"FETSPACE" + "The Punishing Animal"

The two stories in this episode—“FetSpace” by Rien and Rasmussen and “The Punishing Animal” by B. Platdeck—are linked by a shared preoccupation: what happens when desire, whether sexual or emotional, runs up against systems that claim to manage it. Both are set in futures where bodies and relationships are heavily mediated by institutions, forums, and borders. But the episode’s throughline is not just about constraint; it’s about the gap between what people want and what they can safely have, and the strange, often destructive forms that wanting takes when it can’t find a proper outlet.

“FetSpace”: The bureaucracy of kink across species

“FetSpace” is a short, epistolary piece structured as a forum thread on a space station’s kink community. The user SquareGlover46 posts a request: “Hi, does anyone know where I can get a cheliker to impregnate me?” The thread quickly devolves into a mix of earnest advice, moderation warnings, and outright hostility. The moderator moves the post to a “Live Sounding” subforum. Another user, 555, warns from the ER about the dangers of letting eggs hatch inside a human body. A user called DickSluttern offers practical tips—silicone-based lube, modified power drills for certain species—while also correcting the OP’s xenobiology: chelikers, it turns out, are neuter work-types with no arousal response. The thread ends with SquareGlover46 posting