British slang help?

[shimotsuki]

The madness at work continues! I owe an "Eight Things" meme, and lots of comments on interesting posts, and I haven't even read the tantalizing, tantalizing Jumble post I know is waiting at metamorfic_moon. Let's hope that this weekend -- in between events related to the fact that my little cousin, whose diapers/nappies I have in fact changed, is getting married (!?) -- I will have a chance to hang out around the f-list a little more.

But for now: I was wondering if I could ask the Britspeakers for some help with slang.

I need a slangy, casual way to describe someone who is experiencing the effects of a stimulant, and whose personality and/or [ETA: should have said and also] physical state is noticeably altered as a result. (Don't worry, no illegal substances, hee -- it's in reference to my Strengthening Solution prompt.) In the US, we might say something like the following:

He's all strung out on Strengthening Solution.

Does this work in British English? If not, or if there's something better, I would love to hear suggestions. (I'm not crazy about the double str-, anyway, so alternatives would be very welcome.) It's Tonks who is speaking this line, and she's feeling a little protective of the strung-out person (guess who!) and irritated by the person asking questions about it, if that helps.

Thanks! :)

Hope everyone has a great weekend, and good luck with the Jumble posts to all of you who are writing/drawing them -- hope they're going better than mine is at the moment. ;)
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Comments

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

"All strung out" does work, and we'd use it as slang like that. I've been trying to think of an alternative that would sound any better - apart from, "He's high on..." the only other one I've come up with is "Spaced out on." Which, again, is slang for being elated or stupefied as a result of a stimulant.

You didn't mention this coming under General! LOL.

And I haven't started mine yet so I can't say it's going that well... ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Thanks! Those are all things we would say, too, but I'm always wary of assuming when slang is involved. Anyway, it's good to have a few options to play around with. I think I'm still liking "strung out" best right now, because (at least to me) that one has the strongest implication that there are physical as well as mental oddnesses going on.

You didn't mention this coming under General! LOL.

Well, there isn't any genre tag for "chemically altered"... ;) I figure that if Strengthening Solution didn't have any side effects, werewolves would just gulp it down and bounce right back from those full moons every month!

Good luck with yours. Mine currently exists only as a few paragraphs for a scene that has since been completely rethought, heh.

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

I figure that if Strengthening Solution didn't have any side effects, werewolves would just gulp it down and bounce right back from those full moons every month!

For such fearsome Dark creatures, they're a bit fragile, really! I saw a list of questions once that children would like JKR to answer after PoA, and one child wanted to know why, if Professor Lupin just slept as a wolf on the Wolfsbane, he was still so tired afterwards...

And I meant to say, I hope the wedding goes well. :) Just think what a horrendous speech you could make to embarrass your cousin. LOL.

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

For such fearsome Dark creatures, they're a bit fragile, really!

Oh, I know! (turning into canon-analysis-geek for a second here) I've always more or less assumed that the transformation itself uses up enormous reserves of energy, but the wolf, for whatever magical reason, doesn't feel the effects of that, so it all lands hard on the human form afterward. And what if the only way to really make up for that energy loss is to eat humans during the full moon? That would make things interesting, given that Greyback is so burly. (Ewww.)

I hope the wedding goes well. :)

Thanks! My cousin is a sweet gentle soul who is almost painfully shy, though, so I think I'll be nice and not make that speech. ;) (And I should say that I was only about thirteen when I used to babysit for her, so I'm not that old, right?)

I also accidentally let her fall into a lake once (over her head, briefly!) when she was about one and a half, but there seems to have been no permanent harm done...

[hrymfaxe.livejournal.com]

And what if the only way to really make up for that energy loss is to eat humans during the full moon? That would make things interesting, given that Greyback is so burly.

Eeeeww indeed! I have also thought that one of the differences between Remus and Greyback is that the latter embrace his lycantropy while the other fights it with everyhting he has. The mental effect of despising a part of yourself (though it is completely understandable) must be destructive and draining.

Have a nice wedding, and I'm looking forward to reading more about the side-effects of Strengthening Potion! :D I have had a new idea for my prompts and I think if I had the whole time off between now and the deadlne I might conceivably have been able to pull it off in a convincing way. ;)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

The mental effect of despising a part of yourself (though it is completely understandable) must be destructive and draining.

That makes a lot of sense.

I think if I had the whole time off between now and the deadlne I might conceivably have been able to pull it off in a convincing way. ;)

I know! How dare actual life responsibilities get in the way of our hobbies!

I look forward to seeing what you come up with, though. :)

[gilpin25.livejournal.com]

(And I should say that I was only about thirteen when I used to babysit for her, so I'm not that old, right?)

No, you're definitely not. The time to really worry is when you're a Great-aunt and not, as I'd like to be, simply a very young great aunt. ;)

Re Remus and Greyback: I always imagine Remus resisting the transformation into a werewolf, and Greyback embracing it, so possibly Remus is using up even more energy in fighting the inevitable till the last minute... As for Greyback being burly - the implications aren't nice, are they?

How was the wedding? :)

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

So of course it just now hit me that my cousin and I are exactly the ages of Tonks and Remus, circa HBP. Heh.

The time to really worry is when you're a Great-aunt and not, as I'd like to be, simply a very young great aunt. ;)

Oh, you have nothing to worry about on that score! Very, very young indeed. ;) I've got a while before I have to worry about the Great-aunt thing myself, since I won't even be an aunt until probably January.

How was the wedding? :)

Lovely -- thanks for asking! As an actual Catholic wedding, it was a lot more traditional than the ones of my own friends that I've been to in recent years. But the gowns and decorations were lovely, and the priest said nice things, and the reception was fun. And most importantly, the bride and groom just couldn't stop smiling, which was lovely to see. (Also, several different waiters and waitresses made comments to me or someone near me about how polite and civil we were being at the reception, which really made me wonder what kinds of wedding receptions they usually get at that country club!)

Now I'm off to see if I can get anything written for my Meta fic -- I had two days' worth of driving to ruminate, as it's eight hours each way to where my cousins live -- but will any of my ideas turn out to work? ;)

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

I see you've already got suggestions, but I have others that might be more casual: wasted on, totally gone on, or off his face on. I can see Tonks using the latter, probably :).

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

Not like I would actually know (sigh), but doesn't "wasted on" sound more like someone's spaced out and mellow than like what you'd get from something that's a stimulant? Or maybe that's a US thing.

off his face on. I can see Tonks using the latter, probably :)

Oh, I like that one! :) Thanks for the suggestions.

[jdbracknell.livejournal.com]

Yep, that would be about right, in my crowd anyway (different groups have different slang over here, far more so than in the US I think). Wasted would normally apply to excessive drink or weed (regardless of the reaction, whether you're chill or aggro - so you might hear 'he was behaving like a twat, but he was totally wasted' etc,), as a rule, while off your face would be coke, speed or ectasy. I hear a lot of stuff that's drug specific 'he was whizzing his tits off', 'she was coked to the eyeballs' etc, which it might be fun to make up?

[shimotsuki.livejournal.com]

off your face would be coke, speed or ectasy

That sounds like just the kind of implication I was looking for. ;) Thanks!

I hear a lot of stuff that's drug specific 'he was whizzing his tits off', 'she was coked to the eyeballs' etc, which it might be fun to make up?

Oh, it would! But probably not in this context -- what I'll be writing is more like a bad reaction to medication, really, rather than being all stoked up (there's another one) on a drug by choice. I just wanted Tonks to have something kind of sarcastic to say about it.