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TLV - MIRROR BARGE FAQ
Jul. 12th, 2009 03:08 pm- So, first things first: what the heck is a Mirror Barge?
The Mirror Barge took its name from the Mirror Universe of Star Trek. It was a parallel universe in which everyonehad evil goateestook a hard right turn at the "alternate" in "alternate universe." Up was down, left was right, and, more importantly, wardens were inmates, and inmates were wardens. So while wardens on the regular Barge are generally upstanding people who are working to help redeem corrupted inmates, on the Mirror Barge, the inmates were the generally upstanding people, the wardens were corrupted, and the way they got their deals was to twist inmates from good to bad. Many characters on the regular Barge had a Mirrorverse counterpart, but the form and function of this counterpart varied widely. A regular warden's Mirror counterpart might also have been a generally decent person, in which case they'd have been an inmate trying their best to resist corruption - or they might have been a warden on the Mirror Barge too, in which case they'd have been a more twisted, less moral version of themselves. Likewise, a regular inmate's Mirror counterpart might have been a warden working to corrupt the goodies, or they might have been a better version of themselves that sits on the other side of the fence. Things like graduations, demotions, temporary and permanent pairings, and floods/breaches/ports all existed on the Mirror Barge.
The Mirror Barge used to like to hang out in a parallel dimension close by the regular Barge. Every so often, the two would collide, mixing up passengers and sending people to the wrong ships. As you do. - What was it like over there?
Grim. Really, terribly grim. Rot was everywhere; the maintenance crew of the Mirror Barge had been trying to cope with a severe lack of amenities, usually - but no longer - provided by their Admiral. Things that broke didn't get repaired very often, and while the general layout was the same, much of the amenities we might know on the regular Barge (the greenhouse, the pool, etc.) had either fallen into complete disrepair or never existed to begin with. Other places were twisted into different, more sinister versions of their other selves. - What's with the past tense? What happened to it?
Previously (Oct. 2013), the Mirror Barge was shown to be falling to pieces. Inmates were regaining control of their powers and wardens were increasingly losing control while the Admiral remained mysteriously silent. At the very end of the plot, the ship was near to breaking apart.
About half a year later (May 2014), it was in the process of being repaired without a word from the Admiral.
That same year (October 2014), an encounter with the newly-repaired Mirror Barge ended sadly for the Mirrorverse characters, who all ended up simply fading out of existence.
And finally, a few years after that (June 2017), it made one more appearance; a shadow of its former self, it was inhabited solely by automatons based on its original residents, and was found to be chasing after another alternate universe version of the Barge.
A few years later (June 2020), it was discovered that all Barges are created with several built-in setting options, meant to be activated or left alone according to their owner's personal desires. "Corruption" is just one of those settings.