An assorted story archive about a messy relationship between Ben and Morden. This entire series was written to be an Arcane Odyssey OC x Canon fanfic, in which most of fic doubles as a character exploration/playing around with my own interpretations of Morden.
Ben, a hollow shell of his past self, blindly chases after purpose and meaning in his existence—all while being driven by his sheer obsession for Morden.
Morden, a person haunted by his past, pursues his goal to protect his friends even if it means risking his safety—all while having many issues to sort out, including feelings for Ben.
(Content Warnings) Their story features...
- unhealthy relationship dynamics + behavior in general (e.g. dependency, obsession, etc.)
- death, torture, being experimented on, caught as captive, other sorts of violence—and trauma from those
- references to sexual trauma
Story
Note: This is written as a fanfic for Arcane Odyssey, so it's initially intended to be read by people who's known about the game.
- A Bittersweet Beginning: After the escape, Morden buries his fallen friend.
- Doubling Down: While fixing Tucker's grave at Dawn island, Morden runs into Ben again.
- Time Passing By: Morden (and his other friends) get Ben out of the Eternal Mines.
- Sighs of Longing: Ben has been missing Morden a lot, during his time in Skyhall.
Other Story Formats
For the things not written in your regular fanfic format!
- Into Ashes: A peek into Ben Adler's past.
- The Curse: Assorted tidbits about Morden's death curse.
- Whirlwind: Morden and Ben talk about Morden's unwillingness to kill, before they have to part ways to their own mission.
- Face to Face, Heart to Heart: Morden and Ben finally got to have a conversation long after Fort Talos' events. However, unspoken feelings have slowly built up during their time away...
- A Past Memory: A moment Ben falls for Morden.
Drawings
Miscellaneous
- A mirror of this series on AO3 can be found here!
- Think of this storyline as MordBen's canon lore.
- If I were to give this AO3-adjacent tags (outside of content warning ones)... t4t MordBen, everyone (especially MordBen) has issues, and no beta we die like tucker
- This storyline was created before I even thought of a concept to make Rita live, so some stories are written as if she didn't exist in that continuation.
(to be cleaned up) Morden's and Ben's dynamics before the escape
their past dynamics is pretty much "unleashing their nasty side at each other and comforting each other about it (while processing various stuff about themselves at the same time)". they also cracked each other's transmasc eggs #t4t
- their pre-escape dynamics is pretty much them using e/o as coping mechanisms from the aesir torture, then their unhealthy attachment/bonds developed from there
- they initially disliked each other for their personalities at first (ben found morden to be too much of a whiny and scaredy little shit, while morden thought ben was wayyy too aggressive and hard to approach)
- then after being stuck with each other, they start to find each other's presence an anchor for stability. like any familiar face who also went thorough the same shit as you—it's that kind of comforting.
- their relationship actually started from morden having a breakdown over his family and other friends. then ben, who found him noisy as shit and all that, intended to just shut morden up so he can go sleep. but hearing him vent about the loss and all, ben decided to just shut up and listen, and eventually let mord cry on him and shit. ben started to understand morden better after that point, and his view gets slightly less negative. morden's impression of ben also improves after this.
- and yeah this dynamic of ben leaning mord a shoulder to cry on is becoming more of a commonplace. ben finds morden's vents to help him parse his feelings about the whole situation too, so he wasn't too annoyed by morden venting at him. also he finds a purpose in making others feel better so there's that.
- ben starts to actually try to crack jokes and shit to try to lighten the mood, and it works on morden like 50% of the time (or 80% of the time if morden isn't in too much of a bad mood). then bam joking around started to become a coping mechanism for him.
- anyways onto ben relying on him... honestly it's more of a physical comfort for ben. like morden offering to hug him, letting ben lay on him, letting ben squeeze/spar with him, or even having sex. would help ben watch out for any wardens catching them, while ben goes outside and throws rocks or something. also helps ben get his shit together too like reminding him to eat and stuff. morden doesn't really mind doing those bc his ass is touch starved enough + yay being useful to someone and not just being a dumbass sitting around and rotting in there
- ben the type of mf to find comfort in like running his fingers through mord's hair or squeezing him or just. physical comfort sensory type shit
- and yea after series of them relying on each other and using each other as emotional punching bag, their friendship develops yay!!! they are both fucked up in here and they only have unhealthy coping issues!!!
- oh and while all of that happened, morden was also relying on tucker to help him cope in like... less of someone to vent to, and more of someone to ask advice from and someone who always know what to say to him. technically speaking he's more comfortable around tucker too, so he considered tucker to be a closer friend back then.
- honestly id say ben is more innately aware that he's starting to catch feelings and all, while morden is too emotionally messy to actually sort out his feelings for ben
- ben had a pretty hard time getting along or close with other people too (due to his aggressive personality he developed after being brought to aesir), so morden was like his main friend back then
(to be cleaned up) Morden's and Ben's dynamics after the escape
each time they part ways, their perception of each other distorts.
- morden, after losing his best friend tucker, starts distancing himself from ben and becomes more avoidant. he doesn't want his friends' blood in his hands. not anymore. he couldn't bear to get close to anyone again. as the sole escapee who remembers the shit the order did to them, he pursues his quest to get revenge against them and try to get the others out. however, after leaving ben behind at dawn island with a logic of "i want him to live a freer life :(", he begins to grow obsessively anxious over him instead. kind of like an intrusive thought to him. not that he is emotionally adjusted enough to realize he feels bad for leaving ben behind like that or he wants to travel with him anyway. would rather fuck off and do stuff he believes would benefit everyone who suffered from the aesir (ben included), than actually searching for ben and trying to mend their relationship.
- anyways after the whole death curse ordeal and finding out ben's in eternal mines, he feels a lot of guilt for leaving ben behind and having him get into trouble like that. he starts thinking of ben more, but at what cost...
- there's also guilt for getting the death curse and being unable to help his friends without killing
- ben, on the other hand, grows fixated/obsessed over morden ever since he first saw him—since his instincts associate him with comfort and all. ben simping over him pretty much came from that. would literally do anything for him. doing things for morden brings him comfort. would commit horrendous shit if morden tells him to. however, after morden left him at dawn island, he just keeps doing ao storyline stuff while hoping that he runs into morden again ^_^
- however, during his stay in the eternal mines, his "yayyy morden ^-^" attitude turns into grudge and frustration, since he knows he's not gonna meet morden again so easily. like his hope to see morden again was basically crushed, and he starts blaming everything, morden included, for leaving him behind and making him end up here. so yeah it's very possible for him to get mad at morden
- after ravenna story, he's very happy to see morden again of course!! but it also comes with many mixed feelings and thoughts. why are you like this. why did you leave me. why. why. why. he would tend to morden's injuries but will also keep pressuring him to spill everything about his quest for death curse. he wants to dissect his brain and make sense of it
sex dynamics
- before the escape, mordben uses sex as a way to destress and cope through what went down in aesir, and it eventually becomes a display of trust between them + a way to reclaim their bodies.
- they fucked at sailor's lodge. i still need to figure this bit out but they fucked there
- morden
- pre-escape morden had sexual frustrations, then ben also had it + was willing to top him. then bam he kept fucking ben back there
- likes having someone take the lead in bed for him. he can top too, as long as you tell him what to do
- pre-escape morden uses sex to distract himself from the horrors, get pent-up sexual frustrations out, and just destress + wind down in general.
- post-escape morden isn't actively having sex with others like ben. he sees it as a very vulnerable act and prefers to keep it to his close ones.
- ben
- pre-escape ben uses sex to block the horrors from his mind and focus on carnal pleasure. it's also a good way to release pent up emotions for him.
- post-escape ben uses sex to experience physical connection/intimacy (and sometimes uses it to express sheer desire he has for someone)
- service top. has a strong aversion to receiving sex. even after the memory loss, he still feels the aversion towards letting someone else top him (even if said person is Morden). doesn't really fw the idea of being given oral sex unless they're sucking on his strap