EMPATH: THE LUCKIEST SMURF

"The Smurf Village Imaginarium Operator's Instruction Manual" (Revised 10/8/2020)

Written by Handy and Brainy Smurf (actually by Vic George)

Based on the Smurf concept of characters by Peyo
 

 Papa Smurf shows how the
            Imaginarium works

WHAT IS THE IMAGINARIUM?

 

The Imaginarium, smurfly put, is a place that allows any Smurf to experience "virtual smurfality" or "smurfual reality", the ability to smurf any kind of fantasy that a Smurf can imagine into reality, as if you are actually there.  You can go smurfing on a warm sunny beach on a cold winter's day, or go smurfing down a snow-covered ski slope in the middle of summer.  You can resmurf your favorite stories with you as the main character.  You can also smurf up whole new fantasies for you and any other Smurfs to enjoy.  Just remember that the only limit is your own imagination! 

 

HOW TO USE THE IMAGINARIUM

 

Using the Imaginarium is very simple.  All you have to smurf is imagine the environment of your fantasy, and the Imaginarium smurfs the rest.  You'll be instantly transsmurfed into that environment, with a large amount of space so you don't have to worry about smurfing into walls or anything, even if you happen to be like Clumsy.  To leave your fantasy environment at any time, just imagine the exit and the Imaginarium will smurf you back to reality instantly.  (Note that when you first enter the Imaginarium, you don't automatically smurf into the fantasy environment, but rather you must imagine yoursmurf into that environment, provided that the privacy feature hasn't been smurfed on first.)

 

This is how the Imaginarium appears when nobody's in it. This is how the Imaginarium appears when somebody's in it.

 

FEATURES OF THE IMAGINARIUM

 

Changing The Environment: Don't like the conditions that exist in your Imaginarium fantasy environment?  The weather too hot or too cold?  Not enough sunlight or just too much of it? Wrong time of day? The ground not soft enough for you?  Too much noise or too little noise?  Just simply imagine what it is you would like to change, and the Imaginarium changes the elements accordingly.

 

Changing Wardrobe: Forgot to bring a swimsmurf to the beach? Or do your clothes smurf out of place in your fantasy? The Imaginarium can change your clothes right on the smurf.  Just imagine what it is you wish to wear, and the Imaginarium smurfs the changes.

 

Add or Erase Characters: You can add or erase Imaginarium-created characters any time you wish inside your fantasy environment.  This feature is particularly useful when smurfing game- or adventure-type fantasies, allowing you to control the level of difficulty.

 

Safety Features: Do you like to play it safe and smurfy like Scaredy or are you willing to smurf for broke and risk bodily harm to yoursmurf like Tuffy?  You can control the safety features inside your fantasy environment, smurfing them on or off at any time simply by imagining.  This feature is particularly useful when smurfing game- or adventure-type fantasies, allowing you to control the level of difficulty.  (But be careful when doing so -- you may risk a fatal injury!)

 

Skill Level Adjustments: In game- or adventure-type fantasies with opponent characters, you can adjust how skilled they are with a simple thought at any time.  Try smurfing how far you can get to the village when outsmurfing an Imaginarium-created Gargamel or Azrael at various skill levels from novice to totally-smurfed-off!

 

Random Elements: Do you like surprises -- besides Jokey's usual exploding giftboxes?  The Imaginarium can provide consmurfly-changing elements to appear in your fantasy environment with a single thought.  This feature is particularly useful when smurfing game- or adventure-type fantasies, allowing you to control the level of difficulty.

 

Random World Generator: Perhaps you don't know how you want your fantasy setting environment to be created. No problem there, the Imaginarium can create infinite possibilities of worlds for you to explore and discover. However, the Imaginarium will place you in a "dry land spot" as your starting point to prevent you from drowning in a world of an endless sea when you first enter it.

 

Save Positions: Do you need to smurf a break from your fantasy, or do you have to smurf care of a village-wide emergency that happens every so often?  You can let the Imaginarium stop the fantasy at any point and then resume it at a later time.  Even if do you forget, the Imaginarium will remember where it is in your environment that you last smurfed.  You can also smurf up "save position" markers as you go, and even revisit earlier "save positions", which is particularly useful in game- and adventure-type fantasies where you might want to smurf better in places where you could improve your skill and chances.

 

Pause Action: To stop a story, a game, or an adventure in mid-action, just summon the Imaginarium to pause or freeze, and all characters and movements in that particular fantasy will pause, not continuing any action until you summon the Imaginarium to continue.

 

Enter Another Smurf's Fantasy: Whether you're invited by another Smurf to join him in his fantasy environment or you need to call upon that Smurf for something important, you can enter that Smurf's fantasy at any time.  Just think of that particular Smurf and the Imaginarium will smurf you into his/her fantasy environment instantly.

 

Privacy Feature: If, however, you wish not to be interrupted in the middle of a fantasy environment, regardless of how intimate the setting might smurf (and for those smurfing out on a date with Smurfette, we know how important privacy is!), you can activate the Imaginarium's privacy feature so that no Smurf (except for Papa Smurf or Empath) can enter your fantasy environment without permission just with a simple thought.  The Imaginarium, however, will let you know who's in the room smurfing for you when you're in your fantasy environment, as it will also let you know that another Smurf is smurfing the privacy feature if you wish to contact him/her.

 

Persona Changing: Perhaps you wish to be a Smurf character that you are a little too big or a little too small to portray in your fantasy.  No problem with that -- the Imaginarium will allow you to "alter your physical persona" by scaling elements in the fantasy to the same physical level as you, which means that things will appear to "grow up" or "grow down".  Of course, if another Smurf of a different height is in the same fantasy environment as you, that other Smurf will only see this "persona change" as a physical illusion of you becoming bigger or smaller.  Unfortunately, you can't change from a male Smurf to a female Smurf (or vice versa) with this feature.

 

Observation Mode: A mode different from Participation Mode (default setting unless specifically chosen), usually smurfed in stories or recreations of past events, where the Imaginarium player simply observes the action smurfing on without any interaction with the characters in the story; any characters present will simply ignore you, and any objects or structures within that fantasy become phantoms that you can smurf through, although the "invisible wall" effect is still in place. You can switch between Observation and Participation Modes at any time if you so desire.

 

Age Restriction And Content Warning: Suppose you have created an Imaginarium fantasy setting that has elements in it that you may think would be too unsmurfy for young Smurflings to partake in? No problem there -- an age restriction and content warning can be added to your fantasy setting to prevent it from being accessed by anybody except those who are old enough to handle it. Any who attempt to bypass the restriction will simply be banned from using the Imaginarium for at least one day.

 

Soundtrack: You can have the Imaginarium play whatever type of soundtrack fits the mood of your Imaginarium setting, either from a selection of songs already recorded into the crystals' memory or by recording the music yourself prior to starting the setting. As with ambient sound effects, the soundtrack volume level can be adjusted to your particular liking for the setting.

 

WARNINGS

(Smurfed here because Papa Smurf says so, and Brainy insists!)

 

The Imaginarium is capable of prosmurfing very real fantasy environments that can be confused with reality.  Side effects associated with things that may also exist in reality can potentially happen in the Imaginarium, as can various physical injuries when the safety feature is smurfed off.  Papa Smurf recommends any Smurf to take frequent breaks from the Imaginarium whenever possible, and to smurf him or Empath as soon as possible for treating any physical injuries or prolonged reosmurfing side effects.

 

Imaginarium fantasy environments can be as big as you imagine them to be, but there are specific "boundaries" that appear in every fantasy environment.  Boundaries can either be a simple solid "invisible wall" that bounces you away or just a "smurfaround effect" which causes you to smurf around in a complete circle within your fantasy environment.  A variation of the "smurfaround effect" in places such as the beach setting allow you to smurf in a straight line back the same way you came.  (An "invisible ceiling" can appear if you're smurfing out a flying-type fantasy.) If you don't define exactly how you wish your environment to be as far as physical space smurfs, the Imaginarium will use the "invisible wall" as the default boundary.

 

Objects including food and any animal or Smurflike characters that are smurfed up in the Imaginarium cannot be smurfed out of the Imaginarium with you when you leave your fantasy environment because it would simply vanish in reality.  Any food you eat that is created in the Imaginarium will not contain any nutritional smurfplements that real food does, nor will it smurf any side effects associated with eating real food!  Clothing created in the Imaginarium will disappear when you leave your fantasy environment, so be careful not to remove your real clothing, or if you do, make sure you smurf back into your real clothing before you leave.

 

Due to the nature of the crystals used in smurfing the Imaginarium, it cannot be used to smurf reality to more than one fantasy environment at a time, since this can cause a power overload in the crystals that could destroy them and trap any Smurf currently using the Imaginarium inside the shards.  The last time this has happened, every Smurf except for Empath, Smurfette, and the Smurflings found themsmurfs trapped inside their own fantasy environments, unable to smurf out of there until Empath smurfed his mindlinking ability to get every Smurf out of the Imaginarium before the crystals had shattered.  (Fortunately, Handy and Miner managed to smurf some special crystals that act as buffers to prevent any further entrapments, but out of courtesy for other Smurfs who wish to continue using the Imaginarium, Papa Smurf suggests that only one Imaginarium fantasy should be active at a time!)

 

Using the Imaginarium during work or study hours is prohibited by Papa Smurf, unless it is for educational purposes or for recreating events in legal disputes between two conflicting parties.  Any Smurf who is found using the Imaginarium for recreational purposes during work or study hours will be temporarily restricted from using the Imaginarium, because Papa Smurf says so.

 

Overall warning: be careful of what you imagine, because you just might get it!

 

DESIGNED BY: Papa Smurf and Handy Smurf, based on a similar design by Homnibus.

 

SMURFS and all character likenesses are trademarks of Peyo/IMPS Licensing (Brussels)

This story is not authorized nor endorsed by the current copyright owners.

Click on this!

Click on this!