Three rum and cokes later...
I admitted to my advisor (and friend and other professors) that I started to help construct this language because we were talking about sci-fi fandom type things and she teased me for never reading the Harry Potter books (she's a long-time tenured professor in anthropology.... hahaha, sigh.) I had to redeem my geekness by playing the "I'm helping to construct a fictive language" card.
Apparently good professors encourage hobbies and extreme geekdome.