For ages, the only piece of art that I have of the pair was the original that I posted here by Ykoriana, but when  DeadDragonP and I were talking and he asked about a pairing that meant a lot to me, this was the one that immediately came to mind. I met my partner when he was a Belorussian Ovcharka, and after a while, the role of a White-Tail Deer felt more and more natural to assume with him.

For the longest time, I thought of John as an avatar for myself in more ways than many of the other character concepts I was visiting, but as usual, when a character has a fictional background that you create for them, distance and time usually leads to a disconnect with the life you imagined when it eventually strays further from some ideal that you've changed. Like revisiting a novel that you remember loving, but finding the characters less compelling the second time. I started to feel that disconnect with John, but I still loved the relationship he and Ivashin have--a deep, abiding affection that I recognize now was the basis for a lot of the affection I still have with my mate. While I don't always feel the original empathy I had for the character, and sliding into his life to make the decisions he makes isn't as clean a process as it used to be, every time I do, I find myself wrapped up in the life that he has, and I feel myself projecting my own affections through him more and more rather than the inverse. But that's what love does to you, I guess.

John is (C) myself, and Ivashin is (C) my mate,  Silus.

This art was a gift from the absolutely huggable and wonderful  DeadDragonP.