So, okay, in the imaginary vampire au written by Devin Grayson and Gerard Way, Bruce Wayne lives in the house in the centre of Gotham, which towers over all the others, partly because it's set on the hill which is the center of Gotham, and partly because four generations ago, mad William Wayne began adding to it, towers and crenelations, baileys. Those who have been inside say there are stairs which climb five stories without rails and then end in mid-air, leading to nothing, and rooms which can only accessed by trap-door, but very few have been inside-- most tradespeople are greeted at the door Bruce's dower old servant, Ms. Pennyworthy. They say Ms. Pennyworth was young once, but then again, they say Wayne drinks the blood of young girls who go out after the curfew is rung.
Parts of the Wayne House have escaped its walls and curl up with its neighbours, and since Wayne is the Landlord of half of Gotham, there's not much you could do if old mad William built a tunnel through your living room window and out your kitchen chimney. Some people in Gotham can look out their parlour and into Wayne's wine-celler. Generally, those people put up curtains.
Young Todd is a sweep. He's been a sweep's boy since his mother gave him a bit of sugar-candy to suck and put his hand in the hand of the blackened man. He sees his mother still, sometimes, but Davy Gutterflu keeps him too busy, most times. Gutterflu is a bundle of sticks held together with grease, and soot, and invective, the latter of which Young Todd admires, the former of which he rather fears. Gutterflu has taught Young Todd a great deal about chimneys, wich Young Todd has not found particularly interesting, and a small amount about thievery, which he has. During the summer months, when most of Gotham is too hot for even a kitchen fire, Young Todd is creeping down chimneys and scraping out creosote, but when he's not, he's creeping down chimneys all the same with cotton bags which he'll turn inside out when he gets to the bottom and put on his hands and feet so he can pad through the owners' house without leaving soot-marks.
Young Todd certainly didn't mean to climb down a Wayne chimney: it would be a mad thing to do. But in certain parts of Gotham, the Wayne House is so entangled with its neighbours, like heap of drunken revellers whose limbs cannot be sorted out, that it is possible to become confused about which chimney leads to which house.
