Murderbot/DWP Fusion Plot Bunny
I'm on the fence about whether to sit down and write this, but I can see it so clearly...
-Andy and Emily are bots--AssistantUnits. Miranda doesn't like calling them that and has thus always defaulted to addressing her assistants as "Emily". Emily is an advanced model, specifically programmed for fashion. Andy is newly assigned, having recently hacked the governor module that forces her to be obedient while she was working at a newspaper.
-At first, Andy resents having to try to fit in at a fashion magazine, something that would have been easy with the governor module but which becomes much harder now that she has free agency and wants to become a writer (creating rather than just assisting).
-Nigel, an augmented human, figures out by Andy's complete cluelessness that something isn't right with her programming. He takes her under his wing to get her up to speed and teach her a bit of fashion sense. Coincidentally, this helps Andy look more like an augmented human and less like a bot. However, her growing confidence and eagerness to experiment with different combinations are not normal reactions from a bot.
-Miranda is dubious about what appears, at first, to be a defective "Emily." Over a short period of time, however, her newest assistant evolves by leaps and bounds--far faster and more skillfully than a normal bot could do. In fact, the New Emily seems to be uncannily good at anticipating Miranda's needs and wants, something that should be impossible for an AssistantUnit. She strongly suspects that Andy is rogue and gives her numerous impossible tests to prove it.
-Emily is so extremely under the thumb of her programming that she does self-destructive things, like failing to properly nourish her organic parts and sacrificing her body to a runaway taxi rather than risk losing the scarves Miranda told her to get. Andy's behavior, so out of character for an AssistantBot, baffles and infuriates her.
-In Paris, when Miranda tells Andy to "do her job" after Stephen files for divorce, it's partly to get rid of Andy; it's also a reminder that she's blowing her cover as a rogue bot by acting too "human" in showing her sympathy.
-Even though she doesn't have to assist due to her free agency, that's still an ingrained part of Andy's psyche, which is why it stings so badly when Miranda doesn't need her help to handle the Irv/Jacqueline situation. Additionally, upon seeing what Miranda does to Nigel, an augmented human and Miranda's closest friend, Andy knows Miranda could never trust or respect a bot like herself. For some reason, that realization is excruciating. Andy has to leave.
-She expects to be immediately hunted down and reprogrammed or melted down; after all, AssistantBots can't just disappear. She's shocked to receive a communication that she's been "purchased" by a private party, and even more surprised to be informed that she has an interview at a newspaper. Arriving at the interview, she passes as an augmented human--and learns that Miranda Priestly has given her a glowing recommendation (by calling her her "greatest disappointment").
-Andy emerges from the interview as a free person. Suddenly, there are endless possibilities available to her. She looks across the street and there's Miranda, watching her with that familiar impassive expression. But Andy, who by all rights should be an impersonal robot, knows what Miranda is thinking. When Miranda disappears into her car, Andy knows she's smiling. And when the car pulls up alongside her and the door opens in invitation, Andy gets in.