The sordid tale of Victoria Bitter (VB)
Since there seems to be such confusion over the post by backfromspace regarding VB, I thought I'd repost mpoetess's lovely schpiel explaining it all (somewhat condensed from the *really* long original).

The sordid tale of VB, as told by mpoetess:
Victoria Bitter, henceforth VB, was something of a prodigy in LOTR fandom - she wrote stories and did art and was well-regarded, if considered a bit flaky. In 2002, VB shows up at ConneXions (a slash convention) sporting a fake British accent and blue contacts. At some point during the weekend, she hooks up with versaphile and the two establish a relationship. Post-ConneXions, things go swimmingly for a little while, with both people posting in LJ about how hopeful they are. However, VB is angsting over the fact that she'll have to break her no-longer-deniable gayness to her best friend & sweetheart, aylnon. aylnon is an Australian guy who apparently lives in Virginia, as does VB's family - and who'd already asked her to marry him.

The relationship drama begins:
Then VB starts posting that her parents have found out about this because aylnon betrayed her to them. They think she's crazy and might want to put her away. For being gay and a slasher, she implies. Or possibly for not taking the little pills that she's on to "sort out her head"...

Relationship-wise, VB starts disappearing from IM and not answering e-mails and generally avoiding Versaphile. Finally Versaphile arranges to drive out several states away to see her; VB avoids her for a day, finally meets up, gives some story about having to get away from her parents, and they agree to try to keep the relationship going - as long as VB will be honest. Ahem. Less than a month later, VB gives Versaphile the "I'm so fucked up; you don't deserve someone as messed up as me" speech (possibly one of the only verifiably true things she's said in the whole saga) and calls things off.

In which hobbits are channeled:
Meanwhile, VB has been writing in her LJ about how maybe she *is* going crazy, because she's been channeling the spirit of a long-dead hobbit. And not just any hobbit - she's channeling Merriadoc Brandybuck. Under his original non-anglicized name, whatever it was. She acknowledges that the LOTR hobbits are supposed to be fictional - she doesn't understand why she's getting his dreams and his automatic writing, or "learning" his language which is, according to her, Westron. That's right: the ancient tongue of Middle Earth.

A bunch of people of varying gullibility levels start following it and playing along; VB even makes an LJ for "him". One friend of mpoetess was monitoring it because of the language thing - said friend actually did make a study of Tolkien's invented languages, and said what VB was writing was nothing Tolkien had created. Despite that, some of the more imaginative or less loosely connected to reality people start learning it from her.

Enter an important new character in the drama:
Enter Orangeblossom (henceforth OB), another LOTR person who is married to a guy she's nicknamed Strider. VB and OB knew each other as co-founders of Bitofearth.net, a popular LOTR fansite heavily dedicated to Sam and Sean Astin, and also the web presence of the Bit of Earth nonprofit project. The site is now dead from coke, but the madness lives on in the archives of its defunct LiveJournal community.

OB buys *way* into the hobbitwank. She was one of the ones who was trying to learn the language from VB so they could speak it together, and she possibly thought she was a reincarnation/channeler too. This becomes important because after VB plays the "I'm too screwed up for a relationship, you don't deserve my crap" card with Versaphile, she almost immediately starts dating OB. Assuming it wasn't happening on the side already. Says cimorene111: "I think they had a little somethin' going on for a long time. It's my understanding that they had a great kiss at a con and decided to sacrifice the love that could be because OB was married, and just be friends."

At some point during the madness, OB gets a divorce from Strider. From cimorene111 & anonymouse: "She makes a post implying that he stole money from her. (Which, given everything that's happened with VB since, makes me suspect that he was either set up by VB or conveniently placed to take the fall by VB. Either way, OB was probably too into it all to see through it at that point.) OB then writes about how she had thought she knew him, and now that something THIS HORRIBLE had happened, her eyes were opened and she was grieving because HE WAS NOT THE PERSON SHE THOUGHT HE WAS."

Because it wouldn't be wank without MsA:
Some time later, VB plans a trip to Portland to see OB and msallegro, she who is princess of the Domlijah wank. VB chronicles the trip in her now-defunct LJ, reporting that they meet up and watch Goonies and squee and go on some sort of pilgrimage or other to shooting sites. Says msallegro here: "That was the first (and only) time I met them. It was not, I'm sorry to say, a pleasant experience. Amy had several freakout moments. Like, manic, complete, near-seizure freaking out over various things, and both of them spent most of the time talking to each other in something they called Westron (which I don't think actually exists) and deciding that LOTR actually happened (I guess apparently the Shire was supposed to be ancient Hungary and Rivendell was Finland?) and implying that they were the reincarnation of Sam and Frodo."

Around this time, OB and VB start analyzing publicity photos and decide that Elijah Wood is losing weight. They conclude that he's seriously depressed and since OB has connections to Sean Astin through Bit of Earth, she mentions this to him. Then the fun begins: OB starts claiming that after that conversation, Sean Astin gave Elijah her phone number and that Elijah called her. OB and Elijah suddenly become great friends and confidantes - he flies her up to Washington at his expense to have dinner with him when he was there in a break from promotions. Says OB, "I can't tell anyone cause they wouldn't believe me!" Ahem. Then a new LiveJournal named padawans appears on the scene. It's an "incognito" journal for Elijah, and only a select few are in the know about Padawan's "real" identity, although the journal constantly dropped hints about it (such as music that he liked).

Because of this, VB and OB are now possessors of the Truth about Elijah Wood & Dominic Monahan: Elijah and Dom are dating, but contrary to msallegro's constant speculation, they aren't being forced into the closet by New Line because of teh gay - rather, their relationship is taboo because all LOTR actors are under contract with New Line to not date co-stars until ROTK is out. (At one point, OB reports that Elijah wanted to sue MsA, but was afraid it would only further fan the rumors.) Elijah had become depressed, as VB & OB had speculated, because he missed Dom and was in denial, but at the FOTR premiere suddenly realized his true feelings. Now they're living happily together as lifemates.

After several months of being Best Gay Friends with OB and communicating with her LJ friends via padawans, Elijah makes a graceful exit from the internet. He claims he got spooked that someone might figure out who he was, and deletes his journal. However, just before this happens, OB confides to ninglor that VB has been channeling Elijah's living spirit - Padawans was, in fact, really VB writing on his behalf.

Then VB also disappears from the web, posting "Goodbye fandom, I have known thee well" in LJ and shutting up shop. Or so we thought.

And now for the kiddie porn:
Silence, silence, all is silence for months. Then Versaphile posts an Elijah Wood AU manip in her LJ. It's a BDSM pic where he's supposed to look "consensually ravished" but he looks rather young, and quite a few people are squicked. As is their prerogative. However, it was made from a screencap of a 14- or 15-year-old Elijah Wood (who is now well over-age) and the body of an adult (twink) model. So no matter what the fictional implications of the picture might be, no minors were harmed in the making of this movie, thank you, please drive on through.

There are a bunch of comments, some serious discussion but nothing that gets too flame-y, and Versaphile actually does make some changes because she doesn't want it to look *too* young. Then she gets a post from misterfrodo (LJ deleted) who is incensed, and says he's reporting her not only to LJ, but to the national FBI database for child pornography TIPS hotline.

Bunches of people point out that there is no actual child involved, so good luck with that one - but of course Versaphile is freaked, though she was dealing pretty well with it. LJ does ask her to remove the pic, and she complies. Mr. Frodo, however, is not satisfied at all. And who should show up to defend him - and overdefensively correct the mistaken assumption that Mr. Frodo was a girl? Orangeblossom. (LJ also deleted, but it used to be orangeblossomb.)

The gender wars:
Later that day or maybe the next, someone slips the word to Versaphile that Mr. Frodo is actually VB, the ex who never entirely disappears. Ah ha, some sort of an explanation for the vehement defensiveness on the part of OB, and the level of Elijah-protecting insanity of Mr. Frodo. OB shows up again a few comments later in the original picture post to state that "SOMEBODY appears to have a bad case of Ex Girlfriend, and now everything makes sense", and she's here to set the record straight: Mr. Frodo (who is the new treasurer at Bit of Earth, having taken the place of - wait for it - VB, but that's a Complete Coincidence) IS NOT VB.

Yes, VB did come out to live with OB in Oregon, but VB was depressed and some time before had committed suicide. Mr. Frodo is definitely a man (which OB can attest to having slept with him that night and been brushed by his Very Real Cock Thank You as he got out of bed that morning) and she doesn't appreciate her dead ex-girlfriend being labeled as her current and very live boyfriend.

All hell breaks loose, of course. It's all over the lost Blurty version of Fandom Wank, and their supporters are either backpedaling or staunchly trying to defend them. Then someone finds a picture of "Mr. Frodo" that OB had posted in her own LJ recently, then had mysteriously deleted. Everyone promptly responds, "Hey - it's VB with a buzz cut and blue contacts."

After MUCH wanking here, there, everywhere, Mr. Frodo deletes "his" LJ, having never said much about the whole thing "himself." And after several days of arguing and lying and still claiming Mr. Frodo is a man "but I can never prove it to you people - even if I scanned his driver's license you'd say it was faked", OB deletes hers as well.

Man, I feel like a woman:
Eventually it surfaces that Mr. Frodo/VB is now going by Jordan Wood, and living as a man on the west coast - and engaged to OB. Then it comes out that VB claims/various personages have reported that s/he's not simply FTM transgender - she's growing a miracle!penis (aka IntelliCock) and *actually* turning into a man. And that man...is Elijah Wood. She's channeling his spirit, even though he's still alive, and this has been going on since the padawans incident. (Jordan, BTW, is Elijah Wood's middle name.) More pics surface, and yes, it's still VB in boy's clothes and blue contacts.

We learn that VB's family back in Virginia are searching for her when her face turns up on the side of a milk carton. Fandom folks report that VB (Amy Player) and OB (Abigail "Abby" Stone) have now moved from Oregon to California and are living in Los Angeles with one of their victims friends, Cherie (diamondtook).

The Bit of Earth scandal breaks:
Shortly thereafter, it comes to light that VB and OB have been pocketing a lot of the cash donated to the Bit of Earth charity, especially that donated for TentMoot. It's been cataloged quite thoroughly by turimel, who was taken for at least $10,000 by VB & OB. After many months of this, VB and OB send Turmiel a fake Cease & Desist letter in a bizarre attempt to stop the investigation. Bonus: they CC it to the entire cast of LOTR! Among those "harmed" by Turmiel to whom she must send a written retraction/apology? Leonard Nimoy, Weird Al Yankovic, and EVERY user of JournalFen.

Then VB is busted in Oregon for identity theft. Says turimel here: "I believe that Detective Myers [of the Marion County Sheriffs Department] caught Amy with a fake driver's license that she prepared for herself with the name Jordan Wood, and tried to get some credit cards and other official document/ID type stuff in that name. So it wasn't so much a theft of a real person, as an assumption of a fake identity. I think. (The detective hasn't told me exactly what he has planned for the charges. We'll all find that out at the arraignment.) The pathetic thing is that if she'd LEGALLY changed her name to Jordan Wood, she wouldn't be in any trouble right now...well, at least not with the Sheriff, anyway."

At last, we can retire and give up this life of crime:
In June of 2004, wacky_crack spots the Dynamic Duo in LA in costume! This time, Elijah Jordan Frodo Amy's dressed up as Harry Potter. Says rhi_silverflame: "THAT was who the people in line in front of me were talking about?!? I was all the way around the corner up the street near the end of the line, listening to people talk about somebody, they couldn't tell whether it was a girl or a guy, dressed up as Harry up front." In October 2005, a Wall Street Journal article appears talking about the Hollywood Boulevard street workers who dress up as movie characters and take photos with tourists for tips. oulangi confirms that the actors mentioned in the article who are dressed as Princess Fiona and Puss 'N Boots (from Shrek) are OB and VB respectively.

Nearly two years later, VB resurfaces, this time using the LJ amy_player (VB's real name). S/he posts a really long spiel attempting to explain all the crazy. The post can best be summarized as "I was trans and didn't know it (omg my pain), got sucked into online fandom (omg slash), became divorced from reality (omg I'm a Rare Lesbian Paladin), and ran off screaming into the night with all your money. Um, sorry about that?" Although this latest story does seem to explain All That Shit Wot Went Down rather well, many remain skeptical that s/he has reformed. This is somewhat understandable given that VB seems to feel s/he's only required to pay back SOME of the money taken from Bit of Earth. (Apparently, losing your money to a scam charity is just a bad investment and not VB's fault.) However, turimel and others are allegedly being paid back.


Feel free to jump in and add details! New info will be added to the main entry as needed. ETA: Broken links removed and LJ links updated to use subdomains.