A Story of Coincidence and Chance

Hmmm -- taking the "alleric" phrases totally within their own context, there's usually nothing wrong with them. Those own contexts do include a lot of *internal* context that isn't going to be immediately apparent. Claremont has an internal context of "I need to look at the placement of this character into the whole story in a way that doesn't presume male to be default." This context is special to the question, for Claremont. If another listener is processing the question, that internal context for that particular question is absent, and may instead fall into a different internal context of "'Is there a reason not $FOO?' is often a polite request for $FOO", which can make Claremont self-reminder into a repetative request.