If Plutarch asks, being ever so polite: "If Freddy isn't Unready, then please set me straight. What has he been ready for?", then that is bad, because it outrages Clara Lou that: "...the rest of us have to meet your demand for 'explanations.'"
But if Clara Lou asks "Did you have any other criticism, perhaps a bit more on point?", than that is good, because she is merely demurely "asking this question."
I know you can READ.
Indeed. And what I read from this is the Clara Lou raven chides Plutarch's blackness.
Yes—isn’t it something? It’s amazing the distinction that English-speakers draw between the meaning of “ask” and “demand.” The former is generally regarded as polite and non-agressive, the latter carrying a tone of assertiveness and authoritarianism. People almost always are more willing to respond to a question than they are to respond to a demand.