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1character2026-05-12 02:49 pm
but_can_i_be_trusted) wrote in 1character2026-05-12 02:49 pm
You've got to Walk Right Through that Fire (50 Sentences About Phoebe Buffay)
Character: Phoebe Buffay
Fandom: Friends
Theme set: Beta
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some troubling concepts; very brief mention of canon seminudity.
Notes: Crossposted tolyricaltitles
#01 - Package: Phoebe likes to think that she's the total package: Looks and brains, even if she's more street-smart than book-smart.
#02 - Obscure: What she lacks in a school education, she makes up for in more obscure awareness, knowing how to survive.
#03 - Skeleton: She knows all too well the horror stories that can come about when someone lives on the streets; she's known some of those horror stories personally, seen acquaintances reduced to rotting skeletons for the police to file away as just another homeless person to become yet another cold case file to ignore as quickly as possible, so they can devote their efforts to people who, in their eyes, are more worth investigating.
#04 - Nurse: Holding the newborn triplets in her arms, Phoebe knows deep down that this may be the greatest thing she'll ever do; but giving birth to them doesn't make them hers; her brother and sister-in-law have been so patient waiting for the months to pass, and she knows that it's a rewarding thing to act as their surrogate; but she's not sure what's going to nurse her heart back to normal after handing the babies over to their actual parents.
#05 - Domino: She sometimes wonders how she became friends with the people she cares about; after what she's been through, watching their lives going through a domino effect of normalcy is bizarre.
#06 - Thaw: She wanted to believe that Alice was all wrong for Frank; as his older sister, Phoebe wants to be protective of him; but, seeing how strong his passion and pain are, she can't help but thaw to the idea that Frank might actually be in love with Alice, and that the feeling is equally powerful.
#07 - Waves: She's aware of the fact that there are people out there who are afraid of making waves; but, as a survivor, she knows that there are times when waves have to be made.
#08 - Burglar: Due to spending much of her youth living in the streets, Phoebe has a feeling that she might be the safest woman in New York; many muggers, burglars, and bag-ladies are people she either grew up alongside, or else met merely in passing during those formative years; due to that experience, she knows who to avoid, and whose good side to stay on.
#09 - Frame: Finding out that the men in all of her supposed family photographs aren't her father, but rather of some generic male model, Phoebe finds herself wondering what else her grandmother may have lied to her about.
#10 - Carpet: Walls, carpeting, sturdy glass windows and wooden doors...after scrounging for scraps, and huddling in doorways and on park benches, Phoebe's sure that she'll never, ever fail to appreciate how good it is to have a home to go to.
#11 - Insect: Some people treat formerly homeless individuals like they're less than insects underfoot; Phoebe's met several such people, and she's grateful that she has such a large group of friends who don't look down on her past; instead, they genuinely respect her for surviving.
#12 - Mentor: Phoebe doesn't have a mentor, per se; doesn't feel that she needs one; she walked herself through Hell with no one to hold her hand.
#13 - Spirit: Phoebe likes to believe that she has a spirit that just can't be broken; she's been through the fire more times than she can count, and still manages to feel optimistic about life, finding beauty and joy in what others might consider the strangest things.
#14 - Wax: Sometimes she wonders if her sister didn't perhaps jinx her into the rougher side of her life when they were kids, sticking needles into wax dolls to try to get rid of the competition that siblings always form.
#15 - Trash: She tries not to rub her past in the others' faces; but sometimes she has to remind her friends that she didn't have the comfortable life they did; she envies them, and she hopes they'll never have to face survival by scrounging in the trash as she once had to do.
#16 - Womb: She'd known, when she agreed to be a surrogate for Frank and Alice, that she was going to be dealing with a lot...but for her womb to be so hospitable as to play host to triplets...that's far more than she'd bargained for.
#17 - Burn: Phoebe hates losing Rachel as a roommate after her apartment almost burned down; but the repairs left the place with no extra space; plus, it was Rachel's carelessness with her own hair straightener that caused the fire, so perhaps it's Karmic justice.
#18 - Flash: Their Thanksgiving football game having turned abruptly into a battle of the sexes is quite a surprise; but getting to use her own femininity as a weapon by flashing a clearly appreciatively dazed Chandler is a troublingly fun way to cheat.
#19 - Anima: She'd thought that David was the one for her, even with his scientific missions out of the country; but when she meets Mike, and inwardly compares the pair of them, he seems so much more the animus to her anima that she knows he's the better man for her to love.
#20 - Gamble: Of everyone in her group of friends, Phoebe knows better than any of them just how much of a gamble life can truly be; yes, Rachel took a hell of a chance running out of her own wedding and giving up a life of privilege; and Ross might be determined to play Wedding Roulette; but they come from much less...scruffy backgrounds than she does.
#21 - Statue: Everyone always makes fun of the statues in the park for being so good at attracting pigeons and the messes they make; but Phoebe knows that, on a cold night, even a pigeon-polluted statue can be a good shelter.
#22 - Perfume: Sometimes, she sees Rachel as very much a spoiled princess, losing herself in makeup and fashion and finery; back in the day, Phoebe was grateful to be able to spruce herself up with the fragrance samples in thrown-out magazines.
#23 - Wine: Her past on the streets, she knows, could have gone much worse; when she sees winos who are barely even conscious, huddling against New York's colder weather, she's glad that those days are far behind her, and that she didn't lose herself in alcohol in order to cope.
#24 - Reflection: Her reflection in the mirror might look pretty and reasonably serene; but it's that of a survivor.
#25 - Take: She could take a bow for putting her life together, once she's off the streets; she's lived through that nightmare, and will never take for granted any roof that's over her head.
#26 - Magic: After all that she's been through in life, Phoebe's determined to believe in the unconventional, including, but not limited to, magic; there must be magic in the world, to make spending her formative years living on the streets worth having endured.
#27 - Fragment: Occasionally, Phoebe entertains the idea of writing her autobiography; but mere fragments of her past are startling enough to the people she cares about; she doubts that they could handle it, in its entirety.
#28 - Cats and Dogs: As much as she treasures her friendship with Ross, Phoebe knows that they'll probably always fight like cats and dogs, so different are their ideologies; he's so pedantic in his scientific approach, while she refuses to give up on more esoteric ideas.
#29 - Hum: Phoebe hums to herself, scribbling in a notebook, while occasionally strumming idle notes on her guitar; the Muse is holding her by the throat, demanding a new song.
#30 - Flinch: There are times when Phoebe's almost sorry that she has no filter; at the same time, though, it can be kind of funny to watch total strangers flinch when she starts acting what regular people call weird.
#31 - Rush: Pretending to be her own sister in order to let Joey down gently about Ursula's lack of genuine interest in him didn't quite go according to plan...but the kiss he gave her when he was still convinced that it was Ursula he was talking to...what a rush!
#32 - Jester: She's certain of what her own past lives contained, but her friends' past existences are a mystery to her; but she's willing to bet that Chandler was once a court jester centuries ago...and one who probably ticked off the monarch he was supposed to be amusing.
#33 - Haven: Phoebe had thought that she'd finally found a haven when she met and moved in with Monica, and then again when she shared her grandmother's apartment; but being loved by, and loving, Mike Hannigan is a kind of shelter that her heart never imagined.
#34 - Dusk: Dusk has fallen on all of the eclectic rings that Phoebe's cluttered her fingers with over the years; now that Mike's proposed to her, only one ring matters to her, now.
#35 - Chord: Maybe she can't identify every chord of music; and maybe her songs will never be Billboard hits; but, regardless, Phoebe considers her guitar to be her most treasured possession; whether she's talented or not, it's good to have a creative outlet.
#36 - Indulgence: Occasionally, she wishes that Monica would quit whining about ever having been overweight; Phoebe knows too well what it's like for the mere scent of a candy bar on a discarded wrapper to be a delightful indulgence.
#37 - Freezer: As a vegetarian, when she lived with Monica, there were many times when Phoebe felt tempted to throw out all the meat in Monica's freezer; but she always thought better of it, knowing it wasn't her place, or her freezer; plus, with Monica being a chef, she'd naturally need to occasionally experiment with new recipes.
#38 - Passage: She hopes that the passing of time has made her appreciative of everything she has, after having had nothing for so long.
#39 - Coast: It's not an easy living, coasting on her massage skills; but it's reasonably steady work.
#40 - Keepsake: Phoebe knows that she should throw out the keepsakes that she retains from her homeless existence; but they're a reminder of how low she fell, and of how determined she is to never be in that position again.
#41 - Morbid: In her eyes, Ross having a degree pertaining to dead things is...somewhat morbid; but, then, she can communicate to some degree with ghosts, so she doesn't see too much of a difference, there.
#42 - Shipwreck: She feels shipwrecked when her namesake reveals herself as her true birth mother; everything that Phoebe's ever known about her life is suddenly turned upside-down so drastically that she hardly knows what to think.
#43 - Socks: It took a long time for Phoebe to see socks without holes as something perfectly normal, instead of a not-dreamed-of luxury; some scars take longer than others to heal, when they're soul-deep.
#44 - Sand: It bothers her to see her friends consuming meat, but she's glad that they all respect the line she's drawn in the sand between them and herself; she might be vocal about her opposition to their dietary choices, but at least they don't try to get her to join them.
#45 - Coin: There was a time when coins thrown into a fountain were what kept her going; other peoples' idle wishes would sometimes line her stomach with much-needed nourishment; the temptation still exists, now and then, to retrieve a shining quarter when some stranger chucks it in.
#46 - Guile: She's grateful that it's possible to look exactly identical to someone else, while still remaining an entirely different person; Ursula might be her older twin sister, but she's so filled with selfishness and guile that Phoebe knows she'd never be able to stand having that kind of spirit.
#47 - Eyelash: Phoebe can hardly believe it when she overhears Mike declaring his love for her to his stuffy parents; he doesn't even bat an eyelash in the face of their perturbation; she never thought she'd be loved that much, by anyone.
#48 - Drive: The fact that she's craving meat while pregnant is driving Phoebe up the wall; having to act on that craving, when she's such a strict vegetarian, means that her Karmic balance is being undermined.
#49 - Net: Surrounded by people who've had more normal lives, she sometimes feels like a fish out of water...or, more accurately, like a mermaid caught in a fisherman's net.
#50 - Destination: In all of the twists and turns of her life, Phoebe feels that she's finally reaching her true destination as she walks up the aisle to where Mike waits to marry her; she's had a confusing family life, has struggled to survive...but, at long last, she's about to have the stability that she never realized she craved.
Fandom: Friends
Theme set: Beta
Rating: PG
Warnings: Some troubling concepts; very brief mention of canon seminudity.
Notes: Crossposted to
lyricaltitles#01 - Package: Phoebe likes to think that she's the total package: Looks and brains, even if she's more street-smart than book-smart.
#02 - Obscure: What she lacks in a school education, she makes up for in more obscure awareness, knowing how to survive.
#03 - Skeleton: She knows all too well the horror stories that can come about when someone lives on the streets; she's known some of those horror stories personally, seen acquaintances reduced to rotting skeletons for the police to file away as just another homeless person to become yet another cold case file to ignore as quickly as possible, so they can devote their efforts to people who, in their eyes, are more worth investigating.
#04 - Nurse: Holding the newborn triplets in her arms, Phoebe knows deep down that this may be the greatest thing she'll ever do; but giving birth to them doesn't make them hers; her brother and sister-in-law have been so patient waiting for the months to pass, and she knows that it's a rewarding thing to act as their surrogate; but she's not sure what's going to nurse her heart back to normal after handing the babies over to their actual parents.
#05 - Domino: She sometimes wonders how she became friends with the people she cares about; after what she's been through, watching their lives going through a domino effect of normalcy is bizarre.
#06 - Thaw: She wanted to believe that Alice was all wrong for Frank; as his older sister, Phoebe wants to be protective of him; but, seeing how strong his passion and pain are, she can't help but thaw to the idea that Frank might actually be in love with Alice, and that the feeling is equally powerful.
#07 - Waves: She's aware of the fact that there are people out there who are afraid of making waves; but, as a survivor, she knows that there are times when waves have to be made.
#08 - Burglar: Due to spending much of her youth living in the streets, Phoebe has a feeling that she might be the safest woman in New York; many muggers, burglars, and bag-ladies are people she either grew up alongside, or else met merely in passing during those formative years; due to that experience, she knows who to avoid, and whose good side to stay on.
#09 - Frame: Finding out that the men in all of her supposed family photographs aren't her father, but rather of some generic male model, Phoebe finds herself wondering what else her grandmother may have lied to her about.
#10 - Carpet: Walls, carpeting, sturdy glass windows and wooden doors...after scrounging for scraps, and huddling in doorways and on park benches, Phoebe's sure that she'll never, ever fail to appreciate how good it is to have a home to go to.
#11 - Insect: Some people treat formerly homeless individuals like they're less than insects underfoot; Phoebe's met several such people, and she's grateful that she has such a large group of friends who don't look down on her past; instead, they genuinely respect her for surviving.
#12 - Mentor: Phoebe doesn't have a mentor, per se; doesn't feel that she needs one; she walked herself through Hell with no one to hold her hand.
#13 - Spirit: Phoebe likes to believe that she has a spirit that just can't be broken; she's been through the fire more times than she can count, and still manages to feel optimistic about life, finding beauty and joy in what others might consider the strangest things.
#14 - Wax: Sometimes she wonders if her sister didn't perhaps jinx her into the rougher side of her life when they were kids, sticking needles into wax dolls to try to get rid of the competition that siblings always form.
#15 - Trash: She tries not to rub her past in the others' faces; but sometimes she has to remind her friends that she didn't have the comfortable life they did; she envies them, and she hopes they'll never have to face survival by scrounging in the trash as she once had to do.
#16 - Womb: She'd known, when she agreed to be a surrogate for Frank and Alice, that she was going to be dealing with a lot...but for her womb to be so hospitable as to play host to triplets...that's far more than she'd bargained for.
#17 - Burn: Phoebe hates losing Rachel as a roommate after her apartment almost burned down; but the repairs left the place with no extra space; plus, it was Rachel's carelessness with her own hair straightener that caused the fire, so perhaps it's Karmic justice.
#18 - Flash: Their Thanksgiving football game having turned abruptly into a battle of the sexes is quite a surprise; but getting to use her own femininity as a weapon by flashing a clearly appreciatively dazed Chandler is a troublingly fun way to cheat.
#19 - Anima: She'd thought that David was the one for her, even with his scientific missions out of the country; but when she meets Mike, and inwardly compares the pair of them, he seems so much more the animus to her anima that she knows he's the better man for her to love.
#20 - Gamble: Of everyone in her group of friends, Phoebe knows better than any of them just how much of a gamble life can truly be; yes, Rachel took a hell of a chance running out of her own wedding and giving up a life of privilege; and Ross might be determined to play Wedding Roulette; but they come from much less...scruffy backgrounds than she does.
#21 - Statue: Everyone always makes fun of the statues in the park for being so good at attracting pigeons and the messes they make; but Phoebe knows that, on a cold night, even a pigeon-polluted statue can be a good shelter.
#22 - Perfume: Sometimes, she sees Rachel as very much a spoiled princess, losing herself in makeup and fashion and finery; back in the day, Phoebe was grateful to be able to spruce herself up with the fragrance samples in thrown-out magazines.
#23 - Wine: Her past on the streets, she knows, could have gone much worse; when she sees winos who are barely even conscious, huddling against New York's colder weather, she's glad that those days are far behind her, and that she didn't lose herself in alcohol in order to cope.
#24 - Reflection: Her reflection in the mirror might look pretty and reasonably serene; but it's that of a survivor.
#25 - Take: She could take a bow for putting her life together, once she's off the streets; she's lived through that nightmare, and will never take for granted any roof that's over her head.
#26 - Magic: After all that she's been through in life, Phoebe's determined to believe in the unconventional, including, but not limited to, magic; there must be magic in the world, to make spending her formative years living on the streets worth having endured.
#27 - Fragment: Occasionally, Phoebe entertains the idea of writing her autobiography; but mere fragments of her past are startling enough to the people she cares about; she doubts that they could handle it, in its entirety.
#28 - Cats and Dogs: As much as she treasures her friendship with Ross, Phoebe knows that they'll probably always fight like cats and dogs, so different are their ideologies; he's so pedantic in his scientific approach, while she refuses to give up on more esoteric ideas.
#29 - Hum: Phoebe hums to herself, scribbling in a notebook, while occasionally strumming idle notes on her guitar; the Muse is holding her by the throat, demanding a new song.
#30 - Flinch: There are times when Phoebe's almost sorry that she has no filter; at the same time, though, it can be kind of funny to watch total strangers flinch when she starts acting what regular people call weird.
#31 - Rush: Pretending to be her own sister in order to let Joey down gently about Ursula's lack of genuine interest in him didn't quite go according to plan...but the kiss he gave her when he was still convinced that it was Ursula he was talking to...what a rush!
#32 - Jester: She's certain of what her own past lives contained, but her friends' past existences are a mystery to her; but she's willing to bet that Chandler was once a court jester centuries ago...and one who probably ticked off the monarch he was supposed to be amusing.
#33 - Haven: Phoebe had thought that she'd finally found a haven when she met and moved in with Monica, and then again when she shared her grandmother's apartment; but being loved by, and loving, Mike Hannigan is a kind of shelter that her heart never imagined.
#34 - Dusk: Dusk has fallen on all of the eclectic rings that Phoebe's cluttered her fingers with over the years; now that Mike's proposed to her, only one ring matters to her, now.
#35 - Chord: Maybe she can't identify every chord of music; and maybe her songs will never be Billboard hits; but, regardless, Phoebe considers her guitar to be her most treasured possession; whether she's talented or not, it's good to have a creative outlet.
#36 - Indulgence: Occasionally, she wishes that Monica would quit whining about ever having been overweight; Phoebe knows too well what it's like for the mere scent of a candy bar on a discarded wrapper to be a delightful indulgence.
#37 - Freezer: As a vegetarian, when she lived with Monica, there were many times when Phoebe felt tempted to throw out all the meat in Monica's freezer; but she always thought better of it, knowing it wasn't her place, or her freezer; plus, with Monica being a chef, she'd naturally need to occasionally experiment with new recipes.
#38 - Passage: She hopes that the passing of time has made her appreciative of everything she has, after having had nothing for so long.
#39 - Coast: It's not an easy living, coasting on her massage skills; but it's reasonably steady work.
#40 - Keepsake: Phoebe knows that she should throw out the keepsakes that she retains from her homeless existence; but they're a reminder of how low she fell, and of how determined she is to never be in that position again.
#41 - Morbid: In her eyes, Ross having a degree pertaining to dead things is...somewhat morbid; but, then, she can communicate to some degree with ghosts, so she doesn't see too much of a difference, there.
#42 - Shipwreck: She feels shipwrecked when her namesake reveals herself as her true birth mother; everything that Phoebe's ever known about her life is suddenly turned upside-down so drastically that she hardly knows what to think.
#43 - Socks: It took a long time for Phoebe to see socks without holes as something perfectly normal, instead of a not-dreamed-of luxury; some scars take longer than others to heal, when they're soul-deep.
#44 - Sand: It bothers her to see her friends consuming meat, but she's glad that they all respect the line she's drawn in the sand between them and herself; she might be vocal about her opposition to their dietary choices, but at least they don't try to get her to join them.
#45 - Coin: There was a time when coins thrown into a fountain were what kept her going; other peoples' idle wishes would sometimes line her stomach with much-needed nourishment; the temptation still exists, now and then, to retrieve a shining quarter when some stranger chucks it in.
#46 - Guile: She's grateful that it's possible to look exactly identical to someone else, while still remaining an entirely different person; Ursula might be her older twin sister, but she's so filled with selfishness and guile that Phoebe knows she'd never be able to stand having that kind of spirit.
#47 - Eyelash: Phoebe can hardly believe it when she overhears Mike declaring his love for her to his stuffy parents; he doesn't even bat an eyelash in the face of their perturbation; she never thought she'd be loved that much, by anyone.
#48 - Drive: The fact that she's craving meat while pregnant is driving Phoebe up the wall; having to act on that craving, when she's such a strict vegetarian, means that her Karmic balance is being undermined.
#49 - Net: Surrounded by people who've had more normal lives, she sometimes feels like a fish out of water...or, more accurately, like a mermaid caught in a fisherman's net.
#50 - Destination: In all of the twists and turns of her life, Phoebe feels that she's finally reaching her true destination as she walks up the aisle to where Mike waits to marry her; she's had a confusing family life, has struggled to survive...but, at long last, she's about to have the stability that she never realized she craved.