Chapter 267 - My SI Stash #67 - Metagaming Immortality by sonorous panic (VampireDiaries) (1/2)

-Recently published like yesterday lol, the first Male SI I've read in Vampire Diaries that isn't Yaoi! LES GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO/

Sypnosis: Waking up as your least favorite character in your 11th favorite supernatural franchise. First thought: use every bit of meta knowledge possible to survive the oncoming bloodbath. SI/OC-insert into Tyler Lockwood 7 months before the start of canon. Not a gamer fic.

Rated: M

Words: 16K

Posted on: fanfiction.net/s/13557320/1/Metagaming-Imortality (sonorous panic)

PS: If you're not able to copy/paste the link, you have everything in here to find it, by simply searching the author and the story title. It sucks that you can't copy links on mobile (´ー｀)

-I'll be putting the chapter ones of all the fanfics mentioned, to give you guys a sample if you wan't more please do go to the website and support the author! (And maybe even convince them to start uploading chapters in here as well!)

Chapter 1

Death.

That's usually how this starts. A character dies in some tragic way, they had cancer or sacrificed themselves in a hostage situation. Sometimes the death is random, they get hit by a truck and are reborn in they're favorite anime.

On other occasions the person is simply in their past life, then they aren't. If that individual is particularly lucky there's a ROB waiting to explain to them the new circ_u_mstances they find themselves in. At times the person may even get a choice in if they're reborn, maybe even where. If the death was unplanned or the ROB is in need of a hero/entertainment they might be gifted an ability of their choosing.

I've read hundreds of fanfictions, across dozens of fandoms, that start like that. All of them either blatant or disguised wish fulfillment fantasies where an author is inserted into the world of their favorite media. They then proceed to complain, have a breakdown, or utterly refuse to believe anything that's happening is real.

My death wasn't random or tragic. Nor was I merely plucked out of my life while alive. I simply went to sleep a young man of 25 then felt my normally guided dreams fade into black. I felt myself no longer exist in the physical body I had occupied. I assume I had an aneurysm burst, I had no known heart conditions and didn't live an exciting enough life to believe poison likely.

I did not reawaken in the presence of a ROB, I merely awoke in an unfamiliar bed. I am also certain I spent no time with such a being, even allowing for the conversation to have been erased from my mind. I would certainly have chosen to be reborn. I would however refuse to have been reborn in this world. I would have chosen 4 other abilities over the one my current body possesses. I would have chosen over 7 billion other bodies to awake in.

To be clear I am, however, not complaining. While I would have never chosen to be reborn in the world of The Vampire Diaries, it not being anything close to my favorite, I am knowledgeable of it up to the 5th season. I've also seen the first season of the Originals as well as the spin-off Legacies. While I would have preferred to be a True Immortal(Silas), An Original Vampire(Elijah), A Hybrid(Klaus) or even a witch(Bonnie), being an un-triggered werewolf is significantly better than being a Doppelganger, Hunter, Traveler, Vampire, or vanilla human.

I don't have to worry about being hunted and used as a ritual ingredient. I don't have to worry about an all consuming drive to kill vampires as part of an overly convoluted revenge plot by the ultimate scorned woman. I can live in the same place for extended periods of time. I cant be erased from existence by having some Original Vampire I never met die. Most importantly I am not cattle for an entire species and simply hoping to never become a victim.

While I would prefer not to have been living in Mystic falls at the time the main story line takes places, this is the city I am most knowledgeable about in this supernatural world. Though I do heavily dislike the personality of the character whose body I'm occupying, his soul is no longer in it and thus his idiocy is of no real concern. I would never wish to look like the actor who portrayed him, as while he is handsome, his 5'8 is a significant change from my previous 6'3. Luckily it appears that Tyler Lockwood more closely resembles the book character of Tyler Smallwood, 6'5, that he's based on.

I'm also not having a breakdown. This is clearly either a dream or a situation more dangerous than anything I've ever experienced. Assuming this is real for now is my best bet, because I'll either enjoy this interesting dream or I'll have not wasted valuable time by losing even more control of this situation than I already have. This is actually one of the few times in my life I've been grateful for my borderline sociopathic tendencies. I generally don't feel emotions as deep as others seem to and I can honestly say I only have meaningful bonds with 2 people in my life.

Being 2 inches taller with a different body type and center of gravity has made me unusually clumsy the past 2 hours I've spent searching Tyler's room. So far after waking to a 5:30 alarm and realizing I was no longer a formless conscience floating in a black void, I've located Tyler's phone, learned his name through a particularly explicit s_e_xting thread with some rando I've never heard referenced in the source material. Seeing contacts for Matt, Elena, Caroline, Vicki, and Bonnie is what initially clued me into where exactly I was.

Since I've already determined I can read words this clearly isn't a dream. Finding Tyler's wallet in a pair of pants casually laying on the floor and seeing the last name Lockwood all but solidified it for me. Granted I have no actual proof at this point, a scant 2 hours of consciousness, that I was in fact in the world of The Vampire Diaries. All I Know for certain is I'm currently in the body of one Tyler Lockwood, I have friends/acquaintances with the names of characters in a popular TV show, and judging by the size of my room and attached En Suite I come from a wealthy family.

I personally blame the previously mentioned extensive list of SI fan fiction I've consumed for making me think that being inserted into the body an un-triggered werewolf, in a town soon to be consumed by supernatural beings, is the most likely explanation. Going forward, until presented with clearly contradictory evidence, I'm going to operate with the assumption I am in fact now living in my 11th favorite supernatural franchise.

Based on stories I've read in the past, I've always believed that what a person does in the first day of being inserted into a new body is the most important. First thing to accomplish is take stock of the immediate surroundings, readily available resources and then set a plan for the most likely earliest interaction. The room I'm in appears to be, at first glance, around 20x20 feet. On the left of the bed there's an open door leading to a surprisingly clean bathroom. On my right there are two closed doors presumably leading to the hallway and a closet.

Directly in front of the bed there's a large dresser with a flat screen TV Mounted over it. Back on the left next to the open bathroom door is a desk and chair set up with a mirror vanity. In the low light the walls appear to be a soft cream color possibly a light tan. It's in this desk vanity that I first saw the body I currently inhabit. Roughly 6'5 inches tall, shirtless with a a pair of boxers on, a body seemingly in the transition between a well toned lean and a well defined linebacker. Checking the boxers reveals, at least soft, Tyler is slightly larger than I was in my past body.

The lightly olive skinned tone of this body is a few shades off the tan my mixed heritage has gotten me used to. Dark brown eyes meet in the mirror when I'd honestly prefer the light brown, near hazel, I possessed before. Still I'm in a over all more attractive body than I previously enjoyed, I'm going to have to factor in my current attractiveness when I begin planning my future interactions. After all attractive people get away with more through charm and s_e_x appeal, but they're also far more memorable in situations where it'd be better to be another face in the crowd.

I'm currently in possession of $140 of Tyler's dollars, found in his wallet, as well as a debit card. There doesn't appear to be any visible weapons in this room, though truthfully I don't believe any would be useful at the moment. I have general Knowledge of the town I'm in as well as the people, assuming that the Mystic Falls, V_i_r_g_i_nia on my license is in fact The Mystic Falls, V_i_r_g_i_nia. I do however lack any of the specific information a resident of 16 years would have of this town, not to mention no of the personal information Tyler would have on his family.

His phone currently shows the time and date as 7:44 Am Saturday 02/21/2009, almost exactly 3 months before Elena Gilbert's parents are scheduled to die at Wickery bridge. 3 months is both too much and too little time. On one hand 3 months of interactions and decisions the original Tyler may not have had in the canon time-line leading up to the Gilbert's death, could potentially effect whether or not the deaths take place. On the other hand in just 3 short months this town will be host to a vampire who proved in canon to not care who he killed and fed from.

For instance say in canon the original Tyler was the one to suggest the party in the woods on the particular day it occurred, or suggested to his best friend Matt that he should go and invite Elena. Or perhaps Tyler in some way contributed to the fight that caused Elena to leave early and call her parents for a ride. On the other hand, Tyler seemingly avoided running into Damon Salvatore in the canon time-line. Given I'm in the body of a descendant of a founding family, and Damon's general dislike for them, I could easily run afoul of the vampire's lack of impulse control.

3 months isn't nearly enough time to prepare my currently base human body to take on a hundred plus year old vampire. Granted in all fairness at the time of his visit Damon is focused on getting Katherine free, gets distracted by Elena, and is at least trying to not draw attention to himself. Killing the son of the mayor in a small town is way more attention than Damon is likely willing to accept so I should be relatively safe. On top of that the chances of Tyler having been even indirectly involved in the events leading up to the Gilbert's death is low, though not low enough to ignore.

That said, as it currently stands, ill need to be extremely careful to make sure nothing I do derails the events that lead to canon starting. Elena's parents must die, at the very least her vampire hunting/torturing father. Stefan must encounter Elena that night to ensure he's present in town during Damon's attempted freeing of Katherine. Above all else Elena Gilbert must survive the night. She's far too important to the plot, as a potential resource and perhaps most importantly as a potential bargaining chip with the Original Vampires.

Most pressing however is how to immediately deal with my lack of knowledge about Tyler's personal life? In fan fiction a lot of times the body you find yourself in has recently received some form of damage or trauma to easily explain the lack of memories. In other cases the character you find yourself in has no close immediate relatives such as Naruto, or is leaving relatives for an extended period of time such as Harry Potter or is reconnecting to an estranged family member such as Bella Swan, or kept a detailed diary allowing the new inhabitant to somewhat fake shared memories such as Elena Gilbert.

Tyler Lockwood's body seems in perfect condition, canon never mentioned any trauma occurring around this time, and clearly Tyler isn't the journal type. The clearest choice I can see is to fake a head trauma to explain my lack of memories, a bit extreme at first glance perhaps however I've faked a leg injury in my past life to get out school. The first thing is to make sure someone is in fact home so that this act has the most convincing impact as possible.

Looking through Tyler's phone I locate his mother's contact and hit dial. ”Hey mom.” I state after hearing a somewhat annoyed sounding woman answer the phone.

”Since when are you up before noon on a Saturday Tyler?” His mom questions sounding curious but not truly caring at the same time.

”I just woke up starving and wanted to know if there was anything planned for breakfast before I make something for myself.” I'm hoping this is a somewhat normal conversation for Tyler to be having with his mother.

”Tyler. Breakfast is at 8:30. It's always at 8:30 and has been since you were a toddler. Just because You're too lazy to be awake for breakfast does not mean breakfast has changed.” Tyler's mother condescendingly stated as if I were that toddler Tyler used to be.

”Right sorry mom I guess its been so long I kinda forgot you and dad need to eat too.” I tried apologizing, not truly remembering the relationship dynamic Tyler has with his mother in canon.

”... Tyler have you been doing doing drugs with those Donovan's?”Carol Lockwood, after a long awkward silence, sounded both bewildered and accusatory at the same time. I should have realized Tyler wouldn't be that quick to apologize to anyone even his mother.

”I'm just too tired and starving to think properly.” I try to sound vaguely groggy hoping its a decent enough cover for a teenage boy acting a bit strange.

”Sure. Breakfast is in 30 minutes I expect you showered and dressed properly at the table Tyler.” She sternly instructs clearly moving on from my slight slip.

”OK...” I begin to say as the phone disconnects. Well that was very informative, apparently Tyler's mom is a stuck up snooty bitch. At least it's going to make it easier to let her die in that case, if canon is still going in that direction next year. On the bright side though it seems ill have a full audience for my little tumble down the stairs.

In the meantime I have 30 minutes for a quick shower and change. Making my way to the bathroom I strip out of the u_n_d_e_r_w_e_a_r, then turn the shower on. It seems Tyler is sadly an AXE kind of guy, after lathering up I decide to take my new body for a quick test drive. Turns out with an erection Tyler is more impressive than I originally assumed at around 9 inches, an inch and a half larger than I'm used to but just as thick. I personally thought my last body produced large amounts of s_e_m_e_n but Tyler's is truly prodigious, belonging more in the category of fake p_o_r_n c_u_mshot than anything natural. I'm assuming the volume is a result of being an un-triggered werewolf, I'm also looking forward to seeing if there's any changes once I complete the transformation.

While as a healthy male I enjoy o_r_g_a_s_ms as much as anyone else I did have a deeper reason, I'm still trying to mentally acclimate to this body. I've noticed I'm still thinking of it as Tyler's body, but regardless of whether I'm in a world of supernatural creatures or actually in a coincidentally named town, this is my new normal. It's strange I feel a sense of loss for my mother and sister the only 2 people I truly had a connection with, but I feel an equally strong sense of excitement over the countless possibilities I'm faced with. For the first time in my existence I can honestly say I feel a d_e_s_i_r_e to experience that I haven't before, like the cloud of muted contentment that's hazed my thoughts like a blanket of passive drifting.

Before I can get to any of that however, I need to first establish the ”new” Tyler. Getting dressed in what I hope is a breakfast appropriate pair of khaki pants and a deep crimson polo, I head to the free weight dumbbell set in the corner of my room near the bathroom door. Picking up the 25 pound weight I place it roughly 3 inches left of my left temple. Pulling it back roughly 2 feet I slam it into the side of my forehead instantly feeling my skull explode in pain and going dizzy. I can tell from my experience playing football in my past life, I have a concussion. I only have a minute or so of reasonable coordination to get this done before I'm likely to pass out, so I throw the weighty onto my bed and quickly make my way into the hallway. Easily finding the stairs I stumble over to them, my vision growing increasingly blurry I tightly hold myself at the top.

Struggling I barely remember to throw my feet on the first few steps as I ”loose” my balance. I bend my knees during the start of the fall making sure they drag on the steps slowing the fall down, then loudly slam my forearms into the ground. Laying there dazed I'm move my arms to the side and angle my head so the growing contusion on my forehead is placed against the marble tile.

As my consciousness faded I hear rapid footfalls approaching then nothing but darkness, the last thoughts flowing through my mind are silenced.

Waking up from this most recent bout of unconsciousness was different than before. It was a gradual thing, becoming aware of voices in the background followed by the smell of disinfectant. Slowly opening my eyes I see a nurse walk past my door way and think about calling to her but immediately decide against it. It's best to take stock of my current physical condition and then plan exactly how much of Tyler's ”memories” I should still have.

There's a significant but dull throb from the area of my head injury, in addition to that my right wrist feels a tad sore. Luckily during my flex of various muscle groups and rotating of joints nothing else seems to have any noticeable damage. I believe the best course of action, after briefly thinking of it, is to simply claim missing memories of everything outside of the skills and everyday life navigating knowledge. From what I know that's somewhat consistent with retrograde amnesia, at least well within the text book symptoms. I can then, when presented with people or things I have canon knowledge about, have sudden recall when its convenient.

As I finish coming to a decision a nurse briefly sticks her head in then withdraws, seemingly not initially recognizing that while my body is still I am in fact awake. She however quickly reenters the room and smiles coming over to my right side and looking at a monitor near the bed. Whatever she saw seems to be no issue as she proceeds to question me.

”Hi sweetie, are you in any pain?” she asks with a seemingly genuine smile on her face.

”Just a bad headache so far but nothing too serious. So... I'm assuming this is a hospital?” I question trying to sound confused and dazed slightly.

”Yes, you took a nasty fall Tyler do you not remember it?” her tone is patient but there seems to be a quickly growing concern on her face.

”Fall? The last thing I remember is... did you say my name is Tyler? I don't remember...” I trail off sounding, hopefully believably, confused and absent minded as if I'm struggling to recall something that simply isn't there.

Her eyes widen as she takes a moment to process this new Information before her face settles into a forced smile. ”OK sweetie just hang tight here I'm going to get your attending really quick.” she squeezes my forearm in a reassuring manner before quickly leaving the room.

OK so far so good now all I have to do is convince some doctor, who I don't think will be Meredith Fell/Melissa Hastings as she should still be in medical school. Really I'm wondering how long I've been unconscious because it doesn't feel like too much time has passed but Tyler's parents don't seem to be close by, and the nurse didn't mention getting them.

It took less than 2 minutes for the doctor to arrive into the room, A somewhat short older man with balding gray hair and a clean shaven face. ”Tyler it's good to see you're awake.” The doctor states before flashing a pen light in both my eyes. ”Nurse Pritchard said you're having some memory issue? You also appear to have a concussion.” The doctor spoke in a calm even tone, his voice grandfatherly and kind.

”Yes doctor...” I trail off confusedly, hopefully conveying that I don't remember him.

”Johnson. Dr. Johnson I delivered you Tyler, put a cast on your broken arm, I give you a physical every year.” Dr. Johnson stated sounding calm still but with an undercurrent of worry. ”Just how exactly much can you remember son?”

”... I know words?” I state after a few moments of pretending to be deep in concentration.

”...Well Tyler I think it's best if we finish this conversation in the morning. Your mother said she'd be by to check on you around 8 AM. Before she gets here I'd like to run another MRI just to be sure no bleeds have developed since your first one.” the doctor tried to sound reassuring but it was clear he was unused to dealing with such significant memory loss.

”What... um parents? I don't... my MRI? I'm sorry I just don't understand whats going on.” I'm trying at this point to just sound confused and maybe a little scared.

”Right I'm sorry Tyler. You're parents called an ambulance around 8:30 AM this morning that was about 13 hours ago. We immediately gave you a MRI, it came back clean. You have a significant contusion on your forehead consistent with a fall down the stairs like your parents reported.” The doctor explained in a kind steady tone.

”OK that explains the splitting headache. And my parents...” I trail off hoping he'll volunteer information not gone into on the TV show.

”Of course you're parents Carol and Richard Lockwood. They're very... driven individuals. You're father is the Mayor of our little town, your mother is the head of most local committees around here and the main organizer of the local founders events.” I notice Dr. Johnson carefully doesn't talk about their roles as parents. It makes me wonder if Tyler being abused is in fact canon or just the over used fan fiction trope I thought it was.

”OK I guess that's enough for tonight. So I should try to get some sleep?” At this point I realize I'm not going to get anything from the doctor relevant and I cant risk appearing too coherent and competent.

”Well I'd actually prefer if you stayed a wake for a few hours if you can. A nurse should be a round every few minutes to check in on you. I'll see you in the morning son.” Dr. Johnson shortly left after that with nurse Pritchard.

Now alone again for at least the next few hours I can finally start considering long term plans. I

initially put this off until my current situation was more secure, not wanting to suddenly have to change things if I was unable to pull off being Tyler Lockwood. That being said after having successfully convinced the doctor I don't believe Tyler's parents will be too much of an issue. Everything I've ever heard or seen about them leads me to assume all they'll want is for me to get as normal as possible as fast as possible without caring too much about the details.

So my current situation. I'm an un-triggered werewolf which basically puts me as a standard human for now. The first thing I'll need to do is find a method of self defense, my current idea being a gun loaded with vervain soaked wooden bullets. I want to trigger my werewolf gene for safety however its more complicated than it seems at first glance. I'm honestly not worried about the actual aspect of committing murder. While I've never done it nor attempted it, I'm more than selfish enough to put my needs before others and I lack the depth of empathy that would allow me to truly care about the death of a stranger.

I do expect to feel some form of remorse for it after It's done of course. That's not the issue however, I can't risk killing someone here in Mystic Falls. I simply have no clue how any specific individuals death could effect or alter the events of May 23, and as previously stated I can't risk those events not transpiring with at least mostly canon outcomes. So If I choose to murder someone it would take at least 3 months to do so safely, as I can't imagine Tyler's parents allowing their newly amnesiac son going far enough out of town for murder to be relatively safe. I do however have one idea to trigger the curse, go to Wickery bridge on May 23, hide out and purposefully not save Elena's parents.