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Can you feel the fire?

It burns us up;
Then it starts feeling fine.
It becomes a place of hope,
Where we endlessly rest in agony.

Now tell me, friend,
after all we've been through,
what have we become?

Quasihint 1:

A lot of people aren't paying attention to the tags.

Real hint 1:

The final answer will be a single word that will adequately describe what we have become after our experience in the fire.

It's been awhile since I showed my face around these parts. Here's a poem to help me get back in the swing of things! :)

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  • $\begingroup$ what kind of answer do you expect? $\endgroup$ – lois6b Aug 2 '16 at 7:42
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    $\begingroup$ @lois6b I expect to know what we've become after all this! :) Actually though, I'll wait a few moments to see if someone solves it without a prompt before I give one. $\endgroup$ – Bailey M Aug 2 '16 at 7:45
  • $\begingroup$ riddle ?. $\endgroup$ – Mithical Aug 2 '16 at 8:16
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    $\begingroup$ So many answers and none of them pays attention to the cryptic-clue tag. :) $\endgroup$ – M Oehm Aug 2 '16 at 16:33
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    $\begingroup$ @BaileyM How does "burn up" result in switching letters? To me it sounds more like burning = removing letters $\endgroup$ – Avigrail Aug 2 '16 at 21:26
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I want to guess

sufferers

It burns us up;

us backwards gives "su"

Then it starts feeling fine.

The phrase feeling fine starts with two "f"'s, so "ff"

It becomes a place of hope,

The ER is a place of hope, I guess, so "er"

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

rest without its end is "res", and in agony could imply that we need to rearrange the letters, so get "ers".

So

Altogether this gives sufferers, which goes along with the "agony" line at the end as well as the concept of "feeling the fire."

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    $\begingroup$ Someone had a look at the cryptic-clues tag, finally. Bravo! $\endgroup$ – Bailey M Aug 2 '16 at 20:57
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    $\begingroup$ @Bailey: Nice puzzle! I'm a bit annoyed by some of the useless words, though - for instance, "it burns" and "becomes". $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 21:01
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    $\begingroup$ @Deusovi "burns up" is meant to be the full clue. As for "becomes", I have no excuse! $\endgroup$ – Bailey M Aug 2 '16 at 21:14
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    $\begingroup$ @Deusovi I agree. I find it hard to spot the functional words. It's always difficult to use several techniques within one riddle that's why they should ideally be easy to confirm on the way. $\endgroup$ – Avigrail Aug 2 '16 at 21:24
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what have we become?

an alcoholic.

It burns us up;

alcohol can burn going down.

Then it starts feeling fine.

but it quickly makes us feel better.

It becomes a place of hope,

it can give you false hope/liquid courage.

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

an alcoholic's life is generally quite agonizing.

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    $\begingroup$ Very good one ! $\endgroup$ – Avigrail Aug 2 '16 at 14:49
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    $\begingroup$ -1 since this does not make any reference to the [cryptic-clues] tag. $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 20:59
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What have we become?

Desperate after trying to solve riddles

It burns us up

It looks fun and entertaining

Then it starts feeling fine.

We have an idea and try to make it fit to the riddle

It becomes a place of hope,

It looks really good! Maybe I got the solution?

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

And close to the end: F*** it... I was wrong :D

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  • $\begingroup$ lateral-thinking lol $\endgroup$ – lois6b Aug 2 '16 at 7:55
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A work in progress:

Perhaps the clue "become" means that each line you change the word going from Hearth to Heat

It burns us up;

Hearth?

Then it starts feeling fine.

Health? Healthy?

It becomes a place of hope,

Heaven? Haven

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

Heavy Heart or Hearse?

Now tell me, friend,

Hearty

after all we've been through, what have we become?

Heat

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  • $\begingroup$ I like this approach a lot, let's see if the correct series comes out. $\endgroup$ – Aioros Aug 2 '16 at 12:43
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Based on Keeta's work (sorry for my bad english, I used Google translate a lot) it could be :

It burns us up;

Heat

Then it starts feeling fine.

+r +h makes Hearth

It becomes a place of hope,

-r +l makes Health

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

-a -t -h +l makes Hell (I'm not sure of this one as it changes a lot of letters)

what have we become?

Either you take the (+) added letters and you can make HART which according to Google is a deer (I'm really not an english speaker but yeah, I know it feels kind of like cheating...), or you can try to use all the letters but I don't find a word that does. It could be "thrall" 'cause I think it means something like slave (what have we become, enslaved by money) but otherwise I don't know.

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I think this could be...

Ashes

Can you feel the fire?

I hope not

It burns us up; Then it starts feeling fine.

Our bodies are set on fire and then our body is ash (but hopefully we don't actually feel it...)

It becomes a place of hope, Where we endlessly rest in agony.

Concepts of the afterlife, hoping it is a good place to spend eternity

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  • $\begingroup$ i was thinking of ashes placed in a container too (dunno the english name for that :p) $\endgroup$ – Walfrat Aug 2 '16 at 11:05
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    $\begingroup$ @Walfrat Typically, the ashes of a cremated person are placed in an urn, which is a vase like container. $\endgroup$ – hypern Aug 2 '16 at 11:08
  • $\begingroup$ thanks for the word i though about it but was not sure. $\endgroup$ – Walfrat Aug 2 '16 at 11:10
  • $\begingroup$ -1 since this does not make any reference to the [cryptic-clues] tag. $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 20:59
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Quite of a long shot:

Angels?

Can you feel the fire?

It burns us up;

The sun in the sky, can burn you if exposed for a long time

Then it starts feeling fine.

But it feels fine when it's a sunny day

It becomes a place of hope,

The sky, is something to reach (for catholics?). A place to go after death

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

After we die, we endlessly rest, not in agony tho? Dunno, you are dead

Now tell me, friend, after all we've been through, what have we become?

Angels, or dead people in the sky. Not sure if everyone who dies and goes to heaven becomes an angel

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  • $\begingroup$ -1 since this does not make any reference to the [cryptic-clues] tag. $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 20:59
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I'm going to say...

Any political office, but especially Congress

It burns us up;

Everyone hates Congress - or some elected official - for what they do.

Then it starts feeling fine.

After they've been around for awhile though, you forget about them entirely.

It becomes a place of hope,

When a new elected official takes place, everyone has high hopes for them.

Where we endlessly rest in agony.

But then they become incumbent and stagnant, and our opinion drops back down.

Now tell me, friend, after all we've been through, what have we become?

The worst possible thing - a government. ;)

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    $\begingroup$ -1 since this does not make any reference to the [cryptic-clues] tag. $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 20:59
  • $\begingroup$ @Deusovi Clearly I need to pay more attention to the tags next time. $\endgroup$ – Zibbobz Aug 3 '16 at 12:45
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It could be

the seasons.

It burns us up

Summer

Then it starts feeling fine

Fall when things start to cool off.

It becomes a place of Hope

the end of Fall/Early winter holiday season where we have Thanksgiving, Christmas and other Holidays.

Where we rest in agony

Winter where its freezing cold and many people are in agony. Also the winter months are traditionally when many people stay

What have we become?

The seasons/a year, or winter specificly if we stop where we are at the last line

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    $\begingroup$ -1 since this does not make any reference to the [cryptic-clues] tag. $\endgroup$ – Deusovi♦ Aug 2 '16 at 20:59

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