Here's two passages from my WIP, that I'm fond of.
Ghost is a robot. Keeper is a wizard.
1.
*****
As soon as they came in, Ghost approached Keeper of the Umbrellas, cornering her between the table and two chairs.
“No more running away! Let me see.”
Keeper sighed, but allowed Ghost to inspect her artificial eye.
“Now move it slowly from left to right… And back… Now do an orbital motion. Okay, faster…”
Keeper obliged. There was no escape, really.
“The movements are fine,” murmured Ghost, her face now almost touching Keeper’s. “Don’t blink, I need to run some tests.”
She brought her index finger towards Keeper’s face. Several thin wires extended from it and connected to the artificial eye, which was immediately filled with a red glow, making Keeper look uncharacteristically sinister. Fiamma snickered.
“Ghost, the eye is perfect,” said Keeper, rolling her other, living eye, “and it was already perfect the last time you assaulted me. Not everything in life must be a scientific experiment.”
“Does not compute. Life is a scientific experiment.”
She detached the wires and took a step back, observing Keeper’s face critically.
“Also, I wouldn’t have to ‘assault’ you, if you just got on with the test program.”
“You wanted me to spend half an hour every day on it,” said Keeper, blinking experimentally, “You know I’m a busy person.”
“Could you test it on weekends at least?”
“Would you stop ambushing me if I did it on weekends?”
“I’ll make no such promises. By the way, I’ll have to replace the lens and some of the electronics.”
Keeper sighed again.
“I felt no difference whatsoever after the last time you replaced things.”
“I’m improving the eye performance under edge conditions. You’ll thank me when you have to use a sniper rifle in the fog.”
“Since when am I using firearms!?”
2.
*****
“Something is not right,” said Keeper, rising from the couch.
She went to Ghost and extended a hand above the cake. Several small objects shot out of it and hung in the air. Among them was a measuring spoon, a couple of integrated circuits and a syringe, complete with a needle.
“How did you get all of these in there?” asked Keeper.
“I have no idea,” said Ghost, looking extremely surprised.
Fiamma chuckled. “I think I’ll pass on that one.”
“No, I believe the cake is fine now,” said Keeper, lowering the foreign objects to the table. “Do cut me a piece, Ghost. Just don’t leave the knife inside.”
The cake turned out to be delicious, although Kio chewed every piece with extreme care, half expecting to encounter a razor or a shard of glass. He wondered whether Ghost did this on purpose. It was not like her to miss small details. Then again, Ghost was weird.