THE MOMENT
A father and daughter walked along a beach on a cool, sunny afternoon. They were on the way to a particular destination, and it'd been a full day of bouncing around between several locations and talking to dozens of people before that point. For Aurelio, the father, he was focused on a mission, and didn't mind the tagalong who could more or less take care of herself. For 23, the daughter, she was happy to spend time with him alone, and she'd been asked to 'babysit' him to keep him out of trouble. It was extra funny to her that she was a 10-year-old girl and deemed the more responsible one. For Jenny, the mother currently keeping busy elsewhere, she'd arranged some quality time for the pair.
"That was a ton of quests...," 23 commented with a weary smile. She'd had a full day of gaming with her dad and was genuinely worn out. She'd never seen him really take adventuring seriously, and he was slightly amazing. They'd completed over 30 quests in fewer than 10 hours, and she barely kept up. A few quests involved raid bosses and he'd essentially solo'd them before she got to help very much. She'd learned a lot, and as her mind wound down, she was growing curious about how much was left. "What's after Ozone's?" she asked. They were getting closer to the green beach-house in the distance, Ozone's shop.
"He's the last stop," Aurelio nodded.
"Oh," she was mildly surprised. She'd been trying to piece together what her dad might be working on to show off her astuteness, but she had yet to solve the grocery list of drops they'd collected. A lot of the easier items were used in crafting, the traditional monster parts and leathers, but they also collected powerful spell scrolls, a dozen legendary weapons, and impossibly rare odds and ends. They were all items that had many uses and were always in high demand, but there was no single goal she could conceive from the assortment. "So... what are you working on?" she asked. The mild defeat of not being able to figure it out stung a bit as she resorted to asking.
"Nothing," Aurelio said. He turned and smiled at her. "There's a question involved," he said.
"What?" 23 was too tired to make sense of it and decided to just ask. "Unicorn horns, dragon scales, holy swords... everything we collected...," she gestured forward as a clear glass Slate took shape and listed their inventory. "All of this... just because you asked one question?"
"What?" Aurelio shook his head with a laugh. "No. Think about where we're going...," he reminded her.
"Huh? OH!" 23 smiled and shook her head. "Sorry, kind of exhausted," she said.
"Uhuh," Aurelio nodded. "It's fine, but make sure you pay attention when we get there. It's important to come prepared; you should know how to deal with Ozone, too."
"I will!" 23 nodded enthusiastically. It was a simple mistake, but those had the chance of being the most catastrophic. She was so distracted by Aurelio doing something with the items himself, that she hadn't considered they were just as useful to others. And, she knew they were headed to Ozone's at some point. She should've been able to figure it out as soon as he said it was their last stop.
All their running around to collect items wasn't because he asked a question. Ozone traded in information, and he wanted to be sure he had anything he might want. 23 giggled as she reframed her statement. “All this, because you wanted to ask a question.”