Note: spoilers for the second season of Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events, and for book nine of the original series, The Carnivorous Carnival, ahead.

Fandom, as a rule, attracts people who are playing life on Hard Mode. Be they physical ailments, mental illness, or regular encounters with prejudice, many of us come to the things we love as a means of escaping the inescapable. And it’s a wonderful thing. We meet more people like ourselves through our hobby. We’re able to empathize. And we get that escapism we desire.

But just as there are those in the world who would like to ridicule and denigrate us for what is different about us, there are those who go the other direction entirely.

And in an age in which we fight actively to be seen for our passions and talents, it’s sickeningly easy for an unscrupulous person to offer us what we want… with a catch.