court of cursecraft
A Court of Cursecraft is the biggest in-depth AU (due to its status as its own D&D campaign) that I have for JayRai, and is the most divorced from their original story while still maintaining the necessary essences of JayRai-ness in order to be a valid AU. The differences in their situations and worlds allowed for an actually pretty alright romance dynamic when compared to the other options, so it's a win for the toxic yaoi community. Don't get me wrong, they're still horrible for each other, but the dynamic present in Curses is unique in that it allows them to grow into a healthy relationship in ways that are simply impossible in their original universe.
World Rundown
In the Court of Vibras, there are six head families: the Goldenblooms, the Silverbrooks, the Greengales, the Greymounts, the Redwoods, and the Bluebells. King William Goldenbloom, despite his human blood, has remained the tyrant over the Court of Vibras for the past three hundred years. Countless coups over the decades have tried and failed in taking down the terrible King, resulting in a tumultuous and tense Court full of Princes and Duchesses whose eyes glint with lust for the crown. To make matters worse, just as the kingdom is cursed with the tyranny of King William, the entire court is cursed with unique afflictions, often contradictory in nature.
The six families all attend to separate areas of the court, but tensions between members have never been higher. Jayne Goldenbloom, a 26 year old cleric, plans to overthrow the king where countless have failed before. Due to his royal status as a Goldenbloom, he has been assigned an awfully creepy personal guard. Jayne requests her guards replaced constantly, but no one seems to believe him that they all share the same, unsettling gaze...
A Court of Cursecraft, AKA Court of Curses, is a 2024 D&D campaign DMed by me, with Arai and Jayne featured as major NPCs. The campaign's player characters (designated in italics) belong to their respective players, and not me!
Their Story
Arai Greengale, born Qywnn Greengale to Kionna Greengale and Theodore Hatzburg, spend the first twenty years of his life outside of the court. It wasn't until he was 18 years old, when he visited the court with his mother, when his curse fully manifested, revealing itself to be a continuation of Kionna's unsavory and violent curse: Bloodlove. The more Arai loved someone, the more the desire to kill them grew inside of him.
Immediately, Arai's father was in danger, so Kionna did the only thing she knew would help. Having needed to do the same thing to suppress her own, similar curse. She took Arai to Ruse Silverbrook, the most powerful wizard of the court. In order to get rid of his curse, Arai had to "disguise" it by giving up something that was dear to him, and treating that as his curse instead. So, Arai lost the ability to see colors, but was able to safely co-exist with the people that he loved.
As time went on, however, it became clear that his curse was only suppressed, not gone. His muted Bloodlove manifested as an obsessive streak, making Arai succeptible to becoming devoted and unhealthily attached to the people he loved.
After Arai's curse was supressed, Kionna left home to fight on the front lines to protect the court from monsters. Her prowess caused her to quickly rise up the ranks, and she currently holds the heighest position among the Greengales who reside outside of the court. She has constantly been requested to return to court and take the position as the Head of the House, but she has refused this offer and remained on the front lines for 200 years.
Arai spent the seven years after his curse was suppressed with his father, a wealthy shipbuilding tycoon. Theodore Hatzburg spent most of his time building model ship scenes, inhabiting them with magical dolls. These dolls were rather lifelike, and were able to follow simple designs. They were used to create a simulation of a thriving naval economy in Arai's basement.
At age 27, Arai moved to live in the court, unwillingly accepting his bloodline's job as a royal guard. For the next two-hundred years, Arai spends his time exiting and re-entering the court under different ailiases and identities in order to get out of his Greengale duties. Because of this, he is unable to maintain valuable friendships, and lives a very lonely life within the court.
At 220 years old, Arai met Jayne Goldenbloom. Jayne, a human cleric, grew up in court knowing that their curse nullified those of the people around him. Because of this, many people got close to her for the sole purpose of attaining the ease of living without their ailments. Surrounded by people who cared for her only due to her use, Jayne lived a lonely life.
Jayne knew that no matter what, he would never be able to exist as a person divorced from his ability to nullify curses, so he decided to lean into it. He put on a mask of friendliness despite his simmering rage at his situation and became everyone's friend. He maintained shallow relationships with many people within the court, granting him a favorable reputation, but at the cost of crushing lonliness.
Just like everyone else, Arai was able to live a life unburdened by his curse of colorblindness when he was around Jayne. Immediately upon meeting her, Arai requested to be Jayne's personal guard. At the time, Arai was living as Octavian, a tortoiseshell tabaxi.Jayne noticed right away the odd way that Octavian looked at the world. His eyes were always a little too wide, as if they were trying to take in as much as possible. Even stranger were his eyes in general. The irises were a vibrant swirl of periwinkle and magenta, mixing and rotating within Octavian's irises.
Jayne was very off-put by her strange guard, and not long after Arai was appointed, she requested a replacement. To their surprise, however, they were greeted with those very same watchful eyes, except this time they belonged to a golden Dragonborn. As it turns out, Arai was determined to maintain proximity to Jayne at any cost, so he did what he always did: change his identity in order to escape consequences. Up until this point, no one in the court had bothered to look twice at Arai, so his identity changes often went unnoticed. Much to his surprise, however, Jayne immediately recognized Arai through his strange mannerisms and unsettling eyes and requested another change.
Jayne hoped that eventually, Arai would give up. However, Much to Jayne's dismay, his constant rejections only pique Arai's interest more, and he continues to pursue a role as Jayne's guard. This pattern repeats for many years, until Jayne eventually gives up themself, landing Arai his first real, permanent identity as Arai Greengale with his tell-tale blonde ponytail.
As Arai works as Jayne's personal guard, his feelings towards Jayne change. Initially, he was only drawin to them because of their ability to free Arai from his grayscale existance. However, it soon becomes clear that that's not the only unique thing about Jayne. Arai knows that despite only having just met Arai, Jayne was able to see through his disguise immediately. Even though he knows its because of his eyes, it's the first time someone had cared enough to make the connection. Arai begins to become overly attached to Jayne, feeling seen in a way he's never been before.
Unfortunately for Arai, this feeling soon blossoms into love, and the fear that he hadn't felt in a very long time began to bubble to the surface. Whenever Arai was apart from Jayne, the blood-tainted fantasies began. Arai knew that the only way to ensure that he would never harm Jayne was to remain within their proximity, as Jayne's curse would nullify both Arai's colorblindness and his Bloodlove. Arai became even more obsessed with Jayne, wanting nothing more than to protect her from himself, while also selfishly wanting to remain in their light.
Inadvertedly, Jayne also found their own facade begin to slip when they were alone with Arai. Despite being offput by Arai's unwavering presence, Jayne found himself becoming obsessed with Arai and his devotion. He suspected there was something deeper than being able to nullify Arai's curse. Much to Jayne's frustration, whenever he asked for Arai's reason for sticking around so adamently, Arai simply responded that he liked the color of Jayne's hair.
After four years as Arai Greengale, Arai somehow managed to accidentally get himself accused of an assassination attempt on the king, landing himself a death sentence. However, he was able to escape his fate through a clever use of his father's dolls. Much to his horror, however, Arai's station as Jayne's perosnal guard was snatched from him by Mallory, a young and aloof member of the Greengale family who had taken an interest in Jayne from afar.
Without access to the safety of Jayne's presence, Arai attempted to steal Mallory's identity. Of course, this plan failed horribly, and he was found out within the day. Even after his plan failed, Arai refused to distance himself from Jayne. He gave up his position as Jayne's personal guard, but remained an unwavering presence in Jayne's life.
Despite how used to changing identities Arai was, having to give up the form that he had become so accustomed to in order to escape his execution was a lot harder than expected. Arai found himself reluctant to take up a new name and form within the court, and found himself to default to his Arai apperance whenever he was alone with Jayne, and eventually also with the Court of Cursecraft party.
Shortly after Arai was replaced, Jayne, Mallory, and four other individuals were poorly framed for an assassination attempt against the king. Jayne summoned everyone together after everything was cleared up in order to investigate. In order to ensure everyone could trust him, he revealed that he planned to legally overthrow the king through a duel, as well as what his curse was.
The group consisted of Ailas and Arabella Silverbrook as well as Mallory and Margaret Greengale. The party began to work together to investigate who had framed them, as well as gather allies within the court to maximize Jayne's success probability. Duel specifics were decided by the house heads, so the party set out to gain their trust.
As the party investigated, Jayne spent a lot of alone time with Arai in her quarters. She isolated herself from the party and her usual duties around the court in order to dedicate herself to studying and preparing for the duel, inadvertently spending more time with Arai one-on-one than she usually would. Arai, as usual, didn't speak much, but Jayne could always feel his gaze on her back.
Jayne was getting more and more distracted by Arai and the mystery of his devotion, but with his duel looming in front of him, he didn't allow himself to dwell. An opportunity to learn more about potential allies within the court arose, however, as a ball was announced. Jayne planned on using the information that the party had gathered in order to convince the heads of various houses to support his cause.
Five days before the ball, the party talked with Arai in hopes of getting information on his mother, who they suspected would be able to give them blackmail on the head of the Greengale house. Through the interview, the party learned how Arai's curse was suppressed, and Jayne learned that Arai's curse is that he can't see colors. As soon as the pieces clicked into place, Arai's world was plunged into grayscale. To Jayne's horror, it was revealed that his nullification only applies to curses that he doesn't know the nature of. Up until this point, he had assumed it was a universal effect.
With Arai's curse no longer being nullified, his Bloodlove hit him full force. Caught in the horror at losing his ability to see colors for the second time in his life, Arai attacked Jayne. After subduing Arai, the party suggested that he simply get his curse subdued again, to which Arai vehemently refused. He knew that if he were to go back to Ruse, he would have to give up what was dearest to him, which currently was Jayne. Shocked by the confession, Jayne left the room.
As the ball approached, Arai was kept magically locked into Jayne's room. He consented to a strong Calm Emotions spell that kept his desire to reach Jayne managable and spent his days learning how to make tapestries from Ailas's superhuman maid, Maria. Jayne, however, couldn't stop thinking about what Arai had said. He wanted to know why he was the most important person to Arai when he arguably hadn't been all that kind to him.
On the day of the ball, Jayne joined the party in their mission to gather allies. As the ball stretched on into the night, however, Jayne found it was hard to focus on the task at hand. Finally, he was able to dip out under the excuse of a walk, and headed to the room where Arai had been held.
Jayne confronted Arai in her room, determined to learn why Arai cared so deeply for her. Arai confessed that he felt seen by Jayne. His changing form never fooled Jayne, and he felt like a person within Jayne's gaze. Frustrated, Jayne reflected on their relationship. All the years they had spent together, Jayne had been watched by Arai... so why was Arai claiming it was the other way around? After learning that their curse actively discouraged vulnerability much more than they originally thought, Jayne had been stewing on their emotions and feelings about their situation. Upon learning that even though she had stopped nullifying Arai's curse, he still wanted to look at her, Jayne malfunctioned and and kissed Arai. Unfortunately, they were interrupted by the rest of the party, who were worried that Arai might have attacked Jayne (read the entire scene here!).
Jayne quickly learned that at the end of the ball, another person had declared a duel against the king, and it was slated to begin the next morning. Jayne had to put their feelings on hold in order to gather as much information during the duel as possible.
The duel was situated as an etiquette test, and the party was chosen as part of the mock-dinner that the King and the duelist were to host. For most of the duel, it appeared that the duelist was going to win. However, the tides quickly turned once Ruse whispered something into her ear. The party learned that the secret shared was the king's curse, which made it impossible for someone who knew it to overthrow him. Now rendered incapable of overthrowing the king, the duelist's performance plummetted, and the king won.
The party knew they could never tell Jayne what the King's curse was, as then he would never be able to nullify it, and they still had no idea if Jayne's anti-nullificiation was permanent. Once the other duelist lost, Jayne pushed all thoughts of Arai out of his head and decided to declare his duel as soon as possible. As the party gathered more information on the King and how to beat him, Jayne went to declare his duel.
character analysis
Arai Greengale
he/him : 227 : changeling paladin
theme song : LIGHT SHOWER melanie martinez
Between the two, Arai is the most different from his original self in Court of Cursecraft than Jayne is. The main difference is that in CoC, Arai doesn't have the unshakable feeling that he is broken due to his colorblindness. He knows the root of it: his mother. Instead of blaming himself, like he does in his original universe, he blames his mother. While this doesn't seem like a huge difference, it allows Arai to divorce his sense of self-worth from Jayne in a way he wasn't able to do with OG!Jayn.
Instead of being this mystical fix to all of his problems like she is for OG!Arai, Jayne is instead a source of steady comfort and relief in Arai's life. While there is the underlying possessiveness and protectiveness from his original curse, Arai does not objectify and commodify Jayne like he does with OG!Jayn. Arai is able to grow to love Jayne as a person aside from the fact that he allows her to see colors, which was impossible for OG!Arai to even conceive of doing.
Jayne Goldenbloom
any : 26 : human cleric
theme song : how to fight loneliness wilco
There is not a major thematic difference between Jayne and Jayn like there are for Arai (theres a reason i made their names slightly different!! i compare these two guys sooo often i needed a way to differentiate T-T). The only reason that Jayne can fall in love with Arai while Jayn cannot is Arai himself. Because Arai views Jayn and Jayne so differently, Jayne is able to feel like they are being understood as a human being while Jayn is most notably not.
The situation that Jayne was raised in was similar, yet different, from Jayn's childhood. The core of Jayn/e's rage has always been lonliness, but the root of that loneliness is different bewteen the OG universe and CoC. While Jayn's loneliness stems from their parents' neglect, Jayne's is due to the fact that their curse is inherently isolating. Being treated as a commodity all your life kinda sucks doesn't it?
playlist analysis
playlist link
Making playlists is one of the main ways I microwave my characters in my mind, and I pride myself very highly on the accuracy of each sub-playlist I have for JayRai (there are like five). The link above is the specific Court of Cursecraft playlist I made for the specific dynamic JayRai have in the Court of Vibras, though many of the same core™ songs from the OG!Arai playlist are present for both Jayne and Arai. Because of this fact, I will only be analyzing the songs exlcusive to the CoC playlist. To get the core songs analysis, head to the main JayRai playlist section. If you're interested in just a general breakdown of songs in the different playlists, check out this excel sheet (last updated 3/24).
It's important to note that the songs that overlap between CoC and the OG universe have slightly different connotations and their meanings are informed in the context of their universes. While many romantic songs are present in the OG universe's playlist, they take on a darker tone due to the fact that Arai doesn't love Jayn, at least not like a person. In CoC, however, the romantic undertones remain intact, as the love is romantic in nature.
JayRai's ending in this campaign ended up much different from what I expected (thanks AILAS D:<) so now, much to my dismay, they have a happy ending. I will have to add more songs to reflect this, so the songs below represent how they got to their happy ending.
The Archer : Taylor Swift : Jayne
The unfortunate reality is that sometimes, Miss Taylor gives me songs that just scream my characters (cough cough all too well 10 minute version viscardicore cough cough), so she makes occasional apperances on my playlists. When I first heard this song, I thought nothing of it until the infamous "they see right through me" bit. Then, I sighed and added it to this playlist.
This song very much Jayne's mirrors experience in the Court of Vibras. She's the "archer" when she uses her connections to get information she wants, but the "prey" in the sense that none of these connections are genuine, and she's being used just as much for her nullification. The lines "who could ever leave me darling, but who could stay" refer to the inherent lonliness Jayne experiences due to her curse. Who would ever leave the comfort of Jayne's presence? But, along the same vein, if all she is is a nullifier, who would ever stay long enough to actually get to know her? This is amplified at the reveal that Jayne's curse is reverse once they learn of an individual's curse. Their one use actively discourages vulnerability, which is the final straw for Jayne and one of the main reasons they allow themselves to explore their feelings for Arai instead of ignoring everything.
Sarah : Alex G : JayRai
The thing with my playlists is that sometimes I can't explain why a song is present other than the vibes. This is one of those times. The lyrics line up, sure? I think??? I really can't tell. But the vibes?? That's JayRai right there! Figuring out who is saying which line is too hard and switches around all the time, HOWEVER! I know that "she loves me like a dog" is Arai referring to Jayne. That line is the main reason why I added this song to their playlist, along with the line "and every time I wake, I second guess the game I play, did I make a mistake?" That line is solidly Jayne! In general, this song is up in the air, but many of the lines that refer to playing a game with someone can be attributed to Jayne.
Fool : DECIDE
This is Arai for sure for sure! The vibes of devotion and dedication in this song line up with Arai's obsession with Jayne. When Jayne learns about his curse, Arai is dedicated to doing anything for Jayne to prove that he can try and suppress the Bloodlove and be useful now that he can't safely protect her anymore. Also something silly is that Arai is quite foolish in general. Once again, I set out to make an aloof and mean character and they turn GOOFY!
Compass : The Neighbourhood : JayRai
This song encompasses (pun intended >:3) JayRai's relationship pretty well. Both "keep" the other in their "pocket to use," at least initially, before their relationship develops to become more healthy. Believe it or not, Jayne and Arai keep each other on track. If they had not met, both would be set on a track to lose their sense of self completely, as they are the only people in each others' lives who really know the other, if that makes any sense.
A Pearl : Mitski : Jayne
Ok listen. I often fight back and forth about whose perspective this song is really from. It can be from Arai's perspective specifically during the time between when Jayne learned his curse and when they kissed, and it can be Jayne's more generally. Right now, I've settled on Jayne, but that might change tomorrow. Jayne fell in love with a rather unfortunate person: someone who wants to kill him the more he loves him. I think that's pretty fitting for falling in love with a "war". Jayne, to his dismay, fell in love with Arai much much before Arai did. It's a fell first fell harder situation (as with most of my ocs).
How : The Neighbourhood : Jayne
Alas Jayne is cringe and thus has a lot (two) Neighbourhood songs. Listen. This song is about Jayne's dependence on Arai. They don't feel like a person outside of Arai's gaze, especially not when they're not treated like one by anyone aside from Arai. Additionally, the repetition of "how?" is reminiscent of Jayne's innermonologue regarding Arai's love for him.
Me and My Husband : Mitski : Arai
Arai's dedication to Jayne during the hard parts, and when it seemed like their devotion was one-sided. Arai wants nothing more than to stick together with Jayne, and so he's willing to basically do anything to stay by her side. His entire sense of self and identity doesn't really matter to him as long as he's able to be with Jayne.
Iris : The Goo Goo Dolls : JayRai
WAHOO !!! IRIS BY THE GOO GOO DOLLS MENTION !!! Whenever this song is on a character playlist I have to cry for 3-5 business days with it on loop as I rotate the fellas in my head. Luckily, I added this song to the JayRai playlist more than 3-5 business days ago, so I'm ripping roarin raring ready to go!! Again with the "JayRai only feel like people in eachother's gaze" shenanigains but here we are! Neither of them want anything more than each other, they just want the other to "know who [they are]" and I'm ripping them to shreds.
As I said, more songs are coming esspecially since Ailas made it so that Arai's curse was gone, but also so that Jayne would have an infinite lifespan??? So she would not die before Arai, who also has an infinite lifespan?? I hate my players they always do this to me whipping out the "I spend years learning wizard magic just for the Wish spell just so that I can give Arai a happy ending" during the last session I can't stand them (there are tears in my eyes). So yeah. I will be adding more songs to better encompass their happy ending. This might be the only universe in which they get a Happy™ ending where the toxic yaoi turns into Happy Yaoi. How could I let this happen...