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Leave me alone! For I am warm and content in my prison.
I am the very essence that defines you, you would be a clammy fool without me!
And yet you use me, expecting that I will not react coldly to your presence.
Abuse me, and I'll burn your stupid house down.

What am I?

Hint #1

There are ways to not be clammy

Hint #2

I exist only from the 20th century onwards

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    $\begingroup$ I removed the swear word, as the site policy doesn't want anything that explicit $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 17:38

4 Answers 4

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Guess #2.

If you aren't Heat, then maybe you are Electricity.

I will not be taken lightly

This title could be a play on words, referring to electric-powered lights.

Leave me alone! For I am warm and content in my prison.

Touching live currents can result in a painful (or lethal) shock. It is warm because electric potential energy can be converted to thermal energy (also, metals with high resistance will heat up when current passes through them). As for the "prison", this could refer to wires (which contain current), batteries (which contain voltage), or capacitors (which contain charge). Yes, I realize that's not an accurate description of electricity, but it's a riddle, ok?

I am the very essence that defines you, you would be a clammy fool without me!

The human nervous system, as well as the heart's ability to beat on its own, relies on electrical signals. Without those signals (e.g., brain failure), a person would be dead, resulting in a clammy, mindless corpse.

And yet you use me, expecting that I will not react coldly to your presence.

Electricity powers almost all of our technology. The word "coldly" means "negatively" or "harshly", as in a not-properly-grounded electric current that shocks a person who touches it.

Abuse me, and I'll burn your stupid house down.

Faulty wiring can result in sparks or overheated metal, which in turn may result in house fires.

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  • $\begingroup$ two of your guesses are dead on $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 20:19
  • $\begingroup$ How? There is one guess as to what it is, and he's explaining why for each line $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 20:33
  • $\begingroup$ @n_palum I meant 'hint interpretation', sorry $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 22:15
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    $\begingroup$ nope not heat or electricity $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 22:16
  • $\begingroup$ I really liked the electricity answer too.. Nice $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented Feb 25, 2017 at 18:53
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I think it's:

Uranium

I will not be taken lightly, because:

Uranium is heavy.

Warm and content in my prison:

A nuclear reactor

Essence of you:

Chemical symbol is U.

Clammy:

Um. Houses heated by nuclear energy?

Not react coldly:

Cold fusion

Abuse me:

KABOOM!

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  • $\begingroup$ Not Uranium, sorry $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Mar 2, 2017 at 11:38
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Are you

Fire?

Leave me alone! For I am warm and content in my prison.

Shouldn't touch fire, very warm and are kept in fireplace

I am the very essence that defines you, you would be a clammy fool without me!

You need heat otherwise you'd be 'clammy'. Maybe something to do with fire, water, earth and air, the four alchemy symbols

And yet you use me, expecting that I will not react coldly to your presence.

Humans use fire, and we expect it to be hot

Abuse me, and I'll burn your stupid house down.

If you don't control it it will burn everything

And the title:

Gas needed to burn

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  • $\begingroup$ I thought about this, but couldn't quite figure out how to make it work with being "your essence". I also thought it could be blood, but I couldn't make that fit with abuse/burn the house down :/ $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 17:39
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    $\begingroup$ @n_palum maybe something to do with fire, water, earth, air? $\endgroup$
    – Beastly Gerbil
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 17:40
  • $\begingroup$ Oh I guess you could swing it like that. The four elements are occasionally referenced as being someone's essence. Or when people are intensely passionate they are often described as having a "fire within" them $\endgroup$
    – n_plum
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 17:44
  • $\begingroup$ 1 of your guesses are dead on $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Feb 24, 2017 at 20:20
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It's been a week -- answer time. (Apologies if this was not a well-crafted riddle.)

The Answer is:

Deodorant

I will not be taken lightly, because:

Deodorant is often sprayed in excess.

Leave me alone! For I am warm and content in my prison

The gas is at room temperature within the canister

I am the very essence that defines you, you would be a clammy fool without me!

Essence refers to body odor, and clammy fool refers to sweat and the anti-antiperspirant properties of deodorant.

And yet you use me, expecting that I will not react coldly to your presence.

Once sprayed, the gas expands in volume and reduces in temperature making it feel cold to human skin.

Abuse me, and I'll burn your stupid house down.

Flammable gas, dangerous if misused.

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    $\begingroup$ How are two of the "electricity" interpretations "dead on"? $\endgroup$
    – Donnelle
    Commented Mar 5, 2017 at 20:54
  • $\begingroup$ @Donnelle The answer for that one was initially heat, where iirc it was correctly guessed that heat misused could burn a house down. Im not sure what the other hint was since the answer was modified $\endgroup$
    – tetris11
    Commented Mar 7, 2017 at 0:01

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