Vincent Lockwood IIIAmor et melle et felle est fecundissimus
Love is rich with honey and venom
Personal StatsAge [appearance]: Early thirties.
Dates: Born 1st February, 1400 - Sired 18th September 1432
Gender: Male
Species: Vampire
Fledgling: Owen HarperPermissions Given in reasonable Roleplay:
(Yes = you don't have to ask before acting in RP, No = you ask first)Feeding: Yes
Wounding/Cursing: Yes
Killing: Yes
Domicile: Vincent's House, West District
Hair: A brown so dark it looks black to mortal eyes, and its glossy richness just lends to that perception. Supernatural eyes see rich hues of browns highlighted with deep reds. A very old-fashioned cut and brushed back with a definitive side part. Looks like his hairstyle came out of a roaring 40s Hollywood movie starring somebody like Humphrey Bogart, Cary Grant or Rock Hudson. He used to have a ponytail but had it cut in the later 1800s.
Eyes: Olive green flecked with gold. They are a lovely colour but often missed as the flecks are very small and glittery. A mortal in close up would see how pretty that eye colour is, but everything about Vincent's face can't be described using any feminine word whatsoever. His eyes are the same. He doesn't have terribly long lashes or prettily arched brows, his eyes are quite deep set but do not have any distinctive feature that sets them apart from the ordinary.
Face: A masculine face, with a strong jawline. He has a broad nose without too much definition, though his lips are clearly shaped with a fuller bottom lip. His lips are perfect for pouting, but he has never used them this way. He's not terribly handsome, but not ugly either. He has an unremarkeable face, and it is only his intensity that sometimes lends the word 'charismatic' to him. It isn't so much his having charisma (for he doesn't especially), as a commanding presence.
Frame: He isn't an especially tall man at six foot, but during his era he was considered on the shorter side. He is glad that he is considered on the taller side of average height, for it makes a nice change. He has muscles but they're not very well defined. He has a bit of physical softness/roundness to him, as it was more appealing in his era to have some extra meat on the body, if one could afford to eat well. He moves quite gracefully, though has the appearance of rigidity due to his excellent posture.
Tattoos/Distinguishing Marks: A terrible looking old scar on his abdomen where medieval doctors performed an appendectomy on him, though at that stage they had no idea what the affliction was and mostly muddled through it with guesswork. The surgery saved his life but left him with a memento that has remained as eternal as himself. He became a vampire a couple of years later, when the scar hadn't properly begun to fade. Other than this he has very few physical imperfections or markings on his body. His teeth, which were rotting and mis-shapen, turned out quite lovely in his vampirism, but his fingernails and toenails had to be short-clipped in a post-vampiric manicure.
Personality: Reserved, thoughtful, observant, introverted, introspective, asexual,
Awareness of Supernaturals: He knows of other vampires, knows of a few different kinds of demons, knows werewolves and other shifters exist but haven't interacted with them. He's never met an angel or dark angel and is dubious that they truly are what they claim to be.
Occupation/Job: Property investor. His mortal career was as an accountant, and he continued to do this job for the first hundred years of his vampiric life also before he wanted a change. With his savings he began buying properties and businesses, but the latter would sometimes fail. Property, even though sometimes a slow burner in the investment portfolio, almost always goes up in value, and he has the time to sit and wait until they're worth selling. He now owns around fifty different properties, most of which he rents. He uses a holding company to rent them, called Keynote Investments.
Interesting Facts / Quirks: Vincent is quite reserved and still very introverted, even after all his years spent as a vampire. He's not intimidated by other people anymore, it's just that he prefers a very small circle around him. Strangely, even though he isolates himself and only befriends a few, he dislikes spending time on his own. He feels like he needs a relationship of a kind to make him complete. It doesn't have to be sexual (in fact, he's not been interested in sex for over a century now), but it does have to be intimate.
Hobby/Hobbies: Chess playing,
Likes: Discussing all manner of things with one other person - or two others at most, walking through parks or gardens, revisiting ancient cities around the world, fireplaces, symphonies,
Dislikes: Socialising in large groups, when people he doesn't know very well meet him in an overly familiar way, his own company, television, sport, mobile phones,
Strength: He is incredibly patient, he learns from his mistakes, he is incredibly devoted and extremely loyal,
Weakness/Flaw: His nostalgia can blind him,
HistoryThe Mortal Years:He grew up the youngest of three boys in a merchant's family from Salisbury. His father owned a successful store, and each son had a role within it. The eldest, Alistair, took over the running of the business. The second son, Leland, was incredibly good selling to the folk that wandered in. Vincent was better with the books and not so great with people, taking more after his mother's mathematical mind. He was quite a shy young man and had a problem relating to strangers. He had an ordinary childhood in a large town that had very little conflict. Once he hit his teens and courting age, he found that he was quite selective about who he wanted as his wife, much to his family's chagrin. He tended to aim for young women who were more appropriate to marry nobility or even royalty and often found himself crushed by rejection.
It was a habit of his to wander the court gardens, and it was during these walks that he often came across those women who were beyond his means. One night, however, he found himself bewitched with a young and beautiful redhead named Lorica, who conversed with him until the early hours of the morning before she hurried away. She spoke, dressed and behaved like a lady, though her behaviour at staying out all hours of the night without a chaperone was far from ladylike. Vincent was impressed with this rebellious streak in what appeared to be a 'proper lady', and he was as gentlemanly as possible. He met her every night at the same location in the court gardens, spending three or four hours with her at a time. After a few weeks he grew bold enough to steal a kiss from her. The next night he indulged in her request to kiss his neck and it led to his first sexual experience. Their meetings grew sordid after this, and instead of meeting at the gardens, they would rent a room at an inn. She told him about her vampiric 'condition' and he promised that he loved her regardless. His family was pushing him to marry, and he felt it best to propose to Lorica - the mysterious woman who his family were anxious about. She denied him and broke his heart. He couldn't face her again after this rejection and chose instead to settle for less, because he finally saw that he couldn't have what he most wanted. Lorica disappeared.
Vincent accepted the first proposal for marriage that his family had arranged for him. He met, courted and married a woman named Marigold, with whom he had two daughters. In their fifth year of marriage, whilst giving birth to their third child, a son, both Marigold and the babe perished. Vincent Lockwood the Fourth was buried with his mother and Vincent ended up returning to the family home where his brother Alistair lived with their mother, his wife and three sons (their father having died after a terrible illness the year before). The house was big enough, though his daughters shared their room, and Vincent found himself in the small room that was supposed to be the butler's quarters. He was grateful enough for it, however, for he had no idea how to raise his very young daughters and his sister-in-law was wonderful with them. She was no longer able to have children after her sons and had obviously longed for girls.
Once again he looked after the books for his brother's store, but continued his accountancy business and looked after the books for many of Alistair's friends and business contacts. Their combined incomes kept them very well. When his daughters were twelve and eleven years of age, Vincent came down with a terrible affliction. He knows now it was appendicitis, but didn't know it then. A doctor came but nothing he gave him worked. His forward thinking and extensive research had him insisting that Vincent should get the illness cut out of him. Vincent was operated on in his bedroom and was healthy enough to recover from it. Two nights later, before he could get around, his brother showed in a visitor whom Vincent did not expect to see. Lorica.
She admitted that she'd missed him, and had wished that he hadn't shunned her after his proposal. She had been frightened to learn about what had happened to him, about the illness and the surgery, and declared that his death would've destroyed her. Vincent had very little to say, so shocked was he that his true love had returned and looked exactly as she always had. He'd been told about her condition in full, but hadn't truly believed it, until almost fifteen years had passed and she looked no older than her late teenage years.
After Vincent recovered, Lorica remained nearby and accessible to him. She wanted him to be her companion, to afflict him with the same vampirism as she had. Vincent, as much as he loved her still and wanted to be with her, was undecided. He had his daughters to take care of, he said. She only had to wait another year before both of his daughters were promised in marriage to two different families; his eldest daughter Suzette at thirteen was promised in marriage to a house of nobility, assuring a wonderful life when she said her vows in the following year. Emma was already promised to the son of another well-to-do merchant family. Both girls would be gone the following year. In seeing this, that his duties and bounds to his old life were over and a new chapter would soon begin for him, he accepted Lorica's proposal of vampirism. He took another month to get his affairs in order, to wish his daughters goodbye and good luck in their new lives, to thank his sister-in-law and his brother for taking them in when they needed it most, and explaining that he was going overseas to the new world.
Vampire YearsLorica and Vincent travelled together throughout Europe for the first century, with her training him and his mental powers, and also how to keep his blood-lust under control. They were romantically involved, compatible, and devoted to one another. They saw the sights together, and it was during this time that he learned she'd already lived close to a hundred years when they'd first met. Their time together while discovering Europe was wonderful and simple. There was a bit of a bump when he'd had to feign illness and death to his daughters, and had to stop writing to them. They were in their forties and already had grandchildren of their own. Lorica had forced him to let them go due to the fact he couldn't pretend to still be alive at the age he was supposed to be, and it took him months to forgive her before he realised the truth of it.
They travelled to Asia and spent a century there. During their time in Asia things became a little more complex in their relationship, for Vincent became quite enamoured with the culture and the history of Russia and China, effectively leaving Lorica to entertain herself. His sexual interest in her dwindled and she took on a secret mortal lover. He discovered the tryst and threatened to leave her, but Lorica promised it wouldn't happen again. Their relationship grew forced but both were determined to heal it. After a decade they realised they were no longer sexually compatible, but their love for one another was too deep for either to separate, and so an understanding evolved. Either of them could have a lover, as long as said lover was mortal. Lorica's sexual yearnings were much greater than Vincent's own, and he turned a blind eye to her affairs because she took care to remain as discreet as possible. After another few years passed Vincent experimented with other mortal women, crossing even into the realm of men once he felt comfortable enough with himself and his relationship with Lorica. She was approving, which had him confused and a little hurt.
It was close to the seventeenth century before they moved back west and then south into the African continent. One particular tribe declared them as great deities, and worshipped them. They remained with them for almost half a century before growing bored with that lifestyle. Together they selected and then sired one of the elders of the tribe to remain as the great deity to replace them. They stayed for another ten years, training him together and ensuring he wouldn't be overcome by the thirst. He would live off the same animals that fed the tribe, much as they had. Rearing their fledgling together had brought Lorica and Vincent closer again, and rekindled their passion for one another.
Posing as newleyweds, Vincent and Lorica went by ship to America, in order to carve some property for themselves as pioneers. Knowing that they could live from animals, it was unimportant to them that the country would be sparsely populated in the West, nor did the violence of no law put them off, for they could both defend themselves very well, both mentally and physically. Each time more land came they moved further west. They were already settled in California, in the mid 1800s, when the gold rush occurred, bringing about a healthy dose of population to the area. By this time, Vincent and Lorica were no longer lovers once more and had found a happy companionship instead, behaving more like close siblings than ex-lovers. Lorica still had her sexual companions, and was still discreet with them, and Vincent was finally no longer threatened by them and on the odd occassion, indulged his own desires.
It was during one of his sleepovers with a mortal female (Alice, who knew what he was and let him drink from her and spend the day in safety in her basement, where she'd made a bedroom for them), that he lost Lorica forever. Their little house had caught fire, and even though Lorica was able to escape, the sun ended her because she couldn't get to ground in time. In his fitful sleep, he felt his connection with her sever, and received the message that it had been arson, along with the faces of those men who'd done it. Grief stricken, he hunted down each man, making it a point to torture them before ending their lives - and murder was something he had vowed never to do and had always felt himself incapable. He found he was more than capable, and discovered a terrible and grisly beast in his nature when avenging Lorica's death. After killing the third and final man, he discovered that this man was Alice's brother, and it had been Alice who'd orchestrated the whole, terrible event. She'd fallen in love with him, she said when he came to confront her, and she'd have him still, even though he'd murdered her own brother. Disgusted, betrayed, and emotionally spent, he was no longer able to summon the murderous beast and found himself unable to end the life of the woman who was truly to blame for his sire's death. He left her and left everything behind, and went to ground.
Going to ground wasn't the kind of sleep that he'd expected. He'd thought he would simply hibernate, but he felt every waking moment. It was a chance for him to grieve, for him to think about what his existence would be like, and to hide himself away until he could face it again. Being surrounded by the earth did make his blood-lust bearable, he found, and the thirst in him - which should've been roaring - was dull. He was in the ground for a decade when he felt another link break. The African childe he'd made with Lorica was no longer. His grief and depression returned once more, and he ended up staying in the ground for a total of forty-three years, until he felt he could face the world again.
Recent History and the Companion ProjectHe headed back East after waking and settled in Chicago. Just after the turn of the 20th century he came across a very small child living on the street with her mother. The pair of them were huddled close together against the bite of the chilly night air. The little girl was about five years old and a redhead, like her mother. Feeling compassionate due to the similarity of hair colour between this woman and his beloved Lorica, he invited them to join him back to his place. At first the woman was mistrustful, but the promise of getting food and a room was too great for her to ignore, especially when Vincent made comment that the little one wouldn't last the night. They hopped into his carriage and he took them home with him. They ended up staying a number of years, and Vincent ended up playing father once more. After five years, when little Abigail was ten and her mother Nicola was in a well-established relationship with him, he divulged the rest of his medical condition and identified himself as a vampire. Nicola was horrified, but Abigail was accepting. He was forced to charm Nicola using his mental prowess at such things, and every night, when he rose, he would enforce the charm so that she would continue to accept him. Abigail needed no such re-inforcement, and an idea began to form as he looked at his adopted daughter differently. He began seducing her with the idea that she would also want his affliction; to be able to live forever, to be able to use mental powers to make people think things in your favour. Abigail was torn by his constant enchantment of her mother, but she also didn't want the family to be broken up and knew her mother would take her away, so she tolerated it. Still undecided and not committing herself to the idea, at seventeen she met a young man who ended up marrying her a couple of years later, and she no longer wanted the eternity Vincent had been offering. She wanted to live her life with her husband, and have children of her own. Vincent stopped charming Nicola, but by then she didn't need it, she was enamoured with him. He remained with her until she began to develop alzeimers, and because he arranged to have her taken care of, and she'd forgotten him anyway, he left her under Abigail's care and said goodbye to them both.
It gave him an idea, however, that he was better off with a companion to spend eternity with. Abigail would've been a splendid choice, except she hadn't been properly groomed for vampirism and this was why she'd recoiled from the idea of it. He had to find someone young enough to raise into the proper kind of person that would suit him, and who didn't have parents who would interfere. The best solution was an orphan.
In 1935 he met and charmed a middle-aged nurse who worked in the maternity section of the hospital. She informed him that there were many babies who'd either been dropped off at the hospital or their mothers had come in under false names and then left without their babies. It was a shame, she said, that these little babies would end up in foster homes because the proper paperwork had never been filled out by their mothers. He charmed her into letting him visit one night, and after being shown a number of babes, he selected the redheaded girl, thinking it was a sign. She had a birth certificate and had been named Leanne by her mother before said mother had abandoned her. He took all of her paperwork, including the files on her that he made the nurse get for him, and disappeared with the babe as well as all evidence she'd even existed. Not liking the name Leanne, he shortened it to Leigh.
Vincent couldn't raise Leigh on his own and had to hire a nanny during the daytime. It worked out well, but the nannies didn't last and Leigh had a different woman take care of her every two or three years at most. By the time Leigh was nine and going to school, Vincent didn't bother replacing the last nanny, figuring a nine year old girl should be able to look after herself in the morning before school and the afternoons coming back from school. It took him three years to find out she'd stopped going, because she went out and played hooky with other rebellious kids in the neighborhood (kids much older than herself), and the teachers who'd tried to inform him with a house visit had come calling during the day when he was sleeping in the basement (a habit he hadn't broken in spite of the way it had ended with Alice). Eventually he noticed her lack of understanding of basic principles that should've been taught to her and scanned her mind (something he'd tried his best not to do) in order to find out what she was up to. He was aghast to find that she'd been turning into a criminal under his very nose. He moved cities with her, in order to get her away from her peers, and ended up in San Francisco, which had been built back up after the big earthquake some forty years ago (in 1906). He lost his hold on Leigh well and truly by the time she was sixteen, because she found herself a vampire club and started sneaking away to it whenever Vincent needed a moment to look over his property investments and do his paperwork, while also meeting with businessmen in the property market. She went missing one night and it took him a month to find her; she was shacking up with another vampire who was using her as his own personal pet. Vincent fought the much younger vampire and easily won, but realised while Leigh was wailing at him that she didn't want to be sired by someone who she considered her father, she wanted a lover of her own. Once again Vincent had lost his companion to another man - a vampire, in fact. He gave Leigh free reign at this time and made her promise that if she couldn't find anyone to sire her by twenty-one, that she would return to him. She agreed and was out of the house more often than she was in it. When she was twenty, she found someone to sire her and returned to Vincent to say goodbye. It was the same vampire who Vincent had beaten when she'd been sixteen. Vincent left the city and went south, settling in St Louis, Missouri.
It was 1952 and he tried again, this time with another redhead baby that was sold directly to him by her mother. This time Vincent had everything set up; a house and a family to go with it. He wouldn't be the father figure this time, he would allow another man to play that role, and he would let the vampirism come out naturally rather than forced knowledge from the start. He found a young couple that couldn't conceive and desperately wanted a child. He would be introduced as a family friend. Everything ran smoothly for five years, and then the couple split up. His new child - Gayle, they called her - was now a product of a broken home. He was incensed but couldn't control it. Gayle ended up a real tomboy, and loved visits from 'Uncle Vincent', a title he hadn't wanted but it had been Gayle's idea, so he went with it. A number of boyfriends walked through the doors, but left after a year or so. Nobody seemed to want to marry a woman with a ten year old who had another man (Vincent) 'sniffing around'. It was the 1960s and a time of free love. Vincent urged Gayle's mother to watch her closely, but she didn't seem concerned. Gayle hadn't shown interest in anyone yet, even though she was a vivacious fifteen year old. He ended up taking her to Europe that year, wanting her to be educated in different customs and cultures, and it was during this extended three month trip that his affliction was noted and explained. Gayle took it extraordinarily well, romanticising the idea of vampirism. He wasn't sure whether this was a good thing or not, but she seemed positive about it. His time with her was well-spent, and they were very like-minded on a number of things. She was less effeminite in her opinions and reasoning, and very logically and mathematically minded. He found himself falling in love with her, which he knew wasn't appropriate, but on their last night in Europe, he ended up sharing a lover's kiss with her.
Things were awkward after that. Their time together became filled with uncomfortable silences and Gayle shared very little with him. It came to a head when she turned sixteen and he got her alone to confront her about what had happened and that he wanted to know why she was pulling away. She explained to him that everything seemed to have been a betrayal, a setup. He'd always been around and interested in her life, so how long had he been planning this? Stunned and without any lies to fall back on, he remained silent. She was angry with him, but with a quick scan of her mind, he could see she had no idea that it went as far back as her being a babe. She hadn't guessed that he'd set everything up - she was only thinking that his outlook had changed when she'd hit her teens. He spent another three years trying to win her back but she no longer trusted him, and he knew the truth would only make things worse. The mother he'd set up for her was pushing for him to leave also, so he had pressure from both Gayle and the woman he'd given Gayle to. He said goodbye to both of them, and though it was teary and full of cuddles and kisses upon the cheek, he was very aware that neither of them asked him to stay.
He would plan more, for the next one, and he'd decided that Gayle's tomboy nature was the reason why he'd got on well with her best. He decided he'd have a better companion in a man, and so he would be selecting a boy for his fourth attempt. Having a father that wouldn't stick around - like with Gayle - was annoying, but he didn't want a multitude of nannies like he had with Leigh. He needed a parental influnce, because having nobody to look after this child (as with Leigh) was wrong as well. He needed as normal an upbringing as possible, otherwise there'd be all sorts of strange social effects. All through the eighties he planned and considered, because he didn't want to go through this all again. Even though sixteen years was a blink of an eye in his existence, working towards raising a child to be his companion was mentally exhausting. Armed with his new outline, he tried again in the early nineties.
First he found a woman - Karen - that was grieving the loss of her husband and regretting that she had no children with him while he was alive. She was in her very late thirties and didn't want a husband, just a child. He befriended her and it took him only a few months to convince her of his entire plan. She would raise a youth that he would sire into vampirism at twenty-one. He would never die, and she thought this a great idea. Vincent would be their benefactor and play the role of a very close friend of the father. She agreed. They would have to move cities once her new son was in her arms, because she wouldn't be able to explain her sudden family. She was fine with this. So he took a boy child, a five month old, from a group home, and they moved to another city. A city that called to his very soul, his supernatural nature, and he followed it on a whim.
She was an excellent mother to the boy he presented her with. She considered him her own and was happy to let him name the boy Owen. She chose the middle name, Tate, after her late husband. He thought this appropriate. Owen had her last name of Harper, to avoid confusion and questions. He visited often and was always known as Vincent, not Uncle Vincent, or Vinnie (though he was Vin for a while, as toddler Owen struggled to say his name). He always made time for Owen and took him for nightly visits to playgrounds and parks. He played toy soldiers with him and allowed himself to be shot with water pistols. At six, Owen asked his mother why Vincent always came at night, and she explained that he had a condition that made the sun burn him terribly, and that he could die if he got too much of it. Owen accepted this and didn't bring it up again.
Vincent took Karen and Owen on holidays; first around parts of the country when Owen was seven, and then extending further to overseas trips when he was ten and older. When Owen thought to ask about Vincent and why he was spending so much time with them, his mother Karen said that Vincent was lonely and had never married, and liked their company best. Owen accepted this and didn't bring it up again.
Owen had an excellent education. He went to a private school but not a boarding school. Karen also ensured he was signed up for a few after-school activities, but that he had enough free time to simply play, also. Owen never wanted for anything, but Karen was foresighted enough to always give him what he needed and only sometimes gave him what he wanted, so that he wasn't spoiled. She wanted to raise a fine young man for her son, and knew her teachings had to last eternity. Vincent was very proud of her as well as Owen, and it seemed things were falling into place.
When Owen was eleven years of age, the city fell into chaos thanks to two vampires who decided people would be better off knowing the supernatural existed. Vincent managed to protect them from it for the first couple of weeks, and Owen found himself heavy with school work quite suddenly, and that his school was heavily guarded. He was told that there was a crime-spree, and it was true enough that there was, but he was likely to have seen quite a few bizarre things that year. Neither Vincent nor Karen ever found out what, if anything, because Owen didn't mention anything. Both Vincent and Karen were glad when the reign of terror was over and things returned to normalcy. Vincent was pleased that they didn't have to change cities, because he'd not wanted to uproot Owen from his life (though it had started to look like they had no other choice).
Since the three of them had been on overseas trips together, Owen also started visiting Vincent's place every so often, where he had his own room in case he decided to sleep over (rare, but it would happen sometimes). Vincent's house was more the kind of grand old house that his schoolmates were used to, but was by no means a mansion. The house Karen and Owen lived in was more modest, but big enough for them both, and certainly big enough for a young boy to grow. During his time at Vincent's house, the two of them would talk about whatever interested Owen the most. Initially it was dinosaurs and fossils, then it was sport of all kinds, after that it was space, and then the environment and endangered animals. It was during these times that Vincent established himself more as a friend than a parent, allowing Owen to break rules (such as past his bedtime, or seeing the movie he wasn't allowed to see, or having a can of beer, etc).
Vincent kept waiting for him to accuse him of being a vampire, but the accusation never came. There were moments when he thought it might, when the teenager looked thoughtfully at him, but the question didn't get asked and Vincent didn't want to scan his mind. He wanted to treat Owen respectfully, and he was beginning to grow quite affectionate towards him (though kept himself from any outward expression of this, just in case it went awry, as it had with Gayle).
On Owen's sixteenth birthday, Vincent discussed with Karen whether Owen had made any comments about Vincent's nature. Karen told him what she'd said when Owen was just little, but Vincent wondered if this explanation was interfering with Owen's logic. Of course it wasn't logical to think vampires existed, but Vincent had not only displayed his inability to be under the sun, but also how cold he was. A few weeks later Owen was sat down and told very gently by his mother, while Vincent was in the room, that Vincent was actually a vampire. At first the youth believed it to be a joke, but then Vincent demonstrated by showing his fangs, then his celerity, and then his strength. At first Owen was very quiet, but then a question came, followed by another, and then questions were pouring out of him. Vincent answered them all, and Karen had to explain to Owen that she'd always known about Vincent's true nature and they'd kept it from him until they thought he was old enough to understand and keep Vincent's secret. Owen accepted this and didn't bring it up again, though when next Vincent and Owen had time together, their conversation was filled with vampire lore.
It has been almost two years worth of Owen knowing and understanding what Vincent is, but other than to be quietly seduced into the idea of becoming one (by both his mother and Vincent, who drop the hints tactfully and subtly), he hasn't openly delved into the idea of it. Now that he is approaching his eighteenth birthday, and becoming quite the man, Vincent wants to talk with him and sound out his feelings on the matter.
