Author's Note: So this chapter is all about Stefan getting used to his own powers, at least a subset of them, and setting things up for his dietary needs. There are a few assumptions that are made regarding the strength and speed of vampires for the sake of this story, and the details are mentioned in the end note for reference. We'll be going with those values for the rest of the fic. See ya at the end.

"Your wish is granted. I hope you don't die too early.", I think I heard a smirk.

These were the last words I heard before I felt a strong pulling force on me. I was travelling at above light speeds, not sure how that is even possible, and had the whole Dr. Strange experience of seeing multiverses and dimensions, or so I think. And then I just passed out. When I woke up, I was in bed, inside the Salvatore boarding house, I think.

"I wonder what happened to the original Stefan."

I don't think I have the time/need to worry about that though. I have much bigger problems to solve. Adjusting to this new body is a priority. Because being in a different body just feels off. I am not sure how to put it, but it seems the dimension (physically speaking) difference, and being a vampire-witch hybrid instead of a normal human is to blame.

The first thing that stood out to me was hunger, an all consuming, seemingly insatiable thirst for blood. Which I am not willing to give into. Stefan was staying in Mystic Falls in 1978, trying to get off of his human blood diet. Well, I am not planning to do that. So the first order of business is to get a supply of blood going, so I can get used to this stupid hunger of mine.

"Let's put the heightened senses to use. If I could just concentrate a bit…"

And as soon as I did, I was able to hear all the things I never thought I could've. I could hear a fly beating its wings closeby, some rabbits in the bushes, the wind blowing (never thought that was possible unless it was at higher speeds, but I guess vampirism has its perks), but it was mostly silent. The other resident of this house might be out, doing god knows what.

"Guess nobody's home. That helps me."

With Stefan's memories, it was easy to locate a blood bank in this godforsaken town. With his questionable diet though, it would be a lot harder to set things up smoothly, at least right away. So I just compelled the receptionist to get me 2 blood bags. And after consuming the blood; and don't even get me started on how it tastes, it has like a weird metallic taste at first, but then it just tastes like chocolate that you can't get enough of; I compelled everyone there so that I could get one blood bag everyday delivered to the Salvatore boarding house discreetly. Need to do the same with a few other blood banks, but that can happen later. Compulsion for life baby.

Scene break, back at the boarding house.

"Finally the blood lust is in control for me to think things through. I have way too many things to do here. Guess having a mental list would help."

"Gain control over the blood lust."

"Explore and practice the vampiric abilities till I master them."

"Explore and practice magical abilities till I master them."

"Take martial arts training."

"Strengthen my body through rituals, magical blood consumption, and vervain ingestion."

"Get a Geneticist team working towards improving my physique further."

"Travel to Tibet to learn resistance to compulsion."

"Take acting classes."

"Rekindle the brotherhood with Damon/ at least try."

"Rescue Enzo to secure him as an ally."

"Forge kemiya artifacts to improve my chances of going against the Originals."

"Enjoy life."

"I guess that sums it up. There are few things I can start working on right away, and a few that'll have to wait. But there sure is a lot to do."

And I started right away. Securing vervain would be the first step. And turns out I am lucky, the current resident was also growing it in the basement. Using a pair of gloves, I extracted the herb, and crushed it to mix it with some water. But I hugely underestimated how much it would hurt. This body has no tolerance towards vervain, so it burned my mouth when I tried ingesting the diluted version.

"Damn this is going to be hard. I would've preferred to eat those potions shown in Harry Potter instead of this shit."

It took some blood mixed with alcohol (watching the show helped) to calm myself down. Next in line was to explore my vampiric abilities. This body is about 114 years old at this point, so significantly stronger than a newborn vampire. But I was not expecting the result that I got. Firstly it is exhilarating feeling the air rushing towards your face when you are running at super speeds. And watching the show did not prepare me for how good it would feel to have super strength and agility. The feeling is surreal. But statistically speaking, it is nowhere close to the level of strength and speed I could reach.

"This is awesome! This feeling of being a vampire is just euphoric. I just don't understand what was up with people not wanting to be a vampire. Let's see how fast I can go"

I had a clock set up to measure how fast I could move between two fixed points. A pretty simple setup tbh. And I was pretty much able to just zip between the points.

"Wow, that was quick. And according to the clock, I went just under 145 mph, and the acceleration was instant. Pretty quick, but not quick enough, the Originals should be capable of going at least 570 mph. And regarding strength, I can dish out about 3800 psi of force, which compared to an Original is puny. But this is like a dream come true! Stamina remains to be measured. But I think it would be much better to do it once I am on a steady diet of blood."

The test was a success I guess. I was packing up when I heard the front gate opening.

"Seems like Matthew is back, time to play the part"

"Uh, Hi Stefan, you seem to be in a cheerful mood", he tried to speak without showing any emotions, but the tension was clear to me.

"Don't worry, I didn't feed on anyone. It's just that I am finally seeing more control over my blood lust, and I think I am finally regaining control", saying that with a brooding face is so difficult, I wonder how Stefan managed it.

"That's great! So will you be leaving the town soon?", he said. With some excitement evident in his voice.

"Do you have a problem?", I saw him flinching away from me, hearing the silent threat in my voice.

"Don't worry, I won't be bothering you", I managed to say that in the most apathetic way possible, like he didn't matter at all.

"Thanks Stefan", he seemed grateful nonetheless.

I nod with a tight lipped smile, leaving Matthew to contemplate.

That was good enough. I could hear his heartbeat fluctuating, telling me a lot about whether he was truthful. Stefan's instincts helped me understand these things, another perk of having his memories.

"That went well. Didn't feel like ripping his throat out like I did with the receptionist, so that's a plus. I need to go out more, to actually learn control in crowded environments. Guess the next thing to do is setting things up with witches so that I can start on Magic!"

So, how was it? Over 1500 words! I'll try to keep the word count consistent from now on. Let me know through the comments how you feel about the developments. Here are the values for the strength and speed of vampires.

Newborn vampire - 4 times their base attributes (This would explain the discrepancy between the powers of similarly aged vampires). So if a person before turning into a vampire could run at 20 mph (max), then as a vampire he can do so at 80 mph (acceleration is different though, as vampires are shown to be accelerating to maximum instantly, so for the fic it will be considered instant), if they could dish out 120 psi of force in a punch (about average for a human) then as a vampire the number would be 480 psi. (As a well trained athlete, the force a human can dish out can go over even 800 psi)

Along with age, the vampires grow stronger, but there is no real consistency in the show. So for this fiction, the factor would be 0.005 points of growth per year. So after 10 years, a vampire would be 5% stronger and faster. (this is on the base, and not the current values.)

Originals have a bloodline boost (it's a made up thing, to explain the difference between them and really old vampires) of 20%, so even if a vampire is say the same age as that of an original, the original would still be a good 20% stronger than them.

Klaus makes things a bit more interesting, as he is a hybrid, and technically a lot stronger than even the normal originals. So for the sake of the fic, he'll be considered to have another 20% boost from his werewolf side. So he'll be at least 20% stronger and faster than his siblings.

For Stefan, the base stats considered are - 23 mph running speed, and 600 psi of base punching power.