No one wants to see abuse & predatory behaviour taking place, but we are not talking about real predation here. We are speaking about fiction.

This piece has, presumably, been uploaded on AO3, whose TOS—K. 1 & 3-C—blatantly states that clicking ‘agree’ constitutes consent to reading the chosen content. It is up to you, as the adult you claim to be, to disengage if it disturbs or otherwise offends you. With warnings/summaries/tags in place, the only folks this content should be reaching are those who are looking to engage with it.

AO3 is an archive that demands you take accountability for your reading choices, not a pissing ground for moral hand-wringing contests. There are pieces of work I will never read, because I have read the tags/summary and I know for me, it is 'too far'. It’s FINE to feel that a piece of fiction is ‘too far’. But our personal disagreement with certain brands of content don't mean that content doesn't get to exist. It means we need to be mature and respect our own boundaries, and not interact with those works/spaces/individuals.

“The [person] doth protest too much" seems pretty apt here. They get embarrassed when they enjoy transgressive fiction, because suddenly their internalized victim-blaming/purity culture voices leap out to label them predatory/bad for liking said fiction. By portraying public aversion to the subject of their interest with a good ol’ moral grandstanding show, this person can then engage with that content in secret, guilty conscience at ease. It's a big shitty circle that people needlessly start again and again.

If you don't like the content, don't. fucking. read. it. Stop shouting about a piece of properly tagged/warned fiction, dragging it out of its appropriate space into public areas, and inviting others to ogle at the bad/nasty/wrong content that is just so terrible (again, the performative disgust is very telling). Read the tags, stay in your own space, and call out real predatory behaviour when you see it. Don't insult IRL victims by pretending the experiences of fictional characters is in any way comparable to their lived trauma.

Any innocent piece of fiction/art could also 'invite' a predatory person in. But more likely, they've been here from the start. Just because transgressive fiction is being made doesn't mean the fandom or specific creator is ‘predator-bait’. Even writing those words is appalling to me; no one—save for folks mimicking “To Catch a Predator”—is intentionally ‘baiting’ predatory individuals. Does the gore writer/artist earn the same suspicion and condemnation as the NSFW creator? Someone reading/writing murder or kidnapping? The depiction = endorsement argument falls apart real quick when you realize it’s all just more parroted purity culture bullshit.

Fic writer, whoever you are, I’m sorry your fandom is infested with antis and bad-faith actors raging about how you played with paper dolls. Continue writing, continue tagging/warning for your content, and be on your merry way. You aren’t poisoning your fandom, they’re doing that all on their own.

As to your original question: I would respond however you have the energy to. Are you willing to engage with people who may decide, instantly and irrevocably, that you are a predator/pedophile for defending fictional depictions of transgressive content? Or are you more comfortable blocking those people who refuse to see past their moral panic? That isn’t a judgement on you, no matter your choice. No single individual can lead the charge against the online wave of hate that comes from people with pseudo-scientific beliefs on the “harms” of fiction. It isn’t your job to attempt to educate those who’ve made if their life’s goal to misinterpret/misrepresent certain types of fiction. You mentioned this fandom has a lot of dead dove, which is even more hypocritical. Do they worry about folks depicting murder, cannibalism, violence, etc? It’s all dead dove, all paper dolls, all fiction. No one real is being harmed, and no one should be harassed and condemned because of the fandom morality police and their ‘what if’s’.

What I suggest is to offer support to the writer, and report any comments/posts you see that violate TOS of the spaces they appear in. There will always be folks ready, willing, and excited to jump onto the performative disgust train the instant an opportunity presents itself. Antis will eat their own, simply to keep the train rolling. Everyone in the NSFW sandbox, from fluff to the deadest of doves, will eventually fall on the chopping block. All we can do is block/report them, and continue writing/exploring whatever we choose in a safe, fictional sandbox. We can cultivate a fandom space that is supportive and emotionally intelligent enough to know where their boundaries lie. And above all, we can respect our fellow fans by not transgressing those boundaries for the sake of a few moral panic purity points.