few guards at the low security ward had scars from bitemarks and scratches to prove it.
Though he was good at masking his wild behavior around authority figures that he thought he could get something out of. Truly a born and raised socialite, he still had some habits of polite society of Gotham's elite. Tim should be using those skills miserably faking a smile for his rich parent’s friends and their families, but instead he got himself locked away in Arkham thanks to his stalker-ish tendencies.
Tendencies that had ended up with him nailing a bunch of dead bats to the Drake’s neighbor door, a Mr. Bruce Wayne.
Apparently Mr. Wayne had not pressed charges, even though the scandal had been all over the tabloids.
It was also the final straw that made his parents admit him. He had admitted this in a therapy session. To add to the staff’s worries, the kid was smart, scary smart. In fact the staff had an unofficial betting pool on who of the Birds was the first to become a Gotham rouge when they were adults.
Most bets were on Drake, with Todd in a close second.
In the staffs’ mind the fate of these kids becoming rouges was not a question of if, it was a question of when.
Like Jason Todd, things for Tim were not helped by the Bird's unfortunate run-ins with a certain Clown Prince of Crime that left Tim worse for wear. In his case, Tim Drake had gone missing for a week. It had been a targeted, with Joker trying to claim a successor. It left him in worse shape than he started.
But alive.
He was loyal to the Birds, but sometimes he still bemoaned that his parents wouldn't take him back, they would not even visit.
Not the case for Stephanie Brown.
A pre-teen girl from the Bowery who had clearly seen some shit. She had explained to a few nurses once how her bedroom window was situated at just the right angle for her to see everything.
And she meant everything .
After years of watching everything she had decided to get involved in everything. By destroying plans and playing pranks.
If Steph had not been admitted she would probably be a pile of bones somewhere in Gotham Harbor because she pissed off the wrong person. Her mother had tried to admit her first to one of Gotham's other clinics actually equipped to handle teen issues, but after a few run-ins on all sides of the law enforcement and the arrest of her father, Cluemaster, she had been transferred to Arkahma at Dr. Strange’s request.
She was also near the bottom of everyone’s list of who would become a Gotham rouge first, next to Duke.
Certainly, she was an agent of chaos, out to cause it at every turn she could. In their minds she wasn’t rogue material, instead the staff would sometimes compare her to a Harlequin, there to cause chaos but would likely be a helper to whatever Bird did go rogue.
The staff rather enjoyed having Steph around as she helped the other kids actually act their age. Anything that managed that would send the faculty into a wave of relief. Not having to watch over their shoulder for an angry Todd or a staby little demon. Unfortunately for the staff it was also her love of pranks that had landed her here in the first place.
She was the only Bird who got visitors on a regular basis and also the one who was allowed to leave for stints at a time. As her mother was a caring and well-meaning woman but just did not have the means or methods to reign her daughter in. With her father now absent in her life. Her mother was the only adult responsible for the young girl.
They suspected that Crystal might have some extra issues, but she had a tough time as a nurse for Gotham General. None of them said anything, because all that would do would be the final nail in the coffin that would get CPS to take her away from her mother and likely be permanently placed in Arkham with the other wards of the state.
Duke Thomas had only entered the asylum five months ago. Shortly after an attack from the Joker had claimed the normal lives of his parents. They were both alive, but they were not in any state they could take care of him. Duke had survived in better shape, sure he had laughing fits. But he could be reasoned with. He had gotten himself committed for largely unknown reasons to the majority of the staff. Something about starting a gang.
Though what twelve year old starts a gang… then again this is in Gotham, and Duke is a born and raised Narrow’s kid. Not to mention Duke was a natural born leader, and if it wasn’t for the fact that as the oldest, the other Birds followed Dick, Duke would likely be their ‘Face’ so to speak. He spoke his mind and didn't stand for being slighted. Dick often encouraged Duke to step up as the voice for the Birds. Teaching him the does and don'ts of getting his way. Duke took to the lessons like a fish to water. The staff quietly whispered among themselves that soon enough they would have two of them on their hands.
Duke might be the newest of the Birds, most of who had quickly and readily adopted him as their newest “brother”, but the youngest of the children was an honor bestowed to a strange child the staff had all started calling,
Damien the Demon child.
Some of the more sympathetic members of staff said Damian hadn't really gotten a chance to live. Seeing as he was so young and already locked behind the walls of the madhouse manor. He might be the youngest of the Birds but also the coldest. He was only seven years old and had been in Arkham for about eight months. He had been picked up by the GCPD with no name, no parents, no papers and no willingness to communicate except to try to stab everyone and everything around him.
Anything he had said had been in foreign languages or sounded like incomprehensible gibberish. The GCPD Decided he wasn't thier problem and Arkham could deal with him. Something Dr. Strange had egarly accepted.
Cassandra Cain had a somewhat similar story to Damien. Though she was notably less violent. At least on the surface. It had been with her arrival that the true form of Trillic developed.
Selectively mute, it wasn’t that she could not talk. She was physically capable of it, and in recent years she had made some improvements, but she never had seen a reason to bother learning how to talk. Her makeshift family understood her just fine in all the other ways that she chose to communicate.
Staff found Cass to be the sweetest of the Birds, but at the same time they knew she could be dangerous.
They saw it in the way she moved, they saw it in the way she watched them. They knew it from the way she sometimes would appear behind them several wards over from the one that housed her and her honorary siblings. This was often so she could get help from the staff for one of the Birds or another.
Be it her “brothers” as she herself called them, fighting. Stephanie having glitter glued her fingers together, again, or the one recent incident that involved Tim and Duke flooding the entirety of the eastern ward.
She was very protective of the others and more than one guard bore a scar from when they had tried to do something to one of the other Birds she didn't like. Inmates and Staff alike knew that she was not to be messed with, even if she was so small.
She didn't need to be big to bring you down.
For some strange reason Dr. Strange seemed to encourage the rogue- like tendencies of the Birds instead of curbing them.
They where a bit of an in-house mystery. Just one of many inside the gothic manor turned asylum. Staff that didn’t regularly interact with the Birds hardly knew anything about them.
Only the ones who did had stories. Stories that were happily shared as lunch table gossip, and pictures and stories some of the nurses cooed over when the Birds were sweet, and horror stories of when they were terrors.
At the end of the day their escapades were overshadowed by the danger the inmates in the high security ward posed, and even in the regular wards. Even with their loose fame inside the stoney ivy-covered walls of the asylum. The rumors and truths of their existence stayed within the asylum. Unknown and forgotten by the rest of Gotham.
They should not have been there in the first place, but like many things in gotham.
Some strings were pulled, some papers were signed, some bills were exchanged and the kids originally destined for juvie were in Dr Strange’s care.