[RL WITH SULU]

[torchwoodteaboy]

The past few days had been exciting ones, and definitely not in the way that Ianto would have predicted them to be when he'd first set foot on the boat. They should have known that there would be something wrong with this, but how were they to know that Sulu saying that nothing could go wrong after what they'd accomplished on the first night would

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[torchwoodteaboy]

Oh, wow. Ianto blinked. Sulu... Well, on top of sound pretty freaked out, like he had been before, there was a really dangerous tone to his voice, a really angry and feral quality, and well. While Ianto appreciated the sentiments, and probably given a normal situation would have more than welcomed the other man backing him up that ferociously, he... He wasn't sure that it was such a great idea there and then, considering that they were up against ghosts, and well. They couldn't hurt a ghost, but a ghost could probably get them, if it really tried.

Ianto squeezed Sulu's hand gently, putting his other hand overtop of the other man's, trying to comfort and calm him down. "Sulu..." he said, softly. "Maybe... Maybe it's best if we didn't--"

Whatever he was going to say was cut off by the sound of one of the lamps in the bedroom crashing against the wall in a sudden, very loud sound of broken glass, that made Ianto jump a little in surprise, and stop everything that he had been about to say. It was probably too late by then, anyway, the initial damage had been done.

[takeitoutofpark]

"I'm not letting it touch you again," Sulu said, holding Ianto's hand tightly. He found himself nearly charging up, as though this was just the beginning of a very loud yelling match with a non-corporeal being. And then there was the sound of glass shattering as a lamp hit the wall that separated them from the bedroom. "Shit," he hissed, recoiling because if it was getting violent...

He wasn't sure where to go or what to do at that point, an the sound of glass crunching underfoot made Sulu pull Ianto back, away from the wall an away from the door. And then the footsteps changed from slow and steady to a quick dash, and one of the crystal glasses on the coffee table flew at Sulu, crashing a foot or so away from him against the wall. "Shit!"

[torchwoodteaboy]

Shit was right. Ianto very much agreed with that statement. Up until things had started to be thrown around, his largest concern was staying calm and the possibility of not getting a single wink of sleep that night, but now... Now he was more concerned for their safety, and getting out of there unharmed. There was a serious possibility that one of them was going to get hit with something that this thing decided to throw at them, or cut by one of the shards of glass, and that had stepped the terror of the situation up a few notches. "I'm...I'm not sure that it touching me is going to be the issue, anymore..." he said, quietly.

Rule number one of paranormal investigating, which unfortunately Sulu hadn't known about, and really, why should he have? Don't try to provoke whatever it is, especially if there's a chance for it to get violent. Ianto...didn't know what to do. There wasn't any way out, there wasn't a safe place to hide and wait it out, they were in the thick of it all. He heard a loud whisper, sounding like his name, coming from the space between his head and Sulu's, and then the settee shifted very quickly, rotating in its place almost a foot's distance.

A metal cigar box on the desk by the window started rattling, and it was all Ianto could do to tug Sulu out of the way before it went crashing to where his shoulder had been a second ago, leaving a dent in the wall before thudding to the ground. Shit just about covered it. "Christ! Are you alright?" he asked, glad that he'd noticed the thing flying at them before it had been too late.

[takeitoutofpark]

Getting a metal tin thrown at him had a way of making Sulu really regret getting angry and lashing out. Mostly because there was nothing for him to fight off - it couldn't be put into a chokehold; they couldn't even see the thing, know if it was by them, if it wasn't -

"I'm fine," he said weakly, keeping his eyes locked on the room instead of Ianto - he wasn't going to let the same thing happen twice, and he was going to make sure to get out of the way himself, next time. "Probably... shouldn't have said that," Sulu mumbled, as the desk pulled away from against the wall and then slid as though it were on wheels, slamming into the wall across from them.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto shook his head, clutching at Sulu's hand as he watched the furniture moving around of its own accord. Really, those pieces were heavy. There should absolutely be no way that the desk sliding across the floor like that was even possible, let alone with a force great enough to make it hit the wall that violently.

Ianto frantically tried to remember all the training that he'd gone through for Torchwood One. It'd been a lot more in-depth than anything Jack made the others who'd joined Torchwood Three go through. Yvonne had been nothing if not thorough, cold, heartless hag that she was. On top of psychic training, minor combat training, and all other sorts of sessions he'd had to sit through, he was pretty sure that they'd covered at least something that might be helpful in this.

"We..." Ianto called out, stepping in front of Sulu just in case his trying to talk made anything happen, trying to make his voice steady, "we're sorry to have...to have offended you! My friend here, he..." God, he felt mad, talking to thin air. "He's just not used to these sorts of things. Listen. If... If you could just unlock the door, then we'd be--!" A chill went up his whole side, the one furthest away from Sulu, and something that felt like a very cool hand pressed against his cheek, causing Ianto to cut his sentence short, his tone tilting upwards in surprise. As much as he was trying to play the strong role, there, he really wasn't ready for it to touch him again, and so he quickly backed away from it, and right into Sulu.

[takeitoutofpark]

Telling this thing that they were sorry was, first of all, a lie, because the only thing Sulu was sorry for was that he couldn't beat it up. It was also apparently the wrong thing to say, as Ianto's voice pitched and he stepped back. Sulu grabbed him by the shoulder and watched as the lights flickered, dousing the room in darkness for a few moments before returning.

"I don't think that's going to help either," Sulu mumbled into Ianto's ear, feeling woefully underprepared standing there with Ianto in a towel. He knew that he'd probably made the wrong move, yelling at the thing, and his fear was compounded when he heard that godforsaken voice call out Ianto's name from somewhere near the settee. The decanter and the caddy it was in shook, rattling against the coffee table. Sulu suddenly didn't care that he wasn't exactly dressed for a haunting, so long as all that crystal stayed the hell away from them.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto weighed their options. Provoking it obviously wasn't the right way to go about things, since having things thrown at him, or well, thrown at Sulu, generally wasn't the best of circumstances, but. He really didn't want that thing to ever touch him again, if he could help it, so. Apologizing and trying to reason with it wasn't going to work either. He didn't exactly appreciate Sulu pointing out that it didn't, though.

"Look, I... I'm trying here," Ianto whispered back to Sulu. "I know that you only had my best interests in mind, and that well, you're really not used to this sort of thing at all, but. Yelling at it really wasn't the best thing to've done back there," Ianto said, his eyes never leaving the decanter on the table. It started to shake more violently in its place, like whatever it was was trying hard to pick it up and throw it, but it hadn't mustered enough strength to do so yet. "Just...just play along, and maybe we'll actually make it out of here at some point, alright?"

[takeitoutofpark]

In all fairness, Ianto had pointed out Sulu's yelling hadn't worked, too. "If it hadn't decided to touch you," he hissed, "I wouldn't be yelling at it." As far as he was concerned, this was all the ghost's fault.

Still, Ianto had far more knowledge on how to handle ghosts an the like, so he fell silent, gritting his teeth and closing his eyes because, this whole thing just was too much for him at that moment.

"Yeah," he said, directing his voice towards the decanter, "I'm... sorry about that." If Ianto felt crazy talking to thin air, he had no idea how Sulu felt.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Well, in truth, it really was the ghost's fault. If the ghost hadn't done anything, than there would be no reason for them to be in the parlor, trying to reason with it after being upset by its actions. Ianto winced at the tone in Sulu's voice as he spoke back to him, knowing that this wasn't easy on the other man, and that he was going to have to be exceptionally understanding in all of this.

As Sulu spoke to the ghost, Ianto squeezed his hand in support. He was really glad that Sulu was humoring him and making the effort to try things that were definitely less than an exact science, like reasoning with ghosts. "We're..." Ianto swallowed, picking up where Sulu left of. "We're not going to do any more yelling at you, so. In return, could you... Could you please calm down a little? We're... We're not trying to do anything to harm you..."

The decanter slowly stopped rattling in its place on the table, and the room fell eerily silent as all of the noise from things moving about suddenly stopped. "Th-thank you," he said in response to the ghost, although he turned to look at Sulu, addressing him as well. There was another whispering, the same voice as before, repeating his name, and then the giggles that had happened before. He wasn't sure how it knew his name, or why it kept repeating it, but he figured that if how it had reacted before was any sort of clue, he should probably just let it keep repeating, however uneasy it made him feel.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu felt absolutely ridiculous about them talking to thin air; it was possibly one of the most insane things to happen to him in a while. Still, he knew that there was something else in there with them, something invisible and something that wanted to mess around with them enough to hurt them. There was too much that could go wrong for Sulu to risk letting his panic and nerves get to him.

He hated that it kept calling out for Ianto. He didn't want it to say either of their names - he wanted it to get the hell away from them and stop ruining what was very nearly going to be an amazing vacation. Fuck.

"...What now?" Sulu asked Ianto quietly, keeping an eye on the decanter.

[torchwoodteaboy]

"I don't know," Ianto whispered back. "I mean. There's no way out other than that door, and it's not going to open anytime soon, I don't think, no matter how much we beg...whatever it is to let us out. I... I think we just have to wait it out in the room. Appease it. So long as we're not upsetting it, it's not going to do anything physically damaging to us. I mean. It's stopped throw--" He cut himself off, his head whipping up, eyes searching around the room as the ghost laughed, listening as it said his name again. It'd been saying it over and over again, taunting him, but this time it was different. Because this time it sounded like Lisa.

Ianto knew he shouldn't let it get to him. That it wasn't actually Lisa, that the ghost was just using her voice for this, using his memories because they were dark and he was weak to them, but. It was using it because it was true, it would get to him, it was one of his weakest points. And it'd sounded so much like her. The voice was right, the timber of it was right, the accent was perfectly on... Even that little tilt of inflection that she used to use to get his attention when she knew that he had other things on his mind, sing-songy and alluring at the same time, it was all there.

Ianto took in a shaky breath, and let it out, shutting his eyes. He knew Sulu had no idea what any of it meant, but it was just a little too personal of a jibe for him to brush off as nothing. "...I really wish it would stop doing that," he said quietly.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu may not have known exactly what the change in voice meant, but he noticed the change in the voice, as well as the way it affected Ianto. He reached for Ianto's hand, holding tight, knowing that it was doing something that Sulu was not going to be able to forgive. "I wish it would too," he mumbled. Then, trying to distract Ianto from the new voice, he said quietly, "Think we can make it to the room? I can... I can get something to wear." He was, after all, still wearing his towel, and it wasn't making this any easier to deal with.

The ghost, or spirit, or... whatever it was, though, didn't seem to really appreciate that comment - or maybe it hadn't liked how Sulu had gripped Ianto's hand, or how he was distracting the other from its taunts - because Sulu immediately felt a cold sensation near him, like someone standing far too close; and then, someone was grabbing his towel. Sulu, of course, grabbed his towel and practically leaped away, because he wasn't comfortable enough with this insane thing to let it mess with him like this.

[torchwoodteaboy]

Ianto gratefully let Sulu take his hand, taking whatever support he could find in that touch. He was grateful that the ghost had only chosen to say his name with Lisa's voice, because well. He hadn't really gotten around to explaining that whole side of things to Sulu. He definitely didn't want the way it was revealed to the other man to be through some crazy ghost on a ship in the middle of the ocean god knows where. "I... I think so," he said, successfully distracted from whatever it was that was trying to keep his attention, with all of its calling out for him, and using Lisa's voice to do so, now. "All we have to do is..." he started, going to say that he shouldn't upset it again, but then Sulu was moving away from him, clutching at his towel, and Ianto had no idea what was going on.

"Are... Are you alright?" he asked, not being able to figure out what he was seeing there. He was almost sure that the corner of Sulu's towel had lifted a little, before Sulu had put a hand out and swatted at whatever it was. He didn't seem to've touched anything, but the movement of the towel stopped there, and moved elsewhere. Ianto...had absolutely no idea what to do about this, and could only stand back and watch as well, the ghost, or whatever, seemed to start taking a fancy in Sulu as well.

[takeitoutofpark]

Sulu was too busy being morbidly amused by the fact that a ghost was trying to yank his towel off of him to notice how ridiculous he must look, trying to get away from something invisible to both of them. He was exhausted, frustrated and frankly just plain scared by the fact that he was dealing with the paranormal... with something trying to be playful and trying to yank away his towel. As much as he would probably not have minded this situation had the ghost not started it all off by throwing shit at them, much less touching Ianto, wrapping an arm around him -

Well. He minded, plain and simple. So, when the ghost grabbed at the hem, Sulu swatted his hand through thin air and said in a very strained voice, "Stop." He wasn't going to put up with it - he wanted to feel safe in this stupid room, on this stupid vacation that had turned out to be nothing more than another shitty trick on the community's part. He clearly wasn't feeling that, though.

The thing giggled and tugged and Sulu wished he could do something other than feel utterly helpless, which was an ugly thing to feel when he was so used to being able to handle his situations. A cold hand, or maybe just the impression of a hand, touched his leg and he lashed out with his foot. "Fucking stop! Son of a bitch!" The worst part was that Sulu knew how ridiculous looking he was at the moment, and how futile it was to be trying to hit something he couldn't touch. He just didn't see any other way to handle it.

[torchwoodteaboy]

It probably would look comical, Sulu's struggle with the ghost, if it weren't for the fact that Ianto was actually quite upset that it had moved on to bothering Sulu. Bothering Ianto himself was one thing, he had had to deal with ghosts and such before. But Sulu, not only did it seem that he really didn't like the fact that whatever it was was invisible and unknown, but he had an obvious fear of this sort of thing, and to turn that on him was just cruel. The disembodied giggling sounded a lot less friendly to Ianto, now that it had taken a step beyond just annoying into tormenting.

Just as Sulu himself couldn't figure out what to do to get it to stop, Ianto really had no idea what to do. He wasn't sure whether to focus more attention on getting the...whatever it was to stop, or focus more on trying to get Sulu to calm down about it before something bad happened. Shit, shit, shit. "Leave... Leave off of him! He didn't..." God, that wasn't going to go anywhere. "Sulu, you...you have to calm down! It's not going to listen to reasoning, it..." He stumbled over his words, feeling lost and helpless, like there was nothing he could do because, well, there really wasn't, as he watched Sulu try and fight off an invisible aggressor in nothing more than a towel...

[takeitoutofpark]

Telling a man being tormented by a ghost that he had to calm down wasn't going to work either, if the sound Sulu made at Ianto's insistence was any indication. He couldn't stand this any more - his usual patience had run short by day three and now, faced with some paranormal thing trying to make his life miserable, taunting him and Ianto, able to move wherever, do anything - lock them in -

"I'm not going to calm down, Ianto!" he snapped, the hostility he felt towards the ghost leaking into his voice. If this were any other time, he wouldn't have snapped at Ianto like that, and if he had, he would have felt sorry immediately - but right now, he was too high-strung, too anxious to care.

The thing seemed to do the caring for him; immediately after he yelled at Ianto, he felt a... well, a pause, like that cold air near him had frozen solid, and then something, something was digging its fingers into his side and sinking its teeth into his shoulder. Yelping, Sulu flailed, tearing away from the suddenly freezing cold presence, so much colder than it had been before. He let out a string of curses, most in Japanese, and then the decanter was in the air, being hurled straight for him. Before he could react, it clocked him, the blow sending him reeling.