Finished Rings of Ikiria.  Will make a post after I’ve slept and relistened cataloguing the full analysis and range of feels.  Initial rank?  Fucking 10/10, man.  That shit was flawless.  But for now, have some quotations.  Sweet sweet quotations.  Cut for spoilers in case anyone cares, who knows:

And that’s when I lost him.  [The Brigadier] accused me of being delusional.  I don’t know why it hurt, but… it felt as if he was sticking a knife into me.  Then he twisted it.  He said that being attached to UNIT might not be for me, that it might be best if I was RTUed.  I felt numb.  RTU is an army term: it means ‘returned to unit’.  In this case, ‘unit’ meant the regiment from which I originally came.  Some might call it going home, but the United Nations Intelligence Taskforce was my home.  The only home I’d ever had.  To be RTUed was, for me, to be banished.

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[The Doctor] went on to congratulate me on my bravery, and for trusting him.  “When all else was against you, you believed in us, Captain!  And for that, I thank you.”  Then he said something most unexpected. He told me I had a strong mind.  I think I blushed.  I’d never felt strong of mind!

“The Doctor’s right,” said the Brigadier, adding that he was most impressed with my resourcefulness.  He apologized for not being able to let me in on the Doctor’s plan, and for some of the things he’d said to me when pretending to be under Ikiria’s control.  But he said they both knew they could trust me to do what was needed to be done.  That felt good.  That felt like the Brigadier I knew.  The one I trusted more than life itself.  The one that made me feel as if I belonged.

He slapped me on the back.  “Come on, Yates,” he said, “Let’s go home.”