Mastodawn

#PennedPossibilities 974 — Does your MC become jealous? If so, to what degree? How does their jealousy manifest?

Jealousy is something taught in our society.

Read that again.

Nobody ever teaches that jealousy is in any wise good in Bolt's society. It's mentioned as a pathology in Men's Studies, and men taught to recognize that pathology will send people to Health Services if they recognize it.

Bolt has felt envy, when she's seen a woman get a man she was eying.

She's not entirely happy in one scene in Reluctant Courier (for the Mob) when she finds her friend Blue entertaining a pair of women. It's too hard to explain the nuances here, but it's a normal occurrence related to what people in their world call a "man's duty." Calling Blue a part-time geisha hints at the situation, but is not really close. He, however, recognizes that's Bolt has had a bad day (she has them fairly often, working for the mob) and really needs friendly (and also intimate) consoling. She's not up to sharing right then. Blue pawns off the two women on another guy in the association he lives at.

Bolt isn't jealous. That's not the emotion. There is no anger, simply disappointment. Bolt and Blue are completely human, but the society is subtly, but sometimes in your face, alien in ways we can't grasp thanks to our enculturation and gender roles.

#BoostingIsSharing

#gender #fiction #writer #author
#cozy #mystery #sf #sff #sciencefiction
#writing #writingcommunity #writersOfMastodon #writers
#RSdiscussion
#RSstory #RSReluctanceStory
#jealous #jealousy #envy