Ok... been thinking about it.
If I was to make a Sci-fi universe, my quirk would be that there was not some universal translator. so you wouldn't be able to understand an alien race, and they wouldn't be able to understand you.
My example;
Jane was abducted at 7 years of age and kept in a cacoon like thing on an alien space ship to preserve her until the ship, which had been sent throughout the universe collecting samples of other lives for study. But on the way back something happens and the aliens all end up dead, and one by one the containtment containers fail, until at last there are only two, Janes and another alien child. Their containtment chambers open (for whatevr reason). The only problem is that neither of the children can understand each other, or the ship they are in, and have to somehow get the ship to work and build their trust. In the end, they are too far from their galaxies and are in fact in a very futuristic type of place, where they understand absolutely nothing.
I have this vision of 'Chamelon' being able to only communicate through the changing of skin colour, so each colour respresents certain feelings, so Jane over time has to learn which colour means what, and Cham needs to learn what Janes bizare mouth sounds mean. they literally will never be able to communicate in each others language, and are in a place where no one has ever seen either race before. And of course they grow up to be awsome space pirates... or something...
Because all too often in alien adventures they all speak perfect english, or have translators, as a study into how people adapt I find it frustrating.
