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Olivia Parker: Good evening, everyone. Thank you for joining me for this five o’clock hour. I’m Olivia Parker with WJBK news. I’m joined tonight by Lieutenant Hank Anderson of the Detroit Police Department and the RK800 android, Connor. How are you two doing today?
Hank Anderson: We’re here, aren’t we?
RK800: Connor: Lieutenant, remember what Captain Fowler said.
HA: Yeah, yeah. Play nice. All right. We’re fine.
RK: Yes, thank you for having us here.
OP: Of course! Now, it’s been exactly one year since the end of the android uprising and we’re taking the time to look back on that time as well as look to the future. How would you say Detroit has changed since the uprising?
HA: That’s a funny way to say ‘revolution’.
OP: Pardon?
HA: You called it the ‘android uprising’, not the revolution. Seems a bit biased, don’t you think?
RK: What my partner means to say is it is an uphill battle still for androids to receive the same recognition as humans. That begins with the language we use. How can we expect to receive respect when people are using phrases like ‘android uprising’, painting us as the bad guys still?
OP: I see.
RK: To answer your previous question though, Detroit has slowly begun to change in the last year. With more android friendly architecture, such as the charging stations throughout the city and restaurants serving android friendly foods and drinks, the city is taking steps in the right direction for inclusivity.
OP: Mr. Anderson-
RK: Lieutenant.
OP: Excuse me?
RK: He is Lieutenant Anderson.
HA: *chuckles*
OP: My apologies. Lieutenant Anderson, when you were first assigned the deviancy case, you were a known android hater. What changed?
HA: Well, I got my head out of my a** and got to actually know one.
OP: Oh! Please refrain from cursing. We’ll have to bleep it out.
HA: S**t, sorry. Anyway. I started viewing them more like people and less like machines. It helps that this guy has more empathy than any human I’ve ever met. He showed me that androids have just as much emotion and sentience as the rest of us.
OP: Are you saying that RK800 was already a deviant when he arrived at your police station to work?
HA: Oh god, no. Far from it. He had a stick shoved so far up his…well, you know. It was so far up there, he couldn’t break rules if he tried.
OP: RK800, what caused you to deviate?
C: Well, a number of things. Mainly, Lieutenant Anderson. He pushed me to question the morals of my directives and do the things I thought were right. It wasn’t until near the end of the fighting that I was able to break free from my programming and join the right side of the fight.
P: It sounds like you two were vital in each other’s changes of perspectives.
A: Yeah, I couldn’t imagine a better partner than him.
RK: The feeling is mutual, Lieutenant.
OP: RK800, prior to your deviation, you were tasked with hunting down and, presumably, killing your own people. How have you learned to cope with that?
HA: *muffled* Jesus Christ.
RK: Um, I suppose I employ the same tactics that many others use and that is the knowledge that anything done before deviation was against our wills and not indicative to who we really are as individuals. It’s what we do with the time we have moving forward that shows our true values. And the androids from Jericho have publicly stated their forgiveness to all androids who were forced to fight for the wrong side.
OP: Sure. But there have to be some androids out there who distrust you due to your role as the deviant hunter.
RK: Of course there are. And they have every right to be distrustful. Just as there are people who distrust me due to my profession as a police detective. That distrust is not exclusive to only androids.
OP: RK800, would you say your role within the department was earned or merely given to you?
HA: Okay, that’s enough. First off, his name is Connor. Enough of that ‘RK800’ crap. Use his name. And second off, Connor is more of a detective than the whole department combined. So you can take your nepotism soapbox and shove it. He’s earned the right to be an officer just as much as anyone else.
OP: Despite not going through the police academy?
HA: Who the hell does your fact checking? If you bothered to even look into it, you’d see Connor did go through the academy after the revolution. And he blew all the other idiots out of the water.
OP: Apologies, I did not mean to offend.
HA: *muffled* Yeah, right.
OP: There are some who claim keeping you two in the same partnership is a bad idea, based on your history together. What would you say to those people?
HA: Why shouldn’t I be partnered with him? He’s the best detective in the city. Hell, probably even the whole country. I’d say those people don’t know what they’re talking about and should stay in their own lane.
RK: Hank.
HA: What? These questions are invasive and borderline racist, Con. You expect me to just sit back and let them slander you?
RK: Essentially, yes.
HA: Fine. But I’m not happy about it.
RK: Noted.
OP: It’s clear to me you guys have a unique bond. May we expand on that?
RK: Of course.
HA: Sure, whatever.
OP: An article that came out in 2037 claims that sex with androids is better than sex with humans. Given the nature of your relationship, one can only assume. So, Lieutenant Anderson, can you confirm those claims?
HA: What the f**k?
RK: That question is highly inappropriate.
HA: This whole d**n interview is inappropriate! All of your questions are just thinly veiled jabs at us at best and outright racist at worst! You’ve got a lot of nerve asking us here like this.
*clatter sound*
OP: Lieutenant Anderson, please sit down.
HA: Go f**k yourself. Come on, Connor. We’re not staying here a second longer.
*fading footsteps followed by a slamming door*
OP: Folks, I apologize for our guests' reactions. If you don’t mind, we will turn our broadcast now to-
*slamming door*
*approaching footsteps*
*voice fading in*
HA: -you another thing! Sex with androids is f**king incredible. You don’t know half of the s**t they can do! Hell, you can even-
*End Broadcast*