mohinder/sylar thoughts & fanfiction recs.
Mohinder/Sylar makes me meta. This is rather rare because usually my pairing love is of the sort where I just want to yell, "How awesome is this pairing, right guys?!" and just be done with it. So it's glee and squee and that's about it. But with Mylar - note semi-sarcastic use coupled with laziness to type Mo's longass Indian name :P - my brain's just full of all sorts of thoughts and opinions. This may turn out a mini-manifesto of sorts before I get to actual fic recs. Sorry about that, feel free to skip my tl;dr - though it does conviniently elaborate why I rec the fics I rec, and why I don't just rec every good Mylar fic I've read thus far.
The thing about this pairing is.. Well, actually, there are three things. First, it slaps you in the face with the badass chemistry and the peculiarity of the match and the "holy-fucking-shit" blatant gay vibes. It's a "you-can-run-but-you-can't-hide"-scenario. Unless you put your head in Petrelli-sand while watching Heroes, you'll know what people are talking about when they talk about Mohinder/Sylar. But hey, if Petrelli-sand works for you, good luck with it. I'm personally not a fan.
After it's slapped the viewer with and every fangirl (regardless of previous sanity) in town is bouncing on their seats yelling "BEST PAIRING EVER!!", we come to the second point. It's extremely mindfucky to think about. Where you take the pairing when you want to go beyond canon - or you know, write hot pr0n - is an extremely interesting, complicated and perhaps difficult thing. It's all about approach and characterization and the possibilities are endless - but not necessarily all plausible. But we'll get to that later.
Thirdly there's the tragically limited canon slot for the pairing. Given, we've not seen where the canon continues with 1x19 and 1x20 up to the season one finale, but I suppose it's very likely that the "Mylar slot" is only around those 3-4 episodes, starting from when they meet and probably ending somewhere around the type Sylar nails Mohinder to the ceiling - and not that sort of nailing, either. That can sort of be a buzz kill. Though, depending on approach, maybe that's only where things start getting good.
Because yeah, Mylar can be anything. At least technically speaking the pairing could work for crack as well as extremely twisted dark!fic. Obviously the latter gets written more but teh crack could and maybe even should get written.
Unfortunate for me, I can't sort of see every possibility as plausible, though. The main problems or difficulties with Mylar fic IMO are.. (And some of these I'm glad to not have witnessed a lot - so this is just meta, not public criticism for various fic that gets written.)
1) Over-romantisization - Hmm, our good ol' friend. I can't see these two going all fluffy on each other, waking up next to each other and telling the other, "You look so beautiful in the mornings!". Unless you're writing intentional bad!fic, that crap just wouldn't go down too well when you've got an angsty geneticist and a crazy serial killer sleeping together. There's a fine line between that sort of believable attachment and peculiar love & lust that the two could have for each other and just being uncharacteristically schmoopy.
I'm not really sure where that line goes for me but I keep reflecting on it a lot when reading fic, seeing whether I can buy the characters thinking this or doing that, or feeling a certain way. Like, okay, we've got pairing fic and I can tell somebody, "OMG so, Mylar. Theirloveissotrue!11" but what is that love? What nature does it have, how does it manifest itself, is it love in the first place? It's all very tricky with this pairing - and in my head it could never ever take any sort of traditional form. It's not "they love each other and fuck" but it's not the usual "they hate each other but still fuck", either. It's hate and lust and disgust and extreme moral conflict and manipulation and violence and.. It's complex. It's a weird mess of things that's interesting and hot and scary all at once.
I don't think there could be one fic to sort of capture all of that in one story (not even if it had both character's POV's, continuing from the time they meet to the day they die - well, maybe actually that could capture everything but it'd be one hella-long, complex fic.. I'd read it, though), but if a fic manages to capture what I feel is at least a part of that bundle of craziness, then I will really love that story.
I've luckily not run into any of the worst cases of over-romantisization imaginable but it's a high risk when writing this pairing. The love is there, or at least we like to think so, but how to portray it in all its horrific but glorious form is definitely difficult. And sadly, what works for a lot of shippers, doesn't necessarily work with me. Which brings me to my second point..
2) That Gay Indian - One would think that with Mylar fic, Sylar would be the biggest thing to deal with. We've got this messed up character who wants everything but world domination and who kills people for the heck of it and all this other type of weird shit. But I find that I'm very accepting when it comes to Sylar characterization. He's crazy - you write that, I'll buy it. Whether it's multiple personalities or just peculiar childhood trauma, I'm open and accepting and always intrigued by the new ways of looking at this character.
But Mohinder - with that characterization I tend to be more particular about.
First of all, I find the slash nature of the pairing problematic because Mohinder doesn't strike me as gay. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying he can't be gay - but what I mean is that I often feel I need the process of him going through those feelings. He goes from licking Eden's face to shagging Zane against Nissan Versa - something's got to happen between the two. But it's not really about sexuality here, even though it's a big issue.. I mean, to me, Mohinder's not fully defined by the fact that he's Indian but knowing he's actually lived in the country and was raised there, it is something that you can't leave aside. And homosexuality is not exactly openly embraced in India - in fact, it's still illegal. And forward-thinking though Mohinder probably is, I can well imagine him being confused, even disgusted by himself if he suddenly found himself attracted to another man. It's not something anybody in his family would've approved of, and family's an extremely important institution to Indian people.
So that's a part of the issue. He would have an extremely hard time dealing with a homosexual attraction, I'm pretty sure. He's Mohinder! He'd angst about it. At least a little. But if that doesn't get dealt with in a Mylar fic, I can live with it. If it does get written into a story, I'll be glad and indulge in it. But if it doesn't, fine, just give me teh gay sex.
What's a bigger issue when it comes to Mohinder is that there are exactly two ways to write Mylar fic - with Mohinder knowing about Zane=Sylar or with him not knowing. Not knowing is clearly the easier way, because then he can have the moral conflict of suddenly wanting to shag a dude but finally giving in because Zane's like his biggest fanboy ("Dr Suresh, may I please hump your leg?" and Mo would just smile, "Sure, Zane, go ahead.") and er. Where was I? Oh yes. Him knowing is extremely tricky. But so very worth writing and thinking through.
The moral conflict would be out of this world, which is why I feel the whole scenario would have to be weird and sick and probably extremely manipulated by Sylar. I can't see Mohinder accepting it - like, "Okay, so I'm sleeping with a serial killer who killed my father and who has no moral and sleeping with him basically goes against everything I stand for!". I can see him wanting it, hating himself for wanting it, and I can see Sylar doing the same, and they'd want each other dead, but somehow they end up wanting something else more..
In a way the pairing is also one of those "in another time, in another place"-type of pairings. In this time and place, they're doomed. Anywhere else, they'd be vastly different. The AU possibilities are semi-interesting. Mohinder's watch is bound to break when he visits Brooklyn this one time and..
I should get to this fic recs, shouldn't I? I feel like I'm focusing on the negatives in this post, what doesn't work for me and why everything's difficult, as opposed to the goody goodness that makes me love this pairing so much.
Mohinder/Sylar fic recs
Behind Those Eyes by cerebel, NC-17 - When I began reading this, I wasn't really sure if Mylar pr0n would even work all that well. But holy crap does this fic work. The Sylar characterization is perfectly fucked up and calculatingly crazy and also? It's hot as hell. Seriously friggin' awesome, this one.
Stained by aheartfulofyou, PG-13 - Another amazing, awesome example of the sort of Sylar characterization that really works for me. All the personalities and the way they're displayed and expressed in that crazy head of his, full of unfinished thoughts and the way he loses control in this story, it's great. I love the story even down to the smallest choice of words. For reasons stated above, I could've had a problem with Mohinder here but the story just works so I really can't say I do.
Five Things That Never Happened To Gabriel Gray by butterflyweb, R - This is partly Mohinder/Gabriel, partly Gabriel/other, partly gen. Again with the twisted Sylar characterization that I adore. This time the prose is interesting and poetic, and I'm not sure if Sylar can be that poetic, but it works here IMO and the images of the fic are partly sad, partly terrifying. Great read.
On the Porch of a Motel in Georgia by futuresoon, soft R - From Mohinder's point of view, and surprisingly, wonderfully in-character point of view in my view. It's the author's semi-first fic and it shows, but the small flaws can easily be forgiven when the story is otherwise this good. I really enjoyed it. Mohinder is oblivious in this, but doesn't come off as dumb, and Sylar's manipulation, as well as the hints to his true identity, are there. Pornwise, it was good, too.
Laugh? I Nearly Died by hackthis, R - What a surprise, it's by Zahra and I friggin' loved it. Putting aside the fact she's one of my absolute favourite fanfiction authors in any fandom, this fic is *so* friggin' good. The first paragraph is an interesting look at Sylar's past and the rest, what with all the delicious multiple-personality action happening, is just as good. If you've not read it, you simply have to.
Two Are Always Watching by c_quinn, PG - It's a small ficlet but what struck me so much about it is the portrayal of the multiple personalities. I couldn't get it out of my head when I first read it, so I figured it has to be among these recs.
Hunt by kaeda, GEN - I had to link this because even though it's out-dated - canon pretty much made it AU - it's also the very first story that I read with the two characters, and it also made me want to slash them, before the canon did the whole "smack you in the face with slash vibes!"-thing. It's just a very interesting look at how things could've gone, had Mohinder been a little more trusting, a little more naive..
I could probably link to a lot of other fic that I liked but didn't love or had minor issues with characterization, but yeah, hmm, maybe these will do. I certainly enjoyed them the most.
As a closing note: how can you not love a pairing that produces icons like...
..this one by perrynqa, or..
..this one by lay_of_luthien?
Oh the crack, how it kills me.
(Neither icon is hotlinked, btw.)