Duelling Banjos

***Duelling Banjos*** is a series by Taylor Fitzpatrick in the You Could Make a Life universe. It features Julien Perreault and Alexei Konstantinovich.

The series was first intended to be a one-shot story, described as "fairly self-contained" and "pretty much complete". A second part was however added a little over a year and a half after the first instalment, but again the series was considered finished until it was officially continued on December 2017.

In a post from 2013 with a list of themes and stories to be written, it was referred to as "lost love."

## Synopsis

When Alexei Konstantinovich and Julien Perreault first met, they met as teammates, gearing up for their NHL debut with the Vancouver Canucks. Alexei is from Moscow, Julien from a tiny town on the Quebec coastline. All eyes are on Alexei who has already proven himself in a professional league and in international tournaments, Julien lacks that experience and doesn’t garner much attention. None of it matters when they meet in the middle, strangers to the team, the city, each other. None of it matters when they’re put on the same line. Right from the start, they’re something special together.

But the story of Julien and Alexei doesn’t start at the beginning, and it goes on for years after it ends.

There’s a middle, of course, which is really lovely, most of the time.

There’s their lives and times, threaded with love.

If only love were enough.

## Point of view and timeline

The story is told from dual points of view — or *duelling*, as the joke goes, hence the title of the series. Julien's point of view starts things off and alternates with Alexei's.

The narrative spans two different timelines: the first two parts ostensibly take place in the 2011/2012 season, but the characters often reflect on the events of the late 80s/early 90s. The newest additions from December 2017 cover the late 80s/early 90s, going back to the beginning and Alexei and Julien's first meeting, then on to the rest of their 9-year-long relationship.

## Links to other stories

* Dan Riley being outed and Marc Lapointe's subsequent coming out spark off the events of the first two parts of the series taking place in 2011/2012.
* Julien meeting Marc Lapointe for a joint televised interview is narrated in both ***Duelling Banjos*** and *You Could Make a Life*.
* Alexei was the favourite player of *Between the Teeth*'s David Chapman and Kiro Volkov when they were kids.
* In *No Expectation of Returns*, Stephen Petersen owns and reads an Alexei Konstantinovich biography.
* Alexei played with Vladimir Petrov, Anton Petrov's father from *Vinny Gets a Life*.
* Alexei and Julien played against Ondřej Novák, Roman Novák's father from *Follow the North Star*.
* Valeri Asenov, a minor character of *Follow the North Star*, is still starstruck as a grownup from getting to meet Alexei right before he retired, when Val himself was a little kid.

## References

1. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/59556153770/i-love-love-all-your-original-series-love-luke
2. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/62676851828/are-you-going-to-continue-juliens-story-in-a
3. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/170540423206/hi-taylor-i-was-just-wondering-where-you-came-up
4. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/122490711666/reading-julien-and-alexei-it-seems-like-they-were
5. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/153506235776/davidjake-alexei-meeting-your-idol
6. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/160599248971/psotm-gabestephen-jakedavid-misunderstanding
7. ↑ http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/120423661996/did-petrov-sr-ever-play-against-julien-or-were
8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 http://youcouldmakealife.tumblr.com/post/169299812576/wait-so-when-are-all-the-current-stories-going-on