Welcome to my magnum opus. I only had an outline for Ransomed Memories, but I had an outline for the chapters and even a character sheet for this fic describing the general direction I wanted to take both Peabody and Sherman and the personalities and arcs of any OC's I created. I just really wanted to up the production quality on all levels. I've been wanting to write this story for 3 years now. I officially started writing this mammoth in February 2018, but of course it was stewing in my head occasionally throughout those 3 years, so I think it probably took me less time to actually write it if I hadn't thought about it for that long before.

As for the origin of this idea, well, it's not actually mine, it came from Tumblr, from various posts by someone known back then (and still now luckily) as disney-diligent. I was going to send them an ask letting them know I've completed it so they can read it, but unfortunately, as of this writing, they have completely locked down their Tumblr. I can't send asks and can't message them. Maybe if someone who they follow sees this can message them and let them know I have FINALLY written this story they probably won't even remember. So, this is directly at you, disney-diligent. If you ever read this story, I sincerely hope you like it and that it at least somewhat fits your vision for what it would have been. I first asked you years ago, WABAC in 2015, so I saved the ask in case you forgot and/or don't have access to it/can't find it on your account for whatever reason, so I will transcribe it for you here:

thelordismygod asked

Hi, I was wondering about that MPaS sequel AU I think you were

working on a year ago, did you ever finish that? Like make it an

actual fic and post it somewhere? Or was it just in bits and

pieces, because if it was I'd REALLY like to finish the rest of it,

maybe fill in the gaps between the posts you made. is it ok if I do

that?

disney-diligent answered:

Ah, so you are one of the ones who's been covering my

notifications with MPAS stuff.

First of all, thanks for enjoying my ideas and drabbles. I still get

surprised when one of my 'Storees' gets compliments from

people. Especially this one that is kind of old.

Secondly, I only just kind of put my storees out there for fun and

for others to hopefully have fun. I barely to never have time to

flesh out an entire fanfiction, so I add drabbles to give people

ideas of what I see.

Third, if you feel inspired to try to flesh out a story, be my guest. I

don't like to harbor or limit one's creativity. I just ask if you are

taking actual passages of my drabbles (like a copy/paste thing) to

leave a credit somewhere. But by all means, be free with it. Have

fun and enjoy.

thelordismygod

Thanks!, I was going to credit you even for just the idea. But it'll probably be

awhile though, I'm working on other fics atm as well.

As I said in my reply, I was going to credit you for even the idea, but I still decided to copy, paste, and edit certain parts of your posts to work in my fic. You might recognize them unless you forgot, but hopefully I've integrated them well enough into my own writing they won't even be noticeable.

Mr. and Mrs. Harper are the names of OC's that disney-diligent came up with, I simply expanded on them. All other OCs are completely mine.

Time is a fickle thing, and since time travel has never been scientifically proven to work or be possible, the way it works has been varied throughout all of science fiction. As such, in order for this story to work, time will work radically differently to the way it did in any of my other stories. Just… try not to think about it too much.

I stuck a sort of 'directors commentary' for each chapter showing how the story changed as I wrote it at the end.

Anyways, I proudly present to you, The Hardest Part of Love. The title was inspired by the chapter of the same name from Promissa Fidel's "Of a Dog and his Boy" drabble collection. Only my interpretation of the phrase is muuuch different... Other major story inspirations came from Meet the Robinsons. I poured my heart and soul into this fic. I really hope you enjoy it.