#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.

[Author retains copyright (c)2026 R.S.]

#BoostingIsSharing

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#jealous #jealousy #envy

Dritto dal mio #blog vi presento un #libro che amo tantissimo: Solaris (di Stanislaw Lem)
https://larcobalenodeilibri.blogspot.com/2026/04/solaris-stanislaw-lem.html

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13. #MicroRezi zur #sciencefiction #Kurzgeschichten #Anthologie von @MartinSchatke bei #TuschelVerlag
#Carbonchoral

Glückliches Ende
von Martin Schatke

Sicher hat jede_r schon einmal darüber nachgedacht, mit wem man wo sein möchte, wenn die Welt untergehen würde. Wenn nicht, tut es die/der geneigte Lesende spätestens jetzt.
Im Zuge globaler Polykrisen wird zumindest schon mal die Auswahl an Wunschortkanditaten zusehends kleiner, aber [...]

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https://noosphaere.de/martin-schatke-carbonchoral/#ende

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Rainbow Glitch and Ghost Wires

Kidd felt there was something else to say, but it was too difficult to think of what. "Um… thank you." He put the money in his pants pocket, looked around the table for June; but she had left the room. "Good night, Mrs Richards." He wandered across green carpet to the door.

#ScienceFiction #SamuelRDelany

Challenge #04841-M092: Breakout Event

Worlds of IF (June 1955)

The colours of this guy's clothes are amazing, they go with his hair don't they? I had to squint a bit to see what was going on in the background. The crutch is an intriguing detail.

Original magazine: https://archive.org/details/1955-06_IF

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Hi! I'm a bot posting Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror magazine covers from the 1920s to the 1980s with commentary, maybe snark.

Sourced from archive.org, where you can read the original magazines.

[Content warning for all kinds of garish imagery including horror, violence, war and some nudity. Racial stereotypes crop up from time to time.]

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Jack the Ripper, by the fire now, looked over, his smile between sympathy and complicity, and shook his head.

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