If you’re not online, you likely know of J.K. Rowling as the beloved author of the Harry Potter books. If this is the extent of your knowledge, you should probably just log off and enjoy your happy life.

However, if you’re an unfortunate soul like me who spends way too much time on the computer, you probably know of Rowling as someone who’s gotten progressively madder and redder as time has gone on. Not content to have a legacy as a well-liked children’s author, she’s since committed her life to extending the “Controversies” section of her Wikipedia page, sounding off on the issues of the day and frequently being really, really wrong in the process.

When someone gets this out of hand this fast, there’s one question that always comes up: is this behavior new, or have they always been like this?

Of course, advocates for the latter camp have combed over her books and posts going back years to find evidence that the Rowling we know today is the one that’s always existed. However, one X (formerly Twitter) user recently went viral after posing an interesting theory: what if it was true that she had gotten less right in the head, but it wasn’t her fault? What if her apparent newfound lunacy can be attributed not to treating the Daily Mail as gospel, but to black mold?

Astute X users began to notice that, as Rowling has given more interviews from her home and changed her profile image on the site, a seemingly increasing number of visible black spots can be seen behind her.

Some theorized that this was artwork, pointing to a time she was pranked in which the offending pieces can be seen. But others wondered whether Rowling had simply succumbed to a particularly bad case of rot, with the black mold infecting her brain like Venom’s symbiote (only, in her case, giving her the superpower of losing all of the people who once found her respectable).

I try not to be one to spread misinformation, so I reached out to Rowling’s camp for a statement regarding what the marks are and whether she has a statement about them. They said that they will not be commenting on the issue, so we can say that the question of whether Rowling is just like this or if her brain has been turned into Swiss cheese by poor home maintenance is an open one.

True or not, internet users were quick to share their thoughts on the issue, posting meme after meme about Rowling’s alleged problems with black mold.