[Journey Deck] The Scenes
It's been a while since my last post about this, hasn't it! I haven't lost interest, I've actually done some test readings using the basic notes I have (which I'm epanding into these posts) and I'm really liking the feel of what I have so far. One thing that's new since the last post is the existence of the Postfurry Wiki, where this stuff will permanently live. It also already has a page on Downwarp which might help give context to some of the stuff here. The next two sets specifically rely a lot more on the peculiarites of the setting itself, as we're starting to get into environmental and even cosmic factors.
The Scenes
The scenes represent places things happen, whether physical, emotional, or symbolic. They are inherently environmental, but their meaning could be literal, or simply suggestive of the mood of a situation. Given they usually refer to external influences, the Scenes have some things in common with the major arcana of the Tarot, but while the Majors point to big cosmic forces, the scenes are much more mundane, talking about the social connections and environmental factors that you can easily see and feel, if you think to look for them.
In a reading, they tend to modify the other cards near them, talking about the circumstances surrounding them, as well as social influences and overall mood. Unlike the previous sets of cards we've discussed, the Scenes have no established elemental correspondences, though individual readers might have their own systems of ascribing elements to them.
Since the Journey Deck originates in Downwarp, the scenes are mostly taken from the palette of somewhat-run-down urbanism. Again, these are not necessarily literal, and each scene always comes with a canonical templated phrase that helps suggest how they can be applied in other circumstances.
- The Flat - "Where you're Safe": Home and hearth, Safety and family and baseline, for good or ill. This is the place from which journeys tend to begin, or where you return when they're done. This implies minimal social involvement, it's one of the most solitary scenes.
- The Study - "Where you Learn": Potential and development, but also sometimes rote and drudgery. This is one of the cards most likely to have different names in different decks too; 'school', 'club' and 'salon' are other common ones. It implies more social entanglements than the Flat, which, as happens in places of learning, can be strongly positive or strongly negative.
- The Workshop - "Where you Build": Downwarp is a place of makers; with everything always wearing down, it has to be. The workshop is a location where someone does the things rewarding to themself and thier community. This may not always be building objects; building social ties and communities is just as important.
- The Highway - "Where you Salvage": A good chunk of Downwarp is uninhabited junkland, good places to scround and scavenge. Many of these were apparently formerly massive highways, which leads to the common name for this scene. This implies work, often solitary, that isn't glamorous but is necessary. It also implies some help from outside sources, since Downwarp seems to provide well for its inhabitants via salvage.
- The Bazaar - "Where you Trade": The bazaars are the most active and vibrant public spaces in Downwarp, so this is one of the most strongly social cards, and a strongly positive, supportive one as well. There's no little implication of traditional capitalism here; basic needs are provided for by the rudiments of Puzzlebox's post-scarcity systems, after all, the bazaar is where you go when you have or want something new or exciting, and are looking to barter experiences and stories as well as works.
- The Streets - "Where you Fight": This doesn't quite mean what it sounds like. In a place where death is a minor inconvenience and the environment makes it difficult to violate someone's personal consensuality, conflict is usually more ideological than visceral. Factions vie for converts and defectors, causes look for support, art-war is waged. Still, it's hardly pleasant. The Streets are just as social as the Bazaar, but its polar opposite in mood; oppositional rather than supportive.
- The Stage - "Where you Perform": When you've done something you're really proud of, and you don't want to trade with it, or use it to convince, but just want to show off, this is where you go. The Stage is putting yourself out there for the world, bringing your best and trying to make a difference without being sure what the response would be. Often, the audience is seen as distant from yourself, in contrast to the close collaboration of the Bazaar.
- The Club - "Where you Party": When your long struggle is done, for the day or week or longer, this is where you go to celebrate. It doesn't have to be thumping music or flashing lights, but the Club does usually represent a social space, even if it's a quiet one full of comfy places to sit and thick curls of smoke. The Club is joyful release and reward, coming together with others and leaving renewed.
- Outside - "Where you Explore": Downwarp is big, possibly unbounded, but it isn't all there is. There's a whole other universe out there, full of even stranger things. There are plenty of reasons to go out there, and it encompasses everything else here; work, salvage, trade, reward. Outside is the most likely to be modified even by other scenes, but it stands well on its own as well to mean 'endless possibility' or even 'the unexpected'.
The art for the Scene cards varies the most from one deck to another; since many readers make their own decks, they tend to use places that are personally meaningful to them or those close to them. Usually the scenes do show locations, sometimes focussing on a certain central image, sometimes showing a wide expansive view. If they show people, they almost always show them as crowds, without much individual detail, to ensure the card can be read without seeming to refer to anyone specific.
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