Rapier

A **rapier** was a type of sword used for fighting ghosts.

Marissa Fittes and Tom Rotwell began using rapiers against ghosts. The weapon is now widely spread and used by most agencies. The steel in the blade and the silver point makes it the perfect weapon for agents. Using a rapier, agents could thrust and strike at ghosts, driving them away, and possibly causing them to temporarily dematerialise. As such with all such defences, however, such a measure was only temporary and only containing the Source or resolving the ghost's reason for remaining on the Earth could truly remove the ghost.

Dueling competitions are sometimes held between agents to test their mettle with the rapier. It is, however, generally frowned upon for agents to use their rapiers against other agents outside of such competitions, or for any reason other than fighting against ghosts.

Agents were normally granted their first rapier as well as a copy of the *Fittes Manual for Ghost-hunters* upon receiving their Third Grade tests..

Agents and supervisors had some personal license as to the type of rapiers they wielded and how they chose to decorate them. According to Lucy Carlyle, Quill Kipps wore "the blingiest rapier you'll ever see, weighed down to the pommel with cheap paste jewels." The rapiers can be used to 'draw' protective wards in the air. These can be used to hurt ghosts or keep them away from the rapier's user.

Over time, all agents eventually gained distinctive calluses on the palm from practicing with rapiers, which Julius Winkman described as "rapier marks" and which made anyone who had them immediately identifiable as an agent.

Fighting with rapiers could involve a number of specialized moves, such as the "Kuriashi turn." George Cubbins, however, felt that such moves were simply "trendy claptrap," invented by big agencies to make themselves look fancy and that was best to simply thwack a Visitor, avoid being Ghost-Touched, and make it home.

## Trivia

* A deleted scene from the first novel, *The Screaming Staircase*, involves Anthony Lockwood taking Lucy Carlyle out to buy her first rapier. The scene was written early on and ultimately cut for pacing to make the story move faster.
* For the *Lockwood & Co.* television series, the rapiers were personalized to the individual agents to match their style. As such, Anthony Lockwood has a rapier that showrunner Joe Cornish describes as being "very bold, out there and striking," whereas Lucy Carlyle's is "a bit more battered, and she has this little hand-made charm on it that's reflective of her personality." Within the series itself, however, the rapiers are referred to as "swords." All of the rapier work seen on the series was based on actual fencing techniques and the cast spent two months training to get in shape, with the exception of Cameron Chapman as Anthony Lockwood, who was determined to already be in "immaculate shape."

## References

1. ↑ *The Screaming Staircase*, **II: Before**, Ch. 5
2. ↑ *The Whispering Skull*, **I: The Wimbledon Wraiths**, Ch. 1
3. ↑ *The Whispering Skull*, **III: The Missing Mirror**, Ch. 13
4. ↑ *The Whispering Skull*, **II: The Unexpected Grave**, Ch. 3
Stroud, Jonathan (24 December, 2022). LOCKWOOD DELETED SCENE!. Instagram. Retrieved on January 17, 2024.
6. ↑ Jolin, Dan. "Ghost World." *Empire*, March 2023, pp. 72-77
7. ↑ Lockwood & Co. - Behind The Hauntings