"This smurf could see where the Machine Smurfs that Handy created were starting to make them appreciate doing hard work much less than they did before the machines came along, Narrator," Empath said.
"It still makes me wish that Clockwork Smurf never got smurfed into being anything besides a mechanical servant...not that it didn't benefit King Gerard in the slightest," Handy said.
"If Clockwork Smurf was never given a life of his own, Handy, would he truly liked the idea of serving both you and King Gerard because he had no choice but to do so?" Empath asked.
"I don't think he would be able to question that at all, Empath, but I just can't smurf him back to what he was before with what he has now in his life," Handy said.
"One of the Machine Smurfs did smurf to life, but we'll smurf to that part later on," Narrator said. "Anyway, with most of the Smurfs not content with being lazy now that they had the Machine Smurfs smurfing all their work, they were now becoming fussy and meticulous at the slightest thing that they smurf wrong...and nowhere was this better smurfed than at suppertime."
As Empath and Handy continued to listen, they saw most of the Smurfs inside the dining hall, sitting at the table and fussing over things that weren't done right.
"This plate was poorly smurfed! I smurf a spot here!"
"And I have finger smurfs on my glass here!"
"And where's my smurfing utensils, and my napkin?"
Soon the Machine Smurfs had brought in the meal and served every Smurf their portion, filling up their glasses with whatever beverage they wanted. But even then, they were still displeased.
"This food is not hot enough!"
"And this food is just too hot!"
"Smurf me up another pitcher of water! This one's got too many bubbles in it!"
"Where's the salt and pepper?"
"You call this fresh smurfberry juice? This tastes rather stale!"
But soon, after the Machine Smurfs have fixed everything according to every Smurf's liking, they began to enjoy what they were eating, saying that it's almost as good as Greedy's cooking. It was then that one of the Machine Smurfs was summoned outside to the ringing of Grouchy's bell.
"I hate smurfing with my fellow Smurfs, but I do like strawberry juice," Grouchy muttered as the Machine Smurf approached. "Here, smurf my glass."
The Machine Smurf took the glass and went to the kitchen to fill it with strawberry juice while Grouchy continued to sit outside on a bench with his arms folded and a constant scowl on his face. Moments later, the Machine Smurf returned with Grouchy's order.
"Actually, I hate strawberry juice, but I would like a glass of raspberry juice," Grouchy said. "Go smurf me some."
The Machine Smurf went back into the kitchen to change Grouchy's order while he waited in the same place, again not moving. Moments later, the Machine Smurf returned with the glass of raspberry juice.
"On the other hand, I hate raspberry juice," Grouchy said, holding up his hand to gesture that he didn't want it. "I'd rather have a glass of blueberry juice instead."
The Machine Smurf returned to the kitchen to replace Grouchy's order with a glass of blueberry juice while he remained sitting on the bench doing nothing. Soon the Machine Smurf returned with Grouchy's order.
"Never mind," Grouchy said as he got up from the bench and started to walk off. "I'm not even thirsty at all."
The Machine Smurf made some sounds as if it didn't know what to do now, and then it just collapsed on the bench, dropping the tray on the ground as Handy had just passed by to notice it.
"Okay, Grouchy, what did you smurf to this Machine Smurf that made it smurf that way?" Handy asked as he opened up a hatch to look inside.
"How should I know?" Grouchy responded. "Those things just smurf down for no apparent reason, and I'm tired. I hate that they can't just smurf up their own minds as to what to do when it comes to smurfing me."
Handy sighed as he fiddled around with the inner workings of the Machine Smurf. He wasn't sure whether to believe Grouchy or just assume that he was giving the machine a hard time with his personality. Besides that, Handy didn't know how to design the machines so that they could make decisions for themselves.
Soon the Machine Smurf was operable again. Handy closed up the hatch and watched it pick up the tray and walk back into the kitchen.
Later on, Greedy appeared outside Smurfette's door on a wagon pulled by a Machine Smurf with a picnic basket all loaded up.
"My chariot awaits you, madame, if you would kindly accept an invitation to smurf a romantic dinner for two near the waterfalls this evening," Greedy announced with a bow.
"Oooh, how gentlesmurfly of you, Greedy Smurf," Smurfette responded, sounding flattered. "Of course I will. Just give me a moment to freshen up so I can smurf my best."
Greedy watched as Smurfette went to the back of the house and disappeared behind some bushes. Some Machine Smurfs were standing by watching and holding up a curtain as Smurfette undressed herself and took a shower with one of the Machine Smurfs pouring water on her. She sang the Smurf song as she lathered herself all over and then rinsed herself off before another Machine Smurf used a couple of built-in fan rotors to dry her off.
Greedy heard the sound of the machines and wondered what was going on. Perverse curiosity got the better of him as he decided to sneak over to the back of the house and look behind the bushes to find out.
He peered through the bushes and saw that Smurfette was taking a shower. "Oh, this is just great," he said to himself, seemingly all excited. "I get to be the first Smurf who sees Smurfette completely in the..."
His thought was immediately interrupted by the sight of a Machine Smurf blocking his view and wielding a club, ready to use it on him. Greedy quickly ran off and got back into the wagon, stuffing his face full of food.
After Smurfette got completely dressed again, a Machine Smurf sprayed some perfume on her to make sure she smelled good. "Okay, Greedy Smurf, I'm ready," she announced as she emerged from behind her house.
She saw him in the wagon stuffing his face full of food. "Greedy Smurf, what are you smurfing?" she demanded.
Greedy looked at her as if he was caught sneaking his hand into the cookie jar. "Oh...sorry, Smurfette...I was just so hungry...that I couldn't wait...," he tried to explain.
Smurfette got into the wagon and looked inside the picnic basket. "You already ate half of our dinner!" she exclaimed.
"Well, I did manage to save this smurfy apple just for you," Greedy said, handing her the apple that was in his hand.
"Oh, Greedy, you are just so...so...so greedy!" Smurfette fumed as they rode off.
Empath and Handy laughed at Greedy's foiled attempt to see Smurfette without any clothes on. "Oh, poor Greedy," Empath said. "He didn't get a chance to see much of anything."
"And I thought Sneaky was the only one who likes to be a smurfing tom," Handy said.
"One could only wonder why males are so curious about the female part of the species, especially about things that females would rather keep private," Empath said. "So, Narrator, let's hear what else has happened."
"And so the Machine Smurfs continued to serve their masters, smurfing up with everything that was demanded of them," Narrator said. "Harmony had one listening to his music so that it would know how to smurf music the right way...at least what Harmony would call 'the right way'. Brainy had one listening to all his Quotations, Baker Smurf had one smurfing up baba au smurfs so that every Smurf could have one for themselves, and Painter had one smurfing up a painting for him so that he could smurf his own name on it and call it his own masteurpiesa."
"It's amazing how much those machines are capable of putting up with the habits of all those Smurfs, Narrator," Empath said. "It does give this smurf pause as to whether having similar machines in our village would be a good thing."
"Well, why wouldn't you think it would be, Empath?" Handy wondered.
"Even at night, the Machine Smurfs wouldn't be able to rest," Narrator said. "They were always at every Smurf's beck and call, with one Smurf wanting another pillow, another wanting a glass of water, a third wanting a massage, a fourth wanting a handkerchief, a fifth wanting the light smurfed off, a sixth wanting a book to read, and so on and so forth. Eventually, all this was starting to be bothersome to the Smurflings."
And as Empath and Handy watched through Narrator's story being told, the Smurflings were now walking through the village and seeing the adult Smurfs being pampered by the Machine Smurfs. They asked if any of them wanted to play, and most of them said to have the Machine Smurfs take care of them because they were too busy with their own things.
"Well, this really smurfs the big one," Snappy said in frustration. "All they care about now is having these Machine Smurfs treat them like they were Baby Smurf."
"Hefty is right, and so was Farmer," Sassette said. "We're much better off without those machines smurfing over every Smurf's life."
"I don't mind them smurfing up our beds and all," Slouchy said. "But still, all this attention they smurf to us is just a little too much."
"Hey, Smurfs, check out that machine that smurfs up all the garbage that smurfs outside," Nat said, directing their attention to the round-shaped Machine Smurf that was working the job of waste disposal.
The Smurflings watched as the waste disposal Machine Smurf placed all the garbage onto a loading receptacle that was where its mouth was located before it had closed up. The Machine Smurf made some noises that got louder before it just sat itself on the ground and opened a hatch in its rear end, ejecting what appeared to be a brick.
"Wow, did you smurf that?" Snappy said as they gathered around the brick that was ejected after the Machine Smurf had walked off. "That machine eats garbage and then just smurfs it into bricks."
"I wonder if Mason Smurf might find him useful for his job...if he still even smurfs as a brick maker," Sassette said.
"It's too bad that it doesn't smurf the garbage into chocolate bars," Slouchy said.
"Eeewww...who wants to eat a chocolate bar smurfed of garbage?" Nat asked, sticking out his tongue.
"I don't know," Slouchy said, shrugging his shoulders. "Maybe someone will smurf a better use for the bricks that it smurfs."
"And some days later, Papa Smurf finally smurfed home from his visit to Homnibus the wizard," Narrator said. "He was expecting the village to be smurfing in tiptop shape while he was gone, but what he received when he finally smurfed home was something completely different...not that the village wasn't in tiptop shape when he arrived."
Handy and Empath watched as Papa Smurf arrived in the outskirts of the village while riding on Feathers, feeling glad that he had finally returned home. However, there were some strange machine noises coming from the village that had attracted Papa Smurf's attention and made him wonder what was going on.
He had barely entered the village when he suddenly saw the Machine Smurfs running to and fro, some carrying trays of food and drink, some carrying cleaning supplies, and some carrying other things.
"What in the name of Smurf are those things?" he asked himself. He looked around and saw that there wasn't any activity from his little Smurfs going on. "And where are all my little Smurfs?"
He soon saw some sitting on reclining chairs, just relaxing. "Oh, Papa Smurf has returned," one of the Smurfs said.
"Hello, Papa Smurf," a second Smurf said. "Nice day to just smurf back and enjoy, isn't it?"
"Come smurf with us, Papa Smurf," a third Smurf said. "It's so good to smurf here."
"Hey, you, smurf up a drink for Papa Smurf," a fourth Smurf said to a Machine Smurf.
"Can some Smurf explain to me what's smurfing on here?" Papa Smurf asked impatiently.
"Well, you see, it's like this," the first Smurf answered. "This is all because of Handy Smurf, because we wanted machines that would smurf the daily chores in our place. He first smurfed up the machines, then he smurfed up these Machine Smurfs that would smurf us day and night." He paused while a Machine Smurf filled his glass with smurfberry juice, and then sent it away to get ice cubes. "Now we have the kind of life that we have always smurfed of...yep."
"Wonderful! And you're so proud of this?" Papa Smurf said with some disgust. "Well, take a smurf at yourselves and see what you've become. Is there any lesson from the past that you have not smurfed anything from?"
"Uh, what do you mean, Papa Smurf?" the second Smurf asked.
"Smurfing all these machines to smurf the work for you," Papa Smurf said. "You think that this village could be smurfed together by machines, then you've really forgotten what being a Smurf is all about. It's about smurfing pride in the things that you can smurf with your abilities. It's about smurfing together as a family, which I don't see you acting like when you have machines smurfing..."
His speech trailed off when he saw two of the Machine Smurfs approaching him: one carrying his bags, and another bringing him a glass of water for him to drink.
"Oh...well, thank you, Machine Smurf," Papa Smurf said gratefully as he took the glass and drank from it. "Now, then, I'm going to be smurfing to my laboratory, where I will be..."
One of the Machine Smurfs took Papa Smurf by the other hand and dragged him over to a wagon that was waiting for him, causing the village leader to spill the glass of water. "Gently now...gently," Papa Smurf said as he felt the bumpy ride of the wagon while a Machine Smurf was pulling it.
Soon the wagon stopped right outside Papa Smurf's laboratory, and Papa Smurf stepped off as the Machine Smurf opened the door, allowing the village leader to enter. He saw that everything in the laboratory was spotless, with all his books, tables, and equipment cleaned and put in order.
"Amazing," Papa Smurf said as he looked around in wonder. "And these Machine Smurfs did all this?"
"So what do you think, Papa Smurf?" Handy asked as he arrived at Papa Smurf's laboratory. "Should we keep these Machine Smurfs?"
"Uh, we'll smurf about this later, Handy," Papa Smurf said after the Machine Smurf that had carried his bags set them down inside the laboratory. "Right now, I just need a comfortable chair that I can relax in."
The Machine Smurfs quickly pulled up a chair for Papa Smurf to sit down in, and set up a stool for him to put up his feet on.
"Whatever you need, Papa Smurf, the Machine Smurfs are ready to serve you," Handy said before he left.
Papa Smurf let out a sigh of relief. "Thank you, Handy. I'll let them know."