#starhab

[mossy-rainfrog]

Ahab alone is enough to die.

[ID: A digital illustration for Moby Dick, based on the Twelfth Night Anne Hathaway photoshoot. Captain Ahab stands in the center, looking horrified as Starbuck, Fedallah, and Pip all grasp at him from different angles. All characters are tangled in a bright red harpoon line, except for Ahab, who is unharmed. Starbuck’s right hand holds the end of the harpoon line, with a heavy, sharp dart on the end, and the cord wraps around his hand and then throat as he leans in to kiss Ahab with a hand under his chin. Ahab’s eyes and mouth are open, as if he has been caught off guard, and he stares at Starbuck with a devastated concern. A bright red crown sits atop Ahab’s head and bleeds onto his face and collar. A drop of blood rests on Starbuck’s chin. The harpoon line passes in front of Ahab’s chest, and is grabbed by Fedallah, who holds the cord close to his chest, and buries his face in Ahab’s shoulder with an anguished expression. The line is tangled around Fedallah the most; wrapping twice around his neck and tangled all over his chest. With his free hand, Fedallah grasps onto Ahab’s waist. The line finally wraps around Pip, who is clinging to Ahab’s sleeve, and pulling at the line in front of Ahab’s chest. Pip’s mouth is open as if he is calling out, and the harpoon line circles around his shoulders, and finally hangs from his arm. Behind all of the characters looms the massive shape of the whale, Moby-Dick. Moby-Dick’s skin is wrinkled and scarred, and one massive eye stares down at the scene before him.

The next three images are all closeups of the drawing.

Character designs: Ahab is a large Arab man with short, curly, dark, greying hair, a pointed beard, and scars across the bridge of his nose, and over his lip. He wears a long, maroon coat with gold buttons. Starbuck is a thin white man with short red hair, a short mustache, and many freckles. He wears a dark waistcoat over a white shirt. Fedallah is a thin Persian man with a mustache and short beard. He wears a white turban and a dark long shirt. Pip is a teenaged Black boy with short curly hair, and he wears a light colored shirt. End ID.]

the ID for this is long enough already, so I’ll keep this brief, but hi I have spent weeks on this piece and it genuinely feels like a magnum opus or something. this is possibly my favorite thing I’ve drawn all year. designs as always from the delightful @pocketsizedquasar ‘s Moby Dick comic!

anyways I am constantly anguishing about the fact that Ahab thinks of himself as the lone sacrifice in his doomed journey, the one “enough to die”, but in reality, everyone who loves him, who tries to save him, faces his punishment first. Ahab ISN’T alone, despite what he thinks, and that connection directly gets the three closest people in his life killed. how am i ever supposed to recover from that.

[pocketsizedquasar]

the THING. the thing the thing the thing. the thing about ahab and starbuck. is that to each other. starbuck is devotion without trust. and ahab is trust without devotion.

starbuck is SO devoted to ahab. like, unhealthily devoted to him. like “some ineffable thing has tied me to him; tows me with a cable I have no knife to cut” devoted to him. like “I misdoubt me that I disobey my God in obeying him!” devoted; like “stares down the barrel of ahab’s gun pointed at him and keeps his cool” devoted to him, like “recognizes that the only way home to his family, home to his wife and child, is by refusing ahab, and yet still he chooses ahab, chooses him over and over again over himself, over his crew, over his own survival, over his own God, chooses his captain over his wife and his child and making it home to them” devoted to him. over everything, starbuck chooses ahab.

but he doesn’t trust him. of course he doesn’t; why would he? he’s no reason to trust him; he knows ahab is going to lead them all to their deaths no matter what starbuck says. he tries and tries and tries over and over again to get ahab to turn around and it’s never enough.

and ahab. ahab trusts starbuck--as much as he can trust anyone. that trust is not always there -- especially not at the beginning; it grows throughout the book. starbuck is truly the only one on this boat with the means to stop ahab, and he knows it. ahab wants him on his side, spends time winning him over, is pleased when he thinks it’s worked -- “starbuck is now mine” (gay as hell to--). but even then, there is a level of trust there -- stubb talks back to ahab and he immedediately and commandingly shuts that shit down, but starbuck? ahab listens to him. even changes his mind for him in certain places, listening to starbuck over his own wants. immediately after holding him at gunpoint (lmao) he gives in to starbuck’s request because he knows he’s right. “thou art but too good a fellow, starbuck.” and in the very end, when he needs help to be hoisted up into the rigging because he is unable to make it up on his own with his prosthetic, ahab decides to trust starbuck with his life over everyone else -- over the harpooners, over fedallah, over everyone -- to hold the line that would keep him alive: “Take the rope, sir—I give it into thy hands, Starbuck.” starbuck could easily kill him here -- let go of the rope and send him plunging 100 feet to a shattered death on the deck of the pequod, and ahab trusts him with his life. take my life, starbuck; i’m putting it in your hands. he trusts starbuck to stay on the ship while he goes off to hunt the white whale.

but still, still, ahab does not truly ever choose starbuck. he cares for him, certainly -- he wants starbuck to stay on the ship and be safe while he goes off -- but still, ahab chooses his vengeance over him. he trusts starbuck enough to see god in his eyes, trusts him enough to lean against him for support, to let starbuck physically hold him up when his leg is snapped, trusts him enough to gaze into his eyes and lean in his arms and ask him to brush the hair from his tired wrinkled brow and still still still still doesn’t choose him. starbuck chooses ahab over everything and ahab chooses his iron-railed path over starbuck. “What is it, what nameless, inscrutable, unearthly thing is it; what cozening, hidden lord and master, and cruel, remorseless emperor commands me; that against all natural lovings and longings, I so keep pushing?”

devotion without trust. i will follow you into the hell i know you’re bringing us to. i will hold your life in my hands. even though i cannot trust you to protect me and do right by me and our crew. trust without devotion. i will put my life in your hands. i will trust you with everything i have. even though i cannot choose you over the fate i was assigned.

im mentally unwell about them.

[coulson-is-an-avenger]

I'm still not over Ahab getting up in front of God and his entire crew and looking at his first mate and saying "Starbuck I've felt strangely drawn to you since we saw... you know what... in each other's eyes" like????????????? canonically he fucking canonically says "you know what". what the shit where am I. what is going on. it's 1851 how are there so many gay people in this boat

[umarthiels]

shipmates is it gay for you to keep your magnet to your first mate's brain? for his body and will to be yours?

[imsorryimlate]

[ubyr-babaj]

Anyway, does anyone remember the "Moby Dick" opera and whatever the fuck it did with Starhab. Does anyone.

[skullmalice]

Concept to hold y'all over

Ahab and Starbuck look at each other for a bit until Ahab slowly leans in to kiss the other man. Starbuck's heart sunk in shock, but felt the conflicting energy in his gut churn inside him. Ahab pulled away to meet him with a subtle, cocky grin.

Starbuck pulled Ahab into another kiss as they both embraced each other into one.

[the-queer-classic-lit-ship-ever]

round 2, part c

[kafkastan]

♫ Starbuck!

bit of a starhab response so hopefully you don’t mind that.....i blame @starbuck for this one

[incorrect-mobydick-quotes-blog]

me all day: i am very SAD about starhab, what a serious and tragic pairing

me at 12 am: draw the otp memes........

[ravensandstarsss]

My Askbox is open for fanfic prompts!

I am really inspired and ready to write some little fics, so if you have an idea or a prompt please send it to my askbox, I would really appreciate it!

[mossy-rainfrog]

[ID: A digital, full-body illustration of Captain Ahab kneeling over Starbuck and kissing him on the face. Starbuck is kneeling to meet him, sinking into the embrace with his head tipped back and mouth open in a rapturous expression. Ahab’s prosthetic leg is positioned between Starbuck’s thighs, and in turn Starbuck has one hand braced on Ahab’s thigh. Ahab cups Starbuck’s face in a hand, and holds the back of his neck with the other, dipping beneath his shirt. Golden halos circle both of their heads, and everywhere the two are touching, there is a warm glow. The background is a warm brown.

Character designs: Ahab is a chubby Arab man with short curly greying dark hair, a pointed beard, dark body hair, and several scars across his face and body. He is shirtless, but wearing dark pants, and has a white pegleg prosthetic below his left knee. Starbuck is a lean white man with short red hair, a short mustache, and many freckles. He wears a white shirt with the buttons undone, exposing his chest, as well as dark pants. Both characters are barefoot. End ID.]

happy friday everyone, I spent the last two weeks feverishly working two jobs while studying for a state insurance exam and the #1 thing that got me through that mess was thinking about these two

so much so, in fact, that I wrote an entire 2k fic about them and blasphemy and the concept of homoeroticism as a divine sacrament 👍 you guys should read it

character designs (and fic concepts), as always, from the delightfully enabling @pocketsizedquasar :33

[pocketsizedquasar]

stand close to me, Starbuck; let me look into a human eye; it is better than to gaze into sea or sky; better than to gaze upon God. 🌊

these two have me in a death grip and it’s all @mossy-rainfrog’s fault. biting glass over them. anyway imagine an au where they actually get their shit together n ahab allows himself human love and connection n starbuck gets over his 17 layers of protestant sexual repression <333 they’ll be fine

pose reffed from Adorka Stock!

(ID: A digital painting of Starbuck and Ahab from Moby Dick, inside the captain’s cabin of a whale ship. Ahab is sitting on a bed, leaning down towards Starbuck sitting on the floor and extending his hand so it is just barely not touching Starbuck’s chin to tilt it up. They are both gazing at each other, Ahab with a soft and fond expression, Starbuck more wide eyed. Starbuck is resting one hand on the knee of Ahab’s amputated leg. The painting is lit by soft pinks and yellows.

Ahab is a chubby and muscular Arab man with warm brown skin and dark curly hair. He has a thick beard and several scars dotting his body, including a lightning shaped scar that starts on his face and continues down over his torso. His left leg is amputated below the knee, and he currently wears no prosthetic. Starbuck is a white man with pale freckled skin and short curly ginger hair. He has a mustache and some small scars on his body. They are both shirtless and wearing sleep/bed pants.

The other images are closeups on the drawing.)

[umarthiels]

fellas is it gay for another man to drill deep down and blast all your reason out of you? fellas is it gay if the ineffable thing has tied you to him with a cable you have no knife to cut? fellas?

[imsorryimlate]

[ubyr-babaj]

kay but have u seen the thing oh my god

it’s so well-written and a bit dark but good lord that’s some good shit

@clausus-intra-spiralus @megiusa-agliusa