How to explain? From the beginning? No. Too much.
I had this episode during my last session that turned into a comedy sketch and I want to try to share this. No you won't get the same impact that the players had, but it was one of the best bits of (unintentional) comedy I've been involved with (or observed).
The RPG group has been going for about 3 years now and there's a lot of back story built up. The player for the ships Captain/Team Commander has been here for about half of it, but I recently introduced two Twi'lek women NPC's to the crew and both were rescued by this particular team. But we're going to focus on Aliz'Fama (YES I use that one fantasy name generator).
Aliz has been pretty quiet up til now and her assigned job on the ship CROC is the loadmaster. However, the PC's have noticed passively that Aliz tends to sleep around a bit. There have been encounters with a couple of the other NPC crew members and she helps 'entertain' passengers (so far). I also get a chance to break out with my outrageous Monty Python-esque bad French accent when playing the Twi'leks.
And as the crew was supervising the loading of their current cargo, Aliz approached the captain and asked if they could meet after they were underway . . . in his cabin. (It's a dual use space where the Captain has a shared office and we've used the space for private meetings. Especially after they learned that there is an ISB agent on board, the PC's have used the space to coordinate sensitive meetings).
The Captain gets a bit uneasy with the request (in character I assume) and asks if this is a 'private' request.
And playing on the emerging paranoia, Aliz reports that "Oui! This is MOST private request."
Okay shift your gears. She didn't go there.
This is the important bit. When I was developing the Twi'lek race (and specifically for these two Twi'leks) I invented a concept that I call Dottir. I can't recall the exact linguistic gyrations that got me to that word, but to be quick, it's a reverse concept to what you recognize as the word "dowry." (IIRC Dottir may be a variation or root for the word Dowry), BUT as a society, I figured that Dottir would be a payment made to the parents of a Twi'lek as they were either bonded in marriage or sold off to slavery.
In this campaign Aliz was kidnapped and Dottir was not paid to her parents. Subsequently, Aliz got a job, saved up money, but unable to travel, gave her Dottir to a former PC to be delivered to her father (now known as Papa'Fama).
Back to the tale.
Once the Captain understood that Aliz was putting in a vacation request, he asks "why."
Without much thought Aliz told the Captain, "I gave <Former PC> my Dottir, and I wanted to make sure my Dottir was delivered to my family. Plus it's been a couple of years and I miss my family. I want to see them once more."
"Wait WHAT? You have a Daughter?!?!?!"
"Oui? I just want to make sure my Dottir was delivered to my Papa."
And then the player made the mistake of asking who the daughter's father was.
"My Dottir belongs to my Papa."
"Wait, your FATHER is the FATHER of your Daughter?!?!?!"
Aliz got confused by his question but explained, "It is my Father's Dottir!"
There was a LOT of repeated follow up questions and the Captain kept asking about the daughter with the pronoun "her" while Aliz (not fathoming the Captain's confusion) continued to refer to her Dottir with the pronoun "it."
Here's the best bit. THE PLAYERS STILL DON'T KNOW what a Dottir is! I had assumed that the PC would talk to the other Twi'lek crew member who could have cleared up the confusion (easily) but sought the counsel of another non-Twi'lek PC equally unfamiliar with that cultural detail.
(Yes you had to be there). It was a lot of fun for all of the players and with the confusion unresolved, this may come up in the future.
And yes, the "vacation request" was approved. The crew is planning on swinging by Roon later as they have a job that will take them close enough to Roon to make that meeting possible. (I also learned that the players would love to have another meeting with Papa'Fama. So I'll have to cook up some excitement for that leg of the journey. But Roon's always been a hotbed of intrigue and trouble). 