Pardon me for dropping in, I just wanted to say I loved that April Fool's piece with the bees and Edward, they were adorable! And the way you characterize Alfred and Judy is so fun! If you're still taking questions, do you have thoughts on what a first meeting between them and Bill&Ben might look like? Keep up the good work!
OMGG AAAA Thank you so much!! ;; 💖 Genuinely I appreciate that so so much!! Reading this absolutely made my day.
I'm glad you enjoyed my silly bee art and especially my Alf and Judy!! I've put a lot of love and attention into them and I'm glad you guys have enjoyed them too hehe! ^^
I've been frantically trying to sort through all my ideas, since I actually have quite a few different ones regarding how a potential meeting between them could go, but I'll narrow it down to my two favourites so I'm not throwing a full 12-page essay at you guys. 😂
When I got this ask the first big thought was "when would they meet?", bc my takes on Alf and Judy do change quite a bit between their Port Of Par days and the 40 odd years later when they're both in preservation.
Ofc this is all mostly just theoretical and for funsies anyway so it might not make complete sense anyways but ah well x'D I still like them!
(Also I'm pretty sure if all 4 of them actually came together the universe would probably explode [or BoCo would at least LKHASGA] /j /lh
1 - The siblings meet sometime in the mid 60s, when the Port of Par is starting to head into it's downswing but the Claypits are still busy as ever. As a result, Alf and Judy are loaned out to S.C.C for a week or two to help out. Much to the surprise of the bees, who had no idea they even had other siblings, let alone were expecting them to come help out! Judy would honestly get along with the bees well enough. She wasn't quite full gremlin back in those days but she still has her brand of quiet chaos, and would play along with the bees more then scold them. (Though her incessant need to be a 'good big sister' and teach her little brothers/"lead the way", so to speak, might get on the bees' nerves a lil lmao)
Throwing Alfred in with the bees, however, would be the equivalent of throwing a lit match into a full tanker of gasoline. Alfred used to be the most obnoxious little know-it-all you'd ever meet, bullheaded and with an inflated ego to hide his own insecurities, and you just know him and the bees would haaaate each other. xD
Suffice to say, the week would be pretty much disastrous. Alfred and the bees would be at each others throats, Judy would be trying to keep some semblance of order but basically just get roped into all the nonsense instead, and not a single dang thing is getting done in that yard LMAO
After everything officially crashes and burns (and is put right by management), they'd all part ways by the end of the week, likely never to see each other again. (For better or for worse? Who knows xD I'm sure the bees wouldn't miss Alfred much tho LOL)
2 - For funsies, if I throw some realism to the wayside and assume Sodor persists into modern times, they could instead meet each other much later in life, when Alfred and Judy are living as preserved engines. (So sometime in the 2010s up to current day)
Perhaps the NWR, or one of the other railways on Sodor, is hosting a big heritage gala and Alf and Judy are brought out to attend. From there, there'd be several different avenues to go. But my personal favourite would have to be one of the bigger engines meeting Alf and Judy before the bees do, and either mistaking them as the bees (just repainted green), or assuming that bc they look like the bees that they're equally as troublesome and treating them quite rudely. Alfred would let any rude engines know exactly where they could shove their words (he may not be as obnoxious as he used to be but he's still a loudmouth with no filter, and he is not at all shy about telling others off), but Judy would instead be cooking up her own little scheme. Perhaps involving these so-called "bees" everyone's going on about... All the while, the rumours spread about two little green tankers showing up that look strikingly like a certain pair of bees. And the bees decide they need to get in on that action by making up their own little rumour about having "long lost siblings", that they "lost so many years ago" and dramatically woe-is-meing about how much they miss them. Basically just taking the piss out of the whole situation and making everything more confusing, as they tend to do LMAO Cue all the confusion, misunderstandings and general hijinks that would come with all that. And then throw in Judy "pretending" to be one of these so-called bees, to the point of possibly even confusing one of the bee twins themselves! (Bill swears he saw a glimpse of Ben scuttling around in the dockyard when he should've been at the pits, but Ben insists he was in the pits and Bill's just crazy!) It all eventually comes to a head when the siblings finally come face-to-face for the first time. Everyone is utterly dumbfounded to learn that yes, there are indeed 4 identical little low-slung bagnall saddletanks, and even they had no idea that the other pair really existed! xD (I can just hear the bees exclaiming "we were joking!! we didn't know we actually DID have long lost siblings!!") But I think in the end they'd all get a pretty good laugh out of the situation, and the bees would be excited to meet these long-lost siblings of theirs. They'd still get along with Alfred about as well as hot oil mixed with water (albeit perhaps they could eventually see eye-to-eye better with a lil time hehe), but hey, at least their new big sis is pretty cool! (She's not super talkative, but she's awfully devious... and they like that about her >:) ) I feel like I've been rambling for ages so I'm gonna cut myself off here, but yeah! There's a few of the many, many ideas I have for them meeting. xD None of it's really fully fleshed out proper yet, so I could absolutely go a different way with them, but I thought y'all might enjoy these two silly lil scenarios I came up with either way! Generally, though, if they met I think the twins would like their big sis but not like their lil brother very much. I know Alf certainly would not care for the bees or their antics, but Judy would adore all her dumbass lil brothers. <3 hehe (Also yes, Alfred would theoretically be younger then the bees. And yes I find that hilarious. Poor baby brother Alf never catches a break! xD) All the same, though, double the twins means double the chaos! And thensome! So let's all pray for Eddie and BoCo, bc god knows they're gonna need all the help they can get if those four do meet someday LMAOO As thanks for reading through all my ramblings, here's a bonus lil doodle of what the siblings' general dynamic might look like (just for funsies <3) ~
And on that note, y'all are absolutely welcome to drop into my askbox anytime! I am more than happy to answer any questions y'all send my way, I love getting to yap more about my silly lil trains hehehe Thank you so much for the ask! ^^ Have an awesome day/night!