Funeral In Berlin x The X Files

When an intelligence agent is framed for the UK’s role in a temporal disaster, he must clear his name and seal a lethal time rift - before a Russian spy from the future gets everyone killed.

#PosterPit #A #Q #SF #T

Solid choice. (Especially if you can play with that structure a bit using #TimeTravel 😈)

So learning the local language is central to the story. Luckily the way the MC goes about it can be used to characterize him. And the people he learns from.

As time goes on, the MC translates more into English. Except for stuff where the details matter. (E.g. 'I sympathize' vs 'I apologize'.)

3/3

Someone stranded in a millennia-diverged timeline will have zero languages in common with anyone there.

Jim's an anthropology postdoc. He's even worked with minimally-contacted tribes. About the only profession that *could* potentially survive such a thing.

2/3

#ConlangApril 21:

#Conlangs are often worldbuilding 'decoration & spice' in fiction - because many (most?) readers don't have patience for linguistic niceties. Generally someone's bilingual, or there's 'universal translators,' or whatever.

I wanted to avoid shortcuts. No convenience tropes.

1/3

Which affects education - boys will be married off eventually, so higher education for them goes mainly to the wealthy. Great talent is sometimes enough... though not as often as it should be. Of course, no man will become an actual *deacon* at a Temple of Knowledge.

3/3

Clans are matriarchal, and matrilineal. The matriarch is in charge - but men often have a lot of power within the home. Depending. That's (strong) custom, anyway. Legally, things are more clear-cut; men are always the responsibility of *some* woman or another.

2/3

#AprilWorldBuilders 21:

Family - well, *clan* - is a big part of the culture, and a huge part of a person's life. One has responsibilities and duties to one's clan, and the clan owes tings to the individual member.

Though there are a few differences. Mostly in whose considerations are valid.

1/3

Nusuku led our group off to the side, to where three other women and a young man stood waiting. They were all examining me intently. Nusuku indicated the whole group. “These women will thy claim test.” She gave me a stern look, and asked, “Wilt thou to cooperate promise?” I was examining the women. Middle-aged, mostly–Atosho was the youngest at maybe thirty–and focused. I had no idea about the clothing, but I had a decent impression they were all some variety of professors or academic researchers. Maybe one of them was a physicist? That I could ask about Time Eyes? Feeling a smidgen of actual hope, I nodded. “Promise.” I wasn’t going to get a better deal, I felt sure.

#WIPSnips 21: deal

Jim's in a particularly poor negotiating position, here in an alien timeline.

#SciFi #ScienceFiction

Where English has words like 'dignity,' 'honor,' 'duty,' etc., Lihnahchoo just has 'neemoyaro.' (Compare English 'love' with Greek 'agape,' 'philia,' 'eros,' 'storge,' etc.)

Anyway, a lot of things are compared to electrical phenomena. E.g. 'deh,' 'spiritual power/energy.'

Even dirty slang. 🙄

2/2

#AprilWorldBuilders 20: Symbols/motifs used in their culture

Obviously electrical metaphors are all over the culture. Their word 'neemoyaro' literally means something like "moral voltage (feminine)," and most closely corresponds to English 'honor.'

Except not *just* 'honor.'

1/2
#Conlangs #SciFi

‘Neemohbay,’ ‘active voltage,’ means ‘voltage actively pushing a current.’ Obviously, this is a very common metaphor for ‘force’ or ‘impetus’ or ‘compulsion.’ But also just 'action.'

4/4

'Has no urge to move' is literally expressed as the pig 'feeling only teemohkah,' 'passive voltage.'

Voltage is the pressure that pushes electrical current. ‘Teemohkah’ is like a battery not hooked up to anything. There’s voltage available, but no current is flowing.

3/4

It's partially translated when it appears, but there's a phrase that kinda means "A well-fed pig in a wallow has no urge to move." It's said about someone who's regarded as too comfortable to take action, though they have the power to.

Electrical metaphors are all over the language, though.

2/4

#ConlangApril 20

There's a few. Their 'good night' means 'restful slumber,' and 'good morning' means 'bright beginning (to your day)'.

An aphorism Jim hears is "ziDoiseemay ray doilo ray doisapi, seeda doikicho tamu.” Roughly, ‘Hunger, thirst, and weariness give poor advice.’

1/4

I had to have Manayka help me ask the questions, but it solved a mystery for me. My blood chemistry didn’t show any diagnosed abnormalities, not the common ones the scanners were ‘trained’ to spot automatically. That was apparently the reason the Achapo assholes hadn’t put me on antipsychotics or tranquilizers. From their perspective, my problems had been psychological, not medical.

#WIPSnips 20:

The advanced medicine in the new timeline doesn't cancel out some of the less-advanced elements of this society. At least, not for Jim.

#SciFi

Well, yeah, from that perspective he's The World's Greatest Authority on lots of things. 90's sitcoms. Classical music. Auto repair. French cooking (even if he's never done that). On and on... 😐

Those ideas can get lost if you don't de that! I have a file on my phone that I jot down reminders in, whenever I think of a good or potentially-good idea.

#ConlangApril 19: Language evolution

The *idea* is everywhere, though few specifics are covered. Lihnahchoo has some PIE influences, but has developed in different directions, and had influences from languages that went extinct in our timeline.

The radical contingency of history's a central theme.

#AprilWorldBuilders 19:

Soldiers are women, they being far more dangerous than men. (Before gunpowder arose, there were places for men in combat; mostly as archers, but sometimes in a spear line.)

Fortunately, in modern times men are spared that trauma. Which they're ill-suited for anyway, right?

#TimeTravelAuthors April 2026 1. Introduce your story (optional: as a knock-knock or other joke) 3. What kind of coffee/caffeinated beverage do your characters like? (suggested by Candace Hill) 5. Games in your story 7. How seriously do they take time travel? 9. Will your characters admit they're wrong? 11. Saturday excerpt (optional word: point) 13. Silliest character 15. Wednesday POST-SIZED snippet (optional word: sink/sank) (suggested by NaraMoore) 17. How do you feel about story structure? 19. Any authorities in your story? 21. Repost or reply to another #TimeTravelAuthors participant's post 23. Do your characters test time travel? 25. Saturday excerpt (optional word: alert/observe/observant) 27. Message/moral of your story 29. Author's choice/promo All time-travel authors and published works, WIPs, etc. welcome! To join, just answer the prompts on odd days, using the hashtag #TimeTravelAuthors On even days, post what you like! Questions? @juliebihn.bsky.social or @juliebihn.mastodon.social

#TimeTravelAuthors 19: Any authorities in your story?

Everything from police detectives to academics who are authorities in their field. Only some of whom take any pity - let alone any interest - in Jim.

#SciFi #TimeTravel

The first shirt he put on me felt a bit loose, more like the clothes I was used to. But then he used little clips to tighten it up in a few places. After that, it went into a box about the size of a dishwasher. He told it my measurements verbally. When the shirt came out, it was custom-tailored according to those clips and measurements. At least, tailored close enough, given how the fabric itself could ‘fine tune’ to the wearer. Shortly after, some pants got the same treatment. When the next pants came out, though… I was startled, and had to ask. “Other… color?” They both squinted at me. “Chay. Color… change,” Manayka said. The clothes now matched what seemed to be his signature shades: pink, purple, and greenish-blue. (Maybe ‘teal?’)

#WIPSnips 19: signature

People stick with 'clan colors' in this culture. Jim McAllister's unusual, as someone from our world who actually *has* a clan with colors.

#SciFi

A four-tier wedding cake in white buttercream frosting. The tiers are decorated with elaborate piping, also in white, as ribbons and flowers. A custom cake topper is on top, a bride and groom with individualized faces.

A three-tier cake in white frosting. Black, silver, and gold balls are arranged in clusters on various tiers. A gold "Happy Birthday Melissa" cutout is on the middle tier. From the bottom to the top, a stream of gold numbers count up from one, reaching forty-nine just at top side edge. On the top tier is a large gold "50” cutout.

Delivered a couple cakes today. (Four-tier cakes are *heavy*. 😁) #cake #food

Nice intersection of grammatical gender and cultural attitudes!

Fox and Av'ry! A red haired woman wielding a flame and a dark haired man with a glow stick stand in draconic ruins, near a waterfall into a deep chasm. Art by Nushdeco

Exciting news! I just got my first art piece of Fox and Av'ry! (From @nushdeco.bsky.social )

I love it, and am very glad to finally introduce them to everyone this way!

Please meet Fox and Av'ry! 🥰

#DawnsBlood

In practice, the information is out there. Men care for domestic animals, if nothing else. 🙄 So at least the mechanics are clear - though scrambled by a certain amount of rumor and myth.

Jim is warned not to discuss the topic at all in public. Ever. And he has strong reason to be polite.

2/2

#AprilWorldBuilders 18:

Birth is a sacred mystery for the culture Jim lands in. It takes place at a Temple of Family, and males are excluded. That isn't *un*common, in our world.

But the actual *process* of parturition is taboo for men; they're not supposed to even know any details.

1/2

#ConlangApril 18. Formality and registers

Lihnahchoo has formal and familiar address. Nothing too special there. Although, there's a minor linguistic joke in a footnote about that very thing... 😀

#SciFi #Conlangs

The other woman laughed before she answered. “I shall simply say it seems rather more likely that this is the fabrication of a mental patient. Perhaps the poor boy was treated dishonorably; but he has created an elaborate fantasy to escape the guilt for his crime. If he is a noble[1] from a faraway land where men rule women, he cannot be blamed for killing the guard.” [1] I had never claimed to be any kind of nobility. My attitude and demeanor were consistent with it, but what really gave that implication was my implied request for special consideration from the courts. That was something attempted almost exclusively by nobles.

#WIPSnips 18: fantasy

The genre is actually #ScienceFiction, but Jim's story *sounds* like a fantasy.

#SciFi #TimeTravel

Certainly in warrior subcultures! Humans like to show off in culturally-approved ways. 🙄